nico71

Here is my creation, and the project I worked on it for month now ! I hope you enjoy ! A Lego reproduction of a iconic car, the Citroën 2CV in 1/15 scale, featured independent suspensions, steering with steering wheel and HOG on the rear, and openable doors, hood and trunk with detailed interior and engine. With pro-building instructions and also available for sale on mochub in 11 different colored versions. Context After designing my big Lego technic Citroen 2CV, you were many to ask building instructions, which I did with the help of Thorsten Spelz. After some year, the company Mochub contact me to be one of builders on the website. I added some moc and the big 2CV because you were also many to ask. But the availability and the price of used parts made that the price was very pricy, that is why I have decided to build a second smaller Citroen 2Cv which can be produced at a good price with some functions. I have started in November and work hard to get the Citroen 2Cv project ready for the begining of 2018. I have used rebrickable and the team of mochub to know which parts I can use, and which I can not. Thanks to that, I design 11 differents colored version based on real version of the 2CV but without using too much rare parts and expensive. This article will present the first version I build, the Dolly White and Red version. Functionalities In order to have small price for this serie of moc, I decided to start with a 1/15 scale (dimensions are Wheel : Ø44mm, 26cm (L) x 11cm (W) x 12cm (H) ) which enables me to have some functionnalities without to big creation. First the suspensions, they are independent with swing arm like on real and shoch absorbers placed on the floor. Of course at this scale it is not possible to reproduce the complex functionning of linkage between front and rear suspensions. But as the suspensions are quite soft, it is very nice to play with it. The second functionality is the steering. The steering is operated by linkage between the two wheels, then connected to other connecting rod on a lever. The steering wheel operates this lever with a low amplitude but works nice. The Hand of god placed at the rear is removable and operate a other lever which connected to the first. Consequently the steering can be operated either front the back, or the dashboard. The last functionalities are about the opening elements. The four doors, trunk and hood can be open which reveal a detailed engine and interior with seats. Design Of course the design was also an important point to manage. But the Citroen 2Cv has the advantages to have particular shapes which are recognizable. I have to make this particular shape well done in order to regonize easily the 2Cv for non Lego users. Which I succeed I think. The front and rear wings was the important point. I re-used the techniques on my previous big 2Cv in lego which is to use soft axle and beam to get the front mudguard. For the rear, I use small panel to keep the suspensions working and a soft axle for the shape of the rear mudguard. Regarding the hood, it is composed of beam and soft axle to have the correct shape. It is a bit bulky at this scale but it was not possible to make it better without having the open hood. Under the hood, you can see a detailed engine. The other important point was the openable elements, I wanted to have the whole doors which can be open but also the trunk and the hood. Regarding the doors, as I wanted to have a non expensive price for this moc on mochub, I have to chose correctly the parts, including the length of flex, that Is why the building is a bit special with a connection point on the bottom instead of two points (I have to use a 12L flex, instead of a 7L which is not available in many color). This is the same reason why there are some black parts on the hood or roof, because I have used parts which are not expensive and available in many color. That is why I have used mainly connector instead of bush-axle. All that to say, that I had to manage the design of original 2CV but also the chosen parts. But at the final, the shape is well respected and the particular shape are well done which make the 2CV easily recognizable. More infos for buying the building instructions (728 parts) : http://www.nico71.fr/lego-technic-citroen-2cv/ And the mochub link to get the whole package, parts plus building instructions : https://www.mochub.com/user/59/mocs Soon available on rebrickable for the bill of material. Do not hesitate to ask questions :)

Yep, with a lot of air bubble. I publish here a picture of one axle, I have scan several axle from new and used and this is all the same : air bubble. Now I have to figure out why, is this made for a specific reason (less material, MuCell ?) or problem of fabrication ? Or nothing care about it ? This is a new 6L black axle (I assume from 2016 from the cargo plane), you can see air bubble and an inclusion on left.L The triangle part is the support for the axle. The only axle which has not air bubble is the 5.5L but this is because it is not molded as the other, so I assume the air bubble is due to process and lego do not care about it.

