William_Marshall

I've finished! That's 2 years, 7 months, and 26 days since I ordered the instructions! My first comment is 'What a great set of instructions'. I've only built one Technic set and some of my kid's sets before, so I am not used to how this all works. I'd often find myself chuckling and saying 'Ohhh very clever' or 'Sweet!'. Loads of little details of pieces or angles that are really clever. I cannot imagine how long Mirko agonised over some of the elements. In the whole 256 pages, I didn't find a single error. Every time something wasn't right, I could be absolutely sure it was my error which is actually quite nice to know as you try to unpick it. I started shortly after the invasion of Ukraine, so thought I'd do one side a Mirko's Own Creation, and the other side as a B-Bomber Variant-U as a nod to Ukraine and a timestamp for when I started. So bottom of the fuselage has the flag, the tail has the white banding of the Air Force, two extra turrets for drone protection, and a Kyiv skyline (bought the instructions), and a Y-wing Ghost of Kyiv. Made up from the 'extra' bricks that were 'misordered'. I also got a bit carried away at black Friday so now have enough lighting to illuminate an entire fleet! Also, I don't know why, but I've never ever put stickers on models even as a little kid. Can't bring myself to do it this time either so that's why the black plate is blank! The biggest problem I had was getting the pieces. As I said back in June 2022 "I’ve downed tools and nearly quit a couple of times trying to work out how to order the parts online". I really wanted to avoid creating new plastic, so decided I'd use Bricklink. As it turns out, the system is utter junk. I now have mountains of unused pieces (as in the picture) that it added to the order. Some of them seem really niche as well (like six cockpit covers), whilst other parts were missing entirely (such as the top turret cover, or parts for the front lower cannon). It was really frustrating to create the order, and really really frustrating that I've ended up wasting money and environmental resources. In summary, whilst it's a commercial exchange, still have to give huge thanks to Mirko for this. I don't know if it's wonderful, or complete madness. Perhaps both, and when I see it, it makes me smile, which is always a good thing :)

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Sounds good. My decision was more around not wanting to create new plastic so I went with recycled\used, but I can certainly see the upside of a simple Pick-A-Brick route. My biggest issue was moving through all the different file formats between Pick-A-Brick, Bricklink, BrickHunter etc Certainy down more to my decisions and newness, than anything to do with the parts list file originally supplied with the instructions.

Sorry, I don't know. This is my first MOC, I'm two years in and only on around page 50 lol. Just built the cockpit crown this morning and really enjoyed seeing how cleverly it was put together. One thing I have learnt though, is managing the non-colour specific pieces. I bought them in the cheapest available colour but it means that when I see a red piece in the instructions it's easy if I have it in yellow, or orange or brown etc. However, I've been caught out quite a few times when it is black, grey etc and mixed in with the boxes that I've separated those colours in to. If I were to do it again, I'd note which orders had 'red bricks' and separate those out when they got delivered.

I think the war with the Empire may be over before my model joins the fight lol. I have just looked back, and next week is two years since I bought the instructions! That said, every time I open them, I'm amazed at the quality of them, and the detail in the commentary. As good as any other coffee table book I've had! I've finally got most of the parts. I used Bricklink for about thirty orders, but am surprised at how bad Bricklink has been. About a quarter of orders have had missing parts or mispicks. Whilst I'm now building a snagging Wanted List, I'm wondering if anyone looked at whether the model could be built off vertical. Is it too heavy to alter to 30 degrees off vertical for example? I had thought I could have a look at the Studio app but fear that could be a rabbit hole I could disappear down for another year!

Thanks. Just spent a very enjoyable half an hour with a coffee looking through some Aquanauts MOC's

Intro from Yorkshire. Had my old Space and Aquanauts models in a box for decades, showed the kids, and they then decided to get me a couple of Technic sets for Christmas. I think Google must have clocked it ('I'm sure Google listens to conversations!) because it then showed an image of a very large MOC that instantly caught my imagination. Waited for the instructions, and bought it, and it must be over a year I've spent going around in circles with spreadsheets trying to understand the whole Rebrickable, PickABrick, Bricklink, BrickHunter universe. There are known knowns, known unknowns, and unknown unknowns when setting off on this lol. Looking forward to getting to ten posts so I can DM folk my asinine questions!

Thanks. The BrickHunter extension is impressive. Adds another layer of complexity to working things out, but I like it. Finally feel I've got my head round what I need to do. Working out what duplicates I need in some other colours for a couple of tweaks as either a riff on the Ukraine theme or part availability. Also, if anyone else can't find their stickers, mine were wedged in the the spine between the cover and first page. They didn't fall out when I shook it and I've only just found them.

Thanks, that's all helpful and reassuring. I tried running Auto-Select as you suggested and got the same cost, item count and site count three times, so that seems to have sorted it. Some suggestions are below Min Buy so I imagine I'll need to create carts and then try manually consolidating them to see where that gets me. Slow and steady wins the race lol. Thank you. It was purchased direct from Mirko by me. I've been pretty meticulous when I've opened the package on a clear desk the few times I've had it out. I'll see if I've somehow got it mixed up in the box of the 75188 Resistance from when I built that, or if it's wedged in amongst the page leaves of the instructions.

Well done to everyone who has completed the project so far. I’ve downed tools and nearly quit a couple of times trying to work out how to order the parts online. Perhaps I bit off more than I can chew when I’m unfamiliar with spreadsheets, app extensions and Lego (my experience being limited to building a couple of Lego Friends sets with my daughters!). Nevertheless, I think I’ve got my head round it now, but have a few question if I may. Happy to do by DM if folk prefer, rather than cluttering up this feed with my asinine queries. Are used parts ok? – With a view to recycling, I thought I’d buy used parts. I imagine Lego bricks maintain their colour stability well. Is this right? Or will I end up with a hodge podge of mismatches. I think if there’s one or two poor bricks I could put them on the reverse side to which the bomber will be viewed. Bricklink auto create cart – I thought I’d buy from stores within the UK as I don’t know how customs charges will add up. When I create carts I get a price. If I click auto-create carts again immediately afterwards, I get a different price. A third time, a different price again. These refreshes are seconds after the previous calculations. How reliable is Bricklink in creating carts? Or should I do some sort of manual intervention? Was the sticker for the base plate in the instructions or extra (like the lights)? I can see the unique tile in the box, but no sticker (I’ve given the instructions a shake to see if its wedge in amongst the pages). I thought I might add a splash of yellow alongside the blue tiles to give it a bit of a Ukraine insignia as a nod the events in the year it is built (assuming I get it done in the next six months!). For those who have built it, where would you think replacing a few blue tiles with yellow ones would work best? Top of the fuselage, bottom near the bomb bays etc? Or do you think maybe just order some extra yellow tiles and play around with it? Thanks for your time, and congratulations to Mirko on a great service and an instructions set that is a coffee table book in and of it’s own right.