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Aircraft are difficult to taxonomize on LUGNET. This isnt a military plane,
but military fans will recognize the gooney bird - the militarys version of
the DC-3 - so I included that. I decided to post it mainly under Technic
because of the working parts, though most of the plane isnt really Technic.
Im including Town because thats the closest minifig theme, and while it is
roughly minifig scale the minifigs cant fit inside due to all the mechanical
and structural parts. And Im including my local and club groups. I wish we
had lugnet.build.aircraft, but there is no such thing.
Anyway... the rest of this post is based on my
blog article for this model:
When my father left the Navy and joined United Air Lines in the late 1950s, he
flew this plane, the DC-3.
Like my Lunar Mobile Lounge, this has been at several BayLUG meetings, and now I
am finally posting about it here.
Also like that model, it is motorized. There are two motors, located in the
fuselage: one which powers the propellers and the other which makes the landing
gear go up and down. There is a battery box in the fuselage that powers the
propellers, and a wire coming out of the entry door leading to a battery box
that controls the landing gear. In both cases, a Technic axle passes through the
fuselage and the base of each wing. For the props, there are bevel gears in each
engine which drive the propshafts. For the landing gear, the axle is mounted
directly to the mechanism. A roof panel is removable to view the mechanism
inside. Heres a video I made to illustrate how it works:
YouTube
QuickTime via
BrickShelf.
There are other parts that move as well: the ailerons, elevators, and rudder are
all freely hinged. Oh, and the wheels rotate :-) The wings and vertical tail can
be removed easily for storage and transportation.
The fuselage is designed using half-stud offsets to achieve the desired shape.
This means the walls are very fragile as they cannot be properly interconnected.
On the leading edge of each wing are de-icing boots which are made of rubber
in the real plane. These are modeled using a curved brick that I got at LEGOLAND
California in their build it and buy it area in 2003. I dont know if they
were ever part of an official LEGO set, but I never saw them anywhere else. Its
the same shape as the trans-light-blue spotlights in the Soccer sets. These
boots are attached at an angle using plate hinges and plates, and have
half-stud offsets to follow the desired wing angle.
Overall this was an interesting experiment in half-stud offsets and integrating
a Technic mechanism into a realistic looking model. I learned a lot making this
and hope you enjoy it.
Click the photo above to see more, or click to look
on Flickr
(slideshow)
or on Brickshelf. And
of course theres the blog entry.
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On Mon, 16 Oct 2006, Bill Ward wrote:
> On the leading edge of each wing are de-icing boots which are made of rubber
> in the real plane. These are modeled using a curved brick that I got at
> LEGOLAND
> California in their build it and buy it area in 2003. I dont know if they
> were ever part of an official LEGO set, but I never saw them anywhere else.
> Its
> the same shape as the trans-light-blue spotlights in the Soccer sets.
Are these 6192/30337
http://peeron.com/inv/parts/6192
? Peeron shows them in black in Technic sets from the late '90s and a
4+ Pirate set from a few years ago.
--
TWS Garrison
http://www.morfydd.net/twsg/
LEGO: CA+++ SW++ GA+c #++++++ LS+++ P+++++ YB77m
Remove capital letters in address for direct reply.
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Nice moc William. You have captured the awkward shape of the planes nose
beautifully. Great backstory too.
Kind Regards,
Chris.
- Think it, Build it, Share it.
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--snip--
--snip--
Nice aircraft. At first glance I would have said it was a bit chubby but reading
that you fit a bunch of working stuff in there I would turn that around to say
lovely compromise between form and function.
I think your tail solution is perfect and I fully intend to steal it when/if I
build another aircraft.
Really great built.
Tim
PS. X-posted this response to .announce.moc (one way of getting around theme
blurring models ;) )
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Nice MOC! As Chris said, you have captured the awkward shape of this planes
shape very well!
