NathanR
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Everything posted by NathanR
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Need help with a mechanism
NathanR replied to NathanR's topic in LEGO Technic, Mindstorms, Model Team and Scale Modeling
@Aventador2004 You can get the current complete launch tower (plus rocket) LDD file here: https://www.bricksafe.com/files/NathanR/real-space/apollo-lut/ApolloLUTv38.lxf Which arm do you mean? The one that looks like a giant A-frame is the damper arm, it raises up vertically (the vertical position arm is included in the LDD file). The arm with the white block at the end is the crew access arm, when you see it next to the rocket you'll realise why I don't want to move it... but I will if it makes the gear system easier. You know I'm not sure. I thought the arms swung back under motor power, not gravity, but there was a complex latchback mechanism to ensure the arm didn't bounce off the tower and hit the rocket during its ascent (causing it to explode). A gravity lock would be a good idea, but given the arms are rotating not falling I'm not sure how well that would work, wouldn't you need to tilt the arms slightly? -
Need help with a mechanism
NathanR replied to NathanR's topic in LEGO Technic, Mindstorms, Model Team and Scale Modeling
Thanks for looking at this! Feel free to move the control knobs, though my preference would be to keep them on that side of the tower. The entire top deck is quite rough at the moment - while largely accurate, I don't mind changing this level so the cogs can fit in. Not really... the crew gantry got rotated out the way well before the others. In fact some of the other access arms got rotated out the way early as well, but I know it's impossible to have co-axial rotation at this scale. And actually, a 2:1 gear ratio wouldn't quite work. The main arms are rotated 73 degrees from the tower, not 90. The crew access arm is >180 degrees. -
Ok, I need help! These last two service arms are driving me nuts!! Firstly is the S-IVb forward arm, you can view schematics here. The pipe along the top of the arm has to bend out slightly, then go up and over the technic connector 41678, but I can't find a way to do this with the 3mm bar with clip parts (48729, 11090, 23443). I feel a master builder would do something very clever here, and find some unusual part or technique that would work perfectly... Any suggestions? Also, the pipe along the bottom of the service arm needs to have a weird up-and-down wiggle in it, the current solution works but is too compressed. There's a combination of clip with tube, bar 3L, then another clip with tube in the middle of the pipe, but this needs to be shorter... Again, any ideas how this might be accomplished? I also need help on the last service arm, which connected to the Apollo SM. Again, schematics can be seen here. The triangular boom, represented by the red horn, doesn't look terribly good. Also, I need the empty pin hole on 42003 rotating 90 degrees so I can connect the last few cables... but there doesn't seem to be a suitable part that comes in red and will let me lock the top and bottom halves of the arm together: I have a good idea how to put the crane together, so these two pesky service arms are the last little bits that need taking care of before I can call this beast finished. Any ideas?
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This (very old) thread may have some useful information. I didn't realise this, but apparently Lego bricks can shrink very slightly if exposed to high temperatures. I've noticed that bricks can lose some clutch power if they are repeatedly connected and disconnected, not enough to cause the bricks to fall apart but enough to feel just a little looser than connecting factory-fresh bricks.
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Well this has been an insanely productive weekend... though I have spent almost all of the last two days working on this. I'm amazed my laptop is still working, as the model has now passed 6700 pieces. The first round of updates involved finishing off the launch platform. The three tail-service masts, which retracted behind heat-proof shields just after the 5 F-1 engines reached full throttle, are based on the designs from WhatsUpToday's LUT model. However, I've adapted them to use modern hinge plates and slightly longer 3mm hoses (which appeared in several 2017 sets, so should be easy to get hold of). I've also updated the triangular "blast shield" located in front of the lift shafts, designed to deflect the rocket exhaust away from the concrete support of the tower. I've also worked my way up every floor of the tower adding in the control boxes. I've used a set of build photos of a papercraft model of the LUT as a reference point, which means the boxes are a bit light in detail but I think I have them the right size and in roughly the right places. I'd be curious to know if anyone has any additional information on the boxes and what they were used for. Lastly, I've finished off the roof of the tower, ready for the crane (which I will be designing in a separate LDD file). I really have no idea how to connect the axles with the service arms to some knobs on the back. In fact, there doesn't seem any space left to fit control knobs on, as the triangular struts get in the way. Any ideas, or any kind technic expert willing to take a look at this? I've uploaded the LDD file for the top of the tower here: https://www.bricksafe.com/files/NathanR/real-space/apollo-lut/TowerTop.lxf I'm out of my depth with this, anything involving me and cogs usually end in disaster...
