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So I recently decided to start building a space faction. I recently was looking for some insight on one of the displays that was done for the Lego store at Ross Park. I got a bunch of info from Rich, @zaximillian, and after talking back and forth with him, he suggested starting a thread to tie in other space enthusiasts.
My plan is to start with one ship that with a main cockpit and try to make it modular, similar to Galaxy Squad and Mars Mission sets. So the pilot would have his own cockpit and then the ship could be modded based on its needs. So if say the ship were to land on a planet, the wings or flight gear could be removed at the base and tank treads or wheels could be installed to create a land vehicle. So far I have been jotting down attachments that could be made once I get the first ship completed. I even have some ideas on making different cockpit designs that the wings could be interchanged with or even building a kind of super starship.
I’ve been playing around in Digital Designer and Stud.io to get the hang of them all the while going through my current collection of parts to see what i can come up with.
@arcadiumsol, this idea is right up your alley. I can mention how I designed my faction, but I think your engineering approach is more core to what Travis is trying to do.
@wreckgar13, I think there are many different ways to approach designing a Space faction.* You can start with a color palette, as all LEGO Space factions tend to have one, and with specific proportions of those colors. Nearly all of the LEGO Space lines did this, some more consistently than others. @tfdesigns does this with Whitetron.
* You can start with a backstory and design craft based on their function. M-Tron is probably the strongest example. @randomdan is our resident M-Tron/Blacktron guy, and is into monorail and Spacer heavy industry builds.
* You can start with play features and work backward from those, using engineering, design, shaping or architecture as a core. I can’t pick out a classic LEGO Space line that had a really tight design and shaping consistency, but maybe Classic Space and Galaxy Squad are the closest ones. @whitesidewjw is of note here, as he builds in a style partially inspired by legendary illustrator Chris Foss.
Ultimately, the best LEGO Space factions, whether by LEGO or MOC, they use all of these things to differing extents. Based on our conversation, you’ve already chosen the engineering approach, and so I say go with it as category #1. Yet, everybody in the LUG has things to offer, from interior superstructure ideas, to play features, to shaping and style, and maybe even minifigure choices. This includes everybody in the club; I’ve gotten ideas from architecture and landscape builders like @timf, @greg and @rcgrier3406 among examples. This is because just about every other type of building has some overlap. “Everything can be Space.” You never know who might light up with an idea at random, outside the things they normally do. That’s what’s great about this club.
Any Spacers I forgot? Jump on.
I’ve been looking at color schemes based on a couple of the airplane/helicopter cockpit canopies available. I am currently trying to piece together some ships with my current supply of parts so things are a little technicolor, but I figure once I get to a concrete design I can finalize a color scheme.
I will say that the new magnet system in the 2020 City Police sets might have some promise. I got the helicopter set for my birthday from my daughters and was quite impressed with the strength of the magnets, as well as the ability to hide them in the construction. My only previous experience with magnets was the Exploriens sets and some of the Aquazone.
Okay. Your ideas kicked some of mine into gear. I’m not the end all, be all on any of this, so I just hope that my ideas are brainstorming, springboards, or a good foundation for your own.
* I would suggest going for windscreens as canopies instead of the larger, purpose built pieces you’ve mentioned. In this way, you can control shaping, color blocking, and most of all the engineering and functionality, all while keeping the cockpit box more compact. This is not only for the lower part count, but keeping in mind that the cockpit box will be sleeved into fighter fuselage, ground vehicle hull, and other things, making all of those even larger than the cockpit box.
Second, LEGO magnets are notoriously expensive. Beware of using this connection type, but not for this reason. The other reason to be concerned with magnets as a superstructure connection type is that the magnet connection can orient at any angle. This may be an advantage if orienting the cockpit box differently on each craft is a part of the design. However, using this type of connection makes it very hard to orient the connected parts in alignment unless there are physical parts that trap against each other to lock the connected sections into alignment, which also requires more brick.
Also, if you do choose to go with a windscreen, look closely at the profile where it will meet the rest of the brick beneath. Ideally, all that space should be sealed up. It is easier to accomplish this by having a studs out arrangement beneath the canopy so that you have maximum flexibility to cover that awkward area without making the box too bulky. You’ll also have antistud connections inside the cockpit at that point. Also think about the pilot seat and instrumentation for the pilot (or pilots, if you’re using the largest windscreen types).
I think your cockpit pod should be the first build. Here’s how I think of a free floating cockpit area before I build: I recommend studs up from the base where the pilot will sit, studs front, back and sides around the center of the cockpit pod, then studs up from the base of the canopy. In this way you can create nose and engine details easily, building maneuvering thrusters after that wherever they both make sense, look good, and are playable, and then standardized connection hardpoints on the sides and beneath. To make this work, you may need 6-8 studs along the sides, mostly for the sealing bricks above that both give the craft a smooth look and seal in the hardpoints to the sides of the cockpit.
