2GodBDGlory

Certain front-engine rear-drive sports cars will have the transmission mounted at the rear, usually as a transaxle around the differential, in order to help with weight distribution. No sport sedans with such a configuration come to mind, but it is a real solution.

The Hummer EV is a cool vehicle to model, with the car-marketing tie-in, but thanks to its being electric virtually all the components of the Defender's drivetrain (gearbox, transfer case, piston engine) would become unrealistic, leaving us with a very basic model, which wouldn't really be the Defender successor it has been speculated to be.

Sorry about that. They look OK to me, but I guess I already know what's going on.

Looks good! An I-5 would be fun to include!

I think those are, in fact, weighted bricks. My family has an older Lego Education kit, and it included one of those weight bricks. I think they were originally used in floating boats in the '80s or '90s, but they are rather handy sometimes!

Here is another MOC from last summer: As some of you may recall, I was messing around with manually-controlled CVT designs last summer, and I showed my concept here: After this, I decided to test it in a fairly large MOC. It was a struggle to decide what to build, since I wanted to build a real-life car that actually uses a CVT, but I also wanted it to be cool, and CVTs are considered to be a decidedly uncool transmission in the performance world. Eventually I settled on the original BMW-built MINI Cooper, which was offered with a CVT. My build was probably about 1:8 scale, but because the MINI is such a small car, the overall volume was similar to that of typical 1:10 cars. Functions: -Drive through the front wheels by two PF L-motors. Uses planetary reduction hubs. -Steering with a PF Servo motor -CVT transmission controlled by a PF M-motor -Inboard rear disc brakes with a PF M-motor -Front independent double-wishbone suspension, rear multilink suspension. -Opening hood, doors, and hatch -Folding rear seats -Full interior The model was certainly ugly, with poor proportions, but it was essentially built to test the transmission, not to be a work of art. The transmission was very difficult to fit in, but I finally found a design that worked. The shifting ended up being done by worm gears attached to the sliding tire, that, when driven, would mesh with fixed racks and slide along axles, pushing the tire along with them. I was also quite impressed with the performance! The car could cruise along smoothly at enjoyable speed, or shift into lower gears to off-road about as much as FWD, an open differential, and low ground clearance would let it go. Like in my original design, the gearbox could also shift into neutral or reverse by sliding the tire along the disc. (This won't make much sense unless you look at my older post) Front suspension Rear suspension Some of the gearbox and drivetrain Front suspension, differential, and part of the shifting mechanism, with a sliding worm gear. Rear brake off Rear brake on More images can be seen at: https://bricksafe.com/pages/2GodBDGlory/mini-cooper-large I was pleased with this model as far as functionality went, especially with the gearbox, but the aesthetic was not very good.

If you are looking to get a wide variety of pieces that can be used for all kinds of MOCs in a single set, I would recommend the 42043 Mercedes-Benz Arocs as a good starter set. I got it in late 2016 as my first Technic set, and I think that it is likely the best starter set with which to build MOCs.

I'll have to try that! It looks both stronger and less bulky than many previous attempts!

That is an impressively refined, well-balanced model you have there!

I suppose any micro motor that would be used to control valves would have to have a rotation sensor, like the PU L and XL motors, but it seems to me that this would make the motor significantly larger. Could it have a sensor and keep the small profile, or is there an alternate way to effectively control the valves, without the sensor?

It depends on what you want to do. If you are content to use a premade profile from a set, you could use the Control+ app, but if you are looking for more flexibility, you will have to use the Powered Up app, which requires some knowledge of coding to use.

Just to be clear, I wasn't meaning that it would reduce the slack, but rather that it would slightly adjust the gear ratio, since the driver and follower gears would be different sizes, which could help counteract the slack, rather than eliminating it. Sounds like you've got it working, though!

My money is on the Bronco too. The only potential issue is that I believe the real Bronco is only to be sold in North America. Would the lack of an on-road counterpart hurt sales in the rest of the world? The Lego Defender was leaked before the real one was revealed! If we assume any new set would be a 4x4, I think the only real off-roader that could be revealed in the near future would be a new Toyota Land Cruiser (just based on following auto news), but I doubt they would unveil it in Frankfurt.

Honestly, 1:6 cars would be too massive I think. I have personally felt constrained by 1:8 size limitations, but by building supercars with the 94mm truck tires I achieved about 1:7, which was far bigger than 1:8. I see no need for 1:6, even for extremely complicated fan models, but 1:7 supercar tires would be intriguing! (By the way, the rear tire of the Harley Davidson has decent proportions to be the tire of a 1:7 sports car) 'Tis a shame. Fortunately, the loss of functionality will only make a major difference to a relatively small number of "serious" fans, who can afford to seek out the old designs.

