dmaclego

Easily the best AT-AT model in this not-so-popular scale. The head is particularly impressive. Bravo!

I'm so glad that you don't give up and grace us with updates from time to time. This is a unique project and so is your dedication. I like a lot what you did with this rear end greebling. The most realistic LEGO X-wing is on its way, no doubt about that!

But the Earth looks like 5L and seems less then half of the Sun... You're right, of course. Bright Light Orange it is.

Excellent idea, nice execution. I'm most interested in the yellow half-spheres, so I have a question to you, eagle-eyed fellows: how big do you think they are? 11L in diameter?

Yes, please! But one more thing is necessary to make Power Functions even better: switch from the ridiculous IR to RADIO control. Oh, and by the way, I want my fully-rotating 9V polarity switches in the new Power Functions as well! :) Also, I believe that killing off the Mindstorms line and including some of its capabilities into Powered Up was a huge mistake. Many of us are just interested in simple (or not so simple) mechanics+electrics and do not need to pay extra money for tilt sensors, huge hubs, phone apps etc. Others, I daresay, would be happier with full-blown Mindstorms sets, with multiple sensors, programming and the whole shebang.

Well, the key words here seem to be "in this set". I bet they will be very visible in some other set, rather sooner than later. What LEGO does is a mass production; these axle pins would never be recolored just like that because it costs money. So let's wait and see :) .

I would add one more general rule: never assume that you have your front and rear axle fixed when you've just started working on a model, because you may very well be forced to re-build them 10 times before your MOC is finished. Which is perfectly normal, by the way.

Press the button on the battery box and it's going to blink red, waiting for connection. Then press the small orange button on the top of the controller. Connection should be established immediately: green light on the controller will blink once or twice and turn off. In the same time the red light on the battery box will stop blinking and will stay on. If you have motors or lights connected to the battery box, you may now control them with two levers on the top of the controller and four buttons on the front side. If you do not use them for some time (I'd say minutes, not seconds), the battery box will shut down to save energy and you will have to repeat the procedure. (Although sometimes, after a short time, it will be enough to press the button on the battery as it will remember to which controller it was paired before.) If you try the above and green light on the controller keeps blinking endlessly, it means you don't have a connection. This may either mean that your battery box requires charging or that your devices cannot be paired. But if you bought them together (in a set or as spare parts from CaDA store), it should never happen. If it does, though, you should contact the seller. Edit: Naturally, once you have the first pair of devices, you may connect more pairs the same way and use them all simultaneously. They will not interfere with one another.

Each CaDA controller is paired with one receiver/battery box when you turn them on. Thus you cannot operate many receivers with one controller and cannot operate one receiver with many controllers. Naturally, you can operate as many pairs as you want simultaneously. This seems too easy so I'll confuse it a bit: I have some CaDA controllers that can be paired with different receivers (one at the time, of course) and some CaDA controllers that will work with only one particular receiver :D . Go figure.

Thank you all once again, guys. Thanks but all the credit goes to the designers of the original machine - they managed to use just one winch and let the gravity do its job. Once the bucket is at the very end of the ramp, the string pulls it down. When you unwind the string, gravity allows the bucket (and the top part of the ramp) to return to normal position. But I must admit figuring out this crude mechanism in LEGO was probably the most difficult part of the whole experience. (Number two being track tension system, which had to fit within the three-stud-wide wheel assemblies).

Hi, Happy New Year! Please, let me present my latest 1:13 creation. Machines like this one used to work on Polish coal yards and road construction sites in the 1960's. Today they are mostly scrapped but one was preserved in a museum: Being a front-end overhead loader, this quirky little machine does just that (loads from front-end overhead ;) ) using just one simple winch. I used CaDA Medium Pro motor for this function, plus two excellent CaDA micromotors for driving and CaDA LEDs for both front and rear lights. Why not LEGO? That's rather obvious, I guess: it's cheap, it's RC (and not IR) and it's super compact (especially the micromotors). In other words, it's everything that Power Functions and Control Plus are not. But I digress. As always, I tried to re-create not only functions of the original machine, but also the looks. The large, curved beams in the front part of the ramp are rather rare LEGO parts, of course, belonging to a really unpopular ZNAP system, launched and promptly extinguished in the late 90's. There is one manual function in my model: you may use your finger to roll a worm gear in each track assembly to adjust tension of the track. And that's it, I guess. All the functions are presented in the video: Enjoy and comment at will! dmac

Thank you all, guys. I'm glad you like my model. And yes, the micromotors are a blessing. I suppose I could have used regular Medium motors but wanted to test the strength of the micromotors and I'm really satisfied with the result. About the ZNAP parts - yes, they have perfect shape for this particular model but I'm still not in love with them. They are made of a different kind of plastic (not ABS, I think; you can see it clearly in close-up shots) and the building system itself, with all those rotating connectors, is rather awkward at best. Thanks again!

