torso

Jim decides when to post results. Plus, his vote counting script is might be more accurate than mine.

Looks pretty clear to me. At least after adding up the scores.

I own the set. The instructions tell you to start from the main model and rebuild the upper part. Apparently TLC considers mods to be proper models. Just trying to find a precedent.

By that logic the 9398 4x4 Crawler doesn't have a B-model. It's just a cosmetic mod of the main model with the same functionality. If allowed, a statement clarifying that it's a mod might be appropriate.

Can't say I've seen it in real life, but it looks promising. After that, maybe you could do something that loads/unloads the gondolas so the won't have to travel empty.

I don't dislike MOCs on wheels. New things that haven't been done before are what interests me, so car MOCs aren't very exciting any more. Those who are interested in cars are unlikely to agree with me though. Finding ideas for things to build is always the difficult part. The hall of fame is the wrong place to look for ideas. Those are machines that have already been done well. Try looking elsewhere for machines that could be improved. Or build more things on an existing theme. There have been a couple of musicians posted here recently. Look for those and build additional band members.

28. Clock Using set 42007 with 253 parts: Name: Clock Discussion Topic: http://www.eurobrick...howtopic=101880 Does what clocks do: moves an arm around at a speed dictated by a swinging pendulum. Driven by a dropping weight and pin wheel escapement. Parts left:

Awesome creation! I like how the gondolas move just like on the real machines. Good presentation too. Given a recent discussion on this forum, this is an excellent example of building a Technic model without tires. Oh wait, never mind...

Works with compressed air too. Lego pneumatic elements have too much friction though.

Nice to see a functional steampunk machine. Extra moving parts fit the theme perfectly.

Yes! Who would have thought those pieces could actually be useful.

Just needs a longer chain. Good thing I bought two of those sets. I wonder if the combined length would bring it over 30 seconds... But if I use one more set it would no longer be a motorcycle turned into a clock.

The big trick is to build small. I too keep a big project that takes forever to finish, but I've built several small things on the side. Those small builds require neither many bricks nor a lot of time, and have provided much more practise and satisfaction than the big project. Building an alternative model of an official set is a good way to reduce the scope of a build to something that can be built in an evening. As your skills improve and collection grows it will be natural to try bigger projects. Don't compare yourself to others. Just focus on building. Personally I tear down everything I've built as soon as I've photographed it. The only reason to keep anything is if it's going to be shown at an exhibition or similar. After that they immediately get disassembled.

I have been thinking about building a C-model for some time, just to get some practise. This competition provided the perfect excuse, so now I finally have a MOC to show you. The set I've used is 42007 Moto Cross Bike, consisting of 253 parts (extra parts were not used). This choice was just because I had already ordered it, and that it fulfilled my only requirement of having at least a few gears. After a few really simple contraptions I decided to build a clock. I've read about escapement before, but have no experience. Didn't really expect it would work, but where's the harm in trying? One of the wheels and the small panels with their triangular tips looked like they could make a pinwheel escapement. All the simple solutions where the panels moved together failed. The spokes in the wheel are placed in pairs, and the panels will only fit in the big gaps. This meant that the panels need to move a fairly long distance from each other and with good precision. Of course they also need to do this without much friction as well as be rigid enough to be able to transfer force from the wheel to keep the pendulum going. Getting the escapement working took a whole day. A second day was spent one making it more reliable and somewhat prettier. After scavenging straight liftarms to increase the length of the pendulum the running time increased from 9 to 13 seconds (using the full length of the chain). There are two gears left that I tried to use for increasing the time further, but it was too much. The mechanism is struggling already. For that reason I also chose the simple (and light) arm that unfortunately doesn't face the same way as the pendulum. Using the other wheel as clock face would have been great, but it was needed to provide enough weight and centering the arm on it would have been difficult anyway. The weight that drives the clock doubles as counterweight, which makes it possible for the clock to stand on its legs despite the heavy pendulum. Once it runs out of chain it will fall off the table. Parts left:

Doesn't really matter what kind of bulbs you use as long as you set the white balance setting in your camera to match. (Or you can fix it yourself in a photo editing program later, but it's more work.) The big thing you should avoid is having different kind of lights in the same photo. There is no easy way to make mixed-light photos look good. Personally I like overcast days for photography, because it gives me good photos with a minimum of work. When such conditions aren't available I use a couple of halogen light bulbs and set the white balance setting to 2700 K. The colours are just as good in those photos, but positioning the lamps to avoid hard shadows and reflections takes more time.

Have been considering making an alternative technic build for practise, and now seems like a good time. I don't see any restriction that this has to be built like an official set. What about other things, like weak constructions or illegal techniques? Looks like they're allowed, but one should just assume that people are less likely to vote for such things.

Lego probably designed the element to withstand such usage. It's still good to stop it as early as possible, as you'll need less energy to rearm it. You just need a bigger target. The balls are light, so give the solution mentioned above a try. If you have a strong spring, one meter doesn't sound very far. If you do end up a little short, you can place the target lower than the launcher. Don't complicate things until you really need to. I'd recommend paying more attention to the hammer design and how it's connected. The less elastic it is, the more energy it will consume. The more energy you lose, the more energy you need to put in and that will just increase your troubles. Also try without the rubber.

Here you go. The differentials are input and output. I don't know if the gear ratios are correct and I'm sure it can be built smaller. That small liftarm is a 60483 that prevents the driving ring from spinning.

Thank you for that explanation. This practise does have the negative side-effect that the posts don't show up under "View New Content" when the post is updated with actual content. It's also unfortunate that the post date will not be correct.

My problem was caused by an ad blocker. Added an exception and it seems to work fine now.

If you set the white-balance setting in the camera to 3000K, this effect will go away. (Or choose "incandescent" or whatever it's called in your camera. Hopefully the setting exists at all.)

There seems to be a lot of misconceptions about light here. An incandescent bulb has a continuous and even spectrum, while flourescent light is uneven. "Full spectrum" is just marketing-speak intended to make it sound better than it is, primarily to distinguish them from flourescent lights with narrow (and unpleasant) spectrum. The effect you're seeing is from color temperature. Incandescent light bulbs giva a warm/soft white light (low temperature: 2700-3300K) which is a bit hard to see in. "Daylight" means that the light is cooler (higher temperature: around 5000K), which is much easier for our eyes.

It's broken for me in Opera, Firefox and Chrome.

Upon closer inspection I now see how the clutch works. Looks nifty indeed.

After looking quickly at the instructions it looks like the rotor will switch direction with every push. Is that true? Also, will it spin freely when not cranking it?