Summer Playdate Lego Project

We finished the airport today.  Take a look...



Well, not quite finished.  The next playdate will be the grand tear down.

FWIW

Those aren't Lego.

200 Part Lot

The other night I was looking for Lego baseplates on Amazon.  The airport is outgrowing its footprint and so I thought maybe I would spend a little money to get us some more square footage.  What did I discover?  It turns out that baseplates are really expensive, like $8-9/each.  I would have thought maybe a third of that.  Also it seems like many of the plates I have were at some point discontinued and so getting matching baseplates requires purchasing what is essentially a collectors item.  I saw one lot where the parts were like $40/each.

Too rich for my blood.

While looking for these I kept coming across bulk Lego items.  Lego has some official sets (also fairly steep) and then there are third party sellers dealing bricks by count or weight.

I have a floating purchase max for this sideline activity, meaning when I do buy new sets I don't like to spend more than $19.  Something about exceeding $20 causes the nature of the purchase to mean rather more and I want this to all be casual.  The ceiling ruled out most of the bulk sets, but I did see one that was 200 random pieces for $9.00.

Most of the sets I look at in the $19 neighborhood are also in the 200 piece neighborhood.  So on its face this could be a decent deal.

I read the reviews and they were mixed.  The negative reviews fell into two camps: the first is that 200 pieces really isn't a lot of pieces.  This isn't a surprise to me.  The second flavor of complaint was that the piece selection was such that you couldn't build anything from the set.  This wouldn't much matter to me as I am just looking for bricks.  Part of that second group was also that some of the parts were pretty esoteric, to the point of having part of a multicomponent piece - like half a hinge.  This was a little alarming, but I decided to overlook it.

I mean 200 parts for $9.00, how bad could it be?

So here's what we got:

The upper left are what I call "specials."  Those pieces are either for a specific task or for detailing.  The 200 piece set was probably 100 parts specials.  I don't mind that.  Sometimes you buy an entire set just to get one special part and there were many in here that I didn't have yet.  Most notably in the "new to me" category were 2@2x3x1 slanted pieces with McDonald's Grimace screen-printed on them - you can see one up front there.  Once upon a time there must have been some promotional McDonald's Lego sets.  Not sure what to do with one of those, let alone two.

There were only 2 minifig related parts.  That was a little disappointing.  I had hoped for more than that.

Of the remaining parts there was a trend toward the odd.  In total I think there were 7 2x4x1 basic bricks.  There were some parts in there that I didn't have, and certainly some colors I didn't have (you can see under my current regime that green is blue and orange is yellow).

It was fairly easy to appreciate the "you can't really make anything" school of thought.  But like I said,  I was just expanding inventory, so that wasn't so much of a concern for me.

In the end, the only buyer's remorse I have is that the item wasn't prime qualified which meant I had to pay shipping and that the $9 set was actually a $15 set FOB my mailbox.  That $6 different is enough to tip it over and make me decide that this isn't the buy it seemed like it might be.  For it to be worth doing again either the nature of the pieces would have to be a little different or the shipping would have to be free.

Still, I got a treasure chest piece.  Didn't have one of those.

Jetway Test

It's got potential...

Airport Expansion

The airport expansion continues.  This time mostly with support vehicles.  My playdate was very motivated to keep working as he's off to camp soon and won't be able to contribute for a while as a result.

So here's the current overview:

One of the first adds was a fuel truck.  I'd done one before, but I am happier with this one.  It looks less like a cement truck than its predecessor.  It's minifig scale - has doors, which is unusual for me, and hoses that can be manipulated.

Next up is a passenger staircase.  I keep running into this problem where to accommodate the minifigs takes only two spaces, but that representation isn't really something that would work.  So this time I went two wide but worked in some handrails out to the side.  If I'd built out the handrails with bricks I think the passenger aisle would have had to be four wide and then the thing becomes six wide and starts to look out of proportion.

Upon further consideration I decided that this unit was too tall in relationship to the plane (which admittedly is in a completely different scale - although more and more to me is believable as an executive jet - but that would mean the control tower is way too short).  So I dropped it down one course.  That necessitated re-jiggering the diagonal rails, fwiw I like this better.  I also added a safety chain to the front.

That's fuel and people, next we did luggage.  First was the baggage loader.  It has a ramp that raises and lowers.  It also has a data screen and a control lever.  I went to old school wheels here.  For some reason I thought it mattered.  Maybe I was concerned about the height of the deck using the standard wheels.  Anyway, I think it's a nice piece for what it is.