Certainly. But writing about those who are not targeted by LEGO, I meant - maybe not clearly enough - "adult MOC-building customers", not adults in general. Those of us who actually build advanced MOCs tend to criticize the direction of Technic series (and some others, for that matter). Those who collect sets are generally satisfied and, as you mentioned, they gladly buy Titanics and Bugattis. That's perfectly fine. All I'm saying is that LEGO is a company that offers toys for kids and, occasionally, for those who have fond memories from their own childhood (plus lots of spare cash and attention span large enough to enable them to stack up some 3 thousand pieces or more). However, it is not a company catering to a relatively small group of home-grown designers who - consciously or not - play with bricks to surpass or transcend whatever they see on shelves of the LEGO store. I consider myself one of those. I keep trying to build more realistic, more functional, more complicated models but I do not expect LEGO to accept the challenge and choose the same direction :). It wouldn't be good for business so it will never happen. And I'm OK with it. I just buy selected parts that I need for my projects and treat myself (usually around Christmas) with only one big set that I find particularly pleasing from aesthetic point of view. For me, this is the way, as Mando would say ;). And one more thing: what we buy as LEGO sets should not be confused with what LEGO designers are capable of. I actually have a great deal of respect and sympathy for them. Just imagine you've created a fantastic model and then you hear from your boss: "Man, we don't produce these and these elements this year. Replace them with something else." Or: "No, this year you can use them only in white or dark pink". Or: "Sorry, pal, but according to marketing department your model is 10 dollars over the budget. Forget the printed parts and shave off at least one feature." What I'm trying to say is that while we may be worried about Technic's future, it will be shaped by pure business factors.

Bravo! And if there is anything to add to this spot-on diagnosis, it's this: LEGO products have never been and will never be addressed to adult MOC-building customers. By design, some of the sets appeal directly to children and some to their parents ('Ho, ho, ho, my boy will be over the moon if I get him that kick-megablocks Ferrari for Christmas!') but MOC-building AFOLs are NOT the target. Deal with it, my friends. By definition, our opinions about new Technic sets are not relevant because we are too deep into the subject, have way too much building experience and waaaaaay too high expectations. And annual financial reports indicate that this is exactly as it should be for the owners of the giga-company called LEGO.

My 5 cents about 'vomit' colors and new parts: 1) In my models created for CaDA I only use brightly colored parts deep inside and always with the same commentary: 'You may use ANY color instead of red/yellow/blue etc.; these parts will not be visible'. I do this mostly for CaDA's convenience (they may have certain colors in production, maybe even in stock; besides, some colors are cheaper in production than others). But my thinking was that if they must produce, say, dark green plates 1x2 for the armor of my tank, by default they will use them in dark green inside as well, because it makes sense (logistically). But that didn't happen :) . Honestly, though, you would hate me even more if the most dense, System-built areas of my models were monochromatic ;). 2) Until recently I had no idea that pins 3L will be available in black so you get blue ones in my bulldozer. I guess communication between designers and CaDA, which is really good, could be further improved. 3) I totally agree that liftarms or axles with stop in all conceivable lengths would be a mistake. Yes, they would make things easier, but, in my humble opinion, that is not the point of this hobby. As Orson Welles once said, 'The absence of limitations is the enemy of art'. But on the other hand, there are also parts that open up immense creative possibilities and for some reasons have never been produced by LEGO or were abandoned years ago. Wedge tiles 2x3 and 2x4, towball sockets with pin, flipflop liftarms, old style hinge plates... You really appreciate them once you try to build small, complicated AND realistic structures. If I get to continue my relation with CaDA, I will not stop suggesting them new parts that support creativity (and boy, I do have some ideas!). And I'm not the only one, as far as I know :). Expect the unexpected! 4) About that legendary cost of new molds. Yes, they are expensive, but we should also consider two important factors: a) they are not nearly as expensive in China as they are in Europe and b) CaDA is not (yet ;)) a global superpower on bricks market. This means they do not have to produce new elements in absurd quantities (thus don't need huge number of molds for each new element) - and LEGO does. That's why as long as CaDA does not go the 'Jack Stone way' and keeps producing new parts that support creativity, things should be just fine. 5) Ultimately, though, it is all in buyers' hands so here is my plea to those of you who so far choose to be faithful to LEGO brand (and I used to be one of you): there is no such thing as positive monopoly. CaDA seems to be an honest competitor and who knows - maybe if you give them a chance, it will also motivate LEGO to improve. (Unless you think LEGO has already reached perfection but that's not the case, in my opinion ;). P.S. No, I don't get royalties for each CaDA set sold. Nor for writing in this thread :) .

Yeah, I really tried to convince CaDA these small actuators should be yellow or black but without success. On the other hand, I'm glad they were bold with L and XL actuators. Anyway, thanks for your kind opinion.

I've been using some 10 battery RC units from CaDA since 2020 without any dangerous incidents. Have charged them repeatedly and succesfully with USB 2.0 port in my dekstop computer and a range of phone chargers form LG, Samsung, Huawei and Realme. I guess I'm lucky. The only complication is that some of these units (older ones?) seem to connect with only one or two remote controllers from my "collection", while others can be paired with any controller.

Yes, some two weeks ago. And contract for this model was signed very early 2021 so it has nothing to do with LEGO Cat. But, admittedly, it is mostly yellow ;) . Yes, they are. CaDA micromotors are super-strong compared to old 9V LEGO micromotors (and much faster). Paired with linear actuators, they provide plenty of power. I hope so, too :). So far the quality of CaDA bricks has been more than satisfactory. The prototype I received was fine but I haven't built the production sets they sent me yet, so cannot vouch for those. But stay tuned - my "designer review" should be done this weekend. And regarding "design errors" - please, think of this model as a MOC, not a good ol' LEGO set. CaDA is much more liberal about non-standard building techniques - and I love it. On the other hand, the long gone basic solutions - like using Technic bricks (and not mostly liftarms) or the almost forgotten hinge plates (offering so much more freedom than click-hinges) - are also welcome, which I admire. Generally, I used pretty much every technique I know to achieve the LOOK, while not losing the functions. Yes, they are. And they are all black :). Also, I'm glad the four standard actuators used for the ripper now come in yellow. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to convince CaDA to produce small actuators and micromotors in yellow or black.

Then perhaps I should warn the potential buyers of my new CaDA set that I built it hoping - as usual - to merge Technic with Model Team style, which means parts of it are not as sturdy as typical Technic builds. But hopefully better looking than typical Technic builds ;).

Hello there! This is my first entry in this part of Eurobricks Forum, so... hello again! Please, let me present my latest creation - a 1:13 scale model of Kobelco SK210 HLC tracked excavator. Why Kobelco? Because of the color, of course. Pretty much everywhere except USA the company sells these excavators in "Kobelco blue-green" livery, which happens to be remarkably similar to LEGO Dark Turquoise. So it's beautiful, it's not yellow and it's challenging enough, since only 216 Dark Turquoise parts were available when I started building it (and most of them unusable like Martian heads). The model includes some custom made parts but the most obvious ones are long pneumatic cylinders - and that's where you can see the similarity, because they are painted exactly that color: Kobelco blue-green. I made them myself, using aluminum, brass tubing and rubber parts from original LEGO cylinders. The other - not so obvious - modification is battery box. I modified it to use 3.7 V li-ion batteries (the same size as regular AA batteries) in two groups, giving it altogether 11.1 V at 1600 mAh. The model worked just fine on regular batteries, too, but now it works faster, as the new battery power both compressor (8 pumps altogether). Other than that, there are only cosmetic modifications: chromed fences, custom stickers and LED lights (these also could easily be LEGO but, strangely enough, I much prefer paying $1 for 10 lights and not $10 for 1 light. The other unusual - but perfectly legal :) - solutions are: hidden winch that supports the enormously heavy arm (so that it doesn't fall like rock) and LEGO tires acting as extra support for the arm. And again: it would work without them but works better with them. And some statistics: 10 motors (plus 2 for the nibbler attachment) 8 small pneumatic pumps maximum reach - 75 cm maximum length - 101 cm width - 25.5 cm ground clearance - 3.6 cm maximum depth of digging: 44 cm total weight - 5.5 kg I'm very glad to write that most of these parameters are very close to the original (considering the scale, of course ;) ). Admittedly, this was partly why I took up this project: to finally overcome the limitations of LEGO pneumatics and create realistic reach for the arm. And that's it, I guess. Thanks for reading and If you feel like commenting on my model - just shoot; I'll try to handle the critique ;) . For more pictures search flickr.com for dmaclego. And substandard video (due to my cameras being unable to record Dark Turquoise - correcting it degraded the picture):

Well, that's not the case with the tank model I designed. CaDA micromotors are stronger and faster than LEGO micromotors but I don't think they can propel a vehicle to a speed that would endanger the drivetrain. Or that the vehicle could be heavy enough to damage anything in the mechanism.

