[MOD] Imperial Landing Craft 75221

[Daddy_Stardust]

Let me start by saying I'm not very good at modding and useless at MOCing, so forgive me if this is rather rubbish, but I couldn't avoid tinkering with Imperial Landing Craft 75221 until I got to a point that for my skill-level at least, I was reasonably happy with. I've not totally re-engineered anything, which arguably, is what this retail model drastically needs, it needs its entire hull redesigned, but I've tackled what came in the box to what I'd say is the best of my (poor) ability. So with that disclaimer out of the way, here are changes I've made to the ship.

Firstly I hated the cockpit, looked unfinished and stumpy, and especially poor with so many studs on top (I especially loathed the wedge at the bottom of the windscreen). I've redesigned it to look more like it did in Rebels and more closely styled in line with the Lambda shuttle to give it a longer, sleeker design.

Obviously as you can see, the other major issue I tried to tackle was the open cracks on the container pieces, again without totally redesigning anything, I found (for me at least) a satisfactory solution to be to apply a sloping bulkhead plate to each side. It's not perfect, but does the job without totally reconstructing the thing. I was hoping to find the parts that cover the rear of the pods, and replace the front shell parts with those, but they appear to be currently exclusive parts to this model and which sadly aren't on brick link yet.

Various aesthetic changes, such as the cockpit interior, changing the exterior lights all to yellow to match the Lambda, giving a more detailed interior to the crew containers, actual chair pieces for the pilot and stormtroopers although I don't think you can really see them from my photos (why do lego have such an aversion to using actual seats these days anyway?), found a nice white plate for the back with printed greebling on it that's kind of visible two photos above:

As you can see from the above, my first attempt at a solution was to close the gap from inside the container instead until I felt that it was far more effective to be done externally. But decided to leave the internal bulkheads in there anyway as the white curves help mask additional interior visible through the remaining gaps on the outside. Plus more importantly, I couldn't be bothered ripping the whole model apart to remove the one massive long plate they designed it with that had all the pipe pieces (that poked through the gaps) on before... so felt this at least covers that up. 

I also connected the three openable container parts on each side to one another so now they move all in unison as one moveable part, felt it gave it much more structural integrity that way.

My favourite addition being a really simple but effective retractable landing gear using droid arms (quite why this wasn't on the original model I have no idea) and for me makes such an enormous improvement so easily:

Anyway, there you go. I know it's far from amazing, but I at least like it a hell of a lot more now than when it was freshly made from the box. Feedback is welcome... just don't be too harsh haha.

Edited October 18, 2018 by Daddy_Stardust

[deraven]

I think it's a nice improvement overall, especially the cockpit.

2 hours ago, Daddy_Stardust said:

I was hoping to find the parts that cover the rear of the pods, and replace the front shell parts with those, but they appear to be currently exclusive parts to this model and which sadly aren't on brick link yet.

Are they just this part, in white?

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=x224&name=Windscreen 8 x 6 x 2 Curved&category=[Windscreen]#T=C

But looks like this is the first time they've been molded in white if so.

Nice MOD!  

[That Orange Thing]

I think you are downplaying your Mod skills a little too much as this is a really solid upgrade on the original. You managed to come up with a simple solution for covering the gaps that works well along with the cockpit. The landing gear may struggle to hold up over time though as I suspect the clips will eventually snap due to the excess stress of all that weight. 

 I will definitely be checking back in on the thread when I get my shuttle.

[Daddy_Stardust]

7 hours ago, That Orange Thing said:

I think you are downplaying your Mod skills a little too much as this is a really solid upgrade on the original. You managed to come up with a simple solution for covering the gaps that works well along with the cockpit. The landing gear may struggle to hold up over time though as I suspect the clips will eventually snap due to the excess stress of all that weight. 

 I will definitely be checking back in on the thread when I get my shuttle.

Why thank you! 

It's just I see a thread like the one below and the results are *incredible* that I feel my own silly attempts that take two weeks (though admittedly partly just due to having to order parts and wait for them... then found they don't work right, then try again... and again) and a lot of trial and error to fix something that actually came with instructions are just utterly ridiculously rubbish by comparison haha.

