Jeroen Ottens

All panels are hard to attach on this one

For now I plan to use a 5x7 panel. That is currently the best compromise I can think of.

That is meeting the brief almost perfectly. It is a bit long when using spear tips instead of lollipops, but other than that it is as good as it gets. The price of these lollipops is indeed crazy as @howitzer also mentioned. I'll first see if it fits lengthwise before anything else.

Thanks for thinking along. This has a better height, but it misses the staggered placement of the lights from left to right. I've put the rear lights aside for a while myself. Usually it helps me to switch to another problem to get insights for the problem at hand. So I started working on the chassis. I think I finally figured out how all the ducts are running next to the tub. There are actually two ducts on top of each other I think. The lower one runs all the way to the back where it spreads out to form this massive diffusor. On top of that is another duct to get more air to the motor. In LEGO terms that second duct is basically free construction space as there won't be any air flowing into engine. So was able to use that space to make some longitudinal and vertical bracing. This is my fourth version of the chassis: The central tub is pretty much braced from all sides now. One thing I am still not happy with is the bracing of the vertical column below the roof (I see that I even forgot to connect it at the bottom ), but ideally it would also connect somewhere at half height to the big frames behind it. Unfortunately the knobgears for the gear selection are all located there... Next step is to add all the pins to the structure and then build it for real to see how stiff it is. The gearbox sits snugly below the engine. I think I can manage to bring the gear selector axle to the front, but I need a very small stepper mechanism to operate it I am not sure yet how to do that.

Thanks. It has all the offsets needed, however the spacing vertically is 1 stud now, whereas I am looking for a solution where the vertical spacing is more like half a stud. Ideally it fits in a vertical space of 2 studs including the supporting structure.

Thanks for the suggestions guys. In the end I chose this one to try an alternative solution: Here is the result after days of tinkering (the lights are 1.5 studs apart horizontally, something like 0.7 studs vertically and they are staggered from left to right, that is just so difficult to make): To be honest I am not too convinced myself. The construction is quite weak, the 3L bars stick out and interfere with the panel above it and the pointy ends of these speartips are a bit too small compared to the real lights. But what do you think? This car has a really long wheelbase of 3.06m. Even the Pagani Huayra has a shorter wheelbase of 2.8 m. I've also started to sketch the upper bodywork:

As expected, lowering the differential & rear suspension pushrod required a complete redesign of the whole rear area . But, as there was still some free space, it does fit, so I could then work on the esthetics of the rear side. One of the items I definitely want to capture are those nine protruding rear lights: After a day of tinkering I came up with the following solution: The lights are a bit too thick, but I couldn't think of a thinner transparent piece that I could use. If anyone has a suggestion, please let me know. I also was able to create the covering for the exhausts. A bit better visible under this angle: Next steps are rebuilding the gearbox + rear suspension and working on the engine covering.

Like this? This also solves Jurss question about the steering in combination with the pendular action. My only concern is the attachment of the axle-with-towball pieces. They are not all the way in the 3L liftarms even with the ring of LotR, so they might work themselves loose if too much force is exerted.

How about this?

Update time... Here is a first sketch of outer dimension with some of the paneling in place: I've said this before, but this is just an astonishing car to recreate. There is so little space inside to fit anything in that every cube stud needs thinking. I've added a 8D+N+R gearbox (yet another, even smaller, incarnation of @Anto's compact gearbox), pushed the motor on top, pushed the gearbox as low as possible and then the engine just, just fits below the roofline. Unfortunately the suspension setup is now too high, so I'll probably have to go to the drawing board again with that one. I also tried to keep the width of the gearbox minimal (especially at the bottom). The bottom of the car is like a boat hull now. Wide in the center and then tapering off to both ends. This does mean that I can't get a lot of stiffness from the sides, as these are all angled panels. Instead I've used three 5x7 frames in the center that run from front to back through the cockpit. It is thin, but still offers a lot of stiffness. The rear suspension sits a bit too high because of some interference with the massive rear diffusors that run under it, that will need to be sorted out with the redesign of the rear suspension: So still a lot of redesigns ahead. The thing is, that with such a compact design everything you touch immediately cauliflowers throughout the structure.

Wow, that is a beauty! Amazing how you were able to cram that many motors in and still have space to do the bodywork, the interior, suspension, motorized doors and spoiler and a working fake engine! It's just mindblowing

Thanks for the kind words. You’re a fast builder , I like that black lip .

Hi, As I already mentioned in my Lexion topic, I have a couple of commissions to do as well. This is one of them, a 1:8 replica of the Aston Martin Valkyrie: I am actually quite exited for this design as this is an insane car. It is basically a formula 1 car for the road. The design is nothing more than a bubble in which the driver and the passenger sit, a motor tucked behind that and two axles attached at the front and the back. The bodywork simply wraps as tight as possible around all the components. Except for the underside, where everything is shaped to maximize the downforce, direct the flow and minimize drag. It will be a massive challenge to even make the bodywork, without even trying to fit functionality inside... To start I wanted to have a proper suspension setup. This car uses a pushrod system, very similar to F1 cars. The rear suspension was a bit of a challenge as there needed to be a lot of room for the massive Venturi ducts in the rear: So the lower wishbone is attached at the same level as the driveaxle: The diagonal pushrod is attached at the same height, so that will also not interfere with the Venturi duct either. The other challenge was to fit a differential below the springs, while keeping everything as flat as possible. In the end this was achieved by mounting the pushrod upside down (which has the added benefit that it will now press itself tighter when pressed down. The front suspension was a much harder challenge. There really is almost no space to work with. So I wanted to have a suspension that is form-locked as much as possible, fits within 5 studs height (and lower at the front) and had some sturdy connection points to the monocoque behind it. Here is a close-up of the setup: It has taken me dozens of iterations to come to this point, but now I am quite pleased with how it is. As you can see the suspension arms are nearly horizontal in the lowest position. So I will have some space on top to build the bodywork. Since I only use one spring per wheel I do expect that, once the car is finished, the springs will be compressed a little. The weight will hopefully be a little less than usual for a 1:8 car given the tight bodywork. There are still quite some challenges ahead as the real car has active aero wings at the front and at the back, and it has an 7 speed gearbox. Lots of fun ahead so to say

