Factorio Forums

This first post will be edited/expanded for sharing my creations over time.
The inital original post starts after the dashed line.
I will put them into 3 different categories:

1. "Full Release"
Builds I tested completely myself including the instructions. I am happy with the outcome and I had no problems with it.
You should not have any issues recreating it on your side. If you encounter anything odd, let me know.

2. "Beta Builds"
Creations that had some minor problems while building. I fixed them all in the design but didnt test the final version.
The changes are very subtle and I am confident that they will work. I will move it into "Full Release" as soon as I got the parts to test it 100%

3 "Experimental Builds"
Here the fun starts - I had bigger problems on my first try and tried to solve it for the next Iteration.
Chances are that you have to adapt the design a little to make it work. The Intruction is not completely finished - You might find some steps where bricks are being build into the air or other impossible things.
So you need to look ahead to figure out the building sequence. If you are not happy with those builds --> told you so!


Mentionable:
You need to change some colors if you want to recreate them with original LEGO since they do not exist.

I personally got my bricks from a shop "webrick.com". I am not sponsored or anything by them - I just found it convenient to get all my parts from a single vendor to save time and delivering fees and those guys simply "won" my comparison. They only use Elements form "Gobricks" and they have the reputation to be the best bricks available. There might be better or cheaper shops out there I dont know. Because of that I designed everything wiht their stock items and there might be better solutions with other bricks. There are some things to Keep in mind when uploading my partslist there (sometimes it doesnt find the items in the list despite they have it) - I will put some detailed info into each design.

Some "global" Bugs/Issues with their shop:

Their website is very slow - be patient

Currently they have a bug where all the pins with friction ridges automatically get replaced with pins without friction ridges.
This will impact the stability and function heavily! Always double check and add them in by hand if needed. I informed them About this bug and they say they are working on it - Also they sent me correct pins afterwards without any additional cost. So after 2 orders they seem very legit to me but be aware that 2 is not a big samplesize!

When uploading My lists they will flag some items as "not in stock" - you need to click "substitute" on each of those parts and select the correct ones - they have them all. General Rule: Before ordering make sure the amount of parts does match and you double checked the pins with friction ridges!

NEVER use their "wishlist" after importing - It always "looses" a lot of parts. After uploading put it directly in your cart - then it works.

And please do not start a discussion/war about LEGO vs alternative brands or "fake LEGO". I simply do not care...


Ok - Thats out of the way, lets start:

Full Releases:

Boiler: Download Instruction and BOM: Inserters: Download Instructions and BOMs: Other insterters following...

Transport Belt (1-Tile / Straight): Download Instruction and BOM: Electric Mining Drill: Download Instruction and BOM: Mech Armor: Download Instruction and BOM:
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Initial Post:

My kids are old enough to play with Legos now and I wanted to satisfy my inner child and build a Factorio diorama.
I checked out existing desings but they are too big in my opinion and have some scaling issues.
So I found the software Bricklink Studio and started designing my own creations:

Scale is 6x6 studs per Tile and it all started with simple small ones:

Belt (2 Tiles) Inserter: Wodden Power Pole: Then it got more and more complex:

Splitter: (And yes - everything should move if you rotate the knob) Assembling machine 1 (also, everything should move): And finally my biggest one - The Steam Engine (Again - should be functional - The flexible Axles hopefully work better in reality, they look kinda wonky in the software): So far it is only in the Software, so I dont know yet, if it will work in reality. Building those out of Lego will cost a fortune (and a lot of part-colors do not exist), but I found a store that sells GoBricks elements that are way cheaper. They have the reputation to be higher quality than the danish guys - Price is around 57€/1000 parts and thats is awesome since I think 50€/1k is a good price when buying brick-sets for my kids.
Because of those reasons I also optimized the designs for the parts available on the said store.

My plan is to create a boiler next so I can make a complete 9x3 tile diorama consisting of 2 belts filled with coal, splitter, inserter (mby i make a burner for this), power pole, boiler and steam engine.
Then I will place my order - create instructions and start building it. I will report back as soon as I make some progress - I hope you like it.

Oh and if anyone here is designing MOCs as well - Mby you have some design tips for me looking at my pictures? Those are my very first steps with that...

This looks awesome!

Is there any chance for you to share the "blueprints" or part list with us?

Very cool! What is used nowadays for that? When I was a lil boy, I used LDD to generate manuals/builds.

Yes I will have instructions and part-lists ready at some point. But Wube has the licence so I dont know if thats allowed...

I used Bricklink Studio (Stud.io) for this. As far as I have read it replaced LDD.

Worked on the Boiler:

No moving parts this time - But a removable lid, so you can see the inferno...
Now all that is left is to check all models and stick em together - Then I am ready to order the parts and create the instructions...

Also looks great! Post pics if/when you build them physically

There is no "IF" any more - completed the diorama and ordered the parts already (2448 pieces).
I will post pictures as soon as I have something to show - but here are the renders of the complete diorama for now:

Working on the instructions now until I get the physical pieces. I finally understand all those adult fans of that toy: its ultra relaxing and completey different from all the everyday stuff - actually kind of similar to playing Factorio.

They told me that they need to wait for some parts so it will take 25-30 days to ship....
Instructions are completed and I already spotted some smaller mistakes so there will be a Version 2 for those builds. I will update as soon as I finished building the models, I think there might be more issues that need to be adressed - like stability stuff and so on..

I still need to put something around the Assembling machine 1 for the next diorama - but I cannot decide yet what it is.
Labs are hard to recreate at this scale because of that wierd triangle dome - so mby something like wooden crate ---> assembler (ammo) --> gun turret - wall - empty space with biter and a nest.
tried a biter, but I seem to be bad with organic shapes...

