ProvenceTristram

Admittedly, I've always had a soft spot for Dreadnaughts. Why? I don't know. They are hardly comely ships - almost like a weird, galactic merger of a clamshell, a mon calamari cruiser, and a loaf of bread (what a meal). And, according to the EU, they weren't exactly awesome performers - with slow hyperdrives and disgusting crew requirements (only later alleviated via system slaving). Even the name is dumb - who spells it that way? Jacky Fisher's famous battleship was Dreadnought, not Dreadnaught. I almost have a conniption every time I look at it. So... yeah... they're the weirdo in the room; the oddball people keep casting nervous glances at, wondering if he's about to drop his pants. But maybe I'm just into weirdos. Plus, it never hurts that when I was looking around two days ago for a Star Wars capital ship to model, it appeared that very few people had attempted a dreadnaught in this size (it's roughly in the same scale as Raskolnikov's best-ever Star Destroyer Tyrant). And one of the nice things about dreadnaughts is their usable interior space - their being shaped like a five dollar footlong isn't so bad when you're hoping to model closed scenes (and even house smaller vehicles). So... based on the limited pictures on the web (a few of which are posted below) and a 20-year-old line drawing from the Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels, I went about assembling the thing... hoping (as usual, in vain) to keep the parts count reasonable. Thus, without further adieu, I present to you: the Alliance dreadnaught Stolen Gold. Prototype: Model: Bridge, featuring crew pit (stickers will be necessary): Hangar (can house 4x mini A-wings/Y-wings or TIE fighters): Engineering: Rear bay (modeled as a bedroom/hangar, but this space could really be anything; I considered making it a crew mess): Swinging access doors: It came in at a little over 2,400 pieces - not great, but not heinous, either.

... some kind of Lego.com exclusive? It's being resold on Ebay, and is for sale on the Lego.com website, but at least here in the US, it doesn't seem to be available at any of the major retailers (or their websites).

Alright... I had kind of surmised this (and what MAB said) as well. Can you recommend a good vinyl spray dye to use?

I need to use a large curved piece in a pending MOC but, sadly, it is only available in clear. Has anyone on here ever had success applying dye to transparent parts? Any advice?

None

Love it. Particularly the siding and the fence.

I might buy it. However, given the likely high parts count, I can only imagine the price tag will be over $200.

This was kind of my thought as well - if I went waterline, I was only going to put a very, very generic plate base on the thing (or possibly use old water baseplates with the thought that, if I ever desired to do so, I could just strip it and then tack on the remaining hull). I am still going to kick it around for the next few hours (and see if anyone else replies), but I have some ambition - if I go waterline - of completing the project tonight, and I will post some photos here as soon as it's done.

So, I am at something of a crossroads and need a bit of advice (and as you folks model ships [even if they aren't generally steel-hulled] far more than most people in the special themes forum, I felt like it was better to ask this question here than there). Simply put, I have been working in LDD on a very detailed model of a King George V class fast battleship for the last week. The entirety of the upperworks are complete, and the model is (roughly) 4' in length (so not minifig scale, but fairly hefty). Currently, it's ~3,000 bricks in size, and it is glorious. Originally, I had hoped to complete a full-hulled model. However, I also maintained ambitions of building the thing in real life. And, after spending about 6 hours last night tinkering with the full hull (IE, just putting a framework in place; not the actual outside sheathing), I've realized just based on guesswork that the bottom half will more than double the part count, putting the project into the realms of absurd expenses. It must also be said, I'm not having a lot of fun working on the hull (not that it matters; a project that must be done must be done) - I feel I am capable of producing the correct shape and size, but it's enormously tedious to get the contours correct, as well as boring. Thus my question: knowing that it is going to balloon the price tag into the thousands of dollars, should I proceed with producing a full-hulled model, or should I instead do a (much simpler) waterline model? Obviously, the full hull is a good deal more dramatic for display purposes... but it is also, to a degree, a lot of unexciting, wasted parts; the 'drama' of a 20th century battleship is all from the water's surface upwards. Any suggestions and/or thoughts would be most welcome.

Specifically part #2736? I am attempting to assemble a battleship tripod mast, and need to anchor the two rear supporting rods... but I'm not all that familiar with technic, and have no 'go-to' knowledge of what I'm looking for to fit these pieces so I can plant the mast.

