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Subject: 
United Air Lines DC-3 with working props and landing gear
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.technic, lugnet.build.military, lugnet.announce.moc, lugnet.town, lugnet.loc.us.ca.sf, lugnet.org.us.baylug
Followup-To: 
lugnet.technic
Date: 
Mon, 16 Oct 2006 05:49:46 GMT
Highlighted: 
!! (details)
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Aircraft are difficult to taxonomize on LUGNET. This isn’t a military plane, but military fans will recognize the “gooney bird” - the military’s 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 isn’t really Technic. I’m including Town because that’s the closest minifig theme, and while it is roughly minifig scale the minifigs can’t fit inside due to all the mechanical and structural parts. And I’m 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 1950’s, 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. Here’s 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 don’t know if they were ever part of an official LEGO set, but I never saw them anywhere else. It’s 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 there’s the blog entry.

   
         
     
Subject: 
Re: United Air Lines DC-3 with working props and landing gear
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.technic
Date: 
Mon, 16 Oct 2006 06:52:10 GMT
Viewed: 
7053 times
  

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 don’t know if they
were ever part of an official LEGO set, but I never saw them anywhere else.
It’s
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.

    
          
     
Subject: 
Re: United Air Lines DC-3 with working props and landing gear
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.technic
Date: 
Tue, 17 Oct 2006 16:28:11 GMT
Viewed: 
6745 times
  

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 don’t know if they
were ever part of an official LEGO set, but I never saw them anywhere else.
It’s
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 :-)

   
         
     
Subject: 
Re: United Air Lines DC-3 with working props and landing gear
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.technic
Date: 
Mon, 16 Oct 2006 07:11:53 GMT
Viewed: 
7051 times
  

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.

    
          
     
Subject: 
Re: United Air Lines DC-3 with working props and landing gear
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.technic
Date: 
Wed, 18 Oct 2006 07:42:15 GMT
Viewed: 
6697 times
  

In lugnet.technic, Chris Orchard wrote:
   Nice moc William. You have captured the awkward shape of the planes’ nose beautifully. Great backstory too.

Thank you!

   
         
     
Subject: 
Re: United Air Lines DC-3 with working props and landing gear
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.technic, lugnet.announce.moc
Followup-To: 
lugnet.technic
Date: 
Mon, 16 Oct 2006 11:02:53 GMT
Viewed: 
14008 times
  

--snip--

  

--snip--
  
Click the photo above to see more, or click to look on Flickr (slideshow) or on Brickshelf. And of course there’s the blog entry.

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 ;) )

    
          
      
Subject: 
Re: United Air Lines DC-3 with working props and landing gear
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.technic
Date: 
Mon, 16 Oct 2006 12:51:18 GMT
Viewed: 
7068 times
  

  
PS. X-posted this response to .announce.moc (one way of getting around theme blurring models ;) )

OK. I’ll out myself as an idiot before someone else does. I completely missed this model in .announce.moc (not once but twice) and figured it wasn’t there. At least I was being stupid for a good cause ;)

Tim

    
          
     
Subject: 
Re: United Air Lines DC-3 with working props and landing gear
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.technic
Date: 
Wed, 18 Oct 2006 07:42:10 GMT
Viewed: 
6677 times
  

In lugnet.technic, Timothy Gould wrote:
   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.

Originally I was going to go 6-wide, but went to 8-wide when I decided to add the mechanisms.

   I think your tail solution is perfect and I fully intend to steal it when/if I build another aircraft.

It’s 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

   Really great built.

Thanks!!

   
         
     
Subject: 
Re: United Air Lines DC-3 with working props and landing gear
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.technic
Date: 
Mon, 16 Oct 2006 12:44:58 GMT
Viewed: 
7019 times
  

Nice MOC! As Chris said, you have captured the awkward shape of this plane’s shape very well!

    
          
     
Subject: 
Re: United Air Lines DC-3 with working props and landing gear
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.technic
Date: 
Wed, 18 Oct 2006 07:42:39 GMT
Viewed: 
6717 times
  

In lugnet.technic, Jason Whittenburg wrote:
   Nice MOC! As Chris said, you have captured the awkward shape of this plane’s shape very well!

Thanks! It was definitely one of the most difficult projects I’ve done.

   
         
     
Subject: 
Re: United Air Lines DC-3 with working props and landing gear
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.technic
Date: 
Mon, 16 Oct 2006 14:47:26 GMT
Viewed: 
6755 times
  

In lugnet.technic, William R. Ward wrote:
   Aircraft are difficult to taxonomize on LUGNET. This isn’t a military plane, but military fans will recognize the “gooney bird” - the military’s 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 isn’t really Technic. I’m including Town because that’s the closest minifig theme, and while it is roughly minifig scale the minifigs can’t fit inside due to all the mechanical and structural parts. And I’m including my local and club groups. I wish we had lugnet.build.aircraft, but there is no such thing.

William,

Wow, this is awesome. It’s hard to capture a streamlined shape in Lego, but you’ve captured a DC-3, I didn’t even need the name to recognize it.

Thanks,

George

    
          
     
Subject: 
Re: United Air Lines DC-3 with working props and landing gear
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.technic
Date: 
Wed, 18 Oct 2006 07:43:08 GMT
Viewed: 
6604 times
  

In lugnet.technic, George Haberberger wrote:
   Wow, this is awesome. It’s hard to capture a streamlined shape in Lego, but you’ve captured a DC-3, I didn’t even need the name to recognize it.

Well it helps that it’s one of the most recognizable planes ever made...

   
         
   
Subject: 
Re: United Air Lines DC-3 with working props and landing gear
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.technic
Date: 
Wed, 18 Oct 2006 17:42:05 GMT
Viewed: 
6707 times
  

In lugnet.technic, William R. Ward wrote:

SNIP


Great MOC, William! I’m 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.

Weren’t those ‘boot’ pieces trans-yellow in the soccer sets?


Great work!

“Big Daddy” Nelson

   
         
   
Subject: 
Re: United Air Lines DC-3 with working props and landing gear
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.technic
Date: 
Thu, 19 Oct 2006 09:21:38 GMT
Viewed: 
6994 times
  

In lugnet.technic, Nelson Yrizarry wrote:
   Great MOC, William! I’m always impressed when art and function come together in an animated and impressive build.

Thanks. That’s what I was striving for.

   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.

Luckily the gear on a DC-3 is a simple design in real life so I could model it fairly easily. Currently it’s on display in my office at Oracle HQ if ya wanna see it...

   Weren’t those ‘boot’ pieces trans-yellow in the soccer sets?

Hmm, yeah I guess you’re right. Dunno what I was thinking...

   Great work!

Thanks!!

 

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