StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Ah, what the hell, I'll give it a shot. Here's a daycab with reefer that used the tow truck starter as a base:



The 5th wheel coupling was a pain in the ass to set up, let me tell you.
I'll have more shots later, as I'm going to bed right now.

I said way before I was working on a police car (I just have a thing for emergency vehicles, I guess) and now I've finished it! Took the time to put in the little details, like the grille lights, some back window lights, the prisoner "cage" and the working doors...and a trunk! And, of course, in the classic black and white color scheme of the LAPD, and most of California. Don't have a hood that opens, though. Too much trouble for that. Anywhere, here it is:


The front at an angle, and full on. You can see the little grille lights better in the second picture.

A rear view, with the traffic control lights, those back window lights (the red 1x2 is a brake light), and a nice view of the "cage". Like I've seen in a good number of modern cars, part of it is a clear "plastic" and the rest the usual jail cell looking divider.

And now, an action shot!

My Lego cop putting up a bad guy. Showing the doors and the trunk, all of which will actually close fully, even if sometimes the hinge tool is a bit of a dick about the trunk. I even included little red and blue flashers, which again I've seen in a few police cars.

As promised, here are some more shots. I redid the color scheme on both, added mudflaps, and redid the landing gear, reefer unit, and the king pin area. The last two bits of tinkering made the trailer 4 units longer, too.



As you can see, the fifth wheel and kingpin connect via a ball-and-socket joint. As I said before, that was a real pain in the ass to set up, seeing as the only LEGO pieces with a ball and socket connect horizontally.



I think the back doors are about as good as I can manage with this program. Beyond the original cab from the tow truck, I added brake lights and stacks to the back of the cab, added bigger wheels, removed most of the bed (save for a bit to act as a deckplate), redid the frame and rear bumper, and added a windjammer.



Here you can see the articulation at the fifth wheel coupling, as well as the retraction of the landing gear. It's not exactly realistic, but I don't think there are any telescoping LEGO pieces with which to make a realistic retraction mechanism.

Perhaps the scariest thing about this is that I made it with no reference material whatsoever. Clearly, I have been around way too many trucks.

RogueIce wrote:Apparently there was a brick update. Added stuff, but then it made everything I built previously as invalid to upload and buy.

Yeah, they changed a bunch of stuff. The large Red doors are no longer available. Now they are Green. Why can't they have both? Argh... I had to take apart and redo the last design of the above to get rid of all the bricks that are no longer supported. That was a joy.

The new refinements on the fire truck are great. I like the light bar a lot! And the police van is very slick. One suggestion, could you lengthen the wheelbase a bit? Maybe by just a few studs.

EDIT:

I forgot the police car... The working trunk, the cage, the spotlights, very nice! Great details all over.

Here's my update:







I've put a pair of 1X1 round clear transparent plates (the headlights) behind 1X2 transparent smooth plates. Also, now that the transparent "cheese slopes" (that RougeIce used for his lightbars) are available, it makes things a little easier when streamlining stuff.

Executor32 wrote:The 5th wheel coupling was a pain in the ass to set up, let me tell you.
I'll have more shots later, as I'm going to bed right now.

Yeah, see above for my half-assed attempt at a 5th wheel that i have yet to clean up. I actually have an old trailer design that actually works with that arrangement as seen on page one, but it's for the larger rig I made which is now on the back burner.

Both you and RogueIce, I like your doors much better than mine and I fully intend to liberally borrow from your designs.

Oh, and the rigs are amazing. Me likey very much.

I redid the roof. I got rid of redundant rooflights as soon as I saw the transparent slopes. I have a ladder behind the front wheels and added a grab bar to help get up to the step area for the minifigs to "walk" on to get into the cab, but I don't like where ladder is. It should be a little closer to the wheel, but then it would interfere with its left/right steering (which doesn't actually work).

I was thinking of using larger tires, but it involves a major redesign.

RogueIce, I forgot to mention earlier, but did you see the new respirator piece in DD for firefighters?



