Subject:
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Re: New Moc - Lego Fair (and apparently 5 cents was overpriced)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.org.ca.parlugment
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Date:
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Wed, 20 Oct 2004 03:57:40 GMT
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Viewed:
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3190 times
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In lugnet.org.ca.parlugment, Eric Sophie wrote:
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In lugnet.announce.moc, C. L. GunningCook wrote:
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The trials and tribulations of my latest adventure with one of my MOCs.
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Welcome the the gauntlet. The woes of the Mechanized MOC Builder.
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..... if you would rather skip the rambling...... the pics can be found
here
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The struggle is part of the joy, so I read on!
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This past weekend I had the pleasure of participating in my first train
show.
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Ahhh, good way to get your feet, nay, MOCs wet.
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At one end of the display it was decided to have a kids area where they
could build. There was to be a small loop to run a train. I requested the
middle section of that track for a condensed version of a theme park,
because I thought that the kids would really get a kick out of seeing the
rides.
When the park was nearly completed, my kids ask “Are you going to get them
running soon?”
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Ohh noooo, the dreded task then befell you.
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ME? Get them running?? That will mean motors and bushes and gears... OH MY!!
I tell them gently but firmly “The rides are not going to move”... as looks
of disappointment cross their faces, I quickly realise, a fair that doesn’t
have moving rides is just not going to cut it.
So with great amounts of guidance from my oldest son, I reluctantly agree
to motorized the ferris wheel. Surprisingly, once we get that one moving, I
get hooked, and together we work on getting the other 6 rides running.
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Hey right on.
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Never having participated in a train show before this event, and never
having to move my MOC very far the idea of building modular didn’t even
enter my head.
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doh!
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Lessons learned...
A cumbersome size MOC with underdeveloped structure holding a top heavy
design, mixed with a 8 hour drive on a major freeway..... I *should* have
known that this can only spell disaster. Well sure enough, by the time I
arrived in Ottawa, the fair had taken quite a beating.
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Been there, done that. Pardon the phrase, but I hear ya.
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Then in a moment of graceful elegance I drop the rcx resulting it its
programming being wiped clean. Ah brilliant!!
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Arrrg.
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With some help and parts loaned out from other members we quickly put some
of the rides on battery boxes and feed the others from a regulator.
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Sweet. AFoL click.
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Unfortunately, the rebuild just didn’t have the same integrity the original
design had, mainly because of two reasons. One, I couldn’t really recall
exactly how it supposed to go back together, and two, there is a bit of a
time crunch. Deep down knowing fully that the design is now flawed and very
unstable, I pretend that it’s fine, and run the monorail as it should have
run, only to have it come crashing through the park, wiping out a few other
rides with it as well. Well this is the point where you either pack it in
or have a good laugh, and just shake your head at your own stupidity. Of
course, the laughter begins.
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This is always a tough thing. Hence my zen state of study before a show.
Just in case!
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Apparently the fair was doomed from the beginning, because by the end of the
show, when it was oh so carefully carried out to my vehicle it collapse
completely in this grand moment of slow-motion domino effect disaster
resulting in a huge round of laughter.... I must say, I have never seen one
of my MOCs die such a graceful death.
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Oh man, no comment.
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Janey “(Apparently I should stick to building houses) Red Brick”
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tah, you have many skills. You can build anything you put your mind too.
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A moment of silence for the figs that were knock from their seats, and a
round of applause for ParLUGment for putting up with my self-destructing
theme park. You guys totally rock!!!
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I must say, the folks from ParLUGment are a talented lot of builders.
Your park has many cool things to look at and you had the guts to motorize
it. Any advice for others that may think motors and gears are to much of a
hassle? I’d like to see more MOCs like this and there are some great ones out
there, no doubt, that have similar functionality.
Nice work.
e
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Thanks Eric.... As for the motors and gears, I avoided them as long as possible,
I truly did. A few times I did play around with some gears, I never seemed to be
able to get them to line up the way I wanted them to. Well apparently (as my son
suggested and much to my surprise), a gear box is a wondrous thing. Im sure
there are many ways around not using them, but for a newbie, it solves a lot of
problems.
Most of it is mind set though, I had myself convinced it was just too
complicated, when my son didn’t buy that line anymore, and we got down to
working, it was relatively simple. Of course, we used the most basic of
solutions we could come up with and of course two minds are always better then
one.
If one idea failed we didn’t try to fix, we just moved on to another idea
instead. I think that saves the frustration levels.
I still hold the upmost respect for builders that manage complex mechanical
MOCs.
Janey “Red Brick”
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