F0NIX

There is one technic part that I always has missed. I actually have made one by myself just to play around with all the ideas for its use. It is a hollow axle, or more like a clock axle. To explain how it work; first you have one 2L axle and then a 4L axle and then a 2L axle. The two 2L axle is connected with a steel rod going trough the center of the holow 4L axle so they can turn idependent of the 4L axle. I just made it this length because of the difficluty to bore through the lengthwise of a 4L axle. And is had to be in perfect center and absolute straight to work good. But I got it to work.... The problem with the homemade axle is how I attach the two 2L axle to the steel rod; with glue. And I cant find a good glue that holds it firm. This could be solved by not have round ends on the part of the steel rod that is fixed to a slot in the 2L axle. But that is not easy to make with my tools...

Realy good review! This has been one of my favorites from the year the set came out. But when it was on the shelfs here where I live, I did not have enough money, and finaly when I got enoug money it was gone :( A few years later I found a used set on Bricklink and was qiuck to order it. The box had lots of wear marks, but I am one of those who trow away the boxes.

Good article. But somehow it seems that not all of it apply to me. I do preserver my LEGO bricks very well (I hope), and have some realy old bricks too (about 40 years old). But I dont follow all those above rules. First of all, LEGO is made in a good quality and are ment to be played with. And that is probably the reason I have preserved my LEGO so well, the last 20 years I have just built the sets once after I got them, I even build the alternative model too. But when I have built it I try out all the moving parts to see how it works (yes, I'm mainly a Technic builder). Then I take the models apart and store them now in a sorting system after type and depending off how many pieces I have I may sort them in colors too. In the beginning lots of pieces was mixed togheter, but later when I got more of each part they got theyr own little plastic box in my sorting system. This is a ongoing project since my collection is growning all the time and I have to re-sort many items and divide them into color box'es or into larger containers. I also know some collectors will be mad on me when I mention that I trow away the orginal LEGO box. For a few years I tried to collect only the front side of the box, but even that was piling up too much and I could see no reason for taking care of the box or the one page of that box... So I dont follow rule #1 at all. But that is because I seldom rebuild a set. I bought the set to get the parts for building my own creations. I do collect all the building instructions, but I'm afraid I have not taken good care of them in my young days. I have many torn apart instructions from the oldes sets. And are missing much of the instructions from my childhood. But later I found out it was a good thing to take good care of them. They are now stored in a separate box. I tried the plastic folder system, but that was taking up too much space so I went for a big 100 litre plastic box that is now over half full. I do try to avoid using the decals, but that is mostly because I dont like the residue of the glue on the bricks. The stickers from the latest period is a lot better and are easy to take off and dont leave a so much glue on the brick. Well, I have never washed my hands only because I was going to build with LEGO. But I try to not get them dirty, so clean hands is a must. I don't have many printed parts, but they are all stored in a seperate container, and since I don't use them much either, they don't wears down much. Never thought of that the touching from our fingers would damage the print.... And the minifigs, again I dont collect them for sets, so they are parted out, but now I have so many minifigs that I have a dedicated plastic storage case just for minifigparts. All parts are sorted into heads with diffrent colors and type in theyr own little storageroom, hats and wigs also got theyr own little storageroom as the legs and torsos. But I now have to find a new type of storage box because this one is almost full. And one point that is not mentioned by TheBrickster is what to do when you are on big exhibition where you display your models in a mix with other builders? Then you have to mark the models in some non damaging ways. Road plates is often mixed very well, so it is essential that you can find your own parts when youre going home. Some just use permanent markers under the road plates. I use a type of correction fluid (like Tipp-ex), it does not damage the LEGO and can be taken off easy. I used the same on models and minifigs too. But if you want to mark your bricks like this, try first on the underside of one brick and let it dry. Then take it off to see if it leaves some marks, before you apply this to all the other parts you need to mark.

