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Blakbird

Technic Regulator
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Everything posted by Blakbird

  1. Blakbird
    Look!! I have made a flying Lego model. Oh wait, does it not count if I use R/C parts to make Lego fly? Well then how about this! Look, I have made Lego fly! Oh wait, does it not count if Lego parts are just hanging from a wire? Hmm, this flying Lego thing is harder than I thought.....
  2. Blakbird
    I gave it a try. Adding 2000+ light sources to a model certainly does increase the render time! I am not particularly happy with the result. The window lights are probably too bright, so it would be better to make them dim and you would only see them if zoomed in very far or if the image was otherwise very dark.
  3. Blakbird
    The instructions for the L580 are done and I've just finished testing them. We'll be working to get them hosted and available over the next couple of weeks. Here are some pictures of my constuction. Here is the pile of loose parts. As you can see, there are a lot more studs here than a typical Technic build. In fact, this is more of a Model Team MOC with Technic guts than a Technic model with a System skin. I didn't take any build photos, but here are a couple of the completed model. I love the railing and the accurate operator's cabin.
  4. Blakbird
    Long ago I had a plastic ISD model that came with about a mile of fiber optic cable and a micro drill. The idea was to drill tiny holes all over, stuff in the fiber, and route them all to a little light bulb. It looked amazing in the dark. Lighting this one with LEDs would also be incredible.
  5. Blakbird
    Well, you are certainly looking closely! Naturally, my Technicopedia page is correct. These cams to not touch the buttons on the battery box, and therefore do not work as cams. Those round bricks are actually used to turn pole reversers used as switches. This turns the motors on and off (and reverses them). I think they only used the cam part to get a half stud offset on the rubber band which centers the switch. This picture shows you the pole reversers and the white rubber band centering.
  6. Blakbird
    Almost done with the instructions. In the meantime I have prepared this cutaway view:
  7. Blakbird
    You also have to be really careful with the wire routing and to keep it taut or it interferes with some of the gears.
  8. Blakbird
    The primary advantage I can see to a 1L worm gear is that it will mate with a rack gear better. The old one worked with a rack, but poorly since the threads are angled but the rack teeth are straight. The other advantage is that it is much easier for it to carry big thrust loads because it can be trapped by axles or axle pins and not slide.
  9. Blakbird
    Is there any reason the old worm gear wouldn't have worked in this same application?
  10. Blakbird
    You must have the spoiler adjusted wrong. Needs more downforce. And cowbell. I didn't know about that! Makes much more sense now.
  11. Blakbird
    All off-road construction equipment has pendular type multi-axle suspension which keeps the wheels on the ground provided that is it not too uneven. Very rarely is it sprung. This works fine as long as you are going slow. However, inertial effects become very important once you are not going slow, so a sprung suspension forces a wheel down into a divot instead of skipping over the top at speed. Sprung suspension also reduces the dynamic stresses imparted to the chassis from the terrain. It's not just about passenger comfort. For example, R/C cars have no passengers but they all have sprung, damped suspension. Try driving one without it and you will find control impossible. You'll also break a lot of parts. As for Lego, you are largely right that at typical slow Lego IR R/C speeds with typical spongy balloon tires, sprung suspension doesn't add anything practical. What it does add is realism which is important to many builders. If you want performance then Lego R/C is not the way to go anyway. For a counterexample, check out from Sariel. This Lego model is fast enough for the suspension to be relevant. Look at the onboard video and see how stable the camera is compared to the unsprung mass at the wheels.
  12. Blakbird
    When Lego was clearing out their 8258 stock, I bought 10 of them for ~$80 each. I sold them in the next couple of months for about $150 each and thought I had been very clever. If only I had kept them for a couple of years.....
  13. Blakbird
    It's hard to imagine that TLG introduced a new worm gear just to change the angle of a meaningless spoiler on a B-model. I imagine it will be used for something much more important in the 2nd half.
  14. Blakbird
    I'm not sure what it is about some of these pictures that gives such an optical illusion, but I have heard it remarked before that the front wheels look smaller than the rear wheels. Yet if you hold a ruler up to your screen and measure, you will see that this is not the case. I think this may be a matter of perspective. If you photograph a model from a short distance, you get perspective which makes the rear wheels appear smaller. But if you render with the camera at a very long distance, they are both the same size which is actually different than what you expect.
  15. Blakbird
    Black is the most common color in Technic and virtually every part is available in it. Just go to the parts list at Rebrickable and swap the red parts for black. I don't think you should have any trouble finding them. As for the rest, I'd recommend that you start by building the trailer with the black chassis and then make modifications from there. It is much easier to decide what to do when you have the model sitting in front of you.
  16. Blakbird
    I have the model assembled but I no longer own a video camera.
  17. Blakbird
    They got better: Much bigger versions at my Bricksafe.
  18. Blakbird
    Yes, the diameter is the same.
  19. Blakbird
    Just an update that I am finally working on the instructions for the Eagle Weslake now. The CAD file is done and is getting prepped for instructions. Here is the first render to whet your appetite.
  20. Blakbird
    OK, I understand. Yes, I agree that the rear tires especially are a bit small for scale. There are larger tires from the Silver Champion but they are too big. Part count is about 4000, but you'll have to wait for Sheepo to provide more specific information. White parts in general tend to be more difficult to get than other colors.
  21. Blakbird
    Since these renders are made directly from the CAD file which uses very precise geometry, I can assure you that the render reflects the correct size of the Lego tires and wheels. On the other hand, the suspension is not compressed in the CAD file and the flexible axles used for the fender are not quite right, so this can give the illusion of different tire size.
  22. Blakbird
    You might consider hosting your images at Bricksafe. From there, you can link them to Eurobricks at whatever reduced size you like. You also don't have to wait for moderation.
  23. Blakbird
    First off, let me echo the exclamatory sentiments of the previous posters. This model really deserves the overused moniker of "epic". Just breathtaking. I'd like to offer a few thoughts on your idea of selling the file. I sell lots and lots of instructions for Technic models in the several thousand part range. In my experience, about $20 is the maximum fee you can expect people to pay for a really good model with full instructions. In this case, you are talking about just the file with no instructions. The vast majority of your potential buyers are going to be people with no intention of ever building this behemoth, they'll just want to look at it. With that in mind, I'd recommend you charge $10. Of course this does not properly compensate you for the time and effort you put into the design, but you probably never expected to actually profit from the whole thing. Finally, PM me if you are interested in some renders. A couple of years ago I rendered Kevin Walters' Klingon Bird of Prey which has about 300,000 parts. I had to write my own code and use a 64-bit machine capable of addressing 32 GB of RAM to even parse it, let alone render it. But in the end, I got some great images.
  24. Blakbird
    Here are some renders of this awesome model. Can't wait for the instructions to be available!
  25. Blakbird
    Yes, you've got it now. The wheels are turned on the trailer in all three images. However, in the blue and yellow images I did it wrong. I thought the steering worked like the truck so I pivoted the wheels on their mounting axle which made them move closer to the fender. In reality, the whole rear axle assembly pivots on a turntable at the center and the fenders move with it. This is fixed on the orange image.
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