Ralph_S

I agree with Skinny boy. I'm surprised that anybody actually remember their first MOC. I'm pretty sure that one of the first things I ever did when getting my (then little) hands on LEGO bricks (Duplo actually) was building something myself. To me that was and still is the whole point of LEGO. The first 'MOC' that I know of shows up on a picture taken when I was about four years old. It is a windmill made with a combination of Duplo and system bricks. It was multi-coloured, but the blades could spin. The oldest that's on the internet is probably my KC-135 tanker aircraft from about 15 years ago Cheers, Ralph

Junlego's model is fantastic and I can understand that it inspired you. Yours looks recognisably like a B-19 as well, but one thing that is definitely better on the real model than on the LDD one is the shape of the aft fusleage. IMO the fuselage cross-section on yours remains the same too long, making it more sausage shaped than cigar shaped if you know what I mean. I look forward to seeing your model progressing. Cheers, Ralph

I realise that a technic MOC will look different than model team, for instance, and that the intention isn't necessarily to produce a MOC that looks like a helicopter in every detail. I also appreciate that you're not an experienced MOC builder, but in my opinion this is pretty awful. I don't think that those orange parts are suitable for the rotor blades. They don't look like rotor blades -not helped by the colour- and are much too short compared to the size of the helicopter. I don't like the colour scheme in general and it seems to be missing a feature that almost every helicopter has: a tail rotor. It could be that you intend to add one, of course. I don't really like the shape either, although it reminds me vaguely of a UH-1 Huey. If that's the look you were going for, it lacks a turbine exhaust. In fact, I see nothing that looks even remotely like an engine. I don't think you've thought this through. You've just started building and making it up and adding bits as you went along. That might work for a space-ship or some fantasy creation, but if you want to build something that actually makes some sense as a helicopter, I think you need to have some idea before you start. My advice would be that you take a look at some pictures of real helicopters. Go to the library and pick up a book on helicopters, use google images or look up helicopters on wikipedia. Take a good look at different models and then pick one you like and with a shape that you think you can recreate in a technic construction and try to work from that. Cheers, Ralph

I wish. they could probably get me access to some of those parts that only modelmakers get to use and that mere mortals have to pay of fortune for on bricklink :) Cheers, Ralph

Thanks. I am seriously considering building a KC-135 and have spent some time thinking about an E-3. I am aware of the differences between the 707 and original 717. An E-3 has about the same length as the B-1. What makes it tricky is that the wingspan is longer in combination with the fact that the wings are swept back. Still, I had a KC-135 years ago and that had approximately the right size. That the E-3 has a slightly bigger span than the KC-135 and a longer fuselage isn't a big problem, certainly if I take into consideration that when built in LEGO bricks the huge CFM-56 turbofans on the KC-135 would end up considerably heavier than the E-3's TF33s. The main reason why I view building a KC-135 as doable but see an E-3 as too big is the difference in fuselage cross-sections. On the scale of my aircraft the KC-135's fuselage cross-section ends up being a nice even 12 studs. That of the E-3 would be 13 studs. I have built many things that are an od number of studs wide (in fact, my F-15 models both are), but I'm hesitant to try it on something as large as an E-3. I haven't built a minifig scale B-52 and don't know anybody who has. Bryce Rollins has a CAD model of one, but I have my doubts as to whether the wings would be strong enough if he were to build it in actual bricks. Cheers, Ralph

The canopies are non-Lego as I explained in my first post. They're made out of transparent flexible plastic that I cut to shape and hold in place with adhesive tape. I know purists won't like it. So be it. I do like this better than any of the alternatives that I've tried. It's not a very easy thing to do even though I've done it fairly regularly, because you have to figure out what how to cut a two-dimensional sheet of plastic to created a three-dimensional shape. I usually start with a piece of paper that has roughly the right overall size and trim it down until it fits, with a bit of guessing and trial and error. I then use a waterproof marker to transfer the shape of the paper onto the plastic, before cutting out the final shape. For the F-15C I could simply copy the front part directly, so that was easy enough. However, since the F-15E is a two-seater whilst the F-15C is a single seater, the rest of the canopy is different. Still, the aft section came together quite quickly. It's a fairly simple shape. The middle bit took the longest. Because it is impossible to make compound curves out of a 2D sheet, I had to make a few additional cuts. This made the whole thing tricky and it took about an hour and a half. Cheers, Ralph

