LegoHoops

Haha, no better for your neighbours down under in New Zealand - $679.99. Although both the Bugatti and Lamborghini were $649.00 when released. I’ll be waiting until they start discounting them here, hopefully by then I will have collected enough parts to replace the colour vomit.

Structurally the Daytona SP3 uses a modified version of the LaFerrari Aperta’s composite monocoque. When is saw the Ferrari Daytona SP3 chassis below, it has a similar passing resemblance to Charbel’s McLaren 720S chassis. I have a 720S chassis displayed next to a complete 720S, just Charbel’s fully modular chassis is such a work of art, it is a shame to hide it! I also came across Peter Blackert’s beautifully built LEGO Ferrari Daytona SP3 F140HC Engine. It would be great to see something like this under that large hinged rear engine hood. There no doubt the LEGO Daytona SP3 will receive a number of mods through this forum as the Porsche, Bugatti and Lamborghini have received prior. And some reserve engineering is probably already happening 👍🏼 Hopefully LEGO will include the Blue seats that are integrated into the chassis like the rear car - otherwise there will be a rush on Blue lift-arms, panels and connectors. Also be interesting to see if the tyres are branded or moulded with Pirelli after the McLaren F1 redo - as Pirelli have produced a bespoke P Zero Corsa tyre for the SP3. Looking forward to the official reveal, from the initial image the mirrors appear to be a lazy solution a repeat of the other three.

Life Sized - LEGO Technic® McLaren Formula 1 Race Car https://www.thebrickman.com/building-a-life-size-lego-technic-mclaren-f1/ https://youtu.be/c_HLwRuYbCk

Playing around with wheel covers, as “williamyzfr1” pointed out about working within confines on current wheel/rim - combination Lego 2x2 Macaroni mod, with possible addition of Google colours. LEGO Dots 41950 Set almost gets you there for the Google Macaroni colours

The McLaren F1 car finally arrived, got it together over the weekend with a few small mods - still a work in progress. Assembled without the ugly wheel covers too. It’s a big 1:8 car along side my other 1:8 fleet.

The Lamborghini Centenario has been on the back burner for a while, slowly building up parts rather than going down the Aliexpress route for a fully complete kit. After all it’s also about the chase of your own choice of certain parts and colours, etc. - rather than a carbon copy. While the Lamborghini will be primarily Dark Azure, due to excessive Panels and Lift-arms in my own stocks, it will be some items like the 3 x 7 Curved Panels that are proving difficult to get. When I built my Porsche GT3 RS in Dark Azure it cost me two Rally Car sets (and only one panel in each)! Any-how we are a week deep into a nationwide Covid19 Lockdown in New Zealand at the moment, so prefect time to get this started. The only problem is New Zealand Bricklink stores have been cleaned out of 5 x 7 Liftarm Frames (Black) for a while and I have thirty of them somewhere currently between Australia and NZ! - Oh well, work around that in the meantime. Just started with the cabin module with red seats (without using system tiles) and matte aluminium shifter parts from Chrome Block City and black 3L Pins where fitted where necessary. Working through a mod to side skirts rather than using systems elements. I like the modular nature of this build, similar to the McLaren 720S, also the bodywork is all modular, I been able to build most of that too. Hopefully some further photographs when complete. NB:- I have used Chrome Block City for quite a few projects now - superb service, generally 10 days from Poland to down under in New Zealand 👍🏼

Currently we are in Lockdown 2.0 in New Zealand, lucky Lego is considered an essential (educational) item and is still shipping, unlike Bricklink orders. Received the 42128 set a couple of days ago - assembled with a few mods with parts on hand. Replaced a few blue pins/axles with black, front end mods, minimising external colours, no stickers - just 4 round coloured tiles visuals for knob function. Still a work in progress. There is a Netflix series:- Heavy Rescue 401 dedicated to these trucks 🇨🇦 - There is plenty of inspiration for future mods too! I have it displayed with a Mack Granite truck mounted on rear tow lift, works well.

