blue72

lol?? I've read what you've written a few times now and it seems you don't quite yet grasp what Mei was saying. Instructions are not available for these models. Go back to the first post on the first page and follow the links there to download the digital model of the full dragon. The BrickSafe pages have more than just pictures. Open that .lxf file with Lego Digital Designer or with BrickLink's Studio software. Boom bam, there's nearly everything you asked for. I should know, I've built it from that digital file and have it sitting in my office right now.

This little old thing? Underneath it is 16x16 plates and an outer row of 6x plates. Also, the flower sets that LEGO started producing have come in pretty handy for introducing some new sand green pieces....

I must say, I've quite enjoyed building some of the smaller models as well.

I laid the mast framework down on the cloth, positioned everything by eye to roughly match my reference, marked the positions of the towball pieces, used a ruler to draw the straight edges with a mechanical pencil, freehand sketched the rest, and cut it all out with some fabric scissors. I've already shortened the bottommost section of the main sail by removing one 59443 and trimming the sail to look more proportional since that picture.

Very, very, close to being done with this one.

I just took screengrabs from the movie to use as reference to build mine. I've only seen the movie two times I think, but I have pored over every last scene with the Destiny's Bounty and the Green Ninja Dragon Mech dozens of times, pausing repeatedly to take screen captures on my computer then sorting and storing them in folders. There's also a very high-resolution poster from IGN with Master Wu and the Bounty in the background that has been useful for a number of the side details and counting studs for measurements. There are surprisingly very few areas that are too hidden to see decently enough if you comb through the whole movie. I've built mine piecemeal, ordering parts as I figured out what I'd need for the next section. I started with the dragon heads, then the upper decks, counting how wide and how long to build the plate foundation, then copying the tile and plate pattern, then moving on to the raised rear section, then the awnings and the side bits that hang on. After that I built the bottom of the ship separately and had to bring the two halves together (luckily, I managed to get the width spot-on). Right now I'm attaching the flying engines, looking for dollhouse-scale plastic plants to fill the planters, and figuring out how I want to do the sails. One minor annoyance is that certain layout details change from scene to scene. On the decks, the barrels, crates, pots, planters, lanterns, and other things are moved around and parts of the ship are removed to allow for fight choreography or so that they don't get in the way of a virtual camera move or a pretty shot. Even the layout of the tiles changes in a few shots (the 3D model likely got updated a couple of times during production). Doors to the inner chamber that houses the ultimate weapon appear and disappear (I assume they are meant to slide open somehow) and even completely change pattern from bamboo plate windows to Ghostbusters Fire Station doors for no reason. Speaking of the ultimate weapon chamber, it exists in two completely different scales in the movie. A couple of quick shots show it at the same scale as the rest of the ship, but others have it about 3x larger for more dramatic effect. When the ship is upside-down near the end of the movie, all of the planters, plants, and lanterns onboard are just gone. The 'covers' for the flying engines just magically disappear when it takes flight, so you have to decide which way you're going to present it when built. If it is a boat, then you don't even need the engines, because they evaporate in boat mode, but if it is flying, then you need the engines but not the covers. Another annoyance is that it is an odd number of studs wide. That's right, it is mildly asymmetrical. Best I can figure is that this was done so that the ultimate weapon chamber could have the ultimate weapon holder sit right in the middle of the 'floor' plate pattern as it were. On mine, as it is built now, I have an edge on one side that is 1 stud wide, and just nonexistent on the other. I've made quite a few small changes on my model that just make it easier to deal with in real life vs. 3D land where you can cheat a bit here and there. The big 64645 hull sections at the front of the ship simply cannot align the same way that they do on the movie version, so mine is off by 1 stud there. I had to change the hanging sections that run from bow to stern because there's no practical way to build them like they are in the movie because of range of movement and clearances. For instance, the towball and socket pieces that are used for the planter boxes absolutely cannot articulate as far as they are shown in the movie, so I flipped the orientation of mine to gain more articulation. I still have no idea how those long things attach to the ship at the front in the movie version. Either it is hidden or just doesn't exist. To physically support that much weight, I used three hinge bricks per side in the middle of each one, and another hinge assembly at the front to hold that bit up high enough to look 'right'. Surprisingly, the front hinged part that the dragon heads sits on can actually support its own weight if you build it as the movie model team did. The frontmost section of mine is regular hinges and clips, and the rear is the kind of hinge plate with fingers. The interior of the lower decks is left completely up to your imagination and however you want to structurally support everything. Mine has a few different styles of arches and inverted curves. The masts are a whole thing in and of themselves. In real life they are extremely tall and quite heavy. I added extra rigging from the front just to keep them from toppling over backwards. In the movie, the shown rigging would only help them topple more easily. Another other issue is that a number of parts are not available in the same colors as shown in the movie. That's just par for the course with recreating these things though. Good luck, happy building, and you had better have a big space to display this thing. In those last pictures of mine, it is taking over 1/4 of my dining room table that seats 6 people comfortably.

