lech Posted August 31, 2020 (edited) Hi, Today Kenny - the yellow space dude - received keys to his new spaceship - Heimdall. Therefore I would like to present you a few details about it before Kenny together with Benny start it up and go roaming around the galaxy.Stats Built in real LEGO bricks, no stickers. Pieces: 7441 pieces Dimensions: 770mm x 280mm x 11mmStory Heimdall is a reconnaissance spaceship. Powered by a single yet powerful thermonuclear engine from BST (Benny Space Technologies), coupled with a high-energy particles grabber under the cockpit that helps to replenish fuel supplies on a long missions. To disperse a ridiculous amounts of heat from reactor's core a series of thermo-dump panels are mount beneath the fuselage. Being a reconnaissance ship it is also equipped with a sensors array under the cockpit and some ion cannons at each wing, you known, just in case.... Design It took me more than 5 months to design and build it. A major inspiration comes from amazing artwork by Michal Kus. Especially the color-blocking and indentations at the front of the wings were a place from which I started. Along the way I shifted things my own way to suit ideas that were jumbling inside my head or I just wanted to incorporate, like the thermo-dump panels from Hamilton's series of books. There were many fun challenges along the way not only related to its geometry or color-blocking but also in making sure that this flying mosaic would be rigid. All of this required many rebuilds and tests but I had a blast doing all of this :) Building instructions For anyone curious how Heimdall is built or want to look at some building techniques I have created a studio model based on the actual build. It should be more handy than a regular step-by-step instructions. You can download it from here https://github.com/lechkulina/Heimdall Full gallery is here http://www.flickr.com/photos/147862201@N05/albums/72157715784794408 WIP gallery is here http://www.flickr.com/photos/147862201@N05/albums/72157713634763282 Enough talking, here are the photos :) Heimdall - Back by Lech Kulina, on Flickr Heimdall - Back starboard side by Lech Kulina, on Flickr Heimdall - Back port side by Lech Kulina, on Flickr Heimdall - Engine's nozzle and fuel injectors by Lech Kulina, on Flickr Heimdall - Front by Lech Kulina, on Flickr Heimdall - Front port side by Lech Kulina, on Flickr Heimdall - Cockpit by Lech Kulina, on Flickr Heimdall - Front closeup by Lech Kulina, on Flickr Heimdall - Top by Lech Kulina, on Flickr Heimdall - Bottom by Lech Kulina, on Flickr Heimdall - Thermo-dump panels closeup by Lech Kulina, on Flickr Heimdall - I just love this shot :) by Lech Kulina, on Flickr BR lech Edited September 1, 2020 by lech Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
deraven Posted August 31, 2020 This is wonderful! I'll have to take a look at the model file and spend more time on it later, but you've got some fantastic shaping going on and it's amazing how tight you've got everything fitting. That red stripe is lovely, and I think you've got a good mix of detail/greebling and sleek lines. Great build! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lech Posted September 1, 2020 17 hours ago, deraven said: This is wonderful! I'll have to take a look at the model file and spend more time on it later, but you've got some fantastic shaping going on and it's amazing how tight you've got everything fitting. That red stripe is lovely, and I think you've got a good mix of detail/greebling and sleek lines. Great build! Many thanks deraven for your feedback! I was trying my best in making sure that the geometry of each sub-assemblies would work together and respect color-blocking. It was kinda tricky but I'm glad that you like the result :) BR lech Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jimmynick Posted September 1, 2020 Absolutely ridiculous! Fantastic colour blocking and great engineering to get all the panels to fit together. I love the shapes and colours around the engine - the red and yellow highlights are an excellent touch. Nice MOC and thanks for sharing! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lech Posted September 2, 2020 20 hours ago, jimmynick said: Absolutely ridiculous! Fantastic colour blocking and great engineering to get all the panels to fit together. I love the shapes and colours around the engine - the red and yellow highlights are an excellent touch. Nice MOC and thanks for sharing! Many thanks jimmynick! The funny thing about the yellow highlights is that 28220 (Armor Plate Small) is made in very limited number of colours and I initially used the yellow ones for testing. After some time I started to like the splash of colour that they give :) Anyway thanks again for the feedback! BR lech Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JintaiZ Posted September 4, 2020 (edited) Amazing build! Really like the shaping! Edited January 11, 2021 by JintaiZ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Merlict Posted September 5, 2020 Gotta admit I would have guessed way lower than 7000 pieces! Looks great my man. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LEGO Train 12 Volts Posted September 5, 2020 Impressive shape for a Lego construction Gantastic vessel! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Scene Posted September 5, 2020 This is utterly awesome! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
romashkaman Posted September 5, 2020 Incredible work! All that angled parts... All is so flawless! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
