Blakbird

Sorry to revive this very old topic, but there is some new news. At long last (and after much pleading from me) M-longer has created an LDD of this wonderful MOC. I then took that LDD, replaced all the missing parts, added all the synthesized parts, and completed an LDraw file. When I finished, I made some renders as you can see here. Personally, I would really like to build this model. The problem is that files converted from LDD have no building steps or submodels, so reproducing them can be very difficult. Usually I do this kind of work myself, but at the moment I find that I have far too many competing projects. So I am looking for a volunteer who is good with MLCAD who would be willing to take the file and add some sensible building steps and submodels. At that point, I'll post the file publicly so anyone can build this model. Any volunteers?

Just an update. I've built this model last week and it works great! The instructions are very good. There are a few tricky spots in which is hard to hold everything together until the bracing is attached, but that makes it interesting. Apart from the aforementioned issue with the bucket occassionally jamming, it works flawlessly. I actually showed the model at BrickCon this weekend and everyone loved it. Below are a few pictures.

Yes. All axles are suspended using rubber bands for springs. Looks like he doesn't have them installed yet.

I just received my copy of "Beautiful Lego" by Mike Doyle from publisher No Starch Press. Many AFOLs like myself are already aware of Mike's work on well publicized Victorian Houses and other unique MOCs. If you haven't already checked out Mike's website, make sure to do so. His massive microscale MOC (an apparent oxymoron) is on the cover. At first glance, $29.95 seems like a high price for a 280 page book. However, as soon as you crack this open you understand why it is worth it. The book is printed on heavy, glossy paper in full color. Every single page is full of high resolution, sharp color images. For the most part, this is a picture book. There are several (~5) interviews with prominent builders which each cover a couple of pages, but otherwise the book is a collection of well organized images. Make no mistake, this is not your ordinary Lego book. This is a book which stands out as transcending the genre of Lego building and appeals to the reader on an artistic level. If you've ever looked at a book of art which contains a collection of artistic works, you'll recognize the layout, the captions with title, date, and artist name, and even the minimalist slim sans serif font. The book can easily be placed on a coffee table and appeal to visitors in your home whether or not they have any interest in Lego. If you are looking for a way to convince your family or significant other that this hobby has real merit as a form of sculpture and is not just a kid's toy, this book is the way. Within the pages are sculptures of human figures, historic scenes, robots, spaceships, cars, animals, buildings (past and future), and even pure abstract art. There is a bit of something for every taste (except Technic, which I personally missed). From 5 feet away, most images would not be recognizable as Lego. I found myself repeatedly holding the book a few inches from my face to convince myself of what I was seeing. Then I would suddenly recognize a minifg torso, a whip, or an octopus used in a totally unexpected way. I particularly enjoyed looking at the models of curved, irregular organic subjects since most would assume this is something that could not be realistically produced with Lego. If you are an avid follower of the online Lego community, you've probably seen many/most of these MOCs before. However, you'll notice that the presentation has changed. Virtually every image has an interesting colored and textured background to enhance the MOC. Since I recognize many of these MOCs from several years ago and I know they had originally been presented on a blank white background, I suspect Mike did a tremendous amount of Photoshop work to update the presentation. (Mike is credited inside the cover with layout and retouch work).

Many Technic parts use different plastic formulations than System parts. For example, thin liftarms are obviously stiffer and more brittle material than thick liftarms. I've heard Technic bricks are also stronger material than regular bricks to make up for the lost material due to the holes. As for the gears you referenced, I can't say for certain from which of the many plastics those are made, but the changes in friction and operating sound could as easily be from differences in tooth profile (double bevel) as material. Likewise the sound when piled in a bin is related to the overall stiffness of the part as well as the material. The double bevel gears tend to have more open space than the older gears and would therefore be expected to sound different. Due to its relative softness, Nylon gears tend to be totally solid with no open areas since that would result in unacceptable strain. This leads me to believe that the double bevel gears are not Nylon. All this conjecture is hardly definitive though. Anyone have a mass spectrometer?

I'm not sure it is a decrease in attention span as much as a broadening on the age range. For example, an old set might have been marketed to ages 12-16, but if they can make the instructions simpler and market it to ages 10-16 instead, then they can sell more units. Makes sense from a business perspective.