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It's been kind of odd. The more recent system sets were affected, not the older sets or technic sets. Once the set is built and exposed to air for a few days, the stickiness seems to disappear completely. I've not managed to figure out if it's just oils from my skin remaining on the bricks and going funny in an airtight bag, or a problem with the bag itself breaking down (it's not listed as biodegradable, but I've read bags with a PVC component can release an acidic gas that eats away at whatever is stored). I've recently swapped out the bags to museum quality archival bags made from poly-ethylene, but I've not had them long enough to tell if they're any good.
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I don't have much display space, so most of my sets are kept in labelled resealable plastic bags. I keep all the original boxes, but I tend to cut along the seams and flatten them out - this is easier to store, as most official sets are 1/3rd lego bricks and 2/3rds air. By the way, if you are storing Lego in plastic bags long term (i.e. more than ~3 months) I'd be careful what type of bag you use. I've had trouble with supermarket own-brand resealable food bags apparently causing my Lego bricks to go sticky.
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lego bricklink pieces help
NathanR replied to Ahbao1983's topic in LEGO Technic, Mindstorms, Model Team and Scale Modeling
If you browse bricklink, they sort parts by category - "brick", "brick modified" (bricks with clips, click hinges, etc), "technic", "mini-fig body part"... Just try typing a few key words into the search box, like "brick" or "plate", and you should get a list of parts that you can browse to find what you need. Alternatively, if you know that a part is found in a specific set, search for that set on bricklink. Sets are usually listed with part inventories (only new releases, or perhaps very old sets are missing inventories), so you can find the name and also the ID number of each brick. -
The white room is done! The hinge connection proved to be quite simple, using just a pair of 1x4 hinge plates. Unfortunately I need them to be half red, half white to look right... this combination has never been issued, at least it's not listed on bricklink, so the hinges will need breaking apart. I think this is doable...) The bracer support has been moved further forward, keeping it as a 3-4-5 triangle and lowering the connection point on the tower slightly. The boarding ramp has also been put in, though a little low to avoid a collision when the arm is retracted: Next up are the last two service arms: S-IVb forward, and the SM service arm. I still don't have any good reference images - blueprints, photos of card models, photos of the real thing, they all look different. They're surprisingly complex shapes, which isn't terribly clear on the blueprints. Also, it seems parts of each arm could retract, pulling back from the rocket before the arm rotated away. It's not a feature I'm trying to model, but it adds to the confusion...
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Wow, that is a beautiful model. The video you made was fantastic, how did you create the animation sequences?
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A 1x1 version of 35787? Sadly I don't think this is ever going to happen. When I played with a 2x2 triangle tile, the "corner" was the only solid connection point. The other two connection points, which only half-cover the studs, had literally zero clutch power, they wouldn't stick to a stud at all. Now, I grant you that the clutch at these points is reduced because the only connection is a barely contacting wall and a half circle (where the full circle ion a 2x2 tile would be), but I think a 1x1 tile would be just as weak. In fact, in my experience, the 1x1 quarter circle tiles barely hold on to a stud. Their clutch comes from two 1L sides and a tiny bit of circle wrapping around the stud. With a diagonal 1x1 tile, that tiny bit of circle is gone and the tile could just "slide off" a stud.
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3D MODEL BUILDABLE
NathanR replied to dizek's topic in Digital LEGO: Tools, Techniques, and Projects
Do you mean the Constraction figures (e.g. sets 75117, 75113) or minifigures? The Constraction figures use parts that do not usually get included in the main 3D programs. The heads are unique sculptures, that are very difficult to model in computer. If you're looking to build 3D models of minifigures, then all the parts needed should be in LDD, LDraw, or mecabricks. It may take some time too each through all the part variations to find the exact printed patterns that you need. What are you trying to do? -
Actually, the helmet of the astronaut on the left isn't from a space theme at all... It seems to be this part from the 1995 Aquazone theme where it was used for the divers.
