Grosse Kind

Readin like a bit of a fan boy there Allan ;) Fellow admirer of 8865 and reckon i'd have marvelled at it when new. Attaboy Clive. Admit it, you enjoyed the battle.

Bought a second 853 in box and pretty good nick. Slung it together and felt pretty good with the whole experience. Then one day shortly after i thought i was keen to see what the odds were of if not replicating the piccie on the carton, then at least making a passing resemblance to it and having a bit of a toy with it too. Stripped to near base components after i had a hack at my LDD 853 into the fourby to test a few basics and see if i had enough bits to do so in just the stock kit. Adapted the LXF as i went along and started my build at the front axle and guards and just branched out from there. Wasn't too upset with initial results and fine tuned a little by shrinking the wheelbase and adjusting panelwork till i was happy. Found somewhere on it to keep all the excess bits that i had left over and then just played with it for a while. Same gearing as standard 853, same 1st and reverse box as well, and bar the mirrors which are bracing the rear axle not horrendously miles apart from what was on the lid to my not-so-picky eyes. Thankyou to Grum64 for making the purchase of this sucker a doable proposition, and mrs Grum for her as normal bombproof yet affordable packing. Enjoy if you can, move along nothing to see here if you can't.

Thanks mr barrett. Was fun to do. Been enjoying it still, and its not too bad for play. Narrowing the track has reduced the steering lock a bit but the drastically shortened wheelbase makes it less than ponderous or limited for manoeuvrability. As a plus, sans diff theres less slip and grip required/available at the bum end via said lock/track/length so its fighting itself less in use and the trans is pretty robust vs 853 and its lack of pinion support and reliance on unis for transfer of drive. Thought of tidying it up insofar as some parts colour mixing/fadings but think i'm satisfied to just leave it as was and with what it came with. Hahahaha, 1980 i was kinda two. Think perhaps you've had the headstart on fun with this one over me. Grum, always a need for thanks. Very appreciative and not unaware of what efforts you went to. Ta my friend.

Don't tell the establishment Rowie, but with my laziness levels i've generally only had mild battles to semi strip most sets to where i can argue with them. Diffs, tranny's, pneumatics etc, i bypass my fat fingers which often won't grip certain things (near lost my thumbs in an accident. Has been good for a giggle and i got back into technic to retrain them) anyway and get ma tool on. Couple of implements i utilise that vary in implied levels of violence but with precision and care its been fun to buggerise around with changes to sets. While not quite modular, my 8880 has never been into base components since the fateful day i got it together and found some twerp had screwed up royally on their component inventory check and she sat unfinished till he got his shit together. I strip susbsections where needed, but on the whole the chassis and its workings remain pretty intact. Like when you work on a car, you generally wouldn't smash the windscreen and melt the pieces and remould it back to one pane because you need to get in the glovebox. You open a door, do whats needed, and put things back when done. Resto/cleano/sello/etc aside, theres not a need to break em down to base components, just most have that desire in head as "how it must be". Clive, it's still not too late, even now, but its not gonna be very fun to do. Besides, LHD isn't so horrible, it just shouldn't be legal for use is all ;) My 853 i stripped (near) full, but it never went back together as it was and even then, the front hub sets stayed intact cos they could. Righto Grum, you win. I'll do a thread on it for everyone to niggle and pick to pieces, hahaha

Pete, gotcha now. But initially saw it pre edit and that had me wonderin. Rockbrick, the correct ones are on my 8865 as i'd never had them before, and the rounds were ok as far as i was concerned. See however if you can spot the new items in the model as they turned up as was. changed em out once i noted they were there and ultra-wrong.

Lovin it! Quite enjoyed the assembly. Good fun to play with. Anyone found anything that subtly improves the set? Maybe an idler in the tracks, etc... Looking forward to your replies as although the sets now 36 years old, its new to me and i'm sure a fair chunk of you lot have had or dealt with it. Ta for your time, glen.

Didn't initially misread that as 956 did ya? Anyone able to shed light on the yanks getting the earlies under alternate numbers? Not the first time this had occurred with the whole GS vs GSX moniker in the world of Suzuki a prime example.

Didn't spot the headlamps huh?

