hrontos

They are definitely not completely the same, but at least look like the smaller one being inspired by the big one. Is it even 9398 chassis? It seems to be much lower than 9398. It looks like he used some pictures of his older model with XL motors for the challenge, because the new version with 9398 chassis as published recently is higher and no longer so nice defender.

LEGO Technic Team had no problem to remove 100% copies of models created by Designer Han from the challenge. It was enough to write a comment on that entry. But they did not removed entries which were only similar (they left there entries which differ only by colors) so exact rule is not known. In this case the front mask is completely the same looks very similar (after taking a closer look), engine hood is using different parts, mud guards are the same, door windows are similar or the same, side line using axles and not beams to make it look better is the same, roof was added, so it will be their decision. Landrover is such specific and recognizable design that they will look all very similar. But I think that he may be built yours first and then rebuilt it. It is very low probability that he would use the same color scheme when starting from a scratch without being heavily inspired by your model. And more over - he published his creation on 12th of October - only 12 days after publishing official rules. Creating it without inspiration would probably take longer. The small one is different but with high probability inspired by yours.

A bit off the topic: I bought mine from eBay Germany last year, the seller was from Austria, he used it just as a display model. It was complete, not a single missing piece, even the extra pieces were included. You should try to get it. I got mine for only 71EUR (including shipping), which was incredible price for the model in excelent condition. Spring or spring-summer seems to be the right season for buying, since now the prices are very high. My son was 7 at that time and it took him one week to build it (each evening I prepared him about 250+ pieces for the steps for the next day and told him that we have to wait for the other parts to come next day by mail). I did not wanted to show him all parts at once, since I had an experience with him building 8265 - he wanted to finish the model at once, he was tired and a bit disapointed, that I did not let him build all day long. This daily "dosage" of parts approach worked very well - something more than one hour of building every day and a play after that. It works quite well for these large models. Beveled version is different, but event this one without bevels looks good. Try to use camera angle of about 45-60 degrees. It add a bit deeper perspective to the picture which looks nice in case of these longer models. Looking forward to see the version rendered with the bevels. After that try some HDR lighting. For example http://www.hdrlabs.c...bl/archive.html. Indoor images look quite good on rendered models. I like the Gold Room - it has many light sources so it creates many highlights on the model. HDR images may add some tint to the colors of the model. The Gold Room makes the model look a bit yellowish. It can be compensated by adding "emission" keyword to the generated sky_sphere like this: sky_sphere { pigment { image_map { hdr "kMt-Washington-Gold-Room_Ref.hdr once interpolate 2 map_type 1 } } rotate <0,105,0> emission <0.98,0.98,1.0> } It reduces red and green components to 98% of the original. Red+Green = Yellow. Proper values are a matter of trial and error approach. The keyword "rotate" allows you to rotate whole sky_sphere (in this example 105 degrees along vertical - y - axis) so it is like you were in the room and turn around to get proper lighting of your model. Works very nicely with the wooden floor I posted before, since the wooden floor likes the overall colors of the Gold Room.

I am glad it works for you. You had there two planes and POV-Ray displayed the white one. Background color and transparency have and influence of those areas of the output image which do not contain anything (no model, no floor or any other object that could be rendered). Those pixels will get background color or will be transparent.

Yes, you have to remove original white floor generated by conveter at the end of the generated pov file. Or uncheck "add base plane" on the scene tab before conversion. And then add the floor to the pov file.

LDD usually won't let you rotate bricks, when some of the are not connected and they just placed there (using scafolding or whatever). So try the connected selection tool to check if model is completely connected. Model can be rotated also in the POV-Ray. There is a variable named ldd_model_transformation that can be used for this. Just finding correct angle can be tricky.

Bounding boxes are really square, but base plane position uses real model dimension and not bounding boxes dimensions. So it should be the lowest point of the model as "seen" by the POV-Ray. The post contains commented POV file, floor is at the end of the file. When you render the file, you will get that image (LXF is there to help you generate missing includes for the POV file - just convert it, you do not have to render it). Floor can be easily copied to any POV file.

Absence of some molds may be really limitating, but I presume that to reintroduce them is cheaper than a development of a completely new model. So the savings from development could be used for the molds. Of course, to produce again old style battery box, cables, motor for the 8421 is too much, so it is very unlikely to be re-released, but 8275 should be possible without significant problems. It would be a nice tradition to re-release each year one of the classic sets. Just like they have a flagship each year, they would have some re-released older one - may be with some bonus or as a limited edition.

