Grum's Shed

[LucyCol]

Its coming on well Clive, and I agree with you the Axle Pin 3L with 2L Axle (18651) seems to be made of a slightly softer plastic than other pins and can be a bit difficult to fit (especially the half beams), a method that work for me is to lay the beam on a flat surface (if possible) and push the pin in. Contradictory the Pin with Pin Hole (15100) feels like it made of a harder plastic and can be difficult at times to fit.

[grum64]

11 hours ago, LucyCol said:

Its coming on well Clive, and I agree with you the Axle Pin 3L with 2L Axle (18651) seems to be made of a slightly softer plastic than other pins and can be a bit difficult to fit (especially the half beams), a method that work for me is to lay the beam on a flat surface (if possible) and push the pin in. Contradictory the Pin with Pin Hole (15100) feels like it made of a harder plastic and can be difficult at times to fit.

Thank you. I'm getting there, slowly but surely.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who has difficulties with these parts. I don't like damaging parts but I'm having to replace a lot of the 18651's.

 

Edited October 6, 2016 by grum64

[jono rocky]

I agree with you and LucyCol to say ditto on those pins, they can be a pain. Great work so far.

[grum64]

2 hours ago, jono.rocky said:

...Great work so far.

Thank you.

[grum64]

Three build days are covered in this update as I didn't have time to sort out the pics and get them uploaded.

Build Day 11 - Todays build time 3hrs 15mins / Total build time 35hrs 15mins

Apologies for the quality of some of the pictures. Taking pictures of the sub assemblies is OK but I can't take any of each once fitted as with it being on my lap tray the build's it's too big and too close to get fully in frame. At the moment I can only take them on the table which, having windows behind it isn't ideal. I'm hoping to get the shed sorted out soon so I can have a dedicated area for taking photos.

Building today was pretty straightforward, the only slight problem being doubling back the motor wire through the end of the battery box. Those wires are really 'springy'. Other than that building was easy today. 

Today's Pictures

 

Build Day 12 - Todays build time 2hrs / Total build time 37hrs 15mins

Building today was again problem free. I managed to get what I'd aimed to build done an hour quicker than I thought it would take when planning the build last night.

Today's Pictures

 

Build Day 13 - Todays build time 5hrs 40mins / Total build time 39hrs 55mins

I knew when looking through the instructions to plan today's building of the engine cover that it was going to be a long day.

At first glance the bonnet seems very simple. Examine it closer and you'll see that it's anything but. It's a complicated but genius piece of design of the like I've not seen before. I had a count up and it's made from 148 parts!

Building the bonnet was fine up until I came to the panels. They're not at all easy for me because of their smooth faces and curvature which makes them a pain to fit parts to and to connect to other assemblies. At least 6 times panels or associated parts found their way to the floor while I was trying to connect them.

It may have taken me the best part of 6 hours but all parts were in their respective places and I had a bonnet sitting in front of me. A happier man you'll be hard pressed to find. 

With the bonnet fitted to the main build it's now looking more like a tractor and you get an ides of its size. Even now it has real presence. I'm really looking forward to seeing it when completed.

Today's Pictures (I'd like to have taken pics during the building of the bonnet but I dropped my mobile. Sorry.)

Edited October 8, 2016 by grum64
Spelling

[LucyCol]

Don't know what's up with your pictures Clive, but they are not showing my end?

[grum64]

12 hours ago, LucyCol said:

Don't know what's up with your pictures Clive, but they are not showing my end?

No they just disappeared, not sure why as they were OK. Tapping Edit then Save seems to have bought them back again.

Hope you can see them OK now.

Edited October 9, 2016 by grum64
Spelling. Punctuation.

[Edwin Korstanje]

I can see them correctly Clive and your progress makes me happy

[grum64]

5 hours ago, Edwin Korstanje said:

I can see them correctly Clive and your progress makes me happy

Thank you Edwin. It's coming on nicely. It's going to be quite a bit bigger than I thought.

Glad the pictures are showing OK now.

[LucyCol]

21 hours ago, grum64 said:

Hope you can see them OK now.

Thanks Clive, I can see them all now, your making good progress and yes it is a big set.

[grum64]

4 minutes ago, LucyCol said:

Thanks Clive, I can see them all now, your making good progress and yes it is a big set.

Glad you can see the pictures OK. I've still no idea why they disappereared.

All being well I'll get it finished sometime this week.

[BusterHaus]

Hi Grum, excellent progress on the Claas. The bonnet is very well designed, just the right amount of open spaces and enough curves to give it a very distinct shape.  Pretty good description of the whole set, come to think of it. 

[grum64]

4 hours ago, BusterHaus said:

Hi Grum, excellent progress on the Claas. The bonnet is very well designed, just the right amount of open spaces and enough curves to give it a very distinct shape.  Pretty good description of the whole set, come to think of it. 

Thank you Bart.

You describe the bonnet very well. It's a really good, but with 148 pieces, complicated design. It was fun to build.

All being well I'll be building the cab later so we'll see how that goes.

