ummester

Eurobricks Citizen
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Everything posted by ummester

  1. ummester

    MOC: Arctic Research Train

    Cool Idea (arctic pun kind of intended). It looks very playable also. Something like this would make a good LEGO Ideas train - something that is like a playable exploration set on a train. The MARS train, with launching spaceships or something. Kids and (big kids) would enjoy it.
  2. ummester

    Lego Train Expo - Warsaw 2015

    Yes, cheers Richfilth - there are some inspirational designs in those photos.
  3. ummester

    WA AB Class Locomotive and train - LDD

    OK - trial successful, the 3rd wheel works. However, the motor generally wont take off until speed setting 2 with the middle wheel. I have taken the traction band off the 2 middle wheels and it tries to take off at speed one - it like jolts a bit but cant actually get rolling until speed 2. Without the middle wheels the motor starts rolling (albeit slowly) at speed 1. Also, it pulls better than it pushes - if that makes sense. I have it set up with the battery over the motor - as if it is the back of a locomotive - though it moves and corners better if the motor is the front truck of the locomotive. I guess this has been noticed before? Is it generally better to design a locomotive around having the motor at the front - or the most forward truck in terms of direction, if possible? EDIT - putting the battery pack in the middle of the plate (not over the motor) and having the motor as the forward truck takes off in speed 1. Don't quite understand why?
  4. ummester

    WA AB Class Locomotive and train - LDD

    I just went to message you the LFX file for a container and couldn't work out out to attach it? I forgot my password for my media share site so dont know how else to upload files. Stupid internet is getting too complicated The complete model wont show you how to build them in LDD. It requires the doors being positioned in exactly the right place which LDD wont let you do when you try and slide the hinges into the modified plates - so you 'trick' LDD by building them connected to something that is upside down, delete the upside down placeholder and attach them to the container. I'm sure the doors will work in real bricks - they are just tricky to assemble in LDD. You mean that little clear bit? only pull it off the center wheel? Is this to create less friction? I'm about to try out some 3 wheel truck designs with 60051 parts.
  5. Just checked 60051 - it is just less than 3 from the track and 2 from the edge of the 8 wide track plate. It achieves this because the front is very curved. What is the end of the tie? I don't plan to keep this set as is long term, I want to design my own trains. I do find it quite enjoyable that any design process will have to incorporate an understanding of the functionality.
  6. ummester

    FS E 656 in 7 studs

    Very nice - you've captured the look as well as the bricks can, I think, well done.
  7. Yea, that's what I was getting at - it's not solely a LEGO thing. Kid's are having their imaginations taken away by being sold franchises, just as the world is having it's creative diversity taken away by corporate entity. The child experts should be saying, 'watch Idiocracy' not 'Blame LEGO'. I guess one could make the argument that as a premier toy product, LEGO has a responsibility to identify that certain issues exists and work to counteract them. It's hard to profit from going against the grain though and a toy company forfeiting integrity for profit is less a perversion of its function than all the governments of the world that have become oligarchy's. So, meh, though LEGO could possibly be accused of being a part of the problem, it can't ever be accused of causing it.
  8. Looked about 3-4 studs - I could set up something to measure it tonight. You could fix it by changing the forward trucks position and pivot - put it on a turntable or something.
  9. So, the solution to getting a train to remain stable at higher speeds is increase the weight at the centre of gravity - put some lead in there or something? I guess this would then (counterproductively) slow the motor down :D
  10. A big part of this is because (many) LEGO sets are now marketed and packaged as an action scene, with collectable characters. Though I agree it is primarily the parents job to lead the way their children play, neither parents, nor TLG, can battle to more overwhelming powers of consumerism and technology that are shaping our species. This is where I find articles by child experts and the like kind of annoying. Why target LEGO? Just because it's popular. True, LEGO play isn't as creative as it once was. LEGO has adapted to broader social changes. No play is as creative as it once was, human imagination is being replaced by the quick fix across the board. It seems the child experts make these targeted judgements for controversy, or their own 5 seconds of fame, rather than addressing the broader problems.
  11. ummester

    WA AB Class Locomotive and train - LDD

    The gondola isn't my design, it was zephyr's. I have replicated it in LDD and can give you that file if you want - but it's a really simple build. I have changed the flat cars/shipping container cars a few times - you can have a look at what I have tried in the previous versions of them. I don't know how well the shipping containers and sheep car are going to work until I try them - they are very much in the untested design stage. You should check out this thread http://www.eurobrick...25#entry1884487 - search for a TLG set number in it, most of them come up. Then you can download and pull apart the official builds in LDD.
  12. What about never running 2 curves in a row, like always laying a straight after a curve (not that I have any track :) but for those that do) would this let you get the trains up to stop speed and hold there?
  13. I brought one just today. Finished putting it together not too long ago. It is the only (major) set I have brought since coming out of my dark ages that isn't Star Wars - I spend heaps on Bricklink and buy little odds and end sets for parts but no big TLG sets. I brought it mainly because I wanted to start mucking around with LEGO Train stuff and this was the cheapest way for me to get a bit of everything train related. It looks better than I thought it would. If you ignore that it has no doors and no detail, it does capture the look of a standard modern city train. If I wanted to build up to a city train, in a city layout, you could MOC this into something decent (which I have noticed a few people round the traps have done). The track is seriously undernourished. I put the station on the inside anyway, coz I could see the train was going to hit it on the outside without trying. Anyways, after fearing I had a broken motor - nothing worked until I plugged the motor direct into the blue connection of the IR - then it started up and wouldn't stop. So I caught the train before it went too far, plugged the motor back into the right place (as shown on the instructions) and it all seemed to work. I only had the lead car/loco made at this stage, so took it for a spin with the remote - as soon as I got to speed setting 5, it flew of the track and into the wall. I can't take it past speed 4 without it leaving the track, is this normal? I gather if I had more track I could get the train up to a faster speed but flying of the provided track at half speed seems a bit of an oversight to me - of course every kid is going to try and do exactly what I did and pump up the speed (as well as running over that hipster minifig with his manbag :D ). TLDR - My high speed train is too high speed for the track provided.
  14. ummester