Was a little worried with the slack in the tracks so attempted some idlers. MK1was a third 40 toother in the centre but wasn't mad on the slop still present. Still not finished but progressinok so far.

8868: Air Tech Claw Rig Theme: Technic LXF File (LDD 4.3.9) Substitutions Battery box 2847c02 replaced with a custom build (301026 x 6, 4112849 x 4, 307021 x 2, 302426 x 2, 241221, 379426 x 2, 371026 x 2, 302026, 302024 x 2, 303126 x 4, 303226, 303024) Motor 2838c01 replaced with a custom build (4211389 x 2, 2838c01 x 2, 4211440, 4211001 x 3, 4211089, 4211403 x 3, 4109810) Steering knuckle 4261 x 2 replaced with a custom build (4211535, 4211437, 4211399) Plate toothed ends 2719 (steering) x 3 with 4251149 Plate toothed ends 2719 (turntable swivel) x 2 replaced with a custom build (4211425, 4211399 , 4211415 ) Connector peg 4211807 (rams to turn table swivel) x 2 with 4211483 Crane counterweight 73090a x 1 replaced with 245626 x 2 Ram 2793c01 x 4 replaced with a custom build (614326, 614324, 370024, 370501, 4107085) Ram x189c01 x 1 replaced with a custom build (4239601 x 3, 370526, 4107085, 4107066) Compressor pump x191c01 x 1 replaced with a custom build (4239601 x 3, 370526, 4107085, 4107066) Tank parts (2745 x 4, 4315 x 4, 3709b x 2, 302301 x 4, 370001 x 4, 4211483 x 4, 451926x2, 4211573x4, 373726 x 1) replaced with 4163475 x 4, 4114740 x 2, 655826 x 2 Diff 73071 x 2 replaced with a custom build (4525184, 4211622) Crane roll cage 4504 x 2 replaced with a custom build (302324, 427524, 427624) Pneumatic switch 4694 x 4 replaced with a custom build (4211535 x 2, 4211398 x 4, 370526, 4211573) Rear axle 370726 x 2 with 4185111 Power cord 5306b x 1 with 4211094 x 4 Power plate 4757 x 1 with 4211065 Headlamp 4150p01 x 4 with 6044691 Universal joint 9244 (all) with 4525904 Plate toothed ends 4263 x 2 with 4155068 Tyre 4267 (all) with 4107806 14 tooth bevel 4143 (all) with 6589 2l axle 3704 (all) with 4109810 Toothed half bush 4265a (all) with 4211573 Connector 3651 (all) with 4211553 (except on claw, 4211550 x 6) Tooothed toggle 4273 (all) with 4211575 24 tooth pinion x187 x 1 with 4211565 Chassis brace 2711 x 2 with 6029206 Fan blade 2712 x 1 with 4125199 Missing X89 belt x 2 All pneumatic lines (5102) All tees (4697a) All tubing (75c05, 75c06, 75c09) Comments As authentic as I could muster up though there's always a few oddities, you can see the tyres aren't right for the rims but I'm comfy with how it turned out. thank you to calabar for helping with image and layout.

Evening kiddies. Got bored a little while back and chucked a few more alterations on 8868. Couple of pics and two short videos should be self explanatory of the bulk of it. First off, a question. I've tried to measure it and i'm getting a ratio for the half width bush groove vs the 6 hole pulley of 3 1/2 to one, and for the large two holed older steering wheel pulley of 5 1/4 to one. Any one got any definitive figures on these perhaps? Thanks in advance. I have added a simple 2 ratio set of gears at the front with a 12/20 or 16/16 combo which when used with the two variable pulley setups i put in place of 1:1 and it seems 3.5:1 make ratios of crankshaft to rear wheel of 3.33:1, 2:1, and an overdrive of 0.95 or 0.57:1 available. No need for any gearbox of course but thought why not. Theres a triangle liftarm as a floating brace to help stop gearshaft spread as i have no three full hole half width liftarm to go there. The 12/20 is reversed from my last build of the set as now instead of my wanting a less loaded drivetrain vs the original, the other pulley setups meant i could magnify the gearing this time round and it handles it fine. Popping the belt over from the big-small combo to the all small with two idler setup and back is a little fiddly with everything in situ but i've done it a few times. 2.77 and 1.67:1 are possible according to a rendering i did in LDD with a 20 driving a 24 tooth gear pair in place of the belt but the twenty in practice skims against the axle beneath it that drives the pinion on the steering rack. I may pare down the cross on one of my damaged axles to give clearance one of these days but for now i'm comfy with the belt. The six hole belt wheel fouls said axle more thoroughly so the highly underdriven crank ratios of the original aren't possible without further alterations that i don't deem acceptable: technic sets i try to only utilise or add to the original frame which rules out external dimension, wheelbase, height, and length changes. Suspension height/travel ,and wheel track i'm content to screw with but i like what once was, to stay looking like once was. I've obviated the belt drive to the compressor taking the drive ratio of 5.25:1 down to a faster 5:1 and triple the stroke on the compressor is via an 8 tooth onto a 40 using a 36 tooth as the other side flywheel which as luck would have it clears the passenger seat. It's handling it fine and the new pivot was well within range of the extension of the standard length clear pressure tube. Pump seems a tad more efficient now and even with half flat batteries isn't unduly loading up/stalling the electrics and i'm not gonna bugger around tracking down airtanks, they seem superfluous. As the steering gears moved back to accomodate the motor now taking drive from behind, the two sixteens didn't fit above the axle that keeps the tube manifolding that runs to the switches out of harms way. A half bush is now on the back end of said axle and the full bush at the front is shifted back a stud but could be eliminated entirely. I'm just lazy, and it's there if i want to return it to standard. The room its moving leaves gives space for a 12/20 combo that overdrives the hand of god a little but the 14 tooth bevels are handling it with no stress and its still playable. Theres all the driveshaft and diff bracing still in place from last time i delved it so no real need to re-show that i figure. Not totally happy with the fan now sitting external which may see me just leave it off but dealing with guilt fine for now. Grey grille/radiator shouldn't have an engine driven fan feeding through it and not finalized on the shape of grille still but it got a few of the bits i needed to move to alter the front engine mounting retained on the model so i can, once again, find them if i want to build it back to stock. Yes i've made an ugly duckling out of a beautiful swan but let me know what you think. Certainly happier that the pneumatics work better and the somewhat "komische vögel" use of a V6 in an application that should generally be inline or a bent eight is dealt with. (First two thumbnails are links to the videos)

Each tank would have its own check valve on the inlet so that'd be good, and the rest of the manifold can then act as a pulse cushion. Are they both reciprocated as per original by a half stud offset crank? You gone belt or gear propulsion? Any reason to duplicate pumps other than its a pushme-pullyou arrangement? Seems everyone is adding driven and manual pumps willy nilly, even the standard pump setups reaction times aren't all that bad when you consider them in scale to an actual HIAB or the hydraulics on a tractor where even an arseload of pressure and flow is slow reacting with high displacement rams with wide-as pistons that are needed so they can actually lift stuff. I know this is air not incompressible fluid and all, but how fast do you really need them to be and what sorta giant objects are you lifting with them? I reckon what CP5670 wrote one day would be right though i've never owned one: "an airtankxwill help keep the pressure up but makes precise control harder in practice". Is there a relief valve or pressure regulator made to keep things at a constant if you've got the pump working well enough to never not be pressure dropping whilst in use?

With the two pump method Ole, you got em sequential or big bang disposition (close firing order, like a 360 degree paralell twin 2 stroke, or an IFA BK350 boxer) ? Does ones effort diminish the others if they are phased at say 180° or if together the combined load up the motor? Whats the stroke you are running? Sorta tempted to look under my unimog and see if it can be ramped up a bit too as the short push just feels like wasted potential. Kinda as if making 10 tiny taps to hammer a nail when twoxgood ones would see it home. That said, the two twentyfour toothers on the drive out of 8110's motor are getting tooth thin already, powdery crap all over the nearby beams so perhaps more load on its not a grand idea.