It's the gray part next to the white helmet. Remove the minifig's head, put on the yellow tanks, then the respirator part slips over that. Replace the head, then click on the transparent visor and top off with the helmet. Everything is nice and "airtight" after that.

FSTargetDrone wrote:RogueIce, I forgot to mention earlier, but did you see the new respirator piece in DD for firefighters?

http://i44.tinypic.com/n69s39.jpg

It's the gray part next to the white helmet. Remove the minifig's head, put on the yellow tanks, then the respirator part slips over that. Replace the head, then click on the transparent visor and top off with the helmet. Everything is nice and "airtight" after that.

Yep, I did. Nice addition! I also noticed the "lightsaber" blades but I missed the hilt, which I figured would be there somewhere. Now I can have mystical warriors with special powers who use glowing energy swords and are totally not Jedi.

FSTargetDrone wrote:Yeah, they changed a bunch of stuff. The large Red doors are no longer available. Now they are Green. Why can't they have both? Argh... I had to take apart and redo the last design of the above to get rid of all the bricks that are no longer supported. That was a joy.

I haven't bothered. Mainly because I have no idea which ones are invalid and which aren't (apparently more than just the red doors on the fire truck, and I have no idea what on the cop car...those white doors on the van are invalid though...as are the alternate police uniforms they're wearing, the motorcycle cop looking ones). Maybe they'll reenable it someday... They do have those nifty, thinner jet engines though. That's a plus.

FSTargetDrone wrote:The new refinements on the fire truck are great. I like the light bar a lot! And the police van is very slick. One suggestion, could you lengthen the wheelbase a bit? Maybe by just a few studs.

You mean bring 'em out wider? Or move the rear wheels further back? I'd be open to the latter. The reason they're there is that, in my original design (which I accidently saved over with the new one...whoops!) the way into the back was a giant hinged plate, which looked cool but obviously took up a bit of space (like those hatches at the back of the fire truck, only bigger). Now that it's a door I could probably move the real wheels back to just before the bumper or something. But we'll see how it goes.

FSTargetDrone wrote:I forgot the police car... The working trunk, the cage, the spotlights, very nice! Great details all over.

I made a slightly modified version, this one with a rounded bumper to make it more modern. I don't like how much it extends it, though.

FSTargetDrone wrote:Here's my update:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3302/348 ... 8a05_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3615/348 ... 976b_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3349/348 ... 0226_o.jpg

I've put a pair of 1X1 round clear transparent plates (the headlights) behind 1X2 transparent smooth plates. Also, now that the transparent "cheese slopes" (that RougeIce used for his lightbars) are available, it makes things a little easier when streamlining stuff.

Executor32 wrote:The 5th wheel coupling was a pain in the ass to set up, let me tell you.
I'll have more shots later, as I'm going to bed right now.

Yeah, see above for my half-assed attempt at a 5th wheel that i have yet to clean up. I actually have an old trailer design that actually works with that arrangement as seen on page one, but it's for the larger rig I made which is now on the back burner.

Both you and RogueIce, I like your doors much better than mine and I fully intend to liberally borrow from your designs.

In fairness, I got it from the tow truck starter model (which is what Executor used as his starting point) and stole it from there.

FSTargetDrone wrote:Oh, and the rigs are amazing. Me likey very much.

I redid the roof. I got rid of redundant rooflights as soon as I saw the transparent slopes. I have a ladder behind the front wheels and added a grab bar to help get up to the step area for the minifigs to "walk" on to get into the cab, but I don't like where ladder is. It should be a little closer to the wheel, but then it would interfere with its left/right steering (which doesn't actually work).

I was thinking of using larger tires, but it involves a major redesign.

Trying to accomodate those minifigs can be a bitch sometimes, can't it? As it is, my fire truck could probably use a ladder, since the bottom of the door comes up to about their "neck" if memory serves. But I didn't feel like it.

