Ralph_S

There often isn't enough space in cars on this scale to put much of an engine in them, but this is such an enormous car in real life that the scale model is quite roomy too, with sufficient space for the engine. I did consider grill tiles, but there are a few reasons why I didn't use them. The space between the headlights is nine studs wide, which doesn't lend itself well to grill tiles -8 wide would be easier. I could try stepping them, to also build the V-shape in the grill, but it would still be awkward. Then there's the step in the front bumper. The grill doesn't have a constant height, with the central bit being taller. It has working steering, but not connected to the steering wheel.... Cheers, Ralph

This month's LUGNuts challenge on flickr is called Plus or Minus ten. The idea is to build a car that is ten years older or younger than yourself. For me that meant a car either from 1965 or 1985. In 1965 Cadillac introduced a new version of the Fleetwood, their top-of-the-line model. Vertically stacked headlights were all the rage. 1965 Cadillac Fleetwood (2) by Mad physicist, on Flickr Earlier models of Cadillac still had fins, even if they already were a lot smaller than those on the '59. The '65 Fleetwood didn't really have proper fins, but because the bootlid drops down while the sidepanels don't, there's still something that looks a bit like a fin left. 1965 Cadillac Fleetwood (3) by Mad physicist, on Flickr As usual, the doors and boot (and bonnet) on my model can all be opened. 1965 Cadillac Fleetwood (7) by Mad physicist, on Flickr The Fleetwood was powered by a massive 7litre V8, delivering a comparatively measly 340 HP. This was not a fast car by any means. 1965 Cadillac Fleetwood (8) by Mad physicist, on Flickr Cheers, Ralph

Yes. Magnus Lauglo, who is the coordinator for the military theme for the event has been asking me to come over for more than a year now and I've decided to go. I've actually been checking flights tonight. Cheers, Ralph

I feel a bit the odd one out in this forum, having built a grand total of two train MOCs in the last two decades. The reason why I built both is because I figured they'd look nice as part of a larger city layout, with -as The Brickster describes- a single straight line running through my town. Trains aren't the centerpiece. Cheers, Ralph

It may still say WIP in the title of this thread, but it's done. Maersk locomotive (5) by Mad physicist, on Flickr Maersk locomotive (1) by Mad physicist, on Flickr It was fun to build a train for a change Cheers, Ralph

Thank you. I'm a planner. There's always some improvisation required, but I always know where I'm going and I to keep from going nuts I have to have things sorted. I hate sorting though I haven't had much time to build on the train in the last two days, but made some progress this evening. I finished the superstructure (for lack of a better word), have finished the bogies/trucks and am pretty much done with the front. That leaves the rear, the fuel tank, a few details and stickers. I am still considering buying the actual set to get the stickers (as well as the other parts), but might settle for custom ones instead (or buy a sticker sheet on bricklink). I've already spent rather a lot on LEGO this month. I tried taking a few photographs to show the progress, but it's already too dark and it's getting so close to being finished that they wouldn't leave much surprise for pictures of the finished product. If I go for custom stickers, I am pretty sure I'll finish it and will take pictures this coming weekend. Cheers, Ralph

I saw your 8-wide train (hard to miss on the front page) and it seemed obviously inspired by the Maersk train. I'd say go for it Thanks for the reply. I know LEGO has been hiring AFOLs and it shows. I think what also helps in this case is that, since it's a licensed product, they could make it look like the real deal. I know that to avoid potential copyright issue they are often forced to make models not look like any particular real vehicle. Thanks for the tip on Holger Mathis's articel. I'll see whether I can find it, because I definitely want to test it to see whether, if I were to take my train to some event, I could have it run. Everybody has a different way of building. I tend to be fairly organised and my table is actually a bit emptier, usually. I used to build on the floor as well for quite a while. This is the first time I have actually had a nice dedicated LEGO room. I used to build in my home office, which was quite small, with LEGO all over the place and a desk that was too small. This space is a luxury and I'm still getting used to it. Cheers, Ralph

