colmoore

Hi All, Just something I put together last night in memory of the late, great Ayrton Senna. The car is based on the McLaren MP4/4 in which Senna won the Drivers Championship of 1988. The car also won the Constructors Championship in the same year. McLaren1 by colmoore, on Flickr McLaren2 by colmoore, on Flickr McLaren3 by colmoore, on Flickr

Hi all, I have had issues with the brick palette for a while - sometimes it's ok and sometimes it's slow. Since the update my brick palette has really slowed down. When I'm scrolling through it's stopping all the time to load the bricks. I keep getting the spinning wheel (I'm on a Mac) and it's driving me mad. It's also slow on startup loading the images for the recent models. I have a recent high spec Mac that is doing nothing but running LDD. Can anyone please advise me how I can fix this. Thanks, Colin I just quit the browser (Google Chrome) and that seems to have fixed it. Hopefully that's it!

Thanks for the praise everyone

Thanks Superkalle I hadn't realised I posted it in the DD forum.

Hi all, I would like to share with you all my new ride, Disney's Dumbo the Flying Elephant. The model is made of 462 bricks and uses a Power Functions M motor and battery box. No speed control elements are required. Each elephant can accommodate 1 rider. Mechanically the ride is the same as the Dumbo ride produced by a well known American building toy manufacturer. Two turntables (driven by a crown gear) turn the elephants in one direction and a cam in the other. The elephants are raised and lowered as the ride rotates. I am planning to make more amusement park rides and attractions having been inspired by the forthcoming 10244 Fairground Mixer set. Enjoy the photos. Here is a link to a video of the ride in motion. https://flic.kr/p/nufWFk Enjoy! :)

It's on LEGO Ideas already. I am currently finishing a new ride, pictures of which I will post soon :)

Thanks guys, Fritzy - yes it does turn (by hand) although I am looking at motorising it. And yes the ticket booth has an operator, cash register and a lever to control the ride :) Please support this ride on LEGO Ideas :)

Wow that looks great :) Excellent work!

Hi all, Awesome set :) I might have to explore the possibility of making my Merry-go-round truck based ;) Coming soon will be pictures & video of my new ride...watch this space!

Thanks so much for your feedback guys. I have investigated 3/4 pins and whilst they do solve the problem with regard to the length of pin they unfortunately don't have friction ridges, which is key to making the whole fit tighter and stronger. I have decided to remove the spacers altogether and modify the trestle using jumper bricks to shift the turntables the required 1/2 stud. Once again thanks for your guidance.

Hi all, I'm designing a fairground ride in LDD that is complete, barring a few minor modifications as the ride has evolved. I have stumbled upon an issue that I would like LEGO expert builders opinions on. The ride is based on two contra-rotating turntables attached (one above the other) to the sides of a trestle and turned by a single crown gear. I have created a mount to hold the turntables equidistant from the crown gear axle. I have used 7M half beams as spacers to enable the mount to fit into a trestle an even number of studs wide. My issue is with attaching the mount to the trestle. If I use normal cross axles there is too much "play" and any weight placed on the turntables causes the pieces of the mount to part. I have solved this by using black 3M connector pegs. The problem is because a half beam has been used half of the connector protrudes from the outside of the trestle, as in the pictures shown. LDD will not permit me to create this joint but I have actually assembled it for real and it works perfectly. The pegs cannot come out and nothing has been forced to achieve this result. I want to know what people think. Is this an illegal fitting or a limitation of LDD that I should ignore? Thanks all, Colin Trestle by colmoore, on Flickr IMG_2070 by colmoore, on Flickr IMG_2071 by colmoore, on Flickr IMG_2072 by colmoore, on Flickr

I thought I'd tried that without success but alas, now it works :) Thank you! :)

Hi all, I'm trying to place 3 technic connector bushes between the holes on the black side of this turntable but LDD won't allow it. My practical experiment shows the gap is 3 wide and it should fit. Have I posted this in the right place for the LDD programmers to read this so the problem might be addressed in an update? Thanks, Colin

I made a model of the Jamaica Bobsled team :) LEGO Jamaica Bobsled by colmoore, on Flickr

Hi all, Don't know when this became a problem (I used to be able to produce screenshots fine) but LDD now produces a blank white image when I try to save a screenshot from LDD to the desktop. Also I just noticed the images produced in an Export BOM file are corrupted (just lines of colours). I have the latest version of LDD & I'm running the Mac version on a mid-2011 iMac. I have tried reinstalling LDD, to no avail. Any suggestions appreciated! Colin

That's beautiful. Love the way you have used minifigs & mini dolls, the colours are great too. Well done :)

Thanks for the praise mate :)

The point I was trying to make in my earlier post is that I really don't think there is a need to remarket LEGO as "for girls, too" and in doing so LEGO have sent out a message they probably didn't intend to. Plenty of girls (including my girlfriend) played with LEGO as children, but I think the simple undeniable fact is that it will always be more appealing to boys because generally speaking male's are more technically-minded and oriented towards "building and playing" as opposed to "playing." It's probably a politically incorrect thing to say and some might call me sexist, but that's just my observation of the species.

