[LDD] Battlestar Pegasus (MOC recreation)

[manglegrat]

Me again - exercising some more SciFi TV show nerdism.

As I was wrapping up the Schwarzkopf, I found an awesome LDD MOC on Flickr by CK-MCMLXXXI (don't know if they're on Eurobricks), and decided to try to reverse-engineer it, similar to how I ended up building Agamemnon - except in this case I only had 3 pics (4 angles) to go from, and no clues to go by for the internals.

The designer wasn't sharing the LDD files (which is totally fair - I won't share mine for this either to stay true to that) but I said I'd love to build it, and they challenged me to do so... Challenge accepted! 

I managed to make something pretty close to their original but had to make some changes as I couldn't make all the bodywork angles match the original design perfectly. Some of the angles for the head were a nightmare to figure out - I had to do an ugly colourbarf mock-up IRL to test whether it was even possible or not! But yep, all the connections are legal in LDD this time - and I think there's enough clutch-power and structure in the 6 supports to hold up the sidepods IRL. 

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out - Bluerender did a great job for the shots below, after I did some lighting experimentation. 

It's 3455 bricks, but I'm not sure they're all available in all the colours - haven't checked that yet... LxWxH it's 65x35x14 studs/bricks, or 522x280x136mm, according to MLCad. I'd add some stickers to it if I was actually building it IRL, but I currently have no plans to do so (the wife thinks it looks too "stubby" )... 

More pics including some LDD WIP screenshots are available in my Flickr album, and here's a 360 render as a bonus:

Hope the other BSG series fans out there like it! ;)

I guess now I've done "The Beast" I should try the Galactica and/or a Cylon Basestar someday... if I could do them in the same scale that'd be pretty sweet, but that may be a stretch-goal too far! 

Edited July 2, 2017 by manglegrat
Moved 360 render from Photobucket to Google Photos.

[drclark]

Really nice! It's always tough building in ldd to know how sturdy the model would be IRL.

Love the renders too.

[manglegrat]

7 hours ago, drclark said:

Really nice! It's always tough building in ldd to know how sturdy the model would be IRL.

Love the renders too.

Thanks! (Your Vipers are v.cool too, btw - I followed your thread )

Those side-pods are quite heavy with all the internal parts required to get the offsets to work, so it was something I was a bit worried about - the original design didn't look like there was enough structure to work so I beefed it up, but due to the angles it might still be a bit hit & miss... Not swooshable.   

I wouldn't want to have to apply the Kragle!  

[infector]

Awesome work there man, I think maybe the nose needs a little more length?? but otherwise it looks fantastic.

[manglegrat]

2 hours ago, infector said:

Awesome work there man, I think maybe the nose needs a little more length?? but otherwise it looks fantastic.

Thanks!  

You make a good point. The lengths are close to reference but the head is chunky-looking, which makes it look proportionally a bit "off"... The reference shot I have shows the engines are just shorter than the nose and the midsection slightly shorter again, which this model is - ~22 studs for the engine section vs 24 studs for the head, and the middle section is 19 studs from the back of the head to the front of the engine blocks.

As it happens, I originally did a slightly smaller (2 studs narrower, 1-2 plates lower, ~1 stud longer because of the shallower angles) head design in an earlier iteration that looks more svelte, and if attached to the same body would make the head look proportionally longer. In the LDD snapshot below, the current design (more or less) is on top, the diet version is beneath.

I built the lower variant first as I guessed the "bottom" width, but when I replicated the "lower jaw" section of the head from the original designer's pics I found out that to fit together the top needed to be wider by a couple of studs.  Then I did the upper variant.

If I went back to the smaller head I'd redesign the lower jaws to slim them down, too. Shrinking both would make the head less "chibi" and rebalance the proportions. That could also increase the wife-acceptability-factor as well (quote: "it's too stubby"). 

There are also some parts you can't get in these colours (4x4 bow-angle bricks in LBG for the engines, some dark-red parts), so building the current design IRL is not on the cards for now.  Maybe it's an opportunity to keep tweaking it digitally... 

What do you guys think, should I give it a go?

Edited March 13, 2017 by manglegrat

[manglegrat]

I spent a few hours mucking around with the narrower head today - kinda disappointed in how it turned out so that idea was a bust. 

I think a longer "flat" section on the wider head might do the trick, and I'm still itching to try a redesign of the "lower jaw". May try those two ideas next...

