First bag out of 7 took me 505 minutes in total.
Realistically a bit longer, because I forgot to resume the timer. But I also spent time coming up with a sorting system, because there are less bags, and a lot of different pieces come together in the same bag.
That was difficult, a lot of hanging parts, but especially because I didn’t know or notice that one piece has a screw that lets you adjust its length.
Since I have to manage my time, I started setting timer and adding extra time if I run out, instead like with Lego build, just finishing one bag in one sitting.
I discovered that Cada has two types of angled connectors, one at 45 and another at 60 degrees. They are both black, so it took me a long time to understand why two components do not fit.
Then not only I got the angles wrong, again, but also that I have one non-rotating piece more and one similar rotating piece less, which means that somewhere inside there’s a piece that might be a bit loose, but also that now I can’t get the part that needs to be rotating to rotate. Had to find a combination of pieces that would produce similar shape.
Then had to fix a few angles, again, and since I was left with a rather small amount of pieces, I decided to finish it in one sitting, instead of spreading it over two, which took me 1:30 hours.
It worked out, although I was left with more spares that I’d expect.
Tag: CaDA
I don’t know how much CaDA influences the design. But the approach is quite different to Lego. If Lego builds the chassis, then adds on top, in a horizontal manner, CaDA builds vertical slices: engine, cabin, transmission, and then joins it all together.
The way pieces are grouped is also totally different. As I mentioned, you have 7 different parts you need to build, but for each part there are multiple bags that seem to be grouped by the type of the piece, not where it fits. So you have gears in one bag, pins or axels in another, and so on. I spent a lot of time just sorting those into finer groups.
CaDA also uses some pieces I’ve not seen from Lego. Notably the strange angled pieces. Lego angle is the same thickness. CaDA has thickness 2 going to thickness 1.
Because the bags are just types of pieces and there are just 7 major blocks to build, you have to manage your own time. Unlike with Lego, where I knew 1 bag = 1 hours, give or take. It’s much more difficult. I spent 2:30 hours in 2 sittings, and haven’t finished the 1st block. Got stuck for a long time on this piece called 7-9L Linear Actuator because it just wouldn’t fit. Turns out, it has a screw inside, so you can adjust the length, and I put it in without adjusting,