@playingwithechoes
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Just in case, there’s a case for a case to safely encase, I might be interested.
I have steel related train rolling stock that could be in a static display relevant to the steel and train history there. Torpedo car, slag car, coil car, etc, and my beautiful PRR Mountain 4-8-2 locomotive that would all look great on shelves.
I also have my own vehicle mocs like unusual cars and supercars in Speed Champion size (Lambos, Bugatti, Cizeta, Mitsuoka etc.), a collection of the recent F1 speed champion cars, and I have the giant Lamborghini Sian, Bugatti Chiron, and Ferrari Daytona UCS technic sets as well as the giant Delorean and Lamborghini Countach for 80’s retrowave. So if you need cars, I may be the guy.
However, anything I’d consider lending would need to be documented and locked behind glass because the Waterfront does have known problem of vandals and thievery and these are very expensive sets and MOCs, some of which may be irreplaceable in today’s market. Does DB have insurance to cover things loaned on display? Do we do that in general with other displays like at the Carnegie Science Center?
Hi Dan. That’s a neat looking system! Reminds me of the Bionicle and older Znap series. We look forward to seeing it in person at an upcoming event. Over in Lego train world (which is my main area of work), 3d printers have done a lot to help the hobby. I know one guy that used a 3d printer to make real functional knuckle type connectors that fit on Lego trains. So keep up the development. There are some Bionicle fans here who may certainly be glad to help you with feedback.
M.P.Lynes
Count on a party of three from me and my family again. If anything changes let me know. I’m assuming the same place and room again. 🙂
Finally built them. Here’s three Diablos, which I recently turned into an instruction book with the option to turn the base chassis into either the standard, SV, or Roadster concept.
Welcome to the LUG and glad to meet you at the watch party. (I was the guy in the Lego Octan shirt.)
PS. Kopaka is the best, because he’s the COOLEST bionicle. Hehehe
Hi Mark,
I like the idea of the Pittsburgh city with trains. You might want to consider foreshortening perspective techniques if you want to add functional Lego trains to your city scape diorama. Lego trains are generally larger 6w and 8w builds whereas the city builds you see like Bob’s are Microscale. So an old trick from model trains when combining things of different scales is building the big stuff up front and then putting the smaller scale stuff in the background like it’s on the distant horizon. So maybe something like a Station Square platform with downtown seen from across the river for an idea.
There’s also non-motorized micro scale trains people make with Lego too, that are 1 stud wide which would work within the microscale city footprint. There’s plenty of ways to do with minifigure rollerskate parts, bricks with studs on sides, and brackets. I’ve heard some people use magnets to make them go with a chainlink under the city baseplates and I’ve also heard some companies like Brick Track offer tile parts with tracks inked on that might be helpful at microscale.
You can count on three from me and my family members that will be attending the watch party. We will show up around 7.
I’ve swapped out a lot of wires from the 9v track clip parts. I used to buy some off of Ebay for less because they were cracked and frayed wires. Now they’re expensive, even when so worn.
So what Lego did back in the day was a friction joint. The wires were held in place with pressure so when the 2×2 brick and track bricks are taken apart, we don’t necessarily achieve the same pressure to maintain electrical conductivity. Sometimes, they even come loose inside the part over time.
So a little drop of solder helps.
I’ve disassembled mine and removed the old wires. I then use a wire on each half of the 2×2 plate and solder into the metal of one stud from underneath to fix the wire permanently. Just a drop and very quickly because you don’t want to damage the plastic stud beyond the metal plate inside. Too long and you’ll warp the 2×2 studs. Also, don’t accidentally solder both wires to the same “half” as you’ll see there’s two metal plates.
Same thing for the bricks that connect to the track. At this point, you can either make the wires equal length or you can make uneven like the stock wire. Take a look at your 9v speed regulator placed between you and the track With the control dial facing you, as if you were using it right now. The right side of the 2×2 electrical plate contact goes to the farther rail, the left side goes to the rail closer to you. That’s how my wire clip parts worked before I replaced the wires and I kept that same “polarity” to avoid conflicting currents in my track layouts.
Solder the wires on the bricks that connect to the track and close the bricks back up. They should work. You can use a multimeter to check that current is going through.
As for wires, the 9v regulator cranks out something like 12 volts and 2 amps max. So a 36v 5amp wire would be more than sufficient and can be found on Amazon in spools of different colors if you want to color code your track layout.In case anyone missed my April 1st video…. (turn sound on!)
