phaelon

The AT-AT design is an enginering nightmare, because it places all its mass very high. That's something all these builders struggle with mitigating. After 5 years of tweaking and field testing THIS build, I'm sure Cavegod has made it durable enough to put on disply at home. I have a 2 year old, and I just have to put my more delicate items out of reach or in a separate space until he's old enough to understand.

I like the elegant look of the second leg, but is the third option more stable? Either way, I prefer those two over the first one.

CG is still around, but is easier to message on his Flikr account. He informed me that stability is less of a problem if you use the technic wheels modification for the feet. Having said that, there are several AT-AT MOCs ongoing at the moment that show a lot of promise, so I'm holding off until I can compare the results.

Well, good luck on your exams. I remember those days, and do not envy you one bit. :) On a side note, I studied your posted size for the Venator (54 studs) and Invisible Hand (50 studs) to determine the scale (1 : 2673.6) and (1 : 2720) respectively. Taking an average of those two gives a target scale of 1:2697. I then applied that to many of the other movie Star Wars ships to see what would be viable to build at the same scale. I came up with this... Battle Faction Ship m (actual) mm (scale) Studs Endor Empire Death Star II 160000 59328 7416 Endor Empire Super Star Destroyer 19000 7048 881 Coruscant Separatist Lucrehulk Battleship 3170 1176 147 Endor Empire Imperial Star Destroyer 1600 592 74 Endor Rebellion MC80 Home One Class 1300 488 60 Endor Rebellion MC80 Liberty Class 1200 448 56 Coruscant Republic Venator Star Destroyer 1155 432 54 Coruscant Separatist Providence Dreadnought (Invisible Hand) 1088 400 50 Endor Empire Interdictor Heavy Cruiser 600 224 28 Endor Rebellion Bulk Cruiser 600 224 28 Endor Rebellion Dreadnought Class Heavy Cruiser 600 224 28 Endor Empire Carrack Light Cruiser 350 128 16 Endor Rebellion Nebulon B Frigate 300 112 14 Endor Rebellion Corellian Corvette (CR90) 150 56 7 Endor Rebellion Corellian Gunship (DP20) 120 48 6 Endor Rebellion GR-75 Medium Transport 90 32 4 Endor Rebellion Millennium Falcon 34.4 16 2 Basically, anything between an ISD and Nebulon B could work in this scale. The Corvettes and lower get pretty small, but could potentially be represented in a battle scene. I'm intrigued to explore this further once I can analyze your final version.

Looking at the rendered models and screenshots, it looks like the upper leg is 55% - 60% of the total leg height. The knee is not centered on the leg, but slightly lower. To my eye that makes me think the right leg is more accurate. I think the elongation issue is negligible if your highest priority is detail. The grille tile continuity will likely trump in appearance over an extra stud in height. But you're right, in order to get a good opinion of the leg height overall, we would need to see it against the rest of the model for a better sense of scale.

I prefer the look of the 51 on the right, because it closes the gap formed in the socket at the top. Also, it elongates the upper leg portion just enough to make it look more anatomically correct.

Kris, I'm now following this thread after reading your post on DMarc's AT-AT thread regarding UCS sizing. I appreciate your challenging the perception that bigger is better, and I am very excited for you to complete this project. Hopefully the skills you learned and funds you raise from this endeavor will encourage you to push forward with other designs in the same scale.

Amazing work! I especially like all the greebling on the front of the engine section. While I'm not a huge fan of the offset stand, I like the different design of the rounded base. Great job!

Thank you for letting me off the hook dmac. :) I am going to change my approach to all of this to one of patience and learning as I watch your progress, mistakes, and rebuilds. In the end it will make me a much more successful builder. And definitely take my enthusiasm as flattery, even if I'm not one of the master builders on here. Oh by all means don't stop when you're in the zone. I can't wait to see more updates. I have not considered this before. To me UCS meant accuracy AND size. But since I own and have built every UCS set that LEGO produced, I can certainly attest that size has an impact on durability depending on the design. Having ordered all my pieces for Anio's Venator, I can definitely see the appeal of going smaller for budget purposes as well. After thinking about your post, I tend to agree with your definition of UCS - that it should be a lable applied to highly accurate designs of a reasonable size or larger. Even Anio admits that bigger does not necessarily guarantee more accuracy. What I have seen is that unless there are geometry issues, like the SSD, bigger mainly increases structural issues and build costs after a certain point, without substantial improvements to detail. I'm going to take a closer look at your Venator and Invisible Hand designs, because creating large fleet battles is only possible at that scale anyway. Thanks for the insight!

Just came across this amazing build, and decided to research these aluminum technic pieces. They could have so many uses in the large-scale builds I'm wanting to attempt. So I came across this article. Essentially, this was a niche subset of parts that were manufactured privately by a BrickLink shop owner. So they are not officially licensed LEGO parts, if that matters. Regardless, this is an amazing build, with remarkable attention to detail and geometry. Very well done!

For a bit of morbid fun, I ran a cost comparison of parts from the past 6 months versus current using BrickStore. For those of you on the fence, this is pretty telling... Past 6 month average: ~$1000 US Current prices: ~$1190 US This doesn't include any shipping, and no part substitutions. For you BL vets, do prices tend to rise seasonally, as in go up around Christmas? Or do they just steadily rise as parts are retired and become more scarce?

Can't wait to see them!

