[MINI] Service Truck

[CharlieBravo]

Hi All

Welcome to my first entry (and post) on Eurobricks.

After recieving the CUUSOO Delorean as a gift from my lovely partner (20 years since I packed away my lego as a child!), I decided to google about modern lego. Wow, was I impressed - lego sure has come a long way.

Anyway, I stumbled across Eurobricks (some impressive MOCs here!), and when I saw the contest I decided to dust off my old sets (well, what few I had - 8035, 8020, 8054 and that vintage), and give it a go.

After looking at the other entries, it feel a bit out of place - it's not that mini, and not exactly modern technic (is this allowed?), but perhaps in 1994 TLG may have released this model

Anyway, here are 193 non-randomly selected pieces. Grouping in lots of 10 helps with the counting.

Some sort of chassis forming.

The boom at the back. With functions of a tow rope, raise and lower arm, and to extend/retract wheel holder.

The finished model. Four functions in total:

-4 wheel steering

-Raise/lower boom

-Tow hook on string

-extend/retract wheel holder

I would love to make the boom only 4-studs wide (to be more realistic), but it will exceed the part count.

[Edit] - main photo below, now with lego string from a 42009.

Edit - view of the raise/lower mechanisms. Given the restricted range of movement, rotation around a large gear works.

-Charliebravo

Edited July 15, 2014 by CharlieBravo

[Cumulonimbus]

Nicely done, I really like the fact you used studded Technic pieces. It takes me back to my first Technic sets as a kid.

[Appie]

Very cool truck, takes me back to the 90's

I like the use of 40T gears, that gear wasn't used enough by Lego imo.

If I could give 1 suggestion it would be to vertically reinforce your model with technic bricks and pins, like Lego would do.

[Captainowie]

A lovely example of studded building.

I'm just a little concerned about that string - it looks too fine to be official LEGO.

Owen.

[Rockbrick]

retro fantasticness

[jorgeopesi]

Nice old style, I love the colors .

[D3K]

You definitely got the old-school style, feeling and techniques spot on! A really refreshing entry I'd say!

[legolijntje]

That's certainly not a bad model!

Especially since this is (one of) your first model in 20 years

[grum64]

Welcome to Eurobricks CharlieBravo

Very nice. It's great to see a studded model entered. Very retro and as we all know, all things retro are 'in' at the moment.

I'd love to see more entries like this. Makes me wish that there was a separate studded mini build category to encourage more studded entries. It'd be interesting to see what people come up with. Still, there's time yet...

[Rishab N]

Nice model! I think this is the first studded mini model

[jantjeuh]

Looks great! I love Technic models that incorporate studded bricks.

[CharlieBravo]

General nostalgia around old style technic

Thanks for all the kind words! Not the response I was expecting. Are these bricks not made anymore? I hope they are, they are versatile.

If I could give 1 suggestion it would be to vertically reinforce your model with technic bricks and pins, like Lego would do.

Totally agree. I would love to run an 8L vertical beam in the centre, but that would necessitate going to a 4-stud-wide crane, and adding a few flat pieces to the cab to keep everything at the equal level required. That would take me to around 220 pieces. Instead I went with the 8x4 brick centre, giving 4 studs of friction to the 16L beams. 80/20 rule here - 80% of the rigidity for 20% of the part count. If I figure out a way to include it i'll update it :)

Alternatively I could add a 6L beam but all that would do is join the 16L to the chassis, and it doesn't add much to the rigidity when you take away the 2-studs worth of friction to fit it. But it does look more technic-y.

I'm just a little concerned about that string - it looks too fine to be official LEGO.

The strings that I had in my old lego tub looked thinner than the instruction manual for 8054, so they may not be the original ones. Anyway to make sure there is no problem with the entry, I replaced it with the string from a 42009 I just purchased (oh no what have I started.....). That string is definitely thicker than I remember! I replaced the photo on brickshelf, so it should be appearing now in the main post.

...this is (one of) your first model in 20 years

I'll say 1.5th model in about that time! I started out doing a mobile crane entry with the same chassis, but couldn't get it quite right (plus, lego has done heaps of them before) so I changed to this. Much happier with this one.

-charliebravo.

[Jonsson]

That is a very nice creation!

[jimmys]

This is fantastic! Did you try with a seat in it? Not sure if it would look better with or without. Gets my vote.

[skriblez]

Studded moc! Great work :)