DLuders Posted March 31, 2011 Posted March 31, 2011 On his Flickr photostream, Mad Physicist (Ralph S.) posted 8 images of his Lego Technic JCB 3CX Backhoe Loader. He wrote, "When I started building my Scania truck a few months ago, I decided that I was going to build some sort of construction vehicle as its load. "Then, along came this month's LUGNuts' challenge is called 'snowed in'. I figured that sometimes you need something big to dig you out of the white stuff! "The British use the word 'JCB' for a backhoe loader like many Americans use 'Xerox' when they mean a photo-copier. My model represents an actual JCB, a JCB 3CX to be precise. "The front loader is articulated. Sometimes the best way to make a model look like the real deal is to make it work like the real deal. This applies to the landing gears of the aircraft I build, but I also applied it to this model. "I also spent a fair bit of time to make the rear excavator arm properly articulated. Unfortunately the small pneumatic cylinder that holds the arm up doesn't allow a lot of travel, so the arm cannot be lowered more than is visible here. Still, it looks good! "In addition to folding/ extending and whatnot, the mount point for the excavator arm can slide from side-to-side. "Here is where this thing got complicated. I wasn't happy to just have a little 'glass' house sitting at the back of this thing. I felt it needed doors. Unfortunately the doors on a vehicle like this swing open over the mudguards towards the rear. Making that it all fit took several hours of fiddling. "LEGO makes very nice buckets for this sort of vehicle and I actually have a few. So, you might wonder, why have I gone for a much heavier and complicated brick-built version? The answer is simple. LEGO doesn't do them with a width of 13 studs :-( "I'm not much of a Technic builder and generally don't like the aesthetic of all the open beams. This build involved more Technic parts than most that I've done, and I've tried to give it a more realistic look. I haven't quite succeeded on the front of the loader, but I am very happy with how the rear looks." Quote
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