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allanp

Eurobricks Grand Dukes
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Everything posted by allanp

  1. allanp
    Was I the only one to see that you could prevent this by a) limiting the movement of the switch and/or b) attatching hoses to the other end of the cylinders to further restrict air flow and/or c) using a tiny bit of skill to give you any drop speed you want, from hardley moving at all to KABLAMMO!!!!!! The falling boom issue really isn't a big issue when there are many easy and effective solutions to the problem. Anyway, back on topic
  2. allanp
    @Olaf9198 I'm not sure how implementable it would be into your mechanism and scale but just for future refrence, in order to get the proper ackerman geometry as mentioned by DLuders you need to have the steering arms at an angle as shown here: Some of the methods as described by dr-spock would be the best way to control the steering tho i'm not sure they wouldn't be too intrusive to your design at the scale you are building. As yours is now has the benifit of being one of the simplest and most compact solutions for very small scales. Thanks for posting.
  3. allanp
    Wonder if the torque of the shaft going through the turn table to drive the stablisers will be enough to cause the upper part to rotate or at least jolt to one side a bit when the stablisers reach their limit for movement? Probably not and although it could be modified to have gearing I do find it odd that there is no gearing for it when it would not require any more motors to do so. Drive the the stabiliser gearbox could have been left continuous opening up a space for the main gearbox to accomodate slewing, if that is not how it actually is.
  4. allanp
    Yeah, they are not great for studded models. For me, best solution: you just can't beat taking them completely apart and washing in luke warm (any hotter than luke warm is not a good idea, believe me!) soapy water using a tooth brush, and cleaning any electrical parts by hand. Dry the parts in a towel then leave to air dry in a box for a few days to prevent dust. Then re-wasking using an oxyclean type product and redrying. I think the drying steps are important as some plastics seems to swell a tiny bit, could be wrong tho. It's alot of work but 20+ year old sets look brand spanking new. Most practical and easiest solution with pretty good results seems to be the brick dusters mentioned by DLuders. If I had any sets/MOCs built for long I would seriously consider buying those. Cheapest solution, micro fiber mit for a slight improvement. If used regulary on a new build they might give better results, thought it was worth a mention but on second thoughts probably only worth trying if you happen to already have one.
  5. allanp
    The freakin Unimog! Add that to the list for sure as I now have 4 all time favorite sets.
  6. allanp
    Awwwww bless! Looks to be quite a nice little parts pack actually, and the leverage working against the suspention should make it nice and soft. If I can get a buggy motor in there it'll fly!
  7. allanp
    Would that not make it only faster in first and third gear? although you could also replace the 8t gear (added in step 5) and 24t gear (added in step 13) with a couple of 16t gears to speed up 2nd and 4th the same, but yeah, I likes me a fast spinning engine.
  8. allanp
    I agree. I kinda think that kids live in a more ask and have world than ever, where they see something on telly and go "I want that!" and usually get it. The kids don't give a hoot about the economy. I'm not sure the parents get to do a whole lot of the choosing. The aunties and uncles probably get to choose more but they don't spend as much.
  9. allanp
    Would probably need alot of hard work (the dremel might help) with a polishing/cutting compound like t-cut, haven't tried it myself tho. Probably best to just replace them using bricklink.
  10. allanp
    That's good news, thought they were gonna charge more than that for the servo.
  11. allanp
    If you don't have compressed air I have found these work surprisingly well. http://www.amazon.co.uk/JML-V1357-Microfibre-Super-Mitt/dp/B000L3PYT8/ref=cm_rdp_product
  12. allanp
    You are absolutely right, but I think that if they are expecting an evergreen theme like technic to not sell as well and create as much profit as a newcomer then they should do something about it. Do you not agree that if they made the crane I was talking about for the same price and marketed it as much as Legends of Chima with a killer advert with a tag line along the lines of "technic, build the real thing" that it would help technic become more successful, especially in America and more attractive to all ages? I mean if you don't agree that's fine i'm not trying to be a bully here
  13. allanp
    More complex need not mean more expensive if it's using the same amount of parts. And with the record amount of new parts they came out with this year it would be nice to see the same kind of investment into the technic line. Legends of Chima required so any new molds for a theme that likely will not be around as long as technic. It would not require that many new parts to create that kind of functinality I was talking about. And what you said kinda re-iterates my point that bigger is not always better. Yes it's bigger which seems to be what most people find the most impressive thing about it. To me if it's size is not justified by it's complexity then bigger is just more expensive. Or the space thrusters
  14. allanp
    That's a very good point, however a real crane like this contains more gears in it's transmission than you would find in this set, personaly I think it would be ever better to teach kids how they are used in real cranes. This thing is rumored to have over 2600 pieces. It's not unreasonable to say that with that many parts and a few well designed new parts (if I had such new parts i'de build it for you) we could have had a crane that is pneumatic (there are lots of simple ways to stop things like the boom falling too fast giving the best of both worlds), has all the functionality of this model plus more functionality never seen in an official technic crane set, such as a full transmission, motorised 8 or 10 wheel drive and suspended live axles, just like the real thing. With the same amount of parts they could have made it's authenticity greater than that of even the unimog, complexity greater than anything seen before with all of the drawbacks of using pneumatics eliminated. How much cooler would that have been!