They are nice helicopters, but at the moment I've got more projects in mind than I have either LEGO or time for. Thanks. I'm glad that there are people who can appreciate using a few custom elements. OK. I see. I built it with some dark red parts that I just happened to have at the time. Some of the parts undoubtedly came from creator sets because I own two copies of prehistoric creatures and one Prehistoric power. I don't really keep track of where exactly parts come from, though and I've bought dark red via bricklink too for various projects. I haven't made pictures of its construction, but I'm happy to make some sometime this weekend if you like. Cheers, Ralph

Thanks. I'd love to have an AWACS, but fear that it would be rather a bit too big for me to build. Still, I'll never say never. I'm glad you like it. You'll understand that I just love to have sand blue. Whenever I buy anything on bricklink, I always take a quick look at what sand blue parts the seller happens to have in his store as well and usually I'll pick up some. In particular tiles and jumper plates are a bit hard to get hold of. I still have the dark red car and took it to an event a while ago. You can see it here. It was loosely modelled after a Cadillac and I tend to refer to it as the pimpmobile Cheers, Ralph

When I built an F-15E Strike Eagle about two years ago I'd been thinking about building an older F-15C air superiority fighter. One of the reasons why I didn't was because certain parts that I'd like to use, such as light bley cheese slopes, weren't available at the time and because I wanted to build it in a colour scheme known as Mod Eagle, which includes a decidedly blueish tint. LEGO sand blue seemed like a suitable colour, but it took me a while to gather the parts. Anyway, in the last week I've finally managed to do it. more pictures on flickr I know the custom canopy won't be to everybody's liking, but in my opinion this is the option that looks the best. The canopy parts that LEGO makes simply don't have the right shape (think A-wing canopy) and a canopy built out of trans clear bricks would be largely opaque. Cheers, Ralph

I've taken a look at it, but I've got to admit that I'd never seen it before. I don't really follow all that many blogs other than The Brothers Brick. Those that I do look at every once in a while are some that I've stumbled upon because they showed up in my flickr statistics (which happens if they blog one of my pictures). That's not the case here, quite possibly because I haven't been building many town MOCs here since September (and the oldest entry on the blog is from just before that). Cheers, Ralph

Oh good! I'm due to fly to The Netherlands before Christmas. Hopefully I'll be able to get my hands on some of that goodness. Cheers, Ralph

I picked up a truck and forklift at 20% discount last Friday. I'd considered buying the set a while ago, but thought the price was a bit steep. At 20% off I couldn't resist. I think it's sad to see Woolworths go. Yes, they had a lot of tat, but it was one of the few places within walking distance from where I live that actually still sold LEGO sets (or CDs for that matter). I used to buy things there fairly regularly. They would also fairly frequently have special deals on toys, which meant that although their LEGO was normally at RRP, good deals were sometimes to be had. Mosaic sets at half price and UCS Batmobiles for just £25 come to mind. Cheers, Ralph

Hi Emma, Welcome to Eurobricks. I think you'll know a few builders from other organisations as well :) Cheers, Ralph

I'm flattered about the comparisons with the cars in Legoland, but I certainly don't work for one. Since about two years, I've been living fairly close to Legoland Windsor (about an hour's drive away) and yet have only managed to visit twice. I think they may have a somewhat similar style because I've been influenced by the Legoland cars in The Ultimate LEGO book (of which I bought a Dutch version several years ago). Cheers, Ralph

Obviously the models in the Legoland parks are built with rather different requirements in mind. If I were to build something that would be outside on display I'd probably do without the functionality as well. I came up with the idea for the ladder a few years ago, when I built a Los Angeles Fire Department tiller truck. I wanted it to be not too bulky and yet be able to extend. I first considered going for the type of ladder from the fire engine from the Ultimate Lego book (that having seen your brickshelf folder, I am sure you know), but I didn't have the parts to build or like the look of the diagonal struts in that. At the time, LEGO still sold bags of assorted white plates via shop@home and they were the solution. I remember seeing that when you first uploaded it. I thought I saw some similarities, although yours is wider. Likewise you may have seen my Chevrolet Bel Air, the colour scheme of which owes a lot to your model :D Cheers, Ralph

I appreciate that there's a market for this kind of thing and the parts design is often very clever, but I'm afraid that apart from the colours, most Bionicle MOCs that I see on MOCpages and brickshelf look rather the same to me. Of course, there are people who do interesting stuff with Bionicle parts, but action figures really aren't my cup of tea and I couldn't care less about story lines. Cheers, Ralph

