nerdsforprez

I gotcha..... But when you're working on projects that cost hundreds of dollars...at least IMO, utilizing bricks efficiently becomes a must....

Personally, I think they're is a need. That need has passed for me right now....(I already built what I was planning) but I know large projects needing really strong connections are always being built...

Hmmmm..... looks like I need to grab me one of the CUUSOO Dolorean models I have even put it out there on BL that I would be willing to pay more for a large lot of the older, slotted friction pins, but I got no takers (posted it on the forum on BL). Looks like I really will need a time machine.... no one wants the hassle of rummaging through their collections to find the menacing older slotted pins....

Ditto to what @lipko said. I also over-engineering and probably am a little over-focused on strength of a build. Even when something does not have to be very strong, I always try to build it so that it is. Even when time-wise, it really isn't efficient to do so. I know I also am OCD (which, BTW, Blakbird was right, should be the real title of the post) on trying to be efficient. I always ask myself, if after completing a certain part of a project, Could this be done more efficiently? Like a different brick here or there? I wish I were that OCD about looks of a model..... for some reason I am not. I also always ask myself, especially when doing a part of a project that I know won't be seen, Can't I just use a part in a common color, even if it is ugly, because no one will see it? I don't care about symmetry if no one will see it. If they do.... then yea of course. I rummage far too much in my kid's Legos to try and use their old, spare parts that they don't use if I can. Example: Last year I completed a diorama for sci-fi Mechas that I built. So..... not too bad looking. But there is a whole backside, and underneath the tiles that are not seen....... and for this I used a hodge-podge of parts.... mostly from my kids collections. I know that this probably just is good building sense (when you are working on projects on a continual basis that begin to reach up towards 500+ dollars.... it is good form to try and be efficient with your bricks), but what I am saying is that I probably spend much more time and effort trying to do so than is really needed. Lastly, and I would really be curious to see if anyone else is like this.... but I obsess WAY too much about BL orders. I search and search for the best prices, even though I don't really have to. In addition, I try to buy the pieces that I only need for a particular build.... but never can seem to bypass the question..... But can't I use this piece in the future? Shouldn't I just buy it now? This is more than an obsession with just the cost of things.... because like I said, I don't really need to care so much about that... it is just my obsession with efficiency. You know that not all pins are created equal right? http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=115080

Fidelity to the real thing is a type of symmetry in and of itself!

This really is brilliant. I may have to head over to BL, order some bricks, and build this sucker

Max... i am sure you have posted more but I think this is the first thing of yours that I have seen. Great job! I love how compact it is..... and the fake engine and fan :wub:

Is now a bad time to tell everyone I am a psychologist? :laugh: :laugh:

I love the flatbed truck. Once again, the functions are so smooth. And to do it all with the parts of another set..... great work.

Big fan of custom or third party parts. Would not be surprised to see me at your store in the near future!

Lots of fun yeah? Welcome back to your second Lego-life

awesome. Thanks! Any advice about the constant crashing? Would uninstalling and re-installing LDD help at all? I would rather not, but if needed, I guess I will have to. Also, I guess I should also ask to see if even the hinge align tool was designed to do what I want or think it should do. I am building a large crane (~5,000 pieces) and LDD is beginning to tell me that I can't make certain connections..... telling me they are illegal when I know they are not. These have nothing to do with angles.... I am just aligning one side of the crane with another. Again, I have done the build with mismatched pieces.... so I know it is a legal connection. I am thinking that the hinge align tool will help me with this.... no?

One other question for the forum...... I thought I remember looking at this a while ago... but i cannot find the answer. I was under the impression that once a model is complete, and I want to create building instructions, I would also be able to see all pieces involved by lot count. However, I just went to building mode in what I have completed thus far and do not see anything that resembles that.... any help? Okay... yea, I knew that much. Did that - no luck Would it help to re-download the whole program then? Or what should be my next step? I am assuming that others have reached this dilemma, given that I would think the hinge align tool would be quite common. Btw... thanks for your help. I am learning alot.

Thanks. Tried to do the operation right after saving everything and still crashed. When you say, "reload the file works" -- can you explain that with more details? Not sure really what you mean.

Okay.... back again. Made quite a bit of process on a project of mine.... but quick question. Whenever I try to use the hinge align tool (which I am just learning, really don't know what it is fully capable of) the program always shuts down. What could be going on? Has anyone else experienced this? Is there a way to fix it or should I try to redownload the whole program?

This is remarkable. It really is. Looking forward to the end result.

