[WIP] Dune Scout Ornithopter

[Tom_Brick]

While I'm waiting for the parts to do my mod of the official Dune Ornithopter Set, I decided to play around a bit more and try to do the smaller thopter which Paul and Jessica used in the Dune Part 1 to escape the Sardaukar. 

 

This is of course still a very early stage. I started with the cockpit and then tried to design a downsized version of the flapping and folding mechanisms which I've basically taken from the official set. I will not include the the cool landing gear though. For one, it would take up too much space and secondly, the landing gear on this thopter works differently than on the one which was the template for the official Lego set. Maybe I can think of something really smart, but in the end, I'll probably just use ball joints, so that the landing gear will have to be put into place manually.

Which means that from here on out, the main challenge will be to shape the exterior. One thing I have to admit to is that I have cheated with the colours. Unfortunately, these trans-yellow pieces don't exist. In the end, I'll have the choice between trans-clear and trans-brown. I think trans-brown will look nicer.

Here's an interior shot of the cockpit with trans-clear windows.

 

Edited March 9 by Tom_Brick

[Lego Carl]

Damn even fitting in the open and closing mechanism! Looking forward to see how it turns out.

[Red Rackham]

Great implementation, I like the perspective from the cockpit. The seats are excellent and the many instruments. Looks very suitable.

[Tom_Brick]

Thank you. The thing is driving me crazy though. I want to make it as sleek as possible. I've managed to shrink the mechanism a bit more, but getting it all secured while maintaining a somewhat rounded appearance is really tough. I had a really nice cascading series of rings which mimicked the overall shape nicely, but there was just no way of making it stable. So I had to scrap it again. I'm slowly getting somewhere, though I don't know yet if it'll all work out. Unfortunately, I don't think there's any way to make it as sleek as I want it to be while simultaneously keeping all the functionality of the wings. Also, securing the tail will be another major challenge, let alone getting the shape right. There will definitely have to be compromises along the way.
 

 

[Tom_Brick]

I have been doing some more work on this one, and here is where 'm currently at. I have left one side open:

 

Unfortunately, I have to say that I'm not happy at all with the overall shape. It's way too bulky. Also, the tail is probably not particularly sturdy and would come off when holding it there. 

I think I'll give it one more try. I will remove the flapping mechanism. That should make it possible to make the innards much narrower. I could probably save two studs in width and I could start the upwards slope much earlier. I probably won't be able to shrink the folding mechanism length-wise, but maybe I can make it narrower by one stud, allowing me to integrate it into the tail construction. Let's see. But I might just abandon the whole thing if it turns out to be unsatisfactory. 

[alpinesman]

courage, it’s worth it!

[Mandalorianknight]

Looks like the work is paying off, man. Nice job! I'm really impressed that you've managed to scale it down to the smaller model used in that part of the movie.

[Tom_Brick]

19 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

Looks like the work is paying off, man. Nice job! I'm really impressed that you've managed to scale it down to the smaller model used in that part of the movie.

Thank you. In the meantime, I have removed the flapping mechanism which did indeed save me a lot of interior space. This is how it looks like now:

 

If you compare it to the movie thopter, the cockpit is still too bulgy, but there is no other way if you want to fit two minifigs side by side into it. But in general, the torso does get slimmer a lot more and a lot earlier than before. Shaping the whole body was not particularly easy, I had to do this "stepped" approach. Next, I will try to improve the stability by optimizing the inside construction. As of now, it probably wouldn't be very solid. But even with improved stability, it will likely never be a particularly sturdy model. Especially the tail will alway be precarious.

Edited March 19 by Tom_Brick

[Tom_Brick]

More pictures incoming. I have now added the landing gear. As I previously stated, there is no fancy mechanism. The landing gears are attached via ball joints and need to be put into place manually. The angle of the legs are probably not ideal in terms of the forces working upon them, but ball joints typically do have a lot of friction and there are four of them holding the ship, so I assume that it wouldn't be a problem and that the legs wouldn't give way under the weight of the thopter.

