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Progress: the Vic Viper that will go onto our section’s landing pad is now about 75% complete.
* Canopy installed
* Magnetic Option pods installed… and they now clutch around the fighter’s sides without wobbling around!
* Wings extended and wing fins reversed to forward swept configuration
* Rear fuselage shaping refinedI still need to refine the shaping on the detachable Options, add secondary weapons to them, refine the wing shaping, add landing struts, and then refine the finishing shaping. This VV will be finished well before November 1 at this rate, assuming I get the minor parts I now need.
Progress: the Vic Viper that will go onto our section’s landing pad is now about 75% complete.
* Canopy installed
* Magnetic Option pods installed… and they now clutch around the fighter’s sides without wobbling around!
* Wings extended and wing fins reversed to forward swept configuration
* Rear fuselage shaping refinedI still need to refine the shaping on the detachable Options, add secondary weapons to them, refine the wing shaping, add landing struts, and then refine the finishing shaping. This VV will be finished well before November 1 at this rate, assuming I get the minor parts I now need.
I’m confused. There’s been a lot of space talk…are you going to have a winter space section or are you just talking about putting space stuff on the other space table?
We’re planning to build space in the corner. We’ll add winter details as time/brick allows. Right now I’m projecting we’ll have 90% of the structures complete by the 26th and perhaps we can see about more snowification then.
I went back and read thru all the posts again to make sure I’m caught up on everything here.
I’m a little confused as to why Tim’s section isn’t adjacent to the Greg/Josh section, since Tim sez he’s gonna snowify at least part of his display. I suppose if the space guys snowify too then it’ll all be connected, but I’m not sure. For the record, I am *not* planning on snowification of any part of my section – I am looking to seeing the winter village etc, but snow building is not something I’m good at and therefore it is not something I am interesting in contributing to. I am planning on my section being green and full of plants and trees with leaves n stuff.
I MILSified my Palace Cinema tonight. All I did was put bricks around the edges in the standard MILS pattern, and then supporting bricks inside where necessary (I used a lot) to support plates to cover the whole area. I used dark blay 8×8’s for the sidewalk (even tho you can’t actually see them cause they’re covered with tiles) and several different sizes of red plate for the interior (the PC comes with a red 32×32 baseplate so that the interior ‘carpet’ is red). Crappy pics are attaced for reference.
For the rest of my area, the big limiting factor right now is actual baseplates – I haven’t actually found them all yet, but based on bricklink.com research, I only own five or so 32×32, of different colors. Did the LUG make a big baseplate purchase? I see they’re $5 on lego.com, I’d be interested in purchasing some at cost if they’re available for less than that.
I see 9V is the preferred track here, so I will be using that for my area. All my 9V track is dark gray – not dark blay – so I won’t match anybody using blay track. I am also going to attempt to convert my Horizon Express to 9V motor, although I have not done so yet.
I have a bunch of monorail stanchions I can use in my area if needed.
I’ve been allotted 16 baseplates worth of space on the layout, but I’m still only fully committed to 4 baseplates worth. I could fill up the remaining space with guys n whatnot, but if anybody else wants to move in on that space, feel free – I saw that Laura said she has buildings n stuff.
I see WP doesn’t like my big photos (I have a big monitor, yeah it’s totally awesome, I highly recommend it). So here they are in smaller format.
Another exciting update from Ben: I have successfully 9Vified my Horizon Express.
The front headlights, however, were designed for Power Function lights (which incidentally are a much more flexible system than the old 9V train lights), which are not compatible with the 9V engine. Therefore, my HE still has an IR receiver and battery box and you need to use the remote if you want to turn the headlights on. (Redesigning the HE so it can use the old 9V headlights is definitely not a project that interests me.) If the venue is brightly lit, they probably won’t be needed anyway. (If it’s dark tho, they do look pretty cool.)
But the motor is definitely 9V, so it can be powered around 9V track w/o using up precious batteries. But it also means, of course, that it can no longer travel on RC track.
