Blakbird

This is a bit of an unusual review from me since I am writing it from my hotel room in England. I was visiting the UK on business and took the opportunity to buy a 42000 since it is available before normal release at the Argos stores here. This means I didn't have much of a build table, just my hotel desk. And I didn't have any good lighting or my DSLR camera, so all these photos were taken with my iPad. I apologize in advance for the quality. All things considered, I think it came out fairly well. You can get larger versions of all these images at my Brickshelf. Here is the box. In an unusual twist, it is actually a bit smaller than you would usually expect for a set this size. You can see the alternate model on the back. Inside the box are a large number of polybags which are made of a smoother and more flexible material than I have seen before. The instructions come packed with cardboard to keep them safe. The second image shows all the parts unpacked. The instructions come in an unnecessary number of volumes as usual, in this case 3. There are so many stickers that they even take 2 sheets. Let's take a closer look at some of the parts. This first image confirms that we do indeed have a new source of the rare 81.6x36VR tires which previously only came in the 8146 Nitro Muscle set. These have been used in quite a few MOCs with instructions lately, so they have become quite scarce. The new model should flood the market with new parts. You will also notice the wheels are black which are always in demand. The next image shows the huge number of panels you get here. Lots of rare white panels and a few of the new smallest panels in red. We also get 4 of the always in demand 5x11 panels in black. There is some more good stuff here including 4 stiff shock absorbers, 16 steering arms, 7 9L links, and of course the new front and rear hubs which have been discussed in detail elsewhere. Some people (like myself) tend to judge the overall goodness of a set by how many gears it has. By that measure, this set is respectable although it cannot touch 8043 or 8110. Don't forget the 3 mini linear actuators. I am torn on these. Functionally, I feel they were totally unnecessary in this set and would rather have had the old style dampers like the Silver Champion. On the other hand, people buying for parts will love the presence of the mLAs. Let's start building! This first image shows the beginnings of the chassis which is an inexplicable mixture of black and red. I wish it had all been black. Now we'll get started on the gearbox. The function of this gearbox is to switch between using the external crank to drive the rear wing or to lift the body to reveal the engine. Real modern F1 cars do have the ability to open the rear wing using a system called DRS (Drag Reduction System), so this is at least realistic. I don't think there has even been an F1 car with a powered system to remove the body though. In the upper part of the image you can see the 12 tooth gear used an input crank. This drives the right hand axle with two clutch gears. The mLA on the right will be angled up later and will drive the rear wing. The bevel gears and brackets on the left lead to the two yellow axle joiners which will drive the two mLAs lifting the body. Speaking of yellow, these images are a good example of the recent trend which I've decided to call "color vomit". You know how when you vomit it contains a mix of everything you ate all jumbled together? I think that's how they picked the colors for some of these parts. They just mixed together everything that was lying on the table. The yellow in particular looks totally out of place and is the reason you won't see any advertisements showing the right hand side of the car. The yellow switching lever is hideous. Now the gearbox is completed and integrated with the chassis. This image shows the completed rear suspension assembly. Differential in the middle, Constant velocity joints on the axle, and new hubs. You can see the double wishbone suspension and why it is called that. The links result in a four bar linkage which keeps the hub parallel to the ground. The shock absorbers are inboard like on real F1 cars and are driven by 9L links used as pushrods. Unlike real F1 cars, these pushrods are on edge so the long side is into the wind which defeats the whole point. The second image shows the integrated V8 which is currently the engine configuration used by F1. Pistons are a bit big for scale though! You can't see it here, but the central crankshaft parts are now tan instead of the long time dark gray. Why? Don't know. One thing to note about the suspension here as compared to the Silver Champion is that the bellcranks are supported better so the whole thing flexes less. 8457 had the cranks cantilevered which resulted in a lot of deflection. Here, the crank axle is supported above and below. Now the rear suspension is installed on the chassis. You can see the black panels used to make the flat bottom of the car. I was impressed that LEGO included these. They could have saved some money by skipping them since you can't really see them once the model is completed, but including them makes it more realistic and makes it a better parts pack. Bravo! Now we'll do the front suspension and steering assembly. Again we have the double wishbone suspension but this time they are 5 studs apart instead on 3 on the rear. You can see the interesting assembly method which starts with a vertical frame and builds out. The steering rack is actually ahead of the axle which is a little unusual and results in an interesting detail a bit later. In the front view, you can see how the wishbone arms, suspension pushrods, and steering tie rods are all airfoil shapes with minimum forward cross section. This is very accurate. This little gearbox has a dual purpose. The little knob on top is the HOG (Hand of God) control for the steering. The right hand output will be for the steering will in the cockpit. Because the steering rack was in front of the axle, the steering wheel would have turned backward. But this little gearbox fixes that problem by reversing the direction of the wheel. The second image shows the completed front assembly. Time to integrate the front and the back. The first image shows the completed chassis. From this point forward, the result of the building will be purely cosmetic. Here we see the exhaust manifolds getting installed. This is a very strange configuration with only 3 exhaust ports for a bank of 4 cylinders. Additionally, the exhaust ports exit forward of the entire engine block. Must be high technology. Looks neat though. That's it! Here is the completed car before the application of stickers. Looks pretty good in perspective in the second image. What do you think of the tires? These are MUCH narrower than the tires used in the 3 older F1 cars, the 8458 Silver Champion, the 8461 Williams Racer, and the 8674 Ferrari. Here is the car from the rear and shown with the body lifted. You can just see the blue pins sticking out below the rear wing. This is where you install the battery pack if you motorize the model. Like the 8070, I feel this would ruin the look of the back of the car. This car doesn't need to be motorized anyway. It is pretty easy to control the two functions manually. On the other hand, if you wanted to R/C the car (which is quite easy), you would need the battery box. The second image shows the exposed axle where you would install the M-motor to drive the on board functions. It is right under the engine ahead of the rear wheel. The first image shows the bottom which is pretty flat but would look better with the chassis black. Finally, let's take a look at it with the stickers on. The stickers are pretty extravagant so they do make a big difference. I suspect there will be a variety of opinions on whether or not they improve the overall appearance. The final model is quite sturdy. I was able to pack it into my luggage assembled and it seems to be holding together. Final verdict? This is a pretty great model. As a parts pack alone I am sure it will be highly desireable. On top of that, it is a good looking, reasonably functional, reasonably accurate model. As always, there are nits to pick. I wish the colors were more consistent and the instructions weren't made for a toddler. However, this probably lowers the age limit at which children can build the model. The color issues can be easily corrected by adult builders, if desired. Allanp motorized this model by replacing the steering wheel with a servo and the V8 with an L-motor. Nothing more difficult than that, and it drives great, so once again I have to assume the designers intended for that to be done even though no instructions are included for doing so. Hope you enjoyed my review. I enjoyed spending some of my weekend abroad building the model. When I get back home, I'll take some pictures with the older F1 cars.

