Welcome to my first “technical” post. This one does have a lot of math and goes into some detail. There is always going to be some discussion on the exact references to use when making the base assumptions to determine the size of different components of the ship. I have chosen what I think has good references based on Lego® and Star Wars® officially licensed and published reference material. Specifically the information contained in:
- Lego® instruction manual for set 75244, Tantive IV™, that provides details of the ship and development of the sets.
- “Star® Wars Complete Vehicles”, DK Books, by Dougherty, Saxton, Reynolds and Windham. Illustrated by Jenssen and Chasemore.
There are extensive discussions and posts on all sorts of Lego blogs regarding what is “Minifigure” scale. I have tried to synthesize all of this data into a coherent scale.
- Length: 126 m (length taken from several references though there are some different lengths posted)
- Lego® Minifigure Scale: Between 1:25 (minifigure width) and 1:42 (minifigure height)
- equivalent to about 1 stud = 0.28 m (About 1 foot)
- Note that minifigures are “wide” compared to humans. This often makes dimensioning a little challenging to keep the vertical and horizonal scales proportional but still fit minifigures into a model side by side.
- 126.68 m / 0.28 m/stud = 452 stud length
- Each stud is 8 mm in actual length. Model will be 3.6 m long.
For general proportions, I took an easy way out and looked at the existing Lego® set and upscaled based on the dimensions. I feel that modifications will be needed but it should start me down the path to the correct scale and proportion of the model.
- Relevant data for Lego® Set 75244
- Overall Length: 69 studs not including engine outlets (7 bricks high – 8 studs long) and portion of bridge (about 2 studs) resulting in overall length of 79 studs. From a length perspective, a minifig scale ship has to be 6 – 7 times larger overall (452 / 69 = 6.6).
- Dimensions for Lego® Set 75244 components:
- Height/thickness of Bridge at middle: 10-11
- Height/thickness of Bridge at ends: 6
- Width of T-Section: 18
- Height of T-Section: 18
- T-Section diameter: 6
- Width of Body: 14
- Length of Body: 16
- Height of Body: 10
- Height of Engines: 14
- Engine Diameter: 4
- Width of Engines: 20
- Length of Engines: 21
- Front arm from body to Bridge: 11
- Minimum diameter in body to head: 5
- Rear arm from Body to T-junction: 11
- T-junction to Engines: 5
Adding all the components together, I get a length of 75 studs. Close to the overall estimate of 79 based on the frame. This works out to be almost exactly 1/6 of the minifig number of studs for length. As such, the initial proportions are going to be 6 times the current Lego® set. This works out to a diameter of 36 studs for general diameter of the cylindrical parts of the ship.
- Extrapolated Dimensions for minifig scale:
- Height/thickness of Bridge at middle: 60
- Height/thickness of Bridge at ends: 36
- Width of T-Section: 108
- Height of T-Section: 108
- T-Section diameter: 36
- Width of Body: 84
- Length of Body: 96
- Height of Body: 60
- Height of Engines: 84
- Engine Diameter: 24
- Width of Engines: 120
- Length of Engines: 126
- Front arm from Body to Bridge: 66
- Minimum diameter in Body to Bridge: 30
- Rear arm from Body to T-junction: 66
- T-junction to engines: 30
Checking these lengths by adding the critical longitudinal items from the bridge to the engines:
(Height/thickness of Bridge at middle: 60) + (Front arm from head to body: 66) + (Length of Body: 96) + (Rear arm from body to T-junction: 66) + (T-Section diameter: 36) + (T-junction to engines: 30) + (Length of Engines: 126) = 480 Studs
This is approximately correct as it relates to all the dimensions. 480 studs versus the calculated 452. With the 6X scale multiplication, this is within errors related to the smaller Lego Set 75244 rounding its dimensions to the nearest stud.
Another approach to this is to look at some the available material on-line related to the Tantive IV™. There are two key references that I give full credit and thanks to:
Steven Lee and Forbidden Plastic. His photos of the Tantive IV on Behance are fantastic:
https://www.behance.net/gallery/40905637/Reference-CR90-Corvette-Tantive-IV
Malte Ullrich. All of his work is fantastic. His 3D modelling of the Tantive IV is excellent down to the last detail as shown on artstation:
https://malteullrich.artstation.com/projects/4bD1y2
The modelling is so good that knowing that the total length of the ship is 168 m, it is easy to scale off dimensions for individual components. Here are some some key dimensions:
Converted to studs based on 0.28 m/stud, the dimensions are as follows:
This is very close to our 452 stud estimate determined above. Once again, I have rounded dimensions to the nearest meter for simplicity which results in rounding errors and the 4 stud variance. As I continue to post regarding the construction of the various components, I will provide additional dimensions of more detailed parts.