Blakbird

A truly excellent interview with lots of fascinating information. I think you would be hard pressed to find a modern Technic builder who was not inspired by Jennifer in some way. Whether it be the complexity of her models, the accuracy, or even the thoroughness with which she describes them on her website, everything is top notch. Thanks Paul for doing that interview, and thanks to Jennifer for taking the time to respond (and for all those models in the first place). I am personally interested in replicating all of her models but it will take a long time indeed due the compact and innovative ways that they are built.

Are you saying it is stuck? Have you had these switches since they were new? If not, it is possible someone tried to disassemble them. If the cover is removed it could leave a space around the black part and allow air to leak out. They are not made to be taken apart and reassembled, though a couple of people have done it successfully. I would suggest putting in a little synthetic grease along the edges and see if that seals the leak. ( I use "Super Lube" as an assembly aid when building rocket motors and swear by the stuff, so I recommend that.)

I have over 100 pneumatic switches and I can't say I have ever had one leak. If the valve is not centered, it does indeed let air out but that is by design. Other than loose hoses, I'm not sure what else would cause the problem you are mentioning on multiple switches. On the other hand, I have had quite a few pumps that leak and won't put out much pressure.

I absolutely understand! Please do not feel pressured by me to do anything you would prefer not to. I understand very well how much time it takes to make one of these models in MLCAD, and it takes even longer to then break it down into reasonable instruction steps. I've done it myself. The difference, I think, is that I actually enjoy this kind of CAD work. In response to some of your other comments about "cleaning up" the model, I would offer a few more thoughts. For me personally, the primary reason for wanting such a CAD file is to be able to actually build a copy of the real model. So the CAD file does not need to be perfect, it just needs to be close enough to be able to figure out where the parts go. With this is mind, I would be willing to offer my own services to the project. If you were willing to build the basic CAD file based on studying the actual model, I would be willing to then clean it up and break it down into instruction steps. At that point, assuming that you and I and Sheepo agree, I'd be willing to make the finished file available for free for other people to use, study, or build a copy of their own. Take your time and do what you like with your LEGO hobby. Don't let anyone take away the fun from you. But if you would be willing to participate in such a project before Sheepo takes this apart and it is lost forever, I think many people from all over the world would appreciate it.

I'm into both R/C and LEGO Technic. I have some R/C cars that will go 50mph and I can say without reservation that you will never achieve this with LEGO. The parts are just not made for it. You need very high speed/torque motors, ball bearings, tight fits, balanced wheels, and steel drive shafts to go that speed. LEGO loose fits on axles, plastic axles, and unbalanced wheels would destroy themselves even if you could turn them that fast. Cool idea though. Perhaps you should concentrate on building a LEGO R/C model that just functions well at all before jumping to the high speed arena. Perhaps you will come up with some ideas to improve the speed in the process.

That's correct! Pictures and videos are great, but when I see a truly remarkable model, I really want to build it. Firstly, I want to hold it in my hands, turn it over, look at it from every angle and admire it. Then I want to try all the functions and watch them as they work. Then I want to be able to build and disassemble it to dissect every detail and function and absorb the physics. When all that is done, I want it to sit proudly on my shelf along with every Technic set ever made and the greatest MOCs I have been able to reproduce. Those hallowed shelves are like a museum where I preserve LEGO Technic for posterity and history, and I think this model deserves to be there. Plus, of course, it is completely awesome. Some models can be reproduced from photographs if you take enough time. That's what I did with Crowkillers' Gallardo. But I know I'd never be able to reproduce this Veyron just from the pictures. It is too dense with parts. For what it's worth, your Little Devil will be on those same shelves shortly Jurgen. I'm working on Nathanael Kuiper's Silver Supercar first. The great models must be preserved!!

This is a pretty important project, so I guess you are going to have to move to Spain. You never know, perhaps Sheepo would loan you the car to do a digital file to share with the world. It never hurts to ask! I have had a couple of people loan me large models to do instructions or Ldraw files. They obviously have to put a lot of trust in you to loan you a valuable model, but I know you are reliable.

Thanks Jurgen! I will definitely have to try out that gearbox. Now that you have made an MLCAD file of the gearbox, the only thing left is for you to make a file of the entire car! I know you have the skills. I will gladly donate any of my internal organs to you for such a file, or whatever else you require.

I've been waiting for this one for a long time, as I'm sure many others have as well. Thanks to Nathanael for putting in the effort to provide this to everyone.

Where did you get those alternate instructions? They are not part of my original kit.

Stunning, simply stunning. This is without a doubt one of the finest technical MOCs I have ever seen. You are to be commended on the excellent scale representation of the actual excavator. I think this is the first time I have seen a tracked excavator which can compete with Jennifer Clark's JCS JS220 for build quality. Very well done. If you get sick of it, you should donate it to me.

Possibly. I've built it, and the Annihilator can't lift much, nor can any Technic creation due to the torsional limitations of plastic axles. The model uses counterweights to make it possible. I'd recommend doing the same thing with the rocket, or at least mounting the rocket so it rotates at it's CG. In order to do this, it would have to hand off the back of the launcher.

I think you are between a rock and a hard place with these ball joint parts. In stock configuration, they are so tight that your suspension won't be able to move under it's own weight. If you sand them down (which is kind of cheating) they will rotate more easily but they will also pop out of the socket more easily making them fall apart if you bump them too hard. I think you need parts with positive locking. By the way, there is no particular reason you need purpose built suspension parts at all. Just build them up out of beams like the old Technic sets. Then you can make it as big as you like. By changing the position and mechanical advantage of the shocks, you can get plenty of travel like this MOC from Grazi. If there is not enough spring force, you can always put a few in parallel.

