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manglegrat

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Everything posted by manglegrat

  1. manglegrat
    Yeah, I see what you're saying but the only issue with just dropping the angle on the middle section (it's on hinges so that part is easily doable) is that you then have to redesign the sides as well to keep the three sections closely integrated, and it could be tricky to get all the angles to mesh together as closely as they currently do (which is still a bit gappy, to be fair). It's possible that a very effective and tight-fitting taper could be achieved, but redoing the front end entirely is a bigger revisit than I was intending at this point. At least, not in LDD - it's a pain in the butt to do compound angles/rotations in LDD! Call me lazy... Once I've built it in the brick and validated the structure I'll publish the LXF files (and sticker files) on Bricksafe and you can give 'er. My BL orders are in, but the holiday shipping rush will probably delay the build until January...
  2. manglegrat
    Might not be easy to imagine what it'll look like from various angles from just one image, but here's a slightly "smoother" transition between sides and top from the front-on - thoughts? It's definitely something I can play with a bit more once I'm building it in the brick.
  3. manglegrat
    Hey, thanks for the feedback! Appreciate it. I think I understand what you're suggesting. There may be a few relatively easy ways to widen the "bridge" of the nose a bit to try to line up with your suggestion - without doing a render I tried just a (very) quick tweak and LDD screenshot: Is that sort of thing what you're getting at? A bit wider, a bit longer, ends closer to the bottom part of the nose... I'm sure there are smoother ways to do the curves and angles between the top and side plates, just wanted to check I understood where you were going.
  4. manglegrat
    Got 9495 Gold Leader's Y-Wing off Kijiji (local ads) for a great price ($50). It's broken down but all the parts look in great condition and the minifigs are mint condition. The award ceremony Leia is what I really got it for, and she's awesome. Happy happy!
  5. manglegrat
    Drafted up a couple of versions of a UCS plaque - one using Adama's nickname for her (The Grand Old Lady), and one using the crew's (The Bucket). Not sure which one I'll use yet... If I have it next to Pegasus then the latter would be better - The Beast & The Bucket together. Any opinions? Or:
  6. manglegrat
    There are some awesomely helpful experts on the "Lego Digital Designer and other Digital Tools" forum that should hopefully be able to help. I got some great advice there when I was building the Agamemnon and trying to render it, when I had to switch over to LDraw from LDD to get the side panels to connect (which I later learned you can do in LDD Developer mode). I haven't ever tried to use LPub though... kinda scared to! (PS - google image link broken again )
  7. manglegrat
    Thanks, Ryan! There's not too many examples of Lego Battlestars out there, so the more the merrier. El Barto has done some excellent ones (on Flickr) but they're quite a bit bigger... though I found an excellent tiny one today. For the splash of red & gold of the ringed Colonial logo on the 4x4 dish on the back, I'm wondering whether a sticker printed out on my clear laser printer sheets would conform to the curves (probably not without a risky application of heat) or maybe I'll need to change up the design to flatten it using a 2x2 round tile & the new quarter-round 2x2 tiles on a 4x4 round plate... Something for me to experiment with in-the-brick.
  8. manglegrat
    Aaaand here she is on a stand - which is pretty much identical to the Pegasus one: I added a small splash of new dark red colour to be more like the reference shots - though most of the red bits are easier to see on the underside! It'll be interesting to see if there's enough clutch power in the sliding rails to keep the sidepods in or out at that angle... I may need to come up with a locking mechanism to overcome gravity. 360:
  9. manglegrat
    Today, I shortened the top engines by one brick and lowered them by one plate, and redesigned the middle-engine section (top & bottom) to make it a bit slimmer vertically and rework it to be buildable in DBG (some parts I used in v1 aren't available). I couldn't bring myself to hack into the body or sidepods apart to shorten it more. Then I rendered up a couple more useful angles for a size comparison to compare to the reference I quoted above - it ain't perfect but I'm happier with the length now, will probably leave it as-is and work on a stand & stickers next: Had to revert to using BlueRender again - Busufl keeps crashing with array out-of-bounds errors. I may convert the LXF file to LDraw and try POV-ray to get some better renders... Aaand, here's a POV-Ray render - not too bad for a first go:
  10. manglegrat
    Depends how much you love the idea of colourbarf... Or how much more time you want to spend on being artistic! With the Galactica I'm working on now, because it's all done in LDD extended mode I'm just leaving internal parts the default red colour except technic pins, which are coloured as I'd actually use them or in their most available colour: black, blue, etc. I've seen other folks do the red thing as well... But hey, as long as it's easy enough to see seams and placement on the instructions, I'd say just pick your favourite colour and go nuts!
