[MOC] LAAT/i Republic Gunship

[Marius2002]

Hello.

I have been working on a new gunship. I have finished V1, and before I go out and buy all the parts to build it, I wanted to come on here and share it to see if anyone has some feedback on the model. 

The model is a bit bigger than the minifig-scale, but I don't think it looks oversized. I am working on a few different versions of the gunship, the episode 2 gunship and the coruscant guard gunship, which you can see in the pictures below, but also the clone wars gunship, muunilinst 10 gunship, 104th battalion gunship, and the imperial gunship. All versions have opening doors, connection points for bubble turrets and floodlights, storage space for two speeder bikes and one AT-RT, a removable display stand, and a carrying handle.

I want to make this model as accurate as possible, so if you know of any minute detail on the gunship that is not represented here, feel free to let me know.

!Note!

The bubble turret design on the first picture is heavily based on pre-existing designs from other MOC designers. Since I cannot improve upon the designs already made, I decided to adapt them to my model. I am unsure who created the original, as I have seen the same design on several other gunship MOCs in the past, so if anyone knows, please let me know so that I can properly credit them. 

Thank you for your time!

And here is the AT-RT, and speeder bike builds to go along with the gunship

Edited March 30 by Marius2002

[Chrome Vader]

That's an incredible model. The shaping on the back end is just flawless, but all of it looks good. I don't feel qualified to critique anything detail-wise, since I've never really studied the LAAT's proportions and details, but I will say that nothing jumps out at me as wrong.

I know "mini-fig scale" is somewhat subjective, and while the scale might be too large for whatever ratio you're using, it looks well-proportioned to my eye. 

[ForgedInLego]

That looks great, don't worry too much about "minifig scale" its a pretty wide range.  is that a handle I spot on the top? 

[Marius2002]

12 hours ago, Chrome Vader said:

That's an incredible model. The shaping on the back end is just flawless, but all of it looks good. I don't feel qualified to critique anything detail-wise, since I've never really studied the LAAT's proportions and details, but I will say that nothing jumps out at me as wrong.

I know "mini-fig scale" is somewhat subjective, and while the scale might be too large for whatever ratio you're using, it looks well-proportioned to my eye. 

Thank you so much for the kind words. I spent a lot of time ensuring all the angles were correct, so I am really happy to hear that it looks good and nothing stands out. After a quick Google search, I found out that the minifig scale is around 1:42. The gunship in-universe is 17.4 meters. So, with the help of a LEGO unit converter, the LEGO gunship should be around 52 studs long, but this model is roughly 62 studs long. The minifig-scale number varies a bit online, but regardless of which minifig-scale one uses, the model is still just a tiny bit too big. But I do not think it is an issue at all. However, I know it is important to some people, so it's worth mentioning. Thank you again for your comment, I appreciate it.

 

5 hours ago, ForgedInLego said:

That looks great, don't worry too much about "minifig scale" its a pretty wide range.  is that a handle I spot on the top? 

Thank you so much. When I made the post, I thought the minifig scale was a set-in-stone number, but after doing more research, I found out that it varies quite a bit. So, I won't focus on having my MOCs be minifig-scale going forward, but rather focus on having them be as accurate as possible while being minifig compatible. 

And yes that is a handle on the top. I have not gotten around to testing the model yet, so I am not sure if it is in a good spot when it comes to the balancing, but it is attached to the skeleton directly, so it should be plenty strong enough. Thank you again for your comment, I appreciate it.

Edited March 26 by Marius2002

[zsoltom]

wow looks perfect, just as others poinet out the back (and the rest too ofc)  is sooooo well designed

Love the bike and the walker as well, im sure i dont have enaugh room to have the gunship but for my fig display i could use the at-rt and a bike - will you release them as as separate mocs as well? 

[Chrome Vader]

12 hours ago, Marius2002 said:

Thank you so much for the kind words. I spent a lot of time ensuring all the angles were correct, so I am really happy to hear that it looks good and nothing stands out. After a quick Google search, I found out that the minifig scale is around 1:42. The gunship in-universe is 17.4 meters. So, with the help of a LEGO unit converter, the LEGO gunship should be around 52 studs long, but this model is roughly 62 studs long. The minifig-scale number varies a bit online, but regardless of which minifig-scale one uses, the model is still just a tiny bit too big. But I do not think it is an issue at all. However, I know it is important to some people, so it's worth mentioning. Thank you again for your comment, I appreciate it.

 

Thank you so much. When I made the post, I thought the minifig scale was a set-in-stone number, but after doing more research, I found out that it varies quite a bit. So, I won't focus on having my MOCs be minifig-scale going forward, but rather focus on having them be as accurate as possible while being minifig compatible. 

And yes that is a handle on the top. I have not gotten around to testing the model yet, so I am not sure if it is in a good spot when it comes to the balancing, but it is attached to the skeleton directly, so it should be plenty strong enough. Thank you again for your comment, I appreciate it.

I think there is definitely something to be said for striving for that minifig-compatible size as opposed to a strict scale ratio. I went around this bush a lot when I built my Millennium Falcon that I posted on here before I settled on a scale. I have found that a lot of SW builders have a specific scale ratio that they adhere to for their "minifig-scale" MOCs, which does allow a fleet of ships to be more or less scaled correctly in relation to each other. But yeah, the "correct" minifig scale ratio is open to personal taste and depends on what metric you use to calculate it, and what baseline you use for that metric. For example, the 1/42 scale ratio uses the height of the average classic minifig, and it is based on the real-life height of the average human. Obviously, since minifigs are not proportionately correct, any ships strictly scaled to the 1/42 ratio are going to feel cramped for the minifigs in terms of how much space they consume width-wise. On the other extreme, if you scaled a ship to the width of a minifig instead of the height, something closer to 1/25 scale would be "correct" minifig scale. Personally, I find neither of these extremes visually ideal for a good "minifig-scale feel," while scale ratios that split the difference a little bit can provide a visual balance between comfortable minifig compatibility and not becoming so large as to look off-scaled.