???? Where did you get that idea? I don't think there are any LEGO parts made of nylon other than the planetary sets internal to the PF motors.

Anybody can link images from an image hosting site. Get an account on Flickr or Bricksafe or Brickshelf, post your pictures, and then link them here. Even when you have enough posts you'll find that the storage limit prevents you from posting much of any images directly on Eurobricks.

How compact is compact? Madoca's supercar is pretty small scale for Technic and has suspension and steering.

Cool design. It shows the issues with using LAs instead of pneumatics because you had to run a mechanical connection down the boom to tip the bucket. It looks like this forced you to use a simple hinge for lifting the boom instead of the typical vertical lift mechanism that skid steer loaders usually use.

Manual drive. Two levers like a tank. Do the panels and shell contribute to the rigidity of the model, or are they purely cosmetic?

The best way to make a beam strong is to use diagonal connections. You should be able to use a 3-4-5 triangle to help support your beam.

I'm having trouble buying even a handful of orange panels. I can't imagine where you got all of those! The panel shell hides all the trussy goodness inside. What kind of axles are you using to support the Rotocaster wheels? If it is just regular Technic axles, how many do you need to support that much weight?

I moved this to the LDD forum where you should get more answers.

You've already asked this same question in another topic. Let's keep the discussion in one place. I'm locking this topic.

Is there a way to further refine this? Personally, I don't consider a part that only came in one set in a certain color as unique. For example, the #4 angle connector came in hundreds of sets, but it was only yellow in the Power Puller. I don't consider that to be a unique part because the molds were used lots and lots of times. I unique part would be one that only appeared in one set regardless of color, and therefore probably only exists in one color. The shift lever in 8880 is a good example.

I started such a topic way back in 2008. I am not sure if it is the one you are thinking of. I don't mind adding MOCs to the current index, but it would be tricky to decide which ones to include. Edit: Aha! The reason you can't find it is because it has been hidden as of Sep 9 (I can still see it as a Regulator). This was originally created by Legolijntje but not kept up to date. If there is interest in reviving it, feel free to discuss it here. This is the original hidden topic.

They did. This is 20:1 inline gearbox that you could put right onto the 4.5V motor. Of course, you could put more in series.

Alfredone78, you already asked this same question in another topic. Let's keep the discussion in one place. I'm locking this topic.

Jurgen's "Sunbeam" is a Corvette.

The old indexes have been consolidated in the Technic and Model Team Index. If you'd like to make recommendations on things to add to the index, feel free.

There are a lot of beautiful cars out there, and there are a lot of MOCs of them. At some point, this probably gets old as a MOC builder because you are doing something very similar over and over again. We see the same thing in official sets. If you are brand new to Technic you might find the latest piece of construction equipment really interesting, but if you have been building and collecting for years you might think "there's another loader, meh". You can see some of this in the opinions on this very forum. From that point of view, the MOCs that get noticed are models of something new or unusual. In the last few years we've seen people do mining equipment, birds, dinosaurs and other unusual topics which were very popular on the forum. That's why I like the idea of a Prowler MOC. Doesn't matter if you think it is ugly or not, it is still very different than a normal car in shape and suspension, and therefore would make a MOC that would be fun to read about and look at.

Every fluid system needs a return path. However, with LEGO pneumatic systems the return path happens to be the atmosphere which is also the reservoir. Provided that your hydraulic system was immersed in an oil atmosphere, you could do the same thing.

I like the Prowler. I see them driving around occasionally. However it is a wildly impractical car so it didn't sell very well. If you're going to buy a wildly impractical car, it may as well have a huge engine but the Prowler didn't.

I've made a render of the MK I SUV based on the LDD file created by JM1971. As always, converting it to LDraw was hard, but the result looks good. I've already built this model, but now that the Mark II is out I'm going to have to convert mine. It takes an additional 653 parts to convert it to Mark II. I've also built Madoca's Supercar and had made some renders of it (shown earlier in this topic). Some time between then and now I managed to delete the CAD file I made and have lost it. By any chance did I send it to anybody so it is not lost forever?