Blakbird

Just finished building it last night. Great build and the model is loads of fun to play with. I'm still not a fan of the servo steering but I understand why they used it. I let my 6 year old drive it and her method of steering is definitely just "hold it to the right" so if you used a linear actuator she would just let it stall continuously while steering. I'm not sure this model was really made for 6 year olds though. The model is certainly huge and the bucket is massive. I put it next to my Liebherr L580 and even though they use the same tires, 42030 dwarfed it. The model is very sturdy and can be picked up by the roof with no danger.

Thanks for doing this! I know how much work it must have been. Can you give me any information on which parts you found stressed and therefore changed? My model is already built and it went together rather well. I can confirm that it braids threads wonderfully. I have made at least 100 feet of cord so far. I also used an XL motor with mine, but I ran it from a train regulator. The model has quite a bit of friction so it takes a lot of torque and runs for a long time, so an external power source is a good idea. Building the model with the turntable separated is definitely the best way to do it. It is not hard to take the turntable apart and it makes the build much easier. The bottom of the turntable has to go in early because it fits over axles in the middle of the model. Using a separate top allows you to build the cord guide as a subassembly instead of in place on the main model.

I have actually already created the LDraw file and the Brickstore parts list, however it is incomplete until Sheo finishes the carrier base. We haven't heard from Sheo for a while in this topic. How is it going? Last I heard you were making some changes to the carrier design to make the differentials more robust. By the way, your Harvey/Scorpius avatar is awesome!

???? The linear actuators have always had an internal clutch. 8043 didn't change that. The change that happened during 8043 was just some internal tolerances.

Woah. I didn't see that coming. Incredible work there. Does it use Mindstorms or is it all mechanical?

Bricklink sellers sell almost everything for more than LEGO does. 58118 is packaged for individual sale and usually available through education markets. Same cable though.

Worth is a tricky thing. I product is worth exactly what people will pay for it. You are quite right that Americans would not pay $339 for this product. Technic is not very popular here to begin with. But apparently some (enough) Dutch will pay that. This forum is ample proof that the Dutch like Technic much more than Americans do! That's quite right. It my state the actual price is 10% higher than the listed price. We don't call it "VAT", but sales tax is that same kind of thing.

Looks great! Always nice to see another build of a great model.

Looks like the parts list uses the wrong size. Sorry about that. For some reason I was thinking the sizes were color coded. I think I used the more common (older) 4x4 blue for mine.

I was wondering what kind of progress has been made so far on stepping the file for the Grove crane. I have completed collecting the parts and am eager to get started building. I don't mind doing some stepping myself, but I don't want to repeat any work that has already been done.

The mini figure market is ridiculous. Years ago I sold my Cloud City and my Watto's Junkyard with the minifigs. Only later I discovered that everyone else was selling them without the minifigs. Lando alone was selling for $300.

42030 just showed up at my local Lego Store today. Still no 42029.

There is no way for anyone to have built it yet because Sheo has not released any files or instructions of the base yet.

Note that adding an extra actuator adds absolutely no additional force because it is powered by the same motor.

I did not make the instructions for this model. This is entirely Jurgen's work.

You can download the parts list from MOC Plans or Rebrickable to find out. Yes, that it is one of ingmar's trucks but there are no instructions. You'd have to ask him if he plans to make any.

For what's its worth, the old train regulators accept 9-12V DC input and power any of the PF motors very adequately. I use them all the time at conventions.

