plastic-man

Don, thank you for the explanation. That's very interesting. I'm actually getting the impression that these days, medieval may be even more niche than space. I'm trying to remember if I saw any space themed Lego the last times I looked at Lego sets in stores. There could have been a possibility of that. And yes, I do see the licensed themes really dominating now. Lego has certainly been very successful with that (especially movie tie-ins.) Star Wars etc. Gosh, I remember many decades ago in primary school, a fellow student (another kid) had a home made Star Wars Tie-Fighter (which I assume he made himself.) It was not made of Lego though. It was made of common household items (two icecream container lids and some kind of tube etc.) I was quite impressed. It looked really good.

Back in the 1980s when I was into Lego in a big way with my brother, there were two themes that we focused on - space and medieval. Unfortunately, I can't remember what sets we had specifically as it was so long ago. Though I had the impression that both of these themes were very popular at the time. Though these days when I browse the Lego sets in department stores, I see a decent variety of themes but no medieval theme. No knights, no castles. A complete absence of anything even related to the medieval time period with the Lego sets on display. Also, my young nephews are into Lego and it seems that the space theme is very popular with them. And other themes as well such as ocean exploration. Though they have no medieval themed Lego. And they didn't seem to be familiar with it either (when I asked them about it.) I actually wondered if medieval Lego was still being produced or if it had been phased out long ago. Perhaps it is still around but not in local stores / shops where I am anymore. Can you still buy this kind of Lego in your local stores or is it mainly available online these days?

This looks amazing. I marvel at all the details and colours.

Thanks for the clarification. Ive got a lot to learn about axles and whether I need ones with stops, pins or without.

I think I will purchase the axle shafts last after I receive everything else. That way, I can work out how long they need to be.

I purchased the 6588 gear box last night. Thanks for the recommendation. Good to know that the 24 tooth gear has a good grip on the axle. Would the 8 tooth gear likely stay in place as well? I see a brown piece of plastic on the 8 tooth gear in the picture above that looks like some kind of stopper.

Thank you! That's a great visualisation. Really puts everything into perspective. And I see that the triangular pieces are an alternative way of doing this. I would like to make my setup permanent so that I can travel around with it to different outdoor locations (where I'll be using the DIY camera slider.) Guess I'll have to decide which option would be more suitable as a permanent setup - the triangular pieces or the blocks and plates. I admit I have already bought some Technic blocks. The 6588 gearbox looks like a great apparatus. I could visualise that it would also support the 8 tooth gear with the same axle that's sticking through the first 24 tooth gear that's being driven by the worm gear. However, I guess I'd need something else to keep the second 24 tooth gear in place (if I use 6588)...perhaps some blocks and plates (or a triangular piece?) Would I need stops on all the axles for the gears? I'm not sure if that's a stop I see up against the 24 tooth gear that's being driven by the worm gear in your visualisation.

I am completely new to the world of Lego Technic. And it seems that I have a lot to learn. Though I am learning as I go. I am planning to recreate a specific arrangement of gears as seen in this youtube video - What I'm trying to simulate starts at 2:20 in the video. Actually, the section I'm interested in runs from 2:20 - 6:40. I won't need the switches and it's not necessary to watch the whole video for what I want to do. I recognise the gears that are being used. To me, it looks like one worm gear, two 24 tooth gears and one 8 tooth gear. What I'm not certain about is the axle shafts. What lengths I would need. And whether I would need stops or pins on the shafts to keep the gears in place. Though I guess it's hard to recommend exact lengths for the axle shafts considering that my block arrangement may be a bit different to the one shown in the video. I guess it's safer to go a bit longer rather than ending up being too short. In order to get the correct spacing so that the gears are the correct distance from each other, is it necessary to use those white plates that are featured in the video? I don't suppose you could simply replace those plates with more blocks? Or maybe not as I notice when two plates are used together, the combined thickness seems to be a bit narrower than a block. At least it looks that way to me. The trouble is I am finding those types of plates to be very rare and hard to find. I have located these plates at this online store but I don't know if they're the same thickness as the ones in the video - https://dashbrick.com.au/products/lego-plate-1-x-8-light-grey-3460?pr_prod_strat=jac&pr_rec_id=d1e01829a&pr_rec_pid=6723857973283&pr_ref_pid=4810379722787&pr_seq=uniform The 'output' in the video is a red and white object that rotates and ends up being connected to an arm. These two pieces will be replaced with a spool of string that will be connected to a camera and ball head on a home made camera slider. The camera and ball head together would likely weigh over 500 / 600 grams (or possibly a bit more.) As the spool rotates, the camera and ball head will be pulled along via the string for a video tracking shot. I need quite a slow speed for the camera movement. And obviously, I also need a lot of torque (for pulling all that weight.) From my research, Ive settled on a Power Functions XL motor. I did purchase an XL motor fairly recently along with a AA battery box.