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Hi,
Znap came to a nearby TRU so I bought the 3510 polybag to check it out. I
wonder about using Znap for a skyscraper skeleton. Does anybody have a working
scheme for this? Below are some of my thoughts so far.
Why do it? Load-bearing brick walls are ok in Legoland, there's no physical
demand for a stronger material. With load-bearing walls it's easy to build tall
buildings with floors that slide out. (Except for the problem of the floors
bowing in the center.) In the real world even 7-floor buildings have steel
skeletons (or else they would need inside load-bearing partitions.) Copying
that would add a challenge and a new feature to show off, and ideally some
building advantage as well. A solution looking for a problem?
Exterior brick sheathing is applied with brick ties in the real world, so that
the exterior is supported by the floor it's bonded to. What if Znap let you
build floors where the walls plugged into the beams, leaving a small 1 plate
gap in between floors? This would allow redesign of single floors without
tearing down above and below. (With load bearing walls you might apply a layer
of tiles for a stacking effect.)
3510 gives me these to work with:
2 red 9x7 triangular beam things
3 red 3x dual-end-socket beams
5 gray dual-ball connector things
2 purple 4-ball junction rings
pegs, wheels, funny gray cranks
Scheme #1: Rectangular floors with triangle beams rising along the perimeter to
support the next one:
I put the 9x7 triangular beam thing long-side-up. In this orientation the
connector sockets fit horizontal beams, no vertical beams. On the short edge of
the triangle I plug in side-by-side 2 1x2 bricks with Technic pegs ("pegs"). A
plate goes on top of these bricks, then a stack of 5 bricks, another plate,
then another 1x2 brick with peg plugs into the triangle top:
Top to bottom, against 1 triangular beam thing:
1x2 brick with peg (two side by side actually)
plate (just a filler plate)
brick
brick
brick These 5 bricks are adequate for minifigs to live and work in!
brick
brick
plate (big floor plate)
1x2 brick with peg
That's good for the interior, unless you want floors that slide out. (There
should be lots of ways to make sliding floors on top of that plate. And I am
one of those who advocate cutting up big gray 48x48 baseplates to fit inside
spaces.)
Exterior brick sheathing:
On the triangular beam thing I have already used the upper and lower holes.
There are 2 middle holes. A pair of 1x2 bricks with pegs go in those and can
anchor a section of exterior brick. I build a 1x16x7 wall section with window
around those 2 pegs. It doesn't rattle. I like it. However it wanted to consume
mostly 1x8 bricks, a costly tendency. Not to mention that my supply of 1x2
bricks with pegs will run out quickly.
This scheme effectively makes the outer walls 3 bricks thick! Not sure that I
could accept that. Maybe the window piece should be recessed.
I think side-to-side connections will take care of themselves since the Znap
beams follow a normal rectangular grid. So how would this scheme attach floors
above and below?
1. To put the top of another triangular beam thing inline with the other's
bottom, would not work. One, there is a gap that looks like 1.5 plates! The
lack of straightness (bad) makes it hard to tell. Two, it breaks up any
possibility of a simple rectangle outline for the floor base.
Note: The triangular beam thing seems to be deformed at the top (pointy end)
connector.
2. I put gray dual-end-ball connector beams onto the sockets of the triangles.
With the holes oriented up-down, a peg or peg-axle connector can hold floors
together, with one triangle directly above the other. This makes a very flimsy
structure as the pegs will shake. The gap between floors (seen on the exterior
brick sheathing) can be filled with one tile (or plate.) A common gray 1x8 tile
will look nice in between colored brick floors. It's a great solution from the
standpoint of modularity of the exterior wall. It's also very like the real
world where a tiny gap between the sheath is plugged last of all. But I imagine
the hairline cracks on the flimsy structure will ruin the appearance.
3. I'd like to make use of the purple ring connectors except they would poke
out through the exterior walls. Maybe just at the corners?
I have to leave it here. The progress is encouraging enough to merit buying
more Znap to play with. But unless I can come up with a quite rigid frame with
some advantage of easy access, the Znap building frame is not going to be
desirable.
Comments welcome (especially from someone who has done a skyscraper already!)
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