Build Your Own Plus Size AT-AT

[Forresto]

So I did air measurements of how big this beauty is with a ruler and good lord is this thing huge! I mean I genuinely underestimated the true size of this assault walker. 

[Raskolnikov]

On 12/2/2016 at 0:50 PM, Forresto said:

So I did air measurements of how big this beauty is with a ruler and good lord is this thing huge! I mean I genuinely underestimated the true size of this assault walker. 

Yeah man, it definitely is fun to pose it next to minifigures and snowspeeders and such -- really towers over them.  Might still be able to make it looks small, though...

Anyway, I just got a new table, making it much easier to put something else in the same picture as the Tyrant.  Maybe I could take some better fleet shots, now.

[Forresto]

Oh why'd you have to post that picture...Now any doubts in my mind have been cleared. I'm building one. That shot, more so then the others for whatever reason has convinced me to do it. Fortunately I believe I own about a third of the required pieces, possible half. 

[richiejwalker]

So, I've checked through my stock and have 581 parts. I've just placed two orders on Bricklink for 688 parts from 'I love 2 build' and another 416 parts from a fellow called 'Cavegod'.

About 800 parts to go, I'm hoping to have them all before Christmas. Total spend £70.

I can't wait to start building!!

[Raskolnikov]

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and another 416 parts from a fellow called 'Cavegod'.

Very appropriate.

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Oh why'd you have to post that picture...Now any doubts in my mind have been cleared. I'm building one.

Glad to hear it, hope it doesn't disappoint!

Also took a pic with minifigures for scale, but it's got me worrying that I've gone a little overboard with this hobby...

 

Edited December 5, 2016 by Raskolnikov

[That Orange Thing]

Now that's an imperial army not to be messed with, yet I get the feeling you still have more troops/vehicles not pictured :) 

Anyway, it made a freezing Monday morning a lot more bearable seeing that. Nice work.

[Forresto]

That is in an incredible shot one that reminds me of one from the Essential Guide to War. I'll find and post a pic when its not three in the morning where I live. 

Out of curiosity do you know offhand in inches how tall is your AT-ST is?

You have already built one of the largest Lego Star Destroyer in the world, I think you crossed the path of no return with collecting Lego quite a while ago  Mind you the Tyrant will forever be an impressive accomplishment. Your collection is just awesome! 

Edited December 5, 2016 by Forresto

[richiejwalker]

I have told 'Cavegod' what I'm buying the bricks for.... I'm not sure he's impressed 

[Hold0511]

Is that Stormtrooper Jeff? fourth from right 2nd row....no I see now its Andy...

[Schneeds]

Ive got the four legs mostly built and they are quite solid.  No real issues with the instructions yet, although the way in which it says to repeat building various sections of the legs is a little confusing.  

[manglegrat]

Just for fun, I'm building this in LDD (on my Mac) from the instructions and have had some odd collision detection issues where the technic bricks and beams are joined and you are supposed to put plates across the studs from one side to the other. My LDD install seems to be a bit over-sensitive, so I worked around it by adding in a layer of plates on the technic bricks. I'm at p87 now, and that workaround hasn't caused any other problems so far.

I'm sure it's not an issue in the brick! I'm not sure I'll go all the way through in LDD, though. It's a bit of a grind doing it all on my lap using just the trackpad on my MBP.  Aligning angled parts with the hinge align tool would test a saint's patience...  

It certainly makes me appreciate all the effort that went into producing those instructions, so major thanks to you guys for sharing this with us! 

Sometime soon (once I'm done building my BL'd UCS Y-Wing and ordering the parts for this) I'll get onto building it for real. Looking forward to it!  

[Raskolnikov]

12 hours ago, Schneeds said:

Ive got the four legs mostly built and they are quite solid.  No real issues with the instructions yet, although the way in which it says to repeat building various sections of the legs is a little confusing.  

Yeah, I think Legolijnte did as much as he could with that.  I wasn't really thinking of directions when I built it, so I ended up making each leg differently.  The legs on the left are mirror images of the legs on the right, but then each leg also differs depending on whether it's a front or back leg.  So, some portions of the legs can be built 4x, and some components can be built 2x, but not any single entire leg can be built 2x.  If it were an actual mass-market set, that would never fly.  If TLG did it, I'm sure they'd do a whole left leg (2x), followed by a whole right leg (2x), and that'd be that.  But I'm glad you were up to the challenge :)  Should be smoother sailing after that.

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Out of curiosity do you know offhand in inches how tall is your AT-ST is?

No, sorry, roughly the same size as the set, though.  Maybe a stud shorter? 