New video about X-ray :) http://www.nico71.fr/lego-under-x-ray-3-3d-scan-excavator-42006/

New instructions made by Kevin williams for the Morgan Three Wheeler, thanks to him ! http://www.nico71.fr/morgan-three-wheeler/

Excalty, mochub only have the stock of parts, pack in it and send to the customer, according the the part list they have.

Hello everyone, a post today to present you the service mochub. Here is the video I have made (with english subtiles) Thanks to the new service Mochub from the Hungarian company “We love what you build“. This company is a 7 years old company with 9 employees who have a bricklink and brickown store. They handle many order every day, and has launched the new service Mochub. This new service enables to each creator to uplaod their creations and ask for a quotation to the mochub service. Then Mochub send a report with the cost, shipping fees, recommended retail price and your commission. Thanks to that, creator can sell their design, but fans can also buy it. Here is the point, now you can buy some of my creations. I have selected some of my most instructions-sold creations to propose you. Of course the price is more expensive that the lego shop equivalent but because depends of the price of parts on bricklink. But it enables you to not have to make many bricklink order with shipping cost with the risk to forget parts if you have ordered it by yourself (and personally order on bricklink is quite a mess to find all I need ! Some people like it, but definitively not me ^^) Here is a complete solution, for a small extra cost (or nothing compare to multiple order from bricklink), you can afford you creations from your favorites builders ! What do you think about it ? If you have questions, do not hesitate, Mochub team are pro, they want to improve, so any advice is good :)

A new creation, a Pneumatic mine, featured single pneumatic engine, derrick and sliding trolley with ball contraption. I wanted for a while to build new creation based on pneumatic and great ball contraption. At the beginning I wanted to create a vertical sculpture with powered ball clock but because of lack of parts to create the structure, I changed my plan to create a horizontal creation. The idea was found at the end to match the design with a mine with a rotating derrick and sliding trolley, powered by a pneumatic engine. The pneumatic engine is a single engine with a non modified switch and a inertia wheel with 1:5 ratio increasing (like my old one but better built and balanced). It enables the engine to run smoothly without stops under charge. A centrifugal governor is only for viewing convenience and has no regulator function. Note that the timing ignition is set to 30° and do not require adjustment and the engine run at 100rpm at its maximum with 5 hand pump. You pump, start the engine, and it runs. I have also made a clutch system in order to start the engine, and then power the mine using sliding gear. The first important point is the timing door which is composed of two lever connected with gearing, and operated by a lever and connecting rod. It enables the ball to by released only one per one when the cage comes down to catch it. I have seen that for the first time on the creation of PV-Production so many thanks to him for the idea. The second device is the derrick, it is very simple with a oscillating beam which is connected to the rotating lever and the cage. In the cage there is a slope which enables to lock the ball against the wall and on the top release it on the two rails. After rolling on the rails, the ball comes in the trolley. The trolley is powered by a lever with connecting rod, which makes move the trolley back and forth on the yellow rail. On the top on the rail, the trolley comes against a liftarm which forces it to rotate and then release the ball and the process is repeated again and again. The hardest part of this creation was to fit all mechanical and ball passages in the frame. I did not want to have a huge creation in order to not use many parts. That is why I have started with the derrick and timing doors, makes the two rails and the trolley system, and then plug the engine. In this case, the construction is quite compact and of course divided in sub-models, enabling to set up the timing pretty easily (which is very tolerant regarding timing between axle). At the end, the functioning is smooth, quite slow but very nice to see. Of course the pneumatic engine can be replaced by electrical motor if you have not the parts or the hand-pump and having a great ball contraption. Building Instructions I have made instructions for this creation. This times by taking huge amount of picture and do publishing process to get a nice photo sequence instructions, with the bill of material per step. This type of instructions enable me to do what I want regarding the building process, the view and some additionnal functions (arrow, circle and so on). I hope you will like this new type. You can see sample below. As usual, you can buy it for 5€ and then download the instruction immediately. Here is the complete bill of material in picture file : But you can also checked it on rebrickable (or make any export you want) Want to know if you can build the pneumatic mine ? The pneumatic mine has been indexed to rebrickable, check it ! Please note that the 5 hand pump is a minimum with the air tank to have correct functionning. You can replace by home made compressor, bike pump or air tank bottle but in lego, you will need 5 handpump plus a air tank. Note the hose use can be replace by any lengh you want except the two on the engine which are 9cm and 13.5cm. You can buy it here for 5€ or on rebrickable : http://www.nico71.fr/pneumatic-mine/ Some sample : Enjoy !