Definately will need a spidertron at some point - any other ideas?

How much did it cost?

Around 134€ (117€ without shipping) for the whole Diorama. Its not ultra cheap, but definitely not a bad price.

It's a very nice price, I would say. Do post pictures when you assemble the stuff

Waiting for the parts is hard - So I have to plan my next diorama...
It will be something early game as well. Electric Mining Drill direct feeding into a Steel Furnace then a inserter towards the Assembler putting gears or ammo into a wodden chest.

Here is the finshed Mining Drill design: Something small as well - Wodden Chest (of course there will be a pistol inside): And created a burner inserter - this will replace the yellow one on the first diorama so I can move it to the new one. Added a little "stove" to it despite its not in the game sprite but to me that makes sense... Will start with the steel furnace next...

Don't forget to post the bom/manuals when you are done

And another one:

Steel Furnace - My stupid brain told me that this can hold 2 modules but thats not in the game. Mine has 2 slots now, mby I will rework this section. The Burning chamber can also sled out and it can be rotated to switch between "on" (fire and stuff) and "off" (black wall behind the clear panels). Pretty happy with the general design. Was hard on this scale...
I have pretty much everything for the next diorama now. Will stitch it together and my next project will be the Spidertron.

Maybe relevant: https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comme ... pidertron/

Yeah I saw 2 models of the spidertron on the web - and that was one of the builds i remember.
I will give it a try without looking at other designs first - I will struggle a lot I think...

But before starting that I need to fix something else: On some builds I went over the grid limits (assembler for example) and I cant attach an inserter to it properly. Also the inserter scale is way off - It cant sit folded in in neutral position between 2 buildings. I will figure that out first and rework my models so its possible to attach everything to everything. If you need to remove a detail piece thats fine for me since it wont be visible anyways in that scenario but I need to fight some major things now...

See problem picture: Even the wooden box cant be attached to the assembler while being recessed by around 1/2 stud. The Inserter is way too big as well... This needs to be adressed. New inserter model is required and the assembler needs to shrink a bit.

Started with a simplistic inserter design today - here is the result:
First I was a bit disappointed but the more I look at it, the more i like it. The biggest downside are the 3 legs here. At this scale I found no satisfying solution. On the other hand it should not matter too much. Inserters are not the most interesting things in the dioramas anyways and they already have their color accents so its ok I guess....
Price also decrased from 4,05€ to 2,87€ on the site I order so thats something.
Will play a little more with the colors later on but the general design will stick around.

Need to build a new Assembler now, that is a big bummer since I was very happy with the design. All other designs should fit more or less together - few tweaks here and there.

Since I had a lot of free time I reworked the assembler - I knew I have to do it very soon or it will end up on a Todo-List forever.
Was able to steal some design-elements from the existing design, but not all features fit into the smaller footprint.
Creating assembling machines 2 and 3 will be a hard challenge now since they have more complicated mechanisms on the top but thats a problem for future me.
Despite having over 100 parts less than version 1 its nearly the same cost - But ist has a lot big bricks inside instead of many small ones so I will keep it.
Might be sturdier but with 7 cents per piece on average its more on the high side...

The whole diorama 2 looks like this now:
On the steel furnace I still need to remove the 2 module slots so it will get some changes soon. This time the instructions should be finished before ordering so the biggest flaws will be ironed out beforehand.

As it is right now it consists of 1840 pieces and costs 111,71€ (without shipping) - that is around 6 cents per piece so hopefully I can dig out another discount voucher.
But first I need to wait for order #1...

Initial Design - Quite happy with it so far. I wanted to use some flex tubes (pneumatic tubes) as springs around the legs but that is not available in my software.
But the connection points are there to put it in and wrap around the legs.
And yes - there is a fish inside, dont worry.

Maybe I will work a bit more on the section of the lower leg under the "knee" - looks a bit naked there still.
Cannot check out the price since the upload tool is buggy today - BUT I got a notification today that my first order is on the way! So real pictures will pour in soon hopefully...

Upload Tool worked again so I was able to finish up the design.
Some parts had to be changed, but no big thing.

The leg section got a little update and I played around with the software for the flexible parts but that is way too tedious. You get a litte paint drawing so you can imagine how to put in the soft axle or flex tube.
For the colors I choose Pearl Gold - it was the closest to the default color in the game and also I think it is nice to get a lot of pieces in that color because it fits really good in the steampunk theme.
Secondary is Reddish Brown simply because of availability. Brown was sligtly better in my opinion but its really subtle.

Price is at 77,76€ for 1450 pieces (5,36 cents per piece) so it has a REALLY nice price.

Function wise everything can be twisted and articulated (with some limits of course) thanks to the big ball joints. The head can rotate 360 degrees with the big technic turntable inside. This part also made it possible to build the bottom section with studs pointing downwards so the underside has a nice tiled look as well.
I think it will be sturdy enough but that is something we will see in reality (soon )

I was curious and tried another color since you are able to change it in the game as well. The blue version is 10€ cheaper with 67,52€ so it goes down to 4,66 cents per piece. Its not a 1:1 change since some parts are not available in blue but in pearl gold but its just 1 or 2 pieces - mostly the ball joint parts and there is always a good substitute for that, just made them dark bluish grey as well.
So open items for the next order is to clean up the steel furnace (remove module slots) and create the different inserters in the new style (blue, red, stack, burner) - Then I might take a look at the belts too: when i initially designed it, there was no MILS plate on my models so it looks a but big now. Maybe i am able to work some things inside the base now - same for the splitter.

After that its a matter of timing. I will squeeze in as many models as i can for the next order to reduce the cost per piece (shipping is around 17€)