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Is that Stormtrooper Jeff? fourth from right 2nd row....no I see now its Andy...

Funnily enough, the 16 troopers in the back left are the Tyrant's contingent, so some of them have different faces under their helmets.  Gotta keep track of that so they don't get mixed up with the others.

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Just for fun, I'm building this in LDD (on my Mac) from the instructions and have had some odd collision detection issues where the technic bricks and beams are joined and you are supposed to put plates across the studs from one side to the other. My LDD install seems to be a bit over-sensitive, so I worked around it by adding in a layer of plates on the technic bricks. I'm at p87 now, and that workaround hasn't caused any other problems so far.

Hrm, I'll check on this.  The only collision I can think of off the top of my head are the inner "toes" of the feet.  So if each leg is straight up and down, the inner toes collide. In real life it's not a huge deal because putting it into a walking pose alleviates the problem, or it can even stand straight if you don't mind a little flexing in the legs.  The set would have had the same issue, but they simply removed the inner toes -- so that'd fix it, too (but I prefer to keep them to add stability when "walking").  Maybe as a result of this, some of your pins are not pushed in the whole way or something?  Or maybe a step was missed?  The technic and plates on the body of the AT-AT are pretty legal and exact, so far as I know.   Edit: Took another look and didn't see any issues.  If you have a picture, I'd look at it, though.

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I'm sure it's not an issue in the brick! I'm not sure I'll go all the way through in LDD, though. It's a bit of a grind doing it all on my lap using just the trackpad on my MBP.  Aligning angled parts with the hinge align tool would test a saint's patience...  

It certainly makes me appreciate all the effort that went into producing those instructions, so major thanks to you guys for sharing this with us! 

Sometime soon (once I'm done building my BL'd UCS Y-Wing and ordering the parts for this) I'll get onto building it for real. Looking forward to it!

Yeah, tell me about it, heh.  Building digitally drives me nuts.  Hope your plans for a brick-built version come to fruition :)

Edited December 6, 2016 by Raskolnikov

[ChiefPie]

The at-at is great and your army pleases the Emperor.

[legolijntje]

13 hours ago, Schneeds said:

Ive got the four legs mostly built and they are quite solid.  No real issues with the instructions yet, although the way in which it says to repeat building various sections of the legs is a little confusing.  

Yeah, I know. I was also not really a 100% satisfied with how the instructions are now. It was partly due to the small differences in the model and partly due to software limitations (the software in which I created the instructions). Although regarding the software: an upcoming update might have a few features that would make it easier to clarify builds like these in the future. 

[Schneeds]

I managed to build Brickwright's Y-wing so I'm confident this will be smooth sailing ;)

[manglegrat]

7 hours ago, Raskolnikov said:

Hrm, I'll check on this.  The only collision I can think of off the top of my head are the inner "toes" of the feet.  So if each leg is straight up and down, the inner toes collide. In real life it's not a huge deal because putting it into a walking pose alleviates the problem, or it can even stand straight if you don't mind a little flexing in the legs.  The set would have had the same issue, but they simply removed the inner toes -- so that'd fix it, too (but I prefer to keep them to add stability when "walking").  Maybe as a result of this, some of your pins are not pushed in the whole way or something?  Or maybe a step was missed?  The technic and plates on the body of the AT-AT are pretty legal and exact, so far as I know.   Edit: Took another look and didn't see any issues.  If you have a picture, I'd look at it, though.

I think the black technic pins with friction may be the issue. If I remove the beam, hinges, pins and other internal parts from the middle of the legs the plates go on the outside. I'll need to disassemble the legs from the "inside" and reassemble them with the plates already in place to see if it'll actually work as intended for me in LDD (if you see what I mean)... Gah.  

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Building digitally drives me nuts.  Hope your plans for a brick-built version come to fruition :)

This is an excellent example of one of the reasons why it does this to us!  

And thanks - I did a spares-bin check and have 75% of the parts already... 

[KevinYoung]

On ‎12‎/‎4‎/‎2016 at 10:53 PM, Raskolnikov said:

Very appropriate.

Glad to hear it, hope it doesn't disappoint!

Also took a pic with minifigures for scale, but it's got me worrying that I've gone a little overboard with this hobby...

 

One could never go to  overboard  in this hobby. Nice shot!!

[Schneeds]

I have now finished the build.  First, I must say this is incredibly well designed and nothing seems arbitrary.  But that is what you would expect from Raskolnikov.  It's one of those models where the pictures don't really do it justice.  It looks fantastic in person.  Measurement-wise it comes in at about 17.5" high and 17" in overall length.  I will try to shoot some quality pictures tomorrow. 