A Mark Anthem with a variant side-swing triple axle trailer and larger scale container.

Lamborghini Sian - colour-way almost doable - sans fade. Finished in Nuovo Bianco (White) to Viola Mithras (Purple), Viola carbon (Purple carbon) and Verde Scandal (Green) accents.

Constructed astyanax’s previously posted rendering of the modified rear side wing.

I’m not ready a motorcycle guy, but was given the Ducati Panigale V4R as a Christmas gift. Built it on a wet Boxing Day day and following up with a few mods during January as parts arrived. Black hot dogs being one of the more humorous uses as brake levers, grips added along with various Red and Light Bluish Grey Technic Panels cleaning up the body panels. Bionicles elements used as heel-guards, a printed Round Tile for the International Space Station as the filler cap. Also radiator, headlight and front mudguards added. Just waiting for two Technic Panels for a symmetrical rear mudguard.

Just finished up Charbel’s McLaren 720S, this was an awesome build - enjoyed some the various techniques used in the chassis. Used a huge amount of Black 3L pins in the Mono-Cage to replace the Blue ones initially used - looks a lot cleaner. Glow in the dark headlights. The rear end was slightly revised, replaced the White connectors under exhausts with lift-arm & tiles and tail-lights spaced further apart. Red luggage hidden under the bonnet.

I have been working away on the Mclaren P1 HyperCar - Manual Version for the last couple of months. Progress has slowed somewhat due to wanting for wheels and #13 & #14 Panels having to be sent from the Northern Hemisphere, stocks have run out down under. This has been an awesome build, a lot of detail especially in the back end - the rear wing works well connected to steering. Had to run with an alternate exhaust at this stage. There a lot of Technic panels, around 130, these took a few Bricklink orders to round up from Australia and Singapore, almost sacrificed a recently completed Porsche 911 Carrera - but that will live another day. Replaced the Liftarm with Minifigure Swords to slimline the window wipers. Congratulations to Brunojj1 on his fantastic 1:8 Mclaren P1 HyperCar, looks great in the big car line up. Might have to add Charbel’s Mclaren 720S to the fleet too.

Started this Dark Azure coloured Porsche 911 GT3 Cup PCA Edition inspired car over a month long lockdown earlier in the year. It has taken quite a while to get pieces from international Bricklink sellers, as NZ supplies have been exhausted. The Technic Panel 7 x 3 (24119) was a challenge to source. I‘m still waiting for a few more pieces to complete it, like Dark Azure Bionicles to replace the Blacks ones on the front end. The build was based on “Pimp my Porsche” with an improved paddle shifter unit and a few mods because of the limitations of using Dark Azure colourway.

Finally the Lamborghini 42115 arrived on my door step! Over the last month I had been building the chassis, primarily the back-end getting my head around tidying up closer to the actual Sian. I have dodged a bullet with some of the panel colour variations, the wing was awful when built - too many different elements that were too many shades of Lime, so my initial Black wing has stayed. It adds a bit of contrast to the rear and ties in the Black side panels. Built the Pimped Lamborghini Sian version, thanks to the guys for their input on that. I’ve tried to eliminate as many Blue pins as possible, replacing with Black. The steering also has an upward tilt to it, replacing the original straight version. Centre console highlighted in Lime instead of the Light Gray. When I started playing with the shape of the rear of the car, I saw these sloping wedge shapes in my daughter’s Ninjago dragon’s - so I got a selection of similar Lime wedges and slopes via BrickLink to play around with. The exhausts pipes are one module further out, two reasons - I like it better and the exhaust structure is tied into the very small panel fairing underneath, aligning them better. Also two additional very small panel fairings were installed vertically either side of the wing mechanism box. Purchased a sticker sheet from a Lamborghini Speed Champions set for a panel were the number plate would sit and the ‘63’ decals for the side panels (yet to be applied). Used a couple of leftover Lime pins with holes to clip the two wishbone elements together. The Lamborghini will probably get a few other mods along the way and I’d like to ditch the gold wheels at some point too. Maybe if a 42115 set comes up a good price in the future, maybe a Lamborghini Essenza SCV12 might be worth a crack.