Sariel, I did not read the whole post but I read the first few, and I reflect comments made by others that you absolutely do not have to sell or offer instructions. I have followed alot of your work for quite a while, and am proud to say that your creations helped me come out of my own "dark ages" -- I say this because in the process I think I have learned a bit (just a bit) about you as a person. How people act online says an incredible amount of who they are (I, for instance was referred to as "Mr. Nerd" earlier today , a play on words based on my username to be sure but chose not to react because such as response says much more about the person on the other end of the social web than myself). This applies to your query in this post. From the little I have gathered from following your work, you seem like a perfectly rational , logical person (other than the hamster infatuation ) who actually cares about what others think of him/her. I hope this does not offend, but I don't really think for a second that you think you actually have to provide anything to this individual. I think you posted this because you feel guilty, which is totally a normal, humane (not human) and IMO even reflects what a good guy you are. Don't let this bully manipulate your good-natured-ness into feeling shame or guilt. I see this everyday and I think it is a shame. People with good heads on their shoulders, caring, socially responsible people feeling shame or guilt because of the shallowness or laziness of others......You do NOT have to carry the burden of the sloven behavior of others. On a lighter note... @M_longer - I have loved your cranes for the longest time. I demand you make instructions for them.... NOW!!! :laugh:

Useful answers can only come from useful questions. To ask if people are okay with copying others' work, okay with one company copying another, IMO is not a useful question. Seriously, no one is going to respond to your query with a "yea, I'm okay with this Decool company copying Lego at only a fraction of the quality" Of course we are all upset with it.

Great review......I am sure that I will also be getting this set at some point. But i'll be honest, only for parts. I love all things that fly, but to me this doesn't really resemble a heavy lift helicopter..... and I think that not very attractive-looking. When I think of "heavy lift" I think of a chinook style heli or a sky crane of super-stallion-like aircraft. Also, the colors are not bad..... but when oh when are we going to get something in like a charcoal or flat silver color? How cool would this model have been if it was like the super stallion in a flat silver color? Right?

Good catch, but it was actually designed that way. You can see I used a 3L bar with stud at the end. The end opposite of the stud is only a bar, and therefore fits loosely in the liftarm. The reason for the slipping is that this creates a form of clutch gear. As can be seen in the video, it turns the steering rack well against alot of force, but slips to prevent breaking the steering rack clean off. Suprisingly, even a M motor, geared down to 12/36 can create quite a bit of damage if one is not careful. This mechanism creates just enough power to turn, even in tight spaces, but doesn't damage the steering rack. The suspension didn't have any problems......and I at first tried planetary reduction.... but ended up just leaving it out. The balance between RPMs and torque is a fine one, and the increased torque of the adding the planetary system just slowed things down too much. I don't -- sorry. I don't own the PP rims.

I see that you also have other builds (your signature block). You should add a link in the SB to all your stuff, not just the current build. Also, i clicked the link to your brickshelf and it had not yet been made public.

exceptional. Especially love the details in the engine. Radiator? Nothing against the current move of using lots of system bricks for the body.... but I love it when builds keep it Technic, even on the body or other stylistic areas as well to the greatest extent possible. Great job.

Very good point, however, crawlers and tatras or tatra-like, long vehicles are totally different IMO. Apples and oranges. ZBLJ's Fox, as you pointed out has many more wheels to dispurse the power, but more importantly, they just travel different. Great for climbing near impossible surfaces to be sure, but mostly used for steep inclines, muddy, wet, or snowy terrain. They are NOT rock crawlers. If they do crawl over rocky terrain, then they use their length to almost act like a bridge to get their wheels from one point of contact to another, not to keep all wheels on the ground at all times like a crawler. Therein lies the main difference. The suspension. They don't need lots of suspension travel, like crawlers, therefore their steering, chassis, etc. can be build much stronger and they have room for additional gearing. As you can see in my crawler, the suspension has tons of travel.... but the trade-off is that is is not going to have the rigidity of a 8x8 chassis. Not that the 4 XL motors can't be done. I am not saying that.... I have seen it before. But when you do that, with Lego anyway, the motor is a direct input to each axle, therefore the motor is right there built in the chassis and you can lose precious ground clearance.The tires are 2.2 not the regular 1.9 tires used by many for Lego. I love them. I also have 1.9s, and even used them previously on this model, and the 2.2 tires work much better. Although the weight is pretty extreme. I used them previously on a heavily modified 8110 Unimog I built last year and they got all soaked. Weighted almost 300 grams all wet..... each one! But the Unimog still performed like a champ. To my knowledge they are the largest third-party tires used on a Technic build. I would not be surprised to see someone use larger..... but I have not seen anything larger yet. If I remembered the make and model I would provide it..... but I threw away the package.... :sceptic:

No. This is already the second rendition of this build, and I have found that the trade-off between weight and power is a finicky one. Despite all the changes I made...... elements were still damaged. The Technic connections held, even in the blooper video where the crawler fell several times.....but the power of the motors broke several U-joints and I went through some gears. That was kinda the point of the post. The motors are criticized as being too weak when in reality they break most elements. So.... at least IMO they are slow but not too weak. Any more power and Lego would have to redo much of their whole Technic system because, at least for the XL motors.... they rip elements apart. If I added more power and more weight.... I don't think i could do any better than the current build b/c I would just run through many Technic elements.....

Thanks for the feedback guys..... don't know why the other video is not working. You can see it fine on mocpages..... lets see if this works...... http://youtu.be//b_lgMkh-zKO There we go.........