Wonderfull Design ! To answer some point to the price, it is a bit expensive but easily understood. Personnaly, when people ask me to build something, we talk often in k€ and not €, because even with 20h of works plus parts + margins, we goes over 1000€. And what I do with 20hours of work ? Mailny machine, car, truck etc (<2000parts). at the end, after the taxe, it remains less than a third for incomes to live. So have to sell many project in month to get a correct salary, and of course spend time to make instructions, order parts, sort and repack and make proposal (how to announce a price for a customer without make some lego before ? -> always no paid time). That is why I prefer sell a unique model, with no building instructions (mainly for industrial because they understand the cost of this), only design, order, check and delivery. But of course, I have already the sale of the building instructions which help. I have a regular job, and make this only for interesting project from serious people (because on my spare time), but I trully understand the price of this tomcat. I certainly would have put a bit less, but not goes too far. People do not realize the cost behind a company.

That is a brilliant work ! Nice to see it. I will put the link on the blog :)

Sorry I missed that, The NSx is partially dismantled so I can not tell you but I all comes froms the GTB fiorano 8145 lego. My new creation (small one) for halloween : A small creation for halloween : the lighning halloween monster. For marking the occasion, I have decided some weeks ago to build a special creation for halloween. I wanted to create a pumpkin in lego with lights in it but not figure out to build correct shape with the orange parts I have. Therefore, I have decided to build a lighting sculpture of a monster. There are two Led Lights from lego (so 4 LED), which is connected to the lipo battery. Then, I put on other motor and battery to make alternately rotate the control of power of the light, in order to have a alive effect. The principal difficulty was to obtain the correct shape on the mouth and the eye especially in the dark. Then I uses translucent red parts for the teeth because with black one, there was not enough light power to have a good effect. Regarding the result I think I would need a other light on the center to have a complete and proper mouth illumination. The second important point was to avoid light leak because if there is, the viewing result will not be good. That I do by making a box around the light to prevent leak and add a black flat panel on the rear in order to limit the light reflection on the background. The result is not perfect but this is lego technic, not system, so I can not make full dark boxes. The effect is still conclusive by displaying at the Halloween night and have some good returns.

Soon ! As soon Kevin williams has made it :)

Hello, Thank you, it is a translated video from the awesomer, which I know it.

Yes, as soon I have the .mpd file to uplaod on rebrickable :)

I have released the free instruction as photo sequence (188 pages), and Kevin Williams is currentyl building the Pro-instructions which will be for sale for 5e at usual :)

Yes but I will wait until Kevin williams do the instructions, in order to add the whole .mpd file to rebrickable to have a correct bill of material. There are not rare parts, but many panel (red and black) et some flex, an dof course wheel. except that, there are no rare part I think

Hello, thank you for the comments, I am glad that you apreciate. For the topic, I prefer one because I do not pass many time on EB forum. That is simplier for me. Yes very lucky to drive a NSX, but thanks to a Fan of lego who own one, but thanks to lego because it contact me for my Honda RA300 :)