Then as you can already see we did a baggage tram.  It's a tractor and then three, two level carts with all flexible connections between them.  I think this was really successful.  It even rolls around like an actual tram when cornering.  If anything here I found myself wishing there was a two wheel axle component that was only two studs wide instead of four.  I've since discovered there actually are those pieces but I didn't have them at the time (and probably have IBI now).

What's next you say?  There's still catering and maybe de-icing vehicles to do (and if my playdate has anything to say about it probably police and fire).  Also I am starting to see a terminal building and jetway in my head.  Just have to wait for the next visit I guess.

Rainy Saturday

I'm not sure why, but for some reason today I couldn't put off the urge to finish the control tower I started yesterday.  At first I was telling myself that I thought it would take longer to build than I would have on the next playdate.  But a little bit I think maybe I just wanted to do it myself.

I had an idea of the geometry in my head while building the cap yesterday.  What I really wanted to do was based on an octagonal plan, but that shape and lego bricks don't really get along, at least not with the pieces I have.  So it was going to be a rectilinear base, tapering in and then out.  Most importantly it was going to have to be tall, sufficiently so as to appear to be close in scale to the plane we built last time.

Speaking of "pieces I have"...  I'm not really part of the adult brick builder community but I would lay dollars to donuts that they have slang for not having enough pieces.  Today I settled on "IBI" for insufficient brick inventory.  The number of times during this process I had to compromise or improvise to be able to work within my collection was pretty depressing.  The inside of the tower is covered with slants and reverse slants used to stretch the numbers.  As far as this model is concerned the only face that mattered was the outside, so this seemed like a reasonable fix.  I'm not sure if the observation floor at the top was about design or inventory.  But I am sure that the clear brick at the bottom of the yellow window was about not having enough pieces - I mean IBI.

Anyway, appears to have come out alright in spite of the issues:

I had to change to blue from black: IBI, same with the red windows.  Gonna be a lot of outflowing cash should I desire to resolve that issue at some time.  I didn't taper in as far as I had intended, but looking at the finished piece I think if I had come in another row it would have started to look frail.  I didn't quite get the feel of the curve I was going for.  To do so I think the middle section would have had to have been 2-3 times the height of the preceding section (rather than 1/3 as is).

Once more, without being able to identify whether the cause was design intent, IBI, or boredom I decided to put an "observation deck" directly below the control room:

The thought was something about a staircase in the core.  Looking at the implementation of the struts it occurred to me that they could have been an interesting feature at each footprint change.  I think I have the struts but I am not sure the additional height would help the overall composition.

What with the hodgepodge of colors and all the compromises in the end the most successful potion of the model might be the interior; which was actually somewhat of a throw away:

 I guess if you are going to try to work in minifig scale you might as well make the most of it.  There are four controller positions with panels and monitors as well as swivel chairs.  Those guys are working under the supervision of a fifth guy.  The top of the structure folds away to give play access to the figures, but my fingers are too fat to enjoy it much.  Thinking about it, there is a sort of ongoing conceptual "dollhouse" issue to these models - a choice between concentrating on the interior or the exterior and the ramifications and compromises necessitated by that choice.

So, we have a plane and a tower and I have a playdate tomorrow.  What's next?  Fuel truck?  Baggage train and loader cart?  Catering Truck?  Terminal?  De-icing station?  My friend likes trucks.  So I guess that's where the smart money is.

Substitute Project

I didn't do the table from yesterday.  I'm still not happy with the solution to the undercarriage and I thought I probably didn't have the time I needed.  Maybe I'll get into it next week.  Did you see the problem on the drawing?  In order for the parallel to fold flat the end hinges must be in the same position.  With the telescoping sides the ends would be offset by 3/4" on each side and that offset would mean an interference that wouldn't let the part fold.  I'll have to percolate on that one for a while.

The reason to do the table was because we were having Friday night dinner at our house.  Instead we made due with our regular solution.

The Friday night cohort includes my Lego Playdate and the instant he came in the door he was angling to do a control tower to go with the airplane we did last time.  So instead of doing a table I got a start on a minifig scale control tower...

It is interesting to me the amount of composition that is dictated by the number of boxes we take out.  Tonight I wanted to keep the thing contained a little, so besides the people and the "specials" I only took out the box of black pieces.  Therefore the control tower will be black.  In hindsight this seems like a poor choice for a control tower as night time visibility will be an issue.  Good thing it's just a model.

Ran out of a lot of pieces here: yellow fences, black 1x1x1's, gray hinges, yellow flats, yellow windows, gray computers.  It's a wonder anything ever gets built in less than a hodgepodge.  I kept thinking during the project - and now is where we get to the unfortunate compromise portion of the project.  FWIW my playdate doesn't seem to understand what my fixation with matching is all about.  Maybe I'm trying too hard.

