Ralph_S

Thanks Daniel. I didn't know you were on Eurobricks, although judging from your number of posts, you haven't been here for very long. Take your time. Cheers, Ralph

That's the second time somebody mentions that you can't deeplink to photos on flickr. It's not an issue of it not being possible, but of not knowing how it is possible. I do it all the time here on eurobricks and on MOCpages. In fact, almost all of my photographs on MOCpages are actually hosted on flickr. You can grab the deep link to a photograph by clicking on 'all sizes', and choosing one of the sizes. I normally use 'medium'. That way the photo doesn't become too big for the forum. If you do that, the url of the actual photograph shows up underneath it. There are two caveats. You may not be able to deeplink to a photograph that isn't yours, because users can set who can download their photographs (and see the direct link) and who can't. In my photostream the dafult is that only other flickr users can download them. It's one way of limiting the opportunities somebody else has to copy your work. Flickr's guidelines stipulate that a flickr photograph on another website should also link back to flickr. In html that is very easy, because in addition to the url for deeplinking the picture, doing what I described above also produces the html you need for using it elsewhere. You just copy that and paste it in the code for the other website. That's what I do for MOCpages. Now, on a forum it's a bit different, because it doesn't use html directly, but here's an example of a picture on flickr using a deeplink and simultaneously being a link to its flickr page: The code for this is [url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/madphysicist/2908290068][img=http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3215/2908290068_1fd7cb41aa.jpg][/url] with the first url being the url of the flickr page built around the photo and the second url, between the image brackets, its deep link. Cheers, Ralph

I'm not at all surprised you like the underside. After all, that's where the doors are In seriousness, thank you. For a long time I tended to ignore minifigs, certainly when building aircraft, because building them at a larger scale seemed more convenient. However, there are plenty of aircraft that can be made to work on minifig scale and building them is a challenge that I welcome. I like the idea of a diorama. Being able to do that is a major benefit of building for minifigs and it's certainly something that I want to try sometime. Cheers, Ralph

That's absolutely why some people call my building old-fashioned or old school. Studless building seems to have become the norm. Worse, some builders seem to hold the opinion that if a MOC has got studs, it's no good. For me the studs don't matter. I don't doubt for a second that if I could be bothered I could build studless, but in general I don't see the point. I've seen great MOCs with studs and utter rubbish without studs. That said, I am currently working on a largely studless build because it has to fit in a theme with a predominantly studless building style. It should be ready and on-line fairly soon. Cheers, Ralph

When I finally bought a digital camera and started uploading photographs, I did that with brickshelf. I still like it and still upload pictures of my new MOCs every once in a while. Most of my older stuff is also there. I also have pages on MOCpages. Over the years my views on MOCpages have changed a few times. I used to really like it back when I started using it in 2005. I got to know quite a few people who I still am in touch with. The interactivity is what made it attractive. When it looked as though brickshelf was going under, I also used to host some of my pictures on MOCPages. However, things went a bit downhill over time. I didn't like the behavior of some of the users and the amount of crap that was being uploaded got so far out of hand that the few nice things that were still being made and uploaded there were snowed under. I moved to flickr. Sean Kenney has recently made a lot of changes to MOCoages, adding a lot of useful features that make it easier to find things you like and to ignore things you don't like, and I have once again started to update my pages. I don't upload pictures there, but still host them on flickr. You can actually also deeplink pictures from flickr onto Eurobricks. I do it all the time. The main site I use nowadays is flickr. The only drawback that I see is that it is not very user-friendly for people who don't have an account. Once you do, however, it is great. They do have free accounts that come with a few limitations, but you can already do quite a lot. I initially feared that because it is not dedicated to LEGO, LEGO pictures would get snowed under by people's holiday pictures, for instance, but that turns out not to be the case. You can really set it up such that you get to see just what you want to see and Flickr has a very active group of LEGO users (many of whom I already knew from MOCpages). I am very happy there. The fact that it isn't just a LEGO site is actually an advantage. For me it has meant that my MOCs are also being seen by people who aren't AFOLs and I get a lot of great reactions from them. This has also lead to my models being blogged all over the internet -not just by The Brothers Brick, but also by non-LEGO sites such as autoblog and gizmodo. Cheers, Ralph

Glad to know that they worked. I look forward to seeing your new pictures. Cheers, Ralph

Very nice. I saw it on flickr yesterday or the day before. I like it. It's got a very nice shape and you have spent a lot of attention to the details. Cheers, Ralph

No problem. One size larger would be the wheels used on the cars in the Indiana Jones Shangai Chase (among others). There is also a wider tyre with the same diameter. Cheers, Ralph

Very nice. The forklift, U-Haul trailer and the container are very neat. Nice use of SNOT work and great use of some power miners parts. I do have a few minor niggles. Some of the vehicles -the truck mainly- are a bit big for minifigscale in my opinion. I know that LEGO themselves seem to have some issues there. SUVs tends to be narrower than a truck, but the SUV in the new set (the one you used to haul your U-Haul) is already six studs wide; 7 including the mudguards. If you take that into account, having an 8-wide truck makes sense. However, in that case I would recommend using larger wheels for it. I like the truck, but the ones you've used now look a bit too small. I also like the brushfire truck, but feel it should be sitting a bit higher with a larger ground clearance. Cheers, Ralph

Thank you. The nosecone indeed took a while to sort out. It still doesn't look too good from every angle, but there's only so much you can do on this scale. Well, I myself don't care about studs, but that's everyone's personal preference. Since I am the proud owner of a grant total of four 1x4 tiles in dark green, it wasn't really an option I'm afraid. Cheers, Ralph

