dhc6twinotter

Fantastic! I've been waiting for LEGO to make the #5 and #6 panels in black. Hilarious.

There are pros and cons to both. I like the precision that LAs give, but pneumatics are easier to build with, unless your are building something that is remote controled. Downside to pneumatics is that it is more difficult to place them in remote control projects. My backhoe I built uses LAs, and it works fairly well, but had I known what a pain it would be to route all the driveshafts, I probably would have waited to accumulate more pneumatic parts to build a pneumatic backhoe. I'll build another backhoe with pneumatics someday, but I need to buy another 16 or so cylinders first. I did like the accuracy with the LAs though, and even though it was a bit of a pain to route the driveshafts, it was still a fun challenge. My next project is going to have pneumatics. Also, I find the longer stroke of the LA easier to build with than the shorter pneumatic cylinders. I'm with allanp on this, LEGO needs to make longer pneumatic cylinders. Just my thoughts on that.

I picked up this set a few months ago. Not bad at all! I was pleasantly surprised when I figured out that the rear "suspension" lowers when the bed slides back. Clever feature.

Looks great! I like the extending dipperstick.

Can anybody tell which panels are on the tow truck and log truck? The #3/4 panels are pretty obvious, but I can't tell if the hood panels are #17/18 or #5/6. It looks to me like the tow truck uses #17/18 and the log truck uses #17/18. What do you all think? I would really like to see the #5/6 panels in black.

Looks great! Interesting suspension design. It looks like it uses axles as torsion bars.

Well, the Unimog has some new pneumatic elements, so I think there is still hope for more pneumatic sets in the future. I don't know if we'll have a pneumatic set in 2012, but I'd be confident in saying we will have more in the future.

Oh wow! This part is awesome! The square hole in the middle is unexpected, but I like it. It gives room for a couple of pneumatic hoses. This part would be perfect on the two mocs I'm working on. Davidmull, this part could have a lot of uses. It could be used at the end of a boom for a rotating hook or claw, used as wheel hubs in large mocs, used as pivot points for pendular axles, etc. Very useful, imo.

I vote for a review.

Hey all, So, this is just a small project I've had built for a while, and I thought I would post up some pictures. This is a 16 cylinder radial engine with variable pitch propeller. The crank is built using the standard half offset crank pieces that is common on all Technic engines. Each piston is connected to a standard Technic connecting rod. Opposing connecting rods are linked by a thin 1x7 liftarm. There are a total of 8 thin liftarms, with 4 per row of cylinders. The liftarms kinda flop around, but it works very well with no binding. I ran the whole setup during the entire BrickCon event, and everything worked flawlessly (although the motor started to whine at the end). The variable pitch mechanism is built without the use of a swash plate. Everything is done through gearing. The propeller hub is built like a shaft within a shaft. The outer shaft spins the prop assembly, and the inner shaft changes the blade pitch. Under normal conditions, both shafts are driven by the motor and spin at the same speed. However, when the hand crank on the side is turned, the speed of the inner shaft changes and the result is a change in blade pitch. The differential is the key to the whole system and allows the speed of the inner shaft to vary. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. The only problem I have is the number of cylinders. To my knowledge, there was never a 16 cylinder radial engine built. Because of the spark plug firing order, most, if not all, radial engines were built with an odd number of cylinders per row. Radial engines were built with 3, 5, 7, or 9 cylinders per row. Two row engines, like mine, would have been 6, 14, or 18 cylinders. Then there are the engines that have more than 2 rows, like the Wasp Major with 4, or the giant Russian Zvezda radials with 6 or more rows. I think that covers most radial engines, but I'm sure there are exceptions as well as more obscure engines out there. Anyways, I just thought I'd show a little project I've been working on. I hope to build a plane to go with the engine some time. Sorry about the dark pictures. It was overcast the day I took them. Thanks for looking!

I like it! Nice boom design. It looks like the boom uses pneumatics to rotate it.

I just finished up a simple video:

Thank you, Jurgen. I've re-uploaded the video with a different sound track. It should work worldwide now.

Welcome to the forum! I looks like you're off to a good start! It's always nice to see somebody else getting into Technic.

I had a chance to see this at BrickCon. Very, very cool moc. It caught my eye even before it was taken out of the container he used to carry it in. Really nicely done.

Cool. I'm sorry I'm not the best at explaining things.

The 5th receiver is set on the same channel as one of the other receivers, and receives the same signal from the remote control. In other words, the 4th and 5th receiver both have an XL motor plugged into the blue port and are set on channel number 1. Both XL motors run when I push the single blue lever on my remote control that is set to channel 1. The 5th receiver has nothing plugged into the red port.

I'm using 2 XL motors for the drive. Each motor is run off separate battery boxes and receivers. I basically have two separate circuits, and each motor can run at 100%. Two of the receivers are set on the same channel. As for the video, I'm just going to re-upload another one later today. Youtube is lame.

Thanks! Yeah, now that you mention it, it may be a bit thin. I'm not sure what to do about the video. It works fine here, but I got an email saying it may not work in a bunch of different contries. The music is copyrighted. Youtube does list the artist and a link to purchase the song on amazon, so I figured it would be ok. This is why I don't like adding music to my videos. Any ideas?

Thanks! I do plan on putting this in an airplane, but that will be a while from now. I have a few other mocs I'd like to build before I build a plane. We'll see though...I might change my mind. Thanks! It's not as big as your X24. I'll try to get a video up later today. My computer took a dump, so I'll have to see if I can borrow a different computer again.

Correct. One switch selects between the crane rotation and stabilizers, and the other switch selects between boom and jib movements. Claw rotation and open/close is manual.

Thanks! That's interesting. I didn't know there were any real 16 cylinder radial engines around. But I guess that one makes sense since it is a 2 stroke engine instead of the more typical 4 stroke. I figured there was some obscure engine I was leaving out in my description. I actually haven't measured the size of this moc. The 35x35 dimensions I gave at BrickCon were just a guess for the sake of table space, and includes the width of the prop. It should be very close though. I'd like to put this engine in a Grumman Avenger, but I'd like to see if I can figure out how to make a more realistic 14 cylinder version. That might be more difficult than it's worth, and I may just stick with this design. Thanks!

X2 Sok, if you are building a non steered axle with duals, the best way is to go with a live axle.

Cool! I like that brake setup!

Very nice! I like the proportions. It must have been tricky to get all those various components from various sets to all fit together. Looks good!