RogueIce wrote:Yep, I did. Nice addition! I also noticed the "lightsaber" blades but I missed the hilt, which I figured would be there somewhere. Now I can have mystical warriors with special powers who use glowing energy swords and are totally not Jedi.

There's a beard part now, too. You can make an aged mystical warrior.

Also, the hilt parts make excellent gun barrel parts for spaceships and such.

I haven't bothered. Mainly because I have no idea which ones are invalid and which aren't (apparently more than just the red doors on the fire truck, and I have no idea what on the cop car...those white doors on the van are invalid though...as are the alternate police uniforms they're wearing, the motorcycle cop looking ones). Maybe they'll reenable it someday... They do have those nifty, thinner jet engines though. That's a plus.

They changed some of the colors with some of the parts like the 2X2 bricks with the Technic pin, etc. I had used that in my "5th wheel" and it made the model non-uploadable. What I can't understand is why did they remove parts? Perhaps they ran out of real red doors for purchase in Lego Factory. Anyway, I redid the truck because I intend to actually buy it in parts, once I am satisfied with the model. Right now it's hitting $70+ which is frightening, so I've been trying to pare it down as much as possible.

You mean bring 'em out wider? Or move the rear wheels further back? I'd be open to the latter.

Yes, back by 2 or 3 Studs if you can fit it. Not wider. The front wheels look fine as is, but pushing the rear wheels back a stud or three (if you can make it work without too much hassle) might complete things.

Incidentally, your fire truck reminds me of an airport fire vehicle, something like this one.

I made a slightly modified version, this one with a rounded bumper to make it more modern. I don't like how much it extends it, though.

That's not bad. By the way, do you still have the pair of end-to-end black 1X2 grill plate between the headlights on your police car? Consider using a dark gray grills instead of black. That way you get the appearance of the black "radiator" part contrasting with the gray grill. I did something similar with my truck, using dark gray plates behind the red and black grills.

In fairness, I got it from the tow truck starter model (which is what Executor used as his starting point) and stole it from there.

Well, I based mine on one of they actual for-sale toys, so we are all inspired.

Trying to accomodate those minifigs can be a bitch sometimes, can't it? As it is, my fire truck could probably use a ladder, since the bottom of the door comes up to about their "neck" if memory serves. But I didn't feel like it.

Yeah. I like to have space for 2 minifigs in front and that's easy enough to do with large trucks/fire trucks. Cars are harder, but you pulled it off pretty damn well with the police car. I don't know if you ever saw the Speed Racer race car kits Lego put out awhile back, but they have place for 2 minifigs, side by side. Some of the DD starter car models are similar.

Check out Brickshelf if you have an hour or 2 to kill and search for, well, anything. There are some amazing tank models, spacecraft, Castle models, everything!

FSTargetDrone wrote:Anyway, I redid the truck because I intend to actually buy it in parts, once I am satisfied with the model. Right now it's hitting $70+ which is frightening, so I've been trying to pare it down as much as possible.

If it makes you feel better, my firetruck was around $80 back when it was valid to price check. And it wasn't even fully done, yet (the equipment bays had no barriers between them, for instance).

Yes, back by 2 or 3 Studs if you can fit it. Not wider. The front wheels look fine as is, but pushing the rear wheels back a stud or three (if you can make it work without too much hassle) might complete things.

I can probably do that, when I get inspired to work on it again. At the moment though, SW: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption is taking my time. Damn shiny new toys.

Incidentally, your fire truck reminds me of an airport fire vehicle, something like this one.

Actually, I always figured my police van looked more like one of those, though that was accidental.

I based mine more-or-less off a regular fire truck. Google Image Search "fdny fire engine" was where I got my source pics.

That's not bad. By the way, do you still have the pair of end-to-end black 1X2 grill plate between the headlights on your police car? Consider using a dark gray grills instead of black. That way you get the appearance of the black "radiator" part contrasting with the gray grill. I did something similar with my truck, using dark gray plates behind the red and black grills.

