Appie

Thanks for all the work I will have a look when I get home. 1. That is odd, because I checked that by connecting 2 #4 connectors in that spot and the points of attachment lined up perfectly. Also when attached only at one side it has quite a bit of wiggle room that I even considered locking down the 7L liftarm some more. Attached at 2 sides significantly reduced that wiggle room, but it is still there. So I don't see why LDD would consider it 'forced'. I am going to test it again, because I have no desire to 'force' Lego and will adjust it if it is forced. 2. The black #1 connectors are connected with 2L axles. I kept the 1.5 pins for the yellow 7L liftarm, though 3L axles with stud would be fine too, maybe even better. Edit: well I see now it is under stress, silly me missed that yesterday, so back to the drawing board. Edit 2: Checked the LDD file, looks very solid. Again great work Victor, much appreciated. I looked real hard and I only see a missing black pin in the roof and a missing 1.5 pin on the other side of the roof, which aren't even really "needed". A total of 316 parts in the LDD, with pneumatic parts I guess it is around 340 parts edit 3: Made the rear stress free with the added bonus: the bumper looks a little beefed up now. I don't know which option I like more though, this one above or the option below: I like the angle of the wheelarch a little more in the first option than in the second option. I also like the flow into the system parts a little more with option 1, but I like the dip the 2L liftarm makes at the bumper in option 2 and the use of the connectors below the bend liftarms which are just filling a void to flesh out the wheelarch with option 1. Bottom shot: So far I use the first option, but let me know what you guys think And perhaps I should use a 7L thin liftarm now for the rear lights, but I don't have any left at the moment I think.

Ah ok, no problem. I couldn't check the LDD file yet, because Flickr giving me an error when I try to click the download link: "This is not the page you're looking for." Perhaps I need to sign up to flickr first or something. Will sort it later. Anyway, as Jeroen Ottens pointed out, the rear needed some TLC. After a little bit of tinkering I think it looks alot better now: This idea was already in my head, but at first I liked the quarter elipse parts so I didn't even try. Once Jeroen Ottens pointed it out I gave it another look and the elipse parts look out of place with the system parts, round+straight and the axle pins sticking out of the elipse parts I didn't like either. Since I liked the system parts I kept those as they were and I feel the system parts provide a natural flow to the rear since the width of 2 plates of system parts is between the 7L yellow thin liftarms of the cabin and the 5L thin liftarms at the rear. Also this construction gave the free connection points besides the fake engine a purpose for some axle connectors and the 7L yellow liftarm at the rear now does a little more than just looking pretty I also fleshed out the rear grill At first I had 3 rows of black, but it seemed off. I felt it needed a little bit of yellow on the top. So I tried 2 rows of black and 1 yellow, but this made the grill look too small in my opinion. So in the end I came up with this. A little bit of yellow on the top, but not so much that it completely goes over the bend liftarms. Here's an image with the grill taken apart: Hope you guys like it

Wow, much respect, that is alot of work. Thank you for sticking with it though so we can build your awesome models. This bus is really cool as well, love the chassis swap

Great work Victor! Thank you very much for making the LDD file. I don't have a chance yet to look at the file, but looking at the image in your post the 7L yellow liftarm at the rear behind the wheels seems to be missing? Or did LDD not want to add that part?

Nice, I actually had a similar idea to build, but perhaps I should just build this one instead

That's a nice little loader, the arm for the bucket on that puzzles me though, doesn't seem to tilt the bucket enough? As for another model I made in a small scale (wouldn't say it is the same scale as this) with quite a few functions, I got my little dump truck which was my first MOC since my dark ages ended Thanks and no problem, here are more pictures! The minifig pics: The first thing I thought of when I put in this minifig is that Efferman's cool Minifig scale bulldozer now has a wheel loader buddy? Funny thing, this is the first minifig I pulled from my huge ancient collection of minifigs because he wore a hard hat and he has an image of a wheel loader on his shirt! It's like it was meant to be! Now for the images of the centre (and some other parts as well). Some of this might seem discoloured. I did that so you can see the black parts better. Roof removed: The switches provide exactly half a stud of room above the hoses, exactly what I need for a 5L thin liftarm And the roof: As you can see I put a Technic Hub/Handle 1 x 1 on the black pin so the yellow connector on the switch wouldn't go too far. I got alot of these from the models around 1995, but if I remember correctly a similar item has been found for 2015 but as a 1L liftarm? Some more photos of the steering mechanism I should add, while the steering does work, it isn't as easy to use the full turning circle when on a surface. This is due to the friction of the tires on the surface and the fact that a 2L lever doesn't give much leverage. During earlier builds I used some old hoses which were dried up a little, this didn't help the steering either. These hoses from the 42008 only give a very minor resistance to the steering. Ideas to use the left side of the steering wheel as well (pump's side) were considered, but I also had to consider the hoses for tilting the bucket taking up room. So this was the best compromise I could think of. Please share if you have a better idea Speaking of the hoses, routing these with 3 "T" pieces in the centre was alot of fun, so I took some close up pictures of those too: Sorry this one came out a little blurry, but I post it anyway because it might be useful. The gray hose might seem "too long", but it is on purpose between the 2L black half liftarms with axle holes. This provided more room for the hoses for the pumps below the liftarm of the bucket, mostly for the hoses going into the top of the pumps. It also provided a little easier steering. A belly shot without the thin 5L liftarm blocking the view: The engine part That connector behind the gear is half a stud because the steering mechanism needs that space for the 2L liftarm with pin and and axle hole. This image somewhat shows where it ends up: Shot of a half assembled little wheel loader Minifig better get to work and fix it: There we go: Perhaps I should have made some photos of the front axle with the mounting point for the bucket's liftarm as well. Let me know if it is needed, my phone is charging at the moment. Or if anything else is needed let me know as well

Thanks all for the compliments. Ok, I will try to make some pictures this afternoon. Wow great work! Thank you very much for making a LDD. I never worked with LDD (yet), so this is much appreciated. I will try to make some photos of the centre this afternoon too. I considered that originally, but it worked better for the pneumatic hoses like this. Also I'd run into problems with the steering if I put the pump on the driveline even if I placed the steering axle a stud forward through the back of the chair it would conflict with the pump if both are at an angle. So this seemed the best solution.

Wow! Thank you very much And thanks everybody for the very kind words about my model The server that hosts them might have been down at that time, they working for you now? Thanks. Yeah, it wasn't easy for me, but that's the fun with Lego: the challenge Usually when I build a model I have pretty good idea of what to use to fully realize the model. Except for this loader I had nothing , but once I had the front sorted I got in the flow of building this and it went pretty smooth after that. If you (and others?) want, I could perhaps look into making a parts list and if it is needed perhaps some photos as "building steps"?

Thanks everybody for the compliments! @Balrog I did consider building a smaller fake engine, but I wanted to try these first and while they are big, I like how it fits nicely in the bent liftarms so I decided to keep the big cylinders. I agree on the rear, it isn't the most pretty. I assume you mean the sides mostly. I got an idea for it which should look better, not sure if I can make the angles work though. Or perhaps I will use some rigid hoses (I don't have yellow soft axles. Though I could easily alter the main colour if it would come to that. That part for the ladder is very nice, but I didn't want to use it since it is on the 8459 too and I want 4-5 stud ladder, but thank you for the suggestion. Thanks. A mini fig should fit yes. Though the seat is only one stud wide, it should fit in terms of height. I will try to make a photo of it tomorrow. I have a photo of the loaders from above that I can post later, other perspectives I will have to take new photos. If you tell me which angles you want I can make some photos.

Thank you very much. I won't say the switches are easy to operate (I have pretty big hands), but they aren't that hard either. At one point I had technic pins in the #1 connectors pointed outwards of the model, that made switching a little easier, but I decided to remove them since I didn't find it that hard to handle them without the pins.

