Hey I'm working on a MOC of The Mole from Thunderbirds in LDD and I need help with a few parts of it like a sliding mechanism for the drill itself and to make the hull round. I've seen a lot of great cylinder techniques that I could use for the hull but all of them were either too fragile, you couldn't make gaps in them for the tracks and sliding mechanism (yes there are tracks on the base as well, take another look) or not hollowed out, which is a problem for me cause I want it to have an interior. also I could use some help with the frames of the chassis and base, not to mention the part with all the crossbars which carries the drill. if you're unfamiliar with what this thing even is then here http://thunderbirds.wikia.com/wiki/The_Mole

EDIT: Also I need help with a sliding door for the interior of The Firefly (another vehicle from Thunderbirds), the wall needs to be like 3 plates thick with the studs hanging off the sides and for the door itself to be 1 plate thick

Edited February 7, 20187 yr by Tracytron54321

@Tracytron54321, welcome to eurobricks!

Great idea for a MOC, the Mole was always a favourite of mine .  How big a model are you aiming for? Minifigure-scale? For cylinder techniques, I'd recommend you look at the Lego set 21309 Saturn V.  The first stage is a 10-wide cylinder built from 4 plates with 2x3 curved slope bricks, and strips of 2xN plates to fill the gaps, you could replace those strips with the tracks on the side of the Mole. Also, the third stage is a 6-wide cylinder built out of 2x2 curved slopes, with a stack of plates mounted on the side to plug the gap. Or you can google for a "Lowell sphere", that's a brick built sphere with a hollow or solid core, but you can extend stretch it out into a cylinder. Be aware that cylinders are usually either hollow, or strong, but not both.

I think the first question would be, how are you building the main caterpillar tracks, what size wheels are you using? Once you have the scale of the MOC defined, then you can work out how big the drill section has to be and plan accordingly.  Also, how are you planning on building the Mole's drill piece, something brick-built or using one of the Lego drill-shaped 4x4 cones?  

6 hours ago, Tracytron54321 said:

(yes there are tracks on the base as well, take another look)

Really? You know, I've been a fan of the show since I was two years old, and I've never seen them, I don't think even the Aoshima model kits include them.

6 hours ago, Tracytron54321 said:

Also I need help with a sliding door for the interior of The Firefly (another vehicle from Thunderbirds), the wall needs to be like 3 plates thick with the studs hanging off the sides and for the door itself to be 1 plate thick

Not sure what you mean... can you post some photos or an LDD file? Eurobricks doesn't let you upload files, but you can post links to a third party hosting site like https://www.bricksafe.com

 

17 hours ago, NathanR said:

@Tracytron54321, welcome to eurobricks!

Great idea for a MOC, the Mole was always a favourite of mine .  How big a model are you aiming for? Minifigure-scale? For cylinder techniques, I'd recommend you look at the Lego set 21309 Saturn V.  The first stage is a 10-wide cylinder built from 4 plates with 2x3 curved slope bricks, and strips of 2xN plates to fill the gaps, you could replace those strips with the tracks on the side of the Mole. Also, the third stage is a 6-wide cylinder built out of 2x2 curved slopes, with a stack of plates mounted on the side to plug the gap. Or you can google for a "Lowell sphere", that's a brick built sphere with a hollow or solid core, but you can extend stretch it out into a cylinder. Be aware that cylinders are usually either hollow, or strong, but not both.

I think the first question would be, how are you building the main caterpillar tracks, what size wheels are you using? Once you have the scale of the MOC defined, then you can work out how big the drill section has to be and plan accordingly.  Also, how are you planning on building the Mole's drill piece, something brick-built or using one of the Lego drill-shaped 4x4 cones?  

Really? You know, I've been a fan of the show since I was two years old, and I've never seen them, I don't think even the Aoshima model kits include them.

Not sure what you mean... can you post some photos or an LDD file? Eurobricks doesn't let you upload files, but you can post links to a third party hosting site like https://www.bricksafe.com

 

To answer your first question I’m building it at Minifigure scale. The floor of the cabin will be 8 studs wide. For the drill I think I’ll do something brickbuilt or maybe 3D print a custom piece, but I could attach them both in the exact same way, so I don’t really think that’s relevant. As for the wheels, I’m thinking of either using those cogs that LEGO continuously uses for the wheels of tracked vehicles in LEGO City sets or maybe those large Light Bluish Grey AKA Medium Stone Grey wheels which have their own set of different rubber wheels and that they sometimes use as thrusters on sets like Imperial Star Destroyers or Venator Class Republic Attack Cruiser sets. The piece is fairly commonly used in Ninjago too I think. Anyway, I’ll go have a look now at those things you suggested I look at, thanks.

 

UPDATE: Yeah I definitely think I’ll be using the Lowell Sphere, but now that I think about it I may make the floor six studs wide. Would certainly make things easier lol. Too bad I’m not about taking it easy haha. The Saturn V set's build was great, but like I said, I want it to have a proper interior. Makes things even harder that those wheels I was thinking of might actually be too small. I was planning on working from the top down though. First finishing the drill and the A part of the sliding system for it, while I leave part B off to the side temporarily, and then make the chassis afterwords. THEN I’m planning on implementing part B of the sliding mechanism into the chassis.

