The BrikWars Forums

I am currently working on a ship for a currently "too be announced" project. But Im a little stumped. this is my first attempt at this sort of thing, and Im not really sure where to go. specifically if anyone has advice or inspiration for shaping the bow and bridge, Im open to hear your advice.

*Edit* This ship is to minifig scale

Just fill it with guns.

Broad strokes:
- What are your favorite ships from sci-fi and from history? What elements do you want to copy, eliminate, or improve on from those?
- What is the role of this ship? Cargo? War? Part of a fleet or a loner? Generic or hero ship?
- Cool spaceships have cool names. What's the cool name for this one?
- Don't be afraid to copy things that you like from other designs
- If there is something that isn't working, just make up a reason why it does work. If the ship is boxy, just pretend that was the plan all along

Nitty-gritties:
- Design interior elements as you design exterior elements, especially around the bridge. That way you make sure the layout is sensible.
- Do a lot of table scraps for greebles, guns, furniture. Use these smaller elements to develop a design language for the whole ship.
- Build small scale models or do sketches to get a direction for blocking out the size of different sections.
- Consider including more headroom in the ship than just 5 bricks so you can have things taller than a minifig.
- If this is going to become real plastic, plan ahead about how it will be displayed. One thing I learned is that LEGO really hates long overhangs so you have to either support the ends or build a very sturdy internal frame.
- What level of access do you want to the interior? You need to plan play features like that ahead of time as well.

look at spaceships and warships from a variety of sources. Also look at other stuff and take design elements from that

I personally like to take ideas from UNSC and covnenant ships.

Put a big face on the front.

A star destroyer styled bridge is an invitation for your bridge to get alpha struck, IMO. I mean that's what I'd do as an opening move against that setup. Assuming you don't have shields or aegis or some other defense mechanism that's reliable.

Weapons? The space where the hull sticks out to accommodate the engines looks, aesthetically, great to mount some huge 4-barrel guns.

[quote="AZKAMAT"]A star destroyer styled bridge is an invitation for your bridge to get alpha struck, IMO./[quote]
True, that would be a terrible idea Irl, but this is brikwars! Make a massive command deck for all you care! If you really want to be impressive but still be logically correct, call the giant star destroyer bridge a secondary bridge or make an excuse for having one.
Besides, if we were going to build by real life rules, the best designs would be massive cylinders covered with missile tubes and gun batteries, so really, cool a s t h e t i c s > conventional design here

Ralph McQuarrie is an excellent artist to emulate for ship design and lends well to brik construktion