Building a spaceship halp.

[Booklovingbuilder]

Hi folks! Booklovingbuilder here, and I am trying to build a lego spaceship(or perhaps mecha) out of a bunch of disparate Insectoids and UFO parts, the problem is... I simply lack building skill. I honestly don't know where to begin on a ship, what to start with, or even really what pieces are most useful.

I'm trying for a somewhat simple fighter, with a moveable cockpit, wings, cannons, and an engine. I've seen tons of great ships here and elsewhere, I just have no idea how to actually BUILD something without instructions anymore.

Anyone wanna help? Ideas, sample ships, literally anything would be beneficial. If there are certain sets that have been used a lot in MOCs, I'd gladly buy them.

Thank you!

[Frostyfeet]

Pile pieces into big mess, take random prices, put together, refine. Repeat.

Only way to learn.

[Spirit]

What Frostyfeet said, but not being skilled either, I'll share some of my habits.

There are three main concepts from my standpoint: appearance, global functionality, and local functionality.

So the first idea is to place the key elements of your design where you want them to give you an idea of what you need to do. For example, you can place all the windows and wings on your desk as you want them on your spaceship. This way you can see the length of the structure you need, how high some parts have to be compared to others, etc. Then you start assembling roughly, and refine when needed. This way, your spaceship should look the way you want it to.

The second idea is to build a structure, mostly like a technic model, and when it does what you want it to do, you decorate it.

The third idea is to build several elements separately and assemble them the best you can so you'll have several separate playing elements on your spaceship.

You'll notice they don't exclude one another. You can easily do 3, 1 and 2, which means: design some gameplay elements, place them with decorative elements, and build a complex structure to make all that work together.

[PaddyBricksplitter]

I started off watching this guy on YouTube.

There's loads of how to build lego videos on there.

[Booklovingbuilder]

Thanks for the help guys! Those are some good tips Spirit! I will use those :)

And thanks Paddy, I'll watch some!

[TenorPenny]

Hi there,

A lot of people sketch a very basic design on paper, even the least artistic of us.

When you build, it's wise to start with one significant part of it. The engines, the cockpit, etc. Then build from there and around there.

[Booklovingbuilder]

Alright, thank you! I am pretty darn bad at drawing, but I can certainly try. Any recommendations on how to make a build look less...blocky? I don't seem to have many curved pieces in my collection for wings and such...

[TenorPenny]

Studs Not On Top is key. I find the Lego Techniques group on flickr extremely useful, personally.

[Booklovingbuilder]

Ah okay! Thank you for the suggestion!

My main problem is that all my sets are small, from the mid-late nineties, and there is hardly a shared/duplicated part among them as far as I can tell. Would it help if I got organized to a degree? I've got five boxes full of miscellaneous parts with no rhyme or reason to them...

[TenorPenny]

I personally can't work well without organisation; I would say definitely you should.

There's a forum topic advising different systems. I tend to organise by shape or function rather than colour.

[Spirit]

If you already chose the colours of your spaceship, you can begin by removing the irrelevant colours, and possibly "unusable" parts (castle walls for example).

But it's often better not to put only one colour in a box unless it's well organized.

Keep in mind the more you organize your parts, the less you'll damage them when you're searching something. So it's much better, for example, to have all the transparent parts and the easily damaged smoothest parts (such as curved parts) apart.

[Booklovingbuilder]

Thanks guys! :D I will work on organizing box by box lol, trying to get pieces of similar function(rectangles, slopes, transparents, etc) in boxes and whatnot.

I have an entire box of instructions, and I've figured out what I want to rebuild of my collection, as well as some ideas of my own creations too. My main issue is that I'm simply unsure of what I have and don't have lol.