Captain_Quinn

None as yet. I want to get this design nailed down and built before tackling the next project. As you can imagine, there are a lot of engineering problems that need solving in order to make the SA-23E Aurora Starfury stable. Looking at the SA-32A Thunderbolt, the challenges of wing sweep and angle combination are amplified by the added bends and the small wing/large engine combination. Anyway, good news is that I've reach a point where I think I have solved the issues that were present in earlier versions. Now the physical build begins. As a few people had asked about a "Black Omega" variant, I thought I'd thrown a quick 'n' dirty test render for that in the mix. The first is a simply grey-to-black replacement, where the second had me experimenting with a new upper wing panel design. This variant has a stand intended to house batteries and circuits for a lighting setup. Spaces have been designed for cable routing and mounting lights in the cabin and each of the engines and thrusters. The stand can also be left 'open' by removing the front and rear panels if lighting isn't used. The redesign of the centre upper wing panel has also made possible inclusion of squadron/officer artwork. I'm working on a wing panel design that allows for an EA Logo and serial number, but so far I haven't come up with something I'm happy with. So far this is clocking in at over 7000pcs, with one of the remaining tasks is identifying where it's possible to optimise part count vs cost without compromising structure.

I think you'll need to update some of the design. The 87618 5L Bar with Handle doesn't come in transparent colours, for example.

Very nice! Have you built it yet, or just done renders?

Some progress on the design to share... Redesigned the outer wing panels to improve leading/trailing edges, and ends have been blended into the engine pods Updated design for curved lower panel of the upper wings, blending into the central hull, and adding options for missile hardpoints Changed design for the tanks on the central hull Narrowed the upright section of the stand Minor changes to the weapons pods Some error corrections, collision resolution and part optimisation (for parts costs, mainly)

That looks HEAPS better, @manglegrat... very nice!

Hmmm. I'd probably try beginning with converting the rendered image to grayscale, then use a combination of layer masks and colour balance. A quick 30s experiment with one of my recent renders in GIMP (opensource equivalent to Photoshop) yielded some pretty close results with that approach.

Thanks man. It's as much good luck as good management, but I'll take the win either way :D Yeah, I have this one here at the moment, and whilst the helmet isn't perfect, it's better than nothing at all. Ultimately, due to the rarity of these technic minifigs and the bugger-all likelihood of Lego re-releasing them, I'm trying to design a pilot from current parts but haven't had much luck so far. I've also made a few compromises on the stand, going for an open-frame base (like what you would see with industrial walkways/platforms) for part of it:

Ain't that the damn truth!! The balance between size, function, stability & aesthetics for when I include the lights & batteries. I may have to come up with another type of stand for just general display. Currently 808 parts in 98 lots for the display... and you don't want to know the current Bricklink price for those (Just changed the design slightly to drop the cost from over AUD$300, to AUD$130). I've been working on this considerably less over the past few weeks due to study & work. One surprise that popped up is the availability of a generic Technic minifig for Studio, which helps to show the size/scale. I had to use Parts Designer (from Bricklink) to set the connectivity for each component so that I could connect, hinge and pose the figure.

Now THAT is art!!

Nice work, mate. Looking forward to seeing pics when you build one in bricks.

Cheers, @Enfurnoh... "Acheron", very cool! Not only one of the Omega's that survived the civil war, but also the ship that ferried Captain Lochley to B5 when she took command. Glad you like the design, and enjoyed the build. And thanks again for donating to the charity you chose

