Building Mortesv's Nebulon-B Thread

[mortesv]

So how is everyone's builds going? :)

I am having a baby on my lap, so I really can'y build much - only look at your guys' progress :)

[ecmo47]

Just got started today and ran into a snag. Pictured below is step 15 which is building the bottom frame of the rear engine section. The 1x11 DBG Lift arms do not seat properly between the studs of the black 1x10/1x4 Technic bricks. I can get them on the pins as shown but they are not vertical due to interference with the studs. The LDD picture shows the same as the instructions.

DSC01642 by Scott Roys, on Flickr

Edited July 30, 2016 by ecmo47

[Cjd223]

Just keep working through the manual ecmo47, another step will come up where you snap them in to a higher up set of pins and it will straighten out.

[ecmo47]

I got to the step where the tops of the 1x11 lift arms go into square piece. I don't like to force pieces into place so I made the following modification. Replace the 1x11 with 1x9 lift arms and replace the 1x3 thin LA's with 1x5's.

DSC01644 by Scott Roys, on Flickr

[Cjd223]

I tried something similar at first but didn't substitute 1 x 11 with 1 x 9, which cause issues for me later on so I forced them into place. How sturdy is your solution?

[Sethra]

From what I know of my build, I think this solution might be too flimsy - just below these two liftarms is the back stand, and they have to carry the full weight of the engine section, as there will be no more support structure otherwise.

Correction: There's two more LA going down a bit further in the front, so it should be ok I guess.

Edited August 1, 2016 by Sethra

[mortesv]

From what I know of my build, I think this solution might be too flimsy - just below these two liftarms is the back stand, and they have to carry the full weight of the engine section, as there will be no more support structure otherwise.

Correction: There's two more LA going down a bit further in the front, so it should be ok I guess.

It is pretty sturdy, no worries :)

[Sethra]

A propos sturdy: the main engines are not - the bottom one keeps falling off when I work on the model and it wobbles slightly ;). It seems to be attached only at two studs, and is very hard to securely reattach without breaking further stuff when the engine section is already closed. Thus, I still keep one side open at the moment. Might have to glue it in the end for secure transportation.

Otherwise, I'm making great progress:

The engine section looks just great, photos don't to it justice, it's much better in reality.

Finally, I'm now also happy with the stability of the stands after a small modification. The small one below the pods has to bear really a lot of weight, and the manual suggests to attach it at the fragile tan-colored laser battery / warhead launcher. For me, this created some problems. First, as the laser battery is not really designed for bearing weight, it kept breaking when I was building the top of the frigate, as even a little bit of extra force was too much for it. Second, you could actually see some distortion in the frame due to uneven balance of the weight. Both was not really promising for long-term stability.

Thus, I decided to attach the stand directly below the load-bearing technic liftarms instead:

The problems immediately vanished, and I believe the model is now more stable with a better distribution of forces. For me, it works better than the original solution, but this might really depend on your overall construction.

Cheers and happy building everyone.

Edited August 3, 2016 by Sethra

[ecmo47]

Looking good there Sethra. Thanks for the notes. I'm up to page 230 so am still working on the back-bone. I've got some notes that I will post later when I have a little more time.

Back to the lift arm issue on the rear section, is there any reason that we must use the thin lift arms? Is there a clearance issue caused by the rear panels that form the "V" shape of the hull? If not, I'm going to beef that area up with regular lift arms that will overlap with the 1x9 LA's coming down from the Technic square brick.

[lvassa]

I'm busy collecting the required bricks - over 80% there. A question on part substitution: is the extra 0.6 of a stud length in part 4095 required (in all 15 instances) or can you get away with 63965? The 4095s are darn expensive!

[mortesv]

@Sethra looking great! Regarding the stand, perhaps there is a plate difference from mine, but I have the weight fairly even distributed between the two foremost legs. But perhaps that it just because my model is old amd has settled down :) Anyway, how did you attach the stand to the liftarms? It looks quite nice but I can't see the connection.

@ecmo, as far as I remember the thin liftarms are required due to the wall of the bottom engine section.

@Ivassa, the .6 stud makes no real difference. Just use the cheaper version. I did not think of the price because I had some 4095 lying around when I began building, but when I suddenly needed more, I started using the cheaper slightly shorter version :)

[ecmo47]

Progress has been severally slowed by the Olympics but I've been concentrating on the back end to answer the question if the thin lift arms can be replaced by full sized ones. Preliminary observations indicate that full sized ones will work and will not impede the proper angle of the two bottom hull panels.

That being said, the next step is to try some out which is next.

Here is a couple tips for future builders:

1. 1x2 hinges plates do NOT snap together very smoothly. After pretty much destroying a couple panels while attempting to install them, I decided that snapping the hinges together first and then pressing the panel into the hinge studs was much easier.

