brickmack

Thanks. It sounds like you're just getting into LEGO, so if you want to make a SHIP, you will need a lot of parts first. This ship isn't even half done and already has more than 20,000 parts by my estimate. Parts that seem to be particularly helpful are technic parts (mainly the beams and brick parts) and basic bricks and plates (which can be found fairly cheaply in the tubs sold at many stores). I also recommend starting smaller, to learn about newer techniques and such, before building a full SHIP. I wish you luck in all that.

Wonderful find. A lot of this stuff is worth a lot if you decide to sell it, and still pretty cool if yoy don't.

Looks interesting, I might post something in category 1. At first I figured it would uust be minifig scale, glad there is an option for minimodulars scale since I don't have many available parts right now).

Those look cool, especially the new star wars ones. I think that X-wing was released as a polybag without the planet a few years ago though... LEGO needs to make those planets without printing and use them in other themes, I can think of loads of uses.

UPDATE: A few new pictures of more progress, getting a lot done recently. SHIP WIP by brickmack, on Flickr I've added more technic structures to the inside, added more details, and did some more work towards the back of the ship (I'm building this roughly in layers going front to back, moving aft as part supply allows). SHIP WIP-Docking Bay by brickmack, on Flickr I also started on these docking bays, wich allow a smaller ship to enter and dock internally with the ship. Probably going to be lots of detailing in this area. A ship I made a few weeks ago is in the docking bay to show size.

The bridge will be on a tower also (though only an inch or 2 tall) towards the middle of the ship on the top. At this scale, it will be pretty tiny, probably just 3-4 studs wide and a bit longer than that.

It seems to be pretty stable, though the legs are a bit wobbly. I'm hoping that will be fixed when I have the parts to build the 3rd leg (its just sitting on the front 2). The SHIP itself is fairly strong. This so far is one section, and the forward prongs and the engine section will be detachable. I had originally planned on displaying it at at least one show/convention before decommissioning it, but that seems rather unlikely for several reasons: The main section is 5 ft long, will weigh over a hundred pounds (more than I weigh), and I'm not certain it will be strong enough to survive long distance transport. And I'm on the 2nd floor of an apartment also. Once I finish I will try to transport it and display it somewhere, but its extremely unlikely that I would even be able to move it out of my room without it cracking in half.

My general idea is that if it's designed to connect with technic parts, its classified as technic. Even if it's also compatible with system parts (since just about every technic piece can be attached in some way with system parts)

The tower is actually at the front of the ship. I had imagined it as a part of the main weapon on the ship (A large magnetic cannon like the MACs in Halo). The engines will be attached as a separate section on the back (connecting using technic pins and axles so it's strong enough to stay in place, ut still removable) which will be about 1 foot long total. On the front, sightly above the tower, will be 2 prongs about 2 inches wide and 5-7 inches long with the opening for the cannon in between.

So shiny... The simple design works well for this I think, it still looks good.

I have 2 big boxes that I use for sorting, and any unsorted stuff goes in those. If I don't use a part enough or have a lot of them, then it doesn't go into my sorting drawers and stays in the box. If I'm looking for a random part or odd looking piece, I just dig through those boxes until I find something.

Starting in December or January (I don't remember which) I started working on a SHIP, inspired by various ships from Halo, BSG, and a few other series mostly. I've made a few other attempts at making SHIPs before, none of which were successful, but since I've learned a lot about structure and my collection has grown tremendously since those attempts, I decided to try again. This SHIP will, when finished, be a bit less than 7 feet long, about 2.5 feet wide at the widest point, and be a bit less than 3 feet tall including the stand. Currently its exactly 5 feet long, and just over a foot wide, and by my estimate contains more than 20,000 parts. The current working name is Tormentum (catapult) but that may change in the next few months as I continue work. And now some pictures (sorry for the low quality of some of the pictures, I just used a cell phone camera for most of these because its a real pain to position my regular camera because of the tripod) 20120219_145951-1139195407 by brickmack, on Flickr The bottom spine of the SHIP during early construction. Basically a 4 foot long tower of stacked 2x2 bricks with 2x2 technic bricks placed throughout, then with long technic beams attached to the 2x2 technic bricks. 3 technic structures stick down from the bottom as well, forming the stand. 20120220_153550760795353 by brickmack, on Flickr At this stage I've finished the spine, and started attaching the angled side panels using #4 angled technic connectors, strengthened by technic parts. 20120228_064830-1366164965 by brickmack, on Flickr I then placed plates on the frame, and used 1x4 SNOT bricks to make it studs up (the frame was studs down so stuff cn be easily attached on the bottom) SHIP WIP by brickmack, on Flickr Adding more detail and structure and such... SHIP WIP by brickmack, on Flickr More stuff was added, and here is the whole thing. It's from a few weeks ago so there is a lot more progress now, but I haven't photographed it yet.

That is very nice looking. Insect-inspired fighters don't seem to be all that common (though I remember seeing a Flickr group a while back that had a lot). I really like all the articulation between body segments.

Well LEGO has said before that they normally make a lot of changes to a model before it becomes an actual set, so it will probably look a lot better when its made (assuming that they make it)

Looks interesting. Lots of great minifigs and parts (glow in the dark stuff ), but the sets themselves don't really seem all that great to me (I suppose few of the recent non-AFOL targetted set designs have though), but I'll still get them for the parts and figs (if I have any money left over after LOTR and the other stuff this year)

Filled it out, very in depth. i wonder what the structural analysis is for, sounds like it could be interesting if they share the results. Sounds to me like they are probably going to try doing a bit more with a new official forum type thing or something. I really hope they replace the message boards with something not horrible (The few weeks I spent on the official boards before I found EB were the most terrible experiences of my online life)

More information on when a theme and individual sets are to be discontinued would be nice. Packs of lots of parts in certain colors (Esp. rare colors, like sand red) would be cool as well. Oh, and a Doctor Who theme would be nice, though I suppose as often as it's been suggested, if it hasn't happened yet it probably won't.

You might try Elmer's washable glue, I've heard that bonds well to the plastic, and washes off if the games ever need to be resold or something.

I don't care all that much, I usually open by bag since I have limited building space though. I find it odd however that its the small sets with numbered bags. The Tower Bridge didn't have any, so the majority of the 5 or so days I spent on it was looking for parts. (it was kinda cool seeing that many parts in a pile though)

The black short ones have friction, light grey short ones have no friction, blue long ones have friction, tan long have no friction, etc. But I was talking about ones of the same type having different colors over time (blue ones used to be black, etc).

Agreed. It would be nicer if they made them in different colors for different sets, but I suppose this would cause additional issues with identifying friction from non friction pins.

Something that I have wondered about for a while is the occasional changes TLG makes to the color of the technic pins (black to blue for example). Is there any reason why the colors of each pin type are changed (increased strength, lower cost, etc), or does TLG just decide to do it for no reason?

According to the website they just outgrew their server capacity. link.

More articulation is nice, but the old head armor not fitting is disapointing to say the least.

Nice. The octan ship is my favorite, looks like a defense fighter for the tankers Octan would operate in the future.