The front headlights, however, were designed for Power Function lights (which incidentally are a much more flexible system than the old 9V train lights), which are not compatible with the 9V engine. Therefore, my HE still has an IR receiver and battery box and you need to use the remote if you want to turn the headlights on.
All you have to do is buy the adapter cord for 9v -> power functions. I can’t remember if you have to modify the power truck or not but mine has a cord that runs from the motor into the locomotive, into the adapter cord and to the lights.
Sweet! Thanks, I did not realize Lego made them. And they’re only $2.99. I don’t know if I’ll be able to obtain one in time for the show though.
Anyone concerned about filling space at the Greenberg display could use this LEGOLAND sign. (There is an “O” in there, but its black, so it blends in with the background.)
Bonus. Made some more progress on the Vic Viper:
* Detachable options completely redesigned to be sleeker and look more like independent craft when removed. However, I will need 7 black trapezoidal flags for their wings to open, a few 1 x 2 / 1 x 4 black brackets (which I think Dan has and can trade me), red cheese of both sizes, and some more red grilled cheese slopes.
* Railguns are now designed, but I’m encountering a rare problem: running out of room for weapons! These options take up a LOT of space, but are going to look awesome.
* Nose is also being redesigned, but I’ll need about three 3 x 4 black wedge plates. It doesn’t matter whether they have notches in the sides or not, but a single style would be preferred.This craft will fit onto the landing pad in our spacey section. I’m going to try to repurpose my budding MILS cube to join with Dan’s landing pad. It’s already on a blue baseplate, so if we can figure things out, that’s one more baseplate down.
Finally, if we can figure out some more space, I can place my radar rover too. It’s all starting to come together, and I’m interested to meet Dan today to see what we can kitbash together with the new ideas we have and unify the color selection a little better.
lol, Greg, we’ve had that legoland sign on retainer a few times but have never had to use it…think we will this time?
Ben, don’t worry – Evan’s first draft layout will certainly need to be updated with who can contribute what and rearranged to put certain sections together.
Joe – I don’t want to assume you can’t commit to the full are, but what were you thoughts on contribution? Maybe my mountain would take you can’t cover the space.
Also, what studs are the tracks on so we can line everything up? That’s kind of a key detail…
Josh, I don’t know about everybody else, but I am planning on lining up the straight track according to the pennlug standard that you can link to in the reference forum:
http://pennlug.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Ballasted-Dbl-Track-Main-Line-Instructions.pdf
i do not plan to do a complete ballast (i don’t think i have that many dark gray plates anyway) or tile it (it’s probably a personal quirk but i’m not a big fan of black against old dark gray) but after I MILS the plates, I will be using these instructions for reference for the height and alignment of the track, I can do at least two baseplates worth and I should get them done in the next several days.
Josh, I don’t know about everybody else, but I am planning on lining up the straight track according to the pennlug standard that you can link to in the reference forum:
http://pennlug.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Ballasted-Dbl-Track-Main-Line-Instructions.pdfQuestion from the idiot box: Does PennLUG’s standard jive with MILS?
I’m working on a preliminary layout plan for the North Pole and Town areas. As soon as I get that done, I will post it for review, comment, and modification.
For the Town area, can I get an idea of who is planning on contributing, what the contribution may be, and how many 32×32 baseplates is anticipated for each contribution? Thanks!
MONORAIL CIRCUIT
Dan and I did some serious planning this weekend, and we’ve tentatively decided on the placement for the monorail track: studs #9-16 from the inner edge of the baseplates (counting from the inner “hole” of the table outward).Therefore, 24 studs of space per display should be considered on each of your sections:
* 8 from the edge of the “inner” baseplate to the inner edge of the monorail circuit,
* 8 studs for the track and monorail itself and
* 8 more for any transition you want to surround the monorail
* Don’t forget the curve if it’s on your corner!CONCERNS
The monorail can be raised or lowered by 10 brick’s worth of height, lowering it to MILS height or raising it to 20 brick height if needed for clearance purposes. We discussed it and thought that each builder may want to best integrate the monorail into their section at a different height.Greg, this may affect the placement and support for the mosaic if you intend to use it. More planning may be required there.