I've thought about making a short video, but my camera is really not very suited for that. I've been having so much fun with it that I need to get new batteries. The truck in the youtube video is built by a builder from Russia or Ukraine (ZED) and his truck was certainly a bit of an inspiration for mine and I know that in turn, the design of his truck was inspired by some of the other trucks that I've built over the years. It's funny to see how sharing pictures on brickshelf can lead to all kinds of things all over the world. My truck is probably quite a bit heavier, so it's not as nippy as ZED's. I think it's interesting to see that he does a lot of U-turns with it, because the kind of steering set-up on mine seems to be excellent for doing that as well, but not as good in a straight line because it is a bit tricky to centre. I don't intend to make instructions -I never do. I'd rather build something new than slaving behind a computer with L-pub or something similar. It took me about two weeks to build, with an hour or two every day and a bit more during the weekends. The ladder on the truck can be extended: I built a few figures to go with my vehicles a few years ago, but at the time wasn't too happy with them. There was a Eurobricks hotrod contest (in which I did poorly, BTW) a few months ago, however, that stipulated building a driver with the vehicle. Since my cars and trucks tend to be much larger than minifig scale, I had no alternative but to once again build my own figures. At the time I didn't really like the idea, but adding figures to MOCs makes them come alive a bit more, so I've kept doing it since. My figures are slightly smaller than the figures built for Legoland, but big enough to have some fun with and to be able to add some character. A few examples: My latest MOC. A trike for a build challenge on Lugnuts on flickr A 'fifties Edsel Bermuda wagon and a typical 'fifties family to go with it. Sonny Crockett and his Testarossa from Miami Vice. Cheers, Ralph

A few weeks ago I completed a new project. I have a thing for fire engines and have built a few before. Ever since I bought the monster dino I've been thinking about building a vehicle that can be remote-controlled with power functions. A new fire truck seemed to be the ideal choice, because they tend to have a fair bit of room inside. I chose to build a ladder truck as used by the Fire Department of New York (FDNY). I'm not normally much of a technic builder (and this isn't a technic MOC) so I had to scratch my head a few times to make it work (and it's not nearly as clever as Lasse D's Coca Cola truck), but I'm happy with how it turned out -certainly in the looks department. I also took a photograph of the chassis, whilst under construction: It's driven by a single XL motor built into the back and the steering is done with a small motor and a transmission with a friction gear and a wormgear. I hope you'll like it too. Cheers, Ralph

Thanks guys. I still upload my MOCs to brickshelf, but they tend to get lost in the clutter. For helicopters the brick-built windows seem to work fairly well. They're not quite as transparent as I'd like, I'm not sure whether I would have been able to make the cockpit look better with flexible plastic as I used to do on many of my models. Simply building a frame without windows would look wrong somehow. I built an MH-53 a few months ago: Cheers, Ralph

I have been building quite a lot in recent months, but it's been a while since I last posted a MOC here. I know some of you have already seen it on Flickr, but thought I'd post it here as well. more pictures It's a 1/36 scale model of a US Army CH-47D Chinook. In the last months I've been building quite a few helicopters, and this was a well-known one that I didn't have yet. As with most of my recent MOCs, I've gone for a completely purist solution for the windows (even though that means they're a bit opaque). The twin rotors are interconnected with a shaft running along the length of the fuselage. Cheers, Ralph

I've had a bit of fun with a truck with power functions recently, but I'm amazed at how much stuff you've managed to cram into this. Impressive. The most impressive thing about this truck, however, have to be the mosaics on the sides of the trailer. They're awesome. Cheers, Ralph

No problem. Ralph

I think the bucket s reasonably sized compared to the rest of the vehicle. These things can be huge. I like this type of construction vehicle, but I think it would look a lot better if it either had some mudguards or at least some sort of ladder for the driver to reach the cab. Cheers, Ralph

I really like what you;ve done to the remote. It's a very clever mechanism. Cheers, Ralph

There are a few parts that may be useful, but that you possibly don't have. The one that is still found in sets is this: http://www.peeron.com/inv/parts/32125 Yes. That's what I'd suggest Well, the nose-up attitude isn't really a problem. Both the Chinook and the Sea Knight have that as well. The new shape of the fuselage looks quite a bit better. OK. Glad to know I'm one of your favourite builders. I thought I'd recognised the door mechanism, although at a first glance I thought you had missed a trick, giving the door a nasty tendency to fall out.Looking at your newer pictures, I'd say you've solved that problem. Camouflage is often tricky, certainly if you don't have plates. One thing you can do is try to concentrate the black and the grey in a few large splotches, for lack of a better word, rather than spreading the colours out more-or-less randomly. BTW, perhaps you didn't know that I am a fellow Dutchman, even though I currently live in England. Het is misschien niet zo netjes om in het Nederlands verder te gaan, maar ik kan het even niet laten Cheers, Ralph