Hi Kristel, Thanks for the feedback. I hear what you say about the mini figures falling out. My view on it is that giving the figures the sort of barriers you would have on a real ride would make them harder to add & remove from the model. Whilst in real life these barriers wouldn't pass health & safety requirements I am using a bit of artistic licence as it's a model.

Thanks for the replies guys. I like the bumper cars idea, & the train & cable car too. I might make the train a wheeled model without a track; the sort that drives you round the park. Nice idea about making a strip with a cable car. What I will do is bear that in mind so it will work both ways. As you say Eurotrash, a Log Flume would be great, as would all the other track-based rides. It's a shame we are limited in this respect. That said, if Lego ever gave us the elements to build such rides I would probably never leave the house again! lol

Hi all, This is the second set in my Amusement Park series - a Ferris Wheel. The wheel is turned my hand, although I have fitted a pulley on the spindle on the rear of the ride so power functions may be added at a later date. The wheel can carry up to 16 mini figures in 8 gondolas. Again, it has a ticket office with a ride operator. Firstly, I would say this model currently only exists in LDD & I have yet to establish the strength of the model in real bricks. I say this because as you will notice the 1x10 plates connecting the hub to the rim are only connected by 1 stud on each end. I anticipate (hope!) that once built the strength of all the joints together will make the ride strong enough. I already have plans for modifications, just in case. You will see I have not "themed" the set yet & decided for now to stick to a basic "rainbow" colour scheme until the themes for all the sets are finalised. I envisage the "park" covering 9 32x32 base boards in a square layout. One board will feature the main entrance & some smaller attractions/shops & the other 8 will feature a ride. Each set will also feature an additional park model as well as the ride, for example drinks stalls, ice cream carts etc. The plates when fit together will form natural paths between each attraction. Here are the first two sets laid side by side. As I said earlier I am currently holding out on adding themes to the rides until I can establish exactly what theme suits what ride. I already have some ideas, but would really appreciate suggestions. The list so far: IDEAS FOR RIDES MERRY-GO-ROUND No particular theme. Happy with this already. Tick. FERRIS WHEEL Need help with this one - have no idea what theme to do. PIRATE SHIP Easy one! INVERTER (like Pandemonium at Drayton Manor) Possibly spaceship-like capsules TEA CUPS The simple ride with the complex engineering. Reminds me of Disneyland though so would like to include it. VERTICAL DROP (like Apocalypse at Drayton Manor) This popular ride is simple to create & has a much smaller footprint than many other rides. Likely to feature. IDEAS FOR ATTRACTIONS HAUNTED HOUSE/GHOST TRAIN This would probably not be functional but a theme park isn't a theme park without one. Monster Fighters theme for this one. CROOKED HOUSE Again difficult to make it function. WILD WEST SHOOTING GALLERY Western themed rifle range PARK SHOP CAFE IDEAS FOR THEMES Western Pirate Space Castle Super Heroes Star Wars Harry Potter Indiana Jones Etc, etc... The possibilities are endless, in the true LEGO way. Again, if you have an idea for a ride/theme match-up please share.

IMHO the Friends line (& in particular the introduction of a new scale minifigure) is a retrograde step for LEGO. If girls want to play with minature houses & gardens theres plenty of other toys much more suited to them - to name just one Sylvainian Families. What concerns me greatly about LEGO in general is that in a bid to appeal to the modern young generation we are seeing the introduction of too many pre-fabricated parts. Lego is about imagination & forging shape. Yes the toy & the brand have to develop, and don't get me wrong I welcome more bricks, but too often we are seeing perculiar single purpose bricks where all the work is done for you. Please TLG, don't turn your wonderful product into PlayMobil!

Brilliant :) well done!

Thanks mate. I have submitted it to cuusoo but so far haven't received a huge amount of support. Who knows one day I might get there.

Thanks for the praise everyone. I have thought about motorizing it, and possibly adding a canopy, although decided against that as I think it would cover up much of the hard work I put into the mini builds. Any more developments I will post on this thread.