Welcome to Day 3. Today had two main components of the build. The first component was the construction of a truss over the main corridor to reinforce the connection of the side corridors. The second component is what I will call the spacer to ring connectors. These connectors have two jobs. The first job is to lock the top and bottom spacers together so that they are attached to the trusses by more than just stud friction. The second is to provide a frame to connect the rings to the structure of the ship. Here is rendering of the build as planned for the end of Day 3 (I have added a minifigure at the right to give an idea of scale.
I have experimented with multiple different connection types and two have worked. The previous connection used on the last prototype was composed of bricks. This worked but it looked clunky and heavy. The use of TechnicTM beams (i.e. lift-arms) connected by pins, is a lighter, stronger, more compact and less expensive option.
The reinforcement of the side corridor truss to main corridor truss was another item that went through several iterations. There is complexity here as there are three axis that intersect at the same point. The most important and therefore unbroken axis, is the main corridor that is under a lot of stress as explained in the Day 2 post. The vertical axis is formed by pinning trusses vertically between the 3-chord main corridor truss. The side corridors end up just being attached as there is not a lot of options. I played with trusses of different heights and other ideas but since the side corridors have to have the same diameter cylinder as the main corridor, it follows that the same trusses are used.
The reinforcement is a single brick wide truss that extends across the main corridor trusses and overlaps the side corridor trusses. To ensure that the reinforcement does not move, it is sandwiched by a vertical 9L Technic beam that is fixed between two of the main corridor truss chords and another brick chord above the reinforcement truss. Here is a picture of the set up.
Time-lapsed video of the assembly today.
Here is a photo of the progress.
Note the minifigures again to provide some scale. This is about a quarter of the ships length. Here is the current part list and total piece count (plus and minus a few) at the end of Day 3.
Part Name – Quantity
- Brick 1 x 2 with Pin – 38
- Brick 1 x 3 – 16
- Plate 1 x 2 – 4
- Plate 1 x 3 – 16
- Plate 1 x 4 – 60
- Plate 1 x 6 – 2
- Plate 1 x 6 – 2
- Plate 1 x 8 – 614
- Plate 2 x 2 – 4
- Plate 2 x 3 – 68
- Plate 2 x 8 – 66
- Plate 4 x 4 without Corner – 8
- Technic Axle 4 with Stop – 24
- Technic Axle 5 with Stop – 8
- Technic Axle 7 – 44
- Technic Beam 5 – 176
- Technic Beam 7 – 142
- Technic Beam 9 – 120
- Technic Beam 11 – 28
- Technic Beam 13 – 2
- Technic Brick 1 x 1 with Hole – 8
- Technic Brick 1 x 2 with Holes – 86
- Technic Brick 1 x 4 with Holes – 49
- Technic Brick 1 x 6 with Holes – 12
- Technic Brick 1 x 8 with Holes – 274
- Technic Brick 1 x 10 with Holes – 20
- Technic Bush with Two Flanges – 168
- Technic Pin Long with Friction and Slot – 554
- Technic Pin with Friction – 275
Total – 2888
New Years Day tomorrow. Happy New Years to everyone. Thank you for following. We will see if Day 4 happens tomorrow or if it will wait until Friday January 2, 2026. Day 4 will see the addition of some rings and maybe a little bit of the top structure that will hold the communication array. Onwards!