Ralph_S

Nice work. You made an already nice set into something an AFOL can be proud of. I too like the colour scheme. Right now the signs with your pertrol station don't have any wording or logos on them, but the colour scheme is exactly the same as that used for the fictional 'Fuel 4 Speed' brand LEGO use for racers sets, such as Bullet Run and Bridge Chase. If you can get your hands on those or their sticker sheets, you might have a solution. Cheers, Ralph

Thanks man. Those were my main inspiration. That's a very simple comment to make. What's far harder is actually using curved elements to make something this small and in tan. Cheers, Ralph

If am open to suggestions. I agree it's not perfect, but I fear it is as good as it is going to get. I considered using that window piece, but ran into trouble (apart from the fact that I haven't got a matching tan brick to connect it). For various reasons the 1x4 brick is what attaches the front of the roof to the rest of the car. I could probably connect it in the back, but I'd need 1 x 2 x 1 panels in tan, of which I currently have none that aren't already in use. thanks for your suggestion for the front mudguards. It is something that I considered doing, but I was unsure whether I could get it to work. The construction of the front is quite complicated, with various bits being mounted upside down. However, after reading byour comment I decided to have a go and I managed to get it to work. Thanks! Indeed, sometimes the harder a build gets, the more fun it is. My main reason for my remark about hours of fiddling was that I often get comments about how simple my MOCs supposedly are. This can be a bit frustrating, because people apparently don't always realise how much effort goes into making them look simple. Cheers, Ralph

Impressive. I used to be a big fan of robotech and used to have my own LEGO versions of these years ago. The Alpha-fighter looks a bit chubby, but that's probably unavoidable. I'm sure the animators fiddled around with the proportions to make them look sleek as jets but bulky in battroid mode. All in all very impressive. Cheers, Ralph

I really like the oldtimer cars in the LEGO Shanghai Chase set, but unfortunately they are far too big to fit with my minifig scale cars. Time to build something a little bit smaller. This is one of those models that may look straightforward, but that cost hours of fiddling and trial-and-error to get right. It's five studs wide, like many of my minifig cars. I know his is probably smaller than what many people people would consider minifig scale, but it works very well as part of city scenes involving pedestrians, buildings and other vehicles. This is the car together with one of my older more modern cars to show how they fit together. Cheers, Ralph

They may not even have been very common outside the US, although I know there was one close to my hometown when I was a child. Even if we're not old enough to have been to one of these ourselves they've been shown in lots of sitcoms and movies, so the concept ought to be familiar to most people. What you've built so far looks pretty good. Nice and detailed. I like the ticket booth most of all This whole thing gives me an idea. I understand you wanting to use some custom stickers, but wouldn't it be nicer if that large movie screen wasn't a sticker but was actually a mosaic of the scene you have in mind or a picture built out of bricks? It would not be easy to pull off and would cost loads of small plates, but it could look fantastic. Think about it! Cheers, Ralph

Many US fire departments do have aerial booms, but I suspect that the reason why you don;t see all that many of them on brickshelf is that they are a lot harder to build than a conventional ladder truck. Steven Ashbury has a nice mid mount and I've done a European one myself. Anyway, this isn't about my MOCs but about yours. I agree with Milan on the roof. Lowering the aft part by one plate would make it look nicer. Looking at the real one I'd also suggest getting rid of the sloped parts at the rear end of the cabin. The real truck has a separate cabin and aft body, with the rear of the cabin being vertical. These are just minor things, really. There is one more thing that is mainly a matter of personal preference, although a fairly important issue from my point of view. Because minifigures are awkwardly proportioned it is next to impossible to build a vehicle that looks good with the figures standing next to it that can still seat figures side-by-side. You've tried, but I'm not so sure you've succeeded. The cabin looks a bit awkward and I think that you could make it look a lot better if you'd be willing to compromise and get rid of a few of the figures. I suspect the figures are also the reason why you've had to raise the back end of the cab's roof too. Overall the truck is nicely proportioned and I'm impressed by the construction of the boom and the basket -in particular by the way you've mounted the hinge in the middle. Cheers, Ralph

I have no idea what the going rate os for them now, but I've got two copies of the Yoda Statue from a few years back. I mainly bought them for the large quantity of sand green, but they've also got a pretty amazing quantity of tan brick. They were both 2nd hand, but unbuilt and fairly cheaply (think

Good going Dr. S. I too will be attending (travelling to the UK for the occassion) and I've been building models especially for the event for the last two months. Many of them have been here on eurobricks, so if you want to see them in real life, get over to Swindon! Cheers, Ralph

The issue is a familiar one. I just moved to a new (smaller) place temporarily, while I look for a new job and some place larger. (I just moved from the UK to The Netherlands.) My collection was outgrowing my previous place and I already found myself storing MOCs in boxes in my spare bedroom. I don't leave sets built up. In fact, I hardly ever build sets any more. It's little fun and I just don't have the space. If I have to chose between displaying a MOC and set, I'll always choose the former. Now almost all of my MOCs are partially dismantled and stored in boxes, forming a ridiculously large stack. Some book-shelves can do wonders and I hope that wherever I move next, I'll have space for a LEGO room with book shelves covering at least one wall. Cheers, Ralph