He is distracted by being in England right now.

You don't have to pump any air pump with this model. It has an automatic compressor that produces air pressure when needed and shuts down when not needed. It runs off the same batteries as the rest of the model. And of course real excavators do the same thing. The engine doesn't actually power the excavator directly, it runs a pair of hydraulic pumps that produce pressure on demand including to rotary motors propelling the base.

Only in finding the lift coefficient. Since this plane will have an undefined airfoil, well have to assume an arbitrary shape of fairly low efficiency.

If you post the final weight, the wingspan, and the average chord length, I can very quickly tell you how fast it will need to go to actually fly.

Don't worry, the paparazzi were outside the whole time so I'm sure you'll see some good shots. Maybe even video. I also expect it will be a hot topic for micro scale vignettes at the next con.

Thanks to those of you whom I met today; you know who you are. A nicer and more knowledgeable group of blokes I couldn't ask for. It is a rare opportunity for me to put a face with some of the names I have known here for so long. And I was lucky enough to acquire a 42000 which I will be building tomorrow and then importing back to the USA with me!

Of course you can make a LA version of an excavator and plenty of people have. However, there would no point in converting this model because then it wouldn't be anything like this model any more. If you want an R/C linear actuator model then I suggest Jurgen's. One of the prime design points of this model is the fact that it uses all pneumatics for the hydraulic functions of the real excavator. That is a good point. If you want to learn about how to pack complex mechanics into a small space and how to use pneumatics most effectively, then I think you will get a lot from this model.

I'm off to meet two of you today! Should be fun. Tomorrow (Sunday), I'll be making the drive from Birmingham to London and staying near Heathrow, so if anyone else is on the way and wants to say hello, give me a shout.