OUR SPACE SECTION
Our section will now contain a seascape with a 43 x 43 stud landing pad with my newest starfighter on it, the 32 x 32 MILS “base” I’ve been developing, which we’re utilizing as a command station (with power station, guardhouse, and control console), a spur off the main monorail loop that will contain a space ore hauler train, and a dumping chute that leads into a fuel refinery. “Winter” is different from planet to planet.We do plan to create a transition from Tim’s and Greg’s sections, but that’ll only be a line of white slopes leading into the water, and the “ice” on our fictional planet may not be water ice at all!
We also plan to build some ore-dotted light bley sea rocks (maybe a floe or two) jutting from various locations of the section surrounded by 1 x 1 trans-clear cheese slopes and 1 x 1 trans-clear rounds for sea spray effect. So we’ll need some 1 x 1 trans-clear rounds, various slopes of bley, and I want a little of Tim’s advice for building rocks as seen in his Gandalf section of the DIG Into Reading display.
As far my little part of the build, as the Vic Viper development goes, it’s now about 90% Zaxified.
* Railguns added
* Wing profile improved
* Option construction totally reworked (and MUCH cooler looking!)
* Option secondary weapons addedSUMMARY OF PARTS NEEDED
1 x 1 trans-clear round plates (for the sea spray; we may need upwards of 100 of these; the slopes we have)
1 x 1 or 1 x 2 red cheese slopes (for the shaping of the starfighter’s Options. 8 studs worth of coverage)
1 x 2 red grilled cheese slopes (for the shaping of the starfighter’s Options. I need 6 of these to add to the ones I already have used up.)
3 x 4 black wedge plates (for the shaping of the starfighter’s nose and to make room for the front weapon. I need 4 of these.)Dan, you want to add to this based on everything we discussed?
rich or dan – can I ask you to take the time to put your monorail plans into blue brick? I don’t have a clear understanding through your text and eventually this all needs to be put together in bluebrick anyway. Please do and let me know if you have any questions.
* 8 from the edge of the “inner” baseplate to the inner edge of the monorail circuit,
* 8 studs for the track and monorail itself and
* 8 more for any transition you want to surround the monorailI get some of what you are saying, but I am unclear on details. I think sketches or photos would go a long way facilitating everyone’s understanding.
more details about set up:
you can’t begin setting up until 5pm on Friday however you’re welcome to drop materials off inside the hall anytime after noon on Friday. Anything dropped off will need to be kept off to the side (near the “Spirit of America” layout location would be optimal) until 5pm to allow vehicles to drive in and out of the hall, but if you have sections of the layout that can be put together off to the side and then moved into position then you’ll likely have the opportunity to do that well before 5:00 on Friday.
Set-up on Friday evening goes until 7:30pm and then we reopen for setup on Saturday morning at 7:30am, so you’ll have 2-1/2 hours on Friday evening and another 2-1/2 hours on Saturday morning to work on setting up the layout.
This is tight. We’re going to be a well oiled machine and will make use of any hands that can make it, I’m sure. Ask your friends to come out. In the past, we’ve taken hours of detail placing and such. I’d recommend anyone who can’t pack their display “box ready” to bring something flat to build on off to the side and then get someone to help you carry it over and slid off onto the display table. pre-staging is our only other tool here to make the deadline. as the scouts say, BE PREPARED.
more details about set up:
you can’t begin setting up until 5pm on Friday however you’re welcome to drop materials off inside the hall anytime after noon on Friday. Anything dropped off will need to be kept off to the side (near the “Spirit of America” layout location would be optimal) until 5pm to allow vehicles to drive in and out of the hall, but if you have sections of the layout that can be put together off to the side and then moved into position then you’ll likely have the opportunity to do that well before 5:00 on Friday.