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PS. X-posted this response to .announce.moc (one way of getting around theme
blurring models ;) )
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OK. Ill out myself as an idiot before someone else does. I completely missed
this model in .announce.moc (not once but twice) and figured it wasnt there. At
least I was being stupid for a good cause ;)
Tim
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In lugnet.technic, William R. Ward wrote:
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Aircraft are difficult to taxonomize on LUGNET. This isnt a military plane,
but military fans will recognize the gooney bird - the militarys version
of the DC-3 - so I included that. I decided to post it mainly under Technic
because of the working parts, though most of the plane isnt really Technic.
Im including Town because thats the closest minifig theme, and while it is
roughly minifig scale the minifigs cant fit inside due to all the mechanical
and structural parts. And Im including my local and club groups. I wish we
had lugnet.build.aircraft, but there is no such thing.
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William,
Wow, this is awesome. Its hard to capture a streamlined shape in Lego, but
youve captured a DC-3, I didnt even need the name to recognize it.
Thanks,
George
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In lugnet.technic, TWS Garrison <twBASSs@ISmorBESTfydd.net> wrote:
>
> On Mon, 16 Oct 2006, Bill Ward wrote:
>
> > On the leading edge of each wing are de-icing boots which are made of rubber
> > in the real plane. These are modeled using a curved brick that I got at
> > LEGOLAND
> > California in their build it and buy it area in 2003. I dont know if they
> > were ever part of an official LEGO set, but I never saw them anywhere else.
> > Its
> > the same shape as the trans-light-blue spotlights in the Soccer sets.
>
> Are these 6192/30337
> http://peeron.com/inv/parts/6192
> ? Peeron shows them in black in Technic sets from the late '90s and a
> 4+ Pirate set from a few years ago.
Yes, that's the one. I hadn't seen those sets. I was too lazy to look on
Peeron :-)
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In lugnet.technic, Timothy Gould wrote:
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Nice aircraft. At first glance I would have said it was a bit chubby but
reading that you fit a bunch of working stuff in there I would turn that
around to say lovely compromise between form and function.
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Originally I was going to go 6-wide, but went to 8-wide when I decided to add
the mechanisms.
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I think your tail solution is perfect and I fully intend to steal it when/if
I build another aircraft.
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Its the same design as my previous big plane, the PB4Y-2:
http://bill.wards.net/blosxom/lego/models/air/pb4y-2.html
http://www.flickr.com/photos/billward/sets/72057594078798048/
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=9569
Thanks!!
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In lugnet.technic, Chris Orchard wrote:
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Nice moc William. You have captured the awkward shape of the planes nose
beautifully. Great backstory too.
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Thank you!
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In lugnet.technic, Jason Whittenburg wrote:
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Nice MOC! As Chris said, you have captured the awkward shape of this planes
shape very well!
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Thanks! It was definitely one of the most difficult projects Ive done.
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In lugnet.technic, George Haberberger wrote:
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Wow, this is awesome. Its hard to capture a streamlined shape in Lego, but
youve captured a DC-3, I didnt even need the name to recognize it.
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Well it helps that its one of the most recognizable planes ever made...
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In lugnet.technic, William R. Ward wrote:
SNIP
Great MOC, William! Im always impressed when art and function come together in
an animated and impressive build.
I really like the working ailerons and, of course, the landing gear mechanism.
Good tail design for easy transport. This is one MOC that I would enjoy seeing
in person.
Werent those boot pieces trans-yellow in the soccer sets?
Great work!
Big Daddy Nelson
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In lugnet.technic, Nelson Yrizarry wrote:
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Great MOC, William! Im always impressed when art and function come together
in an animated and impressive build.
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Thanks. Thats what I was striving for.
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I really like the working ailerons and, of course, the landing gear
mechanism. Good tail design for easy transport. This is one MOC that I would
enjoy seeing in person.
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Luckily the gear on a DC-3 is a simple design in real life so I could model it
fairly easily. Currently its on display in my office at Oracle HQ if ya wanna
see it...
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Werent those boot pieces trans-yellow in the soccer sets?
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Hmm, yeah I guess youre right. Dunno what I was thinking...
Thanks!!
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