I've just sat it alongside the Lambda for the first time and to me it finally looks like a sleek-yet-robust, mechanical, militaristic Imperial spacecraft of the same design family, rather than a shoddy, simplistic, stud-ridden work of laziness that paled hideously in comparison to its bigger brother.

Edited October 19, 2018 by Daddy_Stardust

[ChiefPie]

Looks great

[Daddy_Stardust]

On 10/19/2018 at 11:07 AM, That Orange Thing said:

The landing gear may struggle to hold up over time though as I suspect the clips will eventually snap due to the excess stress of all that weight. 

Thank you for your advice on this part, I've since ordered the more robust 'skeleton arms' to replace them.

I've also now updated the rear wings to match the double-jointed landing positioning as seen in Rebels:

Edited October 20, 2018 by Daddy_Stardust

[That Orange Thing]

The joint in the rear wings is a nice touch. I've always felt the original sets wings were a little to stubby in proportion to the rest of the ship and when you sit it next to the other shuttle it makes it more apparent. Could the wings be lengthened a bit more?

[Cylo]

Very nice, I'm actually reconsidering to buying this set after seeing your mods! Keep it up!

[Daddy_Stardust]

8 hours ago, That Orange Thing said:

The joint in the rear wings is a nice touch. I've always felt the original sets wings were a little to stubby in proportion to the rest of the ship and when you sit it next to the other shuttle it makes it more apparent. Could the wings be lengthened a bit more?

Well the wings can easily be lengthened, the only issue arises with the fact that to remain accurate to the source material, they still need to fold up to a lower height than the dorsal tail wing. Therefore the dorsal would also need to be heightened, which to be honest, I don't trust fully my skills at keeping structurally robust, but I'll give it a bash.

But the other thing is, the source material in question. I've modelled mine closer to how it looks in Rebels (where the wedge on the cockpit slopes down at the top rather than up at the bottom), but Rebels designs are arguably questionable, given how stumpy their TIE Fighters are (done deliberately in tribute to the 80s Kenner toys). So are the wings on their Sentinel actually meant to be as close in proportion to a Lambda's as they appear, or was this an artistic choice? And then the other thing is, to me it looks like Lego hasn't modelled it off Rebels or even A New Hope Special Edition, they appear to have modelled it, quite bizarrely, from this old video game representation (even down to the guns or pipes or whatever, poking through the gaps) and their wings are indeed quite accurate to its proportions:

Anyway, I'll see what it looks like with extended wings and dorsal, parts permitting, but may not be anything immediate if I need to order.

Edited October 21, 2018 by Daddy_Stardust

[Daddy_Stardust]

New interior. Took out the gangplank and increased figure capacity. 6 troopers now on board, plus two command stations on swivel chairs.

Edited October 27, 2018 by Daddy_Stardust

[Calanon]

This, especially with the latter wing mod, looks substantially better than the set. I'd actually buy this.

A further suggestion would be to possible remove the plate on the side of the centre wing.

[Sucram]

Bro this looks soooo good. If I owned this set I would just try to copy your mod.

[Daddy_Stardust]

Thanks so much! 

I wanted to have 8 troopers inside and it’s technically possible but just too tight for my liking. The front seats where the sandtroopers are have a technic bracket right behind their head which forces them to have to sit one stud further forward than the rear troopers. This leaves the remaining space too small in front of the trooper to use seats (2 x 4 usable studs - the door piece half covers 2 floor studs in front and 2 behind and they can’t be used) and the other trooper would have to be literally squashed right in front of the other just sat on studs. So I just gave them computer terminals and space seats (so they can wear their packs) instead to keep it looking intentional and functional rather than cramped.

Edited October 28, 2018 by Daddy_Stardust

[Cylo]

18 hours ago, Daddy_Stardust said:

Thanks so much! 

I wanted to have 8 troopers inside and it’s technically possible but just too tight for my liking. The front seats where the sandtroopers are have a technic bracket right behind their head which forces them to have to sit one stud further forward than the rear troopers. This leaves the remaining space too small in front of the trooper to use seats (2 x 4 usable studs - the door piece half covers 2 floor studs in front and 2 behind and they can’t be used) and the other trooper would have to be literally squashed right in front of the other just sat on studs. So I just gave them computer terminals and space seats (so they can wear their packs) instead to keep it looking intentional and functional rather than cramped.