It is definitely okay to go technicolor with your current part supply. LEGO designers design in white, and then the prototypes are spray painted in the correct colors. However, with a more limited part selection like an individual collection, I recommend working with “finishing” parts first: those parts (like a colored canopy) that will lie on the very outermost layer on your craft. This will cut down on the number of bricks you’ll have to buy to complete your ideas. In addition, the Color Guide on BrickLink also has a link to every part that comes in a particular color. This way, you can find our whether your idea is supported by the bricks you’ll want in that particular color before you start building.
Thanks for posting, and this reminds me to take another attempt at getting some LDD files together for you.
The main canopy i was considering was the helicopter one (11293), but that’s a whole other idea. I was thinking more of a freighter style ship, bulky and a work horse hauler. I have been keeping a list of windscreens and canopies that have caught my eye as well as what I currently have. I really like the windscreen on the new Razor Crest model.
As far as the magnets, the new design is a huge improvement over anything I had see before. The magnets are internal of the shapes they are in and the magnet can really spin freely to connect with its mate. They also have studs and/or the ability to use a connector peg. They would provide a great way to dock with something, with the aid of a guide, and then lock it into place.
I am slowly piecing a cockpit together, a piece here and a piece there, like a sculptor with clay. I’ve kinda started two different cockpits; 1) starting with 2-2X*various length* plates & 2) a formed vehicle bottom.
LDD files would be awesome. I’ve been going back and forth between digital and real.
@arcadiumsol has a modular approach like you envision. Re-usable cockpits, engines, etc. he has a really good vision and backstory on the whole setup. Really good vision and execution on his various ships, rovers, etc.
He and I had a discussion about it over Chik-Fil-A and I suggested a “Mother Ship” variant that had a circular system to store cockpits and “rears” (rover body, fighter, tank, etc) so ships could be configured in any way they wanted as they moved through the fuselage and out of the back of the ship either to fly out or be dropped on a planet to colonize or explore.
Sounds like you have a lot of ideas and a cool journey in front of you! Good luck!
Jim, @tcsbgdady, the mother ship idea sounds really cool. My ship plans have come to a crawl. I got furloughed for a week and decided to try and finish our bathroom remodel. Then my birthday present came from my kids . . . the Dom’s Charger from Technic. It is definitely a cool model, but now that it is done I can get back to space travels.
I was wondering how this was developing. I like the idea of a pod system with wholly modular parts and functions.
I was making some progress then I had to take on some other projects. I’m hoping to get back to it here at some point. I struggled a little but because i was trying to utilize parts in my current inventory. I only got to dabble a little bit into the software side but didn’t make too much progress. Were you able to get some of the LDD files together?
Refresh my memory; what LDD files did you want? I have all of the files for the Version 1 G-Fighters and their predecessors, and files of random SNOT connections as a library.
Anything you would be willing to share I’d love to look at. It was arcadiumsol’s design in the one LEGO store display that got me thinking about building ships in a modular fashion, but I’m hoping that seeing some completed models in LDD would help me to understand it a bit better too.
Well, my models are much heavier, lack the engineering, and are solid SNOT constructions. No modular stuff on my work. After I get another round of race car work done, I’ll compile some good examples for you and probably PM you a Dropbox link.
Hey Rich I know we’ve gone back and forth on starships but I was wondering if you had any info on this ship (attached).
Hey Rich I know we’ve gone back and forth on starships but I was wondering if you had any info on this ship (attached).
That, my fellow Spacer, is the Red Sparrow, built by @arcadiumsol. This is the core craft for his entire faction, and has the sort of interchangeable module system you’ve been working on. He has a system of naming conventions dependent on color and the size of the craft, and a wealth of backstory as well.
I thought so, he was describing it to me at the one AFOL day. The design is kind of what started me down this path, but he is a hard person to get a hold of. Do you have any info it?
Well, sending Sean a private message is the best thing if you want to start an in depth one on one conversation, as is true for any user here.
I know that all of his craft use fork-and stub connections for the modules, and the modules can be as large as full wings, armor, sensor packages, and varying payloads. I know that on the red Sparrow, the drill can be rotated to lower the working landing gear. The craft is designed to look good with and without modules, and there are modules designed specifically for it. Throughout his faction, all modules are designed to fit as many craft as possible, and the positioning of the hardpoints are in similar places on the fuselage to accommodate that. Engines are usually heavily integrated into the fuselage, and usually contain pearl gold.
His naming convention is usually a smaller animal, preceded by a color that indicates the department of his space faction, which categorizes the craft’s mission. This extends to the colors used on the modules, as certain craft have different energy intensities indicated by the transparent parts used. I believe that all of his crafts’ mechanical moving parts are in partly a yellow color within so that they can be quickly identified as play features. And in each one of his craft, there is at least one “control chip”: a 1×1 transparent green tile with circuit printing on it.
His biggest craft is the Turtle, and it is worth a detailed look, as Sean has engineered play features and Technic mechanical greeble very, very tightly into the System build.
I still have a partially completed craft (still to be fully developed, thank you Grand Prix racing) that will fit within his faction. Sean named it the White Raven, as it is black with a white identifying stripe. It will be in his Experimental Science division because I am using trans-light blue as the accent color, which translates to a medium azure pilot in his faction.
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