A write the whole story of that moc on my blog so I copy paste here, I hope you enjoy :) A reproduction of an iconic car from the 90’s : the honda NSX type 1 featured V6 fake engine with rear wheel drive, steering with steering wheel, double wishbone suspensions, pop-up headlight, opening doors, hood, trunk and rear glass roof, and adjustable seats. The story of this project I am a big fan of Honda (no really ?), but it is not a big deal, I am trying to cure myself.. by buying Honda car and motorcycle. I own a 89′ Transalp, and recently a Honda legend Ka8, but having a NSX is still not in my budget ! So I planned a long time ago to make one in lego. In beginning of 2017, a fan of lego and honda named Elvis, contacted me for questions about the Honda Ra300 I made in lego. Following some discussions about Lego and Honda, I discovered that he ownes the legendary Honda NSX. After that we met in order that I give him some parts to finish his Honda RA300 and it gives me the opportunity to see in real the NSX, take detailed pictures and drive it ! Then, I decided to make the NSX in lego. Engineering I have started to use the 53mm wheel instead of big 68mm because of the scale and the result in quantity of parts. I think it is a good scale for manual car. Then I started with the chassis, trans-axle, and finished by the bodywork. The reproduction of the NSX in lego is equipped with full suspensions, as double wishbone inspired by the Groupe B Rally Car. The trans-axle is a rear wheel drive, due to the scale it is always complicated to have wheel drive and double wishbone suspensions. On the Group B rally car I used soft ribbed hose to connected the wheel to the differential, because these parts are 2-stud wide, instead of the 3L U-join but it works only by friction, excluding motorization. But for the NSX, I figured out to find an other way. I use in fact a floating differential enables me to not use U-joint for the axle, only Cv-join connected to the wheel hub. For that I use a 4L old differential which drives couple of 16t gear, and then 24t/12t to drive the V6 engine. Of course at this scale this is not possible to have a gearbox, or with removing the detailed of the interior which I did not want. The steering is classical made with rack and pinion on the front, with an axle for the hand of god (which is by the way removable) and an other with a gearing and 2 U-join to operate the steering wheel in the interior. The pop-up headlight are operated by a lever in the dashboard. This lever drives a connectig rod which is also connected to a lever. And this lever command the displacement of the headlight by pushing the base, which causes the small rotation of them. It was a bit tricky to pass the whole connecting rod and system in it but it works fine and can be operated from the interior which was important for me. Design The design was of course the most difficult part to do. It was also the most important ! Because the Honda in lego need to be realistic but also easy identifiable, that is why there are some interesting and important parts to reproduce, like the rear wings, the black roof, pop up headlight, shape of opening parts and so on. The only compromise that I did is for the doors, which do not respect the airflow intake shape. I started the design by the rear parts with the bumper, exhaust and rear wing. I wanted to reproduce the gap between the bodywork and the wing and use simple configuration of panels, which I did. Then I do the opening trunk and started to build the front. I made the front bumper, originally with more parts and more bulky but I restarted it by using some black parts to give the front bumper enough stiffness but also aggressive look. After that I build the black roof with the opening glass roof and the important C-pillars which are oblique. Then I finally make the windscreen and the opening hood and pop-up headlight. I have to restart many time to get the correct shape of this hood including the system for the headlight and have a correct opening shape, which was very difficult. You can see some holes without parts near the headlight, which is a compromise because of the room I have a steering wheels. You can see also on the video that I implement (at the end) a system to release the hood with a lever between the hood and windscreen. Then I finished the design by the doors, which have been also complicated because of the airflow shape. I would like to reproduce the thickness and the curving shape of the doors, and also include the airflow shape, which was not possible at the end. Maybe with bigger scale. But at the end, the shape is a bit here and there are also the two big airflow intake just after the doors before the wheel arch. I made the interior at the end, which was not complicated with the dashboard, central console, lever and parking lever. Then added two bucket seat thanks to many panel and made the adjustable position which is in fact a slidding connector on axle. Conclusion To conclude, I have tried many time to do the honda NSX in lego, but this time I started by the most difficult parts : the rear with the wings, and then build the other parts. Make the correct opening shape with the functions like pop-up headlight was complicated, that is why I have to do compromise (like the hole near the headlight, and the shape of the doors) but at the end, I am really happy with this car. On some views, the shape of the car is well done and respected, plus the distinctive parts like the wing, roof, and headlight make it easy identifiable. I could say that I find the front parts a bit bulky and more heavy in style that the rear, and some continuity problems of the panels near the doors (again for enabling the opening). But making lego scaling is always compromise to find the correct parts and assembly to fit, with good homogeneity and continuity, and respecting the functions ! I do my best for it and at final thing that the bodywork is rather successful.