Edited October 12, 2016 by grum64
Punctuation

[grum64]

Build Day 14 - Todays build time 6hrs 10mins / Total build time 46hrs 55mins

Today it was the turn of the roof and base of the cab/HOG steering sub assembly to be built.

Building the cab presented no real problems other than trying to fit the Pins with Pin Hole. After 55 minutes and with 5 of them deformed I had them in place. The wrong place as it turned out 45 minutes or so later they were correctly placed but 3 more of them were in the bin, deformed beyond use. Good job I have plenty of spares.

The cab base/HOG steering sub assembly was a tad more complicated and took longer than I thought it would, the time being extended by having several more PwPH to fit. Fitting each took almost as long as the earlier ones but I'm pleased to say that this time none were damaged I can assure you that no one's more surprised than I.

Fitting the roof and cab base was a really good test of patience. With so many parts moving about when pressure was applied while connecting the two assemblies it was fiddly and very frustrating. On more than one occasion one or both narrowly escaped flying off my lap tray and finding their way to the floor. More by luck than judgement the parts were together and before me sat a completed cab. Unfortunately I didn't have time to fit it to the main build.

Building today was split between my shed and the house hence the different backgrounds in some of the pictures.

Today's pictures.

You can see in the pic below that I used 8L black axles by mistake. They've now been replaced by the correct 8L axles with stop.

The positions of the transparent red and green 1x1 round tiles in the picture below have now been swapped around.

Apologies for the quality of the next 3 pictures. I had to come in from my shed and took the pictures in the house. Unfortunately the light wasn't too good.

Edited October 12, 2016 by grum64
Spelling. Punctuation.

[Edwin Korstanje]

Wow Clive what a progress today and more than six ours building time.

[grum64]

2 minutes ago, Edwin Korstanje said:

Wow Clive what a progress today and more than six ours building time.

Thank you Edwin.

Today's building was long & tiring and feel I've made good progress. I think another couple of days should see this build finished.

[LucyCol]

Looks good Clive, it's all started coming together. Have you tried speaking with Lego customer services about the problems you are having with 'Pins with Pin Hole' as they may have suggestions, or at least offer to replace the ones that were destroyed.  This part is becoming very popular with the lego designers, the BWE has 35 and the Volvo has 31.

[grum64]

Build Day 15 - Todays build time 2hrs 20mins / Total build time 49hrs 15mins

Didn't have as much time to build today as I'd have liked so there's not too much in the way of progress. What building there was went very well with the minimum of problems so without further ramblings from me, here's today's pictures.

Please Note:

Although I've put the tyres on the rims I've not fitted them to the build yet as it'll be easier to fit the front and rear attachments without them.

Sorry about the dark appearance of the first 3 pictures. The build's too big to fit on my lap tray without one end being supported by the table which isn't conducive to taking a good pic as I'm too close to be able to fit the whole build in the frame.

Edited October 13, 2016 by grum64

[grum64]

6 hours ago, LucyCol said:

Looks good Clive, it's all started coming together. Have you tried speaking with Lego customer services about the problems you are having with 'Pins with Pin Hole' as they may have suggestions, or at least offer to replace the ones that were destroyed.  This part is becoming very popular with the lego designers, the BWE has 35 and the Volvo has 31.

Thank you LucyCol. It's starting to look more like its real self now. Just the rear attachment to build and the stickers to put on (Gillys job bless her heart ) and it's finished. I'll be quite sad to see this one end, it's been so much fun to build.

I've not contacted LEGO about the problems with the PwPH. It's probably just me and the way I'm trying to fit them. As for them replacing those I've damaged, there's no need for that as I recently bought 150 from BL. Thought they'd last me a few weeks but with the BWE having 35 and the Volvo 31 I think I may need to order a few more .

EDIT:

Just been through the instructions to plan tomorrow's build and noticed the rear attachment has 15 PwPH's. Oh joy 

Edited October 13, 2016 by grum64
Paragraph added

[Edwin Korstanje]

For a such big set you build it in record time and looks stunning.

[grum64]

3 minutes ago, Edwin Korstanje said:

For a such big set you build it in record time and looks stunning.

Thank you my friend but I'm not sure I'd call 15 days/49hrs and counting record time 

[LucyCol]

2 hours ago, grum64 said:

Thank you my friend but I'm not sure I'd call 15 days/49hrs and counting record time 

Don't count it as building time, but time you've spent enjoying your hobby  

[grum64]

Just now, LucyCol said:

Don't count it as building time, but time you've spent enjoying your hobby  

That's exactly how I see it 

[jono rocky]

Getting close to the end. Reading this makes me want to go and buy a set and experience this too.

[grum64]

1 hour ago, jono.rocky said:

Getting close to the end. Reading this makes me want to go and buy a set and experience this too.

If you get chance to get one I highly recommened you do. It's a brilliantly fun build and as I'm now seeing, is a great looking model. It's bigger than I thought it'd be, surprisingly big especially considering it's not a 'flagship set'.

This is a set you'll never regret buying.