Thanks guys. I spent a bit more time on it yesterday. I found out that I made a few errors. The rear vents just under the roof are too big and the MAERSK logo sits lower on one side than the other . I also came to the conclusion that whiles more-or-less correct for the scale, the distance between the bogies was a bit too long. The 'balconies' on the ends will take up a bit more space than they do on the real train, so I'll need to compromise a bit. That should be possible. A fairly long stretch of flexible track would also work. I have no desire to build my own train layout, though, and don't have an engine for it. The only tracks I have myself are those that I had as a child with my 4.5V train. Those were the days... Cheers, Ralph

Thanks guys. Yes. The 'R' wasn't easy, but I've seen it done before this way. It involves using a 1x2 x 1x4 bracket that sticks into the structure. What made it difficult here us that it interferes with the lettering on the other side. I've never seen a proper K done in a similar font. They always look a bit awkward. I didn't want to simply stick cheese slopes in there not attached to anything, but using two 1x2 cheese slopes allowed me to connect them on the inside. I'll probably get started on the bogies/ trucks next. I already have a prototype (lying next to the model in the lasest picture I posted), but it needs more work. Cheers, Ralph

Thanks guys. I decided to take a better picture of the reference drawing I made for this build. My previous Work In Progress picture of the Maersk train showed a diagram lying on the table. I decided that a better picture was probably called for. When building I use plenty of reference pictures, but I also tend to make a drawing with the general arrangement telling me how long things need to be. I find it far easier to work this out before I start putting bricks together. LEGO Maersk Train general arrangement diagram by Mad physicist, on Flickr I also decided to make a picture of my work area. LEGO room with Work In Progress by Mad physicist, on Flickr I made some progress this evening. I changed the location of the lettering some, added some detail to the sides and starting building the aft section. I haven't thought about adding lights and, looking at the location of the headlights, I reckon it would be pretty difficult. I'm also not sure where to put the battery box for it. It is a fairly big model, but with all the SNOT work for the lettering there isn't much room inside for anything really. Probably not. It's a big lump and provided that it will even be able to take corners it would look silly. An added issue is that the bogies/ trucks (depending on what side of the Atlantic you're from) are very long -AFAIK much longer than a 12 V motor. Cheers, Ralph

They'll probably bring in more money if you're able to sell them with their boxes, although I don't think the price difference between a set with box and a set without the box is significant once the box has already been opened and the set built. I put the boxes in recycling, but then again, I look at sets as parts packs for my own models. Cheers, Ralph

I'm not much of a train lover. In fact, while I generally do look at MOCs posted in this forum, it's only the second time I post a MOC here myself. The first one I posted was the first train I built in about 20 years. When the first pictures of the Maersk Train set were released a few months ago I immediately liked it. I haven't yet bought the set, although I might buy one for the parts and for the stickers. I have taken a close look at pictures of the set and at pictures of the real engine that it is based on. LEGO's designers have really done an excellent job considering the scale. I think it really is one of the nicest LEGO trains they have ever produced. Completing my American tiller truck has made me think about building my own little US-themed layout, with a firehouse, a diner and all of the American cars I still have left from Bricksboro Beach, a collaborative project I was involved in with The Brickish Association back in 2009. I also would love to have a train track on it. I decided to build my own version of the Maersk train in my own style -the engine anyway. Regular 6-wide trains look too narrow to me and since I have no intention of having mine actually run on a layout and I therefore don't really have to worry about the radius of the curves, I decided to go bigger. WIP Maersk train engine by Mad physicist, on Flickr The blue isn't LEGO Maersk blue, but medium blue instead. It currently still is a work in progress, but I like what I've got so far and will keep posting updates until it's ready. Perhaps you'll enjoy reading about the experience of a non-train-builder building one. Cheers, Ralph

It's nice to see them all line up like this. It's a shame you haven't yet been able to work out how to show thumbnails of pictures that are hosted on flickr though. You might want to ask Hinckley how he does it, because the trains and town index does seem to have pictures that are originally hosted on flickr in it. His solution seems to be hosting a thumbnail version of the picture hosted elsewhere. For instance: http://brickzone.net/images/eurobricks/tn/17854.jpg The alternative is to get the BBCode for the thumbnail from flickr directly. The code for this is: [url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/madphysicist/5637669519/][img=http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5262/5637669519_b7f61f7f9e_t.jpg][/url] If you replace the url with the url for the thread you're done. Cheers, Ralph

