[MOC] Cavegod's UCS GR-75 Rebel Transport

[Cjd223]

Finally, an official addition to your Collection is here!  After several years of design and months of additional work, Cavegod's UCS GR-75 Rebel Transport is officially ready to be released to the public!  The MOC itself contains 6,590 parts, and its manual is 429 pages long.  The MOC is built to an Ultimate Collector's Series scale, and does a job in capturing the sheer size of the vehicle in a way never seen before.

Lots of interest has been generated for this MOC, and Cavegod and I are really glad to make its release to the community!  Looking forward to seeing all of the improved collections and Hoth MOCs.  If you would like to build this MOC, we are happy to share it with you in exchange for $50.  Included is the pdf instruction manual, an xml part list, LDD files, and any help you need throughout the process of making the MOC.  For more information please PM me or contact me at chrdvorak@hotmail.com

A Rebrickable page with a parts list will be available very soon and I will post the link for it here: __________

Once I get the chance to finish the model and measure it I will post dimensions here: __________

Here are some pictures of the MOC and of the pdf manual:

 

As for the MOC itself, I am awaiting a few final bricklink orders to come in before I sit down and tackle the build myself. I will be including a detailed build log, time lapse, and review of the model once the build has begun.

Considering the difficult curves presented by this specific vessel, I love how Cavegod was able to incorporate various techniques to replicate them in Lego and the result is stunning.

I will also post the sticker file in this thread once I complete it.

Cheers!

[SteamSewnEmpire]

Honestly, I think some ships translate well into Lego, and others do not. And the Rebel Transport generally doesn't (weirdly enough, it seem to work less well in larger scales than in smaller ones).

With regards to this version, I like the back a lot - the engines, the five raised "fin" areas, and the curvature of the stern are all fairly strong. But it all falls apart once you go about a quarter of the length forward. 

If you look at the GR-75...

... aside from some greebling/plating, the upper "clamshell" is actually quite smooth, with extremely gentle lines. And... Lego plates, even positioned at varying angles, really cannot capture that smoothness properly. Moreover, the proportions are just bad; the GR-75 is long and pretty graceful - this vessel is kind of bloated and stumpy. I think mortesv's version came closer by several magnitudes to the true form of the thing in a far smaller package. And he gave his away for free.

I like Cavegod's previous designs a lot. But, for me at least, this one is just totally off the mark. $50 is a ton to ask for something that's so terribly flawed (please note: I'm feel like criticism is perfectly justified when someone is asking fifty big ones for something - once you turn this hobby into a business, you have to accept critiquing. For that much money, this thing should be pretty close to perfect. It isn't).

Edited December 28, 2019 by SteamSewnEmpire

[Cjd223]

7 minutes ago, SteamSewnEmpire said:

Honestly, I think some ships translate well into Lego, and others do not. And the Rebel Transport generally doesn't (weirdly enough, it seem to work less well in larger scales than in smaller ones).

With regards to this version, I like the back a lot - the engines, the five raised "fin" areas, and the curvature of the stern are all fairly strong. But it all falls apart once you go about a quarter of the length forward. 

If you look at the GR-75...

... aside from some greebling/plating, the upper "clamshell" is actually quite smooth, with extremely gentle lines. And... Lego plates, even positioned at varying angles, really cannot capture that smoothness properly. Moreover, the proportions are just bad - the GR-75 is long and pretty graceful - this vessel is kind of bloated and stumpy. I think mortesv's version came closer by several magnitudes to the true form of the thing in a far smaller package. And he gave his away for free.

I like Cavegod's previous designs a lot. But, for me at least, this one is just totally off the mark. $50 is a ton to ask for something that's so terribly flawed (please note: I'm feel like criticism is perfectly justified when someone is asking fifty big ones for something - once you turn this hobby into a business, you have to accept critiquing. For that much money, this thing should be pretty close to perfect. It isn't).

Thank you for your feedback. I see your point about the fins being smooth rather than textured, and having build mortesv's version I can tell you that it is in fact a great model. But when zooming in on the actual texture of the plates, they would be smooth from afar but rough and greebled up close. Perhaps there is a bit much greebling done on those sections, but I think it is a good balance. The transport featured in Battlefront highlights a few of these details as well. With the various plates that were chosen to create these panels, it simply was not plausible to eliminate all studs without making them much bulkier.

I will be sure to post more pictures of the model once I finish building, I think the angles chosen give it a perspective as if it were bulkier, but its side profile is not nearly as bulky a look, especially when leaving out the display stands and landing gears.

Sorry to hear you do not think the MOC is up to your standards, but perhaps future pictures will change your mind.

[NMbricks]

Looking forward to seeing some building and finished product pics.   Thanks for sharing.

[Brick Moon]

Great work...can’t wait to build this masterpiece. 

[cavegod]

Theres a few pics in my flickr, it was built 6 years ago.

