Werlu Ulcur

I'm keen to see that too!

VERY cool man, congrats! The sails are terrific!

Cook, Legoville will be a modern city, with trains, buildings, super heroes, the works . I'm not totally sure how I'll integrate a castle there, because as I said, I never thought about the Castle line before . I guess that the most sensible way to do it would be to make it a sort of "renascence park", and put it right next to all the modern stuff. If everything goes to plan I'll have enough space for a not-too-big castle, so one of the commercial sets (without huge additions) would fit nicely. And if I do go the theme park route, then the castle can be flamboyantly colored. The other option would be to make it a sort of estate, a local landmark of the city. In that case I would have to do something about the reds and blues, and worse of all, I wouldn't be able to use knights, horses, kings, etc, and that would be a true waste . The allure of that game plan is that I could concentrate on making it look more real (= moding it), which would mean many hours of planing, building and having fun. Our new house is almost finished (if everything goes well we intend to move in October), but I still have to get the tables that I'll use for the city in the attic made, and that demands money. Money that in theory isn't exactly in surplus because we have to focus on little details like bedroom furniture, kitchen hardware, etc . The tables won't be exactly expensive, but since the whole idea of creating an attic (that wasn't in the original house project) just to become a Legoland was mine and was expensive, I'm kind of not in the best position right now with my wife to try to divert funds for my play room .

Oh, I too would love to see that! It looks like the general consensus is that castle for castle the older 7946 is the better one, but why exactly ? At least from the individual pics I've seen they look at least equivalent.

Down here I looked around and no luck finding a 7946, but the new 70404 is easy to find. I can find the new one for a pretty good price on BL (better then locally), but the the 7946 is basically double the price at least among vendors who do ship here to Brazil. The same goes for Helm's Deep: expensive new locally but available and 2× the price (and that's opened) of a MISB 70404 on BL. So unfortunately, price is the big factor here . And yes, the 10223 Joust set looks VERY good, I'm now seriously thinking of integrating it somewhere. About the red × blue bricks I guess it's nothing that BL can't easily resolve, and the best part, since it would only be a substitution job, I can build the castle as is and then later on I can replace what I think is wrong.

Guys, I'm in a minor dilemma. Let's suppose I don't have anything in the Castle line but by chance got my hands on a "Dragon Mountain" set (70403) just because of the oh-so-cool dragon. And now because of that darn red worm I'm starting to think that my future Legoville could spare a corner for a castle . The idea would be to have only one castle based on a regular set, not too massive and that more then probably I would improve upon (a little!), with extra sections. So here's the dilemma: what would be better to have as the only one castle in Legoville, the current 70404 "King's Castle" or the 7946 from 2010 ? I have never even seen these two sets in the flesh, only know them through videos and pics, so they're totally alien to me, but both look pretty nice. So far I was able to make a very short list of pros and cons for both: Price & availability: The new 70404 is quite cheaper and easier to find then the older 7946, and that's a BIG plus. Minifigs: From what I saw both sets are basically equivalent in the minifig department. However, I currently have quite a few red troops (from the chess set), so I would have more "human material" to go along with the red 7946. Architecture: Both sets also seem to be similar here too, though being quite honest I don't like very much the red & blue used on both for roofs and details - I would rather have something more realistic. Of course I could mod them to my liking, but in theory I would have more sets to add to the 7946 if I leave it alone, like that nice 10223 Joust set. I even looked towards the LOTR theme, specially the Helm's Deep set, but even though it's an overall nicer set (in my eyes at least), it looks like I would have to get at least two to make a full castle, since it's basically a wall in front of a mountain. And that would mean a more substantial investment in a theme (Medieval) that I don't collect. I looked on evilBay and BL and even the used and incomplete sets are basically more expensive then a MISB 70404. I could of course go the MOC route and build a castle exactly to my liking, but that would entitle all the fuss of organizing a parts list and, worse of all, the looooong wait to have everything at hand. I would rather take the easy road (= buy a commercial set) so that I don't have to deal specially with the waiting for parts. From the list above the red 7946 would be the set to choose, but because of price I think the best option would be for me to get the new 70404. What do you guys say?

Hey Benn! I don't know why, but I can't see any pics from Brickshelf. Anyone else having issues ?

Fantastic! Congrats!

Look at the size of that beast! Awesome! Did you ever run it on standard track yet?

Yesterday I went through my parts bin and I have roughly half of what I need, but that just numbers' wise. I mostly have the "decorative elements", but lack the structural stuff - mainly bricks and plates. I have an Excel spreadsheet with all that I need and during this weekend I want to start ordering stuff from BL. I'm really curious to see how long it will take to get the project done.

