[MOC] Interstellar Ranger, 10497 Galaxy Explorer alt-build

[Astatine-209]

This is about an older MOC I made, but I thought I could make a post about my design process.

I decided that I would try and make something based on the Ranger spacecraft from Interstellar, using the Galaxy Explorer's pieces.

What I ended up with is by no means an exact replica of the movie prop, but I still think it looks cool enough.


I decided on using the big blue slopes to panel the front of the craft for that smooth look. I rotated the wings upward using the well known mirrored hypotenuse technique (which is actually also used in the main 10497 build!).
I naively tried using the 3x6 wing elements for the shape of the main wings, but this wasn't working.

The spacecraft was going to be too fat, and the wings too wide. So I started thinking about mounting them in more interesting ways.

A steeper angle could perhaps work...

I moved to building in Stud.io, and decided on using this:

I made the next iteration of the model digitally.

At this point, I wanted to have the outer airlock door slide down, like it does in the film. I was also using a single canopy for the cockpit, because I assumed two canopies side by side would look bad.
I was also going to mount the canopy section at an angle, because I liked how it looked on the Galaxy Explorer build. This was making the build needlessly complicated, and slowed the process down.

Shortly after this I realised that I should only rotate the wing edges, and keep the core flat. This would simplify gap-filling a lot.

I burned out at this point. 

After a short hiatus, I decided that I would try placing the two canopy pieces side by side. After placing a 1x8 flat tile between them to hide the gap, I found that I really liked the look:

For me, this was a breakthrough moment, and helped get me motivated to finish the project, which happened quite quickly after.

I abandoned the idea of having a sliding docking port on the back, attached the two canopies to the body with a trapezoid linkage for access and made a stand for the whole thing.




I also made sure it had a 'play feature' .


(If you'd like to build this, the instructions are available for free on rebrickable.)

[icm]

Thanks for the WIP pictures, the write up, and the instructions. This is another great alt build. Sleek, functional, a good adaptation of a different IP into the CS style. The Ranger is ridiculous, but it's an entertaining movie with great music.

[SpacePolice89]

I like the angular design. Nice build!

[GeoBrick]

Those pop-up 'eyes' in the fuselage, they're hilarious! Nice touch there.