Thanks. At least one of them was front paged BTW There's been a discussion on this on EB before. It's hard to distinguish some Creator sets from Model Team by looking at the built model. There have been creator sets with steering. One of the early creator sets included a model of a red helicopter on which the rotors turned of squeezed the aft section of the fuselage repeatedly, using a very clever Technic mechanism and some rubber bands. I think the distinction between Technic and Model Team isn't generally that hard. Model Team is more geared towards looks with some functionality and tends to use many system elements, while for Technic the functionality is King. What is hard is the distinction between Model Team and some (but certainly not all) Creator sets. I normally don't give a toss about what theme my models might fit into. However, EB basically forces me to choose a theme if I want to post a MOC and Model Team is probably the label that fits many of them best. I used to love Model Team as a child, I had many of the sets, and my style of building was undoubtedly influenced by the sets. I don't see them as Creator models, because Creator is a hodgepodge of all kinds of things. Creator is more an idea than a particular type of model: they're sets designed purposely designed with parts palettes specifically aimed at build many different things with the same set. It's obvious that the Creator Dragon or Offroad Power is a rather different thing than the Apple Tree House, but both are sold as Creator. The Dragon could easily be considered a Technic model. Offroad Power could easily have been a Model Team kit. The Apple Tree House is more City than anything else. I think that all things considered, keeping the forum very much the way it is right now is the best thing to do. I've been adding both MOC and Model Team to the titles of topics that I've started here for a few months now. Cheers, Ralph

The distinction between steering and non-steering seems a bit arbitrary. Where do you put a Model Team helicopter? Does the steering mechanism have to be connected to the steering wheel? Is my Scania Wrecker Model Team, but my otherwise rather similar DAF truck not because the former has IR remote control and the latter doesn't? Cheers, Ralph

Thanks. I'm thinking of a downtown area with the firestation, diner, a parking lot and a few other buildings -an old brownstone office block perhaps. I might even do a railway track behind it. I'll have to give this some thought. Cheers, Ralph

Fair enough. There is no quick fix. Cheers, Ralph

I'm sure that if you add the numbers from Model and Creator the end result will be low, but these numbers don't tell you everything. Comments left in threads on model team creations that were frontpaged, and therefore didn't escape people's attention, suggest that quite a few people who might actually be interested in the sort of things Model Team builders make don't actually see them because they ordinarily never look in the Technic forum! I think it's a general drawback to the arrangement of having sub-forums directly associated with themes. If there were, say, a vehicle forum, city builders and model team builders would find each other more frequently. I realise that such a change has other issues and is beyond the scope of this thread, but I do see certain things getting snowed under. 'Military', for instance, doesn't even have a corresponding LEGO theme and gets lumped in with the wholly unrelated 'Special Themes' like Collectible minifigs and Fabuland. There are worse places for Model Team than the Technic forum, but I also know -once again from comments- that not all Technic builders appreciate Model Team creations because the technical functionality comes in second place after the looks and they see at as little different from Creator. Cheers, Ralph

The main reason why I frequent the Technic Forum is that Model Team is a part of it. I'm not a Technic builder and don't really care about the reviews , MOCs and techniques. It's not my thing. The category that many of my MOCs fit into best is Model Team. From the poll I can see that 'Take Away Model Team' is an option. This raises the obvious question of where you'd put it. I think there is something to be said for taking it out of the Technic forum, but if it gets lumped in with the other 'special themes' it would get even more lost among the clutter than it does in the Technic Forum. Is it time to create a Model Team forum, perhaps, possibly combined with Creator? Cheers, Ralph

