ER0L

Eurobricks Knights
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Everything posted by ER0L

  1. ER0L

    MOC: Canadair CL-215

    Hi all, this is a first aircraft, a Canadair CL-215 waterbomber in minifig scale (around 1:45). Its wingspan is 80 studs, the fuselage is 8 studs wide. The main points were getting the wings straight and getting a smooth fuselage, especially at the rear. Apart from that it was quite a fun build, although it took nearly two months. Being a complete newbie in building airplanes I was very glad to see that I had some predecessors. It helped me a lot to look at their versions of the Canadair. That's why there are quite a few credits: John Lamarck, Bombardier CL-415: measurements, proportions, wing profile vincez01, Canadair CL-215: fuselage, landing gear Zorko Huljic, Canadair CL-415: tail Last not least a big thank to my dear friend Steffen, a LEGO plane specialist, who gave me a lot of advice. Take a look at his fantastic aircraft: www.flickr.com/photos/29666619@N04 Some more pics: Side view: The plane fits two whole minifig pilots, as you can see here: Furthermore the aircraft has some functions: 2 engines (run by a PF M motor each) flaps (run by a PF M motor) movable rudder, coupled with the steerable nose wheel Video (sorry for the bad quality, it's just to get an impression): The plane was built to be moved by an LCS (see http://www.eurobrick...showtopic=91937). It was quite suspenseful to see if a plane with a weight of over 1 kilogramme could be pulled by it. In fact it's no problem, as you can see here: This is quite nice because like this an airport with taxiing planes is possible which widens the possibilities when planning a town layout. That's about it so far, some more pics on Flickr, if you're interested in this. C&C welcome as usual, thanks for looking.
  2. ER0L

    How to lighten up Modular Houses best?

    In my opinion the best supplier for devices to lighten up your Lego city is - Lego. Also because it's, well, Lego. Especially the Light & Sound stuff (high quality electric parts still working well today which don't even cost much, see Bricklink) is quite helpful here. This way you don't need any third party parts (and definitely no modified bricks). I'm using a combination of PF LEDs and L&S lights for my City layout, even for vehicles. If you're interested in such things, you may want to take a look here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/er0l/albums/72157646066952981
  3. ER0L

    [MOC] Modular Police Station

    @peedeejay Thanks for the mention. Yeah, I guess police vehicles are quite important in a Lego city - also because they are (often, not always, alas) where the action is. You might want to take a look at the Dodge Charger from SharpShot which I guess might fit in very nicely here, also because it's got a kind of Town-ish approach, whereas I would probably have something larger in mind. Great Police Station btw., I had already seen it on Flickr. I especially love the atmosphere of the interior which for whatever reason reminds me of "The Wire". I also like the exterior - this is "moccing in modular style" at its best (would fit smoothly in any modular street), and there's some really nice stuff going on.
  4. ER0L

