Minifig scale cars

[Ralph_S]

V-LV-16C to V-LV-16E, Fire Truck V-LF-3A, Bus V-LB-1E, Courier V-LC-3F

In the last week or so I have been having a lot of fun building minifig scale vehicles. I really like the cars in the current LEGO city line, with regular cars being four studs wide (five including the fenders) and trucks six (seven including the fenders). It's a nice scale -roughly 1/45- that allows plenty of details and room to fit a driver without the cars becoming so big that figures look ridiculously small next to them. So, I've gone for 5-wide cars, a 6-wide van and a 7-wide bus and fire engine. BTW, after I built most of the cars, I found that these are the same widths as used in the LEGO Discovery centre in Berlin.

There are quite a few people on Eurobricks who do mainly minifig scale things, so I reckoned you may be interested.

Some of you have probably seen my city bus. Since I first posted it it, it's received a 'nose-job' of sorts, with a new front window designed by Tim Gould.

A courier van, with opening sliding door:

A series of regular cars (an MPV, a sedan and a hatchback):

Last but not least, my fire engine, based on Mercedes trucks used by the London Fire Brigade

(photos are links to their pages on flickr)

All my minifig scale stuff can be found in my minifig scale folder on flickr.

Cheers,

Ralph

[lego.ryan]

Those are very neat! They're the perfect size, and the colours you chose are very appropriate, so any of these vehicles would look good in anyone's city. My favorite is the bus, it's just too cool.

Keep it up!

Ryan

[LegoFranks]

Loving your bus! I wouldn't know where to start building that!

M.

[ExoBuilder]

That bus and the firetruck are amazing Ralph! The roof for the Courier van looks real nice as well.

[kill will]

I love them all! I think the courier van is best.

[Asuka]

A beautiful work, the new windscreen on that marvelous bus looks great, and it´s really cool to see some nifty details like

these working doors. The size´s great too. The van looks also very detailed, the fire engine looks very realistic and from

the smaller cars I like the Sedan the best, although the other two look very nice too.

Do you want to present your other vehicles in a separate thread? Because that Ferrari, the US pumper truck, the Rolls-Royce

and that farm truck´re really very smart too....

[Ralph_S]

V-LV-13C & V-LV-13D, Pumper Truck V-LF-1F

A beautiful work, the new windscreen on that marvelous bus looks great, and it´s really cool to see some nifty details like

these working doors. The size´s great too. The van looks also very detailed, the fire engine looks very realistic and from

the smaller cars I like the Sedan the best, although the other twos look very nice too.

Do you want to present your other vehicles in a separate thread? Because that Ferrari, the US pumper truck, the Rolls-Royce

and that farm truck´re really very smart too....

Those small cars are really tricky. The van and the fire engine were relatively easy to build, as was the bus apart from the front window. I didn't include the other cars because they're a lot older (and the farm truck is already dismantled).

Still, here goes. Here's the Ferrari (loosely based on a 348TB)

And a London taxi (not a Rolls Royce)

Finally, an American 'fifties pumper truck

Cheers,

Ralph

Edited November 18, 2011 by Phred

[Asuka]

That´s no Rolls...? Well, nevermind.... it´s just cool. And that Ferrari.... the size and proportions´re simply great,

exactly the kind of car I would dream of if I would be a MF.... hey, what the heck, add some car doors and I would try to

ride that babe in person....

And that pumper truck´s a sheer nostalgic beauty queen, with an especially fine front part. Lovely!

[Klaus-Dieter]

That are very nice cars, Ralph S!

I mainly like the bus ( ) and the delivery van (with doors would have been nicer but nevertheless).

Very well done!

Klaus-Dieter

[Darth_Legois]

I've seen your brickshelf folder before i realy like taxi. but i like your newer cars even BETTER!

Good Job

[Ralph_S]

Thanks. I'm quite fond of my classic taxi and the pumper truck turned out okay, but I think I have learned a few new tricks since I built them. The bus is obviously popular, but I myself like the new fire engine best.

Cheers,

Ralph

[WhiteFang]

Ralph_S, your minifig scale cars are fanastic. It looks as real as those on the streets. For me, I personally love the bus very much. Of course, we need some mode of transport to ferry the citizens around. The classic taxi is superb and it's defintely a great addition.

[Ralph_S]

Thanks. It's nice to know they are appreciated.

Cheers,

Ralph

[Hinckley]

I love indexing MOCs because I get to comment on ones I missed or never got around to commenting on. I love these vehicles, Ralph. They're beautiful. You're a very talented builder and you've done such a nice job with these-capturing a vintage feel with modern techniques. These would look great in my LEGO town!

[Freddie]

...and the rest of us like it too because of the exact same reasons, minus the indexing bit.

All those vehicles look fantastic, Ralph_S. I might let my self inspire from them, they look way better than the default stuff from the 80's/90's, IMO.

[AgentRick]

How did I miss these? Anyway, did he use seats for the sides of the MPV in the first post?

Edited August 31, 2008 by AgentRick57

[BillytheKid]

Great designs. You've a instruction form that bus. Would love to make one of myself.

[Ralph_S]

Sorry guys. I had missed this thread being resurrected. I am glad you like the vehicles. I'm afraid I don't have any instructions for the red bus. I'd rather build than slave away working in ML-CAD. I do have some photographs of the difficult bits, such as the doors and the front.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/madphysicist/tags/bus/

Hope that helps.

Cheers,

Ralph

[iamded]

Wow, those are some awesome vehicles! I really love them. I still don't understand how to do cars an odd number of studs wide, but hey, I'm a Castle builder. Anyway, great job here.

~Peace

[Ralph_S]

Wow, those are some awesome vehicles! I really love them. I still don't understand how to do cars an odd number of studs wide, but hey, I'm a Castle builder. Anyway, great job here.

~Peace

Thanks. I've been building things that are an odd number of studs wide for years now, mainly because of my airplane building. It's nothing new. The seven-wide trucks aren't all that hard really. It took a little before I got the hang of five-wide cars, because space is at a premium and it creates a few issues with the radiator, for instance, but now that I've built a few they're not that hard any more.

Cheers,

Ralph

[BlueBard]

Impressive creations Ralph_S!

I really like the two first ones, specially the van I'm about to post some shots from the vehicles I'm using in a comic I'm working on so, I hope you'll like them

[MightyMegs]

Great work!

Does anyone know of any MOC instructions for a classic VW Beetle?

[Ralph_S]

Great work!

Does anyone know of any MOC instructions for a classic VW Beetle?

I presume you mean a minifig scale one? I've never seen one that looked even half-decent and haven't managed to build one that I liked either.

If you're looking for a bigger one, I've made a series of photographs of the construction of my VW Beetle Convertible.

If you want an even bigger one, LEGO make the new VW Beetle set ;-)

Cheers,

Ralph

[VBBN]

Awesome! And those buildings in your gallery are awesome as well.