2. The back engine panel has an amazing amount of greeble and some of it is pretty fragile. As a result, a lot of it fell off while attempting to install the back panel as pictured below! Recommend that the large plates be installed and the greeble added in place.

3. I was confused on the two lower engines that have the 2x4x4 1/2 cylinders attached to them. One has the studs reversed from the other. This leads to a very weak connection with the 4x4 cone attached to the end of one of them. I just switched the weak one and made it like the other.

DSC01652 by Scott Roys, on Flickr

[Azrielsc]

Thanks for the comments/suggestions of building the Nebulon, ecmo47!

It definitely helps me as I should be embarking on my building journey sometime at the end of the month. :)

[Cjd223]

With your current progress ecmo47, one thing I did for the top back panels was just build the individual plates and placed them on top rather than even snapping them in.

[sandtrooper]

Hello,

For part 64951 Container, barrel half large with axle hole was this painted for the final model? I don't see it in LBG on Bricklink. Would medium blue work instead?

[ecmo47]

We talked about this back on page 1. Part #4424 comes in LBG or grey but doesn't have the axle hole.. Part #64951 does have the axle hole but doesn't come in the right color. (LBG). So one needs to be drilled (#4424) and the other painted (#64951). Your choice of which is easier for you.

Edited August 20, 2016 by ecmo47

[ecmo47]

I finally made some real progress tonight enough though it may not look it! Basically I beefed up the back frame fairly significantly to strengthen various weak points and remove general "spongyness" which makes it hard to attach the greebled panels.

DSC01660 by Scott Roys, on Flickr

DSC01665 by Scott Roys, on Flickr

DSC01668 by Scott Roys, on Flickr

[mortesv]

Looks like a reasonable mod ecmo. When I change a greeble I could use a more sturdy back section :)

[Hunter003]

Got instructions a few weeks ago. Looking forward to the build

Got instructions a few weeks ago. Looking forward to the build

[lvassa]

Keep the updates coming ecmo47 - its is great seeing how you're refining some of mortsev's approaches. I'm taking it all in as I ready myself for the build (still waiting on about 5% or the parts).

[Dukeside]

I realized later I posted in the wrong thread - apologies. Thanks for the info. $800+ Isn't too bad for this behemoth. I'll put it on the list. So many projects on here I want to do!

[ecmo47]

Neb-B back end reinforcement by Scott Roys, on Flickr

Building has not been going very fast. Been a lot of "life" getting in the way of long building sessions! I sat down today and created an LDD file of the mods I made to the back end frame before I moved on and forgot/covered up all the changes.

Notes of the LDD file:

1. The parts for the two panels that form the "V" need to be color specific but the frame parts can be pretty much any color. As long as you have them in Black, Light Blue Grey or Dark Blue Grey, they will blend in just fine.

2. Parts in Yellow are the attachment points to the model built as per the Instructions. Delete off before making a parts list with LDD.

3. The two horizontal 1x13 lift arms are not quite aligned right on LDD. The problem is that the center attachment point is a tad lower then the two end points. It's very easy to force the pins into place so do not worry that they do not line up perfectly in LDD. (Yes, there is a touch of irony here as one of the reason for this re-construction was a reluctance to force liftarms into position as detailed a few pages back!)

4. If anybody wants the LDD file of this mod, just send me your email and I'll send you the file.

One other bit of information that will make life easier for future builders. The parts file calls for 160 Technic pins WITHOUT friction ridges (part #3673). Make sure, instead, to get part #2780 (Technic pins WITH friction ridges). Which pin you use when building the backbone doesn't matter but it does make a big difference when using them to attach the many part #2444 (Modified 2x2 plate with single pin hole). Without the friction ridges, the plates spin freely and refuse to stay in position (studs pointing the right way) when attempting to attach the many greebled hull plate assembles to the frame. In the end, I replaced all of part #2444 with LBG #2817 (Modified 2x2 plate with pin holeS). I attached them to the frame with part #6558 (3L pin with friction ridges). Both of these parts are plentiful and cheap.This simple mod made will make your life MUCH easier towards the end of the build.

DSC01670 by Scott Roys, on Flickr

Edited September 5, 2016 by ecmo47

[Cjd223]

Nice MOD ecmo! I love the idea of securing in the 2 x 2 plates better, it definitely would help A LOT

[mortesv]

Great mods Ecmo!

A more stable engine section will certainly make detailing the rear easier.

And yes, the pins should certainly be WITH friction, thanks for pointing that out :)

[Cjd223]

Great mods Ecmo!

A more stable engine section will certainly make detailing the rear easier.

And yes, the pins should certainly be WITH friction, thanks for pointing that out :)

Off to updating the parts list!