[Kristof]

7 hours ago, cavegod said:

Theres a few pics in my flickr, it was built 6 years ago.

I was just about to comment that I feel like I have seen some WIP picture quite some time ago! Some of your first pictures actually date 7.5 years back.

I will wait for better pictures before passing any more conclusive opinion (somehow I don't feel entitled to say 'judgment' in case of such renowned builder :D). But I am afraid the presentation of the model is really lacking at the moment. I believe that somehow the picture chosen for the 'cover' is really showing the model from nearly the worst possible angle. Hopefully more extended gallery will do it better justice.

Even though I share some of the impressions with @SteamSewnEmpire, I very much disagree that asking $50 somehow puts this in the hot seat for sharper critique than if it was let's say a moc without instructions. Sure, if the instructions were free, one would naturally take the stand of gratitude and appreciation and gratitude. But wouldn't it be more appropriate to judge the model based on its objective qualities?

I absolutely agree that @mortesv's MOC looks better. Size regardless, it is just far more impressive and gives me warm fuzzies, where this one doesn't. I am an advocate for smaller scale models in general but I can usually appreciate the fact that larger scale allows for a more detailed and accurate, and ultimately better-looking model (which doesn't necessarily need to be more impressive than different depictions in a smaller scale). This model seems to be one counterexample, where a larger scale is just a burden and brings no real advantages, except of, well, the larger size - which IS an important factor for a lot of people actually. I still have doubts regarding how good of a choice for publishing instructions this model was. Perhaps 6 years ago, it would have felt differently :)

Nonetheless, none of this is 'conditioned' by the price tag of the instructions. Good PDF instructions are a ****ton of work and the amount of effort really scales with the size (and complexity) of the model. There is no way one can compare sharing an LDD file with sharing step-by-step manual made with at least some level of care (not auto generated). The instructions are meant for people who fancy building the model, or who just want to support the creators. And even with this arguably higher price, I am pretty sure it's still more a hobby and dedication than some profitable business. Bottom line, I see no reason to be more critical or more lenient when judging the model based on the price of the custom instructions. Sure, if the critique was towards the manual itself (e.g. ...I think $X for instructions for such small model and with this many errors is too much...) that would be legit :)

 

[Cjd223]

On 1/3/2020 at 7:54 PM, Kristof said:

I was just about to comment that I feel like I have seen some WIP picture quite some time ago! Some of your first pictures actually date 7.5 years back.

I will wait for better pictures before passing any more conclusive opinion (somehow I don't feel entitled to say 'judgment' in case of such renowned builder :D). But I am afraid the presentation of the model is really lacking at the moment. I believe that somehow the picture chosen for the 'cover' is really showing the model from nearly the worst possible angle. Hopefully more extended gallery will do it better justice.

The current photo is the best one available of the completed model at this given time. I'm waiting on just one final bricklink order to come in (Hopefully soon) until I am ready to build the model.

Once I finish building it I am going to publish a time lapse, review, and photo gallery of the model which hopefully will give everyone a more clear depiction of the ship.

[Cjd223]

6,591/6,591, it is building time!

I organized my parts very similar to how @drdavewatford organized his AT-AT parts, described here on his blog: http://gimmelego.blogspot.com/2012/08/building-perfect-beast-anatomy-of-at-at.html since the amount of pieces are very similar. Granted, I needed a few extra bins because I had smaller ones, but I really like how he organized his parts and have done it before for large models such as Anio's Venator.

Here is what I am going to be digging through for the next who knows how long... see you all on the other side! 

[Cjd223]

33 hours of building later and it is complete!

The build was very simple to follow, just took a long time to locate certain parts at times which drastically increased the build time. I did end up making a modification to  one section to add extra bracing, but the overall model is very sturdy. I was a bit nervous when I first flipped it over on to the two stands, but it didn't budge and the stands slide perfectly at the proper angle. 

I am going to do an in-depth review of the model in the next week or two, but for now here are some images of the model both while being built and completed:

[NMbricks]

Awesome, thanks for sharing

[Jerry McGlade]

Fantastic

[Kristof]

^^ This already makes 100% better impression than the photo you first shared! So though this still isn't ranking among my favourite mocs, it definitely gets the credit for being a cool design.

[ARC2149Nova]

The GR-75 is one of my favorite ships in Star Wars, and this moc does a good job of capturing the rugged feel of the "real" craft. It could stand to be a bit smoother, but overall, I like this design. I do wish Lego makes one (even at Tantive IV size) in the future.

Good job. 

[Cjd223]

Among other things, while currently quarantining I was able to catch up on some Lego items and start on an exciting new project (More on that to come later). I also put together a time-lapse and review of Cavegod's GR-75 Rebel Transport, you can take a look at them here:

Hopefully this gives some better insight to the model as well as some new angles. Fun, long build, and certainly looks great on display