MOC: Coast Guard helicopter

[Ralph_S]

I'm not sure whether 'Coast Guard' is seen as part of the city theme or whether it ought to go under 'other themes'. If the latter is the case, I;d like to ask one of the admins to move it there.

Anyway, I'm a big fan of LEGO's Coast Guard helicopter. In my opinion it is the most realistic minifig scale helicopter they have made so far. However, the theme can do with an AFOL's touch and I haven't seen many Lego Coast Guard MOCs so far. So here is my take on a Coast Guard helicopter: the HH-78 'Gannet'. For once it's not based on any particular real helicopter, although it shares design features with a number of real ones (most notably the HH-65 Dolphin) and has ended up looking quite a bit like an AW 139.

I started with a list of requirements and some ideas on how to build the front and designed my own helicopter based on those. I wanted room for two pilots side-by side, a fairly large cabin with sliding doors and winch and I wanted a retractable landing gear. Overall the helicopter ought to be smaller than the set and a bit more elegant. It is seven studs wide, has working sliding doors, working doors to the cockpit, a retractable undercarriage and a spring-driven winch mechanism -like the set.

As usual the pictures are links to the flickr pages and I made more pictures.

Cheers,

Ralph

[Captain Green Hair]

Excellent work Ralph, the shape and colors are just perfect.

You've made a cool interior and all the working features also just add to final result.

They should make this a set for the next coastguard line.

[aawsum]

Very nice helicopter. The scale and used colours make it look really real. I also like the way you added the sliding door.

Btw, do I see the sound brick inside your heli ? (That orange part at the left ont he inside of the sliding door) Where is that used for ? To go in circles like the carousel and then play a sound ?

[Ralph_S]

Excellent work Ralph, the shape and colors are just perfect.

You've made a cool interior and all the working features also just add to final result.

They should make this a set for the next coastguard line.

I just love doing landing gears and working doors, so even though this is on a smaller scale than most of my other helicopters, I felt it too should have them.

I suspect that it would be too expensive as a set and probably a bit too fragile for your average eight-year old to play with.

Very nice helicopter. The scale and used colours make it look really real. I also like the way you added the sliding door.

Btw, do I see the sound brick inside your heli ? (That orange part at the left ont he inside of the sliding door) Where is that used for ? To go in circles like the carousel and then play a sound ?

It's not a sound brick, actually. It's a wind-up motor. In the Coast Guard helicopter set it is used to power the rescue winch. By pulling out the cable you basically wind up the motor and subsequently pressing the orange button reels in the cable. It's one of the features I really liked in the set and I decided to include a similar system on mine. The real world Dolphin helicopter was one of the sources of inspiration or this one, certainly in terms of the colour scheme. The main difference is that I used orange rather than red so that my helicopter fits within LEGO's Coast Guard colour scheme and so that I could use some of the stickers from the set.

Cheers,

Ralph

[aawsum]

It's not a sound brick, actually. It's a wind-up motor.

Ah, never knew this existed :-/

I was misled by the orange piece , which is also on the sound brick.

The dolphin helicopter is really nice. I really think the orange suits its better, so good choice.

Edited August 7, 2009 by aawsum

[Ralph_S]

Ah, never new this existed :-/

I was misled by the orange piece , which is also on the sound brick.

The dolphin helicopter is really nice. I really think the orange suits its better, so good choice.

These sort bricks do look very similar and the wind-up motor one only comes in a few sets, so I am not surprised about somebody not recognising it. The Dolphin is a lovely helicopter indeed. A few years ago, I built a large scale (1/22) model of one.

I try to build my minifig scale models as close to 1/45 as possible, so a minifig scale Dolphin would have to be roughly half the size of my older model. I don't think I could do that with enough room inside for minifigs and with all the working features, so I went for my own design instead.

Cheers,

Ralph

[Zarkan]

Another excellent MOC, Ralph. The working doors are very nice, and the color scheme is beautiful. I think that a lot of older lego fans would buy this if it was an official set.

[Spyder]

This is just amazing! It's perfect, and it needs to be a set. I would buy it without a second thought. Truly spectacular work Ralph. Two thumbs way up.

[Ralph_S]

Thanks guys. It is much appreciated. I too would buy it if it were a set, if only to get my hands on more 1x3 orange plates

Cheers,

Ralph

[WesternOutlaw]

Very nice design Ralph. I enjoy looking at fantastic models of real-life vehicles. You've definately created a nice one.

Blogged!

[jeffjcc]

Very nice! I love the sliding doors!!!

I'm a huge fan of the coast guard series.

Like you said, you don't see many Coast Guard MOCs! I wish people were making more.

Keep up the good work!