Hello, this is 150 to 230kv Xray generator which is made for view plastic and soft metal or strong metal until 20mm of depth. It is put in a leaded cabin. It is production machine we develope and produce except the generator and flatpanel which are bought. For the pictures, you can find it on my blog in high resolution. For the mechanism, I will. I am planing to pass small wind up motor, chinese parts, and axle. For converting the 3D, it is in fact many many point in aera (STL), the standard tomography is about 1go to 10go but the 3D will be exact and real part, that is to say that the surface are not flat and hole perpendicular like in theorical part in ldraw, therefore it could be difficult to implement in a construction because of that.

New concept for my channel, lego under X-ray ! http://www.nico71.fr/lego-under-x-ray-1-servo-motor/

Thanks :) New instructions for the digicomp, I had plenty of demands, so this is : Many thanks to Kevin Williams who has done a beautiful work on it. There are for sale at 5€ but there are also a free one based on conprehensive photo sequence : But note that kevin has made a brilliant work also for improving the functionning and reliability of the digicomp and included also some program to run. http://www.nico71.fr/lego-computer-digicomp/ :)

Oh, Two new creation (space explorer a bit old but forget to post it) : Instructions for the warthog : http://www.nico71.fr/lego-halo-warthog/ I hope you enjoy, feel free to comment here :)

Did you miss it ? Here my last creation, a repeating crossbow :

New creation, a retro Futuristic car, check it :) http://www.nico71.fr/retrofuturistic-nuclear-car/

New creations for christmas ! A lego interpretation of a 3 pendulums harmonograph drawing machine. Drawing machine always fascinated me, especially when they are fully mechanical. For instance a Spirograph is a mechanical drawing harmonograph, it simply not uses the same basic functioning to draw. The purpose of the harmonograph here is to draw Lissajous curves thanks to 3 pendulum connected to arm and felt pen. The basic functioning is : The main pendulum is a free ball joint articulated on the frame and hold up the drawing sheet The two other pendulums are simple way articulated which are connected together to the red arm This arms is built in 90° angle shape in order that it can move in one direction thanks to the first pendulum, and in other (90° of the previous one) thanks to the second pendulum A felt pen is attached to the red arm and draw on the drawing sheet To draw something, it needs only to launch one or two or three pendulum, therefore the system moves and draw something, especially geometric and continuous figures. Of course the result is always different depends of if you starts to move the main pendulum (give the main circular motion) and/or the two other (give the direction of circular motion and its evolution in time). And there are plenty of different harmonograph with more or less pendulum or connected pendulum or arms and so on. Here is the basic version of best known harmonograph. Note that the main red arm is equipped with counter weight at these ends in order to have the less friction of the felt pen of the drawing machine. That is why I use also a felt pen because of its low needed force to draw. Thanks to that, The felt pen is maintained in upper position and when the arm is push down, the felt pen maintains its low position with low friction. Nevertheless, the friction is still here and the weight of pendulum not as heavy as the real harmonograph (made in steel), so well that the main pendulum slowly tends to apply circular motion to the other pendulum which reduce the autonomy and drawing time (around 1 or 2 minutes). You can also see that I keep the idea of knife edge suspension for the pendulum from my Galileo clock. It enables to have very low friction and better Q factor on the pendulum (pendulum oscillate a long time). The main pendulum is built with two of this system in order to create a real ball joint articulation. You can note that the weight of main pendulum tend to taken apart one of the knife edge solution, need to improve it with technic brick instead of liftarm (which is of course better for rigidity but bad for compactness). To conclude, I am pretty happy to have made this piece of mechanical engineering, there are several important point to succeed to get that, regarding the weight of pendulum, rigidity of frame, main arm and pendulum (all parasite vibration will reduce the efficiency) and of course lot of test to understand which movements in the pendulum make final drawing. It is still always different and sometime unexpected ! See the gallery to watch it. :)

Hello, a new creation ! First attempt to create a working shooting mechanism, I will improve it for the next version (magazine and power) :)