u/One_Cupcake4151

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Rebuilt the mog again. I bought the set about a month ago, haven't used technic for 20 years but was always competent.

After building the model exactly to plan I got my box of spares from various education projects I used to run, plus a few new parts that I ordered. Initially I wanted to power the model using remote control. My first attempt was fairly conservative, changing the minimum of parts and shoehorning 4 motors in around all the other bits. I used power functions motors. The first attempt used the original m Motor for the PTO. I upgraded the compressor with a L motor and two piston pumps. The drive motor was an L mounted in the rear frame and, behind that, a servo for the steering. The PTO clutch was also pneumatically operated but I used a small cylinder and it wasn't really up to it, although it was compact. I also made the bed tip to the side but because the motors were in the rear frame i had a compromised cylinder location for the tipping body and wasn't happy. Additionally the L motor wasn't really up.to driving it.

So for the second rebuild I was much more ambitious. I completely dismantled the center section including the gear train and started again. I used an XL drive motor located low down in the rear chassis. I used a servo motor mounted centrally as a load bearing unit, hid an air tank in there, and rebuilt the compressor and pneumatic clutch with a big cylinder. This is less asetically pleasing but it works well and it's really satisfying when you move the pneumatic leaver and the clutch clicks.

This arrangement permitted the relocation of the remote receivers in the center area along with the ability to centrally mount the tipping cylinder in the rear chassis. (I lengthened the model by two studs to fit it in).

I made the cab tip pneumatically as well, which is super satisfying, the leaver is in the front left wheel arch. To fit the cylinder in for the cab tilt i had to move the engine back two studs.

I removed the hand of god steering as steering is now via the servo motor. However it always bugged me that the steering wheel didn't turn with the wheels so I fitted a gear linkage that joins the cab steering wheel to the servo motor. This automatically engages when the cab is lowered.

I also made the bonnet openable, and i needed to "bulk" it anyway to cover the linkage for the steering wheel and pneumatic cylinder for cab tilting.

Finally i ordered the spares for the snowplow attachment which is currently standard and unmodified.

I'm not 100% happy with a lot of it but after a couple of weeks work I need a break. In particular I was limited by experience, by the spares i had, and lack of initial plan - there was a lot of feature creep. So I think it could be built in a much more elegant way. In future I want to modify the snowplow attachment to include the winch, and make the rear stabilizer feet pneumatic.

Overall it's fantastic fun and I think this technic model set is just fantastic from a playability and modification point of view.

As a kid in the 1980s I was obsessed with Lego technic but it was very expensive and we didn't have much money so I had very little.

I dabbled with it every decade or so since.

Visited a friend i hadn't seen for a while the other week and got inspired by their collection. I bought the lego Unimog 8110 and paired it with some various motors, gears and other parts from my small lifetimes collection. It's work in progress but I'm getting to where I want to be;

1: modified steering geometry to use the Ackerman principal. It stears much better now.

2: modified the front and rear pan hard rods to improve suspension geometry

3. Installed one PF L drive motor and one servo motor for the steering.

4. Completely disassembled the main gearbox and built a two cylinder air compressor with an air tank. Originally I wanted to make this compressor start and stop by itself but whilst k had no trouble making it stop ot was tricky to get the self starting system to work in the space available. So I just turn the compressor on and off via RC. The compressor is powered by an L motor and performance is radically improved.

5. Used the original M motor to drive a two position gearbox which drives the front and rear PTO depending on clutch position. Due to the location of the steering servo I had to move the rear PTO to the side which isn't ideal but I'll work on that later.

6. My favorite bit; the gearbox clutch is actuated by a mini pneumatic cylinder just like a teal heavy gearbox. I habe located the (now three) pneumatic switches on the left hand side; one diverts air fwd/rear, one operates the clutch, one is going to be used later to tilt the bed sideways - currently working on this.

Couple of points; i haven't used lego for years and am s but out of practice. I also built this from pieces in my collection so I appreciate the colours etc could be better. Structurally I also need to make some improvements. Finally i know there are a lot of exposed gears but honestly I like that.

Wind installation vessel Brave Tern smashed into another vessel and then a dockside crane in Ejsberg, Denmark whilst en route to the Thor wind farm. Luckily no one was seriously hurt.