deckard9

Thank you all! Robin, here are some pics of the dinghy. based on Anders Ts design:

Hi Faladrin, thank you! I took most of the landscape apart yesterday thou... I figured that it didn't feel like a village because the houses were to randomly spread out ofer the landscape. I am rebuilding it with a more traditional village layout - more roads, blocks of houses. Also I want to get away from the rectangular arrangement of the houses. I am thinking of adding a dock in a 60 degree angle and so on.... stay tuned...

Thanks Legostone for the link. Yes, the Lighthouse could use some more tlc... I'll look into that. Regarding the Ship of the line: originally I wanted to build a third rater. But that would have been to huge for my build-space. So I opted for the 4th rater and even that one is approx 15% smaller than it should be. Still 1,35m long by 1,15m high thou.

Thank you for the kind words! Yes, I am just an occasional builder. probably 1 build per year. But usually bigger projects. My family is collecting lego since he early 50ies. And I tend to complete the collection through bricklink. Now its going to the next generation. I think my boy did a great job. He build the big tree and rock underneath (next to the tavern) all by himself and a lot more. And we spent hours building next to each other, sitting on bar stools in front of the brick shelf - like birds on a wire. My wife and my daughter already started making jokes. After posting the pics, I feel more and more unsatisfied with the reults thou. I like the court house and the ships. Also the warehouse, but for the rest, I think we could have done better....Does this just happen to me?... or is that a known phenomenon? Some sort of "builders cold turkey", when the end is in sight....?