What about having a rack for their backpacks somewhere so you can fit more of them in?

[Daddy_Stardust]

17 hours ago, JarJarBonks said:

What about having a rack for their backpacks somewhere so you can fit more of them in?

The sandtrooper backpacks aren't an issue, that's why they're on the old 80s space seats, it has room for them (well I'm using custom Clone Army Customs packs on them anyway) not the smooth standard chair piece like the other troops and commanders. The issue is the technic piece that holds the fuselage together behind the head of each of the front sandtroopers; they literally can't sit any further back in the container because their head hits the wall (which isn't an issue where the regular troopers are sat). Like I said, I can technically fit two more troopers in, but the backs of their heads hit the chins of the sandtroopers, so when opening a container I'm not a huge fan of it looking cramped on one side and spacious on the other. I prefer a one stud gap between the troops and them being able to sit on actual chairs - but that's just my personal preference. Here it is so you can see how it looks with 8 troops onboard.

But still, it does annoy me to no end that a "troop transport" can only hold a measly 4 figures by default from the retail set, whereas it can comfortably hold 8 in my configuration and even extended to 10 if you don't mind getting really cozy. That gangplank is such a ridiculous waste of space and such a pointless play feature that I'm left all the more convinced that this set was just an absolute shameless display of laziness on TLG's part.

How it retails for £80 I have no idea. I bought it for £40 and has taken at least another £20 in parts, crew etc. to bring it up to a standard I'm proud of (and even then, I'm just winging it, I'm sure someone else with more talent and engineering skills could make it look a hundred times better). However even before all my own changes, it's so dwarfed by the utterly beautiful Shuttle Tyderium that had 300 more pieces but the same price tag that I struggle to comprehend how they can justify this in the slightest. Even more insultingly, it standardly holds less troops, has less play features, has a worse interior and a far worse fuselage design than the 2007 model that retailed for nearly half its price.

Haha, sorry rant over! 

Edited October 29, 2018 by Daddy_Stardust

[Cylo]

9 hours ago, Daddy_Stardust said:

The sandtrooper backpacks aren't an issue, that's why they're on the old 80s space seats, it has room for them (well I'm using custom Clone Army Customs packs on them anyway) not the smooth standard chair piece like the other troops and commanders. The issue is the technic piece that holds the fuselage together behind the head of each of the front sandtroopers; they literally can't sit any further back in the container because their head hits the wall (which isn't an issue where the regular troopers are sat). Like I said, I can technically fit two more troopers in, but the backs of their heads hit the chins of the sandtroopers, so when opening a container I'm not a huge fan of it looking cramped on one side and spacious on the other. I prefer a one stud gap between the troops and them being able to sit on actual chairs - but that's just my personal preference. Here it is so you can see how it looks with 8 troops onboard.

<snip>

But still, it does annoy me to no end that a "troop transport" can only hold a measly 4 figures by default from the retail set, whereas it can comfortably hold 8 in my configuration and even extended to 10 if you don't mind getting really cozy. That gangplank is such a ridiculous waste of space and such a pointless play feature that I'm left all the more convinced that this set was just an absolute shameless display of laziness on TLG's part.

How it retails for £80 I have no idea. I bought it for £40 and has taken at least another £20 in parts, crew etc. to bring it up to a standard I'm proud of (and even then, I'm just winging it, I'm sure someone else with more talent and engineering skills could make it look a hundred times better). However even before all my own changes, it's so dwarfed by the utterly beautiful Shuttle Tyderium that had 300 more pieces but the same price tag that I struggle to comprehend how they can justify this in the slightest. Even more insultingly, it standardly holds less troops, has less play features, has a worse interior and a far worse fuselage design than the 2007 model that retailed for nearly half its price.

Haha, sorry rant over! 

Ok then. How about having it so that it can wither sit 4 sandtroopers or 8 stormtroopers? How does that sound?

I really want this set, but the price is just too high. Mind if I ask how you got it so cheap?

Edited October 30, 2018 by JarJarBonks

[Daddy_Stardust]

14 hours ago, JarJarBonks said:

Ok then. How about having it so that it can wither sit 4 sandtroopers or 8 stormtroopers? How does that sound?

I really want this set, but the price is just too high. Mind if I ask how you got it so cheap?