Been busy over the past couple of weeks, but a few revisions to share... first, test renders: So, as you can see, there's still many details to nail down, but the general shape and style is improving (in my opinion). The stand sits perfectly within the centre of mass, and the core upright of the stand has a removable back panel to fit batteries and circuit control boards for the lighting. Thanks to one of the members of the Facebook Studio LEGO Designers group, I've been able to include what the lighting should look like in test renders. Some of the changes: redesign of the larger, lateral facing, thrust vector fins from a technic panel to a plate/tile based design. I've test built one and whilst slightly heavier, it works and looks LOTS better. reduced the vertical separation between upper and lower wing assemblies by 2 studs to achieve a more accurate proportion of engine positions redesign of the cockpit module to remove detailing on the top that would be hidden from view by the dorsal hull plate redesign of the canopy to improve proportions new design for mounting of dorsal hull plate to core frame. It turns out there are things you can connect in Studio that you simply cannot cajole into working when building in brick. One of the things I'm particularly looking forward to is lighting up the interior of the cockpit, as seen by this test. I've test built the core frame and wing frames, as well as one attached engine pod, and so far, so good. Once I have a wing with a completed engine and plating, I'll post photos.

Very cool.

By all means... please feel free to critique what I've posted. I'll email you if you don't feel comfortable having it on the forums here.

Sorry, but it's barely ready enough for me to share renders, much less anything like design files or instructions. I'm still in the process of nailing down some details, and designing a stand. The cockpit module is attached by 3L friction pins that are all secured withing each side of the connection, making the cockpit removable. I've not yet designed anything for the 'wall' between the it and the main hull. The main focus has been on stability of the design, and there is a key structural component behind the cockpit module that would have to be redesigned to allow for a proper release mechanism and surface details. I had also considered that region behind the cockpit as an obvious place for lighting gear (batteries, relays, etc). But thanks guys, I appreciate the feedback and enthusiasm...

I thought it was time I shared something I've been working on in the background of other projects. The corona-virus restrictions on travel, work, etc. have afforded enough time to sink my teeth into the challenges, and I think I have something worth sharing. Understand, this is a work-in-progress, and likely to see changes from what I'm showing here, but current prototype building of the internal hull and wing framing is going well, the cockpit module is complete and the engine build test is proceeding better than expected. One of the goals with this was to try replicate the proportions, angles and features of what was shown on screen. Unfortunately, there is a lot of conflicting information from online sources. For example, the main thrusters and their vectors were supposedly able to rotate about the centre axis of the engine pod... in order to better angle the engine thrust... but this isn't seen anywhere on screen. The sweep/slope combination for the wings was especially challenging, with early attempts in using multiple ball-socket joints failing utterly under the weight of each wing (each engine pod weighs almost 0.5kg, or just over a pound). Even though the current sweep/slope isn't exactly right, it's structure is fare more stable and buildable. Some of the features that are being designed in: Technic minifig scaled cockpit with opening canopy Articulated thrust vector fins, with paired motion on each engine (move one fin, the other moves with it) Routing for lighting. There is a space in the top of the cockpit, in each of the main thrusters, and each of the forward and attitude thrusters for a light, with cable routed through engines, wings, and body. I've left space for control board, batteries and switch assembly, with a removable rear panel on the central hull for access. The plan is for the switches to control cockpit lighting (red), main thrusters (bright blue), anterior and attitude thrusters (blue). Optional hardpoints for missiles on the wings. Challenges and work yet to tackle: Pilot: whilst it's able to easily fit a technic minifig as pilot, they're not exactly widely available, and generally cost quite a bit. I'm thinking of trying to design a pilot from readily available parts to replace it. Stand: the centre of mass for this actually sits about 5 studs behind the rear panel of the centre section. At this stage, I'm thinking I'll sacrifice the centreline lower hull detail and have the stand mount from there. In a perfect world, I'd figure out a way to replicate the Cobra Bay launch harness and use that as a stand. Resolving conflicts in part placement/connection. Currently designing this in Studio, and there are still a number of parts collisions happening. Part optimisation: so far I've been designing without regard to part/color combinations, or whether a section using a 1x16 brick can be built with combinations of 2x8, etc. It's my intent to build this without having to resort to discontinued parts or particularly rare part/color combinations. An example of this is the transparent panel used in the cockpit roof for the lighting assembly. Originally this was going to be trans-red, so a standard white light LED could be used, but the combination was expensive and awkward. A change to 2 smaller trans-clear panels means having to use a red LED, but if not lighting, this section can be omitted without obvious consequence. Lighting: there's a company in Australia called "Light My Bricks" that have some very appealing looking kits to customise a lighting solution. I'm currently looking at 12 lights in total for the attitude thrusters, Between 8 and 16 for the main thrusters, and 2 for the cockpit, depending on the intensity of the lights. Chances are I'll need to design the stand to accommodate control boards, batteries, etc,instead of installing them in the fighter, but I won't know until I get my hands on some of this gear. Finally, some stats so far: Dimension: 91cm wide, 50cm tall, 50cm deep. Part count: currently 5580, but will easily reach 6500, I expect, once the stand is included. Mass: 5.4kg Thanks for taking a look :)

