Ralph_S

What a difference a stud makes I like the shape of it much better now. Neat grille too. Cheers, Ralph

Seeing how long this thread has become, I'm getting happier and happier that I moved to flickr four years ago. I loved Brickshelf when I first learned about the on-line LEGO community, but it is just too unreliable. How is the code on flickr inconvenient? Flickr generates the code for you. You click 'share','copy html/bbcode' with a tick at 'bbcode', and simply copy and paste the code to the forum. (You can upload other file formats, but flickr turns them them into jpeg and jpeg doesn't allow transparency). Cheers, Ralph

If my experience is anything to go by, it is more likely to appreciated by people in the town forum than in the Technic/ Model Team forum. I have to echo htbomb, here, gotoAndLego. There's not a lot about the car that makes it immediately identifiable as a Mercury Cougar. Then again, the '69 Cougar doesn't have a lot of very distinctive features, which obviously makes building a recognisable model a lot harder. Racing stripes over the vinyl roof look odd. Knowing what it is that you're trying to model, I think you've done a reasonable job. I've built a lot of cars on a similar scale and don't think it is too narrow. I think it is too long, but not much! It's got a wheelbase of 16 studs and a width of 10, which makes the scale approximately 1/22 (the scale I use for many of my cars too, because it works well with the wheels). At that scale, it should be at most 28 studs long. Unless I miscounted, the model now is 29 studs long. Not far off, but on a car that isn't all that distinctive to start with, small things matter. I think you can improve the look a lot by making the front end, forward of the front wheels, one stud shorter. I'd also lose the green bits on the wheels. It's not a bad part to replicate knock-off wheel covers, but not in green. They're really distracting. There are a few small things that would add a lot to the look. Rear-view mirrors, for instance. The real car also has reflectors or indicator light repeaters on its flanks, which you can easily replicate by building trans red and trans orange 1x1 plates into the sides. Finally, the front and rear bumpers on the real car are u-shaped: they curve upwards at the corners; one of the few distinctive features the car has. This may not be particularly easy, perhaps, but would help a lot. There's not a whole lot that is needed to raise the level of this model from unremarkable to really good. Cheers, Ralph

I've got about a dozen flesh-coloured 1x2 bricks. I can tell you where I got them, but then I'll have to come an kill you . Cheers, Ralph

OK. Here we go. I had the intention of taking a photograph of my own 8-wide completely mad Maersk model together with the set for months. Lucky for me, my sister, whilst staying at my place for a while, was nice enough to build me the set last weekend. How mad is she? Maersk trains (1) by Mad physicist, on Flickr Cheers, Ralph (edited for more madness)

Whenever I am doing just about anything with my LEGO, I'll have music playing. That applies to sorting as well. I don't like sorting, and it doesn't get easier with all the new parts that keep appearing. The way I prepare for sorting is by ensuring that I can do it in finite batches. I don't allow the stash of unsorted bits to get so large that sorting does start to seem endless! As one buys more parts and take apart models, there will be more to sort eventually, but it is not endless. I take models that I want to get rid of apart one by one. Similarly, I sort sets that I part out one by one. I may spend an hour or two parting out a set or taking apart a model once every few weeks and them I'm done for the day! I may still have a stack of unopened and unsorted sets in my LEGO room or some other models that I may want to take apart, but I can take care of those some other day. This also has the advantage that I don't have parts from all kinds of different things all together in the same pile. By sorting set by set and model by model the parts are already presorted to some extent and that makes it a lot easier. When I am building something I may pull out a lot of parts, many of which will end up lying on my table in an unsorted mess rather than ending up in the actual model. After I finish a new model and before starting a new model, I sort the leftover parts first. That ensures that I don't create an ever growing pile of unsorted stuff myself. Of course, none of this works if you're sorting a whole collection from scratch. I wouldn't know where to start if I were faced with a few hundred thousand parts of different varieties and colours in one big pile. The thought alone scares me a bit. Fortunately I've had some sort of sorting system in place since I was a teenager, and have kept sorting it small batches as my collection expanded. Cheers, Ralph

I agree with just about everything you wrote. This sentence is the exception though, because you forget talent, skill and dedication. Cheers, Ralph

Trans clear 1x2 are another example. They used to be as rare as rocking horse poo, but are now available in several sets. I've seen a picture of one of the LEGO games sets that suggests there will be soon be 1x4 tiles in trans clear as well. Cheers, Ralph

I think I agree with you here. It's all too common to see people spending a lot of attention to the trains, but still use cars from sets, for instance. LEGO has done a great job with many of their city vehicles in the last years, certainly compared to the rubbish they produced in the late 'nineties, but I wouldn't qualify most of them as proper models. I'm not much of a train builder (although I do think that the two that I have built as an AFOL qualify as models in their own right), but I am very fussy about cars. Seeing one of those four wide cars with fenders sticking out and knobbly tyres sticking out of those on a layout is a massive turn-off from my perspective. It all needs to be good and there aren't many people who do that. Cheers, Ralph

