Sven J

@Toastie & @LEGO Train 12 Volts Watch out, the Purist Police is close on your heels... (Have to admit that occasionally I also use BB parts when the original Lego ones aren't available in the needed colour, or for old moulds that are just too expensive - and last autumn I built an entire Peterbilt truck from clone bricks, just to test them... )

Very nice model, and quite an interesting choice of prototype! Fully understandable and very likeable.

@bentobrick That's definitely a big step in the right direction!

Some of my locomotives have 4-wide frames, others have 5-wide ones. In terms of mounting the drivetrain, 5w is more convenient as it allows vertically mounting an L-motor inside the frame, working directly on an axle with minimum frictional loss. However, engines with 5w-frames can't easily be converted to run on Lego track. I run my trains with one BuWizz as power supply (only exception is the engine you showed above, it has 2 BuWizzes for extended running time) and 1-2 PF L motors. See what one single L-motor can haul:

Thank you, but I'm afraid it's 14 studs wide... It's a narrow gauge locomotive (3.5 ft gauge) in 1/22,5 scale, so in this case Technic figures could be appropriate (at least if your engine crew should be almost 2 m tall... ).

Technic figures would be way too big for 12-wide trains. They are more than two times the size of a normal minifig, their scale (compared to a real human) is ca. 1/20. So matching trains would have to be 18-20 studs wide... But you might want to try my procedure for modifying "Jack Stone" figures - the result fits perfectly for 12-wide trains. Personally, I prefer 45 mm LGB track for my large scale trains, but some of them could be modified to run on standard Lego track. Feel free to take some inspiration here...

Oh, Lego, why can't you just get it right??? I would really love to buy quite a few classic Formula 1 racers from the 80s and 90s from you, but not such ones. At least there are now different front/rear tires. Otherwise, again, there are unnecessary mistakes... Where the air intake for the engine should be, there’s an additional tile – quite the opposite of an opening. The rear wing looks terrible when viewed from behind. And again, when the engine cover is removed, the roll bar comes off at the same time - although it would be easy to model it correctly, for the FW14B’s roll bar is part of the outer skin and doesn’t have to be hidden under the engine cover, as would be the case with the McLarens from that era (a little self-praise: you could have done it like this... ). Overall, in my opinion, this model is no more accurate to the original than the considerably older and cheaper Bluebrixx model (where I actually find the front more prototypical). A pity. After all, we will be able to use the tires for some MOCs from March onwards...

That doesn't work for me. The old profiles can't even be imported to a device where the BuWizz app was installed for the first time yesterday. I wouldn't express it that harshly. Apart from some - finally solved - firmware update issues with the very first BuWizz's years ago (2017?), I never had any problems and was very happy with them. Until yesterday... But still I hope that there's a solution.

Hi all, today, whe I opened the BuWizz app on my tablet, 6 out of 8 profiles were gone for no apparent reason (when I last used the app 2 months ago, they were still there). No big deal, I thought, as I had exported and saved all profiles on my laptop. So I copied them to my tablet and tried to import them into the BuWizz app, but all I got was a message "There was a problem importing the project". Does anyone have an idea what happened here and how I can restore my profiles? Reinstalling the app didn't work.

Hi all, with the "Slope, Curved 1 x 4 x 2/3 Double" (79756) finally available in dark gray, I was able to rework the model for greater accuracy. The headlights are mounted a bit further up now and the radiator grille is more true to the original. And, most important, the hood and trunk lid are now more prominently sculpted and therefore (at least in my opinion) look considerably better. But judge for yourself: The only drawback is that the new version is by far not as sturdy as the first one - by no means suitable for playing with. But as it's intended as a display model, that's ok. Kind regards, Sven

Thank you @Agent Kallus! And of course feel free to create your own figurs using my technique. By the way, it also works the same way with the - apparently slightly younger - 4 Juniors figures which have a less elaborately sculpted body, but the same internal structure:

You could also use the old Flex Cable parts for the coupling rods, they are only 0.5 studs wide.

Thank you @sunhuntin! Feel free to make them, I'm looking forward to seeing them

Thank you @Renny The Spaceman, @JopieK and @Murdoch17! Oh, I didn't notice until you mentioned it. Hehe, that's funny, I like it. And while I think even more modified JS's will appear in the future, I've yet another one:

Hello everyone, (I don’t know if it’s right here, but I think it’s a very “special interest” topic and fits here… if not, please move it.) They lead a shadowy existence in the AFOL community, but for some time I've had the idea that the figures from the Jack Stone series would be ideally suited to 1:32 railway models - or to airplanes, which are often built in 1:35. However, there are not many different figures, the heads are in ugly yellow (I prefer a more realistic light nougat skin color) and all look more or less the same, the range of hair pieces and headgear is very limited and the individual body parts cannot be swapped. So I thought. But where there's a will, there's a way. And so I developed a fairly simple procedure for disassembling the figures and rebuilding them in new combinations with normal minifig heads. It only requires a handful of new parts, but the original heads will be irreversibly damaged. First of all, you have to literally break the figure's neck: The head is pushed forward with force until the relatively soft glued-in neck piece breaks (make sure to push forward, not backward, otherwise the collar at the back of the torso will crack!). As soon as the head is gone, the torso can be pulled off. The lower part of the yellow neck piece now still sticks to its holder in the hip area, but it can be be removed using fine needle-nose pliers or nail scissors. If necessary, you can use angled tweezers to also remove the bracket which both forms the belt area and connects the arms to the torso on the inside. Thus, if you wish, you can also swap the belt and arms. The printing can be removed with acrylic polish; a fiberglass eraser can also help. The parts that are no longer needed are shown in the photo on the left. On the right are the new "implants" to be inserted: head and headgear/hair as desired, a 1x1 round plate with hole as a collar, a 3L bar as a "spine" and a small piece of pneumatic hose to fix the bar inside the hip. The next step is the most fiddly part: the piece of pneumatic hose is squeezed into the gap in the hip area where the neck piece was previously anchored. The 3L bar is then inserted from above (if necessary, use tweezers to hold the hose in place, and insert the bar with slight twisting movements). Now the torso can be mounted. Then place the 1x1 round plate on top of the bar and press it down as far as possible; it fixes the torso firmly. Finally, put on the desired head with hairstyle/cap and you're done. So my 1:32 railway can now finally be populated in style without any third-party figures - and I'm sure you can think of other possible uses! Best regards, Sven

Hi, I replied to your PM on Wednesday evening. As it is still marked unread, you probably didn't receive a notification, so I thought I'd mention it here.

Yes, something like that. But you can make similar stickers by yourself quite easily; if you like, you're welcome to PM me to discuss further details. I'd make them longer and 0.5-1 stud higher, if possible. Look at this drawing (sorry, didn't find a better one on the web, but can provide you with copies from my library, if you need): The smoke deflectors extend to the back of the chimney and cylinders, and they're about 1/2 of the boiler diameter in height. Can't wait to see your BR 41...

Thank you @Ropefish and @Shiva! No, I'm not reallyfond of rail-powered trains. First, I like the possibility of controlling different locomotives at the same time, which is easier with RC engines. Second, the wye in my track layout would result in a short circuit...

Thank you @JopieK! Here's finally a photo of the entire "museum train" in all its beauty:

That locomotive looks really good! However, there are two things that, IMHO, could be improved: First, I'd give it a proper lettering. The 7750 touch is nice and nostalgic, but you've worked so hard on creating an accurate replica of the BR 01 that prototypical DB numbers and lettering would really put it in the "scale model" league. Second, the smoke deflectors are way too small and too close to the boiler. Correcting this would make the model even more outstanding. As for your surplus of XL wheels: Have you considered building a BR 41? For a 9-wide model, the XL wheels should be just about perfect...

Hello everyone, It took ages, but now I've finally got around to making a video. Here it is: The speed in the last scene is equivalent to ~35 km/h; however, the BuWizz was only set to "Normal". With "Fast" or "Ludicruous", the locomotive can run much faster... I was pretty amazed that the little engine with just one L-motor could pull the train away so easily, even in "Normal" mode. And the battery lasts surprisingly long, around two hours of mixed shunting and "mainline" operation are possible. All in all, I'm very happy with the locomotive, it's by far the most trouble-free of all my engines. Best regards, Sven

Yes, Bricksafe offers a lot of possibilities and is easy to use. However, having read this, it might be wise to look for alternatives... https://forum.rebrickable.com/t/new-feature-moc-gallery-without-bricksafe/162649/7 (login may be required to read the discussion)

Sorry, guys, but don't you get tired fighting the same fight over and over again? About the Countach, all and everything has already been said, and has been said multiple times. Go and discover the rest of this forum...

Hi all, "That decomposing rattletrap", "that oxidated relic" – this is how Oscar Finch (Patrick McGoohan), murderous lawyer in "Agenda for Murder", calls Lieutenant Columbo’s famous, if shabby, 1959 Peugeot 403 Convertible. As a long-time admirer of the „Columbo“ TV series, I finally decided to build that car in LEGO® form, although (with its subtle curves) it is not very well-suited for being recreated in bricks, and thus I had to make some compromises. So here it is in 1/32 scale (7w)– complete with Columbo minifigure and the almost mandatory cheap cigar: Free pdf instructions for this model are available on Rebrickable, so if you like, you can build your own copy, modify and improve it. Thanks for stopping by! Kind regards, Sven

Nowadays, companies approve of ANYTHING that gives them profit. A license is no sign of quality... Think of that disastrous McLaren MP4/4, the Corvette or the Aston Martin DB5 - all officially approved. You know who BrickMonkeyMOCs is, don't you?