Omg more wheel loaders?! Well, yes, it is the "Year of the Wheel Loader" after all This idea originally came about after my Mini Wheel Loader from the Mini Contest. I didn't want to leave the smaller scale of building things just yet (and still don't ). This model actually took some time to realize. Which was mostly due to a knee injury that made sitting at my desk and working on this model not as enjoyable. But since my knee has been getting better and I wanted to start working on my C-Model Contest entry, I wanted to finish this model. Building it was a joy, provided plenty of challenges for me to overcome. So here it is: Considering I went up in scale due to the size of the pumps I also wanted alot more functions than my previous MOC. It has the following functions: - 4WD (with diffs) - Pendular rear axle - Fake L3 engine - Articulated steering (and moving steering wheel) - Pneumatic bucket and I wanted the controls in the cabin (though in hindsight there would have been no other place to put them than in the cabin ) Some functions I wanted that I didn't manage: - Opening doors - Fully adjustable seat in height and forwards/backwards (had an idea with worm gears and whatnot). This function did make it into the model a little bit, the chair can move up or down manually Something I am still thinking about: - Ladders to reach the cabin. I want to built these out of "normal" Lego, but not sure how at the moment. I am open for suggestions Anyway about the model as it is now. Some more images: Lego's huge diffs taking centre stage in this bottom shot Not much I can do about that. I was determined to put diffs in the model and obviously I wanted to use real Lego parts and this is the best Lego gives me, so I worked with it. I kind of wish I could move the arm back one stud to be closer to the wheels, but they end up touching the wheels then. Since I never designed a wheel loader from scratch I spent quite some time figuring out the liftarm of the bucket to provide enough lift and tilt while still looking good when it actually has to scoop up dirt. Originally I had planned to use the big Pneumatic hand pump (I even have an image of this further in this post), but I needed more precise control of the pump that tilts the bucket. So I went with the 6L compressor pump instead. Now while this does provide the control I need for the bucket tilt it also means I have to turn the knob for the pump about 11 times to fully lift the arm, but I take comfort in the fact that a mini LA needs about 19 turns to fully erect Also in hindsight I don't think I would have been able to hide the handpump in the model, while the 6L sits nicely besides the driver's seat. While using 3 mini pneumatic cylinders was my original plan at one point I did try to put in a big cylinder for the arm lift, but I simply couldn't make this fit with the diff and the cylinder for the tilting. In the end I am glad it didn't fit because I really like how the cylinders and their hoses came out in the end I love how this looks (I like seeing the guts of a machine), but I also find it a shame I couldn't cover it up a little, the diff and the hoses prevent me from using that space. Figuring out how to route the hoses so they wouldn't touch the wheels or the diff was quite fun by the way, but they sit there perfectly in between The cabin houses the 2 switches, 6L compressor pump and steering mechanism. It was fun to built assymetrical, since the pump is on the left of the vehicle I only had room on the right to make a steering mechanism. It turned out to become a simple but effective liftarm steering mechanism on top of the pneumatic switch but below the seat, linked to the steering wheel in the cabin. The turning radius isn't really awesome, but it will do in my opinion. It is slightly less than the turning angle of the 8459. Earlier in the built I was afraid the engine would be too long and that I might have to use only 2 cylinders. They might look a little too big obviously for the model's size (much like the diffs), but I like how it turned out. Maybe I make it green when my second copy of the Volvo Loader comes. I think this is also the first time I actually used the big holes on the bent lift arms The rear diff and the fake L3 engine was fun to combine too, especially with the pendular axle. As you can see the pendular axle has (almost) half a stud of movement. At first I thought it didn't look as much, but looking at my Volvo Loader, it has half a stud of movement, so I guess it is ok. I had to use Technic half pins in the 5x7 frame, because if I didn't the differential could touch the crankshaft of the fake L3 engine if the pendular axle was at an angle. I also have some in progress pictures of this built (originally I wanted to make a WIP topic ) This was basically day 1 of the concept, with the big handpump, which I had planned to run from the bottom of the chassis to the top of the rear part of the cabin. Here you can also see I originally had 1 stud less for the cabin part of the model. I added another stud to better fit the scale and the fact I had a whole other stud of extra space didn't hurt either These 2 pictures are a little dark sorry: Here's "the heart" of the loader, its pneumatic guts. While the hoses are brand new (from a 42008) I decided to use the old school pneumatic colour scheme And here's an image of the loader without its "heart". Kept plenty of space so the hoses don't touch the drive shaft and have room to let the air flow freely without being obstructed. Hope you all enjoy this post and to finish up, here's a picture of my Wheel Loader "family" (seems I missed some corners in cleaning up the background of my photos )

This looks really good and loaded with functions. Very nice.