  11. manglegrat
    Hey, thanks! Major credit to CK-MCMLXXXI, of course! Tell me about it... I want to build this one next, then the MortesV Nebulon B, and I'm gonna get one of the new UCS MFs (can't not). Dangerous hobby, this! Not to tempt you too much, but if you really wanted to, then everything you'd need to build that version of the Pegasus (except 3810 Lego bricks, buckets of patience and a wee bit of reinforcement that's not in the "panels off" file for some hinge bricks at the bottom/rear) could be found here, with a friendly parts list here. Just sayin'...
  12. manglegrat
    Hi Ryan - great to see you here on EB! Welcome to the funny-farm. I'll be interested to see you guys' efforts on adding motorization... Sounds like quite the challenge!
  13. manglegrat
    Thanks! Yeah, I agree it's a little chunkier at the nose than the reference, and possibly a bit taller than would be strictly accurate - though I like the way the curves continue from top to sides at the current angle. I won't really know how it compares to Pegasus until I have them side to side... Kinda like this: Here's the size comparison study I started off scaling the sidepods to: Galactica could be shortened by 2-4 studs (2 in the body & sidepods, another 1 or 2 in the engine section) but I think the head's just about in the right proportions (with a bit of artistic license applied). I feel like I want to drop the top engines down at least plate or two as well though, possibly a full brick... Having said that, I do like it as it is, but maybe (just like the Pegasus) there's a V2.0 in my near future! I have some free time coming up...
  14. manglegrat
    Attempt to post 360 renders (hosted on Google Photos so embedding may not work)... Pods-out: Pods-in:
  15. manglegrat
    Cool! If they are making it into a bigger set then they should do a second lightcycle in Rinzler colours (with Rinzler/TRON minifig) or maybe even a white Flynn prototype one (still the fastest thing on the grid!) to go along with it. I'd buy that sorta set in a second.
  16. manglegrat
    After finishing up the in-the-brick Pegasus, I finally dusted off (virtually) the LDD design I had started on for a version of the Galactica scaled to it. All 100% my own work, this time! I originally designed the sidepods (based on the top half of the Pegasus ones) pretty quickly, but then got so hung-up on the curves and ribs for the engines that I got stuck in a rut and gave up on it. When I came back to it I started at the front and worked my way back. When I got to the engines I used some of the artistic license I had learned to apply to do the missing plating/ribs, and that allowed me to push through to the end result below. She currently weighs-in at a svelte-for-her-age 3087 bricks, and according to LDCad she's 65L x 11H x 25W in bricks (not technically long enough to be a real SHIP, but hey) or ~51cm long by 10cm high by 20cm wide. Pegasus is 54cm long x 13cm high x 26cm wide - and generally a lot bulkier - in comparison. I've still to design a stand, or sticker sheet (need some for the engine nozzles for sure - can't texture them out fully with Lego at this scale), but those can come as I gather the bricks. May need to build this one before I get to the @mortesv Nebulon... So here she is - the grand old lady herself: The pods slide in and out on rails, and kinda recess into the bodywork (as much as I could with Lego, anyway). They're a real PITA to move around in LDD... And here's a view of the underside and engines (the 4 technic 32530 pieces in the middle are placeholders for connecting the stand) with the pods retracted to show how they integrate with the main body: There's another underside shot (front perspective) plus my reference image in my Flickr album. I may go & fire up my old Mac to do a 360 render now... Any feedback, comments or suggestions are welcome!
  17. manglegrat
    Nope, no issues with grabbity there at all. It's a fairly shallow angle off the vertical, and the 5 hinges on each side (assuming they're not crappy old loose ones - mine were new from BrickLink) have enough strength to hold the angle nice and tight to the main internal frame of the chin. Mine has been sitting untouched (and undusted! ) since being built all those months ago and they are still in the original position.
  18. manglegrat
    Nothing wrong with a bit of creative license! It's all creative license... I'd recommend completing the build in the brick before doing the instructions - you'll probably find some things you want or need to change while you're putting it together. Either way, I hope you enjoy the next steps! I've certainly enjoyed following along.
  19. manglegrat
    Awesome progress! I may have to rebuild my engine section around those modifications - looks like it will provide both more bracing onto the main frame to hold the weight horizontal, and more droop-resistant engines on the bottom side. Great work, thanks for sharing the pics! Nice work with the rings, too, looks like it'll be pretty solid! Bummer those 99206's aren't in DBG yet (why, TLG, why?!). Looks like there's a half-stud gap remaining between the rings and the side panels, though. Another wee gotcha to fix! The alignment of the panels changed by a half-stud back exactly the same way between the Agamemnon and the Schwarzkopf. I ended up solving that one by shuffling the "middle" technic brick in the frame along by a half-stud (a big yay for hollow studs) and hanging them off of that, rather than using the top & bottom parts of the frame. There's enough room up front underneath the "head" section to extend the panel one full stud at that end if you have to. Pretty sure I did that for the Schwarzkopf, but it's been a while...
  20. manglegrat
    Those updated pic links work - whatever you did there, keep doing it. Nice to see your progress, and I'm excited to see your next update. Looking good! If you can make any reinforcing changes to the engine section, that'd be awesome! In both of mine they suffer from a little bit of gravity sag. It's not terrible but if you look close you can see that the weight of the whole assembly puts a bit of strain on the liftarms it's fixed to (even though they're quite reinforced inside the frame!) and the line isn't 100% horizontal. Some extra reinforcement of the bottom engines would stop them from drooping from the central all-brick section over time as well - tying them into those bricks somehow (maybe with a technic pin into one of the 4x4 circular bricks or something) would be a great MOD, if you can make it work and keep the offsets lined up... Just some minor gripes with my back-end. Ooer.
  21. manglegrat
    Issues with the links again. All I get is a transparent looking image (grey & white checks) with a "no entry" symbol in grey in the middle.
  22. manglegrat
    Those worked! Those clearances are looking really good, I assume you'll move the front ring back a stud to line up with the end of the white 1x plates, and take out the tiles to close that up? I'm enjoying following your progress, keep 'em coming!
  23. manglegrat
    Interesting! That gap is in my version and in Ryan's original - I just concealed it with those tiles, but Ryan left it open - so well done in finding a way to remove it! Dagnabit! The links didn't work again.
  24. manglegrat
    Good idea to continue here. The first & third pics didn't come through again (and I noticed my 360 render from Google photos has broken in the first post as well, and I can't embed it again - ), but your second pic with the bracing Hs & Ts looks great - good workaround, and I'm glad to hear it all rotates nicely! I can't see the first pic but I know what you mean - I added them on a hunch, to provide some bracing through the centre to tie together the two "lobes" and help with balance/rotation/etc, not because I encountered a problem just using the clutch of the studs to hold the weight onto the outside of the frame. They may be redundant, I dunno... I actually never tried it the other way!
  25. manglegrat
    Aha! I can see 'em now. I see what you're looking to do - cool idea! Clearances might be a bit tight between the rotating frame and the central core when you prototype that in-the-brick and rotate it, though. Be interested to hear how it turns out! My design is a bit wobbly when moved because of play in the turntables and balancing the front-heavy fore section on the single stand at the front, despite the turntables being very well braced within each section of the frame. I don't move it around, though - just look at it admiringly from afar. With the beefier (more "classic" ) turntables and central tie-together core idea, if you can get this approach to hold it all together wobble-free, that'd be a great enhancement! How are you going to drive the rotating section? From the outside of the grey turntable part on the 4th image? There doesn't look like a lot of space to get a gear to the inner ring of the black one when that solid core is in-place... I like it all so far!
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