Jeroen Ottens

I'm a sucker for badges, so count me in

Decision time... I have designed the seats (front & back). Not entirely happy with them yet though, so I'll iterate on the design once more... At this moment the front seats can move forwards/backwards and that's it. No recline of the backrest. This does feel unfinished to me, so I'll add at least at reclining backrests. It is supposed to be a luxury car, so I feel it should have luxury functions. In real life the chairs can probably be adjusted in a zillion ways and certainly be electrical driven. So the question is should I try to motorize the seat functions, or should I keep the model functions entirely manual? It will not be easy to motorize and probably I will loose some of the design simplicity/elegance that I feel I currently have in the chassis. Furthermore it will add PF only for the seat functions and not for driving, switching gears or steering, which feels a bit like a bad compromise. On the other hand, in terms of functional density this model will then become almost entirely dense. All the room in the model will be either functional Lego or functional interior space. Inside the chassis it will be packed to the max. And the thrill of seeing things move just by flipping a switch is priceless... Keeping it manual will certainly speed the design process up, adding the switching mechanism for the chairs will wreak havoc in the center console area and most likely result in a massive redesign of the chassis in that area... So what is your opinion? What do you prefer? A full manual model or a packed-to-the-brim full functional model? And specially for JJ2: I made an alternative for the stacked beams in the hood. I personally like it better than the stacked beams, so thanks for pointing that out: edit: I did look at the 3x13 panel as well, but that is too short... I like the long lines from the nose all the way to the windscreen that the 19L flexaxles provide

Cool! Any plans for the rest of the ship? Elevators, rudder, propulsion, radar, there are quite a few interesting functions in an aircraftcarrier...

You're both right On the 1st of august we got Jim's list On the 11th of Augst we got the entire 2016 lineup

Found this on a Dutch website: http://www.brickshop.nl/lego/lego-technic/lego-42051-vliegveld-reddingsvoertuig.html It says the 42051 (airport firetruck) is postponed till january 2017...

Hi, After some (way too) intense LDCAD work a first view of the entire model in its proper colouring is starting to appear. Current parts count is ~2200 parts in 130 (main) steps, but interior seats are still missing. Even so, I might end up a piece count that is comparable to the Porsche amazingly enough... I have been able to add a HoG for the steering (there you go Lipko ) and a HoG for the gear shifting (inspired by Didumos work on the Porsche modding). I also added the aeroblade spoiler in the rearhatch, allthough I still have to figure out a way to operate it, while still being able to open the hatch... (coupling it to the gearbox is too daunting for me I'm afraid ). The roof is not right (too high and looking at the photo on the first post also in the wrong colour, but we first need those 3x13 curved panels in black... Are you listening LEGO???), but I already have an improved version IRL. Funnily enough lowering the roof finally solved my issue with the doors. They seem to be more in balance with the rest of the car now. Other issues to be solved are the front wheels (I'm afraid they will hit the fenders behind them when steered), the rearwheels (they are now just inside the wheelarches and I need a bit of extra space at the inside for these ridiculous wide tires... a half stud offset would be ideal, but that will be tough to make...) the routing of the cables for the lights (those connectors are amazingly huge and unwieldy and don't get me started on those cabes!! ) and the seats (I have a bit of a writers block for designing them, I keep postponing it ). Oh and I have to check whether the added bracing on the steeringcolumn will make the flappy pedals work better (but for that I need to take apart the whole model and build it up again with the new parts of the Porsche, that I still don't have, and really don't think it is worth it's money ) Anyway, enough rambling from my side, here is the view of the car so far: Comments and critique are welcome as usual, Jeroen

Fanastic MOC I love the colourscheme and the proportions of this build. Having tried to build such a large crane myself I know the challenge of actuating such a beast. I'm really impressed with the boom lifting function, that is by no means an easy task, very well done. On a bit more critical note I would argue that the number of functions is somewhat small for such a spacious model. Steeringmode selection, tiltable cabin, 4th section in the boom (allthough the proportions of such a fourth element would be off) to name a few options. As it is now it basically is a supersized ultimate 42009 in a new livery. But that is me nitpicking. It looks just gorgeous and being able to make such a big model while keeping structural rigidity and making all the functions work is brilliant engineering. I'd second the vote for a technic pro badge.

Ahh, that does the trick. Super. Thx

Thanks for the quick reply If I drag-CTRL either part of color window it will become as high as the editing window... I can now only place them side by side instead of above each other... Any suggestions?