    [LDD MOC] 2016 Dodge Charger Slicktop Police Car

    @SharpShot With permission from Ben I'm uploading his 2019 rendition of your Charger here (more pics on his Flickr): 2019 Dodge Charger Pursuit by Ben, on Flickr
  5. Emergency Vehicle 2019 - Ambulance with emergency lighting Ambulance with working emergency lights (1/40 scale) by ER0L, on Flickr Hi all, I'm changing the title of this thread to "Emergency Vehicle of the Year" - there are enough cop cars now, I guess. 7w/8w. 100% Lego. Here you can see the ambulance in action: https://www.flickr.com/photos/er0l/49248900118 There was no time for Lego in the last few months. However at least the annual emergency vehicle had to be built - which was also motivated by another visit to the Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg some weeks ago (biggest model railway worldwide). There you may learn a lot about conceiving a model layout, also regarding the necessity of having as many emergency vehicles as possible (and with working lights, if that can be achieved somehow). Also, an Ambulance was still missing on the Route 66 layout, and I had wanted to build one for a long time. The vehicle is based on some actual specs I found on Demers Ambulances (https://www.demers-ambulances.com/model-comparison-chart/) which is a great thing. Scale is pretty much exactly 1/40 (meaning I found suitable measurements for most aspects on several prototypes) with the exception of width (8w is a bit too wide) and probably the height of the cab (though there is this type of heavy duty pick-up truck considerably taller than a human being, I guess). Of course, the design possibilities were a bit restricted by the necessity of including the light gear, but the design does its job, I guess - like on the vehicle it is supposed to mimic. Still no fan of the SC wheels which look too big (and too sporty) on practically everything - but well, there aren’t many alternatives for this kind of vehicle if you want to avoid the usual tire stretching. Another restriction were the parts at hand since I’m trying more and more not to purchase a few missing parts just to finish a MOC. The lower section is blue just because I didn’t have two of the white arch bricks - I think it looks nice as well. In any case it’s great to see that Lego parts of several decades can still be put together smoothly to create something working nicely: Take an old battery box, some L&S lights (working perfectly in spite of their age), some cables plus an adapter cable (!) to connect the PF LEDs for headlights and rear lights. No need for the more modern stuff. Also, no need for third party lighting stuff at all. Thanks for reading all this. Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year to all of you! Hopefully there’ll be more MOCs coming from me in 2020.
  6. [Edit] List of annual Police Interceptors, now Emergency Vehicles 2011 see https://www.flickr.c...157628467098541 2012 see https://www.flickr.c...157629998167606 2013 see http://www.eurobrick...showtopic=80154 2014 this thread 2015 this thread 2016 this thread 2017 this thread 2018 this thread 2019 this thread [/edit] Hi all, a little late this year, but here it is, the Police Interceptor 2014: It was quite obvious that the Police Interceptor of the year 2014 would have to be an LCS vehicle. Furthermore, since the future town will be illuminated I was wondering if at least some of the vehicles can be lightenend, too - it would look quite awkward if cars without lights were cruising the town at night. It proved to be possible without any foreign parts - via a combination of 9 Volt and PowerFunctions stuff. Functions: self-steering front axle emergency lights (9 V) siren (9 V) headlights (PF) backlights (PF) 100% Lego. The car weighs over 200 grams (battery included) but is an excellent mover on the LCS. Credits: derjoe whose "brick & tile" car building style proved to be most appropriate when dealing with lighting Brucewaynelego-Toyshansolo who introduced me into the "9 Volt world". Rear: From below: Hopefully the PI 2014 will be the first of a series of illuminated "night" cars like ambulances, fire engines or stretch limos. Some more pics on my Flickr. Thanks for looking! In action on the LCS layout:
  7. ER0L

    [MOC] Ambulance and Fire Truck

    I really like the design of these - they somehow look like enhanced and highly detailed versions of City vehicles, as if there were a product line of vehicles made especially for, say, modular purposes, yet very playable. Also the built stripes are a great touch. My only complaint would be that I think the 6w ladder is too narrow compared to the 6w/7w ambulance and looks a bit tall, also when the wheel size is taken into account. I guess 7 or even 8w (and maybe larger wheels) would look better on this one. (However, I'm glad not to find a link to Ideas here - not because they aren't better than at least 95 percent of similar stuff there, but just because such sets don't have a chance anyway and it is nice to see that there are still moccers on EB pursuing their own ideas instead of looking for potential buyers of their works. But that's just me.)
  8. By setting down the Mini (smaller wheels, flattened roof) and making the figs a little taller you get a much better ratio between fig and car (see below). Regarding buildings and trucks: I don't think you can because then you get giant scales which don't match anything in larger surroundings (thinking e. g. of joint layouts) and which are much too parts consuming. Au contraire, I would say (see above). The only exception I can think of are US landyachts of the Seventies and Eighties (which also are much more difficult to replicate than one might think). In another sense it may be correct to say that older cars are easier to replicate than modern ones because they have a certain shaping to them at all - whereas modern designs often are absolutely interchangeable, at least in my opinion.
  9. For newcomers (and children, of course) it might be a good idea - the models as such look much better than before. However it's obvious that all SC 6 collectors will be very disappointed when placing the new SC 8 models next to the old cars - the latter will look even uglier than they did before with their 4w canopies combined with 6w bodies which never worked in my opinion. Be it as it may - the disproportioned SC 6 design scheme is history now, which is a good thing in itself. But instead of opening a completely new chapter and taking odd widths into account like they did on the Mini they just went the easiest way by making the SC line completely uninteresting for City builders - at least scalewise. 8w (plus mudguards, to be correct) is a width I have chosen (after long considerations) for trucks and buses. And boy, those are large vehicles. An 8w+ Ferrari would look absolutely ridiculous next to, say, an 8w Greyhound Bus - the more so combined with a 6w+ City truck.
  10. This looks great indeed, even in terms of a 6+ building style which I prefer. And do I really spot a 6 to 4 windscreen part? Never expected them to do that. That would mean a completely new era of minifig scale sports car building. Hopefully this part will be available unprinted, too. However, that's great news for all minifig scale car moccers.
  11. ER0L