Edited February 8, 20187 yr by Tracytron54321

Oh forgot about your sliding door question, think of it like this: like I was building the roof of a tower building with one of those doors that are laying on their backs that lead to a stairwell. Essentially that, but with it being a sliding door and with it being right side up so it’s using the SNOT technique and works like a regular sliding door.

It’s just so the door is thinner and doesn’t take up as much space

7 hours ago, Tracytron54321 said:

To answer your first question I’m building it at Minifigure scale. The floor of the cabin will be 8 studs wide. For the drill I think I’ll do something brickbuilt or maybe 3D print a custom piece, but I could attach them both in the exact same way, so I don’t really think that’s relevant. As for the wheels, I’m thinking of either using those cogs that LEGO continuously uses for the wheels of tracked vehicles in LEGO City sets or maybe those large Light Bluish Grey AKA Medium Stone Grey wheels which have their own set of different rubber wheels and that they sometimes use as thrusters on sets like Imperial Star Destroyers or Venator Class Republic Attack Cruiser sets. The piece is fairly commonly used in Ninjago too I think. Anyway, I’ll go have a look now at those things you suggested I look at, thanks

No, no, no, with something like this you can't build from the top down.  The main chassis has caterpillar tracks wrapped around four wheels, and Lego don't give you many options for building something like this.  You could use this x939, x1681, or a full caterpillar drive from chain links such as 3873 or 57518.

x939 would be tricky to add a fourth wheel, and it is very small, the mole drill section would have to be 4 studs across. x1681 is better (is this what you meant by the wheels used on star destroyers?), which would put the drill at 5 or possibly 6 studs wide. I would go for 57518, which are 4 to 5 studs wide, and would give you an 8 to 10 stud wide mole.

Once you have the actual size defined, then you can start on the drill section.  There's so much detailing on this part that it almost ceases to be a cylinder, so you could build it studs-up, using inverted slopes for the base (e.g. this or this) and then this plate with rail for the sliding mechanism.

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=56145&name=Wheel 30.4mm D. x 20mm with No Pin Holes and Reinforced Rim&category=[Wheel] these are the wheels I was talking about. Though while looking for that piece I found https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=2998&name=Wheel 81.6 x 34 Six Spoke&category=[Wheel] and I think that’ll be a better one for minifigure scale. And like I said, I’ve already got the size defined, minifigure scale. But if what you’re thinking is that I’m going to build the drill part and then build the part it slides on from the top down, ending with the tracks than you are EXTREMELY wrong lol. I meant finishing the drill part and then build the chassis from the bottom up. Just the drill first, is all. And piece 57518 was actually what I was planning on using for the tracks in the first place, though I may have to build ones myself considering how big it’ll be, but don’t worry just while writing this comment I came up with a solution for that lol. Also I was actually thinking for the sliding mechanism (I just thought of this while writing this) I could use those LEGO City ladder pieces (not the short ones, I mean the ones used on some of the more recent fire truck sets) if I could figure out a way to get one to attached to the underside of the drill.

Ah, I had misunderstood your plan, I see now.

Stick with 56145, that's still in current production (2998 hasn't been made since 1999, and then only in white). 

4 minutes ago, Tracytron54321 said:

Also I was actually thinking for the sliding mechanism (I just thought of this while writing this) I could use those LEGO City ladder pieces (not the short ones, I mean the ones used on some of the more recent fire truck sets) if I could figure out a way to get one to attached to the underside of the drill.

Those ladders can be attached to (say) a 2x4 plate, e.g. as done in 10249 Winter Village toy shop.  All you would need to do is get some studs pointing downwards on the base of the drill section. 

On 08/02/2018 at 10:54 PM, NathanR said:

Ah, I had misunderstood your plan, I see now.

Stick with 56145, that's still in current production (2998 hasn't been made since 1999, and then only in white). 

Those ladders can be attached to (say) a 2x4 plate, e.g. as done in 10249 Winter Village toy shop.  All you would need to do is get some studs pointing downwards on the base of the drill section. 

But then it won’t slide. Maybe if I put two together? That should work! Thanks I'll try it out on LDD right now! And I’m sure there’s some other wheel in the right colour, I saw TONS of them on bricklink when I checked, but besides the chassis is a greyish blue so I’ll probly just end up having to spray paint everything anyway lol

Not sure if it would help or be what your thinking of but there is also a 2x6 plate that often goes with those ladder pieces allowing it to slide and actually lock at different positions. Might be 2x8 don't really remember. 

14 minutes ago, Johnny1360 said:

Not sure if it would help or be what your thinking of but there is also a 2x6 plate that often goes with those ladder pieces allowing it to slide and actually lock at different positions. Might be 2x8 don't really remember. 

Oh yeah! I know about that piece! Thanks for reminding me!