Hi, long time lurker!

[LeaderOne]

I've been lurking this forum for quite some time; I posted a couple of questions long time ago but I always come here to be amazed by the endless creativity of this Lego community. I decided to post a couple of MOC's that are inspired on the shuttles from sets 60080 and 60078. Since I love to collect Space Shuttles of different scales I got these sets as gifts but I was never satisfied by how the shuttles actually looked built. I decided to redesign the shuttles to look a bit better. I started from scratch in the LDD and then got the pieces from bricklink. The big shuttle (SSL) has 302 pieces and the small one (SSS) 200 pieces.

Here are the lxf files (I hope these links work):

SSL lxf file

SSS lxf file

The shuttles are ready to be modified to add cargo and other features; I want to add the carrier rockets (the small shuttle will sit atop of a rocket with an adapter for the tail). In this design you can see 2 minifigs in the cockpit arranged using piece 14704 so they can be tilted against each other to make them fit in the space available

 

One of the things that bothered me the most with the 60080 shuttle was the huge gap for the elevon hinges.On my shuttles the hinges are hidden below the wing and fully functional. Adding another section on the cargo bay changed the shape to be closer to the real space shuttle. Of course on the minifig scale the cockpit is minuscule but at least I managed to fit 2 minfigs there.

Flickr album

Let me know your comments!

 

Edited December 8, 2016 by LeaderOne

[parksroad]

Nice work! Love the really clean lines of these. 

[dr_spock]

Welcome to Eurobricks.  Clever way to fit 2 in the cockpit. 

 

[LeaderOne]

I wanted clean lines so the white bulges on each side of the rocket engines (the OMS) from the 60080 set were not looking good with the hinges on the front. I used piece 89792 instead of 92279 so the front end will blend better with the shape. The same with the wings and elevons. On the small shuttle originally I made the outer elevons movable using hinges (like those under the squared elevons) but a little corner stuck out on plan view and I didn't like it much. 

So at the end, few pieces from the 60080/60078 sets were useful enough for the models. I got the pieces from different stores on bricklink for around $50 before shipping.

I'm working on some internal features (like the Canadarm, a satellite and an airlock section), but the most compelling thing about the design is that the cargo area is all clean and ready to be configured however you like. The storage space is very large; the cargo door have these long plates holding all the curved pieces together so the height of cargo is reduced somewhat but I prefer that instead of tiles over the spine to keep the clean look.

If you play with the models in the Lego DIgital Designer you will see that I grouped parts to make easier to modify the design and add features. I hope you all like that and come up with interesting variants.