Adamskii

Hello, Firstly please forgive me if this is covered in another thread. I have a the UCS Mil Falc 10179. Currently it is disassembled and stored in a large sealed plastic box, because when it was built I had a very hard time making space for it to be displayed. It was constructed for about 3.5 years on display in various parts of the house without a case, and collected a significant amount of atmospheric dust. Fortunately it was not exposed to sunlight. The obvious amount of dust is the reason I disassembled it. I didn't want to let it get worse. It's not just dust, but whatever else is in the air in a house full of people - so I guess all sorts of things , basically its a simple matter of running a duster over the surface - the supreme amount of detail is an incredible dust magnet! As far as I can tell the parts are all in excellent condition, no apparent suffing/scratching, bent corners etc.. How do others keep theirs stored (built, in a cabinet, boxed) do you "dust" your Lego frequently? But the reason for this thread, is, how do I wash/clean my Lego 10179 pieces? there are ALOT of them, and I don't think I would have the patience to individually scrub each one with a toothbrush in water. I have read somewhere (possibly on here) that placing the pieces in a pillowcase and putting through the wash machine on gentle could work, but I am scared of possible damage or loss. Is there a reason not to use a water softener such as a detergent (we have "hard" water here in Adelaide Australia, with alot of chemicals and chlorine very apparent). I think I would use distilled water anyway. What effect would window cleaner have ? Perhaps washing by batches in a tub of some sort? The next issue is how do you dry the parts without leaving water marks? Lay them out over a large area in a single layer ? with a fan blowing on them ? Any ideas would be helpfull. I do have a fair bit of patience for this process, no real hurry to rebuild the old girl, but nonetheless would like to get the parts clean soon in preparedness for the day I do want to build, or sell... Regards in Advance, Adamskii PS I wont be trying "the Schticky"..

Looks to me like the one piece white nose is actually two piece - the Dark blue grey section underneath looks like the fuselage of a plane.. part no 87611 aircraft fuselage curved forward 6 x 10 bottom with 3 holes Adam

Hello Folks, Thought i would share my sons and mine Lego city. It is slowly growing and ironing out the kinks. I have modded several of the buildings to fit standard baseplates, I wish things like police and fire stations fitted on standard sized base (32X32). I only just added the subway with the Horizon Express, and in the coming weeks hope to add a station.. something looking like the fight scene in the Matrix... Will finish off the decoration when playtime slows down, (paint the tunnel walls' add lego graffitti etc). I need to get some more appropriate road plates, but thats not bothering my son. He is 3 years 6 months and plays with every element on the layout. I just fix the bits that break! I really enjoy our father son time when we play with Lego. Please enjoy my starting layout! Adam PS my wife collects the modular buildings and several other houses etc and we tried to avoid using them on the play layout - this layout is designed for children to play with, without parents stressing about lost or broken parts, or playwear etc. We did not want to be precious about his imaginative play opportunities.

These are not the droids you're looking for.... Adamski..

Here are some "detail" shots of the modded police station, fire station and the MOC servo. The police and fire station constraints are they have to fit within the confines of a standard base plate. The mods needed to retain as much of teh original design as possible and as many of the original parts as possible. The fire station was first rebuild "mirrored" to instructions. The fire station needed to hold 3 fire trucks and a fire chief car. The service station was an excuse to use the little fuel bowser that came with the tanker kit. The fire station is very much a WIP, and office/ roof levels are a mess at the moment and next bricklink order will tidy/ organise it a bit better. As previously stated I added the police compound gates yesterday. Enjoy! Adam the lucky lad who gets to play with all this !

Hello and thanks for the comments folks. The plan is, as we buy new "common"sets, they replace the more elegant ones. Already 2 houses have been replaced, with MOC's or less expensive items such as the burning house. I do however love the idea of Moc'ing a Delorean to put in front of the clock tower... This is always a work in progress. Every Bricklink order adds something either small or significant. The Service station is about to get significant overhaul due to a new dual lane baseplate recently aquired. And since posting this photos, I haved added a third roller door to the fire station, and behind the police station a wall and gate inspired from the catch the crook comics. Thanks for the comments! Adam