Set-up on Friday evening goes until 7:30pm and then we reopen for setup on Saturday morning at 7:30am, so you’ll have 2-1/2 hours on Friday evening and another 2-1/2 hours on Saturday morning to work on setting up the layout.
I’m planning on being there around 2:00-3:00 pm to start “preliminary set up” (we may be able to get some tables set up off to the side, get table cloths on them, etc.) and work on getting my sections “display ready” (minifig placements, final details, reassembly/triage after shipping, etc.). From past experience, just getting tables into place and the tables covered can take upwards to an hour. Also, laying track is no picnic either.
A quick note/suggestion on train track. In RichLUG, we color coded our track, either with a color sticker or with model paint (I used a small dab of paint on the underside of each piece of my track). This made it extremely easy during tear down to simply divide the track by color. It also made everyone comfortable with sharing track where needed since such shared track would be easily identified during tear down and not be lost. For anyone bringing track, I recommend we adopt this. BTW, I claim red. Sorry if that is someone else’s favorite color but I got there first (about 10 years ago :-D).
Ben’s first post of the day is something I’ve thought about several times and I’ve decided maybe it’s worth mentioning: has thought been given to how we’re getting in and out of the display? As one of the older more decrepit members of the group, I don’t have a problem with crawling under a table to get in and out. Presumably the ‘short side’ would be the preferred entering and exiting point. However, I thought maybe we should make sure that that table is going to work for crawling, if it’s covered with a tablecloth, we don’t want crawling people inadverently snagging the tablecloth, pulling it off the table, and taking an entire lego display with them. That would be bad.
And also, I just thought of this, do we know how we’re being provided with power for the display? 9V controllers need to be plugged into wall sockets. If there’s sockets right there, sweet. If not, presumably we need extension cords and packing tape to make sure the public doesn’t trip over them.
Ben’s second post of the day concerns an update on my Palace Cinema, and will mostly only be of interest to people concerned with how the layout is going to connect, or anybody who thinks they might be interested in connecting modular buildings to mine. (Right now the side of the PC borders directly onto Tim’s section, but presumably that could change.)
I raised the PC by another plate in height. The logic behind this is that I put a road in front of it, and I wanted the PC sidewalk to be slightly higher than the road to create a curb (because as Lego builders it’s important for us to put lots of effort into details that nobody will ever notice).
Crappy pic attached. What you’re seeing is: on the left is the Palace Cinema. The original red baseplate is barely visible, then a layer of red bricks that’s part of the MILS standard, then a layer of light blay plates giving the extra height, then the red and dark blay plates completing the MILS standard. on the right is the road, it’s 8-wide black tile, and there’s a matching curb on the other side. So anybody who wants to continue the road can as well. (Beyond that is uncompleted area.)
You can also see the brown 1×2 brick with the hole for pegging it to the next building, which is part of the set and part of the moldular building standard. If you’re putting a modular building next to mine and connecting it, you’d need that extra plate to make sure the peg connection lines up. However, that peg connection might not even be necessary, now that I’ve MILSed several plates and connected them, I’ve discovered that it’s quite solid construction.
Also, I MILSed six plates, arranged in a 2×3 area. The PC is in the third row back from the front, so anybody wishing to connect would need their buildings that far back. The first row is train track, the second row is empty space and the road, and the third row is the PC. The fourth row is currently unMILSed but needs to be clear enough for the monorail track to pass through.
Incidentally, I still have a lot of work to do filling out the remaining space on the six plates, so as of right now I don’t plan on MILSing anymore baseplates until I’m caught up on these.
I’ve drawn up a crude sketch in paint (serious family issue/no time to dl/install/learn blue brick). Let me know if you have questions.
Spec:
Track center 12 studs from inner (LUG area facing) baseplate edge.
8 stud wide right-of-way for monorail.
Monorail height is variable (planning for 10 bricks).So the trains are to run close to the edge that is furthest from the public, ie. in the background?
I believe Dan is mapping out the monorail path which appears to run nearest the center (furthest from the public). The trains will generally run on the outside edge nearest the public.
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