Odyssey

Hi all, here is my entry for the LDD Contest: Category: LDD only H.M.S. Endeavour After the failure of NASA Constellation program in the late 2000s, the shift towards private space transport providers for a majority of missions in the 2010s and President Biden's decision to stop funding all unilateral manned U.S. space missions in 2017, NASA and it's European, Russian, Japanese, Chinese and Canadian counterparts joined forces and following the successful example of the ISS, combined their manned deep space exploration programs. In 2019, the six states founded the International Space Exploration Consortium ISEC which was tasked with developing a re-usable space ship design for long-term manned deep space missions, using mostly proven technology. The goal of this project was to build ships capable of exploring Near-Earth objects and asteroids and gathering experience in flying missions to other planets. The final design ISEC settled for was a space ship for a crew of three, built from four ISS-derived modules which could be assembled in space and easily fitted for different missions. As the ships were assembled in space and never needed to land on a planet or asteroid, they were re-usable and minimized launch costs as only fuel and non-recyclable supplies needed to be brought into space for a mission. H.M.S. Endeavour was built as one of two identical manned deep space exploration ships (her sister ship being the Yuri Gargarin) between 2026 and 2029 while docked to space station ISS2. 33% of the funding came from ESA (which is therefore operating the ship). On July 1st 2029, she was commissioned and named "H.M.S. Endeavour" by British king William V (by symbolically breaking a bottle of champagne over a name-plate to be carried on the ship) in honour of James Cook's famous vessel. Her first two missions were trial missions in Earth-orbit and on a flight around the moon. Her third mission (and first research mission) led her to Asteroid 3753 Cruithne and she has since successfully completed four missions to moon and three long-term missions to the asteroids. Her current mission assignment will bring her to dwarf planet Ceres, the largest object in the Asteroid belt and is expected to mark both the furthest distance from Earth any human has every travelled and the fastest any human has ever travelled. The ship's current crew is made up of Commander Johanna Wegener of Germany, Pilot Louis Brasfort of France and Scientist Alberto Unapiedra of Spain who are assisted by robot "Hally". At the front of the ship, there is the EVAX module which contains an airlock and systems for vacuum and micro-gravity experiments (like the "front porch" which allows to expose experiments to space). Furthermore, a jet pack, a satellite and six navigation and assay probes for asteroid exploration can be launched from this module. The second module from the front contains the main computers, navigation and control systems, kitchen and some experiments, cooling and solar panels and short range radio equipment. The third module is a storage module where supplies and experiments for the flight are stored and contains the docking port for docking at the space station or with the landing shuttle. The fourth module is the habitation module where each astronaut has a small chamber with place for a sleeping bag, a folding seat, computer screen, reading light and space for personal effects. Each of those chambers is equipped with a small window. The habitation module also carries the long-range radio antenna for communicating with mission control on Earth. Behind the habitation module lies the small service module which contains life support systems and secondary computers and is connected to the oxygen and fuel tanks. At the very end is the engine module which is made up of the main ion engine which provides the main thrust for long flights in deep space and two strap-on orbital insertion boosters (OIBs) which help to bring the ship out of Earth's orbit and into it's mission orbit. In order to allow astronauts to visit the surface of an asteroid, Endeavour also carries a small, fully autonomous shuttle (named "Galileo") which can land two astronauts on the surface of an asteroid. Due to the minimal (or non-existing) gravity on asteroids the shuttle could be derived from the three-person Orbital Manoeuvring and Rescue Shuttles (OMRS) developed for the ISS2 space station and shares the same outside characteristics. It was however equipped with different life-support systems and software to allow two astronauts to live in it for several days for asteroid landings. In case of an emergency during preparation or launch, the shuttle can still be used to bring the crew safely back to Earth, though. About the model Well, I really wanted to design a futuristic but still realistic Lego space ship for quite some time as most of the Lego space ships tend to be either super-sci-fi or not really spaceworthy (as in seaworthy...). The model is mostly snot (but then again, where is "top" in space? ;-) ), made up of 2290 parts (not counting minifigs, which are in a separate file), would weigh 1.7 kilos and be roughly 80 cm long (if I'm not wrong). The shuttle, rocket pack, satellites and the tank/engine section can be removed and the air lock and service module doors can be opened and closed. And without some printing, it's built using only bricks available in Design-by-me mode which means the model can actually be ordered (though it would set me back a whopping 350€). I should also note that I used G. Shaw's amazing rocket pack with only small alterations and was inspired by the late, great nenn for the design of the ion engine. Images (click for larger version without background) : LDD files: With printed tiles (Universe mode): HERE Without printed tiles (can be ordered): HERE The crew: HERE And finally: Good luck to everyone :)

Hi everyone! My entry for the category LDD + real bricks is a MOC of an open-air bar carriage, a cross-over of an observation carriage and open-air carriages like those used on trains in New Zealand (most likely also somewhere else *g*). I built the carriage as an addition to the Metroliner train and it therefore uses the same size and basic frame as the Metroliner passenger carriage. The livery was inspired by German Railway InterCity carriages. The idea was to show a carriage that looks like it might have been built by the same company as the other Metroliner carriages but was later bought by another railway operator, repainted and rebuilt into an open-air bar carriage and now included in the Metroliner for luxury cross-border services (as in European cross-border InterCity trains where you'll often see rolling stock from different companies). The air-suspended carriage is equipped with luxurious seating for three minifigs in the open-air part of the carriage, large windows and a big bar serving drinks and snacks. LDD screenshots (click to open in flickr:) Built in real bricks: And here's the LDD file

So, on Friday, my first LDD order of the train arrived: the Taurus locomotive that's used on the train (this one: Siemens ES 64 U2 with fitting paint). So, here is how it looks: More photos over on Brickshelf (once moderated): http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=437808

Wow, now that's sweet! I had one of those when I was young and loved it (it wasn't made from Lego though...). This is a great idea and beautiful rendition.