Nope, with the rounded bricks there's no longer room to have the needed connecters. So it's just a single thin black piece now.

But I saved the older version, so I can always fiddle around with the square bumper one.

Yeah. I like to have space for 2 minifigs in front and that's easy enough to do with large trucks/fire trucks. Cars are harder, but you pulled it off pretty damn well with the police car. I don't know if you ever saw the Speed Racer race car kits Lego put out awhile back, but they have place for 2 minifigs, side by side. Some of the DD starter car models are similar.

It makes it wider, but since I was more-or-less basing my police car off a Crown Vic, and everyone calls those things 'boats' anyway, I figured I was justified.

Check out Brickshelf if you have an hour or 2 to kill and search for, well, anything. There are some amazing tank models, spacecraft, Castle models, everything!

I like that Armored company of his. Definately some stuff for inspiration to look at. I wouldn't mind figuring out a tank in LDD, myself.

Hell, $80 is nothing compared to mine. If I wanted to buy it, it would cost $152.11.

Executor: I'd pay that for that model. It's one of the best units I've ever seen made of LEGO. Would you consider making some alternates? Like a gravel hauling truck?

http://www.arnes.com/enddumps.asp

Ignore the ugly 2010 model, I hate those boxes, and I think they'd be a bitch to make in LEGO. But the tandem end dump and especially the triaxle end dump (tri end dumps) are very nice, and models I have (like, actual trailers, not models of the trailers).

http://hayworthequipment.com/load-line- ... boxes.html

A box like that mounted on the truck itself, with two axles it'd just be a tandem, but if you add a wagon to it...
http://hayworthequipment.com/wagons.html

Then you'd get a quad-axle wagon unit. Try the K-Line box, but don't put those retarded fenders on it. I'll see if I can dig up some pictures of my units, they're custom built by a local shop, so they're a bit simpler in appearance. And I don't know if you'd want to try and make the boxes go up, I don't think it's possible with LEGO at that scale.

Just some ideas

Well, I took a couple hours and made you a rock trailer, Phant. I had to take some artistic liberties given that I'm working with LEGO bricks, but I think you'll agree it's fairly accurate.



This one is 714 pieces, and would cost $153.65 at the LEGO Store. It still uses the same cab as the other one, and the same fifth wheel coupling, dressed up a bit differently.



Here's a shot of the back, in which you can see the small drainage door that opens in a not-quite-accurate-but-OK-for-LEGO manner.



Another shot of the back, this time with the main door open. That black thing up in the front, representing the indent in the front where the hydraulic lift is located on a real trailer, should be light gray like the rest of the trailer, but the light gray version of that piece isn't available in the LEGO Store.



Finally, a shot of the box lifting. Sadly, it won't stay up like that (you'd have to hold it up with your hand), but it's better than not having it lift at all, I'd say.

VERY nice work.

We need hydraulic rams in DD. Lego actually has such pieces, but not in DD... The dump truck with trailer toy I linked to on the top of the first page has a pair of such parts (only one per dumper) but the friction between the 2 parts that make up each ram is strong enough to hold up the dump bed.

BTW, rails and train wheels/bogey parts are available in DD.

Executor32, can you zoom in on and grab a few shots of your 5th wheel design? I'm curious to see how you did it.

Holy fucking shit that's AWESOME! And the black hoist is fine, all my end dumps have black hoists. (although they are on the outside). It's really neat!

Could you try making the tailgate swing open from the top? So that when the trailer goes up, it swings open with gravity? That's the more modern style, and that's the style we use exclusively (I think the side swinging door is older than me, lol). The only other styles I've ever seen is the windrow hopper, that opens on the bottom, and the side-dumps, that I think are totally weird. And would of course, require major changes (but seriously, don't do those).

Another thing to try would be to add a third axle, and extend the box, for a tridump. That would be more expensive, of course, but I think my uncle would love to have one like that.

I really like how you got the sides so accurate to the boxes I linked to.

