Other Pete J's thread of Lego building (current project: 76210 Iron Man Mark 44 Hulkbuster - Alternate)

Bricks -N- Pieces order counted - although it was one piece short (a black 1x6 studded plate), the sender had been nice enough to include a few extra pieces, which was an exceptionally nice touch. So, only missing a few pieces that won't delay the start, speaking of which:

DELIVERIES COMPLETE: CONSTRUCTION DUE TO START ~01/11/2019

 

If the missing pieces are common ones (Like a black 1x6 studded plate), it might be quicker to hit up the "Pick a brick" wall at your nearest Lego store.

 

Ohh, will do. I'll be round a friend's near Cardiff at the end of November, so will look then.

 

In preparation for populating the Star Destroyer, as well as the other minifig scale ships I plan to acquire, I've bought a few minifigs (one order has the remaining missing parts added in). Some of them are pretty rare now - for example, I almost bought an old B-wing set to get hold of the Gray Squadron pilot, but was outbid on the old eBay. Little git's mine now though, all the way from Poland.

 

'A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step'



I have today and tomorrow off work. It's taken me about seven hours to organise the Lego around my lounge. It's a LOT of Lego...

 

Of the different Lego piece retailers you used who would you rank as the best of the lot?

 

Well, they've all been fine to deal with, but Misha's Store and Bricks -N- Pieces stood out as the former included a bonus minifig on a keyring and the latter included a few extra spare parts (deliberately).

If you're thinking of doing your own build, you'll have to use multiple retailers for large scale builds. I'd avoid suppliers from the USA as the customs tax is quite high. Take advantage of still being in Europe for the moment too!

 

This is where I ended up last night, having finished 30/1290 pages:



This is the port side wall (bow pointing to the right). The addition of plates under the beams has made it surprisingly sturdy. The designer has used a couple of small rods to reinforce two pins - it greatly increases their strength but makes it harder to clip on a brick.I've not seen it done in an official Lego set.

 

1290 pages - that's immense... Great to see it underway

 

102 pages complete:



This is going to last longer than Christmas I think.

 

It's been a busy few days for me, so no progress on the Star Destroyer (well one page I suppose). Hopefully next week I can focus on prepping the pieces for the next set of instructions in the morning, then build in the evening. However, a few interesting developments:



The first lot of minifigs have arrived and are staring at me impatiently. I'm planning on a couple of more storm troopers, as well as some Imperial Officers to fill up the meeting room.

Also, I've bought the instructions for the Rebel fighters now:



I've ordered the parts to make these and the TIE fighter variants - there are eight fighters and eight sections to the Star Destroyer, so I think after completing each section, I'll make one of the fighters.

I've decided that I'm going to populate the CIC with these:



Why? Because funny, that's why.

 

Port side frame completed! Now onto the starboard side...

 

Wow, you are gonna have one awesome collection!

BUT, why are their hands grey?!

 

Assimilated by the Borg?

 

Dammit, hadn't noticed that!

Hmm. Their skin colours are all different. I might ask a model painting friend of mine to sort this out...

 

Quick update:

This week has been exceptionally busy for me, to the point that some of the parts I'd laid out on Sunday for building are still on the table. I'm also on a lads' weekend in Devon, so no building (though may do a little tomorrow evening).

Some more minifigures have turned up, as well as most of the parts for the fighters. To save (a lot) of money, I opted to have all the parts delivered from UK based suppliers, which means that there are 38 small to medium deliveries to check.

 

Also, came across this on my Internet travels:



Seems like the correct order of things.

 

Blimey, life has been busy! Update time:



Starboard side frame almost complete. Progress will still be slow for the next three weeks as I'm off doing things for the next two weekends.

I've got eight of the 38 deliveries left to check in regards to the fighters. More minifigs have arrived too, including Grand Moff Tarkin.

 

An update:

Life has been extremely busy again (I was in Prague for a long weekend, and Manchester the weekend before that), so almost no progress beyond accounting for one delivery.

I've decided I'm going to 'combine' the Lego parts for the fighters and Star Destroyer (previously I was keeping the fighter components separate). This is to make it a bit easier to build the fighters at various points throughout the Star Destroyer's construction. Unfortunately this will take a few hours to do. I have to be careful with some parts though as the fighters use some parts that have subtle differences that allow unconventional building techniques to be employed.

I may have mentioned it already, but because the parts are not separated into bags in stages like a traditional Lego set, it actually takes a few hours to fetch the parts for the next 'set' of instructions. This weekend is free again, so building will resume!

Finally, my friend (who I was in Prague with,actually) who is also into photography, has agreed and is looking forward to doing a photoshoot once the models are complete.