-ZANTHERA-
LEGO Hogwarts Express 8-Wide Refine Progress
Recently I decided to give it a go and refine my rather old design for my Hogwarts Express MOC, with this new official set coming out this year it offers a great piece to use for the nameboard plus the new 1 x 3 double jumper plate has enabled many previously weak joins to be much stronger since it relies on one piece rather than a few.
I decided to go with the 8-wide build as I feel it offers much more freedom for details and strength as the majority of the loco is no longer made from plates adding up to 7-wide.
The entire drive chassis has been heavily reinforced and has gone from the most fragile part of the loco to I'd say the strongest. It now has a much more solid attachment to the cab area and the running board overall has been strengthened.
I have managed to get the drive wheels set back by half a stud which tucks the rear drive wheels further under the cab than before thus making it closer to the real loco.
One thing I did have to sacrifice in the name of keeping everything genuine was the front drive wheels being set back by half a stud, while this does look closer to the real wheel spacing there are no legal build methods I have been able to come up with that make it so this setup works well and keeps together properly as there was only a 4 long axle in the front half of the rods which caused the rods to either fall apart or get pressed together and disturb the smoothness of the wheels.
The tender is out of frame because it is currently undergoing an overhaul as well to try and get not only more detail but better overall strength as it too is another problem area when it comes to the fragility of this model.
LEGO Hogwarts Express 8-Wide Refine Progress
Recently I decided to give it a go and refine my rather old design for my Hogwarts Express MOC, with this new official set coming out this year it offers a great piece to use for the nameboard plus the new 1 x 3 double jumper plate has enabled many previously weak joins to be much stronger since it relies on one piece rather than a few.
I decided to go with the 8-wide build as I feel it offers much more freedom for details and strength as the majority of the loco is no longer made from plates adding up to 7-wide.
The entire drive chassis has been heavily reinforced and has gone from the most fragile part of the loco to I'd say the strongest. It now has a much more solid attachment to the cab area and the running board overall has been strengthened.
I have managed to get the drive wheels set back by half a stud which tucks the rear drive wheels further under the cab than before thus making it closer to the real loco.
One thing I did have to sacrifice in the name of keeping everything genuine was the front drive wheels being set back by half a stud, while this does look closer to the real wheel spacing there are no legal build methods I have been able to come up with that make it so this setup works well and keeps together properly as there was only a 4 long axle in the front half of the rods which caused the rods to either fall apart or get pressed together and disturb the smoothness of the wheels.
The tender is out of frame because it is currently undergoing an overhaul as well to try and get not only more detail but better overall strength as it too is another problem area when it comes to the fragility of this model.