I'm all for it as I like the extra complexity offered. I think that the shift has come about because Lego may actually now be a toy primarily for adults rather than young children! I remember chatting with my old landlady last year and she says that the AFOL scene has exploded during the last few years. To me, Lego models are supposed to be display models. I like looking at them and being reminded of the process of building them. I'm looking very forward to having the star destroyer finished, so I can lie on my couch reading books, occasionally looking up to admire it and watch the birds feed in the garden beyond. Meanwhile, I've finished counting the parts for the Hoth scene and Millennium Falcon - a few bits missing, but ones I have in stock: As with the Death Star, may as well build the Hoth scene instead of putting the parts away...
An unusually poor photo but: Should be able to finish this off come Monday evening. I need to look into finding some scrap metal as a counterweight as I want to balance it on a shelf. In other news, parts for the Sian upgrade have started turning up.
Better finish it before the Empire shows up: Batteries will act as a counterweight (yes, they're depleted!).
I think I might be more into the build than the display - the last few big sets I've built I've had a bit of a deflated "now what" feeling afterwards that may be what's putting me off all of the new sets coming out. I'm not sure any of the new ones really tickle me - maybe the 1989 Batmobile to display next to my Tumbler, and some of the big technic ones, but more for the build than the display. My daughter is likely to get either Steamboat Willie or the ISS for Christmas... maybe I'll get one and she'll get the other ... but a lot of the recent sets seem to be more a case of milking some licensed IP rather than offering something genuinely interesting and original... or maybe I'm just getting old and grumpy. I think I'd probably be up for renting sets... build and then send it back without really caring what it is, or where I could actually display it.
Hoth front line done! Also: I think it's time to wrap up the Star Destroyer... Hmm. Hadn't really thought about that, but I've come across old batteries at my parents' house that predate the turn of the millennium, so I think they'll be okay! I know what you mean! Lego is perhaps a little odd in that it is 'done' - other hobbies always allow room for further improvement. In regards to renting sets - there's a business plan in there somewhere, for someone who is that way inclined (not me).
Proper old batteries are not the same as the ones we have today. We have a box of approx 100 old Duracell's at work (yes we get through 100's & 100's a year, they're used for 5 minutes then disposed of) waiting to go off for proper recycling most of them are leaking / have split bodies. Buy some lead https://www.reddiseals.com/product-...eights-and-balances/sash-window-lead-weights/ it'll save you grief down the line
Update! The final stage of the Star Destroyer. Potentially tomorrow almost a year's toil will come to a close. I also managed to nab the Ducati for £45: The bag contains upgrade parts...
Ugh. It's done: The last bit was an utter *******, hence the 'ugh'. Some very fiddly bits that kept falling off - a LOT of swearing that occasionally made the birds in the garden scarper into the bushes. At some point I'll get around to doing some proper photos. Just not right meow .
I've been following this thread while building my own for a while, finished it 1-2 days ago and just created an account to post this (FYI your top panels are wrong, I made the same mistake you did at first and built both the same, just mirrored, but the left and right ones are slightly different, same goes for the bottom panels, so if you had any part shortages while building that could be the cause)
Haha! Bugger me, you're right . Happy to leave it as is, though this will almost certainly mean that when I build the other models I have left to do, I'll have to order some more parts. Now, what to do next?