Welcome to EuroBricks, Gambort. Unfortunately your link doesn't work, so here it is: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gambort/2700119117/ Making pictures from flickr work as links in the code this forum uses takes some getting used to: [url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/gambort/2700119117/][img=http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3067/2700119117_4a9504a731.jpg][/url] Gambort's figure clearly shows the issue: minifigs are oddly-proportioned little buggers. Depending on what you want, there's a pretty large range of scales to choose from without things looking too silly. I tend to stick towards the small end of the scale and I'll explain why using cars as an example. I tend to use my mine together with cyclists, pedestrians and buildings. That means I tend to opt for the lower range of the scale, roughly 1/45. Cars typically end up five studs wide and trucks seven, which is very close to most LEGO city vehicles. If I were to insist on having enough space inside them to fit two figures side-by-side, they'd look ridiculously large next to the figures. If you car is a stand-alone MOC, however, and you don't put standing figures next to it, a larger scale can look decent. One studs equals 30 cm is a scale of about 1/37, which is larger than I would use, but it isn't unreasonable. Cheers, Ralph

Even worse, you may damage the bricks Cheers, Ralph

If I would have gone for a classic like that, it would probably have been something military, but I agree that the Empire was a beauty. Using the decal from the Airliner set seemed obvious to me. Bonus points for anybody who can figure out what set the black 'bird' shape on the tail came from. Thanks. I'm happy the colour scheme is being appreciated. It was a big puzzle and the SNOt work needed to continue the line into the tail fin almost drove me nuts. There's always an issue with LEGO windows. There simply aren't any pieces that seem suitable for something like this, although on second thought, perhaps one of those Racer-X windscreens would have been a good idea if I had one. I disagree that the windows are too small, BTW. A real Grumman Mallard has surprisingly small windows too. Having a minifig scaled model without actual minifigs seems like a missed opportunity, although it does require a few compromises. I'm not really known for pushing the boundaries in terms of build techniques, but I am glad you enjoy my work. Thanks. The gear was a fairly difficult bit to get to work, but it turned out better than I could have hoped. I've been a fan of Grumman aircraft ever since I first saw a Tomcat, but some of their classic planes are really neat. I've had a lot of fun watching videos of Grumman Flying boats on youtube whilst searching for info on the Mallard, in particular [a href=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPOJ5yOElMs]a vidoe of a Grumman Albatross in Alaska[/url]. A wonderful plane. Cheers, Ralph

Rather than starting a new thread each and every time I crank out a new vehicle I've decided to add them here. A few days ago I finished building an ice cream van. I hadn't seen the one built by Bluebard at the time BTW. I also built a WW-II US Army fuel tanker. As usual the pictures are links to flickr, where more pictures of each vehicle can also be found. Cheers, Ralph

You won't have to wait long to find out! By coincidence I just finished writing a post about my latest big MOC. I've built a few more things in the mean time, but I didn't post them to Eurobricks: an ice cream van (built independently from the one built by Bluebard, BTW) and a WW-II US Army fuel tanker. Cheers, Ralph

In the last few days I've been busy building a new MOC: a minifig scale model of a flying boat (based on the Grumman Mallard). It's the first time in ages that I built a civilian aircraft and I've spent quite a bit of effort on giving it a nice colour scheme. It's a bit chubbier than the real aircraft, in part because I wanted space for the crew inside, but I'm very happy with the result. It has probably the nicest wings I've built in a long time. Anyway, I hope you'll like it too. More pictures on flickr Cheers, Ralph

Very nice. From the title I expected to see some modded parts, but this is far better . They are instantly recognisable. Cheers, Ralph

I agree with most of the comments above. The black car looks out of place. The ambulance and the police car don't really look all that different from sets. The surfer's car and the ice cream van are the nicest of the lot. the van seems to combine bits I like about the camper van with bits I like about the joker's "I scream" van. Cheers, Ralph

It's a LUG, but not one that actually does public displays at least twice a year. Cheers, Ralph

No LUG on the planet Zi? Seriously, I don't know where you are, but there may be a LUG somewhere near you. Edit: I checked your profile. Have you considered joining Brickish? Cheers, Ralph

Rather than raising the roof of the cab, I'd suggest lowering the back of the truck a bit. Cheers, Ralph

I really like this. It is very simple, but the best ideas usually are

I love fire trucks. I like the various bits of kit you made to go with it, but I think it would look better and more like the real truck if you would redesign the cab. If you look at the picture of the real truck, you'll see that the cab and the aft body of the vehicle are separate parts. The body on your truck looks a bit too much like a van, IMO. It also looks a bit odd that the roof of the cab is narrower than the bottom of it. I understand you probably chose to do this so that you could use the roof piece and window, but they're really too narrow. I'd suggest either making the whole vehicle narrower or making the roof wider. The real truck has an almost vertical wind shield, so building A-pillars out of red 1x1 bricks might solve the issue. If you have some 1x1 plates with clips, you could integrate them into the pillars, making excellent attachment points for rear-view mirrors. Finally, a completely different comment. Many of your pictures are out of focus. When I just bought a digital camera years ago and started using it to take close-ups of my MOCs I did the same. I'm no photography expert, but if you want better pictures, you should figure out how to switch your camera to 'macro' mode and use something to support your camera when taking the pictures. Cheers, Ralph

I agree 200 DKK is not a lot. However, since this is a pilot, perhaps if it is a success in future rounds (if there are any) the limit will go up. Cheers, Ralph

Fair enough. Seriously though, if a member of a particular LUG participating in this wants to sell the parts they get out of this, it could potentially ruin the whole deal for everyone (whatever way LEGO would use to find out about it), which is a pretty strong motivator for the LUGs themselves to keep their members in check. I'd consider it one, but I think they are mainly looking for LUGs that operate in one particular geographical area. Can you imagine being the person taking the order on behalf of eurobricks? You in turn would be dealing with people from all over the world and shipping their part of the stash all over the place. I don;t know how you go about building large things, but I start planning them and buying parts for them many months in advance. Twice a year seems like a reasonable frequency to me. It is restrictive, but as I wrote before in this thread, a limit makes sense. Imagine a large group of AFOLs ordering bits without restrictions. The logistics of it all would become unmanageable. Cheers, Ralph