 

Next step would be to try and build the damned thing and see how well it holds up. Only problem is that I have absolutely no space left and my wife would kill me. So I will first have to get rid of some of my other Lego MOCs. 

[Tom_Brick]

Hmmm...actually, I have looked at the movie thopter from a few different angles again, and I think I still need to rework the design. The original thopter looks a lot more muscular. I've gone a bit overboard with the slimming down, particulalry the concave shaping of the underside isn't right. Also, it needs to be shorter (roughly 9 studs). I will keep the innards as they are. They're nice and small, allowing me to try all kinds of shapes (except, I'll try to move the lever for the folding mechanism further downwards). But I might completely rethink everything else. It would also be nice to have a more aggressive looking cockpit, but that will be difficult. Let's see which ideas come to mind...

Edited March 20 by Tom_Brick

[Henkeso]

Really cool! I'm very interested in your build process, because I've been thinking of making a similar ornithopter. Thanks for sharing it! As for the cockpit, have you considered using something like this part on the sides?

[Tom_Brick]

5 hours ago, Henkeso said:

Really cool! I'm very interested in your build process, because I've been thinking of making a similar ornithopter. Thanks for sharing it! As for the cockpit, have you considered using something like this part on the sides?

Thanks. The part you mentioned wouldn't work for me. It has too much depth and is too angular for my taste. From the beginning, I did however think about 98102. It was also too bulky for me, which is why I went with a round dish. But since I basically started from scratch again, I did play around with it a little bit and it kinda works if you use it at an angle and build the cockpit around it. The good thing is that these parts are now also available in trans-yellow. It's not perfect, because it leads to a lot of large gaps, but that's something that potentially could work out better in real life than in Studio. Working with these ball-joint-rings which I used to shape the cockpit is a nightmare in Studio. In real life, that would be much easier and I could see how the segments could potentially be realigned in order to minimize the gaps. Also, it means that you can't open the cockpit to the sides anymore. But I think I will, continue along those lines for now, with a few tweaks of course.

Edited March 20 by Tom_Brick

[Tom_Brick]

All right, here's the next attempt:

 

 

Both light and shadow, I think. First of all, I do prefere the general shape. It's now more aggressive and muscular looking. However, it now lacks some of the sleekness it previously had and looks more stubby. The difficulty is in getting the teardrop shape in Lego form. I think I will work on the tail some more. Make it a bit longer and try to make it thinner towards the end. Will be difficult to maintain the overall shape however. I have the beginning of an idea, but I don't know if it'll work out.

[Henkeso]

The shape seems to be accurate to the movie thopter, there's a pretty good clip showing it from several angles as it takes off and it looks kind of stubby there. The landing gear looks accurate as well. A potential issue with the tail is that it looks to be angled more upward from the body in the original, so it's almost like you could flip the tail on your thopter upside down to get it more accurate. Hope you don't mind me butting in with ideas and nitpicks, I get inspired watching a build take form.

[Tom_Brick]

OK, next try. I only changed the tail a bit. It's still short and stubby.

 

[Tom_Brick]

Some more renderings. This time in the air. I still think it looks a bit stubby, but as of now, I have no idea how to make the tail a bit thinner while keeping a somewhat rounded profile. Maybe I'll just extend the tail for a few studs.

[Tom_Brick]

And some more pictures of it with he landing gear out. Though even if I were to build this one, I will have to work some more on the model. When playing around with the folding mechanism, I found out that I built in some obstacles which I didn't realize before. I will definitely have to work some more on it, but in the end, the details will have to be figured out with a physical model. Moving Technic Parts are notoriously difficult to do in Studio (at least for me). There is one narrow path which in Studio looks like it is just a little bit too narrow to work, but in real life, there is always a little bit of wiggle room, so it may work without a lot of changes after all. Or it might not...either way, I think it's possible to do a redesign without changing too much on the outside...

 

Edited March 22 by Tom_Brick