Thanks everyone. The fire department didn't seem complete without a ladder truck. I probably ought to have a look at building an SUV for the chief as well. For the first time in years I don't really have a clear-cut idea of what to build next, but completing this model has made me think about using some of the other vehicles I still have from the Bricksboro Beach project to build my own US-themed urban layout. A fire station could be a nice part of that. I also still have a US diner. Diner (5) by Mad physicist, on Flickr I might have to make it a bit less 'tropical' though. Cheers, Ralph

Ever since I built a pumper truck and an ambulance for Bricksboro Beach (a collaborative project with members of The Brickish Association for our show at the Steam museum in 2009) I've been thinking about building a minifig scale tiller truck/ tractor drawn aerial to go with it. What stopped me from doing it was the lack of a suitable ladder design. A few weeks ago I had an idea -possible thanks to a few new parts- which prompted me to finally get started. I have had a fair few discussions on what constitutes minifig scale on EB in the last months. Some people build their minifig scale trucks 6 studs or 8 studs wide. I tend to be very fussy about scale and often feel 8 is too wide, while six looks a bit small next to regular cars. So, like most of my trucks this one is 7 studs wide. The truck isn't based on any particular brand and model, but was heavily inspired by the Simon Duplex/ LTI truck used by the Los Angeles Fire Department. Tiller truck (2) by Mad physicist, on Flickr The ladder can be raised, extended and rotated. The truck also has working side support struts. The real truck has several bits of ladder that slide out, whereas mine has just one. I could have used a stack of standard ladders that LEGO and many other builders use, but they often don't look right to me because of the lack of railings on the side and because they require awkward compromises to reach the proper length. My solution is a bit flimsy, but I like the look. Tiller truck (8) by Mad physicist, on Flickr Both the ambulance and the pumper truck I built for Bricksboro are red with a blue and white stripe, with some sort of zig-zag worked into them, using SNOT work. This tiller truck provided a bigger canvas, so I could do something similar, but simply using a mosaic like combination of plates. It's easier and doesn't interfere with the doors, but looks just as nice. Tiller truck (4) by Mad physicist, on Flickr Finally, all the vehicles of the Bricksboro Beach Fire Department together Bricksboro Beach Fire Department (1) by Mad physicist, on Flickr Cheers, Ralph

I have been getting questions about the door mechanism. It's one of those things that are perfectly straightforward, but hard to explain in words. A three long technic arm sits vertically inside the compartment. It's attached to a technic pin in the sidewall at the bottom. The door is attached with a second technic pin at the top. The arm allows the whole door to swing out and then up, much like a many garage doors. I'll see that I make a better picture one of these days. I personally think that 8-wide is too big for most minifig scale vehicles, but if you don't want to change the width of the doors and use these wheels, I reckon 8-wide is probably best. It'll sort out just about all the issues with the proportions. I'd hate to know how much that will cost, if the 6-wide version is already $150 Cheers, Ralph

Too small !? The length of the vehicle might hide it a bit, but if anything they're a bit big. In any case, imagine it with wheels that are one size bigger. This is the size you'll end up with: Cheers, Ralph

The solution is not to try to attach the tiles to the letters to the top and bottom. Instead you can using a headlight brick or a 1x1 brick with a stud on one side to attach the tiles between the letters to one of the letters on either side and to attach the letters themselves to a rod or piece of flex-tube that runs along the length of the sign at the back. That will allow you to space them evenly. Alternatively, depending on what letters you used, you might want to look into full blown SNOT lettering, where the letters are actually attached to each other. Good luck! Ralph

Interesting little car, Lasse. Supercars are nice, but from my own experience I know that building a recognisable model of a small car can be a lot more difficult. A Ferrari will still look like a Ferrari if you mess up, but with a relatively nondescript little five-door like this there is far less room for compromises. The Yaris has a difficult shape. I think you've done an admirable job, although it looks better from the side and rear than from the front IMO. I'm impressed by the techniques and all the functionality you've managed to cram into such a small package and am intrigued by the mechanism you used to make the doors work. How easy are they to open? The figures are neat as well. Will you also build a LEGO version of yourself to go with it? BTW, I liked you Solstice too. You sure manage to pick out the difficult ones! Cheers, Ralph