LiLme's T-47 Airspeeder (+ Instructions & Part list)

[LiLmeFromDaFuture]

8 hours ago, Wurger49 said:

A bit of a late reply, I went through all 3 threads of your T-47, I love how you shared with us the progress and change processes you went through.

Even though I have just finished Brickvaults version, I have bought all the parts for your version, and will build it next week when the parts arrive. 

Glad to hear!  Let me know if you have any questions or comments!

T-47 Airspeeder Building Guide

 

[Banzayn]

Great!!! Thank you for sharing, Lilme

Still hoping and waiting for your AT-AT completed

[LiLmeFromDaFuture]

6 hours ago, Banzayn said:

Great!!! Thank you for sharing, Lilme

Still hoping and waiting for your AT-AT completed

I as well  

Time continues to pass as do the many updates necessary to improve the design of this walker.  LDD is great tool for designing and editing a model, but many factors outside the limitations of the program revealed flaw after flaw and one area of improvement after the other.  

In particular, the neck needed another critical improvement, otherwise its structural shortcomings would threaten the realization of the project.

 

Early on, I aspired to take a creative, fun approach to the idea of the AT-AT as a transport and design the project as if LEGO would.  I settled on the concept of a detachable section at the middle of the walker so to access all the minifigures (deployed on benches like 4483) without needing to remove much of the panelling.

 

Considering the substantial gap through the middle of the hull, necessary for the play feature, the ambitious idea raised serious structural complications at the neck against establishing a resilient design well capable of supporting the head and front section of the hull.  Without the proper support, the weight of the head, neck and front hull would droop away from the rest of the walker, causing gaps between the front and middle hull. 

As of late, I determined solve this situation, while also avoiding the possibility of compromising the vision for the project.  So, with the challenge and the limited space given to work with before me, I pursued to implement the structural advantage of triangles as much possible.  

The limited lengths of Technic beams also proved itself a complication.  So to work around this, I switched to Technic bricks and created longer lengths by sandwiching two 1 x 12 Technic bricks, with another and two layers of plates stacked on top, and then the three bricks connected together by a T-beam.

 

The neck now features a longer structure and a simple truss design made of thin Technic beams through the middle of the neck and along the sides, and I am confident it will get the job done better than previous designs.

[Wurger49]

On 7/25/2019 at 10:34 PM, LiLmeFromDaFuture said:

Glad to hear!  Let me know if you have any questions or comments!

T-47 Airspeeder Building Guide

 

Finished building your moc last night. I have to say, it's very enjoyable but time consuming, especially building the first SNOT wing from the flickr guide, but once I got past that, the 2nd wing was finished a lot quickly. The amount of thought you have put in for the wing connections and engine grills are amazing! The model is very sturdy in the back, a bit weak in the tips of the wings.

Your LDD model is actually an older design, so I wasn't able to use the LDD steps, which will be much easier. 

Here is some comparison photos, the T-47 Airspeeder is one of the smallest planes in Star Wars, even smaller than the A-wing, but its different angled slopes at the nose and wings make it a challenging build to design. Love your work! I I ordered 2 less Technic Pin 3L, so had to use technic pin 1/2, ordered some 3Ls. I have also changed the layout of the back panels in the middle. I didn't put the 2 round tiles on the nose as they keep on pushing the 2 x 2 wedge plate loose. 

Wondering if you will ever do a nice A-wing?

T-47 Airspeeder Size Comparsion to A-Wing by R Y, on Flickr

Official vs MOCs by R Y, on Flickr

Front Comparison by R Y, on Flickr

Side Comparison by R Y, on Flickr

Back Comparison by R Y, on Flickr

 

[LiLmeFromDaFuture]

@Wurger49 Very nice line up!  

It's been a while since I last updated the model, but it's certainly due for one.  Particularly, I'd like to improve the nose area (those round tiles do cause trouble and the proportions look off compared to the other creation), aesthetics of the underside, redesign the cockpit, and add a working tow cable.

The sophistication of the wings certainly makes assembling it tedious and also delicate like in the area you mentioned, but that is the downside of SNOT for wings.  In response to this, I thought of creating a more simple-designed version, as well smaller, because the scale is a bit large for minifigures.