[manglegrat]

OK, I'm happy with the next iteration. ;)

The head has been lengthened by 2 studs, the "lower jaw" has been redesigned, a couple of tweaks to the topside and sidepod supports (plus a black strip where the lateral hangar bay is - I'd do a sticker to make that look better IRL).

  

Underside comparison:

Think it's time to move on... 

[infector]

50 minutes ago, manglegrat said:

OK, I'm happy with the next iteration. ;)

The head has been lengthened by 2 studs, the "lower jaw" has been redesigned, a couple of tweaks to the topside and sidepod supports (plus a black strip where the lateral hangar bay is - I'd do a sticker to make that look better IRL).

  

Underside comparison:

Think it's time to move on... 

Oh yes!!! That looks much better, fantastic :D

[manglegrat]

1 hour ago, infector said:

Oh yes!!! That looks much better, fantastic :D

Thanks! 

[drclark]

The update looks great.  Proof that a MOC is never truly done

[manglegrat]

8 hours ago, drclark said:

The update looks great.  Proof that a MOC is never truly done

Oh, tell me about it. I could tweak and tweak... but I'm sticking a fork in it, it's done!

I'm considering trying to do a similar-scale Cylon BaseStar now...

[infector]

2 hours ago, manglegrat said:

Oh, tell me about it. I could tweak and tweak... but I'm sticking a fork in it, it's done!

I'm considering trying to do a similar-scale Cylon BaseStar now...

Do it!! :D

[manglegrat]

After a stupidly long delay, I finally built this thing in the brick. A tiny bit butt-heavy and a real pain in the rear to assemble, but I'm pretty happy how it turned out after all this time (started it in February). 

More in my Flickr album.

Edited February 10, 2018 by manglegrat
Cleaned up some pics.

[manglegrat]

I just published this as a (free, of course) MOC on Rebrickable here.

[Captain_Quinn]

You, sir, are a gentleman and a scholar... love your work

[manglegrat]

Aaw, shucks...  Thanks!

[Juxtapoisson]

This is amazing.  I'm glad your spouse kept you on track.

[manglegrat]

On 2/21/2018 at 1:53 PM, Juxtapoisson said:

This is amazing.  I'm glad your spouse kept you on track.

Thanks! She's awesome. 

[sed6]

Just found this. Fantastic work! Thinking about making it myself.  Do you have plans for the stand? Didn't see them in the .lxf file.  Thanks!

[manglegrat]

On 7/14/2018 at 10:53 PM, sed6 said:

Just found this. Fantastic work! Thinking about making it myself.  Do you have plans for the stand? Didn't see them in the .lxf file.  Thanks!

Hey, thanks!  Good luck if you go ahead and build it! I hope you enjoy it. 

If you check out the contents of the Bricksafe folder linked to from Rebrickable, there's a separate LXF file for the stand. 

[jmn610]

This thing is absolutely insane, I have no words. I can't quite tell, could the hangar decks fit some sort of miniature Viper in it?

[manglegrat]

6 hours ago, jmn610 said:

This thing is absolutely insane, I have no words. I can't quite tell, could the hangar decks fit some sort of miniature Viper in it?

Thanks!  Sadly, it's too small(!) for something like that. 

To be even close to scale the Viper would have to be a 1x1 plate or smaller, not so great for showing any detail or shape. You couldn't tell what it is at all - is it Viper, Raptor, Cylon Raider! Even Colonial One (which landed inside Galactica, so would definitely fit in Pegasus) would have to be based on a 1x2, max. 

Maybe something done in a bigger scale (like the ones by El Barto) would be big enough?

[Ninja_Bait]

A cheese slope would be an okay representation of a viper, if it's to scale

[manglegrat]

On 7/21/2018 at 8:55 PM, Ninja_Bait said:

A cheese slope would be an okay representation of a viper, if it's to scale

Interesting idea and reflects some of the shape, but it's probably too big for a Viper - maybe a Raptor, though.

I think the best bet would be a (clear-backed) sticker put on a 1x1 trans-clear (or LBG) tile, with stickers for all fighter-scale craft, scaled against each other appropriately. Maybe use a round 1x1 for the smaller craft (Viper, Raider), and a square 1x1 for the bigger craft (Raptor, Heavy Raider) to reflect the physical size a bit better...? 

[Ninja_Bait]

That's a cool idea, too.