It would certainly be possible to launch an all LEGO rocket. I've though about it for many years. The first problem is that unglued LEGO has a hard time standing up to the thrust forces, so you either need to make it all in compression or build it of Technic. Next problem is density. LEGO is pretty heavy compared with what we typically use for rockets, at least when you build it strong enough to survive. As for a mobile launcher, that shouldn't be too hard. BP motors will ignite with only 6V, so the 9V available from a PF system should be enough. I'd just clip the wires coming from the IR receiver and attach them to the igniter. When you use the controller, you'll short the circuit and fire the rocket. Next problem for a mobile launcher is heat. If the exhaust plume hits your launcher, it will be destroyed. ABS can't stand up to that heat. You'd need a blast deflector of some kind. A parachute is possible with enough space. If you make it that big, it's going to be heavy. But that's when my favorite motto comes in: "Just add more power"

I've already completed it. The guy who made the original model will be putting it on Mocpages shortly. Note that it is not a Technic model.

Thanks for the thanks! I was not complaining. I really enjoyed working on this model and I'd probably be willing to do it again if I found a model that properly motivated me. Who knows what may occur in the future. At this very moment I am working on a render of a model that has almost 300,000 pieces and required 20 Gb of RAM to parse! No, there will not be instructions. You are right, I do enjoy a challenge.

I built the electronic CAD file in MLCAD using LDraw parts. I used LPub to make the instructions using LDView as the renderer. I made the high quality renders for the cover pages with POV-Ray. Total development time start to finish was a couple of hundred hours, not counting the time Paul took to design the model in the first place. Lest anyone think I made a bunch of money, in the final analysis I made about $0.25 USD per hour for my work. This, my friends, is why almost no one makes instructions for large models.

In my own experience of opening many hundreds of new LEGO sets over the years, about 1 out of 10 times I find that a part is missing. However, in 100% of those cases I have later discovered that I made a mistake and that there were actually no missing parts, I'd just built it incorrectly. Therefore, in hindsight, I've never had a missing part. Something as big as a 15L beam seems very unlikely because they weigh every set with a tolerance of a few grams and that would be obvious. Still, if the part is really missing, LEGO Service will happily replace it as others have mentioned.

These are indeed very nice images, but most (if not all) of them are not the work of the fellow who posted them. In fact, I recognize some of my own renders on that list but my watermark has been cut off. I don't mind people using my images for wallpapers (in fact it is flattering), but I'm not OK with altering the image by removing my name and having someone pass it off as their own. That's not cool.

Yes! There are a number of parts in this model that exist ONLY in 5571 or in only a couple of Model Team sets. The most problematic are the wheels. These are NOT the regular Technic wheels, they are the slightly larger wheels from 5571 and there are 12 of them. If you don't have any of them, you could spend a couple of hundred dollars on just the wheels and tires. I started with two copies of 5571 (which had all the wheels I needed), and then supplemented with orders from Bricklink, especially for the motors and pneumatics. You'll also need a very large amount of pneumatic tubing. The result, however, is well worth it. This is a spectacular model. If you are looking to build one without having a copy of 5571, I still have extra copies of several of the unique parts since I started with 2 copies. I'll sell them to you if you like. Some of them are pretty hard to find such as the windshield and one of the hatches.

Right. That version has 4 motors, but none of them are for moving the model. That model is so massive that the whole chassis flexes tremendously just under the weight, so I certainly wouldn't recommend trying to motorize the drive system, but it is a beautiful piece of work. Brickshelf has the instructions I posted, and you can still get the LDraw file here.

This is indeed an epic MOC. I have previously made an LDraw file of Barman's V-8 and then built the real thing. This looks equally good if not better. If I ever find enough photographs or info, I'd be willing to build an LDraw file of this as well and share it with everyone so it can be replicated.

I don't in any way mean to imply that I dislike motors. For instance, sets 8094 and 8485 (Control Centers) are among my favorites ever. On the other hand, most smaller sets have come with the ability to add a motor. In many cases it required the removal of an existing function to add a motor. In cases in which this made the wheels driven, it still wasn't really usable as a motorized vehicle because it had no remote controllability and no steering so it would just run into a wall. So, in my opinion, if a set is going to be motorized for drive, it needs to be fully remote controlled. The 8275 bulldozer is a great example. But this doesn't make any financial sense for a small set, not to mention the fact that the motors cannot be integrated in a small model in a way that actually looks good. Like most things in life, motors are only a good thing in moderation! ....unless you are Paul Sariel.

Thanks for the link. I don't have a Wikipedia account, but if you'd like to use any of the text I've prepared in the "history" section of Technicopedia, you are welcome to do so. Just include and attribution. I've perused that article before and found it to be a bit deficient. Not that there is anything wrong with what it says, it just seems very very brief and therefore misses a lot of high points. On the other hand, this comment is coming from someone rather insane about Technic who has spent countless hours writing about it, so maybe my opinion is a bit off center.

I really like the detail you've put into the engine. Most Technic MOCs use the standard engine elements which, while functional, get kind of boring after a while and often the wrong scale for the car. Your solution, on the other hand, rivals or exceeds what I'd expect from a Model Team set. Nice work.