Lego Exposition - Washington DC

 During part of this road trip to the East, we visited the National Building Museum. At this time they have an exhibition called Brick City.  Here are some of what is on display.

Early LEGO sets.

I really liked this one.  I have been wanting to place a cafeteria/mess hall in the Space Outpost.  While this is a market, I think it will serve as a great inspiration for this detail.  More pictures follow.

The detail in this display is incredible.  

 This is a cut away of the National Building Museum.  The remaining pictures are of that model.

What I find appealing of this model is the office space.  This is another feature I need to improve in the Space Outpost and this will serve as inspiration.

Road Trip

 

Long road trip for the last month.  Drove from Nevada to Virginia, traveled around Virginia and Maryland and then back to Nevada.  A long the way I found multiple Brick Stores (Bricks and Minifigs and similar).  I was able to spend time in three of them and collected quite a few bricks, plus getting some for the grand kids.  Above you can see a portion of the Tan version I found.  It took me almost a week to wash, sort and put away the haul.  

Next on the schedule is Brickpalooza in Roseville CA on Dec 9.  My goal is to fill in one of the angled holes with the rock wall and the start of Blacktron quarters, cafeteria and recreation room.  Additionally I need to update the Space Gun controller such that it is contained in the platform.  Once the area behind it is filled in with the rock wall, there will be no room for the controller.  For this I have been working on upgrading the firmware in the Brick Buddy ONE to be compatible with all the other controllers.  More on this later.

Finally some of the beautiful  places to see in this country.

Southern Utah on State road 25.

Crossing the Colorado River over the far north end of Lake Powell.

These two pictures are of Utah State Route 261 as we descend off Cedar Mesa to Mexican Hat, Utah. Mostly single lane gravel/dirt road.  These two show the best part of the road.

Monument Valley.

Sunrise on the Oklahoma Panhandle.

Somewhere in eastern Tennessee.

Along the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Mabry Mill on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

And the same mill, but from August of 1976.

Somewhere in Western Kansas or Eastern Colorado on US 50.

Space Cannon Rebuild

Prior to going to Brick Fest Live in Sacramento, the Space Gun needed some maintenance.  Wasn't quite sure which motor connector was connected to what motor.  Both of the small guns would not turn.  And it appeared that the main gun would not turn.  From this picture it is hard to see, but when the cliff is finished there, the power canisters on the back are going to have to move.  There will not be enough room for all of that to and still maintain the walkway.

 I took it partially apart.  The main gun gun was not sitting on the turntable correctly and kept coming off.  There needs to be a better connection system than what there is now.

On one of the small guns, the horizontal axle had some how pulled back (to the left here) and was no longer engaging the gear.  Thus the axle would turn, but the gear would not.  This caused the mating gear not to turn and in the end the small gun.  You could hear the motor turning, but nothing was happening.

The other small gun had a different issue.  The horizontal axle was in enough to engage the gear, but it went just far enough to cause the vertical axle to be pushed to an angle.  This picture is an exaggeration, but it shows the problem.  The vertical axle was being pushed down by the small gun when it was attached.  Then the vertical axle would slip off the end of the horizontal axle and cause the box to grind.  Sometimes the axle would pass through the 2 x 2 round plate with axle hole and not be connected to this round plate.  That also would cause the small gun not to turn, as this round plate was connected to the vertical axle and then this round plate was connected to the turntable that made the small gun move.

This module is still using an old Brick Controller and needs to change to one of the new ones.  When this is done, some of the gearing can go away since I will be able to PWM the motor for speed control.  At that point there will be some major modifications for the Space Gun.

 

 

 

Space Outpost SL ONE - The Story

 

This year at the shows, a story line has developed.  I guess every large display needs an over arching story line to go with it.  One it is interesting for the visitors and it helps guide development of the display.

So here goes.

The Starfleet Voyager has just returned from it's latest mission.  The droids are busy restocking and preparing for the next mission.

The crew of the latest mission are marching into the Space Port with their injured comrades.  Additionally the local jet pack patrol is preparing to launch from the Space Port on their mission of local patrolling around the Space Outpost.

In the briefing room in the center section, the next crew is preparing for their turn on the Outer Rim defense.

Meanwhile in the Power Well, one of the Maintenance Team ( as designated by the M on their fronts) has fallen down into the well.  A team member is struggling to get him out.  All the while 3 supervisors look on wondering how this happened.

A droid had had a serious malfunction and blown his top, with fire coming out of the top.  Three Maintenance men are discussing the best approach to fixing this problem.

At the Vertical Generator, they are busy charging up the power canisters that the outpost needs for power.  The two Red Spacemen run the charging while the two on top monitor the generator along with the two in the Vertical Generator control room.

On the other end of the outpost, the Maintenance team is busy preparing the last of the Cosmic Ray Guns.  The small MECH is helping install the gun, while the rest of the team is preparing the pad for the generator.  The generator is hanging over the space right now. 

In the hanger bays, work continues.  Different work groups are working on walkers and the larger MECH.

Here we see three dedicated Maintenance Team members working on repairing the floor of this hanger bay.  All of this hard work, while three supervisors enjoy their coffee and doughnuts.

Finally a rogue droid is running loose and has attached itself to the side hanger support pillar.  Three Maintenance Team members and two Blue droids are working on recovering this larger worker droid.  One brave member of the Maintenance Team has climbed down an extension pole to try and reset the droid while everyone else looks on.

This is the story for now,  As more detail is added, I am sure this will expand.

Brick Fest Live Sacramento - Day 2

 As in Day ONE they were lined up around the building waiting for the doors to open.  While the crowd was little smaller on Sunday, they made up for that in enthusiasm.  

I am so grateful for the 360 degree access.  It made all the difference in the enjoyment of the display.  The kids were over joyed that they could see the back side and the detail in the hangers.  It also allowed for everyone to see inside the center section better.

There were minimal other displays at this event.  No Lego Users Group participated.   There was the Boy Scout Camp/Civil War Re-Enactment/Zoo from last time.  One other person who was doing Nike shoes in Lego.  Several comments from adults were made that there were not many displays to look at as in previous Lego events (not necessarily just Brick Fest).  Though there was a lot for kids to do.

Take down was about 15 minutes slower than last time.  The boxes need more descriptions on the outside.  I should also probably take a picture of what goes inside and print that out.  While the bigger pieces are obvious where they go, the extras may not be.  A printed picture in every box or maybe on the inside of the lid, would be helpful.  I am finding the the two conductor wire is easier to connect and disconnected than the single wire twisted that I have been using.  So as time goes along, this is probably the direction I will be going with the interconnecting wire.

Finally I still need some more thought into assembly/disassembly.  I really need to get this down to 3 to 3.5 hours in assembly and less than 2 in disassembly.

 

Brick Fest Live Sacramento - Day 1

 

 As described in the previous post.  We had a 360 degree access setup this time.  It made a much bigger impact than in previous shows.

The crowd on Saturday was actually very good.  The hall was as large as the one in San Diego.  Brick Fest had all of their usual activities, several build areas (swimming pool bricks, white spires and just generic bricks), the black light build area, the floor mosaic, the Star Wars cosplayers and the brick walls, etc.

And we had a stream of people.  I had to be careful to be mindful of the people behind me, so I did not block any views of the people looking at the back.

And on to day TWO.