Texbrick blog

I started this in April 2010, worked on it for a short while, then stopped building.

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Around the new year, I started up again and made significant progress. The main engine is pretty much done, except for some minor things and some “greebling” to be done. I also ran out of a few parts and I’m waiting for a Bricklink order to come in.

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I just started on the tender this past weekend. I’m working out the details of the wheels and linkages between wheel groups.

To recap: the engine is a model of Union Pacific’s 844 (4-8-4). It uses four geared 9V motors (pre-Power Functions), one for each driver set. The drivers are XL BBB (Big Ben Bricks).

It will be controlled by a Power Functions receiver and battery pack. Those will be housed in the tender.

I’m hoping to get this finished in a few weeks.

Well, tree as in one tree, really There will be more to come.

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I took the time to put together a tree with loads of flex tube. There is a single, long piece down the shaft (trunk) of the tree (the “trunk” is made of 2×2 round, brown bricks). There are four leaf pieces captured between every 2×2 brick, but then each leaf piece has a second piece connected to form a branch. There is a very short piece of flex tube at every one of these junctions between leaf pieces.

The problem with trees like this has always been that the branch leaf pieces do not stay connected. Any handling or vibration tends to knock them loose. When you pull something like this out of storage, there’s usually several dozen leaf pieces in the bottom of the bin.

The flex tube seems to fix this issue. I’ve let my kids handle the tree, and not a single leaf piece has fallen off.

Sandvik LH209L by Marek Markiewicz

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(image © Marek Markiewicz)

You don’t often see mining equipment MOC’d with LEGO. This beast is tough looking. I like the old, solid, large Technic tires.

Be sure to dig back into his other pages for his excellent Sandvik LH517L MOC.

US Truck 3 by Ingmar Spijkhoven

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(image © Ingmar Spijkhoven)

I love the tough look of the thing. Very well done! This reminds me of some of the great MOCs from builders years ago on Lugnet, like Dennis Bosman.

Caterpillar 772 Dump Truck by Richard Brown

Digging back into Richard Brown’s photos on Flickr, I found many other great creations.

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(image © Richard Brown)

Check out Richard’s photostream for more!

Komatsu PC5500 Supershovel by Richard Brown

It didn’t take long for me to come across something really cool This popped up this morning on Flickr.

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(image © Richard Brown )

Things That I Like:

The look. Richard did very well and achieved his goal, IMO. This does look very nice.

I like the cylinders, despite them being non-functional. He stated, “I toyed with the idea of using the Pneumatic rams but they didn’t look as good, as I was going for realism rather than function.“. I somewhat agree here, but my own preference would be to compromise on the looks a little bit and go with the pneumatics so that the MOC would be functional.

I love the dark gray (bley) and yellow color scheme. IMO, they are the perfect two colors for large equipment

The scale. It’s about minifig scale, and makes for a nice-sized model. Not tool large but not too small either.

Manitowoc 4600 Dragline by Emilus.

Note: this is the first in, hopefully, a long series of blog posts that will feature the creations of other people. My previous blog post explains this, but I simply want to feature MOCs that have attracted my attention and that I feel are worth sharing (and remembering).

Click to view Brickshelf gallery
(image © Emilus)

It’s been a long while since I’ve seen a MOC like this that could be classified entirely into the Technic theme. It has great detail but also really great functionality.

NOTE: If you step back into Emilus’ Brickshelf galleries, there’s a sister folder for this model titled “WIP” (work in progress). There are some detail shots of the inner workings of this model.

Things That I Like:

The functionality. It appears to be entirely motorized and controlled by PF (power functions). That should make it fun to play with, er… use

The color. That’s a lot of yellow Technic right there. I like it!

Scale. There’s just something right about the Technic figure scale. And I like that there are a few Technic figs thrown in.

I’ve always been a fan of Manitowoc crawler based cranes (and draglines). I think they are simple, basic designs that translate well into a model. I like the choice of of the 4600 dragline to model.

The boom looks a bit rough, but I really like how it’s all mostly yellow. The constant color throughout its design really makes it look nice.

The turntable is pretty good! It’s a fairly compact design that uses rollers. It looks like it would function quite well.

I get to announce a new MOC* about once every ice age (give or take). Since having kids and also taking a serious interest in photography, the time available to me for building is something like a quarter, or less, of what it used to be. (Not that I’m complaining. I wouldn’t trade my kids (or my cameras) for anything )

* MOC: my own creation, a model NOT built from instructions produced by LEGO or any other source, i.e. something of my own design that is unique.

I thought I would start a series of posts titled OPC (Other People’s Creations). The purpose of this is to simply call attention to some MOC that I’ve seen that has attracted my attention and that I believe is worth sharing.

I’ll probably keep it in a Technic/ModelTeam theme, but I also like a whole variety of other stuff, like trains, so I won’t confine myself to any one or two themes.

The real purpose of this is to keep me active in the online LEGO fan community. Sometimes I go for months without setting virtual “foot” into an AFOL related website, and I miss out on good stuff and inspiring MOCs.

Keep an eye out for an OPC post soon!

A belated Happy New Year to you all! There are several things I’d like to announce and highlight:

Brick Fiesta: The first ever AFOL (adult fan of LEGO®) convention in the southern US is coming soon. Brick Fiesta will be held in Austin, Texas starting on June 30, 2011 and will run through July 3. TexLUG (the Texas LEGO® Users Group; my home-state LUG) is presenting this event. I will be there as a displayer of MOCs and also as a volunteer to help with the convention.

My Building Desk: The modifications and “upgrades” (that I previously mentioned) are done. I worked on it slowly through December, particularly during the Christmas break, but it’s finally complete.

And it’s awesome. I finally have an efficient, well organized build area. And no photos I’ll get some up soon.

Various Projects: Seems like I always have multiple projects sitting around waiting for completion. Well, I decided to scrap some and finally pick up old ones and work on them.

• Crane Project: This started years ago as a study of some new ideas on heavy-duty designs for large cranes. I’ve decided to scrap the turntable design completely (instead of just revising it) and start a new one. This will be a long-term project that may not get finished for a long while (that should be a disclaimer on every project of mine

• UP 844: Last year my family and I saw the Union Pacific heritage 844 steam locomotive (a 4-8-4) roll through town. Shortly after, I became greatly inspired and bought a set of BBB XL drivers. This project is only about 30-40% complete, and I finally picked it up last weekend and worked on it. I’m hoping to get it done in a month or so. It will be PF (LEGO® Power Functions).

• Trees: I recently built a large tree and fixed (or nearly so) the issue of the leaf elements falling off. This involves using very short pieces of flex tubing where leaf elements join together. I plan on re-doing all my previously built trees. Photos to come soon.

• Trains: Aside from the 844 MOC, I’m still very much interested in building new train stock. I’m not sure what I want to do just yet, but I do need more rolling stock as well as revision of my existing MOCs. For example, I’d like to re-do my UP diesel MOC to make it PF compatible. We’ll see… This is low-priority at the moment.

• Something Big: I’m set on building something new and quite large for Brick Fiesta. I’m not sure what it will be. Perhaps the results of the crane project? Perhaps something else?

I have a lot of housekeeping to work on as well as a bunch of new ideas bouncing around in my head. I think I’m headed towards a spell of creative building, but I have to get my workspace in order.

the new plan

My current desk and system of shelves is inefficient and hard to use. I’m going to chop up my desk and remake it as well as install proper shelves mounted to the wall behind the desk.

This new “system” will make more efficient use of my workspace. I’m planning on tackling this job starting in a few days. Hopefully I can get going and start building again!