And what a tribute it is! Excellent work, Jarek. As always. Some really crazy angles (I have no idea which one you consider incorrect, I didn't notice), neat details, tan instead of yellow - and it's all spot on. I'm really, really digging it. Congratulations!

Absolutely awesome rendition of a.... Well, let's stop right here - it is irrelevant if the original Twilight was beautiful or not so much ;) . Matter of taste, I guess. But what you did here is just great. Proportions, tons of details, colors (well, technically gray is not a color but still ;) ) - it is all spot on. Congratulations!

Guys, Some of you may remember my AT-AT model, some of you may know my Lambda shuttle and some of you may even have heard these were crucial parts of my crazy idea called Project:Endor. Well, it's done. Thirteen years ago I started working on a virtual LEGO model of the Imperial Shuttle. It took me 6 months. Then I spent another year building it with real bricks. And when it was completed, I heard - from LEGO designer Adam Grabowski, whom some of you may know as Misterzumbi - that maybe I could build a small scene for that model. Well, I took the idea to my heart - as you can see today ;) . As time went by, my shuttle became set 10212, over 1 meter tall trees grew up one by one and the platform slowly took shape. Ultimately, "the small scene" became some 200 kg of bricks, set upon 48 baseplates. I have no idea how many bricks are in it. Fortunately, neither has my Wife ;) . I won't bore you with minutiae - if you have any questions (about electric functions, details or anything else), just shoot. In this gallery you can find a photographic history of Project: Endor - pics of the finished project can be found, of course, at the very end. In time, there will be more of them; they just need editing. Also, I'm slowly working on a movie presentation but that will take quite a while, since some of the mechanisms were damaged during recent exhibition. Have a good time watching the pics and please, feel free to leave comments if you wish. 072 - Seriously happy by Maciej Szymański, on Flickr 077 - Endor by night by Maciej Szymański, on Flickr

First of all - thank you, I'm glad you like my Endor. As for making my AT-AT walk, I will stick to my opinion: it is not possible (yet) :) . I have given it a lot of thought over the years and while I know very well how to build a mechanism that would emulate quite faithfully the walk of the "real" AT-AT, the actual problem with model of this size and weight are legs, which are only 2 stud thick (and, honestly, should be even thinner). They almost crumble when the model is standing still and would never survive walking. Making them stronger with Technic bricks or liftarms would be an obvious solution but I refuse to compromise the looks of my model. Thus, it won't neither walk nor run in forseeable future :) . And now more bad news ;) : - I do not own any of the LEGO AT-AT sets, so I cannot help you match the scale. Also, as far as I know, fan-made AT-AT's available on the market (as sets of instructions) are too big for the diorama you linked. My knowledge about these is rather limited, though (having my own AT-AT, I wasn't really looking for alternatives. And it's exactly the same with AT-ST. However, generally speaking, AT-ST's issued by LEGO are minifig scale, so they would be too big for your diorama. - The diorama you linked is much, much smaller than mine so I'm pretty sure the technique I used for the landing pad will be useless for you. My landing pad is 4 studs thick and I think you should look for something closer to 2 studs. But maybe my solution will inspire you to find your own, so here it goes. Please, take a look at this picture: https://www.flickr.com/photos/dmaclego/12454307043/in/album-72157629127778577/ Most of the surface, both top and bottom, consists of 6x5 panels, which are light and reasonably rigid. Vertically, they are connected with assortment of plates (4 long) and Technic bricks 1x4 - all in grey. Horizontally, the Technic bricks are pinned together with longer Technic bricks (1x16 and similar), which is a nightmare to assemble but gives you a fairly light and rigid structure. The problem is, you cannot make the landing pad any thinner with this method so if you really wish to have it smooth on both sides, maybe you should use horizontally stacked bricks with studs on both sides, connect them with large plates on both sides and then use tiles to connect the plates. This would result with landing pad a bit over 2 stud thick - and a host of completely new problems ;) . But you won't know if it's worth your effort until you try. - My tree branches consist of black plates 1x6, 1x8 and 1x10 connected with toothed hinge plates, which gives them nice, arched shape. These are covered with a kind of "lace" made mostly of dark green leaves 6x5 and green leaves 4x3. Mind you, this technique, although effective, requires large amounts of leaves. I used over 5,500 altogether. - About the baseplate - as you may have noticed, my landing platform pillars are rooted in massive hills and I strongly advise you to go the same route. It essentially does not matter which baseplates you use but if you have two 48x48 baseplates, start with these and use as many bricks as you can to strengthen them. You want your "land" as rigid and as well connected with the pillars (possibly with Technic bricks) as possible. Whatever you choose to do, I wish you good luck and a lot of patience! dmac