[Ralph_S]

Thanks guys. Perhaps there aren't a lot of coast guard MOCs because LEGO themselves have pretty much covered all the bases. the only thing I can thik of they haven't got is a patrol plane.

Cheers,

Ralph

[jeffjcc]

Perhaps there aren't a lot of coast guard MOCs because LEGO themselves have pretty much covered all the bases. the only thing I can thik of they haven't got is a patrol plane.

/quote]

Yeah, I guess you're right. Lego has done a great job already with the coast guard sets. I don't think it'd be to hard to do a Coast Guard C-130 plane.

I mean, something similar to the lame police plane #7723. I don't think anyone has seen many police planes in real life.

[Ralph_S]

Yeah, I guess you're right. Lego has done a great job already with the coast guard sets. I don't think it'd be to hard to do a Coast Guard C-130 plane.

I mean, something similar to the lame police plane #7723. I don't think anyone has seen many police planes in real life.

There are plenty of police forces that have planes, usually for surveillance, and I liked the shape of it, but it was perhaps a missed opportunity. A C-130 on anything even close to minifig scale would be massive. Still, the large aircraft pieces would lend themselves well to making a patrol plane. Anyway, this does leave a nice hole for somebody to fill with a MOC :-)

Cheers,

Ralph

[danim]

if you want another coast guard MOC visit this page

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=32257

based on the USCG Defender

and we already have a C-130 made by lego set -7734

[Stealth Hunter]

You're not supposed to use other topics to promote your own MOC, danim.

Anyway, back to topic. That's a great helicopter you build there Ralph. I like it's proportions and the smooth shape. The color scheme works very well and I especially love the fact that you've included many play features like TLC would do it.

Do you have any plans to build more Coast Guard related MOCs? A patrol boat, perhaps?

Edited August 12, 2009 by Stealth Hunter

[danim]

You're not supposed to use other topics to promote your own MOC, danim.

technicly we were talking about coast guard MOCs so technicly I am not promoting my MOC

anyway that is a brilliant helicopter, lego should release one with that detail and quality

Edited August 12, 2009 by danim

[Milan]

To Ralph's MOC:

You are truly the master in creating those curved shapes and to make it to look good.

[Admiral Bejaune]

Wow. Looks amazing. The working detail in this moc is great. You have captured the shape perfectly. The colors are perfect as well.

-Admiral Béjaune

[ACCURATEin]

You are one of the best vehicle creators that i've seen. Very nice work once again.

[Ralph_S]

if you want another coast guard MOC visit this page

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=32257

based on the USCG Defender

and we already have a C-130 made by lego set -7734

Nice work. I added a message to the thread you started about it. I don't think 7734 looks all that much like a Hercules, but I am very picky when it comes to aircraft. It would make a nice starting point for a Coast Guard patrol aircraft.

You're not supposed to use other topics to promote your own MOC, danim.

Anyway, back to topic. That's a great helicopter you build there Ralph. I like it's proportions and the smooth shape. The color scheme works very well and I especially love the fact that you've included many play features like TLC would do it.

Do you have any plans to build more Coast Guard related MOCs? A patrol boat, perhaps?

Thank you. I always have a lot of fun adding working features and I'm glad to see they're appreciated. The picture of a US Coast Guard 'defender' that Danim posted in the thread about his boat looks like a pretty interesting design and I wouldn't mind having a go at building something similar, but I don't have any firm plans. I am, however, working on some other boat designs. I've already built a cabin cruiser (which may appear on eurobricks sometime in the future) and plan to build a sailing yacht. I'm also working on a flying boat. I've obviously got a bit of a nautical theme going at the moment!

To Ralph's MOC:

You are truly the master in creating those curved shapes and to make it to look good.

Thank you. Building models of real aircraft for years means I've got a few tricks up my sleeve.

Wow. Looks amazing. The working detail in this moc is great. You have captured the shape perfectly. The colors are perfect as well.

-Admiral Béjaune

Thanks. Obviously LEGO deserve credit for the colour scheme. I just stuck to it on order to be able to use the stickers from the set!

You are one of the best vehicle creators that i've seen. Very nice work once again.

Thank you. It's much appreciated. I am obviously really enjoying these mini-fig scale things! There'll be more.

Cheers,

Ralph

[ACCURATEin]

I wonder what you are working on next!

[Ralph_S]

I wonder what you are working on next!

You won't have to wait long to find out! By coincidence I just finished writing a post about my latest big MOC.

I've built a few more things in the mean time, but I didn't post them to Eurobricks: an ice cream van (built independently from the one built by Bluebard, BTW) and a WW-II US Army fuel tanker.

Cheers,

Ralph