dantheman12

looks great, the level of detail is impressive. Love the trailer as well :) The links work, but I believe you can embed the pictures automatically with a link, I've used flickr before but don't post on here very much. You can also click preview when you go to post so you can see if it embedded before you post. That's all I've really figured out, other people will almost definitely have some tips as well.

Some long awaited progress. Partly due to my Pick-a-Brick order taking nearly 3 months. Started working on the front body work, finally finished the front suspension with my new parts, and did a lot more work on the rear end. Quite proud of the rear suspension, I managed to fit the LSD in, and it's as close as I think I can get to the real thing with Lego parts, and it's more than sturdy enough for me. The sway bar doesn't really work, the axle just twists, but I dont see any better way to do it without it taking up way too much space.

when you mention steering arm, does that mean the steering 'hub', so then the distance from the point of rotation of the hub to the point where the tires rotate on the ground? and is the sin(1) is for something like the y component of the distance it steers for 1 degree? or am I thinking of something completely different?

Thanks for that, I put the worm gear in as I wanted the steering wheel to turn a realistic amount to each side when fully turning one way, but I underestimated how much the worm gear reduced the rotation. I'll have to experiement with a few other ratios - and will have to learn how to steering racks work in terms of rotation and teeth, never really thought about it before. I've already got the gear on the lowest layer, but I'm going to try using some system bricks around the rack to tighten it a bit and see how that works as well. But thanks again for the responses I appreciate it.

accident

The rigid hose and pins is a great idea, not many pieces available in technic or system to make angles like that without having to do anything complicated. Nice that it stays 1 stud wide as well.

What are people's experiences with making responsive steering? Currently trying to find some solutions. I'm working on connecting the steering wheel to the front wheels of my 1:8 silvia, currently the axles follows like this: steering wheel > universal joint > worm gear driving a 16 tooth gear > 24:8 gear ratio > 2 more universal joints > 7L steering rack driven by a 12 tooth gear. I need to do some work strengthening the worm gear, but happy with the overall design, although it seems way too fancy. But the steering wheel can turn about 270 degrees when changing direction without moving anything. I know the u - joints have a bit of slack, so stacking them can cause this issue, but the way I've built the front end theres a bit of a lengthy path the steering drive has to take to get to the rack. Has to go about 6-7 studs to the left, and then a couple studs down. Has anyone dealt with this before? Thanks

Yeah, I did a little bit of Blender at school a year ago, and then the model I found was a .blend file so downloaded it on my laptop and just did it like that. I'm honestly not sure how good it is compared to other software, just happened to be the only one I've used. Next year I believe I have a unit on CAD and 3D modelling, so looking forward to doing that, as I find it pretty fun.

Exactly what I was thinking, closest thing that might actually be made could be a 4L part with an axle hole on the end, like the 3L one we have already, although it seems unlikely. And even if you could access both sides, its hard enough to push the 2L part of a 3L pin with friction ridges out, so it wouldn't really work.

The model I used was around 400k polycount at first, had to get it all the way down to 40k to get it into studio. I had it at about 80k and managed to import it into parts designer, but when I tried to export to studio it didn’t like it at all.

Some work on the interior: Made the glovebox and passenger side of the dash: IMG_1557 by dan.vperger, on Flickr IMG_1558 by dan.vperger, on Flickr s15 interior 1 by dan.vperger, on Flickr The glovebox opens, altough I need a better way to open and close it. The whole structure needs some reinforcing, I will start working on the main structure of the windscreen so that it can have a solid construction connected to that. After a long time of relearning blender and figuring out what file size parts designer liked I managed to get a 3D model into studio. Very happy with this, already been so useful (credit). Also designed the seats in studio, yet to build them for real, definitely won't be with orange parts but ill use what I have and make sure they stay together well etc, but I am pretty confident they will, but would like to test before I spend nearly $20 AUD on each seat (according to bricklink). Very happy with them: Screenshot 2024-10-27 210339 by dan.vperger, on Flickr Screenshot 2024-10-27 210326 by dan.vperger, on Flickr Screenshot 2024-10-27 210308 by dan.vperger, on Flickr They are based off the very rare option b interior, only came in navy blue and this bright orange I chose: s15 option b seats orange door open by dan.vperger, on Flickr Although they aren't particularly recognisable, they add a nice splash off colour to the interior which would otherwise be a lot of black and grey, while still being based off a real thing on a stock silvia. Finally, I built my gearbox with the parts I had (missing the new driving rings and two 24 tooth clutch gears), I have to say I'm a bit disappointed with it. It has so much resistance, nearly the exact same as the previous one I built, even though it has more than half the number of gear meshes and axles. I think one of the limited number of 8 tooth gears I have is a bit damaged, which contributes, but without this I think it wouldn't make a huge difference. I also don't think it will even fit with the seats now, but we will see. IMG_1559 by dan.vperger, on Flickr I try to stay away from 8 tooth gears in general, but for the ratios I wanted it didn't seem possible (ratios for this one are listed in my last progress update). It seems it will come down to deciding between very realistic ratios and actual performance. I still have a lot of these decisions to make, but they can wait. I'm going to focus on some other 'easier' things for now :) Thanks for reading

