{"id":47,"date":"2025-06-23T02:45:43","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T02:45:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bricksforthewin.ca\/?p=47"},"modified":"2025-06-25T02:18:03","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T02:18:03","slug":"how-we-got-here-so-far","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bricksforthewin.ca\/?p=47","title":{"rendered":"How We Got Here – So Far"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In 2021, I was reviewing the large Star Wars\u00ae sets that Lego\u00ae had released . The Millennium Falcon was one that really caught my attention. What I liked was that the set was a good representation of how large ships could get if constructed to minifigure scale. While I like the Star Destroyer and other large ship sets, the scale always seemed to be an issue to me even though I understood the impractical nature of completing a large ship to minifigure scale and actually marketing it. This resulted in thoughts of what ship would be small enough to complete to a minifigure scale but would be large enough to provide a challenge and a long term project. So, Tantive IV\u2122.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started to design, order parts, build and experiment with different aspects of the ship. This is an early LeoCAD design and a further build out of the rings for the main cylindrical part of the Tantive IV\u2122 around the sensor array.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Other posts will describe in more detail the journey from basic concepts to further development, final design and build out for components like this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One might ask that if I have been mulling this around in my noodle for the last 4 years, why start a blog now? The main reason that I have realized that I am not the only one working on a Lego\u00ae minifigure scale Tantive IV\u2122. I have started to see others try to complete this same build. This has encouraged me to start to review and better document the process I have gone through with my construction of the Tantive IV\u2122.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an engineer who works on complex, dynamic projects in the real world, the process of designing and building the Tantive IV\u2122 has been rewarding on several levels:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • The development of the design to get the correct scale and proportions<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • The development of techniques and designs that have the requisite strength<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • The struggle to find an economical way to construct something that is likely going to be in the 100,000 piece range<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • The logistics of procuring pieces in a timely and economical way<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • The continuous learning that is required to solve problems and iteratively improve the design<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    I think it is time to share the journey and results of these processes with other enthusiasts of both Star Wars\u00ae and Lego\u00ae.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Another question one might ask is: What is the status of the build after 4 on-and-off years? There are five main components of the build and each is at a different state:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n
    • Bridge and connection to the Body – not designed<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • The body of the ship which includes the main cannons and the escape pods – designed but not constructed<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • The T-section of the ship rear of the body with the sensor array and docking ports – designed and under construction<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • The main reactor block and engine connections – designed and mostly constructed<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • The engines – designed and 1 of the 11 engines has been fully constructed, others in construction as the pieces become available<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

      The most critical portion of the build is the reactor block and it is the closest to completion. The number of iterations required to get to a structure that was relatively light but also strong enough to hold 11 cantilevered engines was a time and resource consuming task. I do not have an exact count but there are well over 10,000 pieces in the reactor block. Just the structure of the reactor block itself without the white surface plates is 31 lbs. Early iterations were even heavier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      I hope that this post acts as a good introduction to the project and gives an overall idea of the what, when, how and why of the project. Look out for more posts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      In 2021, I was reviewing the large Star Wars\u00ae sets that Lego\u00ae had released . The Millennium Falcon was one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[14,11,13,12,15],"class_list":["post-47","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-blockade-runner","tag-lego","tag-moc","tag-tantive-iv","tag-technic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bricksforthewin.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bricksforthewin.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bricksforthewin.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bricksforthewin.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bricksforthewin.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/bricksforthewin.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67,"href":"https:\/\/bricksforthewin.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47\/revisions\/67"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bricksforthewin.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bricksforthewin.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bricksforthewin.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}