    LEGO Speed Champions - Wishlists and Future Speculation

    Some of my assumptions seem to be correct, some not so much, see https://www.flickr.com/photos/er0l/47965799562. However, we know now that both cars stem from designer Adam Grabowski (= Misterzumbi; if you're interested in minifig scale car moccing and you don't know who that is you should quickly look up his MOCs) The bad news is (if I understand correctly) that there won't be a "Bandit" Trans Am set, neither as a Speed Champions set nor in another range (which so far doesn't even exist). Too bad!
  12. Scale Check: Chevrolet K5 Blazer from set 75810 (design by Misterzumbi) I'd like to draw your attention to this vehicle since I think it is one of the best stock minifig scale cars of at least the last few years: I don't own the set thus I threw together a civilian version with what was at hand to check the scale and to take a further look into some design aspects. There are only a few minor changes, thus it can't be even called a MOD. The original design of this part of the set stems from Adam Grabowski (= Misterzumbi) which at least for me also explains why it's that good - as a car aficionado the K5 Blazer was the first thing catching my eye when I first saw the "Upside Down" set (in spite of the other eye-catchers the set definitely has). There are several aspects to be pointed out - first of all the overall scale which isn't too far from what can be used in a proper Town surrounding (see the scale breakdown above). Another aspect is that typical minifig scale vehicle elements like mudguards or large wedge parts are missing completely which makes the whole thing more individual. Finally, the subtle half-plate offsets at the frontend and hood plus those nice angles at the hardtop give the car some fine lines and make it easily identifiable. Compare this to your regular Speed Champions ride ... Anyhow, if you're interested in having a really cool K5 Blazer within your town (and you're not as picky regarding scale as me who thinks a full-size SUV like a Blazer should be a 7 studs wide vehicle) you should build one of these.
  13. Models in this thread: #1: Wrecker (60056 MOD) #2: Container Truck (60027 MOD) #3: Ice Cream Truck (70804 MOD) #4: Joe the Plumber's Badass Step Van (70811 MOD) #5: Sunshine Surfer Van/Volkswagen T2 "Bay Window" Camper Van (Creator 31079 MOD) Hi all, while everybody seems to be freaking out about "alternate models a 7-10 year old could build" I have a different suggestion to make: alternate models for grown-ups - we're AFOLs after all, aren't we? Of course what I'm thinking of are no real alternates - you will have to add quite a few parts. But what you - hopefully - get are more elaborate City vehicles that are supposed to go well with the modulars. As we all know Town vehicles are primarily designed for Children, they lack the complexity of the CC buildings. On the other hand they often have attractive colour designs plus great functional elements that are worth preserving. Thus what I'll try to do is to modify some vehicles according to the following rules: using the typical design elements of Town vehicles (windscreens, mudguards etc.) omitting most of the studs fixing holes where possible keeping all that’s nice and replacing all that’s too simple using not too fancy building techniques, models must be easy to reproduce use of stickers from the set allowed keeping or even enhancing the playability functions must be functions, devices shouldn’t be movable just by hand seating at least one fig - but under no circumstances in the center of the cockpit ;-) 100% Lego, no third party stuff allowed By saying no fancy techniques there is one - very important - exception: the wheels (but more on that subject later). This is the actual range of widths I'm building all my vehicles in: #1: 60056 Custom Wrecker The original model of this wrecker (see http://brickset.com/sets/60056-1/Tow-Truck) is one of my favourite town sets of the actual range. I really love its nice colour scheme plus there are some great design elements which I've tried to preserve as you may see. As said, wheels are very important in my opinion, that's why I try to avoid the usual City wheel/mudguard combination which leads to a certain monotony in town layouts, especially due to the fact that the same combination is being used on passenger cars and on trucks which makes no sense to me. Thus I try to use as many combinations as possible. Another advantage of this is that you get different types of wheels with many different diameters suitable for quite a few purposes. Another important aspect of this model is functionality - a tow truck should be usable for towing purposes. The original set is already quite functional, however, I wanted to have separate functions for the boom and for the lifting cradle. Plus both should be functions in the above mentioned sense, that means, not just movable by hand. That's why some technical stuff is built in - which is much easier with a 7w than a 6w form factor, as you may recognize. That's the way it works: Thanks for looking, some more pics on my Flickr. More vehicles to come.
  14. ER0L

