[WIP] Brick by brick

[Atlantis]

No introduction for this one, I'll just leave this WIP teaser here. Details later.

 

[Terra_Inc]

No introduction for this one, I'll just leave this WIP teaser here. Details later.

Oh wow, that's so awesome! What software is that?

 

[kjc733]

Very impressive. It's my birthday tomorrow, I want one!!!
Never too old for lego.

 

[Majestic]

Fantastic work Atlantis.

 

[Atlantis]

First, a bit of backstory as to WHY I'm doing this.

So, as you know, Lego make Star Wars ships. Being a fan of the ships of the Original Trilogy, I've started collecting a few. Hell, I've even bought a bookcase for my current collection.



You'll also notice Character Building Doctor Who at the bottom there too. And I really ought to build a stand so that X-Wing can be held horizontally...

So the plan is to eventually have three of these bookcases, for various things, but Lego sci-fi/fantasy is to be a major part of this. I've got my eyes on a few Lord of the Rings sets, adjusted to fit the dimensions of the spaces.

Unfortunately, outside of Star Wars and LOTR there isn't much. Character Building do Doctor Who, Kre-O do the rebooted Star Trek, and once Lego Dimensions is old enough for the sets to be available separate to the game, that brings more Doctor Who, Portal (yay!) and hopefully others. But that's all at the moment. If you want anything else, you'll have to do it yourself. But there are madmen out there who have.

So, I had a bit of a search online, finding two vital tools:
- Sites that sell individual bricks cheaply. Foremost being brickowl.com - it's kind of like amazon, in that a number of shops sell through them, so you should be able to find any brick you need, in any colour that brick was made in, for a good price.
- Software for designing things. Lego in fact does their own, the "Lego Digital Designer", and it's frankly an amazing bit of kit. Takes a bit of getting used to, but gets 10/10 from me. LINK

As I am planning to build these models, I am designing them practically, with a strong skeleton within, and a kind of modular structure to aid building things one section at a time (I intend to buy the bricks one module at a time too, to spread out the cost).

So, the definite plans so far are:
- EA Omega (also with a module to swap in place of the rotating section, and different guns, to make a Nova)
- Klingon Bird of Prey

I have lots of other ideas for after them, but don't want to get too far ahead of myself, because this will likely take years.
Ideas forming so far include Narn G'Quan, Aurora Starfury, Red Dwarf, and interior modules showing TOS Ent bridge, BSG C&C, Red Dwarf again, ... the imagination runs wild.

But back to the Omega. I've finished off the rotating module (for now - details will likely be added later) and starting work on the head. There's a guy on Imgur who's built an Omega exclusively from the parts of his AT-ST kit, and released the instructions on how he did the head, which I've followed and am using as a jumping-off point for making my own, so at the moment I've just put the outer panels up to figure out dimensions...

 

[Rifraf]

Downloading now. My inner child is sooooo happy today.

 

[CABAL]

Downloading now. My inner child is sooooo happy today.

Ditto.

 

[Majestic]

I have seen this program before, I think it was created as a way for fans to make what they want and to also give the LEGO company ideas or future kits.

Loving the Omega, should be quite the model when completed. I'd love to see them actually bring out an official B5 line, I would certainly buy them as a collectors item.

 

[Atlantis]

Finally gotten around to finishing this over the last couple of days, and the first ~1600 bricks are on their way here too. I've spent quite a bit on this so far, so will be easing back for a couple of months, with an intention to get the remaining ~900 and build her in the spring...

Obviously, compromises have had to be made, and as such the proportions aren't QUITE right, but it's pretty damn close.

 

[Atlantis]

Oh and for the Trek fans, I've started on a few smaller scale ones. So far the Akira, Excelsior, Steamrunner, Miranda, K'Vort and Galor are basically done.

I've found that at larger scales, saucers become a proper pain to model, but at this scale, it works quite well. Obviously, the smaller ships become impossible (you can see how much I had to compromise to do the Miranda), so if I do a B'Rel, Defiant, Saber, or Jem'Hadar Attack Ship, it will be at a separate "small ships" scale... Scales are very crudely approximate anyway.

As with the Omega, these are models I fully intend to build.

Credits go to the owner of THIS page, whose instructions I followed before making adjustments to suit my own opinion (Akira saucer widened, Excelsior nacelles lengthened and dish added, Miranda done from scratch, BOP head remodelled, Steamrunner saucer rebuilt, Galor 'head' rebuilt)

 

[Terra_Inc]

Oh and for the Trek fans, I've started on a few smaller scale ones. So far the Akira, Excelsior, Steamrunner, Miranda, K'Vort and Galor are basically done.

I've found that at larger scales, saucers become a proper pain to model, but at this scale, it works quite well. Obviously, the smaller ships become impossible (you can see how much I had to compromise to do the Miranda), so if I do a B'Rel, Defiant, Saber, or Jem'Hadar Attack Ship, it will be at a separate "small ships" scale... Scales are very crudely approximate anyway.