You are right, I misunderstood this topic a bit, sorry.

building on studio and stumbled across something I haven't seen in a while: part 11125c01, the flywheel pieces from the old chima speeders. I know I have one somewhere in my collection but after a quick look couldn't find it. I wonder if its possible to take apart the assembly and connect just the metal flywheel to any parts we have currently? A small flywheel piece would be very useful for pneumatic engines made from just official parts (as I know a lot of people tend to modify parts for these things). When I find mine I'd like to test it. I wonder If anyone else could think of a use for it?

Nice model, nice to see another car thats not a supercar, and you've captured this one well. I really wish we had more colour options for the small ball joints, they are really useful but difficult to implement in body work. integrating them into technic as well with some parts such as a technic pin or axle with the socket like the 1x2 plate you used would also be really handy.

I’m amazed how quickly this thread has progressed! Really cool idea, it’s always been very frustrating trying to design realistic suspension with the given parts, a lot of them seem to almost inhibit creativity, being designed in ways where plastic is put in unnecessary places, not taking into consideration possible consequences. Like @gyenesvi mentioned about keeping the option for different gearing, I think an important thing to include is compatibility and options for customisation, I often wonder if bringing out more parts is always a good thing, as maybe one day there will be a part for everything, not requiring solutions using only the simple parts available. But that said it’s all about balancing different design elements to get the ‘best’ design.

I was literally thinking, why does no one use these they save so much space 😂. And when I read what you said I instantly remembered doing this exact same thing, I rebuilt a gearbox thinking I could save 1 stud easily and found out the hard way. Oh well. Yeah I’m gonna have to get my hands on some of the new parts anyway, although the new driving rings are $6 AUD each from Lego 😭 Hopefully bricklink comes in clutch but either way will have to splash out a bit.

Gearbox is on the way! I've made 2 designs so far, both 6 speed manual. have been experimenting with my shifting mechanism to see if reverse is possible, but should be able to add in reverse to either fairly easily (at the sacrifice of more space). I've tried to replicate the real car's ratios as well as possible, which are: 1 - 3.626 2 - 2.200 3 - 1.541 4 - 1.213 5 - 1.000 6 - 0.767 Design 1: credit to an unknown discord user - 'Talbe' for helping with this design IMG_1518 by dan.vperger, on Flickr IMG_1526 by dan.vperger, on Flickr IMG_1519 by dan.vperger, on Flickr IMG_1527 by dan.vperger, on Flickr Ratios: 3, 2, 1.5, 1.25, 1, 0.8 It has a LOT of gears, although it runs fairly well with a motor. the one I built IRL above was a quick mock up to test if it worked, so there is liftarms everywhere. Could definitely be condensed down a bit more. Design 2: still yet to build IRL, don't have any of the new 24 tooth clutch gears, and only 1 of the old driving rings. IMG_1523[1] by dan.vperger, on Flickr IMG_1524[1] by dan.vperger, on Flickr IMG_1521 by dan.vperger, on Flickr ratios: 3, 2.25, 1.5, 1.25, 1, 0.8 So far i'm liking this design better, the long skinny shape is more realistic, and it uses less gears, so should run a lot smoother, although it presents its own problems. The goal was to make it so the car could roll slightly in neutral. I've pretty much accepted that the back seats will be nonexistent, which I'm okay with as I'm leaning more towards a modified/racing look (roll cage will also be put in later), but it might be just too long. I've also done some more work on the back suspension, built a working sway bar that I am very happy with, but I need some more parts. So a parts order is due, I think I will finish the back suspension, and see how much room I have to work with. Also wanted to express me disappointment that the red differential doesn't have a hole to put an axle all the way through, meaning I couldn't use a 28 tooth gear with a clutch like I planned, as combined with an 8 tooth gear gave a ratio of 3.5, closer to the 1st gear ratio than 3. Might be possible to still include this ratio, but it would definitely increase the volume significantly, and I don't have any normal 28 tooth gears anyway. Thanks for reading :)

its part of the torsion diff it allows one side to turn a little bit and then gets pushed into the other side locking the back wheels. Theres a few videos on them just look up lego torsion diff.