G'day Nev. Thanks for the compliment but its a bit over the top. I just dabble with this shit when the mood takes me.Pulley and belt are on one side, crankshaft ends and toothed half width bush (pulley on electric motor) are on the other as these are what was replaced to do the compressor drive/stroke alteration and are there like the 1x2 45° slope bits in the grille, so they stay somewhere on the vehicle to allow a swap back to dead stock without hunting for the supplicated pieces: Do this on any of my changed from stock models. Like the gearbox ratio change on 8860 and 8880's suspension height and crankshaft phasing pieces as who knows who will later end up with my collection and they may be (heaven forbid of course!) purists who insist on box stock. I'll be gone so it won't of course matter but makes me feel better about it. A habit born of having to hunt for and pay through the nose to get the missing trinketry that completes a restoration on bikes/cars i've found or inherited over the years. Exceptions being where the removed items are huge and proclude easy onboard secreting, then they stay separate and in one piece. Narrowing the track on an 8865 is so far the only time i've resorted to that as grey 16 beams were a bit bulky to worry about incorporating elsewhere on it: Not saying it'll be everyones cup of tea, but by all means try the compressor changes, the benefit i reaped seemed worthwhile.,

Love it! Always get a smile from the hamster. A small note: if you move the counterweight brick outboard by one stud it has more leverage and allows the lower hoses a straighter run around the main pivot. Your placement is neater, but when i tried it on mine the hoses felt slightly crushed/kinked. Was good to have a comparitive in video form as i often wondered if the turntable action of mine was slow or a little jerky due to my assembly/stiff and worn cylinders. P.s. I really hope the lego group picks up your dwarf hamster set for production, i'm actually excited to be able to buy and assemble one! Edit: Just spotted this. Hadn't intent to duplicate.

Must be the month for it. Got motivated on my one a coupla weeks back too. I take it you put the battery box back in the right way afterward?

Welcome in bloke. Love the stuff as well, anything with gears kicks freckle.

Love watchin ol mate get the fangs into it at the 18:50 mark! Fast spooled through the bulk of video as 22 minutes seems an age if i'm not putting something together myself.

I reckon its a cross between a forklift and a messerschmitt KR200, though it got its four slots in both directions by firing up the donk backward.

This, trivial as it may be always bothered me. 853 and 8110 were easy enough to correct but from the day i got my first multi cylinder set (8850) the limitations of no 90/120° throw available with the new style round slugged engines seemed a pretty shitty oversight. I've made 8880 flat planed but 90° can't have been that much harder to make. Not owned one but the V12's just seemed hideous. That i've not yet come up with any sensible method of doing even a 6 throw boxer crank with false phasing in the less confined area of 8860 is why i've not thrown another two pots on the back of it either. The flat four seems wrong enough with just the two big end journals without chucking another pair of pots on, let alone something that should be as simple as a proper round piston inline six (square piston fan, always plenty of room) or a triple.I get that they likely don't want to create a whole new batch of parts for their engines when the bulk of the populace are astounded just to see a moving piston but it would have been nice with something touting authenticity (this porsche), even if they staggered the cylinder banks one stud side to side (as per the ancients, 8860/8865) to create room. Are we simply expecting too much of a firm who are likely still targeting the general populace more than avid fans? I figure porsche nuts and autobild/wheels/car and driver magazine readers and the like will make up a good chunk of sales for this set no matter what we deem to be lacking or incorrect and the bulk of em won't give two hoots if its missing gears, or the steering lock is compromised or by the looks the front and rear wheels are the same diameter. They'll pay their money and look at it as the "ooooooh! Shiny!" That it is. This is lego, not Pocher. You don't mean 180 tripled at 120 intervals as per the 911 do you? Or just a flat 6?

None taken. Dark ages started in 91 and stuff as simple as 12 tooth bevels were a neuigkeit for me. Been a bit uphill since then and even if i'm getting there slowly the uphill slog's pretty bloody steep.

Seconded. And a conventional 6 cogger will suffice, maybe a higher pivoting point ball than 8880 had for its gate to cover all 7 gears. Watched a youtube clip of sheepos 911 and think i'll bucket list that.

Highly thankful Daniel. Was doin my head in.

Hi. Its little and no doubt common but whats its part number and family please? I assume technic but it came in a bulk buy and no idea how to find it in LDD. Ta muchly.

Thanks fellas. I've found a few pieces that match up with 6953 but don't recall ever owning it so may have been donated in bits at one stage. Might see how much of it i have.