Yay!

I finished and refined the Mobile Recovery Unit WIP shown the other day.

I tried to shorten the piece-count, but still this beauty is almost 900 pieces thick.

I managed to have no studs visible from the inside and the outside. The only places where studs are visible are the seats, otherwise they wouldn

It's great DJ Force! I was actually thinking of buying it but now seeing the price, I probaly won't :-/ I love how you made it studless! *wub*

wow that is one massive beast!! 8-

Very cool! A big, solid, SNOTy truck is just what you need for carrying troops into the battle-field! :-D *y* *y*

~Peace

Thanks a lotta :)

@Exobuilder:

I

It turned out pretty cool! *wub* Nice and beefy looking. Not likely I will order it as it cost $166 AUD for me; for that amount of pieces it should cost around $100. The price of convenience I suppose. :-/ I wouldn't have the pieces to make that as is, but in other colours I might.

Furthermore, I

Great job, there *wub* *y*

You really made a wonderful vehicle, increasing the level we saw in the WIP 8-

@Sinner:

You

Woah. Now I'm going to HAVE to buy that drool guard...that's the third keyboard I've shorted this week!

Excellent model; I can't believe you made that with LDD - I suck with that program, though, so meh XD...

I may consider ordering that, but it'll be a bit before I can - first I have to get a job XD (It's very affordable though - $106 USD for that seems a pretty good deal to me ^.^)

Does it have any features?

~Trexxen

By the way, was it you or Hinckley who said I

*g* fair enough.

I just threw some of my available minifig parts together for my sigfig. I

well...... did anyone ever actually buy this or build it with their own parts?

I

He he, sorry but I

I just updated this with the new LDD palette.

Some pieces hat to go, some others appeared (Binoculars! Yay!)

Still very pricey, though...

http://shop.lego.com/Product/Factory/Produ...5e-4764d7ff2316

Welp, some thoughts.

If youre really in love with the dkstone color on those front 2*3 slopes (now black), the 1*3 slope does still come in that color, just use 2 of them side by side.

Also, those 4l lightsaber blades, can easilly be replaced in most cases with the 'stick/aerial' part, which is basically half the cost and has better quality control. (dunno how many warped lightsaber blades Ive seen so far... like 2/3 are misaligned or crooked..)

I think I saw some technic bricks on the inside of your chassis that can in some cases be removed (not connected), and in others replaced with longer bricks now available since the updated pallate.

Also the clip holders that are on those saber blades, can be replaced with lamp holders(the ones with studs and hole). They'd be doing the same thing, but are cheaper.

That'll probably drop the price by a ... fractional amount of abour 4$USD.

I'm thinking a lot of the rest of it is due to those 1*1 cheesewedges all over the place. This is one of the least cost effective pieces ever, try to replace them with larger slopes whenever possible.

Oh, that bar across the front viewport, is not connected to anything, its floating.

might want to fix that

that and maybe a chassis reworking.... more beams, less plates, etc

more later... maybe

Edited April 22, 200816 yr by xenologer

If youre really in love with the dkstone color on those front 2*3 slopes (now black), the 1*3 slope does still come in that color, just use 2 of them side by side.

Thanks, I didn´t notice.

But I altered the color scheme now, and I still like it this way with the biggher black "rallye-beams" :-D Plus it´s like 20 cent cheaper.

Also, those 4l lightsaber blades, can easilly be replaced in most cases with the 'stick/aerial' part, which is basically half the cost and has better quality control. (dunno how many warped lightsaber blades Ive seen so far... like 2/3 are misaligned or crooked..)

Great, thanks! I didn´t know the lightsaber blades are more expensive. Changed all those blades now.

I think I saw some technic bricks on the inside of your chassis that can in some cases be removed (not connected), and in others replaced with longer bricks now available since the updated pallate.

Yep, true. Furthermore I noticed that I forgot the technic connector pins on one side :-) I changed all those pieces, as I think I don´t really need them in that particular area.

Also the clip holders that are on those saber blades, can be replaced with lamp holders(the ones with studs and hole). They'd be doing the same thing, but are cheaper.