Don't forget a driver minifig!

Phantasee, as our local rig expert, I have some questions...

Originally, I had some made-up bits representing mechanical parts in my truck's interior. In reality, is there ever anything visible in the cab on the floor that would be like a fairing or cover for the engine/transmission/etc assembly? Should I build up the area under the gearshifter?

Also, are the beds on "shelves" like mine, or would the space under the bunk be covered? What would be there? Personal storage? That small gray 1X2 brick and the smooth 1X2 tile on top of it is supposed to represent a tool box.





I know I've seen bluish lights on the back of some real rigs on the highway. Why are these lights blue? Is it decorative or does it have some purpose? Also, are spare wheels ever carried on the rigs themselves? I imagine they are pretty damn heavy and would be difficult to move from such a stored position--I have mine there purely for aesthetics. However, if it's not right, just as well, it would make my model cheaper!

Depends on the truck. Western Stars are ugly as fuck inside, and have really high cabs with a lot of intrusion and stuff. In my Peterbilts, there's a plate, very thin, that the shifter comes out of. It's a long rectangle, with the shifter coming out the bottom half of it. It's actually in a vertical orientation, but what you've got is more than passable. The passenger side is just as bare in real life as it is in your model, too.

Under bunks, there is usually storage space. It's usually a little bit inside the cab, with access to the under-bunk area through side doors. The small door on most passenger sides lets you into a small locker-type compartment, and the driver side door will be taller, to give you an exit out of the sleeper , plus the mattress will cut the doorway in half, with underneath being a long space to store shovels and stuff, plus a little bit of wider space near the door.
Where PP is passenger seat, DD is driver's seat, S is shifter. Behind them there is a bit of space, but on the sides there are the compartments, with the back of it also part of the compartments. Those are under the bed. Depending on the size of the bunk, you can end up with more space in the cab, like in my truck, which has a massive sleeper, with closets and everything. My father's unit is a newer one with a smaller sleeper, so it has just a little bit of space behind the seats, just enough to put your feet down while sitting on the mattress.

But what you've got is as accurate as LEGO will let you be, unless you feel like making the model a few metres tall.

As for the lights, all the ones I've seen in that spot are red, with white lamps on the outside (load lamps). I suppose they could be load lamps as well, on certain models, and they'd be blue for decoration or to cast more of a blue light, because white load lamps are fucking BRIGHT. Load lamps just let you see the trailer in the dark when you're backing up, either to a dock, or in my case, to dump a load (usually snow, if it's dark). And behind you.

And some trucks have a small cage under the trailer for the spare tire, but it's usually not practical, on account of it being a complete bitch to change tires without a lot of equipment. My father is actually trying to get a set of the equipment so they can do some limited tire repair and replacement up in Fort McMurray. He's got a propane tank with the neck chopped off, onto which he will fit a pipe, with an air line connection into the body. With a valve on top of the pipe, the idea is to run a line from it to a compressor (including the one on the truck), and the other into the tire. Pumping up the propane tank will build up a shit load of pressure, and releasing it quickly will inflate the tire quickly so it seals to the rim. Now imagine trying to carry a propane tank around everywhere, in every truck.

Certainly, Drone. I can tell you precisely which pieces I used as well.



Here's a shot of the fifth wheel itself. It uses a 4x2 plate as the base, which attaches to the bottom of both axles. Then, on the center four studs of that are mounted a 1x2 flat and a 1x2 plate. Mounted on the 1x2 plate are another 1x2 plate, a 1x2 block, and a 1x2/2x2 angle plate. The 2x2 plate with ball socket is then mounted on the horizontal part of the angle plate, and a 2x2 flat is mounted to cover the studs on the socket plate and finish filling in the space between the axles.