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone and I'm sure I'll enjoy it :) It's a bit hard to give any particular single reason for my username. I'm quite fascinated by ancient cultures, particularly including Greece. At the same time, it's a reference to Kubrik's movie. And lastly, it kinda fits to me, somehow ;-)

Wow, I've followed your imgaes on Flickr for some time and I can just say I'm impressed! I really love how you managed to have those different carriages, some with totally different design, some with the same with just subtle changes to them. They are a great example of how Lego can actually be used to build models of professional quality. I'd love to see them run in person...

Thanks for the nice comments :-) Here is a picture of how it might look with dark red roof and improved doors: Yes, I actually want to turn it into a "real" MOC quite soon. I'm still contemplating whether I should order the parts via Bricklink or order at least the loco and first two carriages via LDD. On the one hand, Bricklink should turn out less expensive and allow me to build it with a dark red roof right away. On the other hand, we're living in a quite small flat and I my girlfriend might not be too happy if I start piling Lego over a few weeks... With LDD I'd receive all bricks neatly packed in a single box and might build it together with her Lego-lovin' cousins as well... I might possibly make some modifications to it and build the other two carriages over the summer, then. Also, I'd be quite grateful if anyone of you had a good idea how I could get rid of the "holes" on the sides of the locomotive where the side walls and front meet: I was thinking about this part: But it neither comes in brown nor dark red so I'd have to decal it.

Ok, I might just chime in with a thing I noticed on my profile: It seems like the information I had entered into my profile (avatar pic and signature) got lost in the update. I'm not sure if others experienced the same as I see everyone still having their avatars and signatures. It's not hard to add them again but I just wanted to say it in case some data might not have been retained during the update... Besides this, I for one like the new design, it looks more polished and cleaner. And it works better on Opera Mini and Mobile on my phone than the old one did (the old one always truncated posts whereas, making it unusable from my mobile).

Dear friends of Lego trains (hm, that sounds a bit formal, eh?), I've been following the train forum for a few months now and have marvelled at some of the truly amazing work I've seen here. And while I'm far away from the perfection of some people here, I'd still like to show you my project I've been working on over the last weeks: The Austrian Federal Railways' (ÖBB) Railjet high speed train I've chosen this train for my first MOC project as I'm travelling on it frequently, it has an interesting design and as it's somewhat unusual for a high speed train. With a top service speed of 230km/h it's admittedly rather on the slow side for high speed trains and no match for the likes of TGV and ICE - but then again, the geographical situation of Austria makes building real high-speed lines pretty hard (there are only upgraded section along the Western Railway). The train currently operates on services between Budapest, Vienna, Salzburg, Munich and Zurich. The trains were built from 2006 on by Siemens and are based on earlier EuroCity rolling stock. What makes the train sets unlike most other high-speed trains, is that they are technically standard push-pull trains hauled by off-the-shelf electric locomotives which were already used before, but adapted to give them features known from high-speed trains. In normal service a trainset is made up of a Taurus locomotive plus a rake of seven permanently-coupled carriages, each rake being assigned one locomotive which normally remains attached to it. The carriages and the locomotives were designed and painted so they visually form one unit. Due to the carriages being permanently coupled, the interior of the carriages has the look and feel of an EMU (essentially, the train is a push-pull train disguised as an EMU). My understanding as to why ÖBB made those unusual design decisions (it seems that originally, they planned to build EMUs) is that they needed new rolling stock but didn't have the time nor the resources for developing an EMU. They did, though, have a surplus of Taurus locomotives they once ordered for an expansion into Eastern-European markets which never happened and had some carriage designs which were usable for their new train with only slight adaptions. And lastly, they probably wanted to have a high-speed product instead of just buying new carriages because with the planned liberalization of passenger rail traffic in Europe they are expecting competition from private high-speed train operators on profitable InterCity connections and needed something to counter them. My rendition of the train is in 6-wide to keep it the same size as the stock sets and carriages are a lot shorter than they should be if they were to scale (that also has financial considerations). Well, now here are some photos of the original (taken from Wikipedia): And here is my interpretation: Version with 4 carriages Version with 2 carriages (1) Version with 2 carriages (2) More photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/39704883@N00/sets/72157624368786117/ Inspirations: - The design of the carriage doors was inspired by Bricktrix' Eurostar - The interior design of the Loco is a mixture of real elements and inspiration by JGoods19's Highspeed Trainset - There are some nice designs for the Taurus loco like Hannes1806's and AshiValkoinen's Hope you like it and I'd be happy about comments and ideas how to improve it :-)

Hi all, first of all, please allow me to say I'm happy to have found this great, creative community! I've found my way back to Lego a few months ago as it's a great way to relax and be creative while not thinking about work and studies... Having lurked in the forum for a bit, I now thought, I'd step forward. I'm 23, currently living in Austria (but can often be found straying in Germany and Belgium) and prefer town, trains and non-sci-fi space stuff... Yeah, that's about it for now. Hope to meet some of you at some point :-) Cheers, and I'm a conformist!!