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Credit for this idea goes to @zaximillian. After seeing my galloping Unicorn and flapping winged Hedwig at BrickFest Live, he suggested that I do a mash up of these two kinetic builds to make a galloping, flapping winged Pegasus!! I really like the idea, so I’m creating this thread to track its progress and solicit suggestions for other interested LUG members.
Full disclosure and a little bit of background, the galloping Unicorn is a re-MOC from a galloping horse done by JK Brickworks almost 20 years ago, and the flapping winged Hedwig is a set the LEGO currently sells. I did a re-MOC of the Hedwig set earlier this year to make the LOTR Eagle that I had on display at Cranberry Library. I also made a “cut-away” of the mechanical components of this model to show how it works, and had that at both Cranberry Maker Faire and BrickFest Live.
Here’s what I’m starting with:
And here’s a link to a couple of short videos.
Same here on the kinetic front. I have no idea how to do anything mechanical, and this should be instructive in what to try, what doesn’t work, and what needs the most adjusting.
IDEA: My first thought is that maybe it would be an interesting take to have the “checked” feathers of the avian wings remain on the pegasus, and maybe make mane and tail black to match. Those “checks” draw attention to the wings even more than usual.
IDEA: The *other* way to go is equally artistically valid, and that’s an all white “angelic” look. Maybe, going even further, this could become an alicorn: a unicorn horned pegasus.
Finally, I do want multiple breakdowns of this process so I can maybe build along with you, Bob. I want one of my own!
As I look at this, the place to start is in figure out how best to combine the mechanisms of the flapping wings and the galloping horse. To do this, I’m going to work with the “cut-away” version of the flapping wings that I made for Maker-Faire and brought to BrickFest Live. I’ll worry about converting everything to final colors (white for the Pegasus, black for the stand and crank) later on.
For reference, the flapping wings model is based on the LEGO Hedwig Set No. 75979, and the galloping horse model can be found on jkbrickworks.com under the “Animals” group. Instructions for both (including parts lists) can be downloaded if you’re so inclined.
In looking at the two models side by side, having the crank on the side (centered on the horse legs and below the wings) seems to make the most sense. I also like the “tilt” effect that the wings model stand has to make it look more like it’s flying upward, so I’m going to keep that. First thing I noticed is that the crank location on the flapping wings model is a little too far back (i.e. wings would be too far forward) if that crank is centered on the horse legs. Yesterday I was able to successfully modify some of the gearing in the cut-away version to move the crank closer to center by 1 or 2 studs.
Neat! I thought the gearing would be the biggest challenge, as there are two actions at different speeds. I didn’t even consider the crank placement. There’s going to be a lot of action at that exact point I suppose.
Next step is to go to a single crank handle for both motions, and move it out to make room for the mechanism that provides the “galloping” action on either side of the pedestal. First issue here was to get alignment of the crank shaft for the wings and the crank shaft for the legs. Because of the slope of the wings pedestal, these of course didn’t automatically line up. To resolve this, I had to do 2 things, add a segment (2 plates and 1 brick) to the lower pedestal below the gearing, and add a stud space to the width of the pedestal base hinge (from 4 to 5 studs) to slightly change the angle of the pedestal. Small moves, right!
Once I did this, the shafts aligned, but as I added the mechanisms that create the “galloping” action, I found that some of the rotating pieces were “catching” on the pedestal as I turned the crank. In order to take the torque from all of the wing action, the pedestal for the flapping wings is “beefier” than the pedestal for the galloping horse, and is made up of alternating 1×2-2×2 “up” brackets on the front face and 1×2-2×2 “down” brackets on the sides, with bricks in between. These are then “tied” together with vertical 1×8 or 1×6 tiles to give the stack its rigidity. To gain more clearance on the sides, I was able to replace the 1×2-2×2 down brackets with 1×2 bricks with studs on 1 side, making sure that there were 2 plates between each brick so that the studs were spaced correctly to attach the tiles. Seems like a small change, but it was enough to give me the clearance needed.
Finally, with the single crank on the side now generating both the flapping wing and galloping actions, I had to beef up the outboard support to give it more rigidity.
Here’s what the base now looks like with all of these changes incorporated. I left some of the vertical tiles off to show the different SNOT (studs not on top) spacing.
She’s got Legs (cue ZZ Top)!! Successfully added, but not without some issues. Even with the adjustments I made to condense the wing flapping mechanism, the crank is still not centered on the legs, and the front and back legs are spaced further apart than they are in the Unicorn model. Because of the slope of the wings pedestal, I don’t see an easy way to further condense it, so to try to account for both of these issues I increased the length of the arms coming off of the crank shaft for the 2 front legs. Not as smooth as I’d like, but for now it works.
I also had to modify the way I built the upper part of 2 front legs so that they wouldn’t interfere with the wing flapping mechanism. Lots of motion going on at the interface of the front legs and the wing flapping arms, and the cycles for each are different so we’ll see how well the modified front legs hold up.
Couple of pics attached, as well as a link to a short video. Sorry about the choppy action in the video, but without a 3rd hand to hold the base (while turning the crank with one hand and holding the phone to shoot the video with the other) it is what it is!
Another progress update. Successfully added the head, neck and tail! On the Unicorn model, both the head and tail moved with the galloping action, but because of the location and complexity of the wing flapping mechanism, I was only able to include movement for the tail. I also did some additional work on the wings to give them more “spread”, and on the body to add some curved slopes to “round” things out. A couple of progress pics are attached.
I like the way this looks at this point, and with everything working I’m ready to declare “proof of concept” on this prototype!! Next step will be to begin converting it to the final model with all the right colors.
Oh wow… I continue to support this. It’s going to look fabulous. I am very interested in getting a virtual file so I can build one for myself, Bob.
More progress pics. Legs, head and tail all added, plus a look inside the internal gearing for the wing flapping mechanism.
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