grum64

Building Days 8, 9 & 10 / Building Time - 12.5hrs / Total Building Time - 39hrs Firstly, I’ve decided not to replace the engine at the moment. I said at the beginning of this build that I wanted to build it as per instructions first and then rebuild it in Pimped guise and will then see about replacing the engine. Marrying the front and rear axle proved to be more difficult than expected. Getting everything lined up was a little tricky and after almost an hour of wriggling about (the assemblies, not me) I decided that, to save my sanity, a different approach was needed. I removed the two blue 3L pins and replaced them with 6L axles in the lifarms they just slid into place and I got it locked together. From then on I didn’t have too many problems, It's amazing the difference remembering to plan ahead makes. The only real pain in the proverbial was connecting the UV joint but then again, they always are. So far this is proving to be one of the most enjoyable sets I’ve built for a long while. Sets can be quite repetitive and I find that can spoil the building experience but the Defender stands out (to me anyway) as not being so. Also, I don’t recall building a set with so many gears. For the first 8 days it seemed I was fitting gears on everyone of them. Apologies for the amount of photos.

I absolutely love this. The detail is spot on. It's so cool. l saw the Conoy movie at the cinema with my Dad when it first came out and it's been one of my favourites ever since.

I understand Lego's choice of engine may be a better in terms of scale but as you say the original block & piston setup fills the engine bay and will look better when the bonnet's lifted. I've been looking at the instructions and as far as I can work out it should just be a case of changing the angle of the steering column with shorter / longer axles. Should just be...

Building Days 6 & 7 / Building Time - 9hrs / Total Building Time - 26.5hrs It’s been an interesting and enjoyable build so far and I think I’m making pretty good progress. I’m not sure about the engine setup used in this set. I first came across this type of engine when building the 42123 McLaren Senna and while I wasn’t particularly keen on it I could understand it being used in a build of that size & scale. In a build of the Defenders size I’d have preferred the regular piston & block setup and in my opinion that’s what I think it should have. A V6 or V8 would look much better and I think that's what I'll put in it. I might be wrong but from what I can work out both should fit with no or at least minimal changes around it. Here’s the pictures

It is. I didn’t mean the post to be a book review but reading it back I realise that’s more or less what it turned out to be. When all goes well when building I struggle to write anything and as I just write down what comes into my head without planning, reading it through or editing it before posting I guess waffling happens. I need to try and change that and stick to writing about building however few or numerous the word count.

Building Days 4 & 5 / Building Time - 7hrs / Total Building Time - 16.5hrs The rear axle’s now done so that’s the contents all bags numbered 1 done with. I’m happy to say that other than a shock absorber going flying while I was trying to fit it, sending it Exocet like through the cab of my Ultimate 42009 and knocking both driver (Jack Stone) and Gollum (don’t ask) out through the windscreen, these two build sessions have been free from mistakes. Whilst on the subject of mistakes. As you may know I made a couple of really stupid ones during the previous build sessions for which I had no excuse for however, after a great deal of (creative) thought, I’ve decided that Bill Bryson is to blame. Bear with me with this one. You see, I don’t like building in silence so I always have BBC Radio 2 on. With this on dear old Ken Bruce or Steve Wright can burble away, my concentration completely unaffected. But a few weeks ago with interference making the radio unlistenable I put on a Bill Bryson audio book, notably The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid. I’ve always enjoyed Mr Bryson’s writings and this one particularly so. A brilliant and entertaining mix of fact, masterful exaggeration & humour that garnered my attention for much of the time I was building and it’s this that I’m using as an excuse for my errors and as it’s the only one I can come up that’s even remotely plausible it’s what I’m sticking with.

