Milkromeda Posted January 5, 2015 Posted January 5, 2015 (edited) Well guys, I've been lurking here for a few months and finally decided to join the party. After being inspired by many creations here and elsewhere, I decided to attempt to recreate one of my favorite vehicles from the Mass Effect video game series, the M35 Mako. I've spent about two months building and refining this based on the part inventory I currently have. It has been quite a joy driving around for several weeks over the holidays. Alas, in order to build new things I must decontruct this. My best option was to attempt to learn LDD and "save" the model for next time. This was my first time using the program and mostly it worked out, with only a few alignment issues. I am including an LDD file for now. Please let me know what you think. I hope to do more builds in the future and share them now that I know how :) M35 Mako - Lxf file Here are a few specs: Rear wheels driven by 4 M motors Front wheels driven by 1 L motor Steering via Servo Motor Manually operated turret with full 360 rotation and vertical lift via LA 2 Battery packs + 2 IR receivers fully independent suspension including dual shock system in front A few notes on LDD file: Battery packs and IRs will sit lower in physical model Steering linkage should be raised by 2 studs to fit perfectly (LDD would not allow me to place correctly) Small hard yellow shocks should be fitted between the two black pins on the front suspension, location is just between the two pairs of 5L half width beams. Tilted bottom front panels should connect to pins just above. Front studded beams can be moved one stud closer to body (replace 3L connection with 2L supplied below) LDD would not permit the proper parts Inner arm of each large shock should be connected to the axle located one beam higher than represented. (should be obvious) Please leave feedback! Enjoy! Edited January 6, 2015 by Milkromeda Quote
Zerobricks Posted January 5, 2015 Posted January 5, 2015 The steering arms are going to break apart in real life. Other than that it looks okay on a first glance. Quote
Jim Posted January 5, 2015 Posted January 5, 2015 Hi Milkromeda, Welcome to EB! Looks like you are progressing nicely! To share an image, you might want to create a Bricksafe or Flickr account. You can upload your pictures there and link them to your post! Take care Jim Quote
Milkromeda Posted January 5, 2015 Author Posted January 5, 2015 The steering arms are going to break apart in real life. Other than that it looks okay on a first glance. It may look that way but it has been battle tested, including being sat on/smashed multiple time by my 2 and 4 year olds. Keep in mind, this was built in real life trough multiple revisions long before I was able to digitize it. The reason I encased the steering area so much is to prevent that. It holds up very well. To share an image, you might want to create a Bricksafe or Flickr account. You can upload your pictures there and link them to your post! Take care Jim Thanks, I will do that just now. I was wondering why my DB image wasn't posting. Cheers SM Quote
Balrog Posted January 6, 2015 Posted January 6, 2015 I wonder how a brick-built version will perform. Because all rear wheels are powered by an M motor for each wheel. And both fron wheels together will have a single L motor. And both kinds of drive have additional different reduction. Without applying some math, that already sounds like it will cause problems. But it looks pretty good already. Perhaps you might want to re-work some sections for more sturdiness and re-inforce the axles for the turret. Quote
Milkromeda Posted January 6, 2015 Author Posted January 6, 2015 I wonder how a brick-built version will perform. Because all rear wheels are powered by an M motor for each wheel. And both fron wheels together will have a single L motor. And both kinds of drive have additional different reduction. Without applying some math, that already sounds like it will cause problems. But it looks pretty good already. Perhaps you might want to re-work some sections for more sturdiness and re-inforce the axles for the turret. Thanks! As I said this was put together in physical form first. This was just my attempt to preserve the model and re-use the pieces for something else. It has been played with heavily. Performance is great. Faster than you'd think. My faovrite is the suspension actions. It's so soft. The difference in the drive wheel speed is negligible. With no vehicle drag they spin at slightly different speeds but under load they are syncronized enough to have no adverse effect. As far as sturdiness, the body could use a few more bracing particularly on the sides. The front is quite strong. I worked this up from pieces I had and white was my limiting factor since I was trying to stay on color scheme with the physical model. The turret was almost an after thought, my goal is to rework that section and make it RC as well. I think I can fit 2 more M motors in and another IR for that purpose. The styling I wasn't 100% happy with but proof of concept was achieved. I hope to make some improvements and share them. Thanks for the input Quote
Omikron Posted January 6, 2015 Posted January 6, 2015 Can you upload images to any other hosting? Bricksafe tells there is no such file. Quote
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