I had the pleasure of being one of the test builders of Jurgen Krooshoop's new Kenworth W900 truck. What follows are my impressions of the build and the completed model. Note that I used a pre-release version of the instructions, so any issues that may have been found have since been fixed. As you can see, this is a big model and like any big model it uses a lot of parts. Beyond that though, there were a couple of parts which were quite difficult to procure. Neither white, green, or orange are particularly common in Technic. On the one hand, this makes the model very disctinctive. On the other hand, it makes part acquisition a challenge! The worst were the 3L green liftarms on the hood. These have only come in one EV3 expansion set and there was only one seller in the world and they only had two of them. Luckily I was able to use 3L thin liftarms instead, a change which Jurgen later incorporated in the instructions. The white flex axles on the roof were also challenging to find (only available in Williams Racer), and the trans clear jumper plates on the headlights technically don't exist at all according to Bricklink, but I was still able to buy some! 11L orange liftarms are also a challenge. Some of the other orange and green parts are uncommon, but not exactly rare. If you want to avoid some of these challenges, Jurgen has created another version which uses more readily available colors and parts. Functionality is the same. Some statistics: Parts: 2594 Gears: 98 Pins: 757 (various styles) 3 PF M motors 2 PF XL motors 2 PF IR Receivers 3 sets PF LED lights (3 sets of lights are shown in the instructions, but many more lights were used in Jurgen's personal model in his photos) Let's start building! this first image shows the rather tremendous pile of parts. This is among the greatest proportion of liftarms I have ever seen for a model. The number of panels is relatively small, as is the amount of wiring considering the size of the model. You can see a big pile of 5x7 frames which are critical for rigidity. Here the chassis is nearly completed. The dual rear axles are both driven with differentials, and also suspended. The suspension uses soft shock absorbers as well as rubber 1x2 liftarms. You can see the detailed V-6 up front. Drive is handled by twin XL motors convincingly disguised as fuel tanks. The frame is nearly all black which I think looks very good. Typically, large Technic trucks like this tend to have rather twisty frames just due to the limitations of liftarm construction, but this particular model is uncommonly rigid. In fact, I think it is the sturdiest Technic truck I have ever built. At the point the wiring is a bit of a mess, but the instructions due a good job of showing all the wiring which is well thought out. There is no problem stowing it all. The real jewel of this model is the transmission, shown in the following 3 images. The first shows the lateral differentials. Each of these is positioned over a red driving ring which can be seen from the bottom in the next image. Unlike a normal LEGO transmission in which the driving rings are in parallel, these are in series. The input side of the transmission uses double gears in parallel for extra strength. In a normal LEGO transmission the driving rings are driven by the motor (or wheels) and then the clutch gears are output. This XMSN is the opposite. The clutch gears of the first stage are driven at different ratios and then the central driving ring axle is the output to the second stage. In the second stage, the driving ring axle is input and the clutch gears are output. Another difference here is that normally in a XMSN only one driving ring is engaged at a time. In this XMSN you must have both engaged. This gives 4 possible permutations resulting in a series transmission with 4 gears + neutral. This render helps show how 2 motors can be used to engage the different gears. You might think that one motor just controls each driving ring, but that's not right. Each motor actually controls BOTH driving rings. This means one motor can be used to select 1st and 2nd gear, and the other motor can be used to select 3rd and 4th gear. The result is that the two sticks on your remote command discrete gears at discrete positions. This means your remote is like a real gear shifter! Move to the upper right quadrant and you get 3rd gear every time, no matter which gear you started in. How is the accomplished? The M motor in the foreground of the image drives the axle under it which has a pair of worm gears. These worm gears drive transverse axles that feed the left side of the differentials. The right side of the differentials is locked because the other motor isn't turning (and worm gears don't backdrive). This forces the ring gear of the diff to rotate. The ring gear shifts the driving rings. But wait, there's more! The aft of the two worm gears just moves with the motor. That means when you move the motor forward, it shifts forward and when you move the motor in reverse, it shifts backward. But the forward worm gear is different. It can slide along the axle and engage two different 8 tooth gears which rotate opposite directions. This means that the forward worm gear ALWAYS shifts forward no matter which way you run the motor! In this way the left hand motor always selects a single position of the 1st stage but can change positions of the second stage. The right hand motor always selects a single position of the 2nd stage but can change positions of the 1st stage. Viola! Any gear can be selected directly! You might think all this complexity comes at the cost of durability (I admit I suspected it), but you would be wrong. This XMSN drove the truck around all day and worked flawlessly. The XMSN alone is a good enough reason to build this model. But wait, it turns out this model is not just a chassis and a transmission. Here are some pictures of the completed model. You can see the detailed engine and interior. You can see the lovely sculpted hood, body, and sleeper. Steering is controlled by an M-motor through a white clutch. You might think a servo would be better, but I actually found it quite controllable with the "bang bang" remote. The front axle is also suspended, by the way. i should also mention that the battery box is quite easy to change. The whole back panel of the sleeper pops off and the battery is attached to it. There is even a clever switch to allow you to turn it on and off from the outside (visible above the spare tire). Beyond a doubt this is one of my favorite trucks. Besides looking great, it is as technical functional and durable as you could hope for. I highly recommend it. Instructions are available at Jurgen's Technic Corner. Bigger versions of all pictures at Bricksafe.

