churcholo

I finally (almost...) finished the construction of my customized Nebulon. This is how the pedestals look in real life. The complex is very sturdy! I keep moving it around the house and it's so easy to grab it, place it, turn it... I'm very satisfied! I made some minor customization in some parts, most of them are invisible, but it allowed me to keep the costs reasonable: in fact I only spent 400$ to build it (plus 100$ shipping costs from 25 different sellers all around Europe). Thanks again to Mortesv and Cjd223 for sharing with the community this wonderful masterpiece! Seriously guys, this is something big, it's really impressive once you see it in your room!

I went traveling for a long time and only now I'm getting back to finish the job... This are the real results of my mods: The stands I designed are VERY sturdy, at the point that the two parts can stand on their own without any other support! You can even grab them and use them as a couple of laser-pistols! :-) This might be very useful for transportation!

Hi @rockpig, I uploaded the DLL file to my personal server, it's a pleasure to share it with the community, you can download it here: http://simoneweb.altervista.org/lego/Nebulon-b_pedestals_v1.2.lxf I finished today to order the pieces for my Nebulon-B version and I was able to spend "only" 500 euros (400 euros + shipping costs for 14 sellers all around Europe), included the pedestals I designed. To keep the costs reasonable I had to make some litle modification though, the major one was to convert the green part of the ship to gray because those green bricks are extremely expensive and rare. I'll post some pictures once I'll finish to build it.

I designed the length of the branches having in mind other pedestals of UCS models. For example the ones of the Imperial Shuttle 10212 are 9 studs large and they support it well, although it's quite tall and heavy. But I trust people more experienced than me, so I modified the pedestals and here is the version 1.2: They are more invasive but they make it very sturdy. What you think guys, better sturdier but invasive or less sturdy but discrete? I must take a decision before ordering the bricks and I'm not sure what to choose. An opinion by people that already built it is very much appreciated! @ecmo47 liftarms of Green circles go until the bottom. 1x5 liftarms in the middle are pretty well attached, but I added a couple horizontals more just to be sure. For what concerns the hinge plates in the back panels, I think I already solved it: to let the liftarms pass through it's enough to move only 2 hinge plates and modify a little bit the panels as I show here: p.s. I'm also going to replace the barrels (#64951) with a couple of cones (#3943), I don't use to drill or color bricks...

Hi Ecmo, thank you for the advise! You're right, the front pedestal wasn't well designed, I corrected it. Here is the result: I had seen the solution you suggested at page 7, but I wasn't sure that discharging all the weight on a 45° liftarm would have been the best solution. For what concerns the transparency, I don't think it would be easy to find them in the market and with the pins connecting them it wouldn't be too nice. If you put the ship on a dark background perhaps it would be even nicer with the black pedestals, it's elegant. Someone that already built the ship can tell me please if it's possible to attach the hinges of the little back panels to somewhere else (upper panels)? Thank you!

Hi guys, I'm new here, I'm not an experienced AFOL, I just built the Cavegod AT-AT before this, so please have merci if I say something stupid or banal. I've bought the instructions and I'm now planning to start to order the bricks to build this beautiful masterpiece. I've read all the threads and I already planned to make some useful mods suggested by Ecmo and other users. First of all let me tell you that in Europe the transparent cylinders (85941) have become so rare and expensive that it's practically impossible to buy 48 of them and follow this way to build the supports for the ship. Thank you guys for having dried up the market! :-P Starting from this issue and conscious that the ship is not so sturdy as I wish (I've enough problems with the AT-AT!) I'm beginning to design some solutions to improve stability and to avoid the cylinders. I'm not an engineer but it seems to me that, if well attached to the main structure, all the weight can be discharged in only 2 points instead of 4. Inspired by the SSD 10221 pedestals I designed these supports that are strongly attached to the main backbones and should prevent the ship to fall to the side even if it's (slightly) pulled. For the front one I think there's no need to make any changes but for the back one I had to remove the hinge plates to let the liftarms pass through, so I must find another way to attach the lower small side panels. Perhaps I can attach them to the bigger panels from the top? I'll figure out. I think the transparent cylinders were a good idea, but those who will come next will have to find other solutions. Here's mine and I think I like it, it reminds me of the official UCS models, it's elegant and not too invasive. Most of all, it should make the ship A LOT sturdier. Let me know what you think and if you have some suggestions! :-)