Jeroen Ottens

Thanks You haven't answered my other question though. Where did you get this set from?

Interesting review, very informative. A few questions though: How many of each of the new pieces are in the set? (Forgive me if you already wrote it in the video) Where did you get this set from?

Indeed, that's the part & colour

It certainly looks like 81.6 mm tires like in the 42000 to me. Do these wheels have a pivot point close to the edge of the rim? Or am I too hopeful? And I wouldn't be surprised if we get actual working doorhandles as well...

I guess the construction yard is full now? Congratulations with finishing this monster.

Thanks everybody It is microscale I fear. The rotating drums are supposed to be big enough to be able to walk in artificial gravity, so the people have to be quite small. I think this is more to scale with my Hindenburg project (which was a 1:100 scale) That is indeed an association I'd like to avoid , what about the new name? Here is the latest status: The central column is now 7x7 studs wide and high. This makes it much, much stronger. I also played a bit with #3 connectors to see if I could get some interesting shapes. I opted for this double helix as a nod to the life that is being carried on this vessel to the new planet. The drums are motorized and counter-rotating. I still want to use some deployment system for the solar cells. I am thinking about a tree-like structure while using the propellors of the medium-blue/black yet as solar cells, but I haven't thought of a folding mechanism yet. The black wedge next to the drum will house the landingcraft to bring the colonists to the surface of Mars. Some kind of opening hangarbays would be cool I think. Suggestions for the front end are welcome as well, I haven't got a lot of inspiration for that part yet.

Thanks, the current state of affairs is a 2001: A space odyssee meets Star Wars, so you'll may get more than you bargained for Read the book, saw the movie and still mixed everything up . Not sure yet whether this will be a masterpiece, but it sure is going to be big by the way it develops itself. The thing I don't like about the Discovery one is the fragility of that endless central column. You can argue that there is no gravity in space, but there is still inertia. If the engines give a little skewed power the tension in that central column will make it snap in two (or three as those know who know how dried spaghetti breaks when bended to the breakingpoint). So I'd like to keep some mechanical solidity in the build. At the same time weight is everything, so thin spindly structures are still cool and acceptable in my book . Anyways, to me it would make sense to somehow keep the rotational inertia of the whole ship zero. Instead of adding a counterrotating mass with the same rotation axle as the big cilinder I know think that having two big cilinders rotating in opposite direction on both sides of the ship would be cool as well. And engines... You can't have enough engines to propel such a beast. So having a big chunk of engines at the back is always a good thing. Here Star Wars peaks it's head around the corner. The double wedged setup of the star destroyer is as good a design to copy as anything I guess, so I went for that. It also gives a good foundation for the rotating living quarters. Here is the status up to now: The central column is already starting to bend, so I'll go for a redesign of that and make it 7 studs high instead of 5. That way I can also throw in more triangles (like I used in the arms inside the rear end). What do you think, will this marriage of genres work or will it become a bastard child?

Hi, Science fiction, Mars, Technic competition. No way I could resist that. So in between my house rebuilding I'll try to whip something up for this competition. I am thinking along the lines of the Odyssee (or at least that's what I think the ship in 2001 is called). So a big colonist ship to carry the intrepid adventures from Earth to Mars. Featuring a big engine, a big radio antenne, massive solarpanels and of course a rotating living quarters. Here is a first image of the central spine with the rotating drum for the living quarters: I'd like to add some counterrotating mass as well to keep the total rotational inertia of this ship zero, but I'll have to see how this evolves. What do you think?

Welcome back! Great truck again. such clean lines paired with great performance, it is always a joy to see your creations.

