Schaufelradbagger under construction
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How it all began
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The Lego model
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The real one
![Album image #4 Album image #4](/albums/img/3/3/1/298331-15547-44-720.jpg)
The big wheel
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All the parts cleaned and drying
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The first parts put together. It is quite a challenge to get the fences in place. No holes and you have to bend it to make it fit!
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Added some more railings and steps
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One of the additional buildings, meant to house one of the conveyor belts.
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Added the conveyor belt and did some weathering. Only the sand is missing!
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Finished the first three stages of the BWE. I painted it light grey, but oversprayed it with light brown. The real thing also looks very dusty and sandy!
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The conveyor belt in place, together with the connection to the main conveyor belt.
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I managed to find some 1/200 accessories: a coach, a lorry and some people
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All the parts I finished so far. In the middle a lorry to show the size of the machine!
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The winch house which moves the large wheel up and down with a lot of cables and pulleys
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On an excursion to the BWE, we were taking into the quarry by a coach on a lorry frame. I wanted to try to build this and found a coach and a lorry in the right scale. I cut the coach in pieces, opened up the windows and added seats. Look at the driver
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The instructiosn for this kit are somewhat mysterious. If you look at the instructions, near the instructions how to make stretched sprue.
![Album image #17 Album image #17](/albums/img/6/0/8/307608-15547-50-720.jpg)
The fences and the line tell you how to make stairs with a bannister!
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I hadn't noticed that the eight struts in the third picture were not the same, but all slightly different. It was impossible to see which one should go where. So I enlarged the instructions to make it the real size and so found out which was which!
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A secret recipe for paint: mix three colours in various ratios and instructions that are absolutely incomprehensible, even for me with my 50 years of modelling experience! But look at the result, that's what counts! I love this beast!
![Album image #20 Album image #20](/albums/img/6/1/1/307611-15547-36-720.jpg)
All the parts I've got so far. Can you spot the lorry? It's ever so small compared to the BWE. I've weathered the mainstructure, to see how I could obtain the best result. The other parts are either primer or painted grey.
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The heart of the machine: the big wheel
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The wheel in place. There are three engines to drive the wheel, although the boxart shows four engines. I added some struts to the main shield.
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The driver cabins are movable so I decided to add them at different heights.
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The other side of the arm.
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This is how the model is more or less going to look.
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All the assembled parts so far.
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Two more conveyor belts
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The main conveyor belt from the BWE to the transport conveyor
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What do you get when you have Dan Brown write the instructions for a modelkit? The instructions for the BWE! Many mysteries to solve, but it is fascinating to see it grow.
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The main conveyorbelt, temporarily connected to the mainstructure
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The first time I used a material I had never used before: sand! What else could be use to show the use of the BWE
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I used sand on the caterpillar tracks, much better than weathering with paint
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The part of the BWE where it is connected to the grid of conveyorbelts. The cables used to raise and lower the conveyor belt, still have to be attached
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The large drum with the electricity cable to power the machine
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The rear end of the conveyor belt. At first I covered the whole conveyor belt with sand, until I discovered that the sand is not dumped at the end of the belt
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Again painting lots of railings, still two frames with railings left.
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How do you get sand on the big wheel in a realistic way: let it turn in a box of sand (after applying glue, of course!)
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The result! The wheel and the conveyor belt with real sand.
![Album image #39 Album image #39](/albums/img/6/7/7/338677-15547-18-720.jpg)
I also added some walkways with railings
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The other conveyorbelt, again with sand and additional walkway
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The main structure test fitted on is caterpillars
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This is how it's going to look in the end
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All the big parts, still unassembled
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The main tracks covered with sand, for the realistic effect
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The mainstructure on its tracks
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Stil some work to do on the piece, like adding some railings and stairs
![Album image #47 Album image #47](/albums/img/6/3/4/347634-15547-98-720.jpg)
All parts testfitted. my workbench is almost too small!
![Album image #48 Album image #48](/albums/img/6/3/1/347631-15547-49-720.jpg)
Look at the lorry in the same scale (1/200)
![Album image #49 Album image #49](/albums/img/5/4/2/381542-15547-25-720.jpg)
Added a walkway on top of the cabledrums
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More stairs and walkways added
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Added the supportcables and the blocks for the big cables
![Album image #52 Album image #52](/albums/img/5/4/1/381541-15547-21-720.jpg)
Because there is of course a lot of dust and sand, many BWEs were fitted with some kind of protection of the engines. Sometimes a large piece of plastic or something similar to that and often with metal plates, as I did
![Album image #53 Album image #53](/albums/img/4/7/3/393473-15547-83-720.jpg)
Adding the wires to control the digger arm. It isn't easy, since the instructions are not very clear and even contradict each other. Still managed to get them in place and couldn't resist to take a picture of the complete assembly.
![Album image #54 Album image #54](/albums/img/4/7/2/393472-15547-39-720.jpg)
The visitors are wondering about the size of the machine!
![Album image #55 Album image #55](/albums/img/2/6/7/434267-15547-29-720.jpg)
The cables! And here it all started to go wrong. I used plasticized metal wire. It looked very realistically, but it ws impossible to get it taught. I almost gave up.
![Album image #56 Album image #56](/albums/img/2/6/8/434268-15547-86-720.jpg)
Then I discovered basting elastic. Very flexible and strong enough to hold the weight of the big arm. And easy to paint with metal and black
![Album image #57 Album image #57](/albums/img/2/6/6/434266-15547-84-720.jpg)
The new cables look fine
![Album image #58 Album image #58](/albums/img/2/6/9/434269-15547-19-720.jpg)
The access stairs added
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Even from above they look nicely! It really surprised me that all the cables were so strong
![Album image #60 Album image #60](/albums/img/2/7/3/434273-15547-79-720.jpg)
Because I thought the transport arm quite bare, I decided to add the wires and cables. I had two problems: not enough good pictures and the transport arm had to be detachable. I scratchbuilt a support, which can be removed.
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The size of the BWE compared with a DC-10 and an F-16. All in scale 1/200!
![Album image #62 Album image #62](/albums/img/2/7/5/434275-15547-20-720.jpg)
There was a kind of support on the arm, which I added
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The signs with the serial and constructor's name in place
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A mini dio: the coach/truck with the visitors
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The cables on the transport arm, all the attachment points scratchbuilt
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A view of the whole machine. I used bluetac to fix the cables to the mainconstruction. Just a lot of weathering and the beast is finished
![Album image #67 Album image #67](/albums/img/8/4/7/434847-15547-35-720.jpg)
After more than a year, the beast is finished! (Well almost, on the pics I saw I missed some parts while weathering with brown dirt).The main structure with a lorry-coach, bringing visititors to the quarry
![Album image #68 Album image #68](/albums/img/8/4/8/434848-15547-26-720.jpg)
The transport arm. It contains a conveyor belt, which brings the lignite to the structure on the right. At the extreme right is the place where everything is dumped on a large network of conveyor belts.
![Album image #69 Album image #69](/albums/img/8/4/9/434849-15547-89-720.jpg)
The big wheel, driven by three electric engines. Because they were often damaged by all the sand, they were protected by plating. These were scratchbuilt.
![Album image #70 Album image #70](/albums/img/8/5/0/434850-15547-69-720.jpg)
The connection from the conveyorbelt to the mainstructure. There were lots of cables, bringing power to the engines. Because I wanted to make the whole a bit transportable, I used bluetac to connect the cables, so everything can be taken apart
![Album image #71 Album image #71](/albums/img/8/5/2/434852-15547-31-720.jpg)
On the left the machines and winches that raise and lower the diggingwheel through lots and lots of cables.
![Album image #72 Album image #72](/albums/img/8/5/1/434851-15547-69-720.jpg)
The scratchbult coach/lorry and some visitors, all in 1/200. I was so fortunate to stand in the same place and then the machine is enormous. The tracks are heigher than a man.
![Album image #73 Album image #73](/albums/img/8/5/4/434854-15547-50-720.jpg)
Close-up of the lorry and visitors. Here you see I missed some parts, when added a brown mist to the model.
![Album image #74 Album image #74](/albums/img/8/5/5/434855-15547-83-720.jpg)
The winches and an auxiliairy crane
![Album image #75 Album image #75](/albums/img/8/5/3/434853-15547-51-720.jpg)
The bucketwheel with conveyor belt. I uesd real sand, used in modelrailway lay-outs! The controlcabins could move up and down in reality. And they were suspended in a way that they were always kept level. So I made this possible.
![Album image #76 Album image #76](/albums/img/8/5/6/434856-15547-20-720.jpg)
The BWE in all its glory
![Album image #77 Album image #77](/albums/img/8/5/7/434857-15547-75-720.jpg)
The end of all: the LEGO BWE, compared with the Revell BWE. Both beauties in their own!
![Album image #78 Album image #78](/albums/img/1/5/7/435157-15547-70-720.jpg)
The end of the project: place of honour, in my study!
![Album image #79 Album image #79](/albums/img/2/1/3/858213-15547-70-720.jpg)
When building this big machine, I didn't like the thread Revell provided. I found a nice plastic coated metal wire, which looked very realistically. But it was impossible to get it nice and taut. After a lot of searching, I found basting elastic and this looked the best solution! Until now. I realized that the was beginning to sink more and more and eventually the wheel rested on the ground and even the superstructure began to lean backwards. The elastic wasn't strong enough to carry the weight!
![Album image #80 Album image #80](/albums/img/2/1/2/858212-15547-61-720.jpg)
The first thing I did to solve the problem, was fixing the arm with glue. This was quite an enterprise, because the weight of the arm is a lot and with the long arm, there is a lot of momentum. But after several efforts, the arm stayed more or less at the height I wanted. Next I replaced the top wires by the plastic coated metal wire, so if the glue wasn't strong enough, this would carry the weight. Fortunately I had used the same wire on the winches, so there was no difference to see.
![Album image #81 Album image #81](/albums/img/2/1/1/858211-15547-44-720.jpg)
Next I needed to do something with the basting elastic. I thought I had to cut loose everything, but I found out that I hadn't glued the wire, so it was only held in place bij the paint which I put on the wires. So it was easy to shorten this: I removed more than 50 cms. But now it no longer carries the weight, it is alright to use.
![Album image #82 Album image #82](/albums/img/2/1/4/858214-15547-14-720.jpg)
The final result: the centre of the wheel is now about 8 cms above the ground and the model looks great again!
Commenti
1 17 December 2016, 14:16
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Ah this big monster monster lives only 20 kilometers from my home- I'm in
18 December 2016, 08:49
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What city? Have you ever been on an excursion to it? RWE organises them.
18 December 2016, 22:09
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Moenchengladbach
I visited that side a long time ago - at the moment you can whatch them straigt from the A61 motorway
19 December 2016, 16:13
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? I was on the 61 by Mönchengladbach just two weeks ago and managed not to see this monster! (driving towards Koblenz) count me in for this build!
22 December 2016, 12:55
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This seems to become a very interesting project! Will stay here and watch! 🙂
22 December 2016, 13:55
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I hope you have somewhere to display this monster - or are you putting it to work in the back garden?
17 January 2017, 15:37
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No my garden is too small ????! I'm going to put in on a glass shelf in my study, over my pc.
18 January 2017, 01:27
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Yes Lukasz. It already gave me lots of fun, including three visits to the real one, one of them even down in the quarry. And playing with sand makes me feel young again 😉
18 April 2017, 16:23
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I bet the Lego kit is fun too hey 🙂
Quite tempted to get it for myself too, just think of all the robots you could make with it 😄 😄 😄
18 April 2017, 17:05
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All the Lego kits are fun, but the problem with them is that they take up a lot more space than aircraft. And I know because I've got 12 of them in our living room, thanks to my wife.
19 April 2017, 04:54
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haha, you know when someone buys you a toy it's really for them, especially if they live in the same house😉 😄 😄 😄
I keep all my lego in suitcases now, more compact😉
19 April 2017, 14:59
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Haha 🙂 That's a great argument that I must note for the future 🙂 🙂 🙂
20 April 2017, 06:53
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What a monster model !
I wonder how it compares size wise next to the Lego version ?
15 May 2017, 11:52
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Choppa: be patient! When I've finished it, I will show pics of both models and compare them
3 February 2018, 10:42
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Till now it looks like the real beast - the only thing thats missing is the real ground -amazing work 👍
3 February 2018, 11:33
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I always like checking out the unusual. And this particular beast is extraordinary. Very fine work.
3 February 2018, 13:10
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"Choppa: be patient! "
haha I asked that question nearly a year ago lol 😄
All in good time Wouter😉 😄
3 February 2018, 16:20
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I saw it now. But good news: today I finished it (until I took some pictures and discovered I need to do more weathering on some places
3 February 2018, 21:08
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Looks cool Wouter, nice to see both side by side, big models !! 🙂
3 February 2018, 22:32
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Well Done. First saw this kit in Melbourne Australia late 90s. Bought it when released again. Decided to build the lego BWL first for practice. You have really built a great model.
24 July 2019, 06:32
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Thanks! I'm quite pleased with it. Something different after building a lot of aircraft.
27 July 2019, 19:12