Hi Guys, I am an occasional builder and first time pirate builder. I did some stuff on the forum with Star Wars, but recently I rediscovered my love for pirates. Since my son Leon is in a good age to start a serious build, we kicked the project of as a father and son project. We mostly tried to have fun and not to get hung up on details. Since I am not good in detailling and dynamic arrangements like some of you guys, we did a very straight and simple build. It turned out quite huge thou. We thought some of you might enjoy it, so here's the current status in pics... Sorry for my bad english... I am not a native speaker. It all started with the idea to build a ship of the line. We figured that a ship alone is lost, so we decided to add a harbour. But since a harbour alone is boring, we added another ship... extended the landscape and ended up with a MOC that is 216 by 144 studs big. roughly 1,72m x 1,15m We lit almost every house and room with standard Lego LED lights, which was a bit of a pain. On 2-3 occasions we wanted to make a napoleonic era wall lamp, but it turned out a brick-mess. If some of you guys could point us to examples of good designs, that would be highly appreciated. Also the hull shape of the HMS Mermaid didn't turn out so well on the bow. Looks a bit crumpled.... and she is too straight on the afterdeck. We ran out of bricks permanently so you will find bricks of the wrong color everywhere. We tried to make the best out of it and I think in many cases it even improved the build. In general you will recognize a lot of ideas that we picked from this forum and others. Thanks to all of you and especially to Anders T from whom we borrowed the design of the dingys, the design of some cannons and the mid section of the pirate ship. The Rigging of the pirate ship is still missing. Also some bits and pieces here and there need some fixing or wrong colors need to be swapped. And I need to fix the modular parts aka the build plates better together. Sometimes there are small gaps in between them. Sorry for the crappy pics, but I have a hard time getting good pictures because of the size of it. I can't properly light it. Since the MOC is a modular build on 25+ plates, I'll go in afterward, pick everything apart and photograph the details of each building seperately. I couldn't get good enough access to the watermill, to the warehouse office and to the hut of the fortune teller to make good pictures. C&C welcome, especially links to build samples that could improve the build would be highly appreciated. If you like to see more pictures of some detail, don't hesitate to ask. I'll kick it of with the back story: ___________________________________________ Puerto Leon was a small spanish harbour that was overlooked by the empire when it took control of the island in 1705. This didn't happen unnoticed by the pirates of the region, who took control of the harbour instead and made it their base. For 35 years they plagued the surrounding seas, plundering and pillaging what ever came across their path. It happened in 1740 that the empire had enough of that pirate scum and sent a 4th rate ship of the line - the HMS Mermaid - to take back control of Puerto Leon. They built a courthouse and a fortress and soon a fragile peace was established. The Mermaid remained in place.The actions to fight back the pirates overshot and the judges and Governors of the empire established a cruel regime that cemented their power through torture and punishment. Quite to often it hit the innocent. Pirates wouldn't be pirates if the wouldn't fight back. For ten years they stayed in hiding until that glorious day, when they attacked to take back Puerto Leon. We write the 21st of May 1751 - 9:43 am. This is the exact moment, when the first shots by the pirates are fired. Let me give you a little guided tour through puerto Leon and show you what happened at that exact second: First of all: Please meet Lord Geoffrey, Viscount Farnsborough and his fiancee Elvira. They set sail in England in Jan 1751 to visit their new estates in the carribean colonies, but got cast away on a remote island, when a hurricane sank their ship. Through the ingenuity of Lord Geoffrey and his iron will for survival, they managed to escape their island and make it all the way to Puerto Leon. Sadly mere seconds after htis picture was taken, Lord Geoffrey and his beautiful fiancee were run over by the attacking pirate ship, which couldn't care less about their admirable survival story. They both drowned instantly. And here are the pirates... a wild bunch that would rather die than leave their beloved harbour to the empire. On the HMS Mermaid the crew celebrates the 10 year anniversary of the liberation of Puerto Leon. Their guards are down. Some are busy working: Few crewmembers see what is coming... all the guns are unmanned: Only one guard is on duty, but coincidently on the wrong end of the ship The citizens of Puerto Leon react differently. While some are in shock, others stay calm. This angler has angled under the pirate reign, he is angling under the empire. He will angle in the future. The harbour master checks his logs The pirates knew at which moment to attack: The soldiers in the castle are upgrading their artillery (The fortress is a very rough build with little detail) And this pirate, who is led into the courthouse to being sentenced, knows already that he will be sailing the seas soon again... The old Dutchman who is running the windmill behind the fortress couldn't care less about the attack. He's chopping palm trees in his endless fight to keep the wings of his mill free from the jungle On the beach behind the mill some pirates use the diversion, that the attack creates, to dig up a treasure that they had hidden the night before the empire had taken Puerto Leon Just across the bay the daughter of the governor arrives for the festivities At the quay the attack is still unnoticed: At the market people mind their own business But signs of the imperial reign of terror can be seen everywhere: The screams of the innocent locked in the cage drive the workers in the neighbouring warehouse crazy. Its not even possble to think of working. They just stand around all day and try to ignore the screams... ( :)) sorry didn't yet have time to pose them and give them something to do...) The Judges in the Courthouse consider those screams the well deserved fruit of their work. A young man stands in front of the court. He has stolen a ring to present it to his fiancee She hurries to support him and plea for his pardon the people on the balcony have different reasons to be there. Some stick with the empire. some side with the pirates If one is sentenced to jail or worse, his fate is gruesome. He has to pass through the door behind the judges and is led down several floors into the dungeons. Once you are down here, chance are, you will never see the light of day again... Some are led to the next cave to the torture chamber The water in the cave is the end of a little creek that seperates the fortress from the rest of the harbour. Dead bodies are usually disposed in the water and left to drift outside with the tide... Right above the torture chamber is the house of the governor: Here you can see the locked gate at the exit of the creek: The baker is used to see dead bodies float past his bakery So... where did all the pirates hide then during the reign of the british empire? Let me show you the direction... coming from the fortress you pass the Courthouse. You come to a fork. The left alley leads past the warehouse down t the harbour masters office and in the end the light house. (btw: the flame is LED lit) But that's not the one you take. You make a right just behind the court house. You walk a bit up the hill and pass the alley between the treasure masters office and the water mill (which is motorized) Don't get your feet wet when you walk across that little bridge. leave the hut of the fortune teller on the left (the glass bowl is lit)..... .....and walk up the hill to the cliff. We'll meet at the sword fish tavern, which is THE place to be if you are a pirate: Its no place for the faint hearted. (Sorry, still missing some heads. Waiting for a bricklink order, I'll replace the pics, when its finished) But today business is going slow (because all the pirates are on the ship). So the host doesn't even mind that his brother in law again passed out in the wine cellar. But as you can see, the real secret of the sword fish tavern lies behind the trapdoor that is hidden in the passage to the wine cellar. A ladder leads down into a pirate cave, where the pirates hid most of their treasures before the empire seized the town. There is an exit to the sea, but with the ship of the line in the harbour, it would have been too risky to save the treasure... (the fire in the cave is LED lit) On the other end of the town, they have other problems. This is Jeff... He has a really bad day He used to collect little fish at the beach and bring them home. One day he found that little critter, of a kind he had never seen. That little thing would grow like crazy. But he never thought that it would end like this: (I know... that kraken is a bit crappy and its not integrated that well into the house. The dynamik of the rupture of the house is not good either... But hey... it was fun building it....) maybe I'll go back and fix it.... Bad pic from the wrong side: This concludes our little tour through that fateful moment in the history of Puerto Leon... Let me end with some wider shots for a better overview: Hope you enjoyed it! best, Marcus

