Day 6 turned into Week 6. It was a tougher slog to get it all together for this “day” of the build. I had caught up to my modelling, so I spent a lot of time on LeoCAD. Some of the things on the build went exactly as planned but others were a new development journey. Here is a rendering of the planned build for Day 6.
The top half of the main corridor and 3 of the 12 fins are now in place. The two red side fins were the part of this days build that ended up going through revisions. In previous prototype, I had used longitudinal axles and pins to connect the fin to the ring structure. From the axles I had connected 1×3 TechnicTM cross blocks, axle pins and 2×4 and 2×2 plates with holes (for pins). This made a strong connection to the ring but it resulted in an awkward width of 4.5 plates. It was not overly noticeable when the front edge was made to a 5 plate width but it just did not sit right.
I revised the connection strategy and now use pins and Technic bricks to connect the fin to the ring structure. The fin itself is now 4 plates in thickness across the whole fin structure. The connection is stronger and the fin itself is stronger with a solid row of bricks along its spine.
Five sides of the communications tower are now together and it is starting to take shape. This is very easy compared to the outer hull plates on the main corridor section. With the diagonal fin insertion slot leaves a challenging parabolic shape across the outer hull that has to be edged in a continually changing arrangement of wing and wedge sections. But once the first quarter was complete, it was simple to mirror it to the other side of the ship. Now I just have to mirror the top half to the bottom. No more design, just execution.
Here is a time lapse of the first attempt at the first round of construction on the red side fin. I was following my prototype template and it went pretty quick. After this, I spent two afternoons revising it to the current design.
Here is today’s progress photo. Starting to look more like a ship and less like a tangled mess of Technic bricks.
Piece count jump today as there are now 17 of the 32 main corridor outer hull plates on. The structure is at 5700 and the outer hull both white and red are 923 for a total of 6823 pieces. Here are the outer hull pieces so far:
| Part Name | Color | Quantity |
|---|---|---|
| Brick 2 x 2 | Red | 59 |
| Brick 2 x 4 | Red | 6 |
| Plate 1 x 1 | Red | 23 |
| Plate 1 x 2 | Red | 237 |
| Plate 1 x 3 | Red | 18 |
| Plate 1 x 6 | Red | 8 |
| Plate 2 x 2 | Red | 14 |
| Plate 2 x 3 | Red | 79 |
| Plate 2 x 4 | Red | 4 |
| Plate 2 x 6 | Red | 12 |
| Plate 2 x 8 | Red | 18 |
| Plate 2 x 10 | Red | 2 |
| Plate 4 x 4 | Red | 2 |
| Plate 4 x 6 | Red | 4 |
| Plate 4 x 8 | Red | 14 |
| Plate 6 x 6 | Red | 8 |
| Plate 6 x 8 | Red | 28 |
| Plate 6 x 10 | Red | 8 |
| Wing 2 x 3 Left | Red | 2 |
| Wing 2 x 3 Right | Red | 1 |
| Wing 2 x 4 Left | Red | 1 |
| Wing 2 x 4 Right | Red | 1 |
| Wing 4 x 6 Left | Red | 8 |
| Wing 4 x 6 Right | Red | 8 |
| Plate 1 x 3 | White | 6 |
| Plate 1 x 4 | White | 18 |
| Plate 1 x 6 | White | 22 |
| Plate 1 x 8 | White | 5 |
| Plate 2 x 2 | White | 1 |
| Plate 2 x 3 | White | 142 |
| Plate 2 x 4 | White | 10 |
| Plate 2 x 6 | White | 7 |
| Plate 2 x 8 | White | 2 |
| Plate 2 x 16 | White | 2 |
| Plate 3 x 3 | White | 18 |
| Plate 3 x 3 without Corner | White | 2 |
| Plate 4 x 4 | White | 5 |
| Plate 4 x 6 | White | 19 |
| Plate 4 x 8 | White | 14 |
| Plate 4 x 10 | White | 8 |
| Plate 6 x 6 | White | 6 |
| Plate 6 x 8 | White | 6 |
| Wing 2 x 2 Left | White | 3 |
| Wing 2 x 2 Right | White | 3 |
| Wing 2 x 3 Left | White | 8 |
| Wing 2 x 3 Right | White | 7 |
| Wing 2 x 4 Left | White | 2 |
| Wing 2 x 4 Left with Truncated Tip | White | 4 |