Thanks again. Swapped them.

That'll probably drop the price by a ... fractional amount of abour 4$USD.

It´s even more! It´s now below 100 Euros now! :-D I can afford it! Thanks a lot for your help!

I'm thinking a lot of the rest of it is due to those 1*1 cheesewedges all over the place. This is one of the least cost effective pieces ever, try to replace them with larger slopes whenever possible.

Argh. I know they aren´t that cheap, but they really add a lot to the look. I don´t think I can exchange most of them. But at least I changed some and removed some where they were almost invisible anyway. (front bumper)

Oh, that bar across the front viewport, is not connected to anything, its floating.

might want to fix that

Argh, thanks!

that and maybe a chassis reworking.... more beams, less plates, etc

Did a little, but not too much, though.

more later... maybe

Looking forward to it! :-)

Thanks a lot again for your support!

In addition to the stuff you mentioned, I exchanged the guns and some minor parts and bits. Design-stuff, not practical stuff.

Here´s the latest link:

http://shop.lego.com/Product/Factory/Produ...23-f66939699a97

Nice Job

as for as the little cheesewedges go, I was thinking the ones on the front bumper were good for shape, a more obvious choice to remove would be the ones inside the cockpit on either side of the steering wheel.

Also, a great substitute for cheesewedges in some cases, is the 1*2*1 roof tile endcap (the one that looks like halve a pyramid, goes at the end of roof peaks); its taller than a cheesewedge of course, but a few in a row makes a neat jagged toothed appearance which can be interesting in place of a row of the cheese. (check the row of 4 cheeses at the front viewport for a fine test example, teeth look meaner here)

Theres a buncha tiles in the inside compartment floor. Might swap them with the big 4*6 tile with studs on 3 edges(smooth in middle). Tho this introduces studs to the smooth floor; that might be an asset for posing minifigs, a combo of smooth with studs.

Also, the round smoothbottomed 'slide shoe' plates (inverted dish?) are kinda expensive, I try to avoid those whenever I can. The ones on the inside of that opening window can probably be replaced with standard plates.

The large number of them on the bottom of the chassis though... hard to say for sure. Might be important for reinforcement, or for helping drag. I kinda wish your ground clearance was a little better so you could have the possibility of removing them...(or maybe its fine to do so already? one prob with virtual designs... needs real test)

That'd drop another 2$USD or so...pretty big

chassis design, well as far as this goes...

at the moment the base of your model is basically like 2 layers of large flat plates.

I try to avoid doing that since... plates are kinda flexy, and its hard to solidly snap and unsnap them to each other with that kinda full contact. also some of the large plates tend be costly compared to:...

A stronger structure would be a combo of beams for longitudinal strength(avoid flexy above), overlaid with plates to provide horizontal bracing and connection between the beams.

think of a honeycomb, hollow spaces between beams with the ends capped off(plates)

Of course this raises your floor thickness (may be an issue with interiour space), but if you're reworking this perhaps the whole vehicle would just be made a little taller and wheels lowered...?ground clearance?

on either side of driver seat, the snot bricks 1*1*1 with studs on 2 sides, can be replaced with 1*2*1 with studs on 2 sides; (8 of the little ones vs 4 of the big ones)

the 1*2*1 1/3 tile with handle 'clamp' is what ldd calls it, is sorta expensive too so i use em sparingly. though they are nice for the industrial kinda look they provide when lined up. often I'll try to find a fence or 'hanger' piece to be used in place of a group of them, depends on the situation

Later, sleepy

Nice Job

Thanks! :)

as for as the little cheesewedges go, I was thinking the ones on the front bumper were good for shape, a more obvious choice to remove would be the ones inside the cockpit on either side of the steering wheel.

Agh, I DID exchange those, but CTRL-Z´d that since the levers couldn´t be attached where I wanted them then. My mistake. The ones on the front bumpers weren´t too visible, so I removed them. No big loss there designwise, I think.

