grum64

Eurobricks Dukes
  • Content Count

    2988
  • Joined

  • Last visited

6 Followers

About grum64

  • Rank
    Old Fart
  • Birthday 03/16/1964

Spam Prevention

  • What is favorite LEGO theme? (we need this info to prevent spam)
    Technic, Technic and Technic
  • Which LEGO set did you recently purchase or build?
    Building: 42131

Profile Information

  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    UK
  • Interests
    Being in my shed building with our (now) 4 beautiful Grandchildren. Our new born Grandaughter may sleep soundly though the fun but I just know she’ll be dreaming about Duplo. I call that living my best life.

    The challenge of building a decent MOC of my own.

    Should you be having trouble sleeping you'll find reading about my journey into LEGO will almost certainly help. You'll find it in About Me or if viewing on a mobile Activity - About Me.

    Sweet Dreams.

Extra

  • Country
    UK
  • Special Tags 1
    https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/uploads//gallery/album_241/gallery_8966_241_2675.png

Recent Profile Visitors

7034 profile views
  1. Looks fantastic! I really enjoy the attention to detail, I especially like the rear lights. Excellent work.
  2. Hello williamyzfr1 Thank you for your very helpful reply. I purchased A C's instructions for his modded CAT several weeks ago after seeing them on Rebrickable. I chose these as minimum disassembly is needed to implement the changes. As it is I'm building the CAT to LEGO's instructions and will then build A C's so the false actuators will get replaced with proper ones. Thank you also for letting me know the correct length for the Linier Actuators. I'm pretty sure mine are fully extended so I'll adjust them accordingly and then re-run the initial calibration accordingly, deleting the app and reinstalling it if necessary. Once again, thank you for taking the time to help me.
  3. Thank you for your kind words. As for tears following a mishap, that's only happened once.
  4. I’ve a few favourite sets. 8258 Crane Truck - This was the very first Technic set I built and as such was something of a challenge to say the least. As I recall it took 20+ weeks to build but at the end of it the feeling of accomplishment was indescribable. I still get a warm fuzzy whenever I think about it. 8043 Excavator - This one was the second or third Technic set I built and my first full PF. I was completely blown away by what I saw as the complexity of its design, I certainly did some head scratching trying to fathom which gears were going to operate which function as I built. The overall building experience and its playability just made it a great set. I keep saying I’d going to rebuild it. Now it’s back in my mind maybe I will one day soon. 8880 Supercar - I'd had this set sitting on the rack for a couple of years but I always put off building it. The biggest studded set I’d built until then was the 8275 but the 8880 was in a different league altogether and was very intimidating. With so many complex shapes and structures, (especially the engine cover!), it was by far the most difficult set I’ve built and easily the most frustrating but having said that it’s those things that in the end made it absolute joy to build.
  5. Good to hear from you Bart, it’s been a while. I'd not thought much about it before now but you're right, I do seem to have had a few 'incidents' with the CAT but I can't think it's any more than with any of my other builds. I think the majority of those I have had have been a result of how I build. I think it's safe to say I'm a bit more heavy handed if that makes sense. Where most people fit parts delicately and with nimble fingers I find a lot of the time I have to use more force, more of a line it up & shove it approach. It's not quite a crude as that, at least not always, but you get the gist and it’s that extra oomph when my hand slips or something similar that propels things rather than maybe just dropping to the table if a softer approach were used 👍🏻🙂
  6. Build Day 26 & 27 / Building Time - 8hrs / Total Building Time - 110hrs It’s been a good deal longer than expected since last I posted due to a very unwelcome chest infection that arrived unannounced, rudely bypassed ‘under the weather’ and went straight to knocking me off my circulars completely for 10 days. I then fell victim to my own ineptitude which delayed things further. With the cab now finished in, even if I say so myself, pretty good time (stop laughing 🫤), it and the body assemblies must now become one and hopefully reside happily ever after. It was almost 17:00 and I was tired & about to call it a day but with the cab already atop the body of the CAT I couldn’t help thinking it would be a good idea to secure the assemblies together. After all there was only one yellow 5L Axle and four red 3L Pins with Stop Bush, two of which were already in place awaiting a push into position. It wouldn’t take long so that’s what I decided to do. Unfortunately, this decision proved almost as disastrous as any one of those occasions when seemingly sensible women looked at Henry VIII and thought ‘that’s the man for me’. Pushing the first pin into place it soon became obvious that it was going nowhere, at least not without a fight. I had one hand up against the front of the CAT and my other pushing the pin but it was still unwilling to move so I pushed harder. Then much harder still. Upon reflection the ‘much harder still’ was a mistake because before I knew what was happening my hand slid up & off the pin hitting the cab and sending it bouncing end over end across the table, a trail of pieces in its wake, and landing on the chest of drawers. This sent my VW Beetle, Caterham and two Racers Ferrari Race Trucks (both awaiting disassembly!) to the floor where an explosion of colour like a firework display flew off in pretty much every direction 🤬. Also two Racers Ferrari cars disappeared down the back of the chest of drawers. On the upside, disassembling the Race Trucks won’t take so long . Surprisingly, the cab escaped a similar fate, All it lost was the screen & instrumentation pieces from inside the cab, a few bits & pieces from the roof, both extinguishers and the ladder assembly which required a little attention. Mercifully the body of the CAT escaped damage. It travelled across the table at a rather impressive rate of knots & came to an abrupt halt after bouncing off the window. I’m sure it would’ve gone through it had the window not been double glazed Parts from the CAT retrieved and refitted, the two assemblies secured together (according to the instructions this time) and it was time to put the ripper together which proved to be fairly straightforward. In fact it took a great deal longer to fit it than it did to build. I can’t say I’m a fan of the false actuators. Besides having a stud length of the grey axle showing they just don’t look very good. I’m far from an expert but there must have been a better way of doing them. I’m not blind to this being my own stupid fault (once again). Had I fitted the axle before the pins as per the instructions none of this would’ve happened. I was tired but that’s no excuse. I made a complete and utter horlicks of things by not paying attention to the instructions and taking shortcuts. Something that won’t happen again. My digits will remain hypothetically entwined. I've recently read that the final calibration has a hissy fit if the extension of the Linier Actuators isn't correct. I don't know if this is right or not but I'd rather not take any more chances. Because I use digital instructions I'm wasn’t able to use the respective picture in the instruction book to set the correct length of said Linier Actuators so just wound them out to their longest. May I ask if anyone can shed some light on whether this was correct and if not what the correct length from the instruction book is please. I'll be most grateful for any help or advice. Thank you.
  7. I know this isn’t to do with Lego directly but please bear with me for a few minutes If the moderators think this being here is inappropriate please move it where you think it best to be I’d just like to say a few words about Steve Wright, a UK radio DJ and TV host who very sadly passed away today To some of you he’ll be unknown, but to me and many others he was a voice and later a face that took us through our teens and accompanied us onward through adulthood I for one have listened to him almost every day since 1979. Even when I was away at sea I still managed to listen to his show on the endless supply of cassette tapes recorded by my Sister that, no matter where I was in the World, greeted me each time we docked Until last year, when he 'left' his afternoon show, it was he and his team I'd listen to every day especially while out in my shed with my Lego. It may sound strange but he helped me through some very difficult times when something I was trying to build wasn't going right. I carried on listening to his other show but sadly that's all now come to an end Thank you for the laughs Steve. May you rest in peace.
  8. Hmmm… any chance it can be changed to 24 weeks? 😉
  9. Brilliant! Who doesn’t love a Warthog 👍🏻🙂
  10. Fantastic! The more I look at it the more I’m impressed. Easily one of the best 1:1’s I’ve ever seen.
  11. Build Days 24 & 25 / Building Time - 9.5hrs / Total Building Time - 102hrs I thought it best to start the day by removing the mangled 1L Pin with 2L Axle before I clean forgot only to find it buried under a pound and a half of plastic when I eventually did remember. Shoving it with an axle soon had it out which was much easier than anticipated. Replacing said part turned out to be every bit as frustrating as anticipated. To protect the ‘fragile’ Pin end I slipped a 2L Pin Connector over it while I heaved, huffed, puffed and tutted the axle into place. It took a while but it’s done and, thanks to the easily removed connector, is in prestige condition. A first for me and a lesson learned. The rest of the building went well. The only fly in the ointment was trying to fit the 2L Liftarms to each end of the angled name plate assembly. This proved to be ridiculously time consuming and a real pain in the proverbial because no matter how careful I was, every time I tried to fit them the rest of the assembly fell apart. I put it back together eleven times before I’d got it done 🫤. It was at this point I thought this was getting a too photo heavy so grouped this assembly's parts together to help keep the number down. Stable doors and bolting horses come to mind 🙄. I've just noticed that a thin Liftarm is missing from the top of one of the doors. Yes, I forgot. Yes, I will fit it. Yes, I am stupid 😵‍💫.
  12. Thank you very much but honestly, I don’t do anything special. I just build a little differently to most 👍🏻 🙂 There’s a lot of building left to do yet so just resign yourself to the fact you’re going to be building your own dozer soon. When you do please post it here. Myself and many others would like to watch its progress 🙂 Thank you for your encouraging words. I’ve lost count of the number of the little blighters I’ve damaged beyond use since I first came across them. The last I remember it was over 50 but that was sometime ago. Good job I’ve got plenty of spares. 🙂👍🏻
  13. Build Day 22 & 23 / Building Time - 9hrs / Total Building Time - 92.5hrs Hello My Friends Hope you all had a great Christmas and 2024 has started well for you. I can't believe how long it's been since my last post. The way things are going I’m pretty sure I’ll still be building this next year. This is just a quick update as besides being short on time, things went quite well. No flying or free falling parts and thankfully no personal injuries although there were a few near misses. As the build of this, the upper rear part of the chassis and cabin progresses, fitting parts and assemblies to it is getting quite difficult. It’s really unwieldy to handle and the 4 vertical liftarms (which have poked me in the eye, been up my nose and in my ears more times than I care to recall) get in the way. All this has caused much tutting and gnashing of teeth. Anyway, that's it for now. I’ve got a few free days over the next week or so so hopefully I’ll get time to get some more building done should be back soon. Before going any further I need to get this mangled 1L pin with 2L axle (circled) replaced because if I go too much further I’ll not be able to get to it. Should be fun.
  14. Firstly, welcome to Eurobricks. It’s good to have you with us. WOW! This is really something special. The level of detail is very impressive helped by your clever use of parts. I especially like the use of the Robot Arms for the Davits and 1x4 Gear Rack for the Gangways. As for you’re not posting for all this time because you lacked courage. The very fact you took on this project in the first place shows courage. It’s clear you’re a very talented builder, you just need to believe that others will see that. The comments on this page prove that. Keep up the great work. Glad to see you there. It’s an honour to be so and very well deserved.