Fixed the link. Thanks for letting me know. By the way, part of the reason I took so long to post this review is that you can see Jurgen's Kenworth truck in the background and he hadn't announced it yet!

I have posted a review of this model in the Technic forum.

I've built a lot of Technic sets and MOCs over the years, so it is rare that I see something that really feels new. That's why I was so excited when I saw Drakmin present his Technic X-Wing a few years ago. Star Wars is certainly a common MOC theme, but combining it with Technic is very uncommon. The only official examples are sets 8000-8012 from 2000. These sets were all characters, not ships, and were mostly underwhelming. So the X-Wing was really new and fresh. He followed it up later with a Snowspeeder which he presented and built with input from the community over a considerable period of time. The model has been featured in Hispabricks magazine and instructions have recently become available on MOC Plans (created by me) so I had to build it! As you can see, this model is created almost entirely from Technic liftarms on the outside, along with plenty of connectors on the canopy. But this is not just a good looking static model like UCS. There's plenty of Technicy functional goodness on the inside. Let's start building and take a look! Here are the collected parts. You can see the high number of liftarms and the concentration of light gray. Making this in white and orange with Technic parts would be impossible, so this color choice was a reasonable compromise. Total part count is 2191. Here is a view of the internal frame midway through construction. The pilot's seat features a stick with two functions. When moved side to side, it lifts the maneuvering flaps above the engines. When moved front to back, it moves the elevators. The gunner stick controls (surprise) the gun. Side to side rotates the harpoon and front to back control the elevation. All of this is accomplished with mechanical linkages using minimal gearing. There are a lot of ball joints here. This is another way in which the model is refreshing because the mechanisms are different from what we are used to in sets and MOCs. Here are some shots of the completed model. It looks really good and is incredibly sturdy. It is eminently swooshable. The canopy also opens. The rear radiator is built in a fascinating way. The gap between the louvers is not 1 stud but 1/2 stud. The blasters are tipped inward and meet at a point ahead of the model, just like in the movie. I really enjoy this model. It really stands out in my collection. I liked it so much that I didn't even put it in my LEGO room with my other models, instead it sits in my home theater on top of my Laserdisc player with Barman's Avatar Samson helicopter. Bigger versions of all pictures at my Bricksafe.

It should work fine as long as the plug is compatible.

Sheo's instructions are very good, and in fact I'm not sure I could do better with LPub. He is able to show views from many different angles and zoom in on important areas. Parts lists per step would be useful, but in most cases I had no trouble. The instructions are different than what I was used to, but I got better at reading them as I became accustomed. It was kind of refreshing to approach building in a new way. I hope no one sees my experience as a criticism of Sheo's work. As I said, he has put an amazing amount of work into the project, and I still want to finish it!

That's right. You have to pay attention to where in the drive train you put the clutch if you want it to protect anything. They were originally used in 8479 where the arm and dumper were geared down hundreds of times to one. If not for the clutch gear, the potential torques would have destroyed parts. Plus, that model ran the motors on a timer so the output was guaranteed to stall for a while once it hit the stop until the timer shut off the motor.

I don't think the clutch gear is really there to protect the motor from stalling. Stalling the motor is not that big of deal although it does use a lot of power. Particularly with an XL motor, the clutch is there to protect the model from the forces generated by a stalled motor.