I too like flickr, in particular because downloading the pictures I post on it is made harder. As a flickr use you can limit downloads to your contacts or to other flickr users only (although there are ways around it, of course). I've done that for my pictures. Doing that has cut down plagiarism of my photos dramatically. I do understand the sentiment about flickr a bit, though. Before I used flickr myself I didn't really like using the site either. Going from a single picture linked in a thread to an overview of all the pictures of the MOC in question is awkward, unless you know about tags or they are all in the same set. Brickshelf has been on the verge of going belly up so long now that I don't even remember the last time I uploaded anything there. Looking at the replies in this thread, there's no obvious consensus on what people prefer. Some prefer all pictures in the thread because the don't like going to an external site. Other people prefer a few, because it takes less time and if the MOC in question is good, they will go to the external site. I think I'll stick to doing what I always do: a few pictures in the thread and the rest on flickr, but perhaps I'll add a link to the set as well. Cheers, Ralph

Definitely not an easy aircraft to do well. I've never built one myself, but Ed Diment, a friend of mine from the UK has. B SR71 Blackbird angled above by Lego Monster, on Flickr It is bigger than what both of us would consider minifig scale, however. Thank you. It depends on the aircraft. When I replaced the canopy on the F-16, I decided to rebuild much of the jet, but even if I wouldn't have decided to give it a comprehensive overhaul, I would have had to make many changes. On some of the other aircraft it was fairly straightforward. A few changes to the interior, to the frame and to the hinge mechanism, and that was it. This weekend I've been working on my F-117 (pictures will follow once I get a bricklink order in for a part I want to replace) and there the new canopy involved rebuilding much of the internal structure of the forward fuselage. It was one hell of a job! Cheers, Ralph

Last week I replaced the canopies on two more of my aircraft. MiG-29 updated (1) by Mad physicist, on Flickr Su-24 Fencer-D (1) by Mad physicist, on Flickr Cheers, Ralph

I'm not much of a train builder myself, having built only two in the 20 years, but I have displayed LEGO models at general model building events and there always are a few people who run trains on our display. The event is Brighton Model World in particular and I'm going again this February. This discussion goes beyond trains. I build scale models of real cars, aircraft and military vehicles. I have the impression that model builders who use kits or who build their models from scratch generally don't see LEGO as a medium for building models. They see it as a toy. The fun thing about Brighton Model World is that there the public and other model enthusiasts are confronted by a bunch of people who do build detailed scale models, including trains, using these little plastic bricks. The reaction is almost always positive, and I've often heard people express surprise that it is possible to build recognisable scale models using LEGO. There's a degree of unfamiliarity with the sort of stuff AFOLs can do. Cheers, Ralph

Thank you. I'm not likely to run out of things to do any time soon -I've got loads of plans and plenty of unused parts- but I will probably put it back together. It hasn't been reduced to individual components, so it ought to be fairly straightforward, certainly with the pictures. Cheers, Ralph

Thanks for the replies everyone. I built and posted it more than two years ago, but it's good to see that it is still popular It would have been possible to build a more accurate representation of the shape of the car, of course, but when I was gathering the pink, the only car I that I could think of building with it was the '59 Cadillac. The Cadillac has travelled the world in the two years since I built it. I had already moved from the UK to the Netherlands when I built it, but took the car to the UK for a show. I left it with a friend of mine, who has since taken it to shows in Portugal and Dubai, among others. When I last talked to him, he told me that it didn't survive the trip to Dubai. Next time I'm in the UK (in February) I expect to be handed a bag full of bits... Cheers, Ralph

That's part of the same project. The same building also houses this model. Legoland - Boeing 747 Jumbo by benallsup, on Flickr (not my picture, BTW.) This model consists largely of plates and tiles in the same colour as the cockpit you posted. They had the intention of building several of these, but that never happened, and they sold the surplus in one of the shops as well. I've got plates and tiles in that colour, in addition to some basic bricks. I used much of it to build this diner three years ago. Diner (5) by Mad physicist, on Flickr I realise that it's not immediately obvious from either picture that it isn't just grey, but when looking at these bricks in real life the difference is very obvious. On my diner you can see it on the wall next to the entrance. The 'macaroni' bricks are regular bluish grey and the wall is pearl. It has a somewhat metallic sheen to it. Having searched a bit more on bricklink, I've come to realise that they are listed in bricklink. I found some of the plates for sale, for something like €0.20 per 1x1 plate. Cheers, Ralph

