Combined my MILS nuclear power plant, waste facility, and other features into a single educational train diorama in Studio with 67k pieces. I'm currently working on getting the X12 locomotive built in real life to go with my flask cars. Have a great Memorial Day weekend!
Happy Friday! We're pleased to announce that instructions with parts list are now available for the Nitric Acid Transport in paperback and Kindle app for smart devices. Nitric acid is useful in a variety of industries and agriculture but is considered hazardous cargo.
A few weeks ago, I launched the Zazzle platform for t-shirts and more featuring my brick-built trains and STEM rolling stock, largely to fill a global need for independent AFOL train apparel, cups, and posters. Now with over 120 items across ten collections featuring my artwork. Either check out zazzle's website, search for "Phoenix Train Works" or open this link in your external browser.
(Clothing is available for men and women, just click on sizes and options.)
Mentioned before that I was working on documenting the road to the Veyron. Now that the Veyron has been modeled and I can create "stickers" in Studio parts editor, working on a cumulative presentation of the models. Since someone mentioned it, yes, there's a Veyron SS in the mix since it was easy to convert the base model into one. :)
It's part of my ongoing series of cars that connect Diablo to Veyron. This 8w moc is sized for Speed Champions and features a detailed engine bay. The wing can be built back onto the car body and the detachable stalks stored inside the vehicle.
Been designing a few odd cabooses for future projects.
Still working on posters of my STEM train MOCs. It'll be up on the storefront soon.
https://www.zazzle.com/store/phoenix_train_works
It's rather fun learning to do blue print style artwork.
It's a special kind of work caboose that features a barrel for water at the end. Someone presented this concept and a few examples in other train scales so I figured I'd give it a go in Studio. The water is for brush fires or other mishaps from a steam train's fire box or from the cargo. Given the hazmat theme of a lot of my Lego rolling stock from atomic materials to molten steel, I figure I probably should have one of these in my collection.
We're pleased to announce that Phoenix Train Works is now also on Zazzle with PTW themed creations such as t-shirts, posters, and more designed by M P Lynes with his portfolio of train MOCs.
Please check it out if you're an AFOL, model railroad fan, or nuclear engineer. It's been a while in the making. Be sure to open link in browser like Chrome or Firefox instead of in-app as the reddit app may have issues displaying Zazzle.
https://www.zazzle.com/store/phoenix_train_works/collections
Both tend to be overlooked by fans of Italian supercars but they have a special fondness to me as I have 1/18 diecasts of them in my personal Lamborghini collection (Autoart and Ricko, respectively). They feature opening hoods and the Espda has opening doors as well (that strangely don't close without some disassembly, LOL). These are 8w and designed and built from the ground up as 8w MOCs.
Instructions with parts lists can be found here for the 8w and 4w retro styled super cars. They are based on the author's childhood creations, back when custom builds were simpler. Ideal for beginning builders and for those wanting to build in a nostalgic retro style.
Working on a special endeavor. More details to follow.
As mentioned before, there's a history of concept cars between the Lamborghini Diablo and the Bugatti Veyron/Chiron. Featured here are some of the Diablo racing vehicles and some concept vehicles within the VW Audi group that utilized the Diablo chassis, Diablo engine and/or W engine. Not pictured is my VW Nardo MOC but that was only a W engine test bed per se, not a Diablo chassis. It is interesting to note that during the VW Audio purchase of Lamborghini that they stopped the Diablo GT1 program and went on with the Audi R8 for prototype category at Le Mans. Also, instead of making the next ultimate hypercar a Lamborghini, they took apart the Diablo, worked with its AWD chassis and fitted on their test iterations of the W engine and called it "French," labelling it as a Bugatti. Could these events be a source of angst for Lamborghini fans? Maybe, but then again, the company is still alive, when it had barely survived the 1990s, making Lego's own near bankruptcy in 2003 seem trivial in comparison. Lego had Bionicle and Star Wars license to survive. Lamborghini had only its build quality and dedication to making extreme supercars to make itself desirable to a new corporate owner.
Also learning how to add custom graphics on Lego parts in Studio Part Editor software instead of always doing it on the renders post-edit. Most parts were able to receive graphics as shown in this render of the parts as they are.
Decided to make a full view render of the entire X12 Atomic Locomotive, Schnabel Car, Behemoth Bascule Bridge, and nuclear power plant as part of an educational STEM themed render, with over 60k parts to produce the scene.