The P.A.R.V.
Et Cetera
What does P.A.R.V. stand for? "Post-Apocolyptic Research Vehicle". Or Recreational
Vehicle, if you prefer. Pretty snazzy for being post-apocolyptic, though, isn't it?
Well, the story goes that it was built prior to the 'apocolypse', with the intent of
its builders being to survive through it.
The treads went through several design phases. The first idea was to use two sets of
technic treads parallel to each other. But these looked way to pitiful when compared
with the rest of the PARV, so I started work on other solutions. The first test
looked something like this:
All together (and in black of course), these looked pretty good, and
worked well:
The problem with these was that they used 2 1x2 technic bricks and 2 1x1
technic bricks per tread. And since I needed almost 500 studs of length, that meant about
500 1x2 technic bricks, and another 500 1x1 technic bricks. So I called out for help to
the community, and got some very good ideas for treads from Ka-On Lee,
including the one I ended up using (more or less).
Here's the way the treads turned out:
The interior doors I haven't really seen other people use, but chances are someone
else has come up with the design. I kinda thought they were neat, allowing a bulkhead
style door to open and close in the middle of a wall, although it does leave an ugly
gap on one side of the door.
The addition of modules was the idea of Shaun Sullivan. Early on, upon thinking
he had hit on something good with the idea, I modified the design of the PARV to accomodate
a number of 16x16 modules. Each one had a central slot for a door, and a pre-defined window
position. Unfortunately, modules in the bottom level had their windows covered, since they
would just look out onto the vehicle treads.
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