    [MOC] Street racer

    It's the exact setup as shown above. The "newer" (in fact produced for 6 years now) 21 x 9.9 Town tires had a big impact on Minifig scale car design because of the much more realistic (which at this scale means: hardly visible) profiling. However, the "older", more profiled 21 x 12 Town tires (which - for whatever reason - are still being produced by TLG and used in City sets) aren't obsolete: You may very well use them on 4x4 vehicles where a "rugged" look is more desirable:
  15. ER0L

    [MOC] Street racer

    That's a great concept, it's similar to the "City Champions" setup I came up with some years ago, see e. g. this "Lambo"-ish racer: Regarding the wheels you may get a better result by combining SC hubcaps with the newer Town tires (though this might not get through on an Ideas model): Anyhow good luck with your project!
  16. ER0L

    [MOC]: Lifeguard's Shack

    I have: https://www.flickr.com/photos/er0l/43929027925 Pretty sure I didn't invent it either though. However, it's a very minifig-friendly kind of staircase that can be actually used by them. Regarding the build I really like it, shaping and colour design are very nice. The 1x1 modified bricks with adjacents studs are put to a good use here. The door doesn't match the minifig scale in my opinion (as it hardly ever does) - I tried the same on my model but ended up with a brickbuilt one. In any case this would make a great set in my opinion, I'd definitely buy it. However I think it will need a lot of promotion to get the 10.000 votes done. Maybe chances would be better with a matching vehicle next to it, but that's just a guess. Good luck!
  17. ER0L