This maybe an alternative Lamborghini build, the 2021 Lamborghini Essenza SCV12 track only hypercar. The Essenza SCV12 raises above the Sian FKP 37, which features a 774-horsepower V-12. What’s more at 830 horsepower, the Essenza SCV12 packs more punch than the combined hybrid drivetrain of the Sian, rated at horses, making it the most powerful Lamborghini in production right now.

Just recently been on holiday and came across a LEGO display in a small New Zealand town of Waihi. There was a recently completed Lamborghini 42115, the first one I had seen in real life! While I had read about issues with the Lime colour in the Lamborghini, mainly centred around Lime Pin/Pin Hole (15100) in the wing and colour variations in Lime Panels (ie. 5x11 64392/5x7 64394) - Brothers-Brick video. Seeing the Lamborghini in the flesh the colour variations would be not what you would expect from a premium NZD$649.99 LEGO model. The owner was also less than happy about the final appearance and finish. While there might be an acceptance on minor colour variations between Pins and Panels through the moulding process, you would think the colour could maintained better between Panel and Panel? In saying that, I have had to explain to a client that no two trees are created the same when they complained about grain variations in timber joinery! Sorry, it was hard to photograph true to life. I stumbled across the article in Block Magazine - July 2020, titled “What’s up with my bricks.” Below is an extract from the four page article:- What’s up with my bricks ...... Historically, the LEGO Group had purchased pre-coloured ABS pellets from a company called Bayer, ceding control of the colouring process to an outside entity. Thanks to the new factories, it could now mix its own ABS colours from raw granulate, thereby elevating its level of quality control. However, the sword of competencies cuts both ways. Swapping in the LEGO Group’s own manufacturing staff to the Flextronics colouring lines meant that the company had to add a new skill to its manufacturing portfolio. The production crew weren’t familiar with the process, and during the early years of running the new plants, they struggled to stabilise colour quality. Enter the brittle bricks. It is not known exactly what went wrong – the LEGO Group has kept that a tightly-guarded secret. However, fans first began to notice issues immediately after the factory takeovers. Stories began emerging of sets like 10182 Café Corner including dark red pieces of different shades in the same box; victims of stock produced before and after the change, or before and after different experiments in tweaking the process. Then, around 2014, something went majorly wrong with dark red, dark brown and reddish- brown, along with a few other minor colours. The bricks became brittle, and prone to cracking in half when pulled apart, even under normal circumstances. Again, nothing has been officially confirmed by the LEGO Group in terms of cause, as that would potentially reveal too much about its closely-guarded manufacturing process and ABS formula to competitors. But the problem was so bad that an internal investigation was launched, culminating in an official statement. ‘The LEGO Group has been working hard to address reported issues with Reddish Brown bricks becoming brittle and breaking under use,’ the statement read. ‘The issues have been identified and we are happy to announce that they have been fixed. The fixes were put in place earlier this year for the LEGO colours 154 (New Dark Red), 192 (Reddish Brown) and 308 (Dark Brown). We waited until now to make the announcement, as we wanted to be 100% certain all issues had been addressed and fixed. If you, at any time, have a LEGO element which doesn’t live up to the standard you’d expect from us – then please don’t hesitate to contact Customer Service and we will send you replacement parts. We are terribly sorry for the inconveniences this has caused our loyal LEGO Fans across the World [sic].’ The most likely explanation is that in an effort to stabilise the colour output in the transition from Flextronics, the LEGO Group experimented with various methods for dyeing the bricks in lieu of any existing expertise. Different colours require different pigment mixes made from different materials, and one of the combinations tried sometime in 2012 or 2013 presumably compromised the ABS mix. Thankfully, the LEGO Group has made good on its word in that press release, and the problem does seem to have been fixed.