For the kingpin, I started with a 2x2 plate with ball, then attached another 1x2/2x2 angle plate to that. I then mounted a 1x2 plate and a 1x2 block to the bottom of the angle plate, then attached it on top of the bottom plate of the trailer. The pieces on the front side of the kingpin, namely 2 2x2 plates, 2 1x1 plates with holders, and a 1x2 plate, are my best attempt in this program to hide the kingpin structure, save for the ball itself. LDD's a bit picky about collision meshes, so even though the program won't let you do it, there's enough clearance around the kingpin structure to replace those 1x1 plates with two normal 1x2 plates.

As for the door, Phant, I'll see what I can do. I actually may be able to manage side and top swinging on the tailgate with the right pieces, I know most of the rock trailers I see at work can open either from the top or the side, depending on which set of hinges has pins in it. As for making it longer and adding a third axle, given the way I've constructed the trailer it would be trivial.

Here you go, Phanty-poo. It's now 795 pieces, and $171.57 at the LEGO Store.



The door doesn't play nice with the hinge tool, trying to rotate the whole model along with the door, but the engineering is sound and it will work fine IRL. Two pins are used for the top hinges, but you'll only need one if you switch to the side hinges.

Like I said, trivial changes.

Phantasee wrote:Depends on the truck. Western Stars are ugly as fuck inside, and have really high cabs with a lot of intrusion and stuff. In my Peterbilts, there's a plate, very thin, that the shifter comes out of. It's a long rectangle, with the shifter coming out the bottom half of it. It's actually in a vertical orientation, but what you've got is more than passable. The passenger side is just as bare in real life as it is in your model, too.

Like this?

Under bunks, there is usually storage space. It's usually a little bit inside the cab, with access to the under-bunk area through side doors. The small door on most passenger sides lets you into a small locker-type compartment, and the driver side door will be taller, to give you an exit out of the sleeper , plus the mattress will cut the doorway in half, with underneath being a long space to store shovels and stuff, plus a little bit of wider space near the door.

Code: Select all

| |______ |
| |     |_|
|PP  S  DD|

Where PP is passenger seat, DD is driver's seat, S is shifter. Behind them there is a bit of space, but on the sides there are the compartments, with the back of it also part of the compartments. Those are under the bed. Depending on the size of the bunk, you can end up with more space in the cab, like in my truck, which has a massive sleeper, with closets and everything. My father's unit is a newer one with a smaller sleeper, so it has just a little bit of space behind the seats, just enough to put your feet down while sitting on the mattress.

But what you've got is as accurate as LEGO will let you be, unless you feel like making the model a few metres tall.

Okay, with that and playing with the software I now have:



The drawers open fully, even with the passenger seat in place (currently removed for clarity). The driver just has to stand to the side to get in there.

External doors and the sleeper section... I could use a duplicate of the driver and passenger doors, but I don't like that much. They would fit nicely, but not be big enough to double as an exit. That will require some more thought.

I have to see about the shovel. I had the wrench on the opposite wall from where it currently is, but the drawers now interfere with that. Incidentally, the "flashlight" that used to be where the wrench is now will actually fit in one of the drawers with its light removed. But I think it's better to have the flashlight closer to hand. I'm going to try to put it above and behind the driver's seat. It almost fits if I monkey with things a bit.

As for the lights, all the ones I've seen in that spot are red, with white lamps on the outside (load lamps). I suppose they could be load lamps as well, on certain models, and they'd be blue for decoration or to cast more of a blue light, because white load lamps are fucking BRIGHT. Load lamps just let you see the trailer in the dark when you're backing up, either to a dock, or in my case, to dump a load (usually snow, if it's dark). And behind you.

Ah, so those are "load lamps." Interesting. Still, I'll be damned if I can find photos of that area of a real life rig. I know I have seen bluish ones. I think it was at a toll booth at night...or somewhere where I got a look at a truck for a few seconds while stopped. The blue lights caught my eye and I always wondered about them. It's why I had them in the very first incarnation of this thing from page one.