    LEGO Speed Champions - Wishlists and Future Speculation

    Regarding the wheels I don't think it's an SC model, though it's quite difficult to identify in the Video. But usually City scale and SC models don't go well with each other scalewise, so far I haven't seen an official pic where the two vehicle styles get mixed (correct me if I'm wrong). However the Trans Am reminds me a lot of Lichtblau's model, see https://www.flickr.com/photos/42874449@N08/8349093187/. Of course, the headlights are different, and for obvious reasons it has a 4w instead of a 5w windscreen, but the whole setup is quite similar. Not sure what that means, maybe he's behind this model in some way, but that's rather a speculation.
  18. Yeah, that's why I didn't touch it. That's the idea of the whole thing: Keep what's actually working and change what's necessary to match the builds you already have or the setup you're aiming at.
  19. #5: Sunshine Surfer Van/Volkswagen T2 "Bay Window" Camper Van (Creator 31079 MOD) Sunshine Surfer Van/Volkswagen T2 "Bay Window" Camper Van (Creator 31079 MOD) 6w, 1/35 scale. Another minifig scale conversion of a Creator set. Since I understand the original 8w vehicle as a reminiscence of a Volkswagen T2 „Bay Window“ Camper Van I tried to emphasize some typical design aspects of this classic, especially the rounded frontend. The end result is of course a compromise between shaping and playabilty. Scale is about 1/35 (instead of about 1/25 on the set vehicle) though admittedly the vehicle is still too tall (which for some reasons would be hard to fix even on a more sophisticated model). However It should be emphasized that this set is really worth a conversion, especially when purchased on a discount: It has lots of useful parts (e.g. you may use one half of the windscreen as a back window, and the back window as a windscreen), a nice interior which can be reused also on a consinderably smaller vehicle. nice accessories and last but not least 2 great figures (which by the way still fit into the cab). Even though you need quite a few additional parts there's a huge pile of parts left afterwards that can be reused for other projects. The furniture are taken from the set with the exception of the table - which I assume is not the first time it's done this way. Thanks for looking!
  20. ER0L

    [MOC] Ford Crown Victoria CVPI

    (Sticking to English since that's the common language on EB.) I’m talking about this windshield: https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=58181#T=C&C=13. If it proves to be too low (which I don't think it is) you may adjust the height by adding a layer of trans black plates underneath. Regarding side tiles, you might take a look here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/er0l/21813718424/ 6w generally is the right option for a rather smallish super sports car like a Lotus Esprit. However the car didn‘t look right in plain 6w since these cars have a much different ratio between width and height than passenger cars. Thats why I added the "side planks" which give the car a more voluminous and profiled look. Within the scale system I'm using an American fullsize car like a Crown Vic wouldn't be built in 6w but in 7w for several reasons. But since you opted for 6w, my idea was to see if such side planks could make a difference.
  21. ER0L

    The Farmer's Van

    I really like the idea, and I do think, too, that such a set would be highly welcomed by Lego City fans. I'd certainly buy it. However, I'm not quite sure about the vehicle. In my opinion it can't be called a van, as a pickup truck (often used by US farmers for such purposes if I'm correct) it is much too large scalewise (which can be seen in comparison to the figs). At this size it's rather supposed to be a large flatbed truck, however a proper prototype for this doesn't come to my head (which could of course mean that I just don't know the vehicle you had in mind here). Also the colour seems rather unusual to me, perhaps it would look better in a normal green (with red rims maybe). But well, that's rather a question of personal taste. Anyhow good luck with your project!
  22. We tend to think that Lego stock vehicles going with minifigs are matching more or less scalewise, too - which is not the case: there's a large span between about 1:30 (some Speed Champions sets) to 1:60 (smaller trains). However this doesn't mean that there shouldn't be more variety in sizes, as you demand - a semi truck should of course be wider than a sports car. It's just that we can't rely on sets to achieve this, also because we need the odd widths, too, to get the whole spectrum of sizes (the new 5w Mini Cooper being a very welcome exception). But since we're dealing with Lego nobody can stop us from changing the scale of vehicles to our liking. Scalewise the mentioned Sunshine Surfer Van would look much more appropriate in 6w in my opinion - shouldn't be too difficult to get this done.
  23. ER0L

    [MOC] Ford Crown Victoria CVPI

    Great model, instantly recognizable! Especially the rear section is very well done in my opinion. My only point would be to set down the roof which is too tall scalewise (which could be seen with a minifig next to the car). I'd try the lower windscreen part for that purpose. Another suggestion - rather an option - would be to widen the car by mounting SNOT tiles at the sides between the wheel wells. The look would be a bit more voluminous then - after all the Ford Crown Victoria is a full size-car. Also, by doing so, you might get a more distinct door shaping. Anyhow, looking forward to further car models from you!
  24. Nice to hear from you bootz, thanks for your estimation, glad you like it!