You're welcome Credit goes to Legorsk on Lowlug though. I just wanted to share it here so others could enjoy it too. 150 euro for the Loader is really awesome yea

For the dutchies here (and perhaps other regions as well). I stole this information from a topic on lowlug (http://www.lowlug.nl...=9309&start=160): 20% discount at Toys'r'us, but also 10% discount on anything with a value above 50 euro. Effectively 28% discount on their prices. To name a few: 42025 is now 76 euro 42029 is now 63 euro 42030 is now 150 euro Doesn't work on all Technic sets, but it does for most. I couldn't resist a 42025 for 76 euro and a second wheel loader for 150

This is one awesome creation. I get the same feeling looking at this as I had as a little kid looking at the 8858 Rebel Wrecker until I finally got it for my birthday. It looks tough and cool. And loaded with functions. Great job.

I like the model and it looks much like the real thing, but it looks like you have plenty of parts left to (almost?) make another model since there is no orange in this model, tires, springs or technic cylinders to name a few. I know it's your first attempt, so the final one will probably be more "dressed up" and perhaps have a few more functions. I eagerly await your progress

Wow! Really impressive and lovely to watch. Love the little details of the tapping foot, the mouth and the EV3 brick hidden in the speaker.

It makes the photo look better imo, not the model. I also suggested it more of a compromise for people who still want to edit stuff for a photo. With Sariel's tutorial this is very easy. Anybody can do it. To answer Jim's question and show what I don't want to compete against are (composite) images like this from Mbmc's post: I liked the photos in the Model Team contest being just that; photos (with the exception of 1 composite image on the Lotus and faking a Lego Box for the tank). I'd personally prefer: no logo's, text (perhaps a signature of the creator) or annotation, no composite image Just simple clean photos with perhaps adjusted contrast, saturation and making the background an equal colour. Which is all in Sariel's tutorial. No reason for a composite image imo if we are allowed to post 5 pictures, I think that leaves enough room to highlight and describe functions in text with the rest of the pictures.

I see I wasn't alone in this about the picture I actually quoted the wrong part from the rules in my last reply, was meant to quote this: Which would make more sense with me refering to the Mini contest. Mbmc's rule is ok with me too, but to illustrate the kind of image I'd be fine with, I take this one from Sariel's GIMP tutorial, which just touches up a photo a little. The guide is easy to follow and only takes a few minutes. Or if your original photo is awesomely lit you might not even need this. It's up to Jim of course. I am just making a suggestion. It's an awesome competition either way.

I am not that much into F1 anymore, I was going to type 'Schumacher', but figured I'd use a more recent driver winning championships. On topic: Any possibility of this rule being adjusted to just being something like an (action) photo of the model like you would see on boxes. Touched up photo with Sariel's GIMP tutorial perhaps. Perhaps I am alone in this, but after the Mini contest and seeing what people managed with photoshop, I lost all desire to even try matching that level for future contest and was happy the model team contest didn't have that. Half of the reason is because I have absolutely no desire to learn photoshop to the level some people here can. The other half and perhaps even more important than the first: I don't see why a result in LEGO BUILDING contest should be influenced by my photoshop skills. That's a Lego+photoshop contest, not just a Lego contest. Again perhaps it is just me and the rest loves making a photoshop image. If so carry on. I'll just probably end up making something then and not putting it in the entry topic.

I thought Jim was joking when he wrote that rule and he was. Would be kind of silly to disqualify one of the best builders for c-models. That's like banning Vettel from F1 :)

Very cool entries! Here are my points: 9: 10 3: 6 2: 4 8: 3 6: 2 10: 1

Yeah, I don't think Lego wants cylinder blocks for show ever (nor do I). Only set I remember where the cylinders were used as "decoration" in a Lego set, was in 8414's B-Model. I can't think of a single main model where it was just there for show.

Awesome! Love all the rotor functions you put into this model and you placed the controls for it so nicely in the cockpit

I doubt it is the last car for 2015. And while they probably won't be used for an "official Lego supercar" since they don't really fit the size for one, those Tumbler wheels have to be used on something besides the Tumbler? I doubt Lego made those just for 1 set.