More blades means more lift per unit diameter, but it also means more torque required and more drag. That's why you see fast helicopters use 2 or 3 and heavy lift helicopters use 4 or 6. Military choppers often try to split the difference with 4. The CH-47 is heavy lift but since it has tandem rotors they can each have 3 blades. Also, at some point the blades become too close together and are fouled by the turbulent wake of the preceding blade, so 6 is about the max. The previous which shows the white blades with very wide chords won't be very good. Not enough free space between the blades. Heli blades are always constant chord, not tapered, and if you were going to taper them they would be wider at the root, not the tip. All of the suggested parts will act as flat plates rather than airfoils. This means they will produce lift, but at a tremendous drag and turbulence penalty.

I was in Scotland in may. Went all the way from Edinburgh to Aberdeen to Skye. Too bad I missed you!

This may be a strange topic, but I find myself visiting Birmingham, UK (Wolverhampton to be precise) this weekend with nothing to do. Are there any Technic fans in the area who fancy meeting up? If so, feel free to reply or PM me and I'll get you my contact information. I have already spoken to Richard Brown and hope to see his Demag AC-50!

Feel free to try to modify it to incorporate your idea! Any model of this scale involves a lot of compromises to get the range of motion right since there is only a single choice of LEGO pneumatic actuator whereas a real excavator designer can buy exactly the size they need.

If it helps I have a high res picture of the hoses on Technicopedia. I agree with the other posters, the old hose is smoother, stiffer, and less elastic than the later silicone hose. The difference is obvious if they are in your hand. In the high res picture you can see that one of my hoses is the newer variety (lighter black) because my 8860 was missing one. The old 858 auto chassis uses similar hose to 8860.

These two quotes were pretty funny one right after the other!

I have said my peace on this topic in the past, including deriving all the numbers for what it would take to really make LEGO fly. I don't see the need to belabor the point any further. However, I applaud the efforts of builders to further the LEGO state of the art. Advancement only comes through effort. While I don't feel that true flight is possible with entirely LEGO parts, we are all sure to learn much in the process of trying to get as close as possible. So far we have seen a control line model and now a motor which lifts its own weight. Next steps would be to lift flight structure, then to lift power source, then controlability. I just got off a 747 yesterday with a Technic friction pin in my pocket, so I have already made LEGO fly.

If the DNS info was wrong, there is nothing that your host can do to speed it up. It takes a couple of days to propagate to all the DNS servers worldwide. We just have to wait I guess.

I have built this truck from Han and I can confirm that it is a fantastic model. I don't think you'll find anything better that has instructions. It is enormous though.

I get an error that says "The URL is not resolvable". This suggests the domain name is not mapped to an IP address in DNS.

Nope, it is down for me just 300 miles from you. Haven't been able to access it all day. That suggests that there is nothing wrong with the server but it is a DNS issue. Some ISPs must have the updated DNS information and others do not. Apparently my provider has the wrong DNS information because it says the domain does not exist.

There a lot of things to like about this model including the new hub parts, but comparisons with the older F1 cars are inevitable. I much prefer the method of opening the body on the Silver Champion which used the rare damped actuators. Flicking it open and closed took only a second and looked great. Linear actuators make everything take forever. On construction equipment they make sense because they are simulating a real function. In this case, I would have preferred the dampers. In my opinion, every set which uses LAs needs to be motorized, so almost all of mine are. They are pretty fun to play with once motorized. However, the 8053 crane way my first exception because the battery box looked so incredibly ugly because of how it was integrated with the model that I could not bring myself to use it. This is another such case. I like the video of the motorized functions, but hanging a battery box from the real wing looks so terrible that I can't do it. With any luck I'll be building this set next week in the UK so I'll offer some more thoughts then.

Pretty hard to compare an excavator to a tow truck. I would say that 42006 is better for parts based on all the treads and actuators. It also has more functions and a better motorization option. 9395 has better wheels.

I just built it last night and actually think it works quite well. It is certainly much smoother than the 8043. The only reason the claw rotates when open or closed is that the linear actuator bottoms out and locks which causes the torque to transfer into rotation. As long as you don't bottom it out, there is no problem.

Yes, the 5x7 frames are a reasonable substitute for diagonal members. The key is to have corners which are fixed at 90 degrees, which the frame accomplishes. Pinned corners allow flexibility. You could also use a series of 3x5 L-beams to attach your crossmembers which would help a lot.

Yes, there are many places you can get custom printing done. However, the cost is very high for a single copy because a large portion of the cost is setup. The cost goes down exponentially with many copies. I had intended to print a copy of this for myself but it is probably not economical for a single copy. I might do more if I thought people wanted them, but it would still not be cheap on a per copy basis unless you did thousands of them.