Welcome to Eurobricks. And congratulations with this model. I have been mulling this over for some time, but since you asked for feedback I'll give you my opinion. I think it is a good attempt, but a lot of little details make it just good and not great in my opinion. Which of course is only my opinion so feel free to ignore it if you don't agree. These are the details that I think could be improved (in no particular order): - The headlights are a bit too squarish, the real car has more squinted eyes. The lights are triangles instead of rectangles - The hood is too flat. I know this is a near impossible curve to capture in LEGO, but a slight angle between the front part of the hood and the rest would help already - The windshield A-pillars are leaning inwards when looking from the front, in real cars they are at least straight when looking from the front - The side profile misses the upward angle at the bottom of the door with the tilt towards the rear wheels - The area before the rear wheels is a bit messy with the panels not aligning with each other - The little wings at the front are not really wings in your model, but two pillars sticking upwards. Using 2x5 panels or LEGO system wings would work better here I think. - I've never been a fan of the beams over curved axles approach for wheelarches and this model doesn't change my mind. I think they form a design language that isn't present in the rest of the car which makes them stick out visually much more than the wheelarches in the real one (where they are hardly present) - The same for the pin-joiners over flexaxles for the front window. It makes the curve choppy instead of smooth. - This model definitely deserved better photos. A clean background and some brighter (natural) light will do the model more justice. - I personally miss the gearbox, but that is just me trying to cram as much functionality in a build as I can. I do like the smooth operating doors & rear door. They look solidly designed. I also like the back much more than the front.

Sci-fi contest and modular build supervised by Jim both sound great to me

Supercool. Good looks, a wealth of functions and modular! That is an amazing combination

I am always amazed how much PF stuff people are able to cram in these small scale models. And this is no exception. Great suspension travel. And on top there is this beautiful exterior . a very complete package, I wouldn’t know what to improve.

Have you seen the other book that he is selling?

Very cool design. A lot of clever building techniques in a deceptively simple machine. I like the colourscheme, the neatness of the design and the overall finished feel. I especially like the rear wheel steering mechanism. I am not sure what your adversity is to the 1x5 plate with axlehole though. It is a standard part that is used up to today in official LEGO Technic sets (or did you mean the old one with the extra holes in the end?)

Again, thank you all for the responses. There is definitely a point in the 'I also benefit from the brand awareness of the vehicle I am replicating'. In this particular case I did have contact with Liebherr that I was designing this crane and they were fine with that. Having said that, I haven't explicitely asked them whether I could sell the instructions of it. So that adds some perspective to this all. For me the discussion is not only about making money. At least that is not what is upsetting me the most I guess. If someone would make a set of fake LEGO of the Alpha Romeo 4C Spider (these instructions are for free) I would also be upset. Just like the fact that Madoca's designs were used by clone brands seriously annoyed me. But suppose someone would contact me and ask if he can sell sets of real LEGO bricks of my designs than that can be discussed (in fact I do have these kind of discussions). So for me at least two points upset me: 1) These people sell my exact design against my explicit will not to do that 2) To make it worse they sell clone LEGO, which to me as a former LEGO employee adds injury upon insult as I know how much time and effort is spent in designing the bricks. As for the legal status of all this I am no expert. All I know is that I have successfully complained at two different hosting providers that these people are infringing on my copyright. And both hostingsites agreed and blacklisted the company (I also complained at the third hostingsite, but they haven't reacted yet). So apparently there are more people that think that making an exact copy against the will of the original designer is illegal. In the end, I was looking for some peace of mind. Two things have helped there. One is the brand awareness argument which makes it all a bit relative and secondly is the advice to fight dispassionate. And there is still hope, because when another company contacted me for cooperation (while they already had my crane for sale in fake LEGO), they immediately removed it from their website when I said I didn't want to cooperate with them. So thanks again for all the advice.