Consist of Doom by Phoenix Train WorksThanks. I like Lego’s take on the Countach so much that I got two. I built the second one in black with a periscope depression on the roof to make it look like the first gen one-off that my protagonist drives in my book “Playing with Echoes.”
Diablo is definitely how a supercar should look. Now almost everything in the current supercar world is covered in vents and trippy 3d printed parts to look aggressively angry, especially boutique cars. Makes it difficult to replicate in Lego without stickers, much less capture an overall form that is unique and visually identifiable. The XJ220 was easier to replicate in Lego and that thing is all curves. LOL
Personally, I think the Diablo GTR would make an excellent Speed Champion set. I’m still tinkering on it (such as detailed engine bay and interior) but as a standalone, it would be one awesome ride, and reason for Lego to make that windscreen part with printed yellow window frame. At the very least, I plan on making an instruction book for the Diablo with a “pick your own ending” kind of layout where one can finish the base build as any of the variants.
I want to thank everyone for the pleasure of partaking in this show with you. I was more than happy to provide trains, rolling stock and that Behemoth Bascule Bridge. Even after extensive testing of the bridge at home, structurally, mechanically, and electronically, I was still excited and surprised to see it working at the show for the first time. My only regret is that I forget to get a pen so everyone can sign the banner and give it to Josh as a momento on Sunday. Good news is that on Sunday, the bridge was easily dismantled into three sections and cleared out of the way for everyone else to do their teardowns within ten minutes. Trains and cars were likewise collected in a quick fashion for the MILS crew to get to their modules.
As for lessons learned for future shows, I think the Powerowl AAAs will need to be replaced with Enerloop AAAs to extend run time to well over an hour. Sure, constant battery changes comes with the territory of running massive trains and large rollingstock pieces on standard PF motors and battery boxes, but I can try to help alleviate some of that by looking at that brand. And a special thanks to Bob and Josh for allowing me to use the LUG’s rechargeable PF boxes. Those helped a lot when Powerowl needed more time on the chargers. On the plus side, we figured out the Big Boy’s motors by running that in reverse on Sunday. It’s nothing wrong with the train’s technic drivetrain during inspection but rather the L motors had worn out going one direction for years on end, LOL. The train is designed for easy service repair so I’ll pick up a couple new L motors, put them on the internal mounts, and she’ll be running great again like the Challenger train.
As for the Bridge, I may tweak some design aspects to increase angle of lift to go past the usual 45 that this style of bridge does, but I was certainly pleased with how much load it carried without the slightest bend in the frame. It lifted and raised with only one L motor. So it will certainly be back for the next HG show. 🙂
And I may be able to bring more trains next time, given that this hired driver of mine has the room in his SUV for more boxes. So we can have more than just two locomotives to switch about on the layout, along with the other idea Josh has mentioned.
Thanks everyone again for coming together and producing this amazing massive display. The skyscrapers, cranes, city, bridge, and trains from where I staffed were all phenomenal, as well the huge array of awesome world MOCs on the other half of the layout. I’ll be working on that video tour of everything soon. Can’t wait for next year. 🙂
So for printing on 2×2 tiles, look up Million Prints. They have no minimum order and Marc should have a ton of 2×2 tiles in white or black. Ask for an estimate based on a quantity you’d like and see about reduced cost for bulk orders. Tell him Phoenix Train Works recommended him to you. He printed my livery for the Big Boy, Challenger, Living Legend, PRR Mountain, and Santa Fe GP35 with UV ink so it lasts for years. Really good work and a determination to keep clients happy. (He even made a 3d jig to hold the Santa Fe nose parts for direct printing.)
If you guys like, I could also look into replicating the LUG logo on a coin that could be 3d printed by others en masse in solid yellow resin or filament. I have afterhours access to Sketchup and Ruby plugin that checks models being exported as STL files.
For reference if anyone wants to build in Lego nuclear energy related things as part of Pittsburgh’s history. Atom smasher and first commercial power plant- sound like something @carlsonf might be interested in.
Of course, I keep building the educational train models that helped that part of the STEM industry in keeping the lights on.
Glad to hear no trouble, @rcgrier3406. Keep me posted.
I plan on bringing the vintage Circus Train on Saturday to have that running for a while as I dust out the Big Boy internal drive train.
@joshhall, I’d like to borrow the RC race car and controller again Saturday morning to do a reshoot of a scene for the LUG compilation vid, if possible. 🙂
