Modern Apartment Tower

What I meant to write in the previous post is that Lego Digital Designer gives me Lego pieces in quantities I don’t physically own. There were no pieces in the small apartment building that I don’t have – or, at least, pieces similar to them. It’s just having enough of the pieces in the same color that becomes the issue. LDD has a limited number of styles of pieces, but unlimited quantities of them (I think). That was my motive for creating this ten-story 1960s apartment tower – that and the idea that Lego apartment buildings tend to be turn-of-the-last-century brick structures. I couldn’t have done this with my 18 pounds of Lego. (I’m not complaining.)

I’m liking LDD for architecture. The “Clone” tool makes repeated elements easier. The “Paint” tool makes it easier to try out various color options without rebuilding. (At first, the glass walls were black – for some reason, the light blue looks more like glass to me.) I was a little concerned that the white elements against the white screenshot background was going to be a problem without some Photoshop work – but I think it turned out OK.

Anyway, I like the way this modern apartment tower turned out. Of course, since it is the Space Age, it has a heliport.

You can see the front door at the end of the walkway

Small Apartment In The City

Here is a small apartment building, built on a small scale. Although building in Lego Digital Designer lacks the tactical experience, it does have an assortment of pieces I don’t physically have. The toughest part of the build was the windows : How do I build apartment windows in a 1×2x2 space and not have them look like mere gaps? I think I solved the problem rather nicely. I am pleased with the way this build turned out.

Slidetop Spacecraft (With Support Crew)

This started with me wanting to build a spacecraft that did not have the usual cockpit lid that lifted up. So I built a cockpit lid that slid out. Then I built a spacecraft around it. After one tear down and rebuild, I came up with this. I think it’s a bit boxy, but it has a certain charm. I am rather fond of the engines.

I showed it to Phillip, and he challenged me to build some sort of mechanism to remove that sliding cockpit lid. (“Something like The Scorpion” he suggested.) I quickly came up with the idea of what I wanted to do, but it became a challenge of physics. How could I keep the mechanism from tipping forward from the weight of the cockpit lid? After several attempts, it occurred to me that the solution was to build forward rather than add more weight to the back. It’s not pretty, but it works.

This whole build is rather fragile, however, so I don’t consider it a complete success.

The support vehicle, with a team of five, arrives.

The support vehicle is guided toward the landed spacecraft.

The arms need to be lined up.

The arms are latched to the cockpit lid.

As the support vehicle backs up, the cockpit lid is removed.

The lid is almost off.

The lid is off, and it is now safe for the crew to approach the spacecraft again.

The crew attends to the pilot as the lid is stored away.

Black & White Personal Spacecraft

This actually started as a turbine-powered racecar. But, as often happens with the experimental nature of my builds, it just didn’t come together to my satisfaction. I narrowed and lowered the driver’s compartment. Then it started looking more like a spacecraft. The tires came off, the turbines were scrapped, the windshield was removed, and a cockpit cover added. Once I had a spacecraft in mind, the cockpit came together quickly. The engines, however, went through two rebuilds to arrive at the shape I wanted. I love how this turned out.

Personal Jet

I decided to experiment with building a sort of jet-powered hang glider thing. I am not satisfied with the results. Maybe if I look at it long enough, I will figure out what’s wrong with it.