TSATS: Technic Water Strider

[Rodeown]

Words cannot express how impressed i am with this strider, it actually looks like a real one and it "WORKS"

I really hope you win the contest as this is just awesome.

[Splat]

Words cannot express how impressed i am with this strider, it actually looks like a real one and it "WORKS"

I really hope you win the contest as this is just awesome.

Thanks Rodeown. There are many great entries in the competition (including yours), so I think the voting will be close... good luck to all.

[maundythursday]

nice entry. great approach with the contest, i really like to see it moving.

[Splat]

nice entry. great approach with the contest, i really like to see it moving.

Thanks maundythursday

I sent Blakbird a copy of my Water Strider that I pieced together in MLCad, and he was kind enough to weave his rendering magic and create a fantastic looking picture for me, as well as his signature revolving GIF

Thanks again Blakbird

I have also uploaded a few renders that I made (that don't look anywhere near as good as Blakbird's work), and they can be found in my Brickshelf folder once moderated.

If only you could get all the panels and pieces in these other colours!

PS. I'm still trying to piece together the instructions, but they are taking a bit longer than I expected. I definitely have a new-found respect for everyone that takes the time to create instructions for their MOCs.

Edited April 10, 2013 by Splat

[nychase]

PS. I'm still trying to piece together the instructions, but they are taking a bit longer than I expected. I definitely have a new-found respect for everyone that takes the time to create instructions for their MOCs.

They will be greatly appreciated! A wonderful small scale model that everyone will love to build.

[_techniclego55_]

One Word: AWESOME !!!!

[Splat]

I have (finally) completed the instructions for my Water Strider, and have submitted my MOC to Rebrickable:

 www.rebrickable.com/mocs/slfroden/technic-water-strider

The Rebrickable page has a link to a high quality PDF version of the instructions (about 18.5MB).

If you would rather view the instructions as individual pages (images), they can be found in my BrickShelf folder:

 www.brickshelf.com/gallery/slfroden/TechnicWaterStrider/Instructions

The BrickShelf images aren't as high quality as the PDF, but still easily readable.

• There are 30 pages in the instructions
• There are 44 steps, with a few small sub-steps along the way
• There are 277 pieces (65 unique) in my Water Strider
• There is a full parts list on Rebrickable, or on the last page of the instructions.

This is the first time that I have created such detailed instructions, and as mentioned previously, it took a lot longer than I expected. I tried get them looking like official Lego instructions, although I know that there are a few areas don't quite comply. The only thing that I'm not 100% happy with is that it is a bit difficult to distinguish the pieces in some steps due to all of the black pieces. It does help if you zoom in a bit so that you can see the outline of the pieces a bit better.

If anyone spots any mistakes in my instructions, or has any comments or feedback regarding the quality of the instructions that may help me improve them in the future, please let me know.

If anyone decides to build my Water Strider (with or without modifications), all I ask is that you post a picture or two in this thread. Thanks

Edited December 2, 2017 by Splat
Fixed missing link after forum upgrade.

[Lipko]

Very good instructions, looks professional!

But you accidentally inserted steps 6-7 instead of steps 27-28 in the brickshelf gallery.

[Splat]

Very good instructions, looks professional!

But you accidentally inserted steps 6-7 instead of steps 27-28 in the brickshelf gallery.

Thanks Lipko. I knew that I would make a mistake somewhere

I have uploaded the correct file to Brickshelf, but it means that the folder will have to be moderated again, so the links in my post above will be broken for a little while.

For now you can get to the instructions using the deep links:

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/slfroden/TechnicWaterStrider/Instructions/00000001.jpg

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/slfroden/TechnicWaterStrider/Instructions/00000002.jpg

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/slfroden/TechnicWaterStrider/Instructions/00000003.jpg

...

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/slfroden/TechnicWaterStrider/Instructions/00000030.jpg

[nychase]

Talk about a financially accessible model. For those who are curious the model has a 6 month value of just at 50 dollars. This of course assume you change the 6x6 dish to dark grey instead of dbg (thank you millennium falcon). I applaud such creativity for such little rebuild cost.

I am guessing your first guy is about to have alot of friends in the water.

[vmln8r]

Really nice work. Could you explain how you made such wonderful instructions?

[Blakbird]

These instructions are of incredibly high quality and you completed them in record time. Thank you so much for the work you put into them. I know I am going to build one!

[timslegos]

Awesome instructions, i might build one to .

tim

[Splat]

On 5/16/2012 at 1:12 AM, nychase said:

This of course assume you change the 6x6 dish to dark grey instead of dbg (thank you millennium falcon).

Wow, I didn't realise that that DBG 6x6 Dish cost that much! I don't have the 4504 Millennium Falcon, and I wouldn't have paid the asking price on Bricklink, so I have no idea where I got this piece from (I have four of them). I must have gotten it in a PAB order at some stage. I added the DBG 6x6 Dish for two reasons:

1. I didn't have a black 6x6 Dish, and
2. the model was getting too black, and it needed just a touch of a different colour

If you don't have a black or DBG 6x6 Dish, perhaps another colour would also provide a nice contrast. Perhaps Dark Green, Dark Red, or LBG.

I think this MOC can also be made out of red panels, or a combination of colours (eg. LBG on the larger outer panels, and black on the smaller inner panels), and this might bring the price down too.