  15. allanp
    I'm not annoyed in the slightest my friend, you'll probably notice that I use alot of s and s in my posts. I seem to be the only one round here lately, everyone really needs to chill. I'm not annoyed by this set or at anyone who says i'm annoying them. If they want to get annoyed because they chose to read my posts knowing it will probably annoy them well that's their problem . No I just think the crane is the same old same old just more expensive cos of it's higher part count which I can't seem to justify other than just to make it a bit bigger, and indicative of certain trends which I don't think are good for technic. I don't think i'll get 42008, I may have said it before but I don't want to spend a single penny on LAs I don't want. I have too many as it is, there is only so many CNC machines you can build! I think in reply to somebodies question I might have said it's a great set if you want lots of PF, or something like that, which it is. But it's not for me.
  16. allanp
    To anyone i'm annoying, you have my personal permission to not read this just in case you didn't know Pressure is built up in a sealed cylinder to move a rod, it's the exact same thing only with a different medium is use. And I agree there has to be compromises like this, you can't have oil in there. Richthelegodude already explained that (thanks rich!) Erik Leppen, again you have my permission to stop reading this now . Ok, but don't blame me or tell me to go away . I would argue that LAs are not as.....you know what, you know the reasons. It's Just not in any way educational to teach a child "this is what move these machines, screws!". Again I know air doesn't move them either but the pricipal is the exact same and so is more educational. To say they are not realistic cos they use air is about the same as saying they are not realistic cos they are not made 1:1 scale. I must admit the recovery truck is growing on me. Just really ircked me that they would go through the trouble of have the compressor and pneumatics already in there and then go and piss on my bonfire for no reason .
  17. allanp
    I don't dislike everything from TLG, I don't think you are reading my posts properly. And you can always just not read my posts, easy as falling off a horse, you can manage that can't you :tongue:Take a chill pill man, it's ok if I don't like everything TLG does, really it is. It's ok. Wait a sec, are you one of the designers moms or something?
  18. allanp
    I never even mentioned pneumatics and the unimog easily comes close to the real thing. But now that 1974 mentions it, pneumatics and hydraulics work on the exact same pricipal, that's close enough for me. And as for it being a toy for kids, it's not just a toy, at least it used to be more than just a toy. Maybe technic has ditched it's core values for the most part and become just another toy. Shame. It could have quite easily been so much better for kids and adults alike. But if it is just another as you guys say, then I fear it will never be as popular with the kids as it could be. Why would a kid without the attention span needed to put 2600 pieces together spend £150 on a crane when there are far more cooler, far more realistic looking toy cranes that are fully RC and give them instant satisfaction, as well as computer games and many other toys to choose from for far less money? You see far more kids wanting nurf guns and legend of chima sets than technic sets, and this crane ain't gonna change that.
  19. allanp
    Real cranes? Real cranes don't have LAs either, the mechanisms were clearly NOT inspired by real cranes. Comparing 42009 to real cranes? What a joke Oh, but maybe I missed your point, maybe you meant that only it's appearence were inspired by real cranes, I forgot that technic is now only concerned with looking authentic as opposed to actually being authentic. Ah, remember when tehnic had those three core pricipals? Authenticity, Functionality, and Challenging building Let's look at 42009. Authenticity, the first and foremost core pricipal. If it's intentions were to just look like a crane then, maybe. I don't think real cranes have colour coded bolts and gears and drive shafts which does spoil what authentic appearence it has slighty, but they did get the shape of the thing (apart from the arm pivot being too far forward) and angle of the wheels when steered right. But this is not model team, it's technic, technic is about mechanisms and working models. The only authentic mechanisms on this crane are the ones made of bits of string. Not one mechanism that's not made of string is true to life. So is it authentic? NO. Functionality? It does have some good functionality. Nothing is manual apart from most likely the slewing maybe, didn't look geared in the video. All the controls are in more cetralised places away from the functions. So, YES. Challenging building? Too early to tell, but with the current trend of colour coding all axles and gears and pins to make it look awful and having 5 or 6 manuals for one model and learning from past experience everything points to NO. So, comparing it to real cranes is a joke, and now it seems it's a joke compared to Legos own set standard having scored only 1 out of 3. EDIT: Favorite quote of the video roughtly translated into English, "it has a v8 engine to underline the realism", HAHAHAHAHA!
  20. allanp
    42000 is great, the motorbike looks great, the rest is not so good. One set is pneumatic which is great but it also means paying money for LAs which I don't want at all, so overall, no. But yeah, we already have two threads to keep checking for 2013 sets, should probably abandon this one.
  21. allanp
    Too early to tell, but I would say yes.
  22. allanp
    Well the reason I personally hail the unimog as possibly he greatest technic set ever made is bacause it has unrivaled authenticity. From the live axles to the 4wd to the portal hubs to the suspention to the way the arm is powered by building up pressure inside a cylinder via a compressor and tubing it's about as close to owning the real thing as it gets. I agree that it has bad balance and the steering was not very good but it has way more good points than bad IMHO. Would have been better if the stabilisers were pneumatic and the arm folded up fully, to keep strength they are gonna have to release longer pneumatics for that .
  23. allanp
    Um, something worth buying would be nice
  24. allanp
    yup yup yup! Yup, go for the unimog.
  25. allanp
    :laugh:
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