Well I've gone and ruined the surprise - that's right what I described in this post as simply my most complicated Lego build yet I can now reveal is going to be a Forklift.
I think it's getting pretty obvious anyway
When we left it I was about about step 300 - I figured I was a third of the way through. I'm at 571 now - I think I'm probably about 2/3 of the way and yeah it's still challenging.
The set spent a fair amount of time upside down, which was challenging, as it doesn't have a flat top, but to get all the drive shafts and steering right you have to fiddle with a lot of stuff.
This section almost broke me - in fact I had to have two gos at it - it's the steering for the back axle and it's really quite ridiculous. I believe - just like a real forklift the the back wheels can sort of turn in on themselves to get a tigheter turning circle. There is gears and switches all over the shop to make this happen.
You can see it starting to take shape here, the back wheels are on, the entire rear body work is there as well.
Next milestone was one of the wheel arches - I do like how they use the second wheelarch horizontally to make the top of the body work at the rear.
What is even more impressive is the the body work is design to 'open' so that you can still see all of the mechanics underneath. Also the 'air tank' at the back also provides 'Hand of God steering' - impressively thought through.
And at the end of book one of the instructions you really do have half a Forklift - it's very unusual for have two of the four wheels on, it's like a cut-away you see at a motor show to show you the insides of a vehicle.
Here is the front, where part 2 will be building the actually forklift portion.
