When last we left it I had built 3/4 of a Le Mans car over the last three days, and today was the final run to the finish line. By my reckoning I had a driver's capsule and then the back third's bodywork.
So first things first as suspected it was straight into the driver's cabin, I say cabin, but with the lack of glass (not actually unusual on Lego Technic cars) it's more of a canopy similar to a golf cart, again some nice designs in this the A pillars are particularly clever, the black piping you can see at the bottom is actually connected via the roof and then swung down, it gives it a nice airy feeling.
From here things get a little weird. You often build in sections and then attach that section to the main model, but it is a bit weird when there are almost 120 steps of separate building, that's right, for about the next hour and until step 805 of 807 I'll be building a separate model.
And this is not a simple, hey throw these few bits together and then attach them, this is complicated as all get out. Check out this as a frame that we are building. What become evident very quickly is that the whole back of the car is hinged so that in the finished model you can lift the body up and see the engine and suspension.
It goes on like this for quite some time - You build the sidepods, a huge shark fin style bodywork, a big old rear wing and it's all very very cool. I made particular care to put the 'defender' sticker in an appropriate place as well.
and here is that separate model, right before I'm about to attach it to the main model in the background, what impressive is how one slides into the other, very cool, The angles the designer has got on this is amazing - in fact I'm in awe of this guy, how he has produced something this good I don't understand. I should mention these instruction do cost money - this one was 10 Euros, but it was money well spent, I mean I've got 6-7 hours of enjoyment building this thing and I have a great model at the end of it which is going to sit on my shelf for a while before I dismantle it and turn it into something else.
And I'm sure you want to see some finished shots so here goes...
This thing is a monster by the way
The most surprising thing is actually the width - and also check out those angles.
And the details
and the rarely seen but sound be appreciated undercarriage