BusterHaus

The lines on this car are beautiful. They make it stand out from other supercar MOCs quite a bit. Or maybe it's just the fact that it's an original model. By the way, would you be able to show the chassis?

Nice action on the bin mechanism - just fast enough and the bin flip on the way down reminds me of local trucks and their rough handling of the bins. Welcome back.

The tint of a white background has to do with the colour temperature of the light illuminating your object. Different lights have different colour temperatures: fluorescent will make white appear green while incandescent will push it to yellow/orange. If your camera has a manual mode, I suggest switching from automatic colour correction to a preset close to the type of light source you are using. Many manual modes also give you the chance to set your own white balance point by aiming your lens at a white background and pressing a button to calibrate the sensor. If your white balance point is set properly, the whites in your pictures should not have a tint. In practice, you will have to deal with reflections and imperfect sensors that may be affected by colours surrounding the white areas. Then there is the issue of exposure. Your background will often come out as grey, even if your white point is set properly. You can over expose your pictures combat that, but your colours will be washed out. There is also the option of using a remote flash to flood the background, but it requires a bit of an investment on the camera/flash side. A lot of these issues can be corrected in post processing, but the old adage of "garbage in, garbage out" is very applicable here. Try to have the picture look as close to the desired result as possible while it is still on the memory card. For your specific pictures, I would look at having the light sources not be as direct. This will help you avoid hard shadows like the one in the first picture. Try aiming the lamps at the ceiling, or at some white sheets of paper or cardboard.

The yellow and orange really work well together. I like the guns sliding out in the front, too. Nice job!

I have been waffling on this model since the initial pictures were released. Upon seeing them I was excited to get it, but recently the excitement has waned. This review spiked it again, and I will definitely get this set. Thanks for spending so much time and effort on this presentation; it's excellent.

Great use of the Mindstorms controllers. The GBC modules like this one really show off its capabilities. This also looks like a very good candidate for modifications: the infrared distance sensors could be placed at the ends of the track (fixed position), or could be replaced by touch or colour sensors.

Thanks. I think that there are much bigger factors that decide voting than how many pictures are posted. If anything, there is probably a sweet spot - too few or too many pictures with. probably work against you.

Jim, the previous contests had rules around the number and type of pictures that could be included in the entry post. There are no such constraints this time, unless I missed something during the three times I checked the rules. Do we have more leeway this time around?

This is a great tip for those who use a tripod, too. I shoot most of my stuff at ISO 80 or 100 (P&S with manual mode) so the exposure times are often around 1/3 of a second. I use a 2 second delay which allows the camera to "settle" after I press the shutter button. It's the poor man's remote shutter, but works well to eliminate all vibrations from my cheap tripod.

It looks great and the high revs don't seem to affect it, which is a big bonus. I thought of joining the cylinder blocks with a flex axle through the transverse holes, but after doing a quick test here I don't think the result would be any smaller, and it would certainly be much weaker.

You did a fantastic job on capturing the lines of this car. It's astounding that you can do it without resorting to a much larger scale.

That's pretty amazing - I think my error was mounting the gyro parallel to the wheels (edit: I checked again and it was mounted perpendicular - at least I didn't forget everything I learned in school) and possibly not having enough mass (although the speed was there). I agree that some sort of demonstration system could be rigged up. I would look at using an E-motor to recuperate the energy stored in the flywheel. I'm still not sure how effective a LEGO version of this system would be at storing energy, seeing as it would dissipate pretty quickly due to the imperfections in the build (slack between parts, lack of balance, air resistance). I'm curious to see how this turns out.

Arthur Sacek made a couple of CNC machines. Here is an example: http://www.arthursacek.com/2012/10/lego-3d-milling-machine-2010.html

The short answer is that it will probably not work. The flywheels used in mechanical accumulators operate in a vacuum, are perfectly balanced (static and dynamic) and operate on very good bearings at RPMs that you will never reach with LEGO. I tried a small experiment with a flywheel last year - it was far from successful: http://www.busterhaus.com/2014/01/lego-flywheel.html?m=1

Nice progress. I just mounted an engine in my entry last night and also used a rubber band to power it. This morning I see that I'm not as innovative as I thought, haha. It's the first time I tried it and it works remarkably well. It's very lightweight and compact.

Great model! The tilting cabin is a neat solution, but you need a steady hand to control the arm bend.

You're welcome. It's fun to see it in other colours.

I'm not talking about creating and packaging 10 copies of a MOC in hopes that they will some day be sold. That's putting the cart in front of the horse, and there are very few builders who have enough recognition to pull of such a feat. You need a purchase order before starting the work. To get one, you'll need to show the customer a proposal, which involves a bit of design or drawings. That's about as far as you should go. From what I can tell, there are two ways of making money with MOCs. One is by using LEGO as a medium for creating sculptures, mosaics, or unique replicas of buildings/landmarks. The second is what VFracingteam does, which is to approach the manufacturer and try to sell them a model of their product. It could be ships, sports cars, construction equipment, etc. They order a replica from you, but in multiple units, so you're basically making a very exclusive set. The manufacturer then includes a copy of the set with every piece of equipment sold - it's a very neat way of standing out from your competition. If you're interested in some numbers, here is a quick back-of-the-envelope example based on 10 copies of a MOC versus 1 copy of a MOC, for a builder who doesn't have much overhead: Scenario 1 - 1 MOC sold Hours to design/build: 100 Hourly rate: $40 Material: $500 Selling price: $4,500 Scenario 2 - 10 MOCs sold Hours to design/build/pack first model: 100 Hours to build each additional model: 10 Hourly rate: $40 Material: $450 (savings on shipping/bulk buying) Total selling price: (100 x $40) + (10 x $40) + (10 x $450) = $8,900 Unit price: $890 While both unit prices are very high compared to regular LEGO sets, you need to consider that when an expensive product like a ship is sold, an additional $890 doesn't affect the price very much. Edit: Maybe Edwin can chime in case I'm very mistaken.

I completely agree that there are very few people who would be interested in paying the full price. Maybe the solution is to have limited runs of a MOC (10 for example) to lower the per-unit cost. This is a recent trend with sculptors and painters, and from what I understand VFracingteam does the same thing with his model ships.

If this is to become a viable business, the simple way to look at it is time x hourly rate + materials x markup. You estimate how long it will take you to design, purchase parts and build. Your hourly rate pays your salary and overhead - electricity in your building room, rent/taxes, telephone etc. A simple rule of thumb is two to four times your hourly pay. The factor depends on your overhead. If you're building on a desk in your basement, it may be as low as 1.5 your hourly pay. If you're in an office with a secretary, it increases. It also includes your profit. Do not undervalue your time. Cost of materials is self explanatory. Don't forget to add shipping costs. Then add to the total your markup (usually around 20 percent). If you use services like chrome application, add them here with your markup. This is if you want to make a living doing commissioned creations. If you are doing someone a favour, you can ask what the expected to pay and decide if you're willing to do the work according to their answer. It's a good way to build up a portfolio, but you will most likely not make a living with this method.

Fantastic creation. I love minimalist builds - the mechanisms are exposed and easy to see. Have you considered a photo gallery for your creations? It would be nice to see some more details.

Very nice! That roof line is very good. To all the naysayers: the colour is great, it's just missing a layer of dust. PS check your notifications please.

The curve of the track is beautiful. I'm glad you had pictures of how it is made. Any trouble with vibration breaking up the track? And do the trains ever get stuck?

Can we use Mindstorms components (motors, sensors, controller brick)?

Exactly what I was thinking. I hope we see these panels in other colours.