December | 2020 | Thirdwigg.com

2020

December 31, 2020 Leave a comment

Another year comes to a close here in Thirdwiggville. A couple of little MOCs were completed in a year that was different. As a review, here is what I made this year. For 2020 I made the following: 2C Sports Car, 1E.R Track Car, John Deere 5115, LMP C Turbo, 8081 SRT Tremor, 8640 Update, and the Atmos Tractor.

Recapping last years goals I accomplished a good deal.

Another Unimog!!!! (Nope, but watch tomorrow)
Something PF (Nope)
An excavator (Nope)
A mini helicopter (completed)
An LMP car (completed, but not what I expected)
Thirdwigg Motors first EV! (Completed)
7 completed builds (Completed)

This year was a little more prolific than last year, which saw more builds than 2018. Each of the builds were small or mid-sized, which is becoming my design language. Additionally, I am finding myself not making anything electrified. It has now been three years since I have made something powered. Finally, I am finding more of my builds are system based in that they allow lots of different additions and modifications of one main build. Tractors and Unimogs work well in this regard.

I loved the 2C Sports Car. It was stiff, functioned well, and met my aesthetic desires. More of these kind of “Thirdwigg Motors” cars will be coming. The Atmos tractor came together very quickly, and all the options I made for the front and rear kept my creativity going for much of the year. Frankly, it was like I made another four MOCs based on the time it took for all the trailers and implements. 8640 Update was a fun little quick build that turned out great and brought a smile to my face.

One final note, last year, I expressed concerns about LEGO buying Bricklink.com. So far no significant limitations have been implemented, which is great. I hope this continues in 2021.

For 2021, here are my goals.

A motorcycle
A sports sedan
Another midsized car (EV)
Something yellow
7 completed builds

After 2020, it will be interesting to see what 2021 looks like, but I hope to continue some more fun builds. As always, watch The Queue to see what’s coming up. Happy Building!

Filed under Planning Tagged with 2020

Atmos Tractor

December 19, 2020 3 Comments

I guess I am on a little bit of a tractor kick lately.

Instructions for the tractor may be found here, which links to instructions for attachments, implements, and trailers.

I had recently rebuilt my 9393 MOD, and as I took it apart, I wondered if I could make another tractor with the same implement attachments, improve the esthetics, and use different sized front and rear wheels. Then I thought maybe a pneumatic pump would be fun. My builds as of late have become much more dynamic, in that I like to be able to quickly change them or add a feature. Tractors work great for this, as adding a new trailer or implement can change the build dramatically. Additionally, I enjoy the challenge of making a system that supports lots of additions, while retaining the mechanics that my builds have always had.

The tractor came together very quickly for me. In 10 days I went from having a size draft of the tractor to a final MOC. I used the same driveline, albeit stretched, as the 9393 MOD so the mechanical parts were easy. Direct steering is used, and goes through a rear wheel drive system that connects to a two cylinder engine. A PTO is present at the rear of tractor, but not at the front. Adding a pneumatic pump required a stronger frame which was quickly modified, as well as a hose running to an attachment point at the rear.

The bodywork took the most time; about four days. I wanted to keep a simple hood, so I kept the design of 9393. I added some headlights to dress up the front, and the interior left some room for a steering wheel. Shaping the roof and the cabin was a little tricky due to all the half-stuff offsets of the front windshield. The fenders are simple, but match well. Just like that on day ten, the tractor was done. At the time of writing, the tractor can be built in orange, lime, white, and black.

Part of what attracts me to building tractors is all the options one can present with a tractor: implements, trailers, plows, and on and on. The design of the tractor needed to support all of these possibilities. There is a hard point on the front, a hitch on the rear, and a three-point hitch on the rear.

Once these hard points were set, I began to spice it up. It’s no secret that set 8049 is one of my favorites, and since this tractor had a pneumatic pump, I thought a forestry trailer was needed. But then I wanted a snow plow, and a hooklift loader, and a dumper, and some farming equipment. So of course I built them all. You can find links to instructions for the tractor and most of the additions in my instructions tab.

Atmos Tractor with Trailers

The build was great little addition to my portfolio. The system supported a lot of different trailers and implements, some of which are still coming. The design language is consistent with my other builds, and the size is right in my sweet spot. I hope you enjoyed it too. Until the next build, happy building.

Filed under Construction Tagged with 2020, Pneumatic, PTO, suspension, Tractor

LEGO 8640 Update

December 12, 2020 3 Comments

In 1986, LEGO came out with one of my favorite little sets; set 8640. It is still one of my favorites, and instead of buying a 30ish year old set, I decided to update it.

You may found instructions here.

The build stared with a little variable pitch rotor design that I used previously in my executive helicopter, but since I was never really happy with this design, I kept it close on the shelf. After playing around with some panels, I found a shape that looked like the pontoons for the 8640 helicopter, and I was off.

Once the pontoons were set, the scale was clear, and I started placing some of the hard points for the mechanics. I wanted to have space for two technic figures, so the helicopter is a little wider than 8640, but otherwise the same size (length and height). The rotors and HOG crank are connected using a couple of bevel gears, and the swashplate is connected behind the two seats to a collective lever on the left of the helicopter. The swashplate moves up and down about one stud, which is enough.

I tried to keep the design language close to 8640, so I kept the main white and yellow, with red and light blueish grey highlights. I wanted to have a cleaner mount for both the skis and poles for both Technic figures, but the solution I came up with works fine. The tail is a little different to match the studies build, and I added a horizontal stabilizer.