SavaTheAggie

Cry of the Ancients Gallery A small band of vikings find themselves trespassing on sacred ground. This was meant to be at night, so I was having fun with lighting. Here's more or less the same shot with proper lighting: --Tony

I've had really good results with Hydrogen Peroxide, but at the concentrations you can buy as a normal consumer it still takes a month. --Tony

Flickr Gallery For a third year, TexLUG was invited to display at the Healthy Baby and Child Expo in San Antonio on March 8th and 9th, 2008. While only two TexLUG members were able to attend, the layout was nevertheless a success. The theme this year was "Around the World in 80 days", featuring well known landmarks and monuments from around the globe, along with a few LEGO sets and MOCs. --Tony

While staying with Chris MacDougald for the recent TexLUG display, I was finally able to get the video I took of my trains in action at the NETLTC display back in the fall out of my father's camcorder. Even got myself a YouTube account. Check it out: --Tony

"Breath of the Dragon" Gallery High Mage of Ikros, Lord Greylen, and his life-long friend and comrade Demonclaw repel a group of would-be attackers. Entry in the Battles Contest at Classic-Castle.com. --Tony

And..... done. --Tony

(Copied from my Flickr page) My last MOC to be built for the TexLUG event in March 2008. What you see here is also the beginning of the last of my Dark Grey bulk 2x2s. Even with all my 2x2s, though, my extremely limited number of dark grey 1x1s and 1x2s is the truly limiting factor. The design is based off the "Tall Wall" Standard based off of the Classic Castle City wall standard. Our plan is to have 6 16x32-stud long sections, I have been charged to create 4, since I have the bricks for it. The standard calls for the walls to be built on 32 stud wide bases, but our display is being planned for 16. Because of this, I've decided not to try to put in any sort of horizontal curve into the wall. I'm sure I'll be criticized for it, but it was a conscious decision. What you see here is three of the four sections. I plan to add some 1x1 green bricks to the base to add a bit more organicness. After the fourth section, I may be able to build one, maybe two more sections, but time, bricks, and the decision of the other member building wall sections will determine that. --Tony

Using RC track to break up sections of 9v track have been used in the past very successfully, but not for the sake of stretching out the amount of usable track. What these people have done is create power 'blocks', sections of 9v track powered by a Mindstorms RCX brick. As a train travels block to block, the RCX(s) control where the train is going and if it needs to stop. This way you can not only have an automated start/stop (like at a train station) but you can have two or more trains on the same loop of track. --Tony

There's also a faded-out ship in the distance center, and some faded out figures to the left of that. --Tony

Gallery This was built for the upcoming March 2008 "Around the World in 80 Days" themed TexLUG display (I originally, but wrongly, called it the "Wonders of the World" themed display). I was originally going to build it "as it was," complete and whole, but my wife convinced me to build it "as it is," and I think I did a pretty decent job, considering I'm working with inventory scraps and leftovers. --Tony

I don't know about an ambassador, but Steve Witt said it would be in a thread on Classic-Castle, and he's an official LEGO employee. It looks like the price will be $10 USD more than the US Price, I have no info on any other prices. --Tony

It's much smaller than minifig scale, probably half that or more. The real temple has 91 stairs per staircase, mine has only 24. Thanks! It's neither Incan nor Aztec, it's Mayan. But don't feel bad, there are a lot of architecural similarities between all three cultures. Thanks! The steps to which I refer are the steps of the pyramid, not the stairs leading to the top. The base step of the pyramid should be wider, with the subsequent steps above being proportionally wider as well. As far as sound goes, I'm afraid I have no knowledge of the acoustic properties of ABS plastic. ;) --Tony

A small addition to my temple. --Tony

Thanks all! I may be adding some foliage, at the very minimum some grass to the baseplate, possibly some climbing vines. I won't be adding any blood or human sacrifice because it won't be well received at the Healthy Baby and Child Expo. --Tony

Forgive me if this is in the wrong forum. Gallery The Temple of Kukulkan at Chichen Itza, known now as "El Castillo", Spanish for "The Castle." This was built for the upcoming "Wonders of the World" themed TexLUG display at the Healthy Baby and Child Expo in San Antonio. I purposely built it wrong so that it 'looked right' (the real pyramid has 9 steps, not 6). The steps are also a bit too steep, but this was built from spare parts, so I didn't have a lot of plates to donate to this project. In spite of that, using a flash light you can still see the feathered serpent just like on the real temple: --Tony