    WA AB Class Locomotive and train - LDD

    I like to complete the builds first, to test for functionality and structural integrity, then change the LXF files as needed. If you want certain parts - like the truck design - to test yourself, I'll send you them.
  15. ummester

    LEGO Ideas Discussion

    I agree with Sven F on this - LEGO isn't the right kind of medium for expressing political or moral ideas. Further, it's like an old discussion regarding the representation of women in LEGO. I remember one father mentioned his daughters just pluck the female minifig head off and put it on the construction worker if they want a lady construction worker - that's the power of LEGO as a product, the child can tailor the toy to their own play desires. If a child has a disabled relative or something and wants to make a LEGO minifg to represent that, I'm sure the child can arrange the pieces themselves to do so.
  16. ummester

    Fully automated Lego train coal terminal

    Excellent. The minifigs are like real human workers nowadays - constantly engaged in their own 'meetings' as the machines do the work.
  17. ummester

    WA AB Class Locomotive and train - LDD

    I've been researching the fine MOCing in these pages and seeing what I could improve. Some pics of the re-touched loco and the sheep car. Thanks to Steinkopf for leading me to the reference pics. The build is starting to take a distinctly outback freight train feel now, I need to design an Ozzie Guardsvan to complete it. If anyone can spot any areas that need more improvement let me know.
  18. ummester

    2015 LEGO Trains?

    Duq - If it was a Back to the Future train, it would get 10,000 votes :D Ideas is about popular culture (and a little bit of nostalgia) more than it is about great builds or ideas. I don't think it's the way TLG intended it - but it's how voter's vote. There are some fantastic builds and designs on ideas that cover more than trains. Awesome city vehicles, planes, tile packs, animal packs - you name it - but if they don't have that cool, in or popular factor, they won't make it. It's not just trains.
  19. ummester

    LEGO Ideas Discussion

    They do seem to have allowed projects previously that they don't allow now. There are a couple of old Terminator projects up and I tried to submit this one: I kept getting 'awaiting re-submission' without it being outright refused and with the reason changing. I changed the color of the human resistance vehicle so it was less warlike, removed the humans all together and even took the gun off the T800 but it never got approved, nor outright refused. I don't know why they couldn't just write - 'certain projects that were accepted in the early days of cuusoo represent franchises that TLG feels no longer fit with LEGO brand' or something - I wouldn't have been offended, in fact, I would have preferred a direct explanation.
  20. ummester

    WA AB Class Locomotive and train - LDD

    Ah, those little minifig necklace things - why didn't I think of that :D The loco is fully redesigned now and I have designed the sheep stock car (which was a pain to work out how to get the sides upside down in LDD). Every-time I see a new idea, like that above, I want to try it out and see if it works any better though. Edit - on second thoughts - I don't like the idea of the middle wheel in the truck being kind of free floating.
  21. ummester

    60051 and 60052 sold out?

    Strange? Must just be stock shortage. Local Big W got a bunch of both of them in recently (like 2 weeks ago) so I doubt LEGO has stopped making them if some got sent to coastal whoop whoop down under. But, the passenger train is $198 AU and the Cargo train is $275 - so even though they are close buy, they aren't a rush out and pick one up deal for me.
  22. ummester

    2015 LEGO Trains?

    Like any TLG set, this new train interests me from a parts and price point perspective. Does it have a motor? How many wheels, train bases and bogie plates does it have? What colour are the bases and bogie plates(blue, yellow and red ones are much harder to use for MOCs than black or dark grey, I find). Does it represent a better parts per price buy than the blue cargo train or the passenger train?
  23. ummester

    Massive 10 lego train frontal crash

    Ha ha - great vid. I didn't know what this 4560 was, so I looked it up. That is more horrific than any LEGO train crash could every be.
  24. ummester

    Future Star Wars Sets

    I generally only collect, build and MOC classic stuff (Episodes 4-6) and I have found Leia fairly well represented. I have 4 of her, as opposed to 5 or 6 Lukes, 5 Hans, 6 R2s, 5 3P0s. I've only purchased a 3P0 and R2 outside of sets. This collection includes (I think) around 17 sets from over the last 12 years or so. The only non classic set I have is a Republic Gunship and that came with an Amadala - I had to source extra troopers and droids to set up a display worthy MOC with it. So, though I agree with your comment on developing children and how they play Faefrost, I don't think the Star Wars sets are catering to that. The design suggests to me that they are catering as much, if not more, to collectors than children.
  25. I also got the Sandcrawler and the Republic Gunship last year - both of those had the sticker sheets flat packed on card with the instructions. The Cantina cost almost as much as the Gunship (it came with an orange brick tool) so I don't see why the instructions and stickers for the Cantina couldn't also be flat packed? I got the little T16 Skyhopper just the other day and it's instructions and sticker sheet seemed better packed :D