I thought I would follow up my previous post with an apology. I was reading something BrickDoctor posted over 4 years ago, conveying some of the mentality of a lego modeler. Essentially he said that half the fun of this hobby is reverse engineering something that someone else has done, whether that is another lego project, or a real life example. Asking them for instructions or lists should be at their discretion, as it takes an enormous amount of extra labor that is not always part of the creative process. I need to learn to respect that, and if someone has not posted their files, not to harass them to do so. I'm so excited to see all this work, and I want to replicate all of it, because I lack the creativity that some of you seem to have. But I should also follow the example you have set, that if I truly want to do something, I need to get my hands dirty. Just please keep doing what you do, as it inspires people like myself to keep trying.

Samlr, any updates on your design?

I suspect a rush on Bricklink once Mortes starts providing the plans... :)

Just a quick update for anyone looking for instructions / build list / LDD files... that's most likely not going to happen. I got a message back from Marshal and he builds these things with his hands, as a sculptor would. So he has no files, nor a parts list, that he could refer to. He did indicate that at some point he would like to post some breakdown pictures. Hopefully there will be enough photographic information where one of us can reverse engineer his MOC and create a file for the community. That is my hope anyway. :) Regardless, Marshal, keep doing what you do. You are a true artist, and we love your work!

When I start putting my Anio Venator build together I'm going to attempt using surgical gloves: 1) to keep my fingers from drying out, and 2) to keep fingerprints off the pieces. I'll let you know how that works out. :) I'm hoping that some day when you are satisfied with your design, you will take the time to share your experience with us on a technical level. I know you guys are building these MOCs from a lot of trial and error, but I have to say that a LOT of us would pay good money for some LDD / LDraw files. Many of us DREAM of doing this kind of thing, but don't have the eye / patience / surplus to engineer such beautiful creations. This SPECIFIC scene of the Lamda on platform with AT-AT docked alongside and the shield generator in the forest is one of the few diaromas I really want to create, when I can find the space. The engineering you've put into this build is staggering, and even though I'm not worried about motorizing everything, the lighting is something I have an interest in replicating. Even your Endor trees are a sight to behold! Great work!!!

Just curious when you ordered your bricks? It looks like if I had made the same substitutions you did that my build would have come in around the same price (the dark red 1x10s are $8 right now!). I'm still on the fence about the red bridge mod. Regardless, congratulations!

Just a quick follow up to my progress. I have now ordered 100% of the parts and everything is on its way. I spent 4 days buried in my spreadsheet and Bricklink. Because I was in such a hurry to get everything ordered, I didn't watch and wait for prices of certain pieces to go lower, and some of my final orders were unoptimized $2 orders with $3 shipping. :/ BUT, based on what I was seeing with some of the pieces, some of these parts are getting very rare and will need to be replaced with something more current for future builders. Totals 34 Orders (all US except for 2) Cost per Part: ~$ 0.21 US Parts Cost: ~$1150.00 US Shipping Cost: ~$ 150.00 US This includes the stupidly expensive magnetic attachment system, which is around $225 US for magnets and holders. To the fence-setters, all I can tell you is that the longer you wait, the higher this number is going to go unless you start replacing parts, which I did not do. I guarantee you that the other builders here who did this 6 months ago did it cheaper than I did. I must confess to using free labor for the next step. My kids are going to inspect everything that comes in, reconcile them against each order, and then hand it over to my wife to be organized into separate bins. :)

Azrielsc, I wish I had dug through the manual more closely regarding new pieces! I'll have to inspect the pieces as they come in and compare them to your list, but if they're not in good shape, I may have some more ordering to do. :( It would help to know how many of these can be any color... For anyone wondering, the 8x16 tile referred to is Part # 90498 in black. Thanks for the list Azrielsc!

Kyle, I just embarked on this project this weekend. As far as I can tell, all the pieces are still available. However, some are very rare, and therefore the cost is higher. So far I have ordered roughly 64% of the total parts I need, with a cost of around $500 US including shipping from 7 different stores, 6 in the US. Please note that I DID choose to use the magnet attachment system, and that alone is about $250 for all the components (magnets, top and bottom holders). Several of the other posters here devised their own solutions that did not require such expensive and rare pieces. I still have some of the expensive panels left to purchase as well, but I'm hoping that I can get everything for around $700 - $800 US total. There may be some high quantity items that take some time to get completely ordered, but with thousands of stores on Bricklink.com you can eventually get it all together. It is highly likely that you will have to place at least one overseas order, but you should be able to find almost everything in North America. Hope this helps, but realize that this is my first go-around as well. There are many seasoned vets on this forum and of this build specifically that can speak from experience. Good luck!

NNOPMOC, just wanted to check on your LDD progress so far. I LOVE the 13' SSD that Fox Hound designed, but I feel the lack of modularity and the fact that it has never actually been built put it outside my desired risk threshold. Your 7' model is much more feasible, if you can say that. So I just wanted to see if you've started your redesign yet. :)

Okay, now I have a delimma. I can purchase Cavegod's files from him for his incredible AT-AT without an interior, or I could go with this design that is not quite accurate, but is cheaper to build, more stable, and contains an interior. Has anyone built these two designs to compare them?

I agree that many of the MOCs in the index are good attempts, but not really something someone would want to spend money and time to replicate. The truly exceptional designs should be somehow highlighted.

As others have noted, LEGO-emplyed modelers HAVE to have some kind of software for their designs, and providing a "lite" version of this to the AFOL community is just good business. My guess is that it's likely being rebuilt from the ground up, and will be offered as either a product or a subscription service.