It is summertime, so about time for a creation that can be taken outside for a ride. Last year I did some testing with a small (at least for my standards) 1:22 RC truck with the Lego Power Functions engines. That tasted like more, and plans for a 1:17 started. I have build this truck over a long timespan while also working on two other moc’s. Now it is finished finally. What else then a Peterbilt, my favorite truck, should be host to a couple of engines pulling a dumptrailer loaded with bricks ready to transport them to every legobuilder in need?
Well that is all easy said, but this rig has cost me some headaches. I’ll tell you about it. First of all there is my ever growing detail fetish. Every truck I build is an evolution of the one before and detail is increasing each time. Now I was faced with a problem; keeping everything detailed and accurately on scale, but putting in all the Technic thingies needed to make it work. I have seen some pretty nice things on the web, for example the RC truck from my Dutch colleague builder Ingmar van Spijkhoven, but I needed to make the technology even more compact to hide it from the optics. You have to stick with your beliefs people always say.
The Peterbilt tractor has two engines. The small PF engine is in the front of the chassis under the cabinfloor and drives the steering system. By putting the engine in that spot I could almost completely maintain the detail of the engine. The big XL engine drives both of the rear axles with some reduction to generate enough torque to pull 2 kilo’s of trailer. The strength of the system surprised me. It rides very well, loaded with bricks and no signs of stress at all.
The battery box is in the sleeper and can be switched on from the sleepers door. The roof is retractable and hosts the IR sensor. This sytem also makes battery changes easy. I had to sacrifice sleeper detail on the inside but the cabin is fully pimped, including trimmed colours, custom seats and chromed gearstick and steering wheel.
Under the chassis nothing is forgotten. Did I say chassis? Now black and red seem obvious so I decided to go for orange. I tried to hide the Technics once more even colourtrimming some gears to orange. At that point people started saying I am getting crazy a bit. Luckily I did not mention the exhaust piping compressors airbrakes and chromed stacks and fueltanks underneath there.
Chrome.. yes I love it. But you can do too much, so I stayed with the obvious parts here. Luckily I had a new batch made, so there was some left for the trailer. The lights were the latest detail on the tractor. There are actually 86 on the tractor, the majority under the chassis.
The trailer is anoher story. It is actually my second dumper, but the first half round one. The model is based on an example that is used by Eilen trucking and it is made by MAC. The front and rear are chromed, and the head lchassis parts are orange. Of course there is lights and a working dump system. The freight is bricks… what else?
There is a special process for that, where you can apply industrial real chrome. You need to do it a factory, you cannot do this at home. This is done by the thousands.
Here you can buy the ones that i use, which are the best around. There is a lot of fake sprayed ones around. The ones I use are truly metallised.
www.bricks4all.nl
Amazing as all of your creations! It's not only shiny bricks that make it so great looking. You are among the few who's really got some great building techniques! Bravo!
Wow amazing saw the w.i.p. pic's on flickr , Omg saw the parts in the dumper:O i don't even have that many parts on my truck:D today , i'm half way done with the cabin and tomorrow night i will try to get the cabin ready , because i have lack of parts i must built everything percisely... Hope to post my truck soon , and good luck with the other mocs