And some trucks have a small cage under the trailer for the spare tire, but it's usually not practical, on account of it being a complete bitch to change tires without a lot of equipment. My father is actually trying to get a set of the equipment so they can do some limited tire repair and replacement up in Fort McMurray. He's got a propane tank with the neck chopped off, onto which he will fit a pipe, with an air line connection into the body. With a valve on top of the pipe, the idea is to run a line from it to a compressor (including the one on the truck), and the other into the tire. Pumping up the propane tank will build up a shit load of pressure, and releasing it quickly will inflate the tire quickly so it seals to the rim. Now imagine trying to carry a propane tank around everywhere, in every truck.

I will save this for if and when I ever resume work on my trailer again.

Executor32 wrote:Certainly, Drone. I can tell you precisely which pieces I used as well.

Thanks! I will check that out , but for now it's bedtime. Picking this up later...

In my experience, they're usually red, but sometimes trucks come in with purple load lamps, almost a blacklight sort of color. I haven't seen any blue ones that I can recall, though.

In my experience those are usually red too, and the actual load lamps are out on the top or bottom of the sleeper, sticking out. That way they can actually shine down the sides of the trailer. I think those might just be like a centre high mount brake lamp, like the one on your car. For when the truck doesn't have a trailer?

And Drone, your first shifter was correct, I just meant the orientation of the plate the shifter was mounted on would be vertical if you look down at it, so longer front to back. You had it horizontal, in that it was longer left to right. I didn't mean vertical as in mounted on the dash or anything. Although that shifter looks pretty neat now.

Personally, I wouldn't bother with the tire cage, I dislike them immensely. If you want some doodads on your trailer, add some hooks for the tire chains. Or if it's a reefer, make a tiny tank and mount it under the trailer, behind the legs. That's the oil for the reefer unit, I believe (I've only had to deal with vans and reefer units during driving school, so I'm a little hazy on exact details).

As for your storage, I wasn't referring to shelves and drawers. They are really more like lockers, and they are accessible from outside only. There's a wall between the locker and the inside of the cab. I'll try to take some pictures later today if I can find my camera, I'm going to the yard to change my car's oil this afternoon.

It's diesel, actually. The bottom half of the reefer unit itself contains a diesel generator to run the refrigerator in the top half.

Okay, here are some updates on my truck.

Some experimenting below. I dislike the small 1X3X1 doors and there isn't enough room in the COE design to make doors like on Executor32's rig, so as a temporary place holder, I've doubled up the door on the left side to see what it looks like. The improvements are apparent immediately (aside from the fact that is a double-height door made of 2 parts). Lego actually has red, 1X3X2 single-part doors that look like the stacked doors, but they are not available in Lego DD. I may order such parts from BrickLink to take the place of those doubled doors (assuming I ever finish this thing!).



Also some other minors changes. I lowered the angled structure in front of the front wheels, again only on the left side for now. Also, I'm trying to decide on gray or black for the walkway parts under the doors. I think I like gray, if only to simulate unpainted or chromed metal.



The original, single-height 1X3X1 door. Bleh. The gaps in front of the front wheel are temporary.



Revised rear-end arrangement. I got rid of the bumper and amber turn signal lights. Also, added mudflaps. I like the look of the skull better, but it also means the mudflap is made of 4 parts and is thicker than the checkered flag part. But the skull is so cool!



I got rid of the spare wheel which was there purely for aesthetic reasons. Real rigs seem pretty bare back here, but I wanted to add detail. But it also means 3 additional parts and anyway, it isn't realistic.

But the biggest change... No more of my nonsensical and goofy-looking fifth wheel like before. It doesn't look quite like the real thing, but it looks better. Inspiration from here.



It pivots back and forth a bit, certainly enough to my satisfaction. It actually works with a trailer hitch too, but I'll leave that for later.



The next challenge is trying to come up with doubled wheels at the rear, but I just don't have the parts I need in DD!

Still refining...

Already shared it with Bounty, decided to share it here, too. A collection of my various police vehicles, some of which I've previously detailed and others I haven't. I have two models of the cars, the van, a pickup truck, a little "buggy" thing and a helicopter.

