The Grill After

Here it is after a few hours work. Just need to bolt the Datto badge back (the bolts are drying there new paint) Also need to perhaps paint the original colours back into. The rivets were a bitch putting back in to. Between the cheap gun I'm using and the bad angles it wasn't so easy.

Click the images to make them larger

The Grill Before

With the grill off its finally time to give it some love! Heres a few pics of the before......

22 Rivets and 2 nuts holding this bad boy together. I can tell you I had fun getting the rivets out :( I used a Drill, a Dremel and a hammer and chisel.

Datsun Guard

The poor 1200 has been looking more and more unloved of late so I decided to start on the body work. This guard for no particular reason is coming off!

Ta Da! Took me awhile to get it off actually 4 or so bolts snapped and left their threads in the nuts :( Oh well. Had to take some chrome off and the headlight out to get to a bolt that was bent in a bit stopping me from being able to unscrew it. Was tempted to keep going and take the grill off aswell. Thats in really good nick and will come up a treat with some love :) Look at that sexy strut in there :P

For now though the guard is under the house and ready for me to play with. Not much of an idea how to go ahead with it but I'll experiment and learn as I go. See what happens!

Lego 7

Its time to build the tracks! You can see in the back ground its really starting to take shape.

The tracks are on! The engine covers lift up so you can see the pistons pumping and the doors on the cabin also swing open and shut :)

The Blade was a small project in itself! This used the majority of the flat tiles in the kit. Reall looks the part though and is quite functional. After mounting it I fired up the motors and dozed the remaining lego parts around the desk. Also drove over them nad what not.

Here it is complete!

That was a fun kit to build and is much more functional than the last technic I built. The motors and remote really make a big difference in enjoying the item after you have finished building it. I made a few small mistakes along the way building but nothing to serious. It took me probably a day all up to build this. I imagine someone younger would take a bit longer and would be a very nice project that could take upwards of a week to build. I wish I had toys like this around when i was the right age :) Maybe i wouldnt have to feed my fetish now :P The kit has suprisingly good traction over all kinds of surfaces. Piles of stuff dont slow it down much. After dissasembly I think I'll build an off road type car and really try out those tracks over all types of obstacles. The other thing I want to do is make a lift of some sort. I think the XL motors will be capable of lifting quite a bit of weight. The little motors on there own seem to have enough go in them to lift the front and back of the dozer if you take the blade or ripper right down. The torqu cog inside starts slipping however once to much weight is applied. This is a cool new item that stops your gears tearing themselves apart with these strong motors.

Lego 6

Day 2 started early in the morning I couldnt resist.

Here the small motors have been mounted. One for the front Dozer blade and one for the rear ripper.

A bit further on and the 2 recievers are mounted and connected to all 4 motors.

A little more into the book and now the battery box is mounted. This is built in well. A couple of pins hold it in. It can be taken in and out easily to replace batteries if needed. The ripper needs to be lowered over the edge of a table to give enough clearance.

Lego 5

Built 2 of these. Looks like part of the tracks.

Above thing mounted x2. 6 cylinder motor constructed and ready to mount.

Close up of the Engine mounted. Looks complicated in the middle there :)

Last pic is night 1 complete and Book 1 of the 3 finished.

Lego 4

Heres the other XL motor mounted and upside down. 1 and a bit beers in...

The 2 motors and mounts are joined here. Lots of cogs in the centre and another white cog added to control torque on the other motor.

Some reinforcing of the joined motor frames

Lego 3

Another step done. Note the white cog which is quite cool. When to much force is applied the the axle the axle will spit seperate from the rest of the cog stopping your hours of work self imploding :)

Putting 2 parts together here. The manual seems to have you build sections at a time early on and then join them up and reinforce them. The Iphone is running MSN in the background....just got to stay connected :)

One of the XL motors has now been mounted. I would imagine that this will drive one of the tracks. The motor is quite hard to spin by hand suprisingly enough. Hopefully will equate to lots of low geared power later on.

Another module complete.

Lego 2

The First page of book 1 of 3. I like step one :)

Heres step one completed :)

I nearly mucked up here straight of the bat! Those cogs looked suspiciously the same in the book :)

Starting to come along now... I've tried to take pics of the manual steps in the background for reference as to where I am upto.

Damn Lego

I Bought some Lego today. The biggest technic kit I could lay my hands on. Before I got started I decided to clean down an area where I could happily build away. I decided on the bar for this. Click on any Pics to make them much larger and easier to look at.

The Box!


The tidied bar!


Inside the box.

Spread out on the new work table :)

Snow Near Cradle Mountain

A couple of weeks back we popped up to the snow for a look. The Jack Russels love it! Few pics for the album :)


Snow Jack


Snow Dan


They run round in the snow for ages without gettting cold. Merlin even gets in water up to his belly! Cold cold water! Doesnt seem to slow him down one bit.