Building Days 1 ,2 & 3 / Combined Days Building Time - 9.5hrs Hello My Friends It’s been quite sometime since I last posted a WiP so as it’s said ‘God loves a trier’ I’m back to give it another go. With last weekend offering a welcome respite from the recent very hot weather I took the chance to make a start on the 42110 Landrover Defender. Mrs Grum, being the Wonderful Wife she is, bought this set for me for Christmas so it’s been on the shelf for quite a while. I’d only put off building it because I was waiting for the final iteration of the Pimped version but last week it dawned on me that I should build it ‘out of the box’ before progressing to the Pimped version so as to fully understand and appreciate the changes made by the many clever people who’ve contributed to the project. Shame I hadn’t had this realisation when I built the GT3 and Chiron. Sharp tools and boxes come to mind. The build starts with the rear axle which I’d like to say was straight forward but that would be to ignore the Grum factor. For reasons I still can’t understand (or come up with a plausible excuse for), instead of fitting the four 3x3 T pieces (as shown on Pic 1) I used four 1x3 Liftarms (pics accidentally deleted 🤥). I only noticed when I came to fit the four red Pins with Towball and couldn’t understand where the holes had gone. After around 5 minutes spent looking back & forth between the assembly and the instructions I noticed my error. Thankfully it was a quick fix. A repeat of the 42070 hook raise/lower debarkle I do not need. When building the gearbox I put a 4L Axle with Stop where a 5L Axle with Stop should have resided and vice versa which came to light when about to fit the yellow Axle and Pin Connector I found nothing to connect it to. The gearbox proved to be pretty much problem free. Other than that and becoming almost obsessional about keeping the orange Wave Selector in the correct orientation, the gearbox was pretty much problem free. The forecast here is for more very hot weather for several days yet which means that despite Mrs Grum opening my shed doors at 6am it'll still be like a furnace in there by 9:30-10am so as I have no yearning to know how a chicken (vegetarian/vegan alternatives are available) feels shortly before Sunday lunch is served I'll get back to building when conditions allow. Some Pics. There are quite a few so if you think there are too many please do let me know.

Thank you for your kind comments 😊

Thank you. like you, I understand the disappointment with this set. It’s price was a shock to say the least and selling it as an all terrain vehicle was setting it up to fail.

WOW! This looks much better than the 42115. I'll build the Sian but it's the Miura that'll be sitting on the shelf.

I'm really looking forward to reaquainting myself with the 8043. It was the only the second Technic set I'd ever built and have fond memories of the struggle. I didn't build the B model then but will do this time around.

Thank you Jeroen. You’re right about the backlog. I’ve got 6 new sets to build and about the same number of older sets I want to build again, particularly the 8043 excavator and 8110 Unimog. I’ve also been thinking of building the 8675 Outdoor Challenger, 8366 Supersonic RC, 8369 Dirt Crusher and 8475 Race Buggy as I’m not sure there’s been a build topic on them. I know they’re simple builds with their own unique parts and some are essentially the same vehicle but I thought it might be interesting to see these often forgotten sets all in one place. My next project will be the 42110 Landrover Defender. I hope to start building once the weather cools down.

Thank you. I agree it is little tricky in places but I like that, it makes it more of a challenge and so something to learn from. I used to struggle getting the wheels on builds but now I put it on appropriately/approximately sized plastic tubs which makes it much easier. One problem I do have is putting the tyres on the wheels. They taste horrible. Pleased to hear it’s not just me who finds the switches stiff to operate, I’m not such a weakling after all. Ego restored. At least until I see the Daughter in Law again 🫤.

Hello My Friends I’m very pleased to say that the odyssey that the 42070 build has turned out to be is, at long last, over. It’s finished. I started building quite some time ago but our local hospital decided to have me go live with them for a couple of months before I got chance to finish it. I’d have taken it with me but building while laying flat on my back would have hampered things somewhat. I’ve tried. Didn’t end well. Building has had a few frustrations. Besides the hook raise/lower problem (oh, the embarrassment 🫣), the size of the build did make it a tad tricky at times when moving it about & when trying to fit parts/assemblies. The outriggers, especially the rear ones, kept ‘snagging’ on the surface of my table and with so much still to be built after their fitting, the chassis (not the strongest I’ve ever seen) kept flexing when fitting the parts so I spent lot of time putting opened joints back together. I normally download the instructions (.pdf) before I start building and, using Goodreader, make notes, changes to the build order etc to make things easier for myself. If I’d have done this I’d have left building the outrigger legs until later in the build and saved myself a great deal of aggravation but…. Stupid 🙄. Frustrations aside, building this set has an been an enjoyable experience, particularly the gearbox which I found, like all Lego gearboxes, very interesting. I like to spend a while trying to trace the ‘route’ through the gearbox each function will take. It’s only been round the garden and up & down the ramp to my shed a few times but it seems to drive well, if a little slowly but the turning circle’s hardly reminiscent of my Dads’ Triumph Heralds from childhood, more like the oil tankers I once worked on. The other functions work well. My only gripe is the switches, they’re extremely stiff to operate but that might just be me. Mr Universe I am not. My Daughter in Law calls me Noodle Arms (amongst other things). You work it out 🤨. I’ll be coming back to the 42070 sometime in the future to fill in load bay, the gaps around the cabin, add a hinged roof section to cover the battery box and do something about the flimsy look of the jib. Here’s a few pics.