So, after seeing multiple posts Da Good Writer made about his chess matches, I wondered if I could do some about my hobby too. Thus, I'm starting to write about my Lego MOCs (My Own Creations) which are designed and built completely by me.
If you have enough bricks (which is next to impossible unless you have 10 years' worth of Lego sets in your cabinet, disassembled), you can even try to recreate my model! I've managed to do it before, so it's possible.
IMPORTANT NOTE: If you do build one and share it on social media, please credit me as this caravan is my design!
Please leave a like or comment down below so I can create more posts about these Lego builds.
The MOC
A custom Lego caravan!
(Note: From now on, when I say "caravan", I am referring to both the caravan itself and the truck pulling it.)
My caravan.
Description
My caravan is shaped like a train caboose and is pulled by a 4x4 truck. The caravan has a bedroom, dining room and kitchen, while the truck's bed has a lavatory. (go to Interior to see more)
Inspiration
Years ago, I bought this caravan (set 60182) for my birthday. I realised that the caravan did not really look nice and lacked an interior, so I decided to rebuild it. (I kept the 4x4 truck as it still looked good.)
While I was brainstorming, I thought of a train caboose and wondered: What if I put tyres on it and attached it to a truck? The boxy shape of a caboose made it feasible to fit a large interior inside. Besides, it would look nice as a caravan.
The caravan was partly referenced from this old Santa Fe caboose, which explains the yellow stripe on the side of the caravan.
I initially wanted to make the roof black like the caboose here, but due to a lack of black sloped tiles, I opted for dark blue instead. (The combination of dark blue roof, red body and yellow stripe actually looked good in the end!)
Features
- As I mentioned earlier, a full interior consisting of a bedroom, dining room, kitchen and lavatory
- A solar panel on the roof, which supposedly powers the caravan's lights
- The "second floor" of the caboose that sticks out of the roof, which has been turned into a extractor hood for the caravan's kitchen
Interior
The overall interior of the caravan. (From left to right: lavatory, bedroom, dining room, kitchen)
Just like all the Lego Modular Buildings, the roof of the caravan can be easily removed to show the interior.
The caravan's interior turns out to not be as big as it sounds. However, I still managed to cram the four distinct areas into this tiny space.
First things first, the bedroom. With the 4-stud width of the interior, I only managed to fit in a double bed. It may seem rather small even for a minifigure, but trust me, this is big. I've seen smaller 2-stud wide beds in certain Lego sets before. The minifigures can't even place their hands on the beds!
Secondly, the dining room, which is technically part of the bedroom. The dining table there can actually be removed and placed sideways. The chair under the table (spot the light grey) can also be taken out. This ends up with a dining room arrangement, where 1 minifig sits on the bed while the other sits on the chair. When the family is not eating, they can use the dining table for studying, reading or working.
In this day and age where everybody stares at their phones all the time, it was necessary to provide some entertainment for the family of 4 currently owning the caravan. With the lack of space, I managed to put up a small TV on the wall right above the dining table, so that the family can watch TV during meals.
Next up, the kitchen. Again due to the lack of space, the kitchen can only hold a refrigerator, stove and some cabinets. You can see that I used the intelligent building technique of using the studs of a Lego plate to make a realistic stove hob. A Lego pan or pot can be placed on the center of the stove for a minifig to cook.
Last but not least, the lavatory on the truck's bed. You can see that it's quite fancy as the owners will be staying in it for the long run.
The toilet bowl is simple, with a flush button on the wall above it. Beside it is a sink. On the counter on the other side of the bathroom sits the family's shampoo bottles. (The shower is on the ceiling.)
Interesting Building Techniques
This is a pretty simple build but it still has a couple of interesting building techniques.
1. I used a 2x2 plate to make the kitchen stove (mentioned above)
2. Instead of stacking 1x1 bricks on top of one another, I used hinge plates (60478 and 49563) to make the railing on the front and back of the caravan, as seen here. This technique is classified as SNOT (Studs Not On Top, not the thing in your nose!). SNOT techniques give railings and signs a lot more realism, making a build look nicer.
3. In the lavatory, I used part 36841 to make the flush button for the toilet bowl, and part 30526 for the sink taps.
Overall Thoughts
Looking at the colour, design and interior of the caravan, I feel that I've done a pretty good job. Out of all the Lego vehicles I've built over the years (there are 8), the caravan is my favourite.
Did you like my Lego caravan? Do you wish it was a real Lego set? Please comment down below! If you do, I will create more posts about my Lego MOCs.
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There are 4 people, they're just not shown here.
Family of one.
How sad.
Honestly. I feel kind of bad.