I must admit, I have a scale ratio that I personally use for my "minifig-scale" MOCs, which is roughly 1/40. I arrived at that scale by accident when I built my Millennium Falcon as a result of designing it to be minifig compatible. Personally, I think anything in the 1/35-1/40 scale is the sweet spot for what looks pleasing to the eye (well, my eye, anyway haha) in relation to minifigs. In fact, the 1/38 scale is almost exactly 1 stud equals 1 foot translation.

Based on your provided LAAT size, your model would be right at 1/35 scale, which is in my personal sweet spot range for minifig scale, and is probably why it looks so nice to me. (The 1/35-1/40 scale ratio for the LAAT would translate to roughly 54-62 studs in length.)

Since you've clearly studied the LAAT in detail, perhaps you can answer a question I've long had about it: I have seen conflicting numbers regarding how long or wide it is in-universe--how did you determine that 17.4 meters was the correct length? Also, does that length include the guns or is it just the ship itself? If it includes the guns, how should they be pointed for an accurate in-universe measurement? Sorry for all the questions, but the chance to finally get these answers from someone who knows is exciting! :D

, 

[Marius2002]

On 3/27/2024 at 5:16 AM, Chrome Vader said:

I think there is definitely something to be said for striving for that minifig-compatible size as opposed to a strict scale ratio. I went around this bush a lot when I built my Millennium Falcon that I posted on here before I settled on a scale. I have found that a lot of SW builders have a specific scale ratio that they adhere to for their "minifig-scale" MOCs, which does allow a fleet of ships to be more or less scaled correctly in relation to each other. But yeah, the "correct" minifig scale ratio is open to personal taste and depends on what metric you use to calculate it, and what baseline you use for that metric. For example, the 1/42 scale ratio uses the height of the average classic minifig, and it is based on the real-life height of the average human. Obviously, since minifigs are not proportionately correct, any ships strictly scaled to the 1/42 ratio are going to feel cramped for the minifigs in terms of how much space they consume width-wise. On the other extreme, if you scaled a ship to the width of a minifig instead of the height, something closer to 1/25 scale would be "correct" minifig scale. Personally, I find neither of these extremes visually ideal for a good "minifig-scale feel," while scale ratios that split the difference a little bit can provide a visual balance between comfortable minifig compatibility and not becoming so large as to look off-scaled.

I must admit, I have a scale ratio that I personally use for my "minifig-scale" MOCs, which is roughly 1/40. I arrived at that scale by accident when I built my Millennium Falcon as a result of designing it to be minifig compatible. Personally, I think anything in the 1/35-1/40 scale is the sweet spot for what looks pleasing to the eye (well, my eye, anyway haha) in relation to minifigs. In fact, the 1/38 scale is almost exactly 1 stud equals 1 foot translation.

Based on your provided LAAT size, your model would be right at 1/35 scale, which is in my personal sweet spot range for minifig scale, and is probably why it looks so nice to me. (The 1/35-1/40 scale ratio for the LAAT would translate to roughly 54-62 studs in length.)

Since you've clearly studied the LAAT in detail, perhaps you can answer a question I've long had about it: I have seen conflicting numbers regarding how long or wide it is in-universe--how did you determine that 17.4 meters was the correct length? Also, does that length include the guns or is it just the ship itself? If it includes the guns, how should they be pointed for an accurate in-universe measurement? Sorry for all the questions, but the chance to finally get these answers from someone who knows is exciting! :D

, 

Thank you so much for your insight on the matter. Here is a picture with mini figures in the bay to get a better sense of how it scales to minifigs, and also a screenshot from the attack of the clones to compare it to. I think it looks pretty good; if I went any smaller, I think it would look cramped. Your personal minifig-scale ratio is pretty spot-on for the gunship, to be honest. So, thank you so much for sharing.

I just looked up the size of the gunship in-universe on Wookieepedia and saw 17.4 meters. Looking more closely, though, it's also listed as 17.69 meters. I guess 17.69 is with the gun barrels, and 17.4 is without them, but I am not sure. The gun barrels should be pointed straight ahead to get the most accurate measurement, as shown in the screenshot below.

 

On 3/26/2024 at 6:37 PM, zsoltom said:

wow looks perfect, just as others poinet out the back (and the rest too ofc)  is sooooo well designed

Love the bike and the walker as well, im sure i dont have enaugh room to have the gunship but for my fig display i could use the at-rt and a bike - will you release them as as separate mocs as well? 

Thank you so much for the kind words! I will release the AT-RT and Speeder bike as separate MOCs alongside some other side builds (Barc Speeder, Spider Droid, Stap Speeder, and a Droideka), but I want to test them to see if they work as they should before releasing them. I will probably release them at the same time as this gunship. Beginning of summer, at the earliest.

[Shiva]

That's about minifig scale. I say. + Nice work!

[Marius2002]

On 3/29/2024 at 1:20 AM, Shiva said:

That's about minifig scale. I say. + Nice work!

Thank you so much!