First, all credit goes to Sebeus I for sparking my efforts on this project. Last night, I PMed him pleading for an LXF for his submarine, originally intending to just recolor it and Bricklink it out. However, after looking over the vessel, I realized, to quote Fred Thompson's character from The Hunt for Red October, "in order to be of any value, you'd have to tear it apart. The metallurgy would take a couple of months. And what will you do with the crew? The ones who don't defect will go back and say we got the boat... or do you plan to eliminate them?" Mercifully, it only took me a few minutes to dissect the thing... and nobody will ever find the body of that lone crew member >.>. So, I started basically from scratch, elongating the hull form, constructing entirely new bow and stern sections, subdividing an interior space into four compartments, and designing a new sail. The result is pleasing (though only vaguely resembles the real deal), but I am satisfied enough with it to share photos, and, eventually, go about parting it out (though, obviously, in a different color scheme, since I doubt half those light blue parts exist. Sigh). First, just a bit about the original warship. The Type XXI U-Boat can be see as a forerunner to the modern submarine, being the first ocean-going battle-ready submersible to feature a hydrodyanmically streamlined hull, as well as the first of their type to be designed primarily to sail and fight underwater (as opposed to diving in combat, as most other submarines did). Although quality control issues kept XXI numbers exceedingly limited, the Americans, Russians and British all saw the enormous potential of the design, and later built submarines based in large part on the type. And, although the originals had many flaws, they were robust enough for the single surviving example of the type - the Wilhelm Bauer - to be dragged off the sea bed a full 12 years after its scuttling, to be salvaged and recommissioned as a testbed for future submarine designs. Now that's German engineering! Here are a couple of photos: And now a few pictures of my feeble effort to recreate the vessel in a reasonable (re: not going to destroy my bank account) scale: As stated earlier, the interior is broken up into 4 furnished "scenes." The first of these is the torpedo room: Why does a refurbished U-Boat need torpedoes? Why, they're for conducting experiments... on... uh... the flotational capabilities of... er... allied shipping... in... unsanctioned, spontaneous, explosive underwater tests-- NEIN! YOU ARE SAYING TOO MUCH! MOVE ALONG! Uh, right. So next we have the command center of the sub. There's a chair, control panels, diodes, etc. Abaft of this is the bunk room, featuring two beds, lights for reading, and the all-important crew head. Finally, in the stern we have the engine room. I pushed my pitiful technic skills to the absolute max to incorporate actual spinning turbines and props (controlled by a crank on the top of the stern) - I am sure there was probably a more efficient arrangement, but what you see is what you get. At least they should look neat while spinning. Otherwise, there's the standard retinue of buttons, levers, panels, a small, experimental fission reactor... What does a retooled scientific U-Boat need with a miniaturized, highly illegal, treaty-violating nuclear plant? Uh, well, there are many things, of course... uh... you can stay under water for longer period of time... warm up soup really fast... get an unusual tan while sunning yourself in all that green light-- FOOL! DER FUHRER WILL NEVER APPROVE! YOU VILL BE SHOT AT DAWN! Uh... okay! So there you have it! Again, thanks so much to Sebeus I with the help getting started, and I hope everyone enjoys. Now... I just need to get my stuff and... flee... the country...

Those skyscrapers are inspired.

Just a small MOC I created idly last night. The interior features a few details (bed, shelf, small faucet, and the semi-elevated pilot house), while the exterior showcases just a couple of play features (rotating search light; hook for towing). I wanted something that looked clean and professional, but also adopted a similar style to most official Lego playsets.

Is it wrong that it vaguely reminds me of Elsa's castle?

Yup, I remember this from the show.

Well, it certainly looks claustrophobic! But many of those trailers are in real life, too.

This is amazing - I really like that you went with cloth sails. Is there an interior?

Incredible.

Really like it.

There are some goop products advertised in Model Railroader for this exact same thing, albeit on HO locomotives. No idea if it works, but clearly this is a good idea that others have embraced.

Would love to see a larger shot, too.

I'm a fan of everything but the domes. Have you considered alternatives? (Such as the half globe tatooine pieces? They'd need to be dyed or repainted, but I have had great success dying lego).

Sure wish someone would create a playable version of this. Or any rebel-affiliated capital, for a change. I mean, we've had plenty of Star Destroyers...