With the right parts and enough photos I think you could do it. It could also be the basis for a Bradley Fighting Vehicle: http://www.model-making.eu/zdjecia/7/9/7/1427_rn.jpg

Some weeks ago I was browsing through evilBay and this Stryker caught my eye. From the pics it looked pretty well designed and constructed, so I bought the kit to see how it looked in the brick. And I wasn't disappointed, the model came out VERY nice! I made some very minute changes to the model, but it's "98% stock". Overall the author achieved a very nice rendition of the Stryker troop carrier .

Absolutely stunning! Did the real deal also roll on two tracks?

I'm finally done (really done this time ): I found out what was bugging me: the wheels sticking out. I narrowed them under the chassis and now it doesn't look like a turtlemobile anymore. So now it's going through my parts' bin...

You know, after thinking about it, I guess I like the white doors... I don't know, it seems that the white accents give some "movement" to the truck. I also plan on using some white-on-black POLICE stickers on it, so I'll just keep the white. I did a final check through LDDManager and everything I used is available through BL, so I already printed the list. This weekend I'll go through my parts bin to see what I already have, and as soon as possible I'll start ordering what I don't have. According to LDD it's at 397 parts, and of those, I think that I may have (hopefully) around 100 parts, so it shouldn't be to difficult to get all I need. I intend to keep updating this thread according to what I'm able to build, and when it's done, if it does come out ok, I'll try to post the LDD file for d/l.

Now I need to uninstall LDD, because if not I'll keep changing stuff... All right, final version, I promise: So gone is the GRU look, for a more SWATish feel. I wasn't very happy with the front, now it looks right. And one more place to put a dash of white And here is what you see with the removable parts off. So I have seats for a total of six officers and three cabinets for gear. That was the first door I tried out, but I felt it looked too tall. After all, it's not supposed to be a spacious RV, but something more pedestrian but practical. But with the white I managed to add, the white doors aren't looking so bad now.

If you can't win them, join them. With no other option for the white doors, I tried to incorporate some white all around: I think I'm done here . I ran the model through LDDManager and everything is available, so now it's a matter of ordering the parts.

Man that looks TERRIFIC! But why does the top panel on the front slopes downward one plate? That's how it is on the real one?

Well, unless I find a better solution for the doors, I think this is it: What do you think? If there's interest I plan on putting the LDD file for public use .

All right, I got some work done. It was looking like this: But now it's looking like this: I tried eliminating the middle axle, but since I did a big cut on the wheel base, it looked better with a double rear axle. I also eliminated the roof hatch, so the access up there is by the rear (external) ladder, and I had to eliminate one seat inside but kept the cup boards for equipment. It has four seats in the back and three up front (driver, navigator and communication officer). I also added a bit of white to the emergency lights bar on the roof of the cabin, but I'm not sure if that is enough to keep the doors white. The whole roof comes off, so you have easy access to the interior. However, looking at the before and after, I think I'll switch back to the curved slopes on the roof cabin . And now I see that I forgot to put the license plate on the rear bumper .

That's what I was thinking: shortening the wheel base, or maybe even eliminating the middle axle, since weight-wise there's no need for a double real axle. On the sides, do you mean flood lights or emergency lights? I also agree that more lights on the front would look good, but where? Being in Brazil means I'm 100% dependent on BL for parts . That's an inverted slope (#2341). And about the doors. With the whole truck being black and dark blay, I think the doors should be some shade of gray. Any suggestions for what I could use instead of the white doors?

How does it look now? I think it's a little better. I also had to replace the gray doors (~$9 a pop ) for the white ones (~$0.10 each).

You're right about the rear axles, I guess that's why it was looking "slow" in my eyes. It is blocky, no denying that, but maybe if I manage to move the middle axle a bit further backwards it won't look so much as a turtle mobile. And a bazillion thanks for the LDDManager ! That will be the ticket to make this project a real model. Thanks buddy! My ERU will be in some very hairy situations, so I better get them some tough gear .

I ordered some SWAT officers for my future city so I needed a vehicle for them. Being that Lego has nothing even close, I spent this Sunday afternoon LDDing my own Special Response Unit truck: This is my first "big" LDD project, so I'm still learning the ropes (it takes forever to find the right parts in the library ), but I think it came out at least half decent. I wanted something big, with enough space to carry at least 5 officers and gear, and with a few stickers I hope it will look nice in the brick. Since it's still in project form, any pointers/ideas would be greatly appreciated . And a very important detail: is there a way for me to extract the parts inventory of the project so that I can make a BL list? At around 370 pieces it would be a bear to manually compilate everything I need .

I'm guilty of over-using it.