kbalage

@brunojj1 that Corvette is a beauty I really like the Astons as well...

Thanks for reminding me about the race, almost forgot it... too busy these days in a world full of diapers :) You actually gave me an idea to set up a quick scene, I know it's not Technic but probably can stay in the pub... as always no Photoshop involved :)

@rm8 I thought she has black leather pants :D Thinking about making an additional photoshoot with that character ;) @Jurss the perspective can be tricky, and the characters also have a little bit weird proportions. For the girl I actually had to replace a lot of the original parts as the movement of the arms and legs were pretty limited.

I would definitely add a clutch gear to avoid any damage

Thank you very much guys, glad you like the photos (and the bikes) :) I'll try to do my best to provide some photos of the teardown. I don't think I'll have time to make LDD files, probably a video. @Jurss - it's interesting as the sitting position and the arm/leg position and length makes them fit pretty well. Darth Vader is the tallest one that's why he has the longest bike :)

Although I'm not the biggest bike fan around I happened to build quite a few recently so I have to say yours has a fair amount of work in it and the result is really stunning! Really like the photos as well, especially the one involving lightpainting :)

I'd like to share with you my biggest project so far - Darth's Angels. I had the idea to create custom motorcycles for the Star Wars buildable figures ever since my son got his first set. As I realized the Stormtrooper fits perfectly on the 42036 Street Motorcycle, especially on the B model. That was the first step, and after a few weeks of building, refining and constructing the photo scene finally I managed to create the shot I imagined: As always the aim was not only to build the sets but to set up the desired perfect photo scene. For this lava shot I had to collect around ~6000 round plates and pins, and also figure out how to properly do the lighting and the smoke, all in a single shot without Photoshop :) Three custom motorcycles were created for Darth Vader and the two Stormtroopers. I wanted to add an extra twist to the build so all of the motorcycles are using pieces only from specific sets. Darth Vader's bike - 42036 Street Motorcycle + 42050 Drag Racer First Stormtrooper bike - 42036 Street Motorcycle + 42039 24 Hours Race Car Second Stormtrooper bike - 42036 Street Motorcycle + 42045 Hydroplane Racer + 42047 Police Interceptor A video presentation of the motorcycles: More photos of the gang - with a special guest: The full blogpost: http://racingbrick.com/2017/06/darths-angels/

Love the scale and the clever functions :) The only thing you forgot is the obligatory crane

Interesting concept, for me the side of it feels a little bit empty, I'd add something there. As Jurss said this vehicle looks more like a buggy so I'd also expect it to have more ground clearance.

Added the video to the already existing topic :)

i really like both models, I'm a big fan of alternative models and building from limited amount of bricks. Good luck with the competition!

Don't want to create a separate topic for this - we also constructed some Technic fidget spinners with my son:

You could create a structure similar to the front of the bonnet, just in black and with a wider straight section in the middle

@agrof really cool variations, I love the DBG + red wheels combo :) I'll have to get all the panels in black, put on the 41999 wheels and some badass stickers :)

I'm sure there was a topic about them, I saw it some days ago. I'll share the results there :)

Extend and improve my son's Technic fidget spinner collection :) These pieces of plastic costs around 4€ and the kids are super crazy about them, I told him that we can do much better and more fun using Lego :D

Wow, I really like the design! Any chances for that video after these months?

This is exactly why it does not seem to be logical to have this many shades of blue for the Technic lineup. What could be the benefit for Lego to produce parts in multiple shades instead of using 2 or 3 only? It would be beneficial for them as well to limit the variation as there would be for sure more shared parts with the previous sets (-> lower cost), and also welcome by the community to have a wider selection of parts of one color.

Well that would be amazing for sure.. As I buy my parts from Bricklink mostly I'm not familiar with the actual situation - the parts available from Lego via Pick a Brick, are they limited to the current lineup of sets and the colors available there, or can you actually buy "old" parts or colors not currently available in any set?

Looks nice considering the size, can you share some pictures of the front of the car from a lower angle?

About the Christmas tree - when I built the upgraded 42050 Drag Racer I wanted to film the race between the two versions, so I needed to have the start system of the drag racers so called “Christmas tree”. This device has multiple versions for the different types of races, I decided to make the following one: As I was not familiar with this system I had to do my research online – apologies if there’re mistakes in my explanation, feel free to correct them :) There’re 2 lights on the top for each lane – the top ones are the pre-stage bulbs, below that you see the stage bulbs. They indicate that the car is at the starting line in the correct position. The next 3 lights are the starting signals, they light up in sequence with 0.5 second apart. The green light comes up when the cars are ready to go, the red light supposed to indicate a failed start. As I did not have as many Lego lights as necessary, we had no failed starts so the red lights are not working :) I created 2 sequences controlled by the two SBricks – the first one was the staging sequence, turning on the top lights as the cars were approaching the starting line and crossing the virtual sensor beams. The second sequence turned on and off the starting signals with the proper delay, then the green light comes up and stays on. There’s also a brief light up of the staging lights right after the start when the back wheels are supposed to cross the sensors, but that’s not visible on the video. I tried to do my best to arrange and hide all the cables behind the tree and in the box. The pole itself with the lights can be turned around, so I was able to film the lights from both directions. With the necessary parts it should be fairly easy to create a properly functioning Christmas tree. Adding more lights (the 2 rows should be independent), more SBricks to control them and 4 proximity sensors could turn it from simulation to the real deal, the necessary sequences can be programmed with the SBricks. The proximity sensors would engage the pre-stage and stage lights. Once the car is in the correct position the start sequence could be initiated automatically, going through the 3 amber lights and then light up the green one. The proximity sensors can be used to monitor if the cars had an early start before the third amber light goes off, that would indicate a failed start and the red light is turned on. With 2 extra proximity sensors it could be even possible to create a finish line and display the results of the race. A couple of pics: And some more on the blog if you're interested: http://racingbrick.com/2017/06/drag-racing-christmas-tree/

Shut up and take my money :D

@Void_S To be honest I did not realize that there's a misalignment, I used the exact same configuration as on the original, the two 16T gears stayed in place: I uploaded some more photos of the inner details if someone is interested to build this version: http://racingbrick.com/2017/06/42050-drag-racer-upgrade-inner-details

I took a series of photos to try to show the differences between the various light sources and the auto camera settings vs automatic or manual post processing. I prefer to use Adobe Lightroom for post processing, but there are good freeware tools as well (e.g. Gimp) where automatic correction is available. I use two 60x60cm LED panels as diffuse light source, but as I mentioned before a comparable effect can be achieved with a simple desk lamp and a sheet of white paper in front of it. You can achieve decent results even with a standard warm room light and automatic software correction (see the second image). Bigger version of the image: http://racingbrick.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Lighting_demo.jpg

I really like the concept. I know it was meant to be basic, but do you have any further plans how to control it?