MOCs: minifig scale American vehicles

[Ralph_S]

It's been a while since I last built some minifig scale vehicles and while most of my previous models were British, for a new project that I'm working on, I've started building a few American vehicles. The first two are a Fire Department Ambulance and a reefer truck (based on a model built for LEGOLand shown in The Ultimate LEGO Book)

The other two vehicles I've built are a taxi and a copcar based on a common design for a generic US four door sedan (think Ford Crown Victoria meets Chevrolet Impala)

I'm certain to build a few more in the next weeks including an airport shuttle bus, a school bus, a stretched limo and a pickup truck.

Cheers,

Ralph

Edited July 7, 2009 by Ralph_S

[BlueBard]

Amazing vehicles as usual RalphS! The Fire Dpt. ambulance is really impressive

Edited July 5, 2009 by BlueBard

[Tom Bricks]

That blue truck is outstanding. Great build for Independence day.

[ACCURATEin]

You are a superb lego vehicle builder!

Your ambulance design is superior to mine due to the functionality of the rear and side door.

I like the idea for the side mirrors on the taxi and police car.

[Ralph_S]

Thanks guys. I didn't have Independence Day in mind and I actually completed it a few weeks ago. Most of the minifig scale vehicles I've built so far were European, but since I am working on a larger project that involves some typical American scenes, these vehicles had to be American as well. For the copcar and the taxi it's mainly the colour scheme that makes them look American, for the trucks it's also the shape.

Cheers,

Ralph

[Modulex Guy]

Ralph, I've seen most of your models on Flickr.

Your cars were a bit of inspiration for some of the cars I built for my layout!

I especially like your cars in 5 wide! like the Renault you have on Flickr.

Great work!

[Bartram]

Amazing work, Ralph. I really love how you've put so much detail into each vehicle. Way to go!

[Ralph_S]

I normally wouldn't revive an older topic, but rather than starting a new one I've decided to add my latest vehicles here. I've continued building American vehicles. The latest four are an SUV, pickup truck, sportscar and school bus.

(photos are links to flickr)

Cheers,

Ralph

[Rick]

Five-wide goodness. My favorite is the pick-up (is that a Ford logo?). I like how you've separated the back of the pick-up by half a stud.

[LadyLego]

I really love the taxi! Reminds me of New York City!

I like the mustang, too.

Edited July 21, 2009 by LadyLego

[Derek]

Wow! Those 4 and 5 wide cars are nothing short of amazing! I love the use of the smaller wheels, I always thought the typical City wheels were chunky and obnoxious. You made these cars look realistic and compact, yet remain in scale with the minfigures! Great work!

[Davey]

I'm loving the schoolbus, Ralph! Great way to do the door and I love the shape of the front. I'm also a big fan of the yellow pickup truck. It reminds me of the Jeep pickup that Helen Hunt drove in the movie 'Twister'. Very cool stuff here!

-Dave

ToT-LUG

[ACCURATEin]

The school bus is highly accurate! I've been working on one as well...it's more along the lines of a modified bus from the city corner set.

Good work once again!

[Dennimator]

Ralph, wonderful MOCs, as always.

That school bus is wonderful, but somehow it looks.. a little too big, compared to your other cars. However that may just be me, because I use to be quite picky about sizes, even a 1 plate too high vehicle can mess it all up for me, making me rebuild it in order to make it fit with my other vehicles. Still, it looks really good.

That blue/white sportscar..

Wonderful, definately one of my favourites, together with your ambulance and dark red car (btw, thank you for the in-build pics ). How did you connect the front light part to the rest of the car?

The "detachable roof" is however a bit blocky, did you try using one of these? If you did; how did it look?

I usually don´t really like the look of these wheels (makes a MOC look more <insert that tiresome argument> IMO), although your MOCs (almost ) make then look good.

TLG really shold make other wheels in the same size though..