Hello WaysofSorting. Thank you for your comments. My son can reach every element of the table even the police helicopter. I was worried when I raised the subway level, that he might not but after a quick test, he passed ;) The basic table (Cat table) was build by me for his Christmas 2012. It was designed to hold 5 baseplates by 3.5 baseplates. AND have at least 1 train loop inside. The table is 350mm high from the floor to the level the train is sitting on. The city level is another 140mm above that. So total street level height is approx 500mm. My son is about 850mm high. The table has had Thomas the tank engine layout on it for a year, and I have watched him get bored with that over time, but I'm sure in a few months he wont touch the Lego either and will swap it back for a few months. Hope you wife likes the idea of her daughter being a town planner one day! Adam

hope the Ghostbusters kit includes a "slimer"

Hi just consider how much overhang the nose of some trains have - the Horizon Express for example can clip things outside the rails some distance. Especially 2 going in opposite directions. Also I see you dabbled in 4.5 volt back in the day but you said you have ,modern kit now, does that mean power functions not electrified track? Adam

hey mate, watching in awe, this Australian scene surely cannot be complete without a turn of the century pub ? and every Aussie town has an ANZAC statue.. food for thought ? Loving this build ! Adam

Hi folks, was just wondering has anyone ever suggested converting power functions rail sections to the ever rarer 9v track by using the conductive copper tape? When I used to fiddle with slot cars, the pro tracks were made from routed timber and the conductive elements were either braided metal or self adhesive copper tape. sometimes even the plastic track on a big home set up would have the tape applied to improve connectivity ( I used to solder my tracks). So I suggest you could apply the copper tape over the power function rails and still achieve conductivity. Also could apply it to some track sections that are custom made (like switches. crossovers etc). The copper tape is very very cheap so it would be more cost effective to buy the current track and convert it (If it works!) Anyways if this is old hat let me know. Just something I have not seen in the Lego train community, but then I am quite new. I do not have any 9 volt kit so cannot try it. Adam An example of the tape is found here. http://www.ebay.com....33329955&_uhb=1

Great MOC. I don't know why, but the first thing that popped into my head when I saw it and the big interior was "the diary of Anne Frank" floorplan. No idea why. Great build Adamski

Following this topic with much interest.. I visit Mannum occasionally and will pay much more attention to the shops next time .. What will you do with it when complete? Surely an opportunity to show it off in a shop or visitor center in the street is on the radar? So fancy doing a Lego Murray Princess? or the ferry? Looking good buddy. I don't think an Elizabeth town center will have the same effect! Great stuff. Adam

There is a scene in the Lego Movie preview that shows a top down perspective of a passenger train. The hero is rescued from its roof I think by helicopter (Camera view from helo). In the Creator 3 in 1 series, some clever person could produce a rolling stock that has 3 construction versions. 3 car designs out of a single box. maybe TLG likes a challenge too? Adamski

Hello Kieran. I am not a master train builder by any measure, but have spent many months studying layouts for mine, and with limited space have had to learn some hard realities about the limitations of lego track design. You are lucky to exploit such a large space! 4m is just awesome. I do however have some questions and maybe an idea?. The lower part of the track looks incomplete? Is the second loop supposed to close or just finish on that bend in the lower right corner (E3)? I would close that to the double switch just above it to the left (C2). I see you have a small cluster of switch points in the lower left corner (B1/B2), that lead to very short sidings? and a complicated in/ out access terminal. Are these short sidings for specific short trains? As for the big empty space, seeing as you have some automation plans, how about making an extraordinary shipping or transit terminal? you could employ a simple road layout with a large industrial zone that has many containers (think Maesrk) with cranes, forklifts, trucks, rolling stock etc. Rather than a town layout which can be pricey and detract from the trains (some of the street layouts are a show stealer !), an industrial layout would compliment the trains (workers still need platforms to come and go too). Security vehicles, and maybe light aircraft runway? will fill the space quickly but have plenty of detail options too. I know that where I live an entire peninsular of land is dedicated to cargo transit from boat to road to rail etc. Good luck I am green with envy with you size layout and wish I had that problem too! Adam

I just assembled the Lego fire truck 60002, garbage truck and Octan fuel truck and noticed this as well. the part that specifically was used oddly was the 1 x 4 white tile with a stud on each end. The fire truck assembly has several of these in use such as front bumper, under the ladder latch on the roof. But the same piece is used under other plates and therefore hidden, and I would of figured a normal 1 x 4 white plate would be used in that scenario. My only conclusion is that its easier for the parts bag to have 7 of a single multi use item added (and weighed/counted/sorted) than to have to add 2 separate parts. The other trucks had similar themes. Furthermore I was assembling the police station 7498 we got for Christmas, and there are numerous examples of this sort of thing happening. The floor of the office block is made of several 4 x 6 plates rather than 2 single large plates. Also it continually uses the white 1 x 2 brick with a garage door groove in the side, in places where a normal white brick would suffice - indeed at the expense of the overall look of the model. These are just some examples from my experiences on this the last week of building. What I find odd is the use of the red plate round 1 x 1 in highly visible places that make no sense whatsoever when a white plate 1 x 1 square is needed? (police station) Adam

