[MOC] My first own creation: (Quarter) NASA Vehicle Assembly Building 1/110 scale

[ps1flyer]

(Note: hope I put the topic in the correct sub-forum. I did so because I found previous NASA VAB discussion in here.)

Hi all,

I’d like to share with you the first MOC I’ve ever designed and built myself.

It all started with the well-known Lego 21309 Saturn V rocket which all of you know and was one of the first sets (that did not belong to the kids) for me after the dark ages. Sometime later I discovered the wonderful worlds of MOCs and came across the various acclaimed designs for the Apollo Launch Umbilical Tower (LUT) and decided to build the LUT design by Valerie (co-designer of the Saturn V) - in order to have a nice display for the rocket - over the course of one year, with some own modifications.

But something was missing. My wife offered help by getting me to buy a nice cabinet for the Saturn V and the LUT, to avoid both being covered with dust. But somehow, that did not feel right. I rather felt that something more appropriate was needed. As the 50^th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on the moon approached, plenty of new books were published and one included nice diagrams and measurements of the NASA Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at the Kennedy Space center. I started to convert the numbers for height and length/width into studs and started wondering if it would be feasible to … you get the idea.

To keep the story short … the footprint of a Lego VAB at the 21309 scale of 1/110 would be enormous, some 2m x 1.65m, ~1.5m high. But why not go with one high bay, or one quarter VAB? That’s all I need to store the Saturn V, plus the LUT, plus the Crawler. I figured that this might actually be feasible at 1/110 scale. (Note: previously shown in the Facebook group "Bricks in Space")

Fast forward to 9 months later… let me please present an actual MOC build of the NASA VAB, one single high bay only, at the same 1/110 scale as the 21309 set. 

Let me start with a rendered image of the MOC (which came last, after building was completed).

Lego NASA (Quarter) VAB MOC  (Flickr)

 

A design goal was to have fully operating and moveable doors:

Lego NASA VAB (Single High Bay only) (Flickr)

Lego NASA VAB (Single High Bay only) with LUT inside (Flickr)

so that I can move the full rocket stack in and out:

LEGO MOC: Quarter NASA VAB with LUT, Crawler and Saturn V at 1/110 scale (Flickr)

 

In terms of building, it rather went the other way. For a building of this size (0.8m x 0.8m x 1.5m) I first had to check whether this thing is actually affordable. It was clear to me from the beginng that I would not build the interieur structure of the building (the "high bay") - this would require thousands of parts and cost quite a significant amount of money. So I started out with the outer walls and had check how to do those. I was lucky - I came across approx. 1000 white 1x2x5 bricks, used and rather cheap. Time to buy them and check whether I can build a wall from them:

Phase 1: Concept Phase by ps1flyer, auf Flickr

Yes, works. If placed correctly, it does not tip over. But it's obviously fragile and definitely needs some (internal) support to prevent it from collapsing. It did that with a basic LEGO technic support structure made out of frames and liftarms, plus a few extra liftarms for stiffening at critical points. The next image shows the support structure mostly done, with four pillars and almost complete. I had to insert a few extra liftarms later because the door clearance was not quite sufficient yet.

Phase 2: Building the Support Structure by ps1flyer, auf Flickr

Putting all this together shows that I'm getting closer to something that look like an actual VAB. The LUT fits in, it's getting massive... but still, the doors are missing.

Phase 2: Building the Support Structure by ps1flyer, auf Flickr

Building the fully workable (not yet motorized) doors was almost half the effort and required s.n.o.t.ting on the meter-scale.  

The doors are being built with rail/sliding pieces, with their studs perpendiculat to the studs of the wall. The trick here was to get the 1m long 7-fold slides stable, at the same time connect everything to the wall (to prevent collapse) and still stay only 3 studs thick. (I have one layer for the black color and connection to the wall, one layer for stability and one layer for the sliding bricks.)

And this is how the final doors assemby looks like:

Rollout_AS500_v4 by ps1flyer, auf Flickr

Rollout_AS500_v9 by ps1flyer, auf Flickr

Rollout_AS500_v10 by ps1flyer, auf Flickr

Rollout_AS500_v1 by ps1flyer, auf Flickr

A few more pictures are available in the Full Flickr album.

Some minor items are yet to finish: the roof, possible a motor to get the 7 vertically opening doors automated, ... by now I have all doors installed and built with tiles (not shown yet in the images), and a few extension like a crawler way inside and outside, etc... 

By the way, quite obviously the VAB is shown during the Apollo era, so no flag or NASA logo yet. 

 

So, hope you like the pictures, and I'm looking forward to your comments.

 

Thanks for reading, 

  Markus

 

Edited December 12, 2021 by ps1flyer

[Shiva]

Finally the pictures on an easier to find place :)

ps1flyer, I use to check in on "Bricks in Space" facebook page, not FB account tho. I have followed your build there and I give you big thumbs up!

I wish that fb page was on a forum instead, would have been easier to find older stuff.

[Fuppylodders]

That is impressive! Even more so that it is in scale with the rocket too! 

I'll be honest, I have no clue about the actual building itself, but it must have been massive to house that inside it! I hope you get the automation of the sliding doors working, that'd be an awesome detail to add. Speaking of the doors, excellent job on those! 

[Jerry McGlade]

Wow! The scale to minifig is very impressive! Amazing job!

[Vorkosigan]

Incredible scale! Great job getting it stable. Gives a taste of the undertaking to build the real thing. I hope you don't have to I move it much.

[Hulkbuild]

Hey there, is there any way you could share with me the diagrams that you used to determine measurements at scale? I'm interested in making a model of the VAB and am looking for such documentation.