Keep up the good work, you have really inspired me and helped me to get a better 5/7-wide car builder. Thanks to your tips, advice and your MOCs´ tricks and features I have went from this:

To this:

...Thank you. *runs away to hide in the corner*

Edited July 22, 2009 by Dennimator

[Ralph_S]

Wow. Thanks for all the comments. I appreciate it.

Five-wide goodness. My favorite is the pick-up (is that a Ford logo?). I like how you've separated the back of the pick-up by half a stud.

My main inspiration for the pickup truck was the Ford F150, so you could see the dark blue plate as a Ford logo. I felt it was important to have some space between the cab and the bed, since on most pickup trucks they are separate.

I really love the taxi! Reminds me of New York City!

I like the mustang, too.

Thank you. The taxi indeed is supposed to look like the ones in Newy York, although many American cities have at least one yellow cab company.

Wow! Those 4 and 5 wide cars are nothing short of amazing! I love the use of the smaller wheels, I always thought the typical City wheels were chunky and obnoxious. You made these cars look realistic and compact, yet remain in scale with the minfigures! Great work!

Thanks. The wheels that I am using may actually be a bit too small, but I simply can't stand the fact that in the LEGO sets cars, pickup trucks and commercial trucks all use the same size wheels, which makes the wheels on the trucks look a bit small (usually) and the wheels on the cars much too big. I've been trying very hard to make these cars look realistic despite being small enough to use them in a city layout with figures around them, so I'm really happy with your comment.

I'm loving the schoolbus, Ralph! Great way to do the door and I love the shape of the front. I'm also a big fan of the yellow pickup truck. It reminds me of the Jeep pickup that Helen Hunt drove in the movie 'Twister'. Very cool stuff here!

-Dave

ToT-LUG

It's been ages since I saw that picture, although oddly enough I remember them also using a red Dodge Ram pickup truck. That might be a fun build too.

The school bus is highly accurate! I've been working on one as well...it's more along the lines of a modified bus from the city corner set.

Good work once again!

I think the new city bus would make a fairly good base for a European school bus. Here in the UK more and more of them are painted yellow and they typically aren't any different in shape or size to a normal bus. For me a classic American schoolbus has a different shape, though, and since I wanted it to recognisably be American, that's the shape I chose.

Ralph, wonderful MOCs, as always.

That school bus is wonderful, but somehow it looks.. a little too big, compared to your other cars. However that may just be me, because I use to be quite picky about sizes, even a 1 plate too high vehicle can mess it all up for me, making me rebuild it in order to make it fit with my other vehicles. Still, it looks really good.

I too am very picky when it comes to scale, so I checked the dimensions of a schoolbus before building mine. These are the dimensions I found for a large school bus

Length: 40ft 33 studs

Width: 8.5ft 7 studs

Height: 11ft 9 studs

My model possibly is one plate too high, but I think that is quite acceptable and otherwise it is spot on. Removing a plate would be very tricky because of the size of the windscreen and the SNOT work below it.

That blue/white sportscar..

Wonderful, definately one of my favourites, together with your ambulance and dark red car (btw, thank you for the in-build pics ). How did you connect the front light part to the rest of the car?

The "detachable roof" is however a bit blocky, did you try using one of these? If you did; how did it look?

I'm not sure which front you are referring to? Is it the sports car? The lights, the front bumper and the radiator are all mounted on a 2x2 and a 2x3 plate side by side. They're held onto the car using technic bricks and technic half pins. Very simple.

I haven't tried using one of those curved parts. I have a fair few of those in black and in dark green (courtesy of an Emerald Knight set), but none in yellow. Actually, according to peeron they don't exist in yellow

I usually don´t really like the look of these wheels (makes a MOC look more <insert that tiresome argument> IMO), although your MOCs (almost ) make then look good.

TLG really shold make other wheels in the same size though..

I'm no big fan of the wheels either, but they'll have to make do. On thing that LEGO tend to do with them that I don't like is allowing them to stick out of the sides of the cars -mainly on their smaller cars. It looks awful, which is part of the reason I use smaller ones on my sportcars and sedans.