As with the Omega, these are models I fully intend to build.

Credits go to the owner of THIS page, whose instructions I followed before making adjustments to suit my own opinion (Akira saucer widened, Excelsior nacelles lengthened and dish added, Miranda done from scratch, BOP head remodelled, Steamrunner saucer rebuilt, Galor 'head' rebuilt)

Both yours and the ones at that link are pretty darn cool! Oh, and I see they have instructions over there. I might go looking for my bricks and try to build some of those over the weekend. Unfortunately I don't think I have enough of the right colors for some of those beauties ... oh well.

 

[Atlantis]

EDIT: Apologies for the awful photo quality. I'll edit in better ones shortly.

Both yours and the ones at that link are pretty darn cool! Oh, and I see they have instructions over there. I might go looking for my bricks and try to build some of those over the weekend. Unfortunately I don't think I have enough of the right colors for some of those beauties ... oh well.

Thanks very much!

Well, if you don't have the bricks, have a look on brickowl.com. Hundreds of stores, around the world, selling individual bricks for great prices (if you shop around a bit).

So, quite a few of my current orders have started arriving...



...and have been put to one side for assembly later, except for a few which I have assembled now.

The backstory for this is, for Christmas I got one of these beauties...



...which, awesome as it is, I've started to mod. First step is to swap out it's Ep-7 dish for something more akin to the original...



...not quite finished with that yet, as I'm not happy with the base (needs a turntable to face forward a bit more).

My plan for this is to create a kind of hybrid, depicting the "old" Falcon but keeping the Ep-7 version's contrasting hull panels etc.

 

[Atlantis]

So, while everything is now ordered for quite a number of little projects I've decided to do, quite a lot has yet to arrive, so I went back into the model and grouped the parts into approximately 70 segments, which can each be assembled separately and then put together as they are complete (or near enough). This is what I have so far...



Also built (but not photographed) are stands for my X-Wing, TIE Fighter, and Star Destroyer, which looks a hell of a lot better than them resting on the shelves. Unfortunately this exposes the Star Destroyer's inaccurate (but practical) flat, featureless underbelly. But this will be rectified over time, the first stage being to add a very important feature. This replaces the bridge interior, but that bridge was of an Executor-class type anyway, so I'm not concerned.



Yes, I know it's not 100%, but it's the best I can make of the available space at this time. More "mods" to this model will be seen soon.

 

[Atlantis]

More updates, I'm afraid!

So, in the intervening month there have been a number of parcels delivered here, and the contents have been made good use of.

First off is the main project, the Omega:



Still missing a couple of dozen pieces, and I have had to do a couple of ad-hoc fixes and a couple of redesigns of certain places, where it's just turned out to be too flimsy. The "head" needs redoing from the fundamentals for this reason, and the reactor block will be adjusted slightly to fit together better.

Next up, the Fleet:



Again, a couple of problems came up with the Nebula, which I'll be redesigning, and the Steamrunner, whose nacelles need redoing (they're currently too short).

Thirdly, a homage to one of my favourite games series:



Yep, T3M4. Not to the usual minifig scale, of course, but that would be impossible.

And finally, the Star Destroyer The first pic is just how it looked to begin with, really, but I've made three major changes so far, on this first draft of rolling upgrades across the board.



1) A stand has been put together to allow viewing of the other two changes.
2) The 'reactor dome' has been made and put into place. As you can see, it doesn't look right with the stock 'flat bottom', but this will be looked at next
3) A hangar has been added, taking the place of the 'stock' bridge. Also included here are a Blockade Runner (naturally), TIE Fighter and AT-AT.

 

[CABAL]

All are excellent! It's also nice to see T3 get some love.

 

[Terra_Inc]

Oh man, those are awesome. Good job!

 

[Atlantis]

Finally, something new to show off. I mean, the Omega's had a redesign, but it's all structural and new stand, so not worth showing yet.

But this:


Microfighter(ish)-scale Colonial Viper Mk II.

All designed from scratch. I did it for a friend's birthday, so made the instruction booklet for it too (sample above), boxed it all up like a proper little product. Unfortunately took no photos of that setup, which is annoying, but obviously I made one for myself too, almost the same (hers has Starbuck and Tyrol, whereas mine has Apollo and Cally).

 

[Rifraf]

Do you ever feel like after you build something you want to run through the house making spaceship sounds and flying your creation through the air? Just me?

 

[Atlantis]

"Luckily", I'm currently in shared accommodation, so only really have two room to myself, so space to do such things is severely curtailed.

However, before moving, when I had run of a whole house, when moving the Star Destroyer downstairs when I was planning/making modifications to it... Yes. That. Especially once I'd made the tiny Tantive IV to go with it.

 

[LordChicken]

How have I not seen this thread before? Just awesome!