Today, I was asked how to make picture with trans brick look really lighting. Something like this: LXF is here (needed only to force converter to generate needed includes). Commented POV file is here.

According to Philo's home page, each channel of V2 receiver can provide 1.5A continuous, totalling 3A (3.3A according to datasheet). XL motor stalled "eats" 1.8A. Typical normal it is only 0.5A. So it can safely power only 2XL motors, but gives a possibility to reach maximum torque out of XL motor (more than double compared to V1). Each battery box can handle also only 2 XL motors. Battery box protection is rated 0.750mA. When you try to get 3A out of it, protection is activated almost immediately.

OK, understand. Than it is perfect to use axles, they give much more realistic look if you really want it for display and not for playing purposes.Beams wouldn't be so nice and realistic.

Usually I have no problem to work with the PC while rendering. I have experienced problem with YouTube freezing, other applications work pretty good. When it is too slow for some work, I pause it. I never burn a CD or DVD while it is running - for such tasks I pause it always.

Amazing model. I like your braking system. Very nice design.

To get it less angled: attach some beam and pin to front mudguard and use the rotation tool to rotate whole model and make it sit straight. LDD2POVRay uses lowest point of the whole model as point through which the plane is going so when model is rotated due to some wrong manual rotation or due to use of the auto align tool, it will fly. And to the render times: The models from my signature were rendered at 1600x893, no AA and lowest level of detail - this means no bevels, because I wanted more pictures and I needed them this year . Each picture took about 2 hours to render. Original 800x443 pictures are available here. I rendered recently also 9396 Rescue Helicopter at 4800x2700, no AA, because desired target resolution of the final image was 1600x900. With maximum level of detail (all bevels), it took about 4 days per picture.

I think, to make it more sturdy. These axle based connections disassembly quickly.

Technic models are more expensive to render, because technic beams contain many beveled edges. Each technic hole consists of 4 circles modeled as dodecagon and this means 48 bevels for each technic hole. Standard studed brick contains only 16 bevels in total. So technic models are more memory intensive and take much longer to render. I presume that replacement of those dodecagons with smooth circles will not only improve look but also performance. But I do not have this solution yet.

If you have enough space for knob wheels, but you do not want to use them because of what was written here, use largest possible bevel gears. Small and larger bevel gears have the same shape of teeth, so they snap at the same certain force applied on tooth. When input torque is given, force applied on each tooth depends only on the diameter of the wheel. This means, that for smaller gears this force is larger and for larger is smaller. So for 20 tooth bevel gear the force applied on each tooth is 12/20 compared to 12 tooth bevel gear. Which is 60%, a bit more than a half of the force present in case of 12 tooth gear. As a consequence, you have almost double chance of snapping to occur with 12 tooth than with 20 tooth bevel gear.

I also prefer people, who are fair and write their true opinion while also being constructive. Writting just "this is bad" or "this is silly" is useless. I personally appreciate, when I get even a small advice. For me it means, that author of the advice is really interested in my work and thinks about it with me. Steering wheel in a wrong direction is really a small mistake - I did not even noticed it - just like those small mistakes in the movies I never notice unless somebody tells me. He who makes no mistakes, makes nothing. So keep up good work, even with small mistakes.

I have been looking for a driver for the police quad bike and it looks like the HeroFactory XL Rocka and Stormer fit quite well. OK, I admit, that this one is not exactly policeman. Let's pretend, he has stolen the bike. Rocka XL was built by Toa_Of_Justice.

I like the compact size. Very nice. That turntable is really a weak point, but reinforcement would probably mean to make it larger. And I like the current size. Just right for kids to play with.

I think that in many cases it it just an overlooked mistake. Working steering wheel is expected by default, so nobody pays too much attention to it and focuses on the other features of the model. And then is the time for the people who like to spot mistakes in the movies and spot such mistakes also in videos presenting models.

LDD model is here.

Taking into account what was written here, what kind of input images do expect to be supported? As Phoxtane mentioned, lighting conditions and multiple angles helped a lot in case of that mindstorms sorting machine. And as ShaydDeGrai mentioned, even to determine the orientation of the brick you should be able detect studs or other important points on images, but on standard images of some bricks on a table, you will not have enough details. OCR software is in principle doing similar in 2D, but again under certain strictly defined conditions. Of course such a library would be great even if it worked under some strict conditions - like in that minstorms example - this means, one brick at a time and "scanned" from more angles in controlled conditions.

Did you see this "official attempt"?

It looks like a combination of a black 6x6 parabola, a parabolic reflector and a smaller parabola. A very nice design. Rims are standard for Unimog wheels.