I can clearly see that over time building five-wides has become easier for you. Once you get the hang of it, it really isn't that hard. All it takes is lots of small plates as well as jumper plates

Cheers,

Ralph

[Dennimator]

I'm not sure which front you are referring to? Is it the sports car? The lights, the front bumper and the radiator are all mounted on a 2x2 and a 2x3 plate side by side. They're held onto the car using technic bricks and technic half pins. Very simple.

I haven't tried using one of those curved parts. I have a fair few of those in black and in dark green (courtesy of an Emerald Knight set), but none in yellow. Actually, according to peeron they don't exist in yellow

Yeah, the sports car.

Yellow? It´s black in your pic!

Btw, they do exist in yellow, from the new 7641 set. Probably just not inventoried.

Edited July 22, 2009 by Dennimator

[Ralph_S]

Yeah, the sports car.

Yellow? It´s black in your pic!

Btw, they do exist in yellow, from the new 7641 set. Probably just not inventoried.

Now I see what you mean. I thought you mean the roof of the bus (which is yellow), but you mean the convertible's roof. Sorry, my mistake.

Indeed, the city corner hasn't been inventoried yet on peeron, but bricklink does have it. I've trid a black on instead of the plate and tile contraption I have now and can't really decide what I like more.

Cheers,

Ralph

[Milan]

That bus is awesome. Like all of your models!

[Ralph_S]

That bus is awesome. Like all of your models!

Thank you. I collection of American vehicles just wouldn't be complete without one IMO.

I've produced a few more in the last few days:

an airport Shuttle bus (the type of vehicle often used to travel from the airport to a hotel and back)

a 'fifties convertible -a bit of an experiment to see whether I could pull off the look of one of these in a five-wide-

and, finally, a picture of the entire collection (including a few that I haven't posted separately)

Cheers,

Ralph

[Ratshot]

These cars are nothing short of amazing.

Some of the details are stunning. The air port shuttle bus is my personall favorite, closely followed by the school bus

Edited July 26, 2009 by Ratshot

[Rick]

These last two are great again. I always meant to try one of those door techniques (the sliding door idea you posted on flickr is also really cool). And if there's one type of car suitable for 5-wide then it's these 50s US cars. Brilliant!

[Ralph_S]

These cars are nothing short of amazing.

Some of the details are stunning. The air port shuttle bus is my personall favorite, closely followed by the school bus

Thanks. The school bus is definitely one of my favourites too. I had a lot of fun building it and was very happy with the result. The airport shuttle bus became a far more complicated build than I had planned. I really had no intention of spending as much time on it as I did, but as I was tinkering with it I got a little carried away.

These last two are great again. I always meant to try one of those door techniques (the sliding door idea you posted on flickr is also really cool). And if there's one type of car suitable for 5-wide then it's these 50s US cars. Brilliant!

Thanks. I was unsure whether I could do justice to a classic American car on this scale. I think that part of what makes it work is that I was able to do it in medium blue -thanks to a few 1x1 tiles in medium blue.

I had the idea for the sliding doors ages ago and first used it on a helicopter. I was very happy to realise that it works as well on these small vehicles. It works even better because the overall size of the door is smaller. The techniques and ideas I developed whilst building airplanes and helicopters come in very handy with this sort of stuff. What I've been trying to do with all of my minifig scale cars is to raise the bar a bit by increasing the level of detail beyond that which LEGO achieves in their sets.

Cheers,

Ralph

Edited July 26, 2009 by Ralph_S

[Milan]

The Airport Shuttle bus... whoa

[Ralph_S]

Rather than starting a new thread each and every time I crank out a new vehicle I've decided to add them here.

A few days ago I finished building an ice cream van. I hadn't seen the one built by Bluebard at the time BTW.

I also built a WW-II US Army fuel tanker.

As usual the pictures are links to flickr, where more pictures of each vehicle can also be found.

Cheers,

Ralph