SHIP advice

[Legoliam11]

Since I am planning o build something along the lines of a SHIP (Seriously Huge Investment in Pieces/Parts, a creation must be at least 100 studs long to qualify for a ship), or most likely somehing smaller, I made this page so people can post and read advice and ideas for building large spaceships.

[masterMISICK]

i made a giant ship about 3 years ago that was a 1.1m long and could detach indifferent section based it on the ship from pitch black the movie.

but recently i made a new that sort of looks a bit like the ones from halo works well if you want i can get a pic of it for you

but when building a ship it looks nice to give it different section if it is going to be really big

[dilanski]

First off you need source material:

http://eu2opia.wikia.com/wiki/Empire_Un ... Topia_Wiki (Look under technology and chassis)

http://www.shipschematics.net/ The holy grail of starship's, with 3401 ships and counting. I recommend the Starblazers/Yamato section.

etc

Second you need secondary material:

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/galle ... =DanJassim

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/galle ... m=legoober

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=228150

this is to see how over people have built ships, see there techniques and there styles.

Third you need primary material:

A.K.A your ideas to make your ship unique and better than everyone else's.

Fourth you need plans:

Will you use a classic design of brik-on-brik with a easy long chassis, or a wider more complicated design? Or will you go along with a more complicated, harder SNOT design, it allows you to make more complicated shapes.

Fifth, get building.

[Magic Soap]

Avoid two things:

a) Box Syndrome
b) Plate Bottom


Use SNOT (Studs Not On Top), technic frames and greebling to prevent this.

Also, in terms of sets, you want ones with not necessarily space themes, but large parts that would be useful, eg wings, larger slopes, windows.

[masterMISICK]

i don't know about the not use box i made one which is quit boxy as long as you cust it up and stick some interesting stuff coming out it can look really nice

[Magic Soap]

Which is exactly what I just said.

[masterMISICK]

really oh yer my bad lol

[piltogg]

Ships are easy if you have a ton of really long Technic beams, if you don't, you will have to be very careful as they break easily if you pick them up or move them somewhere. other than that, just make sure it doesn't end up looking like a floating building by building in angles and having a non square layout. If you plan to add in greebles and weapons systems, plan out where you will put them way before you finish the core of the ship, as otherwise they will usually look tacked on. good luck with the ship buildin...

[Legoliam11]

I have Lego star wars sets i'm going to break. They are 90% plates. They are also good for angled pieces.

[Legoliam11]

Does anyone have an idea on what the best sets to buy for ship parts are, aside from basic parts?

[dilanski]

Does anyone have an idea on what the best sets to buy for ship parts are, aside from basic parts?

The star wars large ships. Venator, SD, Corvette...etc

[Legoliam11]

Where should toe technic beams be placed

[Legoliam11]

Where should toe technic beams be placed

I meant where should the technic beams be placed.

Here is my initial design.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/48356861@N05/4513008511/" title="LDDScreenShot2 by AllenFamily5, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4062/451 ... 5a3f2f.jpg" width="500" height="272" alt="LDDScreenShot2"></a>

I know the colours will never and up like that, I don't have enough parts. at the front is a cruise missile launcher, I've developed a liking for cruise missiles lately.

[Legoliam11]

I've changed my design in the last 10 minutes. I'm changing to something a little more bulky. I've layed it out in baseplates, and so far it's 96 studs long, but that should change with the engines.

[Magic Soap]

Does anyone have an idea on what the best sets to buy for ship parts are, aside from basic parts?

UFO, the space series(plural). Strangely, any submarines seem to work as well, as long as it is high in parts/ The Atlantis series has too many one-function pieces, avoid those.

A great star wars set is the old Imperial Shuttle for white elements.