allanp

No. Here's how it will work (at least after I have modded it!). Turn the motor on and the engine spins constantly with the motor to simulate the real life MOG where the engine drives everthing regaurdless of whether or not the vehicle is in motion. The motor will also drive both driving rings. From the first driving ring will be the option to drive the compressor or the wheels, making the vehicle go. From the second driving ring you will have the option to drive either the front or rear PTO. This means you can have only the engine running if you like. Or you can have only the compressor running. Or you could have only one of the PTO's running. Or (most importantly) you could have the compressor and one of the PTO's running simultaineously, meaning all functions of the rear arm can be operated at the same time, including the slewing operation. All this whilst also motorising the wheels. I really don't think it's gonna be a big modification if the drive train to the wheels has any strength in it.

Personally I mostly don't use air tanks with a compressor as when the pressure drops, it takes to build up again resulting in an inconsistant supply of air. I prefere to have a pressure regulator (quite easy to build) so that there is constant high pressure (POWER!!!!) and no waiting for air tanks to fill. Air tanks are great for manually pumped pneumatics.

How big would you like the circle? How strong would you like it? What funtion is it to perform?

Just to ad my two cent's, I do not think i'll be a customer. You build some amazing stuff, but I really only buy sets now for the new parts, like the new parts in the Unimog, or if they are good value parts packs. MOCs would generally not be good value for those who are already pretty good at building MOCs. That being said I do think this could take off quite nicely. Bricklink is used to buy other peoples parts, brickarms and hitechnic and such are used to buy custom parts. A place to buy other peoples MOCs (either instructions or as a complete set depending on the seller) could be a gap in the AFOL market that needs filling. Besides a MOC may not necessarily be a whole model. It could be a custom part. It is a creation afterall. I wish you the very best of luck.

It seems to be quite an odd setup. If it doesn't already do this my first mod will be to have the motor drive both driving rings and the engine simultaineously. Then I will use the now spare function of the first driving ring (that I assume will probably drive the second drining ring ) to drive the wheels. And if the compressor is weak i'll make that better too.

Looks good, think i'll get thois one. I'm pretty sure it does have full independant suspention, at least, that's what the rumors are in the comments at TechnicBRICKs.

WOW, you put alot of work into these Blakbird and the results are well worth it!

For me it's either the 8258 or 8421. 8258 has alot of complexity, a motor and alot of cool parts like the large H frames. The 8421 has a faster motor and also pneumatics (basic pneumatics but pneumatics non-the-less). But it is not as complex as the 8421. As for the tow truck, It looks ok and also has pneumatics but the rest of it's mechanisms or somewhat boring and leave wanting more, in a bad way. Others have mentioned the 8275 and 8043. Whilst these are a good sourse of motors, tracks and remote control I never really liked either set. But If I had to choose between the two i'de get the 8043 because the 8275 is really boring, there is almost no complexity what so ever.

Looks nice and big so far, nice one. Just one concern tho so far, please don't think i'm knitpicking but I fear those two 8 tooth gears driving the diff are gonna a weak point given the huge power coming from two XL motors and Sariels very strong gearbox.

Unless there were two copies of one bag and no copies of another! I have had a complete bag missing from a set before, but that was in 1998.

And, in my humble opinion anyway, the BEST EVER. Although you can't know for sure without actually building it. But I haven't been this excited since the 8480 space shuttle!

And it still keeps getting better and better! I LOVE IT, REALLY CAN'T WAIT TO GET THIS!

You're MOC still looks amazing tho, especially love the teeth! That video of the walking robot was inspiring, just wished the narrator would shut up so I could listen the soundtrack from the awesome movie that is SUNSHINE

That's great, glad I could help Edit: I wish I had looked at your brickshelf page sooner as I would have noticed that you have one of those diffs in your tow truck!

Try this: You don't really need the second driving ring, that's just if you also want the option of locking the central diff. Hope this helps.

It is a great set for parts and I would recommend to anyone to buy it. The only thing that prevents me personally calling it a supercar is the stupid functions, although you do get enough gears and stuff in the set to change them into something better like motorising the rear wheels. I think "muscle car" would have been a more appropiate name for this set, although probably not as appealing to the kiddies. Maybe if it was "pimped out gangster car with crazy motorised doors" What puzzles me is that the main function of a supercar is to go fast, not to have a motorised hood. This is the first supercar that comes with a motor, you would think it would be a no brainer for one of the gearbox functions be used to actually make the car go. Still it's a neat set and motorising the rear wheels is the only mod needed. Like Blakbird I also play guitar. I'm writing and recording an album with my band mate whist having a full time job so my building time is now limited but I do have some mods planned for this set. I want to give it a proper transmission and AWD and use the motor to power the wheels through the gearbox. I also wish to retain some if not all the the orginal unimportant functions which will hopefully be operated by two added driving rings in front of the bulkhead, controlled by small levers/switches in the dash board. Oh and I must add a pole reverser switch!

This is great, I love the performance and the colours and the video is also great.

Well when I was younger and didn't know better, the lego models kept on my window ledges did not seem to be protected by the glass windows at all. The parts became brittle and yellow. I'm thinking of building some storage cabinets as my collection of older classics like the 8480 slowly glows. If I do they will have shelves and sliding glass doors that are either designed specifically to filter UV radiation or I will cover standard glass with some film like this: http://www.abodewindowfilms.co.uk/index.html

I think he means route, meaning the gear train that drives the front wheels. I like that part too!

That's great!

There is no need to open any motors as he has already described exactly what the problem is. The metal shaft is spinning inside the plastic external shaft. This has happened to me before. What I did was to remove the outer shaft by pulling on it very hard, you may need to use pliers for this or two thin screwdrivers to lever it off. Then you can fix it back on in a number of ways like using a good, suitable glue or, like I have done in the past, wrap some paper/tissue/cling film or something like that round the metal shaft before forcing the plastic axle piece back on making it mich tighter. Has worked flawlessly for me ever since.

I would think one XL motor is enough to drive that MOC.

Apart from thing like the space shuttle and the new unimog I don't they are modelled off any one particular version/make and model of said equipment. For example for the excavator I guess they would take lots of pictures of lots of different ones and kinda meld them all together into what is most recognisable as a generic excavator. As for scale, that depends on, among other things, the budget for each individual set, and so is always changing.

Ah you mean this? If the micro motor isn't powerful enough or too slow for the claw then it shouldn't be too difficult to replace it with an M-motor providing it's not too tall.

One more thing I forgot to add, to all those who are entering this year I wish you the very best of luck.