Erik Leppen, master of Lego cranes, has given us an interview.

Sariel - Hello Erik. First of all, let our readers know something about you. What’s your everyday occupation, where are you from and how did you your adventure with Lego begin? Did you experience the “Dark Age” period?

Erik Leppen - First of all I feel very honored that your site - and you in particular - has contacted me to ask me a few questions. To tell a little bit about myself, I am from the Netherlands, I am currently a mathematics student and at the moment I am writing this I am 21 years old. Building with the famous plastic bricks is not the only hobby I have, sometimes I compose a bit of music on my computer and I regularly make simple computer games. My Lego adventure began like those of so many people have begun: as a kid I got Lego from my parents and I was very happy with it and I asked it for each birthday and this way my collection grew. From a certain moment on, I got interested in Technic and I decided I wanted to build in this theme. Until now I have not experienced a dark age, but the distribution of my spare time over the different hobbies has always been varying - the one month I do a lot of Lego building, the next month I might be busy making games or doing other stuff. So the time between different MOCs also varies greatly. One thing: I tend to give long answers, so prepare for some reading

- What’s your favourite Lego set of all times? And what do you - having built so many mobile cranes - think of the famous 8421 set?

- As I told above, my Lego adventure didn’t start with Technic from the very beginning, but with System. I remember 8460 (the other mobile crane) as my first big Technic set, followed by the 8422 (motorbike). Set 8460 has been my favourite for a very long time (at least for five years). I have always wondered how they could get so many functions in a model of this scale and with a rigid frame also! I still remember that I tried to make a similar kind of frame by myself, and it broke in two pieces when I raced around the room with it, using a knob at the roof. So I was quite inspired by the set 8460. There have been other sets that I consider very good, for example the legendary set 8880 (super car). Also I have special feelings with set 8853 (bulldozer) because I liked the alternative model so much and I found the main model so ingenious.
When the new studless parts came, I wanted to have it, so when 8421 (mobile crane) came out I knew I just wanted to have it. I then bought it for my birthday at 20% discount and spent hours building it. The original set was very cool and what I liked a lot was that, unlike 8460, it was clearly inspired by an existing model: the outriggers, cabin and wheels were placed at realistic positions and the boom was very ingenious. I think the Lego company did an excellent job making a realistic mobile crane model, and that the turntable isn’t powered doesn’t really bother me all that much. So in short, I think 8421 is really an amazing set.

- You have built more than 10 excellent, functional and very realistic models of the real mobile cranes. How much time does it usually take to design and build such a model? How much effort do you put in ‘documenting’ your work, I mean in looking for datasheets, blueprints, etc. of the real cranes?

- The first thing I do is take my list of models I want to build some day and choose one of those, or look at sites containing photographs of mobile cranes just to look at some pictures and decide which model I like. Then I go to the site of the manufacturer and check out the PDF document on their website. I then take one of the side-view pictures and maybe a top-view picture and print those out. I also measure how long the model should be in Lego. I measure the distance between the axles, and, using a simple Excel sheet, I calculate the optimal steering angle of each axle. Then, using a little program written by myself (in English, free to use) I try to find a gear combination that approximates the optimal ratios best and fits in the chassis. I then plan how the axles in the chassis will connect and how they steer all wheels at the correct angles. I then take a top-down picture of this and print this. Then I go to the plastic bricks and test the steering system and from that moment on, I usually don’t touch the CAD program until the carrier is finished. The superstructure and boom are mainly done from pictures and my imagination, I know some of the superstructures are not similar to those of their real life counterparts. Sometimes I get a little help of people on MSN who know a bit about mobile cranes, for example to know how something is driven, how the cables go or if they have a picture from another angle.
I don’t like rebuilding a complete model. When it’s finished, it’s finished. When it’s not satisfactory, I might retry the model in the future, I just don’t like working on one model for too long. And then I start on something else and the whole cycle repeats. By the way this means that some of the models in my Brickshelf folder are indeed not perfect.

- Looking at some of your really big cranes I wonder what does it take to build a Technic MOC of this size. How large set of pieces do you have at your disposal? Did you prepare some special workshop for yourself? How much time do you spend daily on building?

- The boxes with bricks are just in the living room - it’s the only possible place - and I use the table for building. I don’t have a separate room to do it, but I have done it this way for years, so I don’t really feel the need to change it.
About parts, when I had made this model, I was running out of blue parts, white parts and black parts and I have about equal amounts of black, blue, red, gray, yellow and white parts and very few parts in other colors, so that is about what I have as parts now. If you look in the Construction folder of the Demag AC650, in particular at this picture, you see that I used yellow to make the chassis, for three reasons. First, black is boring and building a yellow thing is more fun and makes finding the parts a bit easier. Second, I might need my black parts at another place so at spots that will later not be visible, I choose a color I am sure I don’t need, and third, using an odd color encourages me to spend more time in making a nice outside that completely covers the chassis, because I really don’t want the yellow to show from the outside, whereas with black it wouldn’t matter that much.
About time used on the hobby, I don’t really speak of “hours per day”, rather of “days per week”, as it is rather tedious to set up all boxes before building, and putting everything back again after building, so usually when I start, I spend the rest of the evening building and when I decide to do something else, that also will be for the rest of the day. I really don’t keep track of how many days I spend building, that depends on the time of the year (I build more often during summers because the computer room is too hot then and I like building in daylight more than in artificial light), and how many ideas I have for the current model. So I really can’t give a good answer to this question. I don’t know how much time goes into one model, but most of the time when I have worked on a model for over two months, I start to dislike it.

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Esta entrada foi postada 17 Dez 07 at 23;55 e está arquivada como Model, Technic, Interview, Giants. Pode seguir as respostas a esta entrada através de RSS 2.0 feed. Pode deixar uma resposta, ou segui-la do seu próprio site.