Hi, I'm digitizing my next model and I hit two obstacles: 1) Somehow I messed up my part bin & color bin windows. I think I clicked & dragged the colorbin, panicked, deleted the whole bin and the part bin windows. Then I made them reappear again with View -> New part bin window & View -> new color bin window. So far so good. However the stepcounter and the editing compass do not take into account these windows anymore and have moved themselves all the way to the right of the editing plane, behind these two windows... Any idea how I can get the default setup back (ie next to the windows instead of behind them?) 2) I'm trying to model PF leds. But the only part I can find is the LED itself. Is there a template for the PF lights? And if not, what is the easiest way to model them?

I second that. I hope for some restricitve rules that I normally would not apply to my MOC's... that really makes my creative juices flow

That's indeed how the lights move. I have finally swallowed the ridiculous price for these LED's and ordered them... I hope they're worth their price... In the meanwhile the body is starting to work (pictures will follow), but those pesky doors are still not too my liking :( Another difficultpuzzle are the rear lights. If any anyone has a suggestion how to capture their shape...?

Hi, Another update. In between traveling for work, vacation and a reshuffle of multiple rooms in our house (including moving the lego room) I found some time to implement the moving headlights as suggested by Appie. Here is a video of the operation: I also managed to lower the bonnet with one stud. The bonnet is now really hugging the engine beneath it, just like the real thing. I also made some progress on the bodywork (after I shot the video, so not visible there), but I am still not happy with that , I just can't seem to get that sleek look... Does anyone know how far the lego LEDs stick out to the back when they are inserted in a technic hole? I'd like to enable the addition of LEDs, but I don't have them myself. I now have one stud between the higher & lower front light, but I am not sure that is enough to enable the rotation of the lower lights. Jeroen

I really like your overview, but could you embed the pictures instead of posting links?

Hi Brunojj Thanks for the thoughtprovoking comments. Let me answer them one by one: The speed is not edited , the L-motors have a 3x1 gear ratio to the diff (similar to Madoca's Icarus) and they seem to run at a pretty high rev The reason to opt for only 2 motors instead of 4 was threefold: 1) I wanted to place the motors behind the rearaxle just like in a real Porsche. There the space is a bit more limited, plus the center of gravity would move further backwards if I added two more motors 2) I only have 3 L-motors 3) I don't have a V2 IR receiver, so I wanted to use only one motor per channel. With four motors I would need 3 IR receivers (2 for the motors + 1 for the servo). What I did try was to use three motors. But starting up the engine with an IR remote became very difficult. I think one of the motors would start just a bit later, thereby stalling the other two. Then the current protection would kick in and all motors would stop. And then it would start over again. The car sort of stuttert over the floor. I do have some S-bricks and maybe they don't have this synchronization issue, but I haven't tried them since I wanted to be 100% Lego with this creation. With two motors the car clearly accelerates for a second before it reaches top-speed. This could still be due to the motors not exactly spinning up at the same rate, or maybe it is just the normal acceleration of mass. The reason for using two batteryboxes was to prevent currentlimiting at all cost. If I would use only one batterybox the maximum current per motor would be 0.5 A (and then the servo will take up some juice as well). Now it is 1 A per motor (minus a bit for the servomotor for one motor when it steers). Removing one batterybox will only save 15% of weight, so if the motors now use more then 0.58A this will be faster. At least in theory Whether or not this makes a difference in practice I don't know, because I haven't tested the single batterybox configuration. This does beg the question whether 4 motors with 2 batteryboxes will be faster or not... You are then again limited to max 0.5 A per motor, but more likely to meet that limit then meeting the 1 A limit with one motor... Which is a good thing because you use more power from the batteryboxes... I think I always try to design my cars mechanically sound. Since there is no stiffness to be gained from the bodywork I wanted to have a central column in the car that would give the rigidity. Otherwise independent suspension would also be completely pointless . The batteryboxes, the servomotor and the L-motors are all part of that central column. I also made sure that the car can be lifted by using the B-frames as a handle. I am interested to know what brought you to the observation that you think I had a lack of passion building this model. For me this was a build outside my comfortzone. Limiting the features to a minimum to save weight is not my favorite passtime . Also sculpting with nothing but flexaxles and beams is not my natural style . But, the moment this competition was announced, I knew this was what I wanted to build: A Porsche optimized for speed and speed alone. It would give me the opportunity to try to make a flexaxle body (which was on my wishlist ever since I saw Sariel's Zonda). I even considered not putting in any suspension, but than the car would become to non-functional I just couldn't bring myself to do that. The same holds for the interior. I could have done without it to save a few more grammes, but it just didn't look right (and I personally really like the two-tone, understated smooth look it has gotten). But it doesn't have a lot of intricate mechanisms inside (like the Alpha Romeo or the LTM11200) which is what I usually really crave for in Technic models. The suspension setups are pretty standard and a RC drivetrain with 8 gears (differential counted as one) is not as exciting to me as a flappy pedal operated 8D+N+R gearbox with over 30 gears that fits below the rearaxle... Still... The goal was different... The goal was speed in a lean Porsche design... And that goal was met (at least to my standards). It is fast. And it has some beautiful lines (which was easy in a sense that I just had to copy Porsche's design in flexaxles). Was it the most challenging design I ever did? No, definitely not. Did it turn out like I wanted it to? Yes it did. Did it spark my passions? Difficult to say. Designing and building was fun, but not too challenging. The end-result is very satisfactory, but since I more a builder than a collector I value that less I guess. So I am not disagreeing per se with your observation about my passion and wonder what has given that away. Here is a picture from the underside:

Hi, Here is the video: Enjoy

Great review. I skipped the speedbuildsection, so I may have missed it, but was Barman right with his reverse engineered solution of the steering? Or is this even a different solution?

2x orange #2 connector... That was missing in the Porsche...

Nice! Always fun to see some nifty mechanism recreated in lego.

Impressive model and a very clever steering mechanism. And again a very smooth body design. Great model

Very nice, clean and crisp model. So many functions packed inside, but it does not have a cluttered feel to it...

Thank you all for the constructive criticism and positive feedback. The gap between the door and the frame is temporary. I'll close that when I am happy with the doors. The bottom intake is indeed too big... It is funny how each picture of the DB11 is showing different ratios between different sections . But the air intake is definitely too high. In fact the whole bonnet is one stud too high I think, except for the curves above the wheels. So there is some redesigning to do to lower and flatten it... This might also reduce the 'fat' look of it... Thanks. At the moment orange is indeed the intended colour. Even though it is a bit too flashy colour for this car in real life I think. Unfortunately the 11x3 curved panels only come in weird colours like bright green, purple and orange. I think I will use those in the roof as well. Furthermore the fenderpieces will fit nicely at the rear I think and those are also only available in orange. Depending on the final door configuration you will need extra panels on top of the ones from 42056. At this moment I have no HoG planned.

Wow, That is a smooth looking car I really like the flow that you achieved with your panelling. It is so clean... And then fitted with all the functions... very ingenious... And those rims just make the wheels pop. Beautiful. I would like to see a few photos that aren't close ups though. To get a better feel for the entire shape. Are the top and bottom of the door rigidly connected, or do they rely on friction to keep them close together?

I woke up this morning with this idea for the doors in my head: And I managed to make the doors swing slightly upwards when opening: What do you think? Better, or still too massive?

Hi, After a short detour with the Porsche contest and a lot of sorting (I finally took apart my Liebherr carrier) I had the time to build the chassis and add some bodywork to it: The chassis works like a charm. I intended to make the central column integral part of the chassis to add stiffness and rigidity to the chassis and that really does the job. Despite it's size it feels solid like a rock. The flappy pedals do work, but the construction is a bit too flimsy. You have to make sure you do not bend the steering column otherwise the gear switching goes awry. I have used an extra 90 degree limiter in the backside (I used a variant of Didumos' his contraption he used in the Porsche mod to ensure the gear selectors are always at 90 degrees). Also I found out that you shouldn't put 3 knobwheels in a row, the slack will almost certainly make the wheels jam. So instead I have used 3 16T gearwheels. It means the alignment of the gearwheels is not foolproof. However, since I do use 90 degree limiters on both ends of the gear switching mechanism, the error can never be more than 1 teeth, if at all possible. So all in all the chassis turned out pretty well in practice. I am not happy with the looks though The doors are just big chunks of white that lack the finesse and curvyness of the real thing. The front grille is just off and the hood is looking fat instead of sleek. And the front wheel arches don't have enough of the round line they should have. In the big gaping hole above the rearwheels the new fenderpiece of the Porsche should come, so that will look better than it does now. I also have to think about the way the roof is reinforced, currently I only use some flexaxles to get the shape about right (also that is just off), but I'd like to have a more rigid internal structure. Ideally strong enough to lift the model just by holding it by the roof. Suggestions for improving the bodywork are much appreciated.