As I've said many times before on this forum and elsewhere, I killed one of my motors on my Santa Fe train on a very curvy TexLUG Layout. There is a design flaw on the passenger cars - the upside-down construction of the object between the two wheel bogies (whatever it is called). There are plates on the top (and thus on the very bottom of the MOC), of this structure. These need to be replaced with tiles. The studs on the plates will drag against the rails when going through long or 'S' curves, and will add a lot of friction to the train. Turn your passenger cars over and inspect the studs on this structure. If they look worn on the sides, replace them with tiles ASAP. --Tony

Marketstreet - 1,248 pieces - $90 USD Cafe Corner - 2,056 pieces - $140 USD Green Grocer - 2,352 pieces - I'm guessing upwards of $150-$160. Just a guess, though. --Tony EDIT: Whoops... didn't see the second page of posts... sorry.

*cough* http://news.lugnet.com/announce/moc/?n=1303 I guess it pays to have been in this community for a few years. --Tony

Is it just me, or does the front bumper on the truck in 8630 look like it has some sort of 1x2 cheese slopes in between two 1x1 cheese slopes? --Tony

For those of you who do not regularly visit my photostream on Flickr, I've finally started planning my personal home layout. It's gone through several iterations, and finally was given a huge improvement by RocketSeason. (click for details on what everything is) My idea for my town is twofold. First, the general theme of my town is to mimic the hundreds of small towns I've driven through in Texas, where they have a single main street, lined by Cafe Corner style shops and buildings, with everything else being very rural and/or residential. These towns sprung up around highways, and for the most part saw their peak long ago. But, at least for me, still hold a lot of charm. The other idea is that my layout will be home to a heritage railway, "Sava Railways", which runs steam train excursions and have revitalized the local economy through tourism. Of course my layout is far too small for an actual 'excursion', but that doesn't matter. :) Of course it also produces the by-product of finally giving me a way to display my train MOCs. --Tony

I had a bit of fun last night. I took some pictures to compare the locomotives from the Hobby Train, the Holiday Train and my Polar Express. Actually I only used one locomotive from the Hobby Train, but it's my favorite out of the entire set (and made by my good friend Ben Beneke, too). Hobby Train vs Holiday Train Holiday Train vs The Polar Express --Tony

Thank you to all who expressed interest in my locomotives They've all been sold now, but if you were interested in one I plan to make one final limited production run sometime in the foreseeable future. Any further locomotives after this future production run will be different, probably in design as well as color, mainly due to the availability and price of dark green pieces. If you'd like to reserve a future copy, I'm happy to do so for you, no down payment required (but certainly welcome :) --Tony

According to Steve Witt in a post on Classic-Castle, the Dwarfs Mine set should be available as a non-exclusive and part of the regular product line when the other new castle sets are released in 2008. http://www.classic-castle.com/forum/viewto...p=149134#149134 --Tony

Howdy! I'm pleased to announce that I have finished building and am ready to sell copies of one of my favorite MOCs, my Sava Railways #805 "American" 4-4-0 wood burning steam locomotive, just in time for the holidays no less! Each locomotive from this limited production run is uniquely numbered, starting up from the original #805. You have the choice of: This design uses a floating pilot truck design, which allows it to be fully capable of negotiating all track configurations in spite of it's long boiler. The tender has been designed just as the original, and while these custom sets do not include one, it is easily and quickly motorized with a 9v train motor. Plus it looks fantastic pulling a load of old style rolling stock. These pictures show the #805 with it's motor, a motor is *not included* with these custom sets. These sets feature: * Four of the awesome Big Ben Bricks Large Flanged Drivers * Floating pilot truck design * "Working" pistons * Custom built (no glue) flex tube cow catcher * Custom stickers * Uniquely numbered * (mostly) 6-wide design, but looks good next to 6, 7 and 8-wides! * Mmm... Dark green... What you get: * The Locomotive, including floating pilot truck, tender and load * Custom cab stickers with the Locomotive's number * Custom tender stickers, what it says is buyer's choice! (default is "Sava Railways") * CD with step by step instructions on how to build the set, instructions on how to motorize the tender, and the raw LDraw file * Certificate of Authenticity with the Locomotive's number * Locomotive comes mostly assembled (for shipping), unless you just really want me to disassemble it. The price is $125.00 plus shipping. Locomotives will be sold on a first come, first served basis. These will shortly be available in my Bricklink shop (once I find the time today to add them), but of course if you simply cannot wait you can contact me directly. http://www.bricklink.com/store.asp?p=AggieSava If you'd like more information please don't hesitate to email me. --Tony Figures and track not included.

They look neat, all in a row like that. --Tony