It's not every day you see a model of that size. That's one heck of a castle! I have participated in building large layouts of several square meters, but they were collaborative projects. I obviously understand that not having models on-line doesn't mean you don't have them. I do enjoy sharing mine, although I too don't really enjoy photography. Thanks for the comments on my models. I realise that some people collect the stuff, but never quite understood got the attraction of doing that. From a very young age, any set that I'd get would be together for at most a couple of days before the bits were used to make something myself. The only sealed boxes I have sitting around are about a dozen -mostly 2011's acquisitions- that I haven't gotten around to parting out yet. I don't know whether builders are a minority among AFOLs, but I do have the impression that we're the minority on Eurobricks. Cheers, Ralph

OK, so what do you do with your LEGO? That makes sense. Obviously that's a far bigger project than the sort of things I undertake. I generally don't work on projects that take longer than a few weeks at most. Cheers, Ralph

I agree. I generally only buy parts or sets with parts that I intend to use in my own models. Unlike some people I know, who tell themselves they'll use the parts eventually but don't seem to build much of anything, I actually do use them. I could easily spend more on LEGO if I wanted to, but don't have any use for more. Cheers, Ralph

'New' on bricklink means that they haven't been used. What that often means is that the seller has bought sets that they come in and has parted them out. I'm not aware of LEGO selling them to people directly, but they may. There was a thread about buying directly from LEGO through a service called LEGO Direct. http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=46844 I'm not sure whether that info is still current, though, and whether it is cheaper. At least the part is still in production! Cheers, Ralph

I don't collect 'HTF' parts for the sake of having them, I use them in MOCs. It's not unusual for me to be thinking about building something, figuring out what parts to use for some element of it, to then come to the conclusion that the part in question in the colour I want has never been produced for a set. If I only need a few and they're not overly expensive on BL I'll probably buy them. There also are some parts that I'm always looking for: trans clear jumper plates for instance. Those tend to be expensive, but whenever I'm buying something from a seller, I always check whether they perhaps have a few. Lots of small orders combined makes big quantities. Sometimes you get lucky. Legoland Windsor at one point bought a whole load of pearlescent grey parts because they intended to build several Boeing 747s in Virgin Atlantic colours. The project never happened and they sold off a fair bit of the stuff. It was mixed in with other bits in rummage boxes in one of the stores in the park a few years ago and I picked up quite a lot of it. They are parts not even listed on bricklink. Cheers, Ralph

I'm a bit shocked by some of the amounts. I thought I spent a lot on LEGO. I spent roughly 1300 Euros (excluding the air fare for going to Brickfair in the US and the Great Western LEGO show, which is a fairly typical amount for the last few years. Most of the LEGO I buy goes into MOCs and I'm pretty sure I build more than most people. This makes me wonder what those of you who spend close to $10000 on it do with all of it (other than trading)? Cheers, Ralph

I see sets as parts packs first and foremost. I don't even build most of the sets I buy and most that I do build don't stay together for very long. There are a few exceptions. I still have the Lunar Lander (from 2003), the Sopwith Camel and Red Baron models. They are right up my alley, and I did buy multiple copies so that I could build one and use the rest of the parts for MOCs. I also used to have the Wright Flyer that I kept in one piece for several years, but took it apart about two years ago when I simply couldn't resist using the parts for one of my own models any more. At the moment I also still have the Grand Carousel in one piece. I generally don't get nearly as much enjoyment out of building from instructions and looking at the built up set than I do from building my own stuff and having my own models on a shelf. Cheers, Ralph

The HTF parts are typically items produced for LEGOLand parks. Their models are built with the same shape of parts, but they can get them in unusual colours. I usually get mine through bricklink. I can only give you my own view on instructions or files of MOCs, as somebody who gets asked for them frequently and who almost always gives 'no' as a reply. I'm not reluctant to share instructions or files. I usually don't have any, because I normally don't make instructions. I obviously don't need them myself, and making instructions is an awful lot of work and is not something I enjoy doing. I'd rather spend the time that I have for my hobby on building new stuff. I suspect it is not different for many other builders that you might encounter. Cheers, Ralph

No. Think about it. a 1/43 scale car model doesn't weight 50 lbs, does it? Mass scales with the scale to the power 3. If the aircraft model were a perfect scale model and were to have the same density as the real one (were made out of materials similarly heavy per volume as the real thing) it would weigh 158,000/48^3=1.4 lbs. Since LEGO doesn't have the same properties as aluminium or titanium or whatever a B-2 is made of, if you were to want to build an aircraft model that big, with a 4 ft. wingspan it would probably need fairly thick skin and a lot of internal bracing and would end up heavier than that. Perhaps as much as 20 lbs. I have built large aircraft models and they tend to weigh about that much. The only way I can see a flying LEGO aircraft being feasible is with a lot of specialised parts. I don't think it's possible to build and to use a LEGO motor and propeller to provide enough thrust to propel it through the air at a high enough speed. Cheers, Ralph