Lipko

The Volvo flagship has the pendular suspension you say on the rear. Other official wheel-loader sets don't have a supension at all. I can't list MOCs, but pretty much all I remember that have suspensions have this correct setup. I recall some telehandler MOCs with admittedly unrealistic four-wheel independent suspension (one of Sariel's for example), but most of them (if having a suspension) have the correct, rear pendular suspension. My upcoming and ready-in-2050 telehandler has it too. So I don't see a fundamental misunderstanding of this machines your post implies to me. I can't think of other examples, maybe the lack of 3 steering modes is many terlehandler and the alike models, but I think the lack of something is not the same as a fundamentaly wrong rendintion (I could only get two modes work in my far-future telehandler for example, though I know there are 3 or even 4).

The latest "setup" I used: Natural lights, some random table in my girlfriend's parent's place, two thick cardboard paper ducktaped together, and a grey cardboard clipped on them, plus a tripod. The biggest issue with my photos is that they are noisy. I don't know if it's a camera issue, light issue or something else.

Okay. As for 2015, I'll probably get the crawler craned too. Looks badass and it's blue.

Hmm, lying to your wife/girlfriend because she doesn't understand/like your hobby. I must be doing something wrong becasue I don't have to do this with my girlfriend but seems natural for others to do.

Time to stop MOCing.

Wow Jim, those are some beautiful photos. The best I could do (both taken with natural light):

The only time I do photography is when I take photos of my Lego models. And I can make okay photos. I do it with my girlfriend's 10 year old camera. Planning to buy a new one, probably would cost less than a Technic flagship model. I don't have a video camera, so I have to borrow it. My post processing skills mean clicking auto color correction and auto contrast and then resize. There are some free tools for that. There are really just a few things you need to make okay photos. -Big enough single color background (sheet of A0 paper for example) -some camera (really, even a cell phone can be good enough) -good lighting. If you don't have one (like I don't), then take your time and shoot photos under the open air. Okay, some contests are in the winter and you may be unlucky and it's too dark outside, but really, even the ambient light on a cloudy winter day can be better than a single lamp. Orbuy one additional desk lamp. Sure, the image will be yellowish. -fix positioning of the camera (no need for a camera stand, any rigid flat surface can work) -let there be some distance between the camera and the model. The biggest issue for me with sloppy photos is not the lighting and the background, but the bad distorted image due to the perspective. It can be used pretty well as an effect, but usually it's safer to take the photos from 2 meters and use the zoom feature of the camera -take tons of photos, review them, then take the photos from angles you forgot. Really, always plan to make another photo session because it's 100% that you will forgot to take important pictures -use a image editor program (GIMP for example) and apply auto color and auto contrast. Or manual contrast too, if you have many black parts in the model. And read this: http://sariel.pl/201...ssing-tutorial/ so yes, making bad photos is just an excuse in my opinion. Just like making a sloppy explanation text with tons of grammar mistakes.

Yes, but at least it can be used as a reference to delete/report posts. And since it's just one specific thread, it wouldn't mean much extra effort to keep it clean.

I thought about the Ideas thread, and I have an idea, though it seemt to be little tedious. So: ideas thread, with only idea posts, no questions/comments on the ideas are allowed. If anyone has a question/comment about the idea, one can send a PM to the idea poster, then the idea poster can freely edit and expand the idea post, if (s)he wants. The general problem with general threads is that there are no levels, so a new post about a new topic will melt with the reactions, and reactions to various posts will also interweave with each other.

I agree with D3K that these threads are about "patenting" of some sort (at least to prove you were the first in something), which is perfectly understandable (I tend to do that too, I just don't have ideas). Technic and Lego in general seems to be pushing, I see Lego ads everywhere+internet results in exponential growth of AFOLs and MOCers, which means quite a competition. No one wants to be seen as copying others ideas, I too have the urge continuously that I have to ship faster, I have to rush with prototyping or else someone else will accidentally overtake me, and my novel-at-the-start MOC will be just another MOC, probably copying ideas/concepts/themes. So yes, we will see growth of WIP, idea and placeholder threads, unless we figure out something to solve it. I don't know what, another general "ideas" thread, or just removing individual idea threads and encourage people just to upload images/videos on the net somewhere to cover their butts that the idea was theirs first.

There are some dedicated threads, even though they are not pinned. I'm actually glad that there aren't 10-15 topics pinned, which is the case on many forums.

Of course it's doable, but I don't get it, sorry Using ugly colors will only work against the contestant, I see no need to forbit it, and I do agree with the clear color coding of the body, but not the chassis. Maybe I'm naive, and letting to use colors will make people try to bend the rules without any common sense. Unfortunately we see that frequently in every contests. So I explained the reason myself...

I'm not an old member here and may remember wrong, but I remember that when I joined, more than half of the topics has showcased finished MOCs. Sure, it was not as lively as nowadays, but as a Technic enthusiastic and very curious person, it is telling for me that there are 7 threads that is marked as "read" by me on the page, with the bad habit of refreshing the site every 5 minutes. EDIT: hell, I am an old member here. 4 years and I have hardly shown anything...

Maybe I missed it, but I don't understand why it is a good idea to only let grey color to be in the chassis and how strict that rule is. Are coloured pin+bushes allowed, or coloured angle connectors and axle connectors, or is that forbidden too? Maybe I'm the only one here who actually loves color vomit and don't want to see plain grey chassis. I won't enter the contest, but this rule bugs me.

Why don't you just use T-beams?

Lovely build. how did you fix the front lights onto the panels?

I envy your Lego rooms guys. I have to think twice before I buy Legos, because of the lack of space.

Will the categories be completely separated or will non-pros have a chance to beat the pros? Maybe I would not separate the two strictly. For example voters should not be forced to vote in both categories, and the ranking would be announced as also as one list, not just the separated A and B lists. So basically everything would be as it was before, but the first pro/non-pro in the list also gets a prize and gets attention.

8865 is beautiful, still my favourite official supercar set. Sure, the protruding wheels made it totally unproportional, but somehow I still see it as the "sexiest".

I think it depends on the person. In my opinion, the thing you say is the most important in modeling, but for me, it's not the hardest thing. I think the only thing I'm good at is what you say (I call it "model balance" but your wording is better). That's why I do well in contests but suck at building anything technically novel or not novel but complex. I am simply more suited to be a designer/artist than an engineer, and I struggle with every single mechanical problems, problems that were solved by 10000s of people already.

That is just awesome. One year is not much time for a model like this. I have spent more that one year (okay, with many pauses and some other models) on just a simple crap telehandler, which would be dwarfed by this model both size and function-wise.

Every. Single. Part. EDIT: More specifically steering is always gets to be the hardest part in all of my builds. I always make the mistake of thinking that it will be easy and leaving it to the end of prototyping. Only to find out that there is no space to route the axles to either the steering wheel or the HOG. Second hardest: placing the battery box. It's just huge. I will have to give up on a feature because of that for sure. That's why I rarely build MOCs with motors.

Or dat r2d2 with teh eyebalz

The shock absorber should be okay if its chassis end is secured properly (from both sides of the hole and the mounting point is quite rigid) and if you insert a longer axle that goes through both lower suspension liftarms.

Assembly line/cell? Something not too big but capable to actually assemble something.