started working on the rear suspension, made a mock up of how it will look. IMG_1493[1] by dan.vperger, on Flickr IMG_1492[1] by dan.vperger, on Flickr IMG_1491[1] by dan.vperger, on Flickr IMG_1490[1] by dan.vperger, on Flickr to make the cv joints fit i had to take apart the turntables and only use the black side, unfortunately i damaged the grey parts in the process. but the advantages of this mean it not only fits but spins much more freely, the turntable had a lot more resistance and a slight squeak. Really wanted to put a working sway bar in, and it works great, but the ground clearance is about 2 studs less than the front now, so when I properly build the frame for the whole back suspension Ill have to figure out a solution. the top control arm / link will be one of the 5x1 steering arms, but I don't currently have any. their will also be another small link where the ball joint is on top, only really for decoration and consistency with the real car, it is already more than rigid enough. The current design should also allow enough space for the springs to be upgraded to the new 9L shock absorber, which may be necessary to hold the final weight of the model, especially if motorised. next step will be to build the gearbox, and figure out how much space ill have left over to connect the gearbox output to the cream 20 tooth gear driving the LSD. Then I can plan it out in studio and fit the whole back part in, and finish the whole chassis.

A 6 speed + reverse manual gearbox with a single pivot point gearstick - in 1:8 scale.

Progress as of 27/09 - have been spending too much time on this and not enough time studying Extended the frame with the help of studio, and started working on the shifter. Still needs some work, as 1, 2, 5 and 6 are very unreliable, but this should all be able to be fixed by changing some of the parts used to mesh the shifting axles with the gearstick. Also need to put the seats in to make sure it doesn't get in the way. It is likely the back seats will be half gearbox half seat, not sure if I can do anything about this, but I will figure that out when I build to gearbox. I would put the gearbox between the back wheels but I need a lot of space for a realistic suspension set up, with 3 links on the top and side and a lower control arm. A few shots of the gearbox: 3rd and 4th work well, shifting to the sides in neutral works pretty well, altough even the soft springs provide a little too much resistance than is realistic or practical. But that being said I really want to incorporate some sort of spring to to the sides of the shifter as this design has been used many a times, so I want to add something to it so it doesn't feel like I'm copying anyone . Credit to @Gray Gear for inspiration, I've built something sort of similar to his 'safeshift' system, altough arguably this sort of gearbox needs something to ensure only 1 gear can be engaged at a time, especially if it's motorised. My design still needs improvement but experimenting with some different parts should be all I need to do. Another problem is the amount of wiggle room 3 liftarms next to each other with their pin holes facing up have. I'll try use plates to eliminate this issue, or when I get my hands on some 1x7 modified beams (the alternating pin hole ones) I'll see if they also have the same issue. If someone wants to test that for me that would be very useful to know :) This is the best design for the torsen diff i've got so far, (credit to MaxBrix on youtube for the inspiration https://youtu.be/6oNm01wcvrs?si=xHXlO5dR9aBuZr5i ), If I could make a helical LSD like in the real car it would be incredibly cool, but its not at all possible with the parts we have available, definitely not at 1:8 scale, and I would be very impressed if someone built one at all out of lego . This design below is far from perfect, it will be a pain to drive it but it's the best I've seen or come up with. the most problematic part is that the axles fall out unless you use the 5.5L axle, but these are way too long to put the cv joints in. But I will tackle that another day.

I would only use them for lower control arms, and with a custom hub with the suspension mounted somewhere to the side of the cv joint

How long are these steering arms? assuming 6L, im saving up for a bricklink order with these included but would like to experiment and see how far they would stick out. I'm trying to fit a torsen diff in a 21 stud wide suspension set up, and it looks like it will be quite a squeeze. Thanks.

Im very absorbed in this WIP, the highly realistic mechanic parts combined with the system bricks for the panels is such a great combination, love the boot mechanism as well, it just perfectly mimics real life. Well done so far.