Yes - 3D Printing - like in custom bricks. ;)

Hey there, Thank you for the comments. I am currently working on some other project. I stumbled across a nice 3D Printer... Need I say more? :) Endless possibilities... I have to finish my 3D printing project til summer. I'll continue the juggernaut after that. Deck

Hey there, Thank you for your comments. I am taking a break from building right now, because I am a bit stuck and I really hate the fact, that the cannon on top is not doing anything remotely... I am currently thinking about ways to multiply the R/C channels. I'll probably use a servo to switch between forward and rear cannon mode with a PF-switch.... so basically I use one channel to multiply the others. Right now I am missing the following funtions: side rocketlauncher actually shooting, Top cannon rotating and shooting, Exit door on the rear opening and closing -> That's a total of 4 missing channels. To get the top cannon do rotate and shoot, I need to redesign the control mechanism that I used for the rear canon. The mechanism in the rear cockpit is 8x8x20 studs big. I need to scale that down to 6x6x16 to fit it in the central pilar in the crew compartment. Also i need a self adjusting mechanism for the steering. Since the steering for each axle is independent, it has a tendency of loosing sync. So when you turn to the sides a few times the wheels will not all straighten back out the way they did before. Till now it was a fast build, but in the finishing detail it gets tricky....

Thanks! I think this one is about twice as big as the one from Artifex. What the Artifex piece has - what I really like and what is next on my list - is the autoloading rocket launchers on the sides. Right now on this tank, they just open and close, which is pointless. I think, I will include a similar mechanism as the one in the Artifex rocket launchers. -> Then you get the slow opening and firing... As for the retractable launchers... They are controlled by a proportional servo, so you could open and close it slowly too. I favor a fast und surprisin attack thou... Still missing the hatch that covers the front rocketlauncher. So less surprising after all for now.. Well... still quite a way to go...

One more shooting... Not much to see thou... fast as lightning - and deadly (click on the pic for the video)

Hello, Here's a little more progress: The finished canon on top... a bit bigger than in the movie, but I think it fits better this way. And a night picture: I am working on the carriage right now... Here is the finished Cockpit / Radar room section: Not enough detail in the radar room thou... got to work on that... The crew quarters with the gunners on the upper floor: If you lift off the radar room, you get access to the sick bay: The sick bay needs more work too. And finally another driving video (click on the picture for the video - sorry... you can hear my kids fighting in the background... ): One more... the retractable canons shooting (ckick on pic for video): Still missing is some rework on the carriage. And the covers of the carriage - inluding the big shock absorbers on the side - are not done yet. More soon...

I really like it. on paper a Turbolaser turret doesn't look like much. 2 stacked boxes... But you actually made a attractive MOC out of it with all the interior and the nice details... I am looking forward to seeing the base

Hi Lobot. It features 10 pairs of LED. 2pairs for headlights, 1 pair for the front cockpit, 1 pair for the med station, 1 pair for the radar room, 2 pairs for the crew quarters, 1 pair in the cargo bay, 1 pair for the rear cockpit and 1 pair for taillights. Its a pain thou to seal all the gaps off, so no light does get out where it shouldn't. Especially the edges of the wedged sides of the cabins are tricky for that. deck

Not yet.. I want to get the exterior done and the carriage ready, befor I complete the interior. Still waiting for a bricklink order thou, so maybe I'll complete it the other way around.