I..... I have not thought that far ahead. I suppose now that I have both a movie-scale Destiny's Bounty and Green Ninja Dragon Mech, I had better start on such a thing. I just got done assembling the 70620 Ninjago City recently, and my mind has been reeling, thinking of possible ways to expand in that style of architecture and design. I basically started putting together the big Destiny's Bounty because I had constructed the official 70618 set and was disappointed that it wasn't the same scale as what was in the movie. That's it, that's the entire reason I began this whole endeavor was because I was stubbornly disappointed about scaling. Now I'm going to have to just keep building an environment for them to fit in I suppose. I have been acquiring a few of the other small sets from 2017 and I've built some miscellaneous scenery bits, like these street lamps: I'm going to have to start sketching and planning what I want to do from the ground up, quite possibly laying the basics of it all out in stud.io first.

Thank you. Quite honestly, I have no idea how many pieces are in it. Just the tiles that cover the decks are about 700+.

That is some incredible work, for sure. A huge accomplishment, especially with all of the painting and custom touches that went into it. I have a small update of my own. Today was the day I've been dreading for months; when the two halves (bottom and top) of the Destiny's Bounty had to come together as one. It took all afternoon but they are finally aligned. She's a little disheveled from being jostled, twisted and tweaked all day, but I had to snap a couple of pictures. The sheer girth of this thing is something else. Also visible is the beginnings of a section of docks. I might wind up using something like it to stabilize this thing and keep it from rocking port to starboard. There is a minuscule contact patch underneath this very top-heavy ship. I also have hundreds of other small adjustments remaining to be made and plenty of things left to attach (engines, cowlings, fenders, flags, sails, rigging, etc...).

Another month, another bit of progress.

I have. It's one of those things I need to dedicate some time to doing all the right research for. I know from experience with automotive projects that the wrong kind of prep work and paint will eventually fail on plastic surfaces. I've had good luck with SEM products that are specifically formulated to adhere to plastics and vinyl. So yeah, more research yet to consider before I decide if I'm going down that path.

If you scroll back to page 9, that was when the Green Dragon mechs were being built. The length is listed there along with clearer pictures. Are there any parts not available in the correct colour? Well, basically the majority of them. The whole model in the movie is pretty much either metallic gold or sand green with a little bit of black here and there. You can download the virtual model that @GLAP23 built from the links on the first page and check it out for yourself from all angles. I'm still very slowly updating minor bits that are incorrect on my model with the right colors, but I don't have many left that are available and/or affordable. I decided that the most visually appealing substitution for the pieces that weren't available was black in most cases. Metallic gold obviously got switched to pearl gold where possible, and I did use dark bluish-gray/light bluish-gray on some of the minor stuff. I tried some dark green pieces for a little while but I didn't think they looked as good as the black in the end.

About as far as September's budget will let me go.

Slowly...... slowly......

I've still got a few parts coming from the UK (including those hard to find orange flames for the tail), but here's where mine stands as of this morning. The sky is cloudy today, so the light isn't all that great. I thought y'all might like the family portrait so that there is a greater sense of scale. This is sitting on top of a 1.2 meter (4 foot) long piece of plywood and it fills every bit of it.