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I have just finished Andrea Grazis Tow Truck - a model which belongs a long time on my must-build-list. I would like to share some impressions about this outstanding model - mainly to give this quite old model the attention it deserves still today BTW: second reason: This topic should fulfill one requirement for being added to the Eurobrick Hall of Fame: The existance of an own topic - well here it is ;-) IMHO this model should be part of the HoF... here for a size comparison side-by-side with the 8285 Tow truck: IMHO the 8285 looks like a toy beside the Grazi boss ;-) One important remark: The two pictures above are the only ones made by myself. Reason: The brickshelf folder of Grazi (http://www.brickshel...ery.cgi?f=74562) contains so many good photos for all purposes so i decided to reuse them for this "review". Facts and feature list: First some facts - for this i use Blakbirds very good readme.txt (from his brickshelf folder - thank you for this good writing up) about this model - text in italic (where necessary i have added an amendment - to each feature i have linked the related module from the brickshelf folder of Andrea Grazi): This magnificent Tow Truck MOC is the work of Grazi. It is clearly based on the general look of the 5571 Black Cat rig, but it expands on the original in every way. Besides being much bigger, it is packed with Technic functions. It is even larger and more functional than the 8285 Technic Tow Truck and has many more pieces. The list of features on this is long: Front Wheels: Steer via HOG through several u-joints. Entire front axle is pendular from front ball joint and sprung in the rear allowing for both vertical motion and roll. Steering linkage telescopes to accomodate the suspension travel. A u-joint is used as a slip fitting. A lateral link is used to prevent rotation of the entire assembly. Rear Wheels: Dual rear axles each with dual tires. Entire 8 wheel assembly is pendular front/back and side/side. Each individual corner is also sprung on a longitudinal swing arm. Two rear differentials. Amendmend Kumbbl: IMHO the whole suspension setup on front and rear axles is one of the best and niftiest i have ever seen for heavy lego trucks Mid Wheels: Can lift or deploy via pneumatics. Two sides share a common pneumatic source so they are self-balancing. Amendment Kumbbl: Has an implicit slight suspension, both wheels can swing up and down independently. the wheels are castered and can turn with a rubberband based return-to-center-mechanism Engine: V-6 located under opening hood. Connected via drive shaft to rear differentials. Drive shaft takes a circuitous non-linear path through the body to avoid mechanisms in the way. - Crane: Lifts via 4 pneumatic cylinders arranged in pairs end-to-end. Telescopes via an electric motor geared down immensely. - Winch: Dual drive winch driven by an electric motor. 2 hooks. - Rear Pad: Liftarm raises via a pair of pneumatic cylinders. Pad folds out via pneumatic cylinder. - Outriggers: Dual rear outriggers deploy via pneumatic cylinders. Powerful enough to lift rear of vehicle. - Compressor: Driven by dual motors and dual cylinders hidden in sleeper. Power cut-off by pressure regulator using a cylinder and pole reverser. Compressor feeds hidden air tank. - Body: Hook opens by pivoting forward. Doors open. Cab includes coffee maker, television, gauges, steering wheel, and seats. Sleeper includes tool kits and skylights. Fuel tanks hide the battery box. - Control Panel: Left side contains a hidden control panel with 2 pole-reverser electrical switches and 5 pneumatic switches. Amendment Kumbbl: The control panel is hinged so it can be "closed" when not needed so both sides of the truck look equal - Statistics: Over 4000 parts. 12 pneumatic cylinders, 2 pneumatic compressor pumps, 5 pneumatic switches, 1 airtank, over 20 T-fittings. 4 Electric motors (2 high speed, 2 low speed). 12 rare Black Cat wheels and tires. --- end of Blackbirds readme.txt ----------- Now some own impressions of the building experience and the whole model: Looks: The model is a perfect blend of a model team shell with a wagonload technic inside and belongs concerning this to the top models out there. This render above is made by blakbird - you will find some very impressive renders at Blakbirds brickshelf folder (http://www.brickshel...ry.cgi?f=372128) like the following one: Pneumatic marvel: The model is an pneumatic marvel above of the level of the 8455 TLG backhoe. But the most impressive fact is not the shear number of cylinders or valves but the oustanding guidance of the air flow from the compressor to the tank and from there to the valve-panel and from there to a dispatcher and from there to all the pneumatic functions - and the > 5 meter hoses are not only squeezed into the free spaces but are very carefully and professionally routed and supported by rigid hoses - just as real machines! And this is really outstanding - so overall for me this is the best pneumatic model i know (better than 8455 and 8868) and a MUST for each pneumatic lover. One remark: Most photos here show the oly cylinder style of 8868. But apart from the compressor air regulator the instructions of blakbird are based on the modern type of 8455 - so for the boom you need the rare and expensive cylinder brackets. But it is also no problem to build the whole model from the old-style cylnders... so the model is also very impressive without its shell, s.a (for me one of the best model shots) - which is also not self evident. Building experience: The feature list is quite impressive but what have impressed me even more is the oustanding modularity which is not self evident for the studded area of building - as you can see here very well - http://www.brickshel...ry.cgi?f=121602 - there is really for each function or encapsulated building block an own modul with an own ldr-file... so you can build frist all modules and then when all modules are ready you assemble the full truck - it is a very very good design of a very experienced lego builder. The full model is about 70cm long, consist of more than 4000 parts and is quite heavy but the inner structure is very stiff and doesn't bend which is achieved by a very professional usage of studded technic beams reinforced by liftarms. The overall building experience is very challenging - well, Blakbird has made professional stepped PDF-BIs which were available for free a long time (now for 1$ at mocplans - http://mocplans.com/...71towtruck.html) so building the modules is not really difficult (but sometimes it is very helpful to use the ldr-files to see hidden parts where the placement is not clear in the BI - anyway: Big big thanks to Blakbird! Remark: I have added a lot of comments and explanations to the PDF which corrects very few mistakes/errors and makes some things clearer - if anybody is interested in this commented PDF do not hesitate to ask. Blakbird, if you are interested i could send you my version so maybe you could make public them. Eurobrick member EdmanZA has compiled a pneumatic landscape available here: http://www.eurobrick...75#entry1724680 - it is a helpful indicator but in my experience often it is better to find the routings and then cut the hoses to the needed length. And finding the routings of all the hoses and electric cables and putting together all the electrical and pneumatic models in the right order is the real challenged which gives you a great building fun! Overall you have the impression during building that this model is designed by an expert who nows exactly where to put each part regardless if a small 1x1 plate or a pneumatic cylinder - the whole design breathes to be very well thought out and mature - despite the fact that the model has an extremly high detail level there are no superflous parts - kudos to Grazi. back to BI: There are a handful outstanding tow trucks out there in the same league of Grazis (from Sariel, MLonger, Dikkie Kjiln and maybe one or two more) but apart from Dikkie Kjilns model this truck is the only one where stepped BIs and full detailed photos are available so at least an experianced builder can rebuild the model. Costs: This model is very expensive because you need as starting point 2(!) sets of "Black cat" 5571. Reason: 12 rims/tyres of these unique and very rare and expensive wheels (just these 12 rims+tyres would be cost ~ 250€ at bricklink): and you need eaxctly these wheels because: a) the truck will look out of scale and would loose some of its really boss look if buld with current wheels - the modern tyres will be too small for the mudguards... b) even more Important: the ground clearance of the two rear axles and their suspension System ( BTW: this truck has the best and niftiest truck suspension i ever saw in a huge truck lego model - on all 4 axles!) be too low ie. more or less zero. I addition the model uses a bunch of parts which were unique at 5571. So a good starting point is: 2x 5571, 1x 8448 (contains a lot of needed parts), 1x 8868, 1x 8455 (for pneumatic) and 1x 8275 (for 4 cylinder brackets) - these sets contain about 3000 of the needed parts of the Two truck - then you need 2 of the quite expensive geared motors of 8479 and 2 ungeared old motors - finally you need some bricklinks orders for about 1000 parts (in germany i have paid about 180€ overall for these bricklink parts)... Conclusion: This model belongs easily to the absolute Top-MOCs out there and plays in the champions league. Believe me: The real live model looks even better than on these pictures and the building can keep you busy over some weekends with hours over hours of building fun. very expensive but IMHO worth every cent. Kudos to Andrea Grazi. And here again my suggestion of adding this model to the HoF. PS. All links at one place: Rebrickable: http://rebrickable.c...Grazi/tow-truck Grazis brickshelf Folder: http://www.brickshel...ery.cgi?f=74562 Blakbirds brickshelf folder: http://www.brickshel...ry.cgi?f=372128 Mocplans: http://mocplans.com/...71towtruck.html -
Questions concerning the BI of Grazis Tow Truck
Kumbbl posted a topic in LEGO Technic, Mindstorms, Model Team and Scale Modeling
Hi, currently i start to build this outstanding MOC of Andrea Grazi - many many thanks to Blakbird for making free BI some years ago! They are very good at least for experienced builders but nevertheless i have some questions. Here comes the first one: please take a look at this screenshot of the BI (page 57): Can anybody (who has already built this MOC) tell me what are these double "black lines" marked by my red elipse? is this a rubberband? or what else? and if this is "something" important, how to connect it to which other part? Thanks a lot in advance! PS. probably i have some more questions and the need for clarification - therefore i have opened a new thread so all of them are collected at some place, so other people who wants to build this MOC can see all of the answers at one place ...