The Neighborhood Merchant Posted September 5, 2020 Wow, this is gorgeous! A truly excellent piece. Like deraven said, the way you went about making it airtight is very impressive, especially with the front. Wonderful accents on the bottom and a spectacular color scheme (love the red line!). Make sure Lenny gets some escorts, as blacktron is sure to want to "acquire" this ship. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lech Posted September 6, 2020 On 9/4/2020 at 11:49 PM, JintaiZ said: Amazing build! Thanks Jintai! On 9/5/2020 at 4:13 AM, Merlict said: Gotta admit I would have guessed way lower than 7000 pieces! Looks great my man. Thanks Merlict, yeah the overall look may be misleading because of all of the 1x1s that went into the wings :) On 9/5/2020 at 9:32 AM, LEGO Train 12 Volts said: Impressive shape for a Lego construction Gantastic vessel! Many thanks LT12V! 23 hours ago, Scene said: This is utterly awesome! Thanks Scene :) 23 hours ago, romashkaman said: Incredible work! All that angled parts... All is so flawless! Thanks romashkaman. It was quite a challenge to match all of the components together but overall I also think the result is not so bad :) 18 hours ago, The Neighborhood Merchant said: Wow, this is gorgeous! A truly excellent piece. Like deraven said, the way you went about making it airtight is very impressive, especially with the front. Wonderful accents on the bottom and a spectacular color scheme (love the red line!). Make sure Lenny gets some escorts, as blacktron is sure to want to "acquire" this ship. Many thanks TNM! This red line was the reason why I went into making the wings as a separated subsections (connected internally by clips and bars) instead of stacking layers of plates or bricks. Ah you are right, now I need to build a squadron of fighters! You never know what those blacktron dudes will come up next :) Again, many thanks guys for your feedback I truly appreciate it! BR lech Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Gray Gear Posted September 7, 2020 (edited) Very nice spaceship, you have amazing panel placement skills and everything looks so smooth, even the underside. I get some sort of "spider leg vibe" from these lines on the underside I especially like how these windows are fitted without any gaps anywhere, I forst thought that was one single window piece. So cool! Btw what's up with these lame a$$ names? Kenny and Benny, really? Is this some sort of joke that I dont get? Anyways, thx for sharing! Edited September 7, 2020 by Gray Gear Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
(Luc)ky Luke Posted September 7, 2020 Great ship, love those clean lines and smoothness overall! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lech Posted September 8, 2020 On 9/7/2020 at 7:46 AM, Gray Gear said: Very nice spaceship, you have amazing panel placement skills and everything looks so smooth, even the underside. I get some sort of "spider leg vibe" from these lines on the underside I especially like how these windows are fitted without any gaps anywhere, I forst thought that was one single window piece. So cool! Btw what's up with these lame a$$ names? Kenny and Benny, really? Is this some sort of joke that I dont get? Anyways, thx for sharing! Thanks Gray Gear! These big flag pieces were a pain to align to form the cockpit's window, and are also one of my favourite parts of the ship :) Kenny and Benny are their official names https://brickset.com/sets/70841-1/Benny-s-Space-Squad 17 hours ago, (Luc)ky Luke said: Great ship, love those clean lines and smoothness overall! Many thanks Luke. BR lech Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Curbthetide Posted September 11, 2020 This is a beautiful build. I really like the shape around the cockpit. I struggle with this smooth look on my own MOC's. Clearly I have a lot of work to do to get to your level! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lech Posted September 12, 2020 On 9/11/2020 at 3:56 PM, Curbthetide said: This is a beautiful build. I really like the shape around the cockpit. I struggle with this smooth look on my own MOC's. Clearly I have a lot of work to do to get to your level! Many thanks Curbthetide! I also had that problem when I was building everything starting from the inside and moving to the outside. A really good advice is to start building from the outside. Make single sub-assemblies that have the right geometry and fit more or less together. Then try to connect them and in the result you will have a shell that just needs reinforcements. Which problem will require to rebuild almost everything but it is just the way it goes :) Again thanks for your feedback! BR lech Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rubblemaker Posted September 13, 2020 Absolutely love this build. I’ve been looking at it for a couple of weeks now and keep forgetting to post here about it. Possibly one of the most impressive NCS mocs I’ve seen for a long time. I looked at your WIP pics. That’s some crazy connection wizardry you’ve got going on inside this thing. Was all that complexity just a result of experimenting to see what worked or did you have definite ideas for how to connect everything beforehand? Amazing build and thanks for sharing! It’s motivated me to start thinking about making a new Classic space moc now! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lech Posted September 15, 2020 On 9/13/2020 at 1:03 PM, Rubblemaker said: Absolutely love this build. I’ve been looking at it for a couple of weeks now and keep forgetting to post here about it. Possibly one of the most impressive NCS mocs I’ve seen for a long time. I looked at your WIP pics. That’s some crazy connection wizardry you’ve got going on inside this thing. Was all that complexity just a result of experimenting to see what worked or did you have definite ideas for how to connect everything beforehand? Amazing build and thanks for sharing! It’s motivated me to start thinking about making a new Classic space moc now! Many thanks Rubblemaker! The internal connections have changed several times during the development of this build. I was struggling for a long time to provide enough support to minimise the bending - each wing contains more than 2600 elements. Unfortunately inserting a single beam inside was not an option because connections between each subassemblies and external panels had to be at very specific places in order to obtain the right color-blocking. Nonetheless the wings by itself will hold but the will bend. In order to prevent this there are several supports (gold things that look like a spider's legs). Because each one of them supports the wing at a slight angle, the wing rest on them or when the ship is turned upside down they pull it up. This spider was a necessity to keep this ship in one piece but it also aligned quite nicely with the idea of thermo-dump panels that I wanted to incorporate from the beginning :) Again many thanks for your feedback! BR lech Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