I’ll have a further tinker tonight, see what I can do. But as I said, it’s not the type-of-trooper affecting anything at all, it’s headspace due to a technic T-shaped bracket in the seating area closest to the cockpit. Wouldn’t matter if it was a stormtrooper or even a basic bald mini figure, they sadly can’t sit far enough back because of that bracket. But I might be able to generate a tiny bit more space with a pair of centre studded 1x2 plates...

As for the price, was just a one day flash sale on Amazon, dropped to around £50 and because I’m not on the mainland, VAT was deducted too. I don’t ever get to enjoy cheap or next day shipping from anywhere, or good local shops, but do enjoy the VAT coming off 

Edited October 30, 2018 by Daddy_Stardust

[Phoib]

15 hours ago, Daddy_Stardust said:

that's why they're on the old 80s space seats

You mean these? https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=4598&amp;idColor=1#T=C&amp;C=1

[Daddy_Stardust]

8 hours ago, Phoib said:

You mean these? https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=4598&amp;idColor=1#T=C&amp;C=1

Yes, got those for the sandtroopers so they can have proper seats and keep their custom Clone Army Customs packs on, and used white space seats to hold the front plates on the side of the cockpit to block up most of those gaps. Solid as a rock!

And sussed the interior seating issue now, used 1x2 jumper plates with single centre studs, I was able to move the front trooper half a stud forward so he's not longer in physical contact with the sand trooper behind him and can now even use a seat piece... only problem is, I've only got 1 seat left and need 2 haha. Plus I needed more troopers anyway, so watch this space for it to contain 8 troopers and 2 commanders. 

Here's a closer look at the seating, elevated the rear ones to give it some dynamic feel:

The original interior still utterly baffles me, talk about wasted space eh?

Edited October 30, 2018 by Daddy_Stardust

[Daddy_Stardust]

Ok, been tinkering a bit more with finishing touches and feel it's at last "complete" (I say that now, but I'll end up like George Lucas and constantly tinkering with it I expect).

Improved the colouring around the cockpit to give it a better sloping shape with the white and blocked off the gaps at the sides that could be visible through the canopy. Removed the grey components around the hatch mechanism, put landing lights underneath, made one side for shore troopers (under my son's orders!) and of course, a lovely Wicked Brick stand.

Edited November 24, 2018 by Daddy_Stardust

[Daddy_Stardust]

Feel my bulkheads covering the gaps have been justified by previously established schematics of the ship when the pods are detached. I'll no longer consider it a workaround and instead consider it complete... from now on, they're the pod clamps 

Edited December 25, 2018 by Daddy_Stardust

[physalis2099]

Awesome imperial shuttle. 

 

[OlHiHi]

Great job on wings and landing gears!

[MAG85]

Thanks Daddy_Stardust for your good template.  I used some of your MODs for my version of the Imperial Landing Craft.

The biggest change I did, is the extension of the middle section by four studs. I simply ad another wall element. The second big change is the tail. I lowered it by one stud.

Landingcraft_1, on Flickr

Landingcraft_2, on Flickr

Landingcraft_4, on Flickr

 

With four more studs in the middle section, you can put a lot of sandtroopers in the Landing Craft. I think I have to buy some more troopers...

Landingcraft_5, on Flickr

Landingcraft_6, on Flickr

[Daddy_Stardust]

On 2/1/2019 at 10:40 AM, MAG85 said:

Thanks Daddy_Stardust for your good template.  I used some of your MODs for my version of the Imperial Landing Craft.

The biggest change I did, is the extension of the middle section by four studs. I simply ad another wall element. The second big change is the tail. I lowered it by one stud.

With four more studs in the middle section, you can put a lot of sandtroopers in the Landing Craft. I think I have to buy some more troopers...

Happy to have inspired  That looks fantastic!!! Makes me wish I'd extended mine now, but think I've done enough haha, it's already SOOO heavy!

Only change I've made to mine since the last photos are having evicted the regular stormtroopers and replaced them with Inferno Squad (Iden has her helmet at last!) and replaced the inverted-tile wall computers in the pods with AT-M6 targeting screens instead of rathtar security monitors. Modding the Conveyex has been my latest big project!

Edited February 2, 2019 by Daddy_Stardust