Hello again folks. This MOC is my interpretation of the 830 class diesel used by various Australian operators for the last 40 years! Some are still in use today and one passes by my suburb twice weekly (locally known as the "stonie") delivering a load of quarried stone to our local port. One of the liveries this vehicle carried is of the "Australian National" with the green and gold. Lego green and yellow lend themselves very well to a color match. I made the handrail configuration match that of the mid 1980's. This MOC is 6 wide at the deck, but 8 wide at the coupling plates. It has triple bogeys (Co-Co arrangement) and the innermost wheel sets are on a tile slider to manage the radius track. This MOC is not entirely finished, I have cut the "AN" decals by hand, and am not happy with them but am waiting for some inkjet printer decal film to arrive so I can make my own waterslide decals much more neatly and accurately. Also, If you note the port and starport sides have different colored vents (one side green, one side black) as I have'nt decided whether the reference photos show green or black grills - the vents cast a shadow that make it hard to decide if its green vents with dark shadows or just dark vents. The Jury is out but I will finalise the design soon enough. Also I originally built on a Lego 28 stud deck board, and that was too short, and have since removed it and replaced with plates, and have not fixed the stud line along the chassis. Thank you for looking at my work. Any feedback is welcome Adam

Talk about coincidence - I started building my CK class, went looking for reference and found that issue of motive power, and the magazine has a seven page article on the stonie 830 class, as well as the one you mention, that's when I made my mind to do the 830! Yes I have that mag and those photos were my primary reference. Unable to repost pictures due to copyright. I struggled with the cone stack, I did recess it about 2 plates worth but agree it is somewhat oversize. will investigate your alternative solution thankyou. Adam

Thanks Luke. I made the Youtube video that shows multiple angles of the real thing with the model photo overlaying each to demonstrate the details. I did notice of course not everyone has watched the clip (about 30% has), and I was tempted to post some reference shots here - but did'nt want to milk too much attention. I will however reiterate I think that this train would look great in 8 wide! I know someone else who is building one that wide.. Adam

Thankyou for your comments. I do like the diesels, I think Lego lends itself more to diesel shapes than rounded steam shapes. The loco you suggested in the link above has a large bulbous round nose and I don't think can be convincingly replicated in 6 wide Lego. The Superchief for example is I guess nice, but I think is a good example of square bricks doing a bad job or a round surface. The 900 series of trains in Australia is out of the question for me. As previously stated, next project is a Pac nat NR class. But I also see a pair of characterised Redhens, and then some decent rolling stock. I would like to build maybe a local train platform that has the passenger and freight lines on it so I can display the trains. The Ghan needs some carriages, and in alot of pictures I see the two carriages immediately behind the motive power as double decked car carrier. So, I'm sure I will have more to offer soon. Adam

Thankyou (all). The windows drove me crazy as there is no green 2 x 2 window. These are recessed 2 x 3 green windows with the tile facing. The grills are most probably black, but every now and then up pops a photo that is decidedly green! however it must be observed that other parts of this loco change colour depending on date of service / modifications etc. Some have a dark grey roof (my original preference but lack of Lego parts in dark grey slope curve stopped this), others have the Bogeys in yellow! Others have a green roof and many combinations in between. technic 3mm tube is a train builders best friend! Adam

I used this company to make the lettering and the circles. http://www.vinyllettering.com.au/lettering-tool.php The camel rider logo's are cut freehand, but I traced the design over the laptop screen to get an accurate outline. Adam

Thankyou all for the kinds words. Especially about the detailing as the NR class is essentially featureless between the ends! Some answers to some questions, The train is 6 wide at the deck plate, but with some rails and clips hanging over the edge it is almost 8 wide, hence that appearance. The loco is not powered, squeezing a battery box in a 4 wide is problematic and I wanted more accuracy at the expense of performance. The yellow boxcar in the video is my secret powered car. The bogeys are standard wheel sets x 3 each. The innermost wheel set is on a tiled slider so it can traverse corners without derailing. It is not hinged. The model is over 55 studs long. The video shows the triple axle bogeys turning the radius without problems. I will post the two other trains soon - perhaps over the Christmas break. My next project (January) is to build another NR class but this time in Pacific National livery (blue /gold). Adam