On 5/16/2012 at 4:07 AM, VMLN8R said:

Really nice work. Could you explain how you made such wonderful instructions?

Thanks VMLN8R I think I made the instructions the hard way! Here is the basic process that I followed:

1. I recreated the model in MLCad (this is the version that Blakbird used to create his renders for me).
2. Unfortunately that version of the file didn't lend itself to creating instructions too easily, so I totally recreated the MLCad file again, using three (sometimes more) sub-models per instruction step. The first contained the pieces from all of the previous steps, the second contained the new pieces in their 'exploded' view, and the third contained the new pieces in their final position. In total there were about 150 sub-models.
3. I was planning to use LPub, but it kept crashing on me, and I couldn't work out why. 
4. Instead, I used LDView to render snapshots and save each step manually. One tip here is that the Lego instructions tend to use the same scale all the way through their instructions. In LDView, specify your latitude/longitude, but also specify your distance and keep the distance consistent all the way through, and don't use the Zoom To Fit option when saving the snapshot. I also set my Field of View (in the preferences) to be 0.1 which gets rid of (most of) the perspective. I saved each step (and each sub-step) as a large PNG file with a transparent background.
5. I created a separate MLCad file that just had the pieces laid out to use for the piece call-outs and parts list page, and again rendered these in LDView.
6. Once I had all of these images, I used Adobe Illustrator to manually layout each page one at a time. Illustrator was also used to manually add the piece call-outs, and insert all of the arrows and beam/axle/panel numbers, and the 1:1 images. I estimate that it took about one hour per page to lay out.
7. Then I saved each page as a JPG (for Brickshelf) and each page as a PDF, and then combined the PDF pages into one single PDF document (for Rebrickable).

Because each step was done manually, it took quite a while, and I was working with some fairly large Illustrator files. I still want to get LPub working for future instructions though, which should automate much of this process. If you have any other questions about this process, just ask...

On 5/16/2012 at 4:16 AM, Blakbird said:

These instructions are of incredibly high quality and you completed them in record time. Thank you so much for the work you put into them. I know I am going to build one!

Thanks Blakbird. I'm not sure about the 'record time' though It still took a about three weeks since I promised to create the instructions. And there were only 277 pieces in my model. I can't imagine how long it took you to create the instructions for Crowkiller's Vampire GT that has 1925 pieces.

On 5/16/2012 at 7:45 AM, timr said:

Awesome instructions, i might build one to .

Please do. As mentioned by nychase, there isn't anything too exotic in this model, so you might already have most or all of the pieces.

Thanks again guys

Edited December 15, 2017 by Splat

[vmln8r]

Aha. Thanks for explaining the process in such detail. I tried a similar thing, but used LDD screenshots. Clearly, LDView produces better results; it's a shame that the conversion process from LDD isn't straightforward.

[grohl]

Thank you for great instructions of a brilliant model.

Edited May 17, 2012 by grohl

[zskylar]

This was a fun build. But I must have made an error as the drive pieces cannot perform a full cycle without stalling. Attached is a jpg of the strider body- can someone spot what is wrong?

Edited August 27, 2012 by zskylar

[allanp]

Welcome to Eurobricks

You could just post the pictures here, then you will have many eyes willing to help.

[parda]

Epic contribution, thanks a lot for your work!!

[Splat]

This was a fun build. But I must have made an error as the drive pieces cannot perform a full cycle. Is there a way I could email you a jpg and maybe you can spot what is wrong?

Hi zskylar, welcome to Eurobricks, and I'm glad you had fun building my water strider.

As allanp mentioned if you can upload a photo to the internet, and then post the picture in this thread we can all take a look and see if we can identify the problem (and I'd love to see a photo of someone else building my creations). Try creating a Brickshelf account or Flickr account (both free), and when creating a post use the 'image' icon to insert the photo into the post. There are a lot of useful tutorials here.

Without seeing a photo, I can only guess that you might have some of the pieces oriented the wrong way around. Pay special attention to Step 9 and Step 35 of the instructions where the Technic, Liftarm 1 x 2 Thick with Pin Hole and Axle Hole are added.

(Click images to enlarge)

Also, as the main mechanism in my water strider is based on Sariel's Octopod design, the photos on his website may also help (link).

Let us know how you go...

Epic contribution, thanks a lot for your work!!

Thanks parda

Edited April 10, 2013 by Splat

[zskylar]

I have attached a picture to my original post. Can you spot the error? PS: The yellow pieces will have to be painted.

[Alasdair Ryan]

This was a fun build. But I must have made an error as the drive pieces cannot perform a full cycle without stalling- can someone spot what is wrong?

Oh a game.........am not very good at games but I will guess you put a leg back to front.

[zskylar]

After carefully checking the instructions, I see where my error was. Wrong pivot point for the 3X3 L arm. Thanks for the help!

[Splat]

After carefully checking the instructions, I see where my error was. Wrong pivot point for the 3X3 L arm. Thanks for the help!

Thanks for posting the photo. It looks like you solved the problem yourself

As you mentioned, the pivot point for the 3x3 L liftarm was in the wrong place - it needs to be through the outer-most hole.

Enjoy

[Nvolar]

I'd seen this model before but i didn't realize that it actually moved as well. Thx for the instructions. Another model on my To Build list.