[BDP8 submission] Imperial Guards' Star Fortress

[HanSime]

Hey all, new poster here and new to LEGO designing, that is in Studio and trying to be professional about it. ;) Been collecting LEGO since the '80s and '90s, since I was a kid then and they'll have to pry those LEGO's out of my cold dead hands. Just like my TransFormers.

 

I’m here to promote my Imperial Guards’ Star Fortress for BDP8. :)

 

Anyway. Sad Origin Story Time. You can skip ahead. :P

Ran across Studio earlier this year and realized I could finally design stuff. Didn't know where the previous Bricklink stuff was designed in, but already bought a few and really wanted to do one of my own. So. Better start ambitious and not read the fine print, eh? Went straight in and started designing a Star Fortress with all the mini figures and parts deemed necessary - not quite realising the BDP8 pallette wasn't active for every mode (like the exchange tool). Wanted to do something big, different and in a shape that's not too rectangular. So. Pentagon. Went in too quickly, added too much detail, yadda yadda. Long story short, used 2000+ parts on a single wall section that was too wide (had harbour, gate, fountain, lighthouse, storage and stables in ONE section) and could start over. :)

Went for a more structural and modest approach: 2-3 'themes' per section of main wall at most, but still didn't notice the BDP pallette wasn't active. Submitted the design. Ouch. Could redo 10-15% while finding bricks for a lot more. While also trying to keep the instructions proper. While on holiday. With just a really old laptop which luckily had a decent Nvidia card, but could only render one thing at a time and would take over half an hour per image, while only having time after 8PM... Gah.

Long story short, submitted with less than half the renders done and made due with what I had from the old stuff, then had to resubmit everything rendered while editing some stuff on my iphone in the middle of an amusement park within what amounted to a cage of Faraday to make the submission deadline and not losing track of my three and six year olds. I wasn't stressed. Nope. Nope. NoOoooOOooOooo. Fine. It was very stressful. D:

Anyway. Done a few more renders now, would have been nice to do some animations, maybe in the future. So without further rambling, the Imperial Guards' Star Fortress! :D

Open to any constructive comments and critiques. :)

-Hans

PS: Bigger pics here: https://www.reddit.com/r/LEGOPirates/comments/1kgkrxd/imperial_guards_star_fortress/

EDIT: Replaced the images by a short video. :)

 

 

Edited May 13 by HanSime

[HanSime]

These bars can be removed to the sides to reveal a narrow path along the water stream of the fountain.

 

 

 

[HanSime]

Replaced the images in the first post with a video. :)