As for the build/instructions, there are really only three areas where there are any issues.  The first, is on pages 103-106. If you assemble it in the exact order of the instructions, it will be impossible to assemble.  The bottom most blue technic pin on page 105 will make it impossible for you to get that LBG lift arm all the way down in and snapped in to place. You have to build it in reverse, and put the pin through the lift arm first, then attach it to the frame.  That entire assembly actually goes into place easy if you build it in reverse, otherwise its extremely hard to get the pins to all line up and snap in. At least it was for me. 

The second, is a much easier fix. On page 140 you put the front/back of the leg plating on.  You need to remove the bottom most technic pin from the knee-cap side of the leg or you won't be able to attach it.

And last, page 171.  The instructions mention that the optional neck support parts are difficult to get into place, but I found it to be impossible.  If you remove the 1x4 LBG tile piece, it's a lot easier to get into place, but to make it stronger I just built an assembly out of a couple pieces of plate that swaps in easier.

That's pretty much it though.  Some of the technic structure can be a giant pain in the megablocks but the connections are all legit and it's built quite well.  Thanks to Raskolnikov and Legolijntje for all their hard work and generosity!

 

Edit:  Apparently Eurobricks auto-substitutes megablocks for the word as**.  That is hilarious. 

 

Edited December 13, 2016 by Schneeds

[Forresto]

33 minutes ago, Schneeds said:

Edit:  Apparently Eurobricks auto-substitutes megablocks for the word as**.  That is hilarious. 

For all swearwords actually. So if you simply type megablocks they'll never know if you're megablocks cursing or just putting megablocks randomly in the middle of a sentence!

I am still assembling my parts but I would like to voice my appreciation for all the hard work everyone has put in to make this model accessible to the public. 

[Raskolnikov]

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I have now finished the build.  First, I must say this is incredibly well designed and nothing seems arbitrary.  But that is what you would expect from Raskolnikov.  It's one of those models where the pictures don't really do it justice.  It looks fantastic in person.  Measurement-wise it comes in at about 17.5" high and 17" in overall length.  I will try to shoot some quality pictures tomorrow. 

Thanks!  Looking forward to your pictures.

All that feedback is really useful feedback, too.  Much appreciated.

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The first, is on pages 103-106. If you assemble it in the exact order of the instructions, it will be impossible to assemble.  The bottom most blue technic pin on page 105 will make it impossible for you to get that LBG lift arm all the way down in and snapped in to place. You have to . . . put the pin through the lift arm first, then attach it to the frame. 

Yeah, you're right.  Looks like all it needs is a mini-instruction that says to put pin through the liftarm first?  This one's my fault, since the picture instructions were messed up here and actually required backtracking.

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On page 140 you put the front/back of the leg plating on.  You need to remove the bottom most technic pin from the knee-cap side of the leg or you won't be able to attach it.

Right again, but I get to tease Legolijntje this time :)  http://i.imgur.com/DQMzLd6.jpg

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And last, page 171.  The instructions mention that the optional neck support parts are difficult to get into place, but I found it to be impossible.  If you remove the 1x4 LBG tile piece, it's a lot easier to get into place, but to make it stronger I just built an assembly out of a couple pieces of plate that swaps in easier.

I'd definitely be curious to see what you did there.  I know it's not impossible -- but it is at least a question of whether you're willing to apply a maybe-going-to-break-something-but-hopefully-not amount of force. 

[willhappy]

wow

how great is that

. Very well raskolnikov

will

[mink66]

Started last night. If my last Bricklink order arrives before the weekend, I might have mine done by Sunday afternoon.

[legolijntje]

21 hours ago, Raskolnikov said:

Right again, but I get to tease Legolijntje this time :)  http://i.imgur.com/DQMzLd6.jpg

Haha, oops! 
That's a little parts-list change then again. Does that make the part count identical again to the previous number of parts? Would be quite funny 

Thanks @Schneeds! I'll incorporate the changes into an updated version of the instructions. 

[Forresto]

The original MOC looks fantastic but I think my first mod is going to be lengthen the legs slightly and make the feet larger to boost the height another two inches. I don't know if that will be proportional yet.

[Schneeds]

A few pictures.

1 hour ago, Forresto said:

The original MOC looks fantastic but I think my first mod is going to be lengthen the legs slightly and make the feet larger to boost the height another two inches. I don't know if that will be proportional yet.

The current proportions are pretty spot on.  Two inches would definitely be too long.