| Wing 2 x 4 Right | White | 2 |
| Wing 2 x 4 Right with Truncated Tip | White | 4 |
| Wing 3 x 6 Left | White | 13 |
| Wing 3 x 6 Right | White | 13 |
| Wing 3 x 12 Left | White | 3 |
| Wing 3 x 12 Right | White | 3 |
| Total | 923 |
Here is the total for the rest of the structure:
| Part Name | Color | Quantity |
|---|---|---|
| Brick 1 x 2 | Black | 2 |
| Brick 1 x 3 | Black | 16 |
| Plate 1 x 4 | Black | 1 |
| Plate 2 x 2 | Black | 40 |
| Plate 2 x 4 | Black | 52 |
| Technic Axle 3 | Black | 7 |
| Technic Axle 4 | Black | 28 |
| Technic Axle 4 with Stop | Black | 24 |
| Technic Axle 5 | Black | 227 |
| Technic Axle 5 with Stop | Black | 7 |
| Technic Axle 6 | Black | 5 |
| Technic Axle 7 | Black | 150 |
| Technic Axle 8 | Black | 29 |
| Technic Axle 10 | Black | 1 |
| Technic Beam 7 | Black | 1 |
| Technic Brick 1 x 2 with Holes | Black | 86 |
| Technic Brick 1 x 10 with Holes | Black | 20 |
| Technic Brick 1 x 12 with Holes | Black | 4 |
| Technic Cross Block 1 x 2 (Axle/Pin) | Black | 272 |
| Technic Cross Block 1 x 3 (Axle/Pin/Axle) | Black | 9 |
| Technic Pin with Friction | Black | 423 |
| Tile 1 x 2 Grille without Groove | Black | 2 |
| Plate 1 x 8 | Blue | 664 |
| Plate 2 x 6 | Blue | 47 |
| Technic Axle Pin with Friction | Blue | 60 |
| Technic Pin Long with Friction and Slot | Blue | 787 |
| Minifig Hair Short Wavy Parted on Right | Brown | 1 |
| Plate 2 x 8 | Brown | 23 |
| Technic Angle Connector #3 (157.5 degree) | Dark Grey | 208 |
| Plate 2 x 2 x 0.667 with Two Studs On Side and Two Raised with Closed Understud | Dark Turquoise | 24 |
| Brick 1 x 2 with Pin | Light Grey | 45 |
| Minifig Hips and Legs (Standing) | Light Grey | 1 |
| Minifig Torso with Arms and Yellow Hands | Light Grey | 1 |
| Plate 2 x 2 with Pin Type 1 | Light Grey | 2 |
| Plate 4 x 4 without Corner | Light Grey | 8 |
| Technic Axle 4 | Light Grey | 32 |
| Technic Axle 6 | Light Grey | 1 |
| Technic Axle 8 | Light Grey | 1 |
| Technic Beam 5 | Light Grey | 175 |
| Technic Beam 7 | Light Grey | 370 |
| Technic Beam 9 | Light Grey | 116 |
| Technic Beam 11 | Light Grey | 27 |
| Technic Beam 13 | Light Grey | 2 |
| Technic Bush 1/2 Smooth with Axle Hole Semi-Reduced | Light Grey | 46 |
| Plate 2 x 6 | Medium Lavender | 1 |
| Plate 2 x 2 | Pearl Black | 60 |
| Plate 2 x 2 with Hole and Complete Underside Rib | Red | 9 |
| Technic Angle Connector #1 | Red | 37 |
| Technic Angle Connector #2 (180 degree) | Red | 110 |
| Technic Axle Joiner Inline Smooth | Red | 54 |
| Technic Brick 1 x 8 with Holes | Red | 315 |
| Technic Bush with Two Flanges | Red | 367 |
| Plate 2 x 8 | Reddish Brown | 176 |
| Slope Brick 31 1 x 1 x 0.667 | White | 4 |
| Slope Brick 31 1 x 2 x 0.667 | White | 42 |
| Slope Brick 33 3 x 2 | White | 2 |
| Tile 2 x 2 with Pin | White | 6 |
| Minifig Head with Black Eyebrows Freckles Smile / Worried 2-Sided Pattern | Yellow | 1 |
| Plate 1 x 2 | Yellow | 12 |
| Plate 1 x 2 with Groove with 1 Centre Stud | Yellow | 4 |
| Plate 1 x 2 without Groove with 1 Centre Stud | Yellow | 4 |
| Plate 1 x 4 | Yellow | 75 |
| Plate 1 x 6 | Yellow | 26 |
| Plate 1 x 12 | Yellow | 1 |
| Plate 2 x 3 | Yellow | 4 |
| Technic Brick 1 x 1 with Hole | Yellow | 20 |
| Technic Brick 1 x 2 with Axlehole with Open Sides and Bottom Stud | Yellow | 70 |
| Technic Brick 1 x 2 with Hole | Yellow | 89 |
| Technic Brick 1 x 2 with Semi-Reduced Axlehole | Yellow | 49 |
| Technic Brick 1 x 4 with Holes | Yellow | 59 |
| Technic Brick 1 x 6 with Holes | Yellow | 24 |
| Technic Bush 1/2 Smooth with Axle Hole Reduced | Yellow | 32 |
| Total | 5700 |
Next step are the outer hull plates on the tops of the side corridors. After that, we will look to the large diagonal fins which are not easy.
Altid fremad!