Hi, This is the first post I make on this forum, so let me start by introducing myself. My name is Jeroen Ottens and I work part time as a professional LEGO Technic designer in my own company. My customers typically want me to design and build the car they own for them. I now have a customer that wants me to build a Lamborghini Aventador like this one: The colour is officialy called Azzurro Thetys Metallic. There are only a few colours in the LEGO palette that come close to this colour and they are only availble in a very limited selection of parts. So I am thinking of designing this car in white and then find someone to recolour the white parts to azzurro thetys metallic. Most of the parts will be technic panels, tiles, plates and curved slopes. If possible I'd like to use flexaxles in the design as well, but if the recouloring is not possible on flexible elements I will design the car without them. If anyone is interested in doing such a job for me please send me a PM. If the mods think this is the wrong forum to post, please feel free to move this post to a more appropriate forum.

Excellent explanation Erik. If you worry about securing the 20T gear you can use the new blue 20T clutch gear and secure it with an axle with stop or a frictionless pin

Great little MOC, I love all the little details on it, like the lights on the fenders, the front grille, the handles next to the saddle, the inverted 3x4x5 panels on the side, etc. And the photos with the black background look fantastic.

Fantastic looking MOC It almost looks like a real set (only the connection with plates in the beam would never be made by LEGO, but then again, they would just make a special part for this connection). I really like the wealth of features, the complicated gearbox and the colourscheme. And knowing the quality of your instructions I am sure they will be as good as this model.

I love it. In a wacky kind of way❤️

Thank you all for your responses. I do not have a lot of time at this moment, so I can't do the responses justice right now (I'll do that a later time when things are a bit more settled in with my new house), but I given the elaborate and thought through answers I feel I should give a sign of appreciation. It has helped me to find a bit more peace of mind. And don't worry, I will not stop sharing my designs whenever possible. After all, that is why we have this forum in the first place. Thanks again for your insights and points of view.

Hi, In the past months I have been fighting a company that is using my design of the Liebherr to sell a set of (most likely fake) LEGO. The tactic I used was to inform the webhosting company on which they host their site that they are violating their fair-use policy. That was reasonably successful, until they moved their site to a webhosting service that apparently doesn't care about their own fair-use policy, because they don't respond to my complaints. On the one hand I have always believed that this would come one day given the difference in culture and disrespect for copyright that is present on some parts the internet/world. It sort of comes with the territory, so I vowed to myself that if that day would come I would just let it happen and wouldn't pick a fight. But then when it actually happened I felt quite emotional about the whole thing. There are people that are knowingly (I did have some correspondonce with them in which they admit that I am indeed the copyright owner) using my hard work to earn a quick buck and that just makes me very angry. I just couldn't sit and let is pass. Predictably this fight proved to be futile so far. So now comes my dilemma, I have a couple of projects in the pipeline that can be made available to the public since they are non-exclusive. Should I release them as PDF instructions and learn to accept that others will parasite on my work? Or should I stop releasing instructions and just release sets with paper instruction books (without partslists) to make it as hard as possible for the copycats to do the same. Or is there a way to actually win the fight against these thieving companies without costing me (a lot of) valuable time? I realize this is mostly an issue because of the position I am in and as such it may be a luxury problem I have. But I know some others have had their designs stolen by fake LEGO companies before, I'd be interested to hear how they dealt with this (emotionally). Also, if this is not the right forum for this discussion the mods can feel free to move this to a more appropriate forum.

, very innovative and well executed. I look forward to the expansion.

Thank you. One of the reasons I so much enjoyed designing this car is the attention to detail in the real car. I have tried to copy as much of these details in this design. I even used the old triangle pieces in the suspension, because they looked more like the cantilevers in the real car. When we did the 'guess the car by it's features' game before the reveal I almost couldn't use any close up photo of a feature, because almost everything looks unique and can only be found on a Pagani. As for instructions, I am not saying they won't come, but it won't be any time soon I'm afraid. There are some unavailable parts in this design (like blue 1x7 thin liftarms for instance) that still come from my LEGO designer time stock. So I first want to make a new colourscheme with available parts. But strangely enough there are hardly any colourschemes (other than full white or full black which both are too boring I think) that work with the current panels and flexaxles...