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Thanks, if the connection is strong then it should be alright. A cable is a nice idea, unfortunately it's something I'll have to add later in real life. LDD only has one flexible string element, which is too short. An actual winch might be beyond me... Much as I enjoy building technic sets, I've never been able to take a box of pieces and build my own mechanism. The service arm is just a bunch of technic half beams, with the top and bottom rows joined by 3L half beams. The angled black axle on the right represents the "bracer support", a cable that stopped the real arm sagging under it's own weight. I suspect it will be needed here... For the "white room" itself, I don't have a design yet, this is my current "best guess". The yellow pin-hole + axle part above and below a technic brick means the white room has only one point of connection, very fragile. It's also very hard to build anything around that yellow part to try to hide it or model the shape of the white room. It would be better to have a sandwich of technic brick, pinhole+axle, technic brick, but I don't see how to move that yellow part down one hole. This is a very tight space to build in. If I build up just one plate then it collides with the damper arm, if I swing the arm round a few more degrees then the bracer support collides with the damper arm, and if I build down too far the arm won't swing back because it will hit the staircase.And I haven't even thought what will happen when I add the service arm for the Apollo SM.
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Another small update, I've taken a break from the service arms to add in the "Damper arm". This was a small arm that was attached to the escape tower, and I believe was responsible for stopping the rocket shaking too much when the Crawler ferried it out to the launch site: Once at the site, cables would hoist the arm to a vertical position: Adding this play feature in was quite a challenge, I've had to use another p[air of universal joints to slide the swing arm axle back one stud, so it doesn't collide with the damper arm in vertical position. A few problems still remain, the connection point to the tower is one stud out from the tower wall. This is easily disguised on the side with the service arm axle, but on the far side I have a 1x2 technic brick "floating" in place, with basically no support. Any ideas how to make this a "natural" part of the tower? Also, the hinge is accomplished using ball joints but I couldn't use the mixel 1x2 plate with towball 22890. I'm relying on 22484 bar with lowball, stuffed into a technic half pin, to form the joint. I don't actually own any of 22484... could some kind soul comment on whether the connection between 22484 and 14418 plate 1x2 with lowball socket has a good amount friction, would it be likely to take the weight of the damper arm? I'm really starting to run out of steam on this project, it's getting increasingly difficult to find suitable reference images for the remaining arms. Service arms 7 and 8 (for S-IVb and the Apollo SM) don't seem to have been photographed at all (and photos of the full tower just go blurry or grainy). And I haven't a clue how to put a "white room" built out of system bricks/SNOT techniques on the end of the technic swing arm...Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated...
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Just back from a late Easter vacation, and for the last two weeks this model has been largely forgotten New additions are swing arms 5 and 6, for the forward end of the S-II and the aft end of the S-IVb. For some reason, no one seems to have taken photos of these two arms on the real LUT - I've been working off blurry photos of finished papercraft models and a very highly detailed (but hard to read) blueprint from when the towers were being designed. Swing arm 6 has been an absolute nightmare, and is in fact missing an 11M string pieces to represent some electrical cables (which I might have to leave off if it becomes too difficult to insert in LDraw for the instruction manuals). I've also had to drop one of the camera platforms to allow the arms to fully swing back. I leave you with a final top-down view of all the current swing-arms, including the unfinished ones for the S-IVb forward and SM:
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I hope so too... Loved this show as a kid (still do...) From a licensing point of view it should be ok, the Flintstones home featured in the Lego Dimensions computer game (you could time travel to the future and visit the Jetsons or the past and visit the Flintstones). It just depends on what other ideas it has to go up against.
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Bricklink's price guide suggests anything from 0.37 EUR to about 3.10 EUR based on the last 6 months sales. However, lego customer service are selling them for 0.25 EUR each... (the piece got reintroduced in two sets issued last year) Hope this info helps!
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It is possible I'm overdoing it now... I've also been working on the staircase to go up the tower! I can't believe it took me all night to come up with this: Of course, now I think about, there are some levels which are one plate shorter, which means this design won't fit Any ideas for a good one-stud-wide microscale staircase? I think the end is at last in sight. All that remains are a few swing-arms, the control boxes on each level of the tower, and the crane on top. And then of course, the instruction manuals....
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Well, it was a busy and productive easter weekend for me. With the main structure in place, I'm focusing now on the little details as I slowly work up the tower. I think the most fun I had was putting in the access staircases for these three swing-arms. The real ones were made from metal grilles, but I went with solid walls here. There's just enough room to put a nanofigure on there! I've also added in a series of small gantries, sticking out from the side of the tower (you can see one top left of the picture). These small platforms had high-speed cameras mounted on them, to film the rocket's launch and each arm as it swung back. Lastly, you can just about see where I've started drafting the control boxes that dot each level: Around the rest of the tower, I've been adding in more pipes running up the sides of the tower. I've no idea what they all are - I think they are a mix of fuel lines, water pipes and electrical cables. The latest pipes aren't quite in system, and require the axles to be pulled apart ever so slightly. No more than 0.1mm, which is about the separation between two bricks placed next to each other, but it is a little irritating . You can also see where I've started detailing the base of the launch pad. Adding in the pin holes to support the pipes has broken the interlocking pattern, so I may need to look again at how strong it is. The model is now at 5597 pieces...
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Thanks for the suggestion. But what I mean is, the fuel pipes go up the side of the tower to some level, then get routed either from the ceiling or floor of that level to one of the umbilical arms. For example, in this CAD image of a never-released brass model kit, you can see a load of pipe work suspended from the ceilings of a few levels, and threaded around the tower to carry the fuel from the pipes on the side to the swing arms: https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=36194.msg1570868#msg1570868. That's the kind of detail I'm going for... though maybe I'm overdoing it...
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I'm slowly working my way up the tower, adding in more details as I go. The model its currently on 4800 pieces. It's funny how once you pass about 4000 parts, you stop caring about what it will cost and just keep building. There will be at least another 1000... The cluster of three swing-arms has had a slight overhaul, based on a card model LUT build-up I found on a scale model forum. The most notable change is the inclusion of a white stripe on the top arm, to represent one of the larger fueling pipes. It's a bit crude, but once the arm swings into the tower there is only a half-beam width to work with. I'm also slowly working my way up the front of the tower, adding a stripe on the left-hand side. It can only be one tile thick - with a plate, the studs would get in the way of the swing arms. So it becomes a fun challenge trying to get at least two connection points for each 1x6 or 1x8 tile. And LDD allows half pins to connect to pin holes, even when the half-pin/plate connection is completely illegal. The biggest update this time round is the fuel pipes up the side of the tower. The tallest must be the equivalent of a 40L axle or something, running up the tower with only one connection point at the top. A nice detail, and one which isn't quite "in-system", is where a pipe "crosses over" about a third of the way up. It's two axle connector #1 with a 3L axle, pulled very slightly apart. There are two problems with the fuel pipes. The full set at the base is too wide, there are 7 pipes and I think I should only use 6, but I can't figure out which pipe to delete (I already got it down from 11 on the real one). I need the space to add in two silver-grey pipes on the righthand edge. The other problem is that the pipes just stop on the side of the tower without going anywhere... I've tried looking for reference photos that show where they are supposed to go, but there don't seem to be any. In fact, my google searches are starting to return more and more of the images I've posted in this thread...
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MOC Herbie Love bug/Rally/Classic beetle WIP
NathanR replied to bamsham363's topic in Special LEGO Themes
Aw, that is adorable!!! -
I'm not sure there are any "break points" in the pipes going up the tower... And the main drive axle for the swing arms is not going to come off easily. I imagine the whole tower might shatter if you tried to disassemble it. It's something I can look into once the model is finished I guess. I've spent the last few days working on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th swing-arms, which connected to the S-1C (forward), the interstage, and the S-II (aft). Trying to find strong connections is tricky enough, finding versions where the parts all exist in red has been quite frustrating. However, I've managed to capture most of the gantries and the fuel pipes/cables. The only flaw is a missing fuel pipe that runs along the side of the topmost of these three arms. Unfortunately, when the arms are swung back (rotated to 90 degrees) there is only a half-beam thickness gap between the tower and the arm. A 3.18mm bar would fit, but there is no way to attach it without the clips colliding with the tower. In other news, I've been experimenting with LDD 4.3.11 (I delayed updating from 4.3.10 because it seemed to be more intensive on the CPU), and it *seems* to handle large models a little better. Turning down the graphics settings a bit has also helped. I might be able to keep going on the main file after all. Only problem is, I'm seeing rounding errors/fractional offsets creeping in as I go up the tower. I may need to rebuild the whole file from scratch... again...
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Cool, I will check that out over the weekend! In the meantime, a small update, I just finished the first service arm that linked to the middle of the S-1C. It's a little blockier than I'd have liked, but I can't come up with a better way of making it. The arm needs to be built "sideways", but the driving axle for moving the arms needs to be vertical. I could really use a version of 6536 with two axles holes, instead of an axle and pin hole. The compromise is to mount the arm on a pair of 42003, and rely on the technic half pins to stop the arm from flopping. If anyone has suggestions for an improvement, I'd be grateful to hear them.