So I guess we're set up for the next session: build the tower.  I'll get right on that.

Another Lego Playdate

So my Lego building buddy was over again last week.  While he played with the heavy duty airport fire truck from last time I decided I would take on building an airplane.  And not just an airplane, but pretty much the single biggest Lego model I have ever attempted.

I started off with the front edge of the wings.  I figured I would gang together a bunch of wing pieces into a MEGAWING and then scale the rest of the model based on the size the wing established.  More than once in this process I was fairly certain I would not have enough pieces and while doing the wing I had the distinct thought I would run out of flat grays.  I didn't, but the parts did start getting smaller and smaller.

 

From the wings I worked my way up and forward.  I think I did an ok job managing the taper at the front and the back.  Probably the rear is a little more successful.  We had an extended discussion about whether this could be minifig scale or not.  In the end it isn't.  I think to accomplish that the body would have had to have been maybe a third wider and then all the other dimensions would have had to be upsized accordingly.

I'm not 100% thrilled with the windows.  This is absolutely a case of not having the pieces in inventory.  Instead of the big yellow blocks the windows should be single clear pieces alternating with single white pieces, but I don't have nearly that many of either in inventory.  I also ran out of large flat white pieces doing the roof.

The blue stripe on the bottom was a proactive concession to conserve white bricks.  Actually, one of the cool things about not being a minifig model is that the interior doesn't so much have to work.  That let me use some double width bricks when singles were really called for.  I also think the blue actually helps the body appear to roll away in a fashion that it really doesn't, so that's cool.

The landing gear were sort of an afterthought - or rather they just weren't so much a part of the plan.  They work well enough for what it is, but the rear gear has no place to go.  So it isn't very authentic.

In hind site I think I fumbled the tail a little.  It could have been (should be?) much steeper than I did it.  It seemed right to start the slant where the body started to taper in.  Maybe it should be less linear and more logarithmic a progression.  Also if I had thought I was putting in the stabilizers I could have done another grey stripe lower on the tail to make them blend in better.

If the landing gear was an afterthought then the engines got no thought at all.  The wings looked a little bare and I figured I'd take a stab at some nacelles.  These are the only part of the model where the construction axis shifts.  I think part of what makes this thing cool is that for the most part the dots are up.  In point of fact I actually had to do something fairly atypical to get the right angle pieces to work properly under the wings.  All things being equal they really would rather be on top for the part to work properly.  So in order to get the rear of the engine to mount I had to use a technic shaft through the center rather than the normal snap together arrangement.

I had to stand on a chair to get far enough away to get the whole thing into the frame for this photo.

Once again I finished off the build with the p-touch.  If you are doing the build with a young kid you get more mileage out of a personalized label than just about anything else you can do.

So it could probably use some signal lights.  The gear, tail, and engines are very much a first draft.  The windows are what they are.  But even with all of that I think this is a pretty kick ass build.

As far as the Lego playdate concept goes, I may have inadvertently raised the bar problematically.  Only time will tell.

Heavy Duty Airport Fire Truck

So every now and then I get the chance to spend some time with one of my friends sons - sometimes more than one son.  The kids developed a fairly instant attachment to my Lego collection.  It's been kind of a long game holding on to the pieces through to use for the next generation.  Seems like I'm gonna make it now and that the boy will get to inherit the lot of it.  But in the mean time it's nice to see someone getting some use out of them.

Lego playdates take one of four forms so far.  Sometimes the kid or kids just play with pieces and any of the models we left together last time.  Sometimes we try to build an old set. I have a lot of the original instructions, but it's hard to make a set with all the pieces jumbled up.  Sometimes we build a new set.  This occasion has given me an excuse to buy a bunch of new kits.  I'm doing my best not to spend all my money I swear.  The fourth variation is where I build something new for them.

This is the latest iteration of the latter.  I present the "Heavy Duty Airport Fire Truck":

The truck is sort of minifig scale - sort of.  I'm still wrapping my head around the proportions there.  The idea here was just to build something based on these wheels.  So once I had the wheels and the fenders the rest of the truck came into scale.  From the side you can see the tanks for fire foam, the side entrance, side mounted ladders, and roof mounted mars lights.

Yes, I did pull out our P-Touch for some additional detailing.

The truck also has a hinged ladder.  It's really more of an arm than a ladder, with a hose and an operator position at the end.  The original version didn't have the flip up roof, but on the second look at the truck I added the top ladder extension, a flip roof and second layer of bricks to make the cab minifig scale, and the step bumper on the back for equipment and firefighters.

I have to say I think this is one of my more successful builds.  But regardless of what I think, my apprentice seemed to enjoy it and that really matters more than anything else.

We even got a chance to see if it really worked: