Horizontal Generator Build (Part 3)

I had this large area out in front on either side that I was trying to decide what to do.

At one point I was thinking about a crane to lift the canisters out of the charging area,  But this looked very complex to be able to rotate both in azimuth and elevation.  So I started thinking of other options.  One one of my many visits to the Lego store I took pictures of the $800 Falcon.  I was fascinated with the detailing that had been done as shown here.

and the detailing in the new Y-Wing shown here.

So with this as inspiration, I came up with this.

 

Here are closeups of each side.

 

This is still a work in progress, though the theme is mostly done.  What I learned was that light bluish gray (LBG) on LBG doesn't work.  You will notice that the first picture has more dark bluish gray (DBG) as the underlying structure and all of the texture parts are LBG.  This has a much look as the texture stands out.  Still need to find transparent dark blue bars to replace the transparent light blue ones.  There will be some other tweaks as well.  Overall I am happy with the way this turned out.  Will probably extend this design detail to the laser cannon platform as well.

Jet Pack Base

Here are the first looks at how I am modifying the Blacktron II Minifigs with the jet pack.

On the back is a 1 x 2 plate with handles (3839) that is inserted into the jet pack.  Then two 1 x2 bricks are attached.  The detailing includes a round tile, antenna, beacon light and thruster underneath.

In keeping with the blue/greenish theme of the power generators, there will be two squadrons.  A blue one and a green one.  The blue is fairly easy, all the parts needed come in transparent dark blue.  The green is a little harder.  The power generators have used Lime.  That is not available in the antennas or in a transparent color.  So I am going with transparent bright green for now.  The only item I cant get is the minifig visor, so it will stay with the original Blacktron II color.  Once the part come in, I will post the final look. 

Still need to find a way to get some of these in the air to look like they are flying without any support.

Laser Cannon Platform (Update 2)

I started on the platform for the Large laser cannon.  I want to be able to control the azimuth of the large cannon and the two smaller twin cannons separately.  That meant three motors.   So here is the gear train for the large cannon.  To make it slow enough (dont have PWM motor control yet) I needed a 5 stage gear.  This is as tight as I could make it.

I probably could have used the technic gear box to change direction, but I felt the large turn table was better for moving such a large piece.

A closer view.

Here is how the small twin cannon control looks.  This uses a technic gear box to change direction. 

 

This picture shows why the long axle was used.  Even though there is plenty of room on the left side for more gears, the right side is constrained by the large cannon gear train and motor. Since I wanted them to be the same, I used the long axle to place two gear reduction stages up by the motor then 3 more by the gear box.  Used most of the space.

Here are two close ups of the right side with both gear trains.  

 

I suspect I will have to make some adjustments in the support members around these gear trains so that the deck plating can be installed.  But the generic platform design is flexible enough to allow for this without compromising any structural integrity.

Next task on this platform is to build the deck plating and attach the laser cannons and the overhead power structure.

Large Laser cannon Housing (Part 2)

 I wanted to be able to control the elevation of the Laser Cannon and have it recoil with each shot.  I gave up on the recoil as just to hard for now as getting one motor in there was going to be difficult enough, much less two.

Here are two quartering views.  The gear train starts on the left side and goes up and then towards the front of the housing.

Then it goes across the housing on a long axle.  Then reverses itself by going towards the back and down and back to the front where it engages the cannon carriage.

Here you can see how the motor mounts and connects to the gear train.

Here I have installed the cylinder housings.  These just barely fit and there may be some very slight touching.

Next I will close up the housing and finish detailing it.

Large Laser Cannon Housing

**** NOTE: Some of the pictures are a little out of focus  ***

Here is the housing that holds and elevates the large laser cannon.  The front frame is mae from three types of techinc lift arms. 
1 x 5 straight (32316), qty 2
1 x 11.5 double bent (32009) qty6
2 x 4 L shape (32140) qty 2
1 x 2 technic brick with two holes (32000), qty 2 and the pins to connect them for connecting the top
1 x 2 techinc connectors (11458) and the pins to connect them for connecting to the base.

Below are different views of the front frame.

This is the simple clamp that will help hold the frame to the base.

Here it is attached to the base and holding the frame.

Temporarily attaching the half circle plates.

Some detailing with fluted 1 x 2 bricks to simulate vents.'

Next will be the gearing to elevate the large laser cannon.

Large Laser Cannon

Using a couple of example designs, I came up with this for the large Laser Cannon barrel.

Using the robot body part, 30361, I started building the front part of the cannon.

Then using 1L technic connectors, I connected to pieces together.  The technic pins are for detailing later on.

 Then a long axel to form the basic structure for the extended barrel.

Now several gears and pulleys followed by three 2L technic connectors to form the final body of the cannon barrel.   The small gear at the end is holding it all in place for now.

Built another body for the back end.

Connected the two bodies with an axel and some more gears.

 Built a carriage so that I can change the elevation of the laser cannon.

 Here is another view of the carriage assembly.

Final design for now.  The detailing on the sides is still up for consideration.  Not sure I like it and it seems to be getting in the way of elevating the cannon.  Final effort will be putting an LED at the end.  Running two wires down the barrel will be fun.

Laser Cannon Platform (Update 1)

Well did some playing around with the overhead structure.  I started with this.

And ended up here.

To clean it up some, I will have three green and three blue domes, the neon yellow will be replaced.  This is keeping with the blue and lime green color scheme for  power.  The vertical supports will have the same detail as other places with generators.

I had an interesting time with the hose connections.  The hoses were too short to reliably connect.  The stress created by the curving would cause the 1x2 brick to disconnect.  What I ended up doing was putting two 1x2 Technic bricks together (one with 2 holes and one with 1 hole) and some pins to hold the hoses in.  Then placed this on a small 2x2 turntable.  This completely relieved the stress on the bricks and actually made for a interesting detail.  Once i get the parts in the for large laser cannon I will do a complete writeup on how the majore details of this platform.

The final issue is lighting this.  What I would like and what I can do are probably far apart.  More on this later.