Alternate building styles

[knotian]

I'd like a few opinions please. My current work has some massive beams and panels. (See WIP Hulett Unloader) I started off with using Technic Panels. There are really several ways I could build these.

1-Continue to use panels, with lift arms and technic bricks to carry the structural integrity.

2-Use various plates, along with the beams and bricks with the studs on the plates visible.

3- """"""""" with the studs covered with tiles.

4- """""""""" with the plate bottoms showing.

Cost wise the panel alternative is the most expensive and also the heaviest.

Any comments?

Thanx,

Ed

 

[suffocation]

I think it boils down to a matter of taste. Given the sheer size of the model you're building, I'd probably go with option number 2 because I think it'd give it a very fitting throwback feel.

Addendum: A great lesson I learnt from Erik Leppen is that you don't really need to panel up everything, especially when it comes to Technic. So don't be afraid to leave some machine guts in plain sight.

Edited August 8, 2018 by suffocation

[Erik Leppen]

There's two ways you can look at building beams and rigid structures:

• by function
• by style

which is to say: style is how a model looks, apart from its function. So where the best way to build functions often follows from the properties of parts (such as strength), style is very much a free choice. As you said, there are many styles:

• pure studless; mainly panels (curved shapes, flat areas)
• pure studless; closed with beams (beam stacking)
• pure studless; open with beams (truss-like)
• pure studless, more open structure (axles, flex axles, connectors)
• studless, but also using system parts, but with few studs showing (many tiles and curved slopes)
• studless, but also using system parts, with many studs showing (plates, etc)
• mostly studded body, but with few studs showing (many tiles and curved slopes)
• mostly studded body, with many studs showing (plates, etc) (Model team style)

I think that's kind of the "range". Your option "undersides of plates showing" is also an option, but not very common (personally, it wouldn't be my taste, but maybe the underside of plates has the right texture for what you're after). There's lots of in-between options. What I think matters most is to have a bit of consistency. If one half of the model is open and the other half is closed, or one part with studs showing and anothe section tiled off, it looks like a mistake somehow, or as if you ran out of parts. I think which style you chooes is mainly dicated by your collection and your taste, as long as you follow the same style throughout a build, you're basiclaly fine. And of course, if a model has really different sections, you can mix styles. For example, if a GBC module has a tower and a slide, you can pick some style for the tower and another for the slide. But if you're building a model consiting of one thing, like a car or a crane, I think you're best off following a single style.

[knotian]

Eric and suffocation,

Good posts!

There is much open structure as well as enclosed machine space. The open structure will be studless. I built a model with a body made of stacked liftarms and it looked pretty good.  In this case I believe weight would become a factor. I'm redoing a deck beam with plates rather than panels and I'll see how it looks / performs.