There also might be a bit of slack in the connection between the 14T gears. One potential remedy could be to drive a 12T bevel gear with a 14T bevel gear (attached to the steering wheel) to give you a slight gear ratio to counteract the slack. I do love seeing 14T gears in use, though! They have plenty of good applications that many people miss out on by ignoring them.

I gotta say I like the off-road ones, with the aggressive look. Is this the only entry to TC19 with them? EDIT: I just remembered the Mondial bike with those tires.

Thanks guys! Well, it wasn't power limited! I built it with a similar axle to trial trucks, with portal axles and no differentials, but the suspension didn't offer the most travel, departure angle was quite bad with the crane arm on the back, and the center of gravity was rather high. It would probably drive anywhere you would need it to get to, but it wouldn't be the best for taking on extreme obstacles. Of course, if you should tip over, you've got a chance at righting yourself with the crane arm!

Here's another older MOC: This model of a Mercedes-Benz Unimog U500 was intended to bridge the worlds of cars/trucks and construction equipment, to allow me to get some experience at construction vehicles without totally leaving my comfort zone. In the end, the model used all eight IR channels and a switch, providing it with fairly complete functionality. I think it is one of my better looking models, which means it is probably about the same as many builders worse looking models! Functions: -Live axle suspension -Four-Wheel-Drive with four XL-motors and I-4 piston engine -Steering with a Servo motor -Winch with an L-motor (I think this one was controlled by a switch, since I have eight other RC functions) -Bed tip (sideways) with an L-motor -Crane arm rotation with either an M-motor or an L-motor (Oh, the things you forget in a few months time!) -Crane arm lifting with a motor and a linear actuator -Crane arm tilting with a motor and a linear actuator -Bucket "digging" with a motor and a linear actuator -Outriggers with an M-motor -Tipping cab -Opening doors None of the functions in this model were particularly complicated, with them all being controlled directly by motors, but it ended up being quite a playable model. The drive was built to about the same standards as my Trial Trucks, so it had no reliability issues, and it could off-road about as far as its poor dimensions and center of gravity would allow. The cab tipping was also satisfying for me, because a rubber band caused the supports for it to snap into place to hold the cab up. The functions were mostly reliable, but I am sure that the geometry of the crane arm was atrocious, and it wasn't much good for digging anything. I guess this is something I will have to improve on if I wish to build better construction equipment! Here are a bunch of the more interesting images, but more can be seen at: https://bricksafe.com/pages/2GodBDGlory/mercedes-benz-unimog-u500

Perhaps the fact that it was a knock-off buggy motor had an affect? I think tiny cars like that are the most fun option for performance cars with Lego motors!

Whether or not you succeed, it looks like a very cool machine you are making!

Since I don't generally build MOCs for others to replicate them, I am perfectly fine using any obscure piece I can get my hands on. In fact, finding a scenario in which only some obscure part (which I happen to have!) will do can be very satisfying for me!

The central differential is interesting! It makes me wonder if any of the few real 2WD bikes used one.

Looks interesting! It would be the first instance I have ever seen of a rubber-band CVT being used in an actual model, rather than as a proof-of-concept!

This is another MOC from last summer that I am just getting around to posting now. Soon I will be caught up! I had previously built many small cars at tiny scale, usually powered by two PF L-motors to give good performance. When I finally got an RC Buggy motor (admittedly, a cheap Chinese one...), I was excited to see what it could do in such a small, light car. Although the real GTI is absolutely front-wheel-drive in real life, it would have been nearly impossible to model it, so it has traditional RWD with the buggy motor geared up a bit to counter the slow speed of the tiny tires, while a PF Servo steered. The hood could also open. I put a fair bit of effort into the aesthetic, and was pleased with it, but it ended up being heavier than desired, so performance, while good, was not astonishing. Worst of all, I seemingly forgot all about taking pictures, so all I can show you is my YouTube video: By the way, there is a rear roof on the car, although my YouTube thumbnail shows it with most of the roof removed (I was having major problems with IR reception in the sunlight) The buggy motor worked well, and I may have another shot at tiny buggy-motor powered cars, but perhaps with somewhat lighter bodywork. Of course, that may need to wait until summer, since gyms are shut down and snow covers outdoor areas...

That thing has style! It is hard to tell, but are you using Dark Bluish Grey engine block parts (from only one set in 2004), or are they just custom chromed? I would love to see someone use such an obscure part. Or they could be the more common Light Bluish Grey, but they do look a little different to me.