I fancied the idea of creating my own A-Wing design, as well other ships, but at this point only time will tell!

Thank you for sharing your photos; it's nice to see the comparison between two creations of the same vehicle!

[Wurger49]

As we are all adult builders, I don't think a working tow cable is needed, it's very gimicky. The real harpoon gets shot out the the gun, not the back grills. I installed then removed them both from the brickvault and lego versions. 

The SNOT wings are beautiful, the end product is worth the extra time required to make them. 

The good thing with A-wing, it can be kept under 500 pieces, even as low as 300 pieces, making it a quick and fun design and make. The RZ-2 is a much better looking A-wing as it's much better proportioned compared to the ROJ A-Wing. 

Edited August 3, 2019 by Wurger49

[Wurger49]

The wingtip of the snowspeeder always gets pushed upwards when I lift the model from the back. So I decided to add to few pieces to the wingtip. After that got done, I asked myself why not make the nose more sturdy too, so added a few pieces. The Slope, Curved 2 x 1 No Studs also props up the 2 x 4 plates from underneath, and flat tile with 1/2 circle to cover up the other stud, the 1x1 tile doesn't fit in due to the slope of the piece beneath it. I will play around with the pieces and see if any other combinations can be done. 

IMG_6277 by R Y, on Flickr

IMG_6279 by R Y, on Flickr

IMG_6278 by R Y, on Flickr

[LiLmeFromDaFuture]

@Wurger49

Great use of the curved 1 x 2 slopes, they cover the gaps left under the cockpit quite nicely!

Tiling the nose does polish its appearance but affects the profile since the extra plate height, so I wonder if those triangular tiles could work better here like on the BV Snowspeeder?

[Wurger49]

are you referring to the Tile, Modified 2 x 2 Triangular 35787 and Tile, Modified 2 x 2 Corner with Cut Corner - Facet 27263? The angles are different to to your design, I will see if the whole nose can be moved.

I have also sent you a message on flickr, for some reason I can't send any PMs on here. 

[LiLmeFromDaFuture]

@Wurger49

Yes, those are the parts.  

You raise a good point that the angles are different on my design and I think it's partly due to the 6 x 3 wedge plates, but to change them may be out of the question with how the wings are designed, perhaps?

[Wurger49]

Thanks for the reply on flickr, I have sent you the links.

Yeah, I bought a few parts and will have to play around with them when I receive them. 

[LiLmeFromDaFuture]

4 hours ago, Wurger49 said:

Thanks for the reply on flickr, I have sent you the links.

Yeah, I bought a few parts and will have to play around with them when I receive them. 

I'd appreciate it; I don't have those parts on hand at the moment and playing around with the many angles on LDD or STUD.io is awkward!

[Wurger49]

yeah, can't get the angles to work. I did make some changes to the tile arranges again. 

IMG_6340 by R Y, on Flickr

IMG_6341 by R Y, on Flickr

IMG_6342 by R Y, on Flickr

IMG_6343 by R Y, on Flickr

[LiLmeFromDaFuture]

@Wurger49

No big. 

Anyway, nice use of the angled "L" tile, it looks much better.  Now, I wonder if it would look any better if you add the 2 x 2 triangular tile (35787) beside it?

[Wurger49]

3 minutes ago, LiLmeFromDaFuture said:

@Wurger49

No big. 

Anyway, nice use of the angled "L" tile, it looks much better.  Now, I wonder if it would look any better if you add the 2 x 2 triangular tile (35787) beside it?

Sorry, where to add them?

[LiLmeFromDaFuture]

2 hours ago, Wurger49 said:

Sorry, where to add them?

My mistake, but I meant adjacent to the outward side of the two corner tiles. It would require removing the 2 x 4 wedge plate (51739) then replacing it with a 2 x 2 corner plate and 1 x 2 plate.

[Wurger49]

your original 2x4 wedge plates still closes the gap between the nose and wings better.

[LiLmeFromDaFuture]

4 hours ago, Wurger49 said:

your original 2x4 wedge plates still closes the gap between the nose and wings better.

Okay.