Welcome aboard... and yeah, offer is still open and valid. If the situation changes so that I can't maintain this, I'll release for free on Rebrickable or some other platform, with the recommendation that anyone downloading donate to a charity.

Just before Christmas, I stumbled onto pics of a lego MOC that inspired the following... the Narn Frazi-class fighter. Specifications: 524pc build, with optional 265pc adjustable stand 96pg, A5, 200dpi, full colour, print ready instructions, with options for die cut decals and possibly a hardcopy print run if sufficient interest is shown. Features: Minifig compatible cockpit, folding landing gear, 2-axis adjustable display stand with adjustable display plaque. Digital distribution pack includes PDF instructions, 2 XML parts list files (fighter and stand are separate), PNG image of decals to print Currently available on Rebrickable.com for USD$8 : Rebrickable.com LINK

Thanks @Cjd223, I appreciate the compliment. I think I've seen some of your work with instructions/designs on other posts here, and I gotta give props for your work as well. @Kristof's point is well made, and well received... and i could upload pics of the existing test build if need be. I'm sure everyone can appreciate that why I'd prefer having the full clean build in undamaged parts, in all the design-set colors. Any advice for taking decent build images? Last thing that everyone needs to see is a background of my office.

No insult taken... my test build of this design was using whatever parts I had available, so colours, damage, all that kind of thing wasn't considered. So long as the part itself was the correct one, I wasn't concerned about colour and all that. I can say that it's a solid build, with the only fiddly aspect being the connection of Phantom in the docking bay. I can render different angles and perspectives, if that will suffice. Otherwise, it's gonna take a little more time for me to obtain the parts to assemble a display worthy build to photograph. Additional renders...

There wasn't really space for much in the way of interior detail.

There's a space in the forward section, behind the cockpit, for play... notably with the cargo hatches. The hull panels above this area are detachable, but it doesn't have a fully detailed interior beyond the cockpit/gunnery positions. I'll need to upload some more images to my Flickr gallery. Let me see what I can put together. Anything in particular you'd like to see?

Late last year a fellow AFOL/Designer and I started working on this project with a simple goal: create a version of The Ghost, complete with Phantom, in play scale, but with improved proportions. Lego's offerings were... ok. The Phantom looks awesome, but the Ghost always left me wanting, and the mismatch in scale was always a problem for me. Brickvaults' epic minifig scale Ghost set the bar at the other end of the spectrum, and is a beautiful design worth celebrating. My codesigner and I hope that this offering lands in the middle, offering an affordable option in both display and play. The current offering is 200dpi screen suitable digital release (complete with separate XML files for each Ghost and Phantom), with options for a 300dpi print-ready version, and (where sufficient interest is shown) a hard-copy printed release (which will automatically include the digital release).

Enjoy the journey... and watch for shadows... they move when you're not looking.

Hi @Molari, yep... instructions are still available as a digital donation-ware package as the above post states. If you have any questions about suitable charities, please email me at tdmocs@gmail.com. On another note, and existing recipients of these instructions are already aware, an affordable Print-on-Demand option has become available. I'm currently taking expressions of interest for anyone that wants a perfect-bound hardcover full color copy of these instructions. Expected costs at this stage are around AUD$90-$100 + P&H (which will be dependent on where you are in the world). Depending on numbers, that cost may come down, but at this stage, that's the most it will cost if I get enough interest to make it worth pursuing. For anyone interested in the hardcover print version, again, email me at tdmocs@gmail.com.