Finally got my Land Rover finished - using Pimp my Land Rover and few other mods. -Bull-bar with lights -Removal of Blue 3L Pins and replaced with Black, looks much better especially around the guards. -Roof-line finished in full white, fully removed the line of Light Bluish-Grey and replaced with a few White Technic, Pin with Friction Ridges Lengthwise and Pin Hole. Also moved the ladder over to line up with Olive-Green pillar, bugged me that it was off-set by one stud.

Although my Lamborghini Sian hasn’t arrived yet, I’ve got into a portion of the back end assembled with some existing parts I have. One the first pieces was the recreation of the rear wing in Black rather than Lime Green. Primarily for a bit of contrast, but also some of Lime Green colour variations in some of the builds I’ve seen look worse in the wing than the rest of the body work. The Black hasn’t totally resolved the colour variations, but I’ll work through replacing the few glossy Black pieces currently included. Also the hope is that it will blend nicely into the Black side panels. Deletion of the Blue 3L Pins from view in the finished build with Black 3L Pins improves the look too.

After three weeks in Covid19 lockdown in New Zealand and a few more weeks to go, I managed to find a store willing to ship a Porsche 911 RSR. Something to pass the time and work through a few mods. I wasn’t interested in buying this when it first came out, hated the front end, frog head-lights and the amount of stickers. Having seen a few other mods and looking at some real RSR’s from a press launch, first up was pumping out the rear guards and dropping the front & rear ride height. Replaced 50 x 3L Blue pins with black ones, blending into the exterior body panels/liftarms better. I wanted to do away with frog head-lights, replacing them with round Trans-Yellow dishes. Also fitted extra panels to clean up bonnet area, fill in empty areas up to base of windscreen. Tapered the Black panel fairing behind the door into the rear pillar Back end was also slightly revised, wing width, rear defuser, tow-loop and proper dual exhausts. Stickers were kept to a minimum, where the large stickers were applied I trimmed off the mismatched white colour sections - so they integrated into panels cleaner.

Bugatti finally arrived earlier than excepted. I had built a most of the chassis prior to actually set arriving, so I was able to get rid of the assortment of coloured pins, axles and lift-arms. So chassis is mostly black with with light blue grey engine and gearbox. Enjoyed building the chassis (marriage), the back end of the car is fantastic, integration of the adjustable wing. If I was to criticise one thing, the biggest disappointment is the doors - floppy. I had brought the Rally Car 42077 for chassis parts so there are some spare dark azure lift-arms to hopefully resolve this. The door handle too is work in progress - disliked the stick-on solution. Currently the Bugatti is still a work in progress, a few things to tidy up - angled steering wheel, mechanical adjustment of the wing, etc. Pneumatic hoses used for the symbolic C, wanted it a little bolder and cleaner than the clips and the sticker on the door! Front end cleaned up a bit, black and grey pins instead of blue, 8L bar with stop rings integrated into the grille area. Gaps in the front wheel arches closed up too, looks better than filling the space up. Front seats were modified, set back further in the interior and reclined - not so straight as the originals. Panel fairing #21/#22 were moved back by one lift-arm to ovalise the cabin area more with the symbolic C, similar to the image below. Just trying the tone down the dark blue real estate between wheel-arch and cabin.

By using a Lift-Arm 1x2 with Bar (@ 45 degrees) - Part #85940

I've ordered my Bugatti, but it doesn't arrive in New Zealand until next month (August). So decided to get started on the chassis anyway, as I wanted it predominantly Black - except the engine and gearbox. Some of the specific parts are difficult to get from NZ Bricklink stores, especially the 5x7 beam frame (black), so purchased the Rally Car 42077 as a parts donor in the meantime. I've built it with the @Didumos69 revised front suspension (thanks for that), a few other tweeks and rear brake calipers in the right place! Just trying to sort out a solution for a functioning rear wing without the key. (Ignore the incorrect black/dark azure panels at the front, just working with what I've got holding it together at this stage) Chiron rear calipers are at 45 degrees.