I can't figure it out either. It does have elements of both. Cheers, Ralph

Sorry I didn't reply sooner, Rog. I somehow missed your message. I didn't know I had that sort of reputation. It has always been a desire of mine to be able to do cockpits and windows with LEGO parts, despite the non-LEGO plastic that I've used on many of my modern-day aircraft. Most of my helicopters already have LEGO windows and the canopy shape on this one seemed very well doable in LEGO elements as well and the nose-cone would have been next to impossible to do otherwise. The wings were fun to build. Their thickness was actually an advantage, because it helped me giving them the right dihedral. It also helped with the camouflage. I mainly had 1x6 and 4x8 plates in dark green. The thickness of the wing made it possible to overlap plates, making the camouflage less blocky. I sometimes get told that my models are 'old school' or 'old-fashioned', depening on whether or not the person writing it likes it or not. I guess you like it I too like the real aircraft. It's a classic, and I had great fun depicting it in LEGO. Thanks for all your reactions. Cheers, Ralph

Never mind. The B-29 is called the Superfortress, and would indeed be interesting. There already is a fantastic one on brickshelf, built by the same Japanese builder who is also building the Yamato. I'm not sure I could do any better. Thanks. I finally found something that I could do in dark green Cheers, Ralph

Is it based on a real car, or is it just a sort-of generic Rolls-Royce? In any case the model looks very nice. Very clean and sleek. Cheers, Ralph

Thanks. I probably will. I have concrete plans for one more, to be built sometime in the next few months, and some vague ideas on building more after that. The cockpit canopy is almost always one of the most difficult parts of an aircraft to build, so I am glad that you like it. I specifically chose this version of the Mosquito because I figured I'd have just enough dark green plates and slopes to be able to do some justice to the camouflage pattern. I've never used as much dark green on a single MOC as with this one. If I were to build a four-engined bomber, it would more likely be a B-17 Flying Fortress, but thanks for the suggestion. Cheers, Ralph

Ever since I built my Fairey Swordfish to go with Lego Monster's HMS Hood, I've been thinking about building more minifig scale classic aircraft, but I had few concrete plans until recently. The De Havilland Mosquito came up in a conversation with Lego Monster a few weeks ago, and last week I decided to have a go at building one. more pictures on flickr All in all it took about 30 hours to build and I'm happy with the result. I hope you'll like it too. Cheers, Ralph

Nice limo. 1x2 plates in trans light blue do exist, because I've got several. Alternatively, you could see whether you have trans black ones. Cheers, Ralph

It was called 'U-571'. It was partially based on a real event in which the Royal Navy captured U-110 including the ship's Enigma machine (a machine used to encode messages) and secret codebooks. Hollywood is in the entertainment business rather than the business of making documentaries. If you want a good movie about U-boats, I can recommend 'Das Boot' Cheers, Ralph

Nicely done. Lego monster and I had a great time building our 7-wide coach. He has since decided to give it larger wheels, which looks a bit better. About two weeks weeks ago I built my own. A doubledecker version is a nice idea and I'd love to see it actually built. Cheers, Ralph

I'm a bit confused by this vehicle. I'll explain why. I know of two basic types of recovery vehicles. There are wreckers that if they are based on a truck chassis have a fairly substantial crane in the back (such as my Peterbilt wrecker) and there are flatbed trucks that carry a vehicle on a flatbed, such as my old Ford F650. Rather than a crane they normally only have a winch used to pull the vehcile onto the flatbed. Your truck has a (short) flatbed and a crane. That's a combination I have never seen. I realise it's just a little something you built without too much planning, but if you want to improve it I'd suggest either removing the crane and making the flatbed longer or building a more beefy crane and a proper wrecker body around it. I also think that it would look more like a real truck if you'd place the two rear axles closer together, without a mudguard in between, and further back. Cheers, Ralph

It is a big truck, so if you guys think it looks big, I'm happy :) I've completely forgotten to make pictures of the dark red car. Sorry. I'll let you know when I've done it. Cheers, Ralph

Well, in that case I'm glad you really love it. I actually have used quite a few custom stickers on my military MOCs and my larger scale cars, but for the minifig scale things I've been going completely purist. I can put a minifig in the cab by removing the roof and that really is enough for me. I've been building quite a lot in the last few years, so you will find quite a few cars in there. This minifig scale stuff is all fairly recent. I'd more or less given up on minifigs until little more than a year ago, when Brickish organised a competition that involved building a cafe-corner compatible building. I had great fun doing that and I immediately built two cars to go with it. I think it's fair to say that it snowballed since then. Cheers, Ralph

I am glad you like it. The reason for the windshield is very simple. The cab is five studs wide, so there's really no single existing one-piece part that will fit. I agree it isn't the highpoint of the model. I could probably put doors in the cab, albeit not with the red and blue stripe running down the truck's side and since I was building a minifig scale version of a larger scale truck in LEGOLand, I felt I shouldn't change the colour scheme. You are right, the doors in the wrecker bed are storage compartments. I've found a picture of the larger model in LEGOLand on brickshelf. Cheers, Ralph

Thanks. I actually build my vehicles on a fairly small scale. it is roughly 1/45. Which just goes to show quit how ridiculously big the real trucks are. It would seem that a lot of people build on a larger scale to enable two figures to sit inside the cabs of their vehicles side-by-side. Cheers, Ralph

Read what I wrote again carefully. Ralph