Thank you! This input is great. I'll try my best and see what I can come up with. I'll give the liftarms instead of the steering links a shot and will try to add more crossmembers.. I can't use penular axles, since the weight is so big, that if I don't have some travel in the suspension, it will bend the chassis... if one wheel on a pendular axle is lifted the whole pivot is lifted. On a vehicle with 5 axles this means the only way to compensate for this is bending the chassis... Because you all insist on studed beams instead of liftarms... is the difference in stability really that big?

Hey there. Yesterday I finished the canon mechanism. You can control it with 2 channels now. One to rotate, the other one to lift and shoot. When you point the canon all the way down it fires. I buildt it that way for two reasons: 1. I am running out of R/C Channels 2. that way my little boy is not able to shoot someone in the eye... I did a little video with the tank driving and shooting. Not a lot of action, but its hard to film with the phone and control several channels at once. Don't shoot me for my driving skills... One wheel is off, due to the rebuild of the undercarriage and the cabins are just dropped on to it. The wiring was also not all connected yet. Click on the picture for the video.

You mean the natural play of the pins would offer enough freedom for the axle to move? That might well be...

Seems the vote is clear... I'll give it a shot. Thank you guys!

Yes, but where does the ball go, if I want to loose the flimsy steering links? I want to get rid of the black 9L steering links, that connect the axle to the chassis... So far they where the only elements I found, that have a tow ball holder and thus offer full freedom of rotation. If i use Liftarms with towballs instead, I need something to hold the towball on the chassis...

Which element would I use to put the towball in? I tried working with a caster angle, but the tank is so heavy, that due to the geometrie the steering would have to lift the tank a bit everytime you turn, which simply doesn't work because of the weight.Or I would have to compensate for the caster angle in the suspension with a correction in the sold axle to get upright steering which would make the axle quite complicated and less stable, I think. Thank you all for the input!

Hello, I am bulding a big MOC (http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=80259), that probably weighs around 40-50lbs. It rests on 5 solid axles, that are connected to the chassis with 5 9-stud link arms. 4 longitudinal and one cross. It turns out, that the link arms are a bit too weak and have too much play. When the tank encounters an obstacle the axle tends to swing back and to the side to avoid the obstacle instead of working in the suspension. Sometimes the steering linkage bends. I need something more rigid then link arms. The steering is done with actuators, which have 2 drawbacks: 1. they are slow (but its a tank thus speed is not that much of an issue), 2. they have an integrated slip clutch. When the resistance is too big, they slip and the wheels loose alignment. I then have to turn the wheels to max to re-align them. Both is not ideal. Rack and pinion steering turned out to have too much play. Also rack and pinion - as far as I found - is too weak and less stable then the actuator setup. Any idea to beef up the linkage is highly appreciated, because its nearly the last obstacle to completing the build. Its hard to get a good picture, cause the thing is too heavy to flip or turn. thank you, deck.

That could well be. But that's not very stable, is it? Might not be the right approach after all. When the tank is moving there is quite some vibration, so everything needs to be fitting tight and has to be stable. I am kind of stuck on this....

The problem with the WiP is thou, that the response is somewhat limited. I am working on the CTT, and I am running in a couple of problems while doing it. I started the thread hopeing, that there would be some exchange of ideas, like: "try this it might work better", but there is noresponse like that - just one in this case. Even if I ask questiosn about problems...

I am still looking for ideas how to build the ring around the canon on the main cabin. Here is, how someone buildt it on his CTT: No clue, what technique was used to do that... Any ideas?

Thanks for the comments! Yes its motorized!!! I drove it and its fun!!! It was the first time last weekend, that I did drive it around with all the load on it. My fear was, that the gears would just crack or it would crawl slow as hell, but in fact its fast. The XL motors and the planetary gears are so strong, that the weight doesn't seem to have any impact. There are only two issues: The weight is so big, that when you tackle an obstacle that is higher then one brick, it is easier for the wheels to bend the steering backwards then to work in the suspension. The other issue is, that the steering is slow. You can only speed up, when you have a free way. If you want to maneuvre through a door, you need to switch to crawl mode and drive it like an oil tanker... slowly... very slowly.... I have to rework the suspension some more. the 9 stud suspension arms are just too weak. I have to find a more rigid solution. I don't want to build a rock crawler, but some more rigidity would be nice.... Here is a little update: The shape of the canon on the head is done. The mechanic to rotate it and to shoot with power functions is still missing thou. Also some details on top of the spphere are missing.