Also, a great substitute for cheesewedges in some cases, is the 1*2*1 roof tile endcap (the one that looks like halve a pyramid, goes at the end of roof peaks); its taller than a cheesewedge of course, but a few in a row makes a neat jagged toothed appearance which can be interesting in place of a row of the cheese. (check the row of 4 cheeses at the front viewport for a fine test example, teeth look meaner here)

Not really sure what you mean there.

Theres a buncha tiles in the inside compartment floor. Might swap them with the big 4*6 tile with studs on 3 edges(smooth in middle). Tho this introduces studs to the smooth floor; that might be an asset for posing minifigs, a combo of smooth with studs.

True. I might do that.

Also, the round smoothbottomed 'slide shoe' plates (inverted dish?) are kinda expensive, I try to avoid those whenever I can. The ones on the inside of that opening window can probably be replaced with standard plates.

No, they cannot be swapped, as the hatch won´t close then.

The large number of them on the bottom of the chassis though... hard to say for sure. Might be important for reinforcement, or for helping drag. I kinda wish your ground clearance was a little better so you could have the possibility of removing them...(or maybe its fine to do so already? one prob with virtual designs... needs real test)

I´m going to browse my legos and see if I can find enough parts to try this for real. If I can find a good solution, away with those dishes! :D

at the moment the base of your model is basically like 2 layers of large flat plates.

Um...

I try to avoid doing that since... plates are kinda flexy, and its hard to solidly snap and unsnap them to each other with that kinda full contact. also some of the large plates tend be costly compared to:...

A stronger structure would be a combo of beams for longitudinal strength(avoid flexy above), overlaid with plates to provide horizontal bracing and connection between the beams.

Ágain, I´ll see if I have the parts to try and test what is strong and cheap enough.

ground clearance?

...is horrible, yes.

on either side of driver seat, the snot bricks 1*1*1 with studs on 2 sides, can be replaced with 1*2*1 with studs on 2 sides; (8 of the little ones vs 4 of the big ones)

Those are new, aren´t they? I don´t seem to remember them being available in the old LDD...

the 1*2*1 1/3 tile with handle 'clamp' is what ldd calls it, is sorta expensive too so i use em sparingly. though they are nice for the industrial kinda look they provide when lined up. often I'll try to find a fence or 'hanger' piece to be used in place of a group of them, depends on the situation

Cool. I´ll see if I can find other pieces for those things.

Again, thank you very much for your help!

Here

Edited April 22, 200816 yr by DJ Force

Not really sure what you mean there.

pics worth a thousand words...

Ahh, now I get it. Thanks!

Okay, but I think for smootheness I´ll stick to the cheese slopes. And it would only be a difference of 40 cents.

The other ideas are good! But what exactly did you do to the roof lights in the first pic? I cannot determine what parts you used there. And I cannot get a windshield to work in place for some reason, too. Did you change anything else for the windshield to fit?

The light is made using one of these on one of those little 1*1 clips

The windshield interferes with the transparent red grille lights, so you have to remove at least the top set of those to make it fit.

I'd probably just do away with all of them, since the red plates in the wall already look good enough for that effect.

*lol*

Okay. When I was looking at your pics I thought you were using something like this or this And couldn´t find out how you did it - or where you found the parts in LDD *lol*

You´re right with the transred grills. I´ll execute those. Thanks!

The final version is up.

I couldn´t find any other possibilities to reduce costs.

The final vehicle now has 805 parts in various colors (clever idea to use bright colors where they aren´t visible. Some colors cost less than others).

With the excellent help of Xenologer I was able to bump the price almost 15 bucks down!

At a price of 91.99 Euros it´s finally reasonable to actually buy this vehicle

I don´t want to retouch this vehicle any more now I still could remove some pieces to reduce costs further, but this is the stage where I would say looks are more important than price reduce.

Here´s the link:

http://shop.lego.com/Product/Factory/Produ...ce-d653b7b348c5

The model now features a working hatch, separated roof for easy access to interior, and even some nice minifig tools. The futuristic cannon on the passenger side has been removed and exchanged with a mini gattling gun or machine gun. The inner floor has some studs now for better display of minifigs. And the driver now has some more control panels.

Have fun with it, folks!