Sometimes when I'm building Lego things get out of hand - this story is one of those times. Something that started off a quick little build ended up entertaining me for 4 or 5 hours over the weekend and resulted in 7 trucks.
But I won't tell you about all seven - that would be way to much for a single post let's talk about the first three.
It started simply enough - As I often do I saw a MOC on rebrickable for a micro scale yellow truck cab - these things are just 4 studs wide - and I thought - I can make that.
This design looks simple - but there are a few fancy little bits, the middle of the front - everything above the yellow triangles is actually built upside down and counter leveled of some pieces in the middle - it how you get the very realistic springed cab look with the gap between the bumper and the cab.
But this was it for the MOC - a cab and no trailer so step one was making a trailer for this one. First problem wheels - basically I don't anymore of the small modern wheels, but then I realised they are exactely the same size as the old school (80's) red sided wheels and I have plenty of those. So a nice simple trailer for this was built with a technic piece with a hole in it sticking out the front to join with the cab.
That was quite a bit of fun which made me think could I make another one of these - maybe a bit simpler, no upside down building, rather just some simple brackets and trans pieces on the front, maybe a grill or two, and what if I could do a nice tiled roof, aerodynamic like. And green and white that would be cool.
And I thought I could do the exhaust stacks a bit better, the yellow one does some strange joins and they are just two yellow tiles, but what if I used some more fancy pieces, and some other bits and pieces on the back that imply a hinge or two.
And then a trailer - I decided to go with a green and white wave - in my mind this would be used for a transport in a car racing team or something like that - imagine a list of sponsors at the front and you might have a vision into my mind.
But then I had a thought that not all semi-trailers are this modern box design some are more bull-nose in design - so then I had to build one of those - this was a bit tricky - curves never being lego's strong suit and certianly not in such a same scale, the cabs are basically four studs wide and four deep. But I think I kinda got it, the rounded wheel arches and then the curved bonnet over the motor.
I was starting to get a little bored with the blocky trailers so I figured I go for a tanker type design - This one has the ability to carry two different types of chemicals at once - hence the different colour patterns on the tank (I've thought of everything)
And of course the hitching point has moved on from the simple hole sitting over a hook of the first two designs - now we have a official lego joiner. And of course the trailer needed some levers and a gauage or two otherwise how where you getting the chemicals out.
So there you go, that how a simple build of a yellow cab held to two more trucks, in part 2 your learn how far it goes when I showed these to my wife and she said "I'm surprised you have that many wheels' and I said - Nah, I've going to have whole fleet of trucks.....