First off all I dont think it was Taj Mahal but the "blue mosque" or something like that, but I could be wrong there... And he does not live in Germany but he lives in Oslo in Norway. But he IS a fabulous LEGO builder. I know him as Michael on Brikkelauget, that is why I know he lives in Norway. There is more picture of the Katarina palace here. He certainly like building LARGE buildings with LEGO :)

Fun basic design to start with. I have tried something like this myself, but I have no photos of the attempt. I will try again some time. My trouble was the steering part. I like to build models that actually works with full steering and engines and everything. The model I was trying to build was based on Carver. Good luck with your progress.

Oh! Never seen that set before! Fun and strange that wheel supension system. Has it ever been used in any other sets?

It is the new international trackingsystem for post sendt to other countries Everyting does not HAVE to be realistic. Just look at the size of a LEGO minifig? Does he has the right propotions vs a human? I think this postoffice is realy nice. To make space for a storage room you can use some of the garage, you dont need to park the car entirely inside the building, it is enough if the car can get its rear end just inside the garage door to be enable to load/unload it. You can even make a little ramp there for more easy access into the car.

Since I'm mostly into moc's I like the stickers since I can either take them off after use or I can choose not to use them at all. I always build new sets once, and if the stickers are nice I use them once, take a few picture and then the model is taken apart and sorted. But just in the last years I am able to take off the stickers after use and put them back on their sticker-sheet. Well, sometimes I just throw them away after use, I know some here does not like that at all I even trow away building instructions if I have duplicates.... but I NEVER trow away LEGO bricks, even if I have duplicates

It is intresting to see how the design has evolved on the mobile crane. The old one is simple and straight forward. Intresting window that I have not seen since... The new one has a much more elaborated design with much more details. Both designs is also correct to for its time, the real mobile crane today are much more advanced than the one 20 years back (evolution here too ofcourse).

WOW! That is just fantastic! I like the style of the building, it is minimalistic, modern and looks clean, but still very cool. I'm a little into this about recreating real buildings in LEGO and it is lots of fun (and some headaches). Welcome to the forum Matija Grguric and I hope you keep showing us this kind of masterpieces in LEGO built by you.

Ok, now I know my first item for the christmas wishlist... Thank you Freddie to point that out :)

AH!!! Extremly well done! :) I was looking close at the instrument and tried to deside wich I think was best made. But they ALL are best made :D Looking forward to see it finished with choir and all.

Welcome Anne Jorun. Håper du blir behandlet pent her ;)

A quick search on Brickshelf gave me this: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=303794 http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=164325 As a few examples... I have two myself; LEGO Fabrik 2005 and 2007.

What do you put in the expression "true modular" vs "modular"? I always try to make houses so you can lift up each floor of the building, mostly because I love to make an detailed interior and when the building are modular you have easy access to show the inside. But I have also taken this a step forward and made small houses where the middle floor and roof can be stackable. You can then stack it with whatever height and colormix you want. Is that true modular? :) These small houses was inspired of buildings made by aj-ml.

Well, first off all I use this nickname all over the 'net. But in the beginning (I think that was in about 1989 or thereabout) I bought my first computer and a modem. I then joined a BBS with the nickname Phoenix, and later used the same nick on IRC. But after some time I got tired off arguing with som Finnish people that wanted the same nick on IrcNet and changed it to F0NIX (F-null-nix) around 2001 -2002 sometime. The character 0 (number zero) can with some fonts look like the norwegian letter Ø (a O with a / across) and Fønix is the Norwegian variant of Phoenix. The name is from an old Greek saga about the bird Phoenix rising up from the ash. I just love that tale I thought the name Phoenix would be nice. So, there you have it. A long but entertaining story I hope :)

If you think yopu have TOO many items of one particular LEGO brick, I think you have a low or bad imagination :) Shovels can be used as they are ment to, as shovels. Pirates use them for digging down/up their treasure. Space men use them to shovel out the spacepig dung. In the castle they also use them to shovel out the dung from the horses, or to dig water graves around the castle. In the city roadworkers use them alot to lean on so they dont fall over. :) Or if you have many of them you can use them as details for a space ship or on a house or on.... Well, I can think of many uses for just a shovel or two. I can't think of any items that I have too much of, I only have some items that I almost never use up all that I have just because I have to little of the rest to combine them. E.g. Technic pin, I never have used ALL I have, but I can't say that I have too many of them just because I have too few technic beams/bricks to use them in to make a large model of some sort...

Very nice building. I like the detailed interior. The exterior is also very nice. The Yellow-Tan color mix look a bit strange, but then again, there are many real-life building with worse color combos...

Velkommen etter Matija :) Welcome onboard to this (for me too, new) forum.

B-RV-3B This is my latest MOC. Building in progress. I think I'll redo the veranda. Criticism and tips and hints will be nice. http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=319422 Here are a few previews: And the source for the inspiration: More pictures will come later when my camera is charged and I have redone the veranda...

My largest project for the time being is a scaled down model of a old building from my home town. The building is a old cinema/theater called "Verdensteatret" and are from 1915. For now I have only built the front building. I'm going to rebuild the front, rebuild the interior so it would be more accurate to the original (staircase on the right place) and then start with the cinema hall. It will contain a cinema engine room (well that is actually in the front building), seats, the theater scene, curtains, and last the painting on the walls that are spectacular. The paintings depicts old fairytales and stories. The roof will be parial open so you can see the interior. I will also try to build the roof on the front building so it can be taken off to be able to see the interior on the 2.nd floor, that I have not built yet either... I hope don't consider using selfmade stickers as "cheating"? :) The painting inside will not be stickers, only the outside details on the front building that you see on this picture below. My next project is another old building from my town....

I have build in the woods and on top of a mountain. The first was because I have made a Geocache with a LEGO-theme and there you was supposed to make a tribute to a ongoing story with a creation with s little LEG set with two minifigures in. And because of that geocache I think many other have built with LEGO in the woods too :) The one on the mountain top was one of the pod sets, I'm not sure but think it was #4346 Robo Pod. I had four diffrent pod sets with me. But normaly I just build on the table in the livingroom.

Well, I see diffrent techniques that can be done. One crude one is just to use hinges or something like that and make sections of the "stairs" from top to bottom and slightly angle each section as you go around. That would creat a gap between the bricks some places. If the arena is large this could work well. But for smaller models the gaps would probably not look good. Another way to do it is to use wing plates like "Wing 2 x 3 Left" (and right of same), "Wing 2 x 4 Left" (and right of same) and "Plate 4 x 4 without Corner" or other wing shaped plates or bricks like "Brick 3 x 3 without Corner" or "Brick 3 x 3 Facet". For a more curved approach just use some "Brick 4 x 4 Round Corner".

Thanks for loving it and thanks for moving it to the raight place. I hope you excuse me since I'm not very familar with this forum yet. Not sure where to put moc's... Thanks again. Well, it was pure luck. I was "droddling" around with bricks, and actually it was just this "problem" that I wanted to explore by building this house. I have thought of this problem almost every day since I saw the house for the first time when driving throug Sweden to get to LEGO World Oslo 2008 :) First I was thinking of 1x1 round bricks with at thin tube inside, and tried a diffrent types of bricks. And just out of luck the first of those flexible axle fit at first try and it looked great, and filled the gap in the hinged walls nicely. (They are connected with small hinge plates). I'm not a fan of SNOT'ing myself, and just because of that I want to explore and learn more about SNOT building technics. As you see here the windows are not perfect. The red column on one side of the window seems a bit strange, but it was either that or getting a double center. Is there any plates or bricks that are thinner than one tile? That would fit between the upper and lower part of the windows. But this was the first attempt of this hous. Next version I think would be slighter larger. Normal windows (1x4x3 with two small 1x2x2 on top). The blue columns was just picked out of the bin just to have some columns there before I got a few pictures and went to bed :) I don't have white round columns :( But the orginal has squared ones, so I'll go for that next. And offcourse a white picket fence. ----------- Øyvind Steinnes "Nothing is impossible, the impossible only takes longer time"

I have two cats: 8 year old Whiskas and 6 year old Casandra. Both is pure bread bastards :) Whiskas: About 5 year old on this picture. He is just as cute now, only bigger. Casandra as kitten: Whiskas and Casandra: I have read this thread, but dont any pets of yours have their own web page? Mine has: Whiskas - http://home.no.net/whiskaz/ Casandra - http://home.no.net/casandr/ Both homepages need updating with newer pictures...