Great collection, though if I may, I think the chopper's main rotor blades should be just a little longer.

I really wish there was another way to get an 8-stud wide windshield without having to butt 2 4-wides next to each other. I wanted to put some more detail in my cab, but 2 studs are covered up by the edges of the windshield parts in the center. Argh!

Incidentally and to continue the emergency vehicle theme, check out these fire engines!

For reasons I cannot figure out, LDD won't connect to the Internet, even though I am (obviously) online. Very annoying, especially because this, my latest effort, could be upload and bought!

EDIT: Of course, ten minutes after I post this, LDD now gets online. The price of the model, as designed (with the modifactions from the images as noted below) would cost me...USD$97.95!

EDIT2: For comparison, the official Lego Prisoner Transport set costs... 'Sorry, item is not available in this country: United States.' Oh well...

Anyway, I was redoing my police van, to make the front end and the wheel base look more like the current crop of official Lego City Police vehicles. Specifically, the Prisoner Transport. While I was at it, I came up with a new lightbar scheme, also based loosely on official products. It ended up being a complete redesign in the end!

For the initial view:

Initially, I did what the official model did: used angular bricks for the front hood. But I wasn't a fan of that, so I went and used the bow bricks as I did the police car. It ended up looking better, and now the windshield sits on the 'hood' instead of being one brick lower like it used to be. I really like the new front end design, loosely based off official products, though as you can see I put roof tiles angled up on the bottom, instead of having lights right on the end. It was interesting, as I used two transparent blue angles, and then a red transparent flat tile, but I decided I wanted more of a bumper along the bottom.

The other side:

The only real comment I'll make here is that I added that 1x2 clear tile just so it'd have those side lights you see on ambulances and SWAT trucks.

A front view:

For the grille lights, flat tiles look better, but there isn't one for transparent blue in LDD. Were I to buy it, I'm sure I have trans-blue flat 1x1s somewhere and would likely replace it.

Rear view:

I have no idea what the official model's rear bumper looks like, so I winged it. It is sort of like the front bumper, though I added backup lights and a license plate. I like the license plate for the fact it's recessed into the bumper a bit, something fairly common among vans and trucks that I've seen. Also, the rear bumper makes a nice little step into the rear compartment. An actual minifig would be on "tip toes" trying to climb it, but as anyone who has enough Lego experience knows, trying to scale to those little bastards is simply making it "good enough" rather than absolute.

The rear compartment opened:

That's the extent it'll open to, and when closed because of the columns on either side, it'll only close to being reasonably flush. Which is, of course, how I wanted it. Whether it'd be perfectly straight in real life I don't know. And of course there is the question of how to open it without the hinge tool: I figure I'll replace one of the flat 1x6 tiles with a pair of 1x2, and in the center the connector with one 'stud' on top, then use those little circle thingys as a handle. Good enough to get your finger open and lift, anyway.

Since the idea only just came to me as I was posting this, I went back into LDD and did it. It doesn't look too bad. I'm doing an ambulance in this design, which is basically a repaint job with some modifications, so if/when I post that you'll see the knob. I just don't feel like uploading new pics.

A better angle inside the compartment:

You can see the little half benches, the dour gray, and the window so the officers can see what's happening in the back, while still being safely isolated from the Bad Guys. This was present in the old version as well.

All in all it's a semi-multipurpose design. You could use it as a SWAT truck (obviously the guys inside could open it, or just use it for gear storage, but that's a difference you can't model in Lego mode), an ambulance (as I did with a "version 1" of this design already) or anything else that's some funky van/truck combo.

I'm working on redesigning the police car with this style bumper. I already have the front bumper done (and is where I had the inspiration to make the bottom row into roof tiles and retain the grille lights) but the rear bumper is more of a pain, because of needing to work around the trunk. But I'll keep at it and see what I get.

And, naturally, whore out show off here.