Want some nice large tanker wagons to add to your Lego train? This post shows how to build a tanker wagon MOC inspired by the classic Lego 10016 tanker, but updated and with a better appearance.
One, two, three tanker wagons, looking good in grey and blue 🙂
This started when I ordered parts from Bricklink to build some tanker wagons using the instructions for 10016.
The original 10016 tanker uses a standard train baseplate and a weird ladder made of grille parts. I started building, but the results were quite ‘meh’. The chassis from the container wagon in the 2010 Cargo Train gave me inspiration for a MOC using many of the 10016 parts and methods.
The chassis design is obviously borrowed from the container wagon. 🙂
Original 10016 is white with red and green details, but building in dark-bluish grey + blue has a couple of advantages. Firstly it matches the wagons in the 2010 Cargo Train. Secondly all the parts needed are available easily in dark-bluish grey, and don’t cost too much. I’m building a couple more in white with black chassis, and the white dish parts for the tank ends are quite expensive. Meanwhile 1×6 slopes are needed to join the tank to the chassis, and these are barely available at all in black.
I found these two Brickshelf galleries which showed the dark-bluish grey + blue combo worked well.
Gras1 – Tanker
Penumbra – Tanker
These galleries also gave me the idea to use quarter-round bricks which are cheaper and easier to find in blue than the quarter-round plates used in original 10016:
Chunky – and easy to build!
The build is straightforward and takes about five minutes if you have the parts ready.
‘Greebles’ enhance the look of the chassis. The 1×4 bricks with side-studs also make the chassis stronger. 🙂
The large yellow bricks with side studs are part 6042. Other parts could be used to provide the side studs, but these bricks are dirt cheap, easily available (in yellow or black), and strong.
Figuring out the ladder took a long time. I really wanted to use a proper ladder part, but the tanker is already very wide. After a lot of trial and error, I found a nice solution which doesn’t look too bulky 🙂 A pneumatic ‘T-piece’ joins the bottom of the ladder to the chassis.
The tricksiest part of the build is the tanks. They are very strong when finished, but very weak during the build 😮
One warning: the tanks are quite securely attached to the chassis, but if you pick up the wagon by holding just one tank, the result can be a mess of parts on the floor 🙂
The finished article
I tried lots of combinations of colours for the greeble parts (the grab-handles, the grilles, the pipe connections etc). Any combination of light-bluish grey with black, dark-bluish grey or yellow looks good, but I thought this combo was the best overall.
And we’re done. 🙂 Comments?
Or join the discussion of these MOCs on Eurobricks 🙂