Very nice truck! Hats off to the dual approach to PF/PU. I also think PU is the future, but the support for the programming has been a big let-down for me. It took a year before we got a programmable interface, but sharing your programs is still not possible AFAIK. Anyway, back to the truck. That loadingplatform is great. I remember trying to make this work in 1997 with studded beams and pneumatics. Never achieved that level of realism you have here. The Duploblocks are a really fun touch, as are the palletwagons (or whatever the english term is) The only design choice I would question is the use of systembricks for the containerpart of the truck, whilst keeping a technic approach to the cabine. That makes it look like two different parts in my eyes. But that is only nitpicking. The compact chassis filled wih functions is just techporn

I can corroborate on the liftarm parts being on the shelf for some time. They were already around at the end of last century when I worked there. At the time it was deemed they did not fit in 'the system'. They didn't feel right so to say. We didn't have the frames at that time though, so maybe these have paved the way to make the alternating beams fit the system after all. B-models in my days were just build using the parts we had for the A-model. That was done pretty much at the end of the whole design process. That may have changed (and especially in the case of the Mack I suspect there was a parallel A and B-model development given the quality of that B-model) of course.

You can find the partslist here: https://rebrickable.com/users/Jeroen Ottens/lists/124358/?_=1632777249888&parts_page_size=500#parts

Fantastic model. Clear improvement over V1 What is exactly the mechanism of the rear wing? It sounds intriguing.

Not much time lately to build, but here is a quick update. I've worked on the header: as predicted this thing is huge... . I am running out of lime parts fast with this build. So all the red panels need to be replaced with lime ones. The drive of the reel is in the middle, as I didn't want to use the big turntables at the outside. The chain is a bit too tight, so I may redesign that bit again. Because the drive is in the middle this also gave the opportunity to add an extra lifting arm for the reel. The small LA is located higher than in the real thing, but it is right above the feeder, so I couldn't place the mini-LA below the arm. Here is a photo of it attached to the combine. It is now so big I can't properly photograph it anymore

Thanks for the confirmation. I suspected this to be the case, but I couldn't find documentation on this. And all the others, thanks for the encouragement. Here are some new pics with further progress: The overall dimensions are now more or less fixed I think. I have updated the Y shape, made it a bit smaller and thereby cleaner. It actually is still a bit too big, but I am compromising here between being able to use clean paneling (the length of the Y is determined by the three curved 3x11 panels, but that is actually too long) and following the blueprint to the t. I have played a bit with different designs for the unload pipe. I first thought to use system 2x4xsomething half-cylinders to build a long pipe, but these are not available in lime. Then I tried to stack these rims: , but even with a 32L axle they just sagged under their own weight. So I ended up with the design as shown. That is stiff, but still (relatively) light. I added a folding section at the end. I still have to decide whether or not to make that remote controlled. If so, I'll probably have to go the pneumatic route. Then I also worked on the folding doors on top of the grain bunker: I hadn't realised this, but all doors are actually operated through one motor. Here is a video of the real thing: This also explains why the front and back door have slanted edges. I have a first mechanism operational, but it is not working as smooth as I would like, I think the slanted edges are a bit too much angled inwards and the upper doors are positioned so far to the outside that they interfere with the unload pipe. So I'll be redesigning that part. For now I'll leave it at this and first work on the header lifting mechanism.

Very nice model. I'd also be interested in a closer look at the insides. Too bad the moon didn't make it, but that might be a discussion to be had with the LEGO designers if you get accepted.

Great review Jim. It is a nice change from the criticism that usually is expressed in this forum. You almost swayed me into buying this set, but even with my budget I feel this set is too expensive (I also don't have any yellow models in my backlog at the moment). But maybe I'll pick it up with a good discount some day.

made my day

Time for another update. I have been struggling with the structure of this beast. I like my models to have some internal structure that is strong and sturdy, while using a minimal amount of parts. There should be some logic to it. But in this model I just couldn't get a feel for how this structure should look like. So instead I started to play with panels to get the outer contours somewhat right. Hopefully this will help with fleshing out the inside. So here is the first attempt at some bodywork: The proportions do not feel completely right yet (the white area is maybe a bit too long). This thing is going to be massive! I underestimated the size of this thing severely (which also explains why I couldn't get a grip on the design of the internal structure). It is currently 65 cm long, adding the header at the front and the spreader mechanism at the back my guess is that it will be 80 cm long in total. If I would add the biggest header this thing can handle it would also become 80 cm wide . Which is similar in size as my F14 Tomcat... I may have to add some more functions to prevent it becoming an empty box like the 42100 . The eagled eyed among you may have noticed a big turntable in the track. That is correct, I am reverting back to the pendular suspension on the tracks. This is the only way to get enough room for the actuators to lift the header. As a consequence the diff of the tracks is now suspended and can not be locked anymore .

I agree to most what is said. Designing in a modular way is easier and makes the model talk more coherently to the builder, but in the final model the modularity can be compromised to avoid bulky connections. I think the 8448 had the advantage of having a studfull frame. There are so many more compact ways to connect modules in that system. This is indeed a severe challenge. The 42056 has a mod that can achieve this and I only managed this once (Il toro azzurro has detachable bodywork). Both of these cars are still relatively boxy, coincidently both inspired on designs of the 50/60's...

Here you go: