xenologer

Piranha interceptor Its a very light space fighter, intended mainly for acceleration over arms and armor. Basically this started out as me asking, what happens if we take the basic shape of that StarJustice flyer and make it into a full fledged space fighter? It's also influenced by retro and videogame style spaceships much SNOT was used to streamline the cockpit walls hard to see from some angles in LDD, but theres the 'shark gills' on the sides engine looks like the SJ one, but construction has been reworked to make the side slopes stronger The only thing I wish could be better is it lacks retractible landing gear; I just couldnt figure a way to make them that didnt spoil the sleek bodylines, so its lands on those little fins It has a really good price tag. That was one of my goals too, there are plenty of space fighters on LDD, but I don't see many polished ones, and even fewer that are reasonably priced. LDD EDIT, after building a RealBricks version, decided to make slight color changes, mainly the lasers, some small yellow bits turned white. Also put thrusters on wingtips. "actual product may not match images"

Just a neat little impulse set. Astronaut with a rover, and some tools for him to collect the crystals. LDD

I'd guess they got rid of doors to allow more variety in vehicle design. Notice how all the old cars use the same doors and windscreens and roof pieces in the same combo? Look at the recent Doctors Car example, it does have doors, but they are rendered pointless by that new sloping windshield piece, where the side portions of the glass reach back and cover the door openings anyway (minifig cant actually get out via those doors) So at that rate, I can see that vehicle being just as well without them. Maybe if they came up with some windshields that would actually work well with doors, or some kinda door that has a window glass on it, then it'd work out... but this gets into a bad pattern of either, generic design cliche` for vehicles, or a whole bunch of new specific-use door/window parts... Id rather have wider availability of vertical hinge pieces (maybe a smaller one too)... for making custom doors

Body looks good I think maybe the cockpit glass could be higher up though, since with the tall sidewalls you cant see it from the side much also move it back so it seals and have a hinge so it opens? or not, if its just meant to be a atmospheric flyer only

It a neat concept but there is a major issue look closely at the rear wheel from below, it wont turn because its rubbing into the body of the car. I guess it's a bug in LDD that it let you place that tyre... its clearly overlapping other bricks...

The light is made using one of these on one of those little 1*1 clips The windshield interferes with the transparent red grille lights, so you have to remove at least the top set of those to make it fit. I'd probably just do away with all of them, since the red plates in the wall already look good enough for that effect.

Thanks Heres the LDD link. tho I'm not sure this is a final version just yet. LDD changed out a few plates below the cockpit for a car mudguard piece, cheaper, interesting shape also changed those 1*1rounds to be all green, missiles... left em blue, seems odd to me to have them match the mech's specific colors exactly, when they're probably mass produced disposable ammunitions.... the tip of that gun is blue, not gray, since the blue pin is cheaper At the moment whats really bugging me is, see the cockpit from below; it's relying on click hinges for support. I generally don't like using these things for structural elements... reserved for stuff thats movable... Of course a major problem with this mech is it costs about 13$USD, nearly as much as one of the big official 15$USD sets; so why are we bothering to buy this guy with that kind of competition?

Ya know how flowerheads come in sets of 4 on that plastic sprue tab that you have to cut apart? well, PaB shows them like this, for 10cents while LDD checkprice seems to show the single flowerhead as this same price. So I'm suspecting that for every flowerhead piece you place in LDD, your order actually recieves the full set of 4. But I havent ordered any just MOCs that include flowers so I dunno if this is true. Has ramifications for planning out a greenhouse MOC.... Has anyone figured this out? Seems to me this kinda discrepancy also occurs with sticker sheets... Guess its a limitation of LDD....

And looking at the more info page for the out of stock brick... shows a broken image and an element ID that doesnt work when you search from PaB not the only new MOC thats having out of stock issues either I get the feeling they havent worked the bugs out of the new brick pallate yet...

Always liked the Sentry mecha from the first ExoForce year. So here's my design for a small mecha of similar pattern. Its not meant to fit into the EF storyline in any way tho (never liked that story...) I'm fairly happy with the basic frame, but recently added on the cockpit and not too sure if its growing on me or not yet. I guess i feel like the way its put together is cumbersome, click hinges and those snot bricks that kinda stand out(under pilots arms) pilot is well protected from being crushed in a crash... tho like similar models not so well covered against beam weapons(i guess thats why he's wearing that armour vest) At least the way the canopy opens is pretty neat note jump jets the legs are better articulated than official ones, felt that this is important for balance when taking on different poses Im not happy with the cockpit somehow, they way it sticks out like that from the side profile... seems well balanced over the feet tho what you think? Rocket launcher arm can be replaced with a mirror of the gun version with only 3cents price increase (basically nothing).

Yep, I know its like the 3rd time, but I've remixed this vehicle again. Always been a favorite so I just can't resist now that LDD parts got updated. Probably the best version so far, I think I've corrected a number of awkward issues with the last one. Nicer looking headlights, the old ones were just a little odd sticking out on the tip of the nose. also longer slopes that reach over the front wheels, so this area looks less skinny better protection to keep the driver from falling out of his seat, little handles to help him climb in too (oh yeah, there's a driver this time around ) he also has his sidearm and radio stored on those clips behind his seat (it doesnt really make sense to have a handheld radio in Space considering his spacesuit probably has one built in, but I couldnt think of any better accessory) those transparent red squares are supposed to be a holographic control/display system a cargo box, to add in some play functionality the price goes down about 2$USD if you remove this box and just use your own cargo tho... For those who missed the old posts: This is a space truck based on Celestial Forager 6896, a cool little M-Tron ground vehicle; it has working steering via the transflgreen knob on the top LDD Link P.S. I seem to have made a typo in the topic title can an admin edit for me? 6896 is the set number.... thanks.

Neat Im really interested in seeing how well it works out. Like how you'd mount it on a System creation considering it uses a technic hole and how well the irregular edges of it can be made to seal up against bricks

Wait a sec, Are you reffering to this blue helmet piece on this guy? You mean that the blue part of his mask is removable from the orange lower half?? If thats correct.... Wows, that'd make a really nice windshield for... a Power Suit Mecha? a sporty motorcycle?

Well I like it. The recessed slope on the roof is interesting and a nice change from the standard rounded slope piece all the official trucks seem to use lately. as said... the doors look like they could be moved forward a stud to be more secure and I think maybe you could use a secondary color aside from all red just add a subtle stripe of a different color someplace and itd look more complex Definetly tempted to buy that construction set... quick way to get those nice red doors and bucket...

Amazing Discovery I just made! I think the new LDD is now back to using a 'brick bag' system behind the scenes. Try this Experiment: make a new LDD project, and add a single black 2*2 turntable. Check the price (make a note) of it .19USD now add another black turntable and check price, total=.38USD fine, makes sense .19*2=.38 but now! change the color of one of those turntables to be white and check price! .27USD what about the cost of a single white one? .19 two white ones? .38 a black and white? .27 2black and 2 white= .54 3black and 1 white= .65 1black and 3 white?=.43 !!!!!what???? 4 turntables for nearly the same cost as two black/black, white/white There is only one explanation for this bizzare behaviour for different combos of bricks. LDD is using presorted brick bags behind the scenes when it comes to pricing the bricks. Theres some kind of penalty fee for having to break open a new bag, on top of the individual brick price. If I had to guess, these correspond to the brick bags in the actual StarJustice SpaceSkulls sets, but I can't confirm since i havent seen either in person... What you guys think of my theory? Ambassador? And just think of the rammifications this has for optimizing the price of your MOCs..... darn, someone needs to catalog the 'brick bags' that are hidden behind the scenes so we can know how to keep prices down. Still not convinced Try this: put down 2 white turntables, check price: .38 add a black one to them, so now you have 2white and 1black , price=.35 !! you just got more bricks for less! Clearly there are... ideosyncrasies... in the pricing calculator that it's to our benefit to understand.

Thanks for the compliments. I've gone and made a few changes that slightly reduce the price (internal bricks you cant see) also the nose construction changed a little (internaly) to make the bumper a little stronger, at least I hope so, hard to say till I test a real one. Updated Version

pics worth a thousand words...

Nice Job as for as the little cheesewedges go, I was thinking the ones on the front bumper were good for shape, a more obvious choice to remove would be the ones inside the cockpit on either side of the steering wheel. Also, a great substitute for cheesewedges in some cases, is the 1*2*1 roof tile endcap (the one that looks like halve a pyramid, goes at the end of roof peaks); its taller than a cheesewedge of course, but a few in a row makes a neat jagged toothed appearance which can be interesting in place of a row of the cheese. (check the row of 4 cheeses at the front viewport for a fine test example, teeth look meaner here) Theres a buncha tiles in the inside compartment floor. Might swap them with the big 4*6 tile with studs on 3 edges(smooth in middle). Tho this introduces studs to the smooth floor; that might be an asset for posing minifigs, a combo of smooth with studs. Also, the round smoothbottomed 'slide shoe' plates (inverted dish?) are kinda expensive, I try to avoid those whenever I can. The ones on the inside of that opening window can probably be replaced with standard plates. The large number of them on the bottom of the chassis though... hard to say for sure. Might be important for reinforcement, or for helping drag. I kinda wish your ground clearance was a little better so you could have the possibility of removing them...(or maybe its fine to do so already? one prob with virtual designs... needs real test) That'd drop another 2$USD or so...pretty big chassis design, well as far as this goes... at the moment the base of your model is basically like 2 layers of large flat plates. I try to avoid doing that since... plates are kinda flexy, and its hard to solidly snap and unsnap them to each other with that kinda full contact. also some of the large plates tend be costly compared to:... A stronger structure would be a combo of beams for longitudinal strength(avoid flexy above), overlaid with plates to provide horizontal bracing and connection between the beams. think of a honeycomb, hollow spaces between beams with the ends capped off(plates) Of course this raises your floor thickness (may be an issue with interiour space), but if you're reworking this perhaps the whole vehicle would just be made a little taller and wheels lowered...?ground clearance? on either side of driver seat, the snot bricks 1*1*1 with studs on 2 sides, can be replaced with 1*2*1 with studs on 2 sides; (8 of the little ones vs 4 of the big ones) the 1*2*1 1/3 tile with handle 'clamp' is what ldd calls it, is sorta expensive too so i use em sparingly. though they are nice for the industrial kinda look they provide when lined up. often I'll try to find a fence or 'hanger' piece to be used in place of a group of them, depends on the situation Later, sleepy

Occurs to me that this piece is no longer in LDD in smoke color. The white color it uses now is nice... though I can forsee lack of a transparent version causing havok with all the sub-minifig scale cars and spaceships that are so common in the galleries at the moment. Be interesting to see how the kiddies deal with it; maybe removal was random? or maybe someone's trying to encourage more thoughtful MOCs in minifig scale?

Thanks! Suddenly occurs to me that there's some nice new windshields in LDD update. Starting to be more than just a spacescooter at this rate. LDD EDIT: uploaded newer version looks about the same (no screenshot) but the engine redone to be cheaper

V-LI-02A Basically the Big Brother to my Utility Rover; a town scale Articulated Dump Truck Theres a bit of overlap in the character of space ground vehicles and construction vehicles...both very utiliatrian but I'm putting it in town for now. You can see some of the articulation and suspension system working here: Just like the real ADTs, it has rocker arms on the rear wheels per side, and pendular suspension on the front cab/axle. And of course I think you'll want to take a close look at how the sides of the dumper bucket were done. Good price on this too, fits right in along the 15$USD cement mixer and recycle truck... want to buy one? LDD Ver2

V-LV-12E Just having fun with the new LDD brick pallate. Cute little 4-wide car that can coexist with the new 6-8wide scale. LDD

Welp, some thoughts. If youre really in love with the dkstone color on those front 2*3 slopes (now black), the 1*3 slope does still come in that color, just use 2 of them side by side. Also, those 4l lightsaber blades, can easilly be replaced in most cases with the 'stick/aerial' part, which is basically half the cost and has better quality control. (dunno how many warped lightsaber blades Ive seen so far... like 2/3 are misaligned or crooked..) I think I saw some technic bricks on the inside of your chassis that can in some cases be removed (not connected), and in others replaced with longer bricks now available since the updated pallate. Also the clip holders that are on those saber blades, can be replaced with lamp holders(the ones with studs and hole). They'd be doing the same thing, but are cheaper. That'll probably drop the price by a ... fractional amount of abour 4$USD. I'm thinking a lot of the rest of it is due to those 1*1 cheesewedges all over the place. This is one of the least cost effective pieces ever, try to replace them with larger slopes whenever possible. Oh, that bar across the front viewport, is not connected to anything, its floating. might want to fix that that and maybe a chassis reworking.... more beams, less plates, etc more later... maybe

I guess my only contribution here is, his raygun construction. LDD Link

Actually your MRV didnt fare so badly, all the parts removed are only color choices basically. Trade some gray for black and you'd be all set. Plus now you can add in some nicer control panels and minifig armaments (and minifigs). Oh, and I really love what you did for the side window using grilles and technic pins to make tiny holes. P.S. that vehicle is very very expensive... want any help optimizing the construction?