Tips for building cockpits with part 30372?

[xenologer]

Hi there,

can anyone give tips for building starship cockpits using this piece?

It's a relatively new windscreen for me, (I've come out of "dark ages" recently) and its a little different from the old ones I'm used to, namely the size bothers me.

It's shorter than what I'm used to. In fact, its just barely short enough so that a minifig sitting upright wearing a space helmet, bumps his head. You have to have him lean backwards to fit. Which is highly annoying for me, since I hate pilots who sleep on the job.

Raising the canopy glass is not always a possiblity, since in typical 4 stud cockpit design, right below the glass on each side of the Pilot's arms, are these pieces:

They more or less force the pilot to be at a specific height from the canopy glass itself because they lift his arms.

Of course, if we had a cockpit that was wider than 4 studs, we could use other pieces for the sidewalls, but small ships are still a problem.

So does anyone have any tips for how to make cockpit sidewalls that are compatible with that new windscreen glass? That also give the pilot plenty of arm and headroom?

Thanks

[SuvieD]

So does anyone have any tips for how to make cockpit sidewalls that are compatible with that new windscreen glass? That also give the pilot plenty of arm and headroom?

Not the clearest picture but yes I had to use panels to get the arm room needed. The overall size of the ship is about 8x20x6. Which I consider small. The pilot must sit at an angle but not laying down and doesn't allow roow for any neckgear at all. Standard helmets fit and I think the alien bubble helmets do as well. Another option is to use cutout plates and have the canopy only connect at the tip. It would not require much extra if any size increase.

[xenologer]

Well, I just made a little ship (about the same size as your actually) and it also does that setup for the cockpit, with the pilot leaning backwards slightly and the helmet barely fitting in.

I'm hoping that theres a way to get more room in there without having to get gaps on either side, I'm not happy with the slightly leaning backwards method, since this means the pilot can't lean forwards to reach controls. and it seems unrealistic to me, that a pilot wouldn't be able to move around in his seat to look in different directions...

What would really be nice, is if those sidewall panels also came it 4 plates height, instead of the standard brick/ 3plates height. Does anyone know of a part like that? or maybe something that could work similarly?

Really annoying canopy glass.... its 5 plates height.... just one more plate would solve all of this.. and also make it a more 'standard' 6plates / 2 bricks high....

[snefroe]

hm... i normally don't work with this canopy but your problem reminds me of the same problems i had with the classic canopies. they were also pretty low and you also had to use the panels in order to have some room for your pilot's arms. The system didn't allow much flexibility there either.

you may want to try the classic bracket:

http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemPic.asp?P=3956

4 of these plus a 4x4 plate should be able to give your pilot a little bit more room, but then, you'll have to build your ship around that construction or it might end up to be pretty ugly...

btw, suvie, that's a very cool gun that minifig is holding...

[xenologer]

you may want to try the classic bracket:

http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemPic.asp?P=3956

4 of these plus a 4x4 plate should be able to give your pilot a little bit more room, but then, you'll have to build your ship around that construction or it might end up to be pretty ugly...

Yeah, I was starting to come to that conclusion too,

use SNOTed plates as the side walls of the cockpit

Means its going to be complicated making the SNOT bricks fit in there, and keeping everything strong..

huh, actually I just had an idea:

use offset jumper bricks (those 1/2 stud offset tiles) to have tall cockpit sidewalls that are offset to allow arm room.(no more of those plates needed) This means on each side there would be 1/2 stud increase in overall width, for a 5stud cockpit instead of 4, but this is still relatively small and might achieve the same appearance....