Brick.ie The Irish Association for Adult Fans of LEGO®

As I've mentioned elsewhere I've had this project in mind for a few years, and have brought it forward due to the [url=]Freighter Wars Rebrick competition[/url].

So my goal is to build a ship on the scale of the UCS falcon, in a month, using mostly pieces I have already. Should be easy!

I've built several test sections already, but I'm keeping them secret until they're a little further along.

Today I'm showing one that I'm reasonably pleased with, the docking ports.

On the original 10179 Falcon, I felt they got a great level of detailing on the doors, but the ring of slopes surrounding it left something to be desired, but did at least capture the conical shape of the movie version. Here's someone else's photo:

In the announcement of the new 75192, they made a big point of the docking ports now being round, which use the new round tile pieces. While the round ports are nice, I find this a little disappointing, as it leaves only a 6x6 circle for the door, which has to be a lot less detailed as a result. It also loses the conical shape of the movie version, only managing a slight stepping in:

So I was wondering, can I get the best of both worlds? A roundish conical port with a detailed door? I thought I might be able to use a development of the technique I used on my Echo base turrets. Here is my first attempt:

Docking Ring Mk 1 by James Shields, on Flickr

This is it from behind. I could see myself using this for an engine or turbine in the future:

While I like the result, I only want the 4 studs of tile showing, so it was going to be difficult to embed in the wall of the Falcon in this form, so I went back to the drawing board:

Docking Ring Mk 2 by James Shields, on Flickr

This version uses a slightly different construction, relying on the bar holder with clip, one of my favourite parts. It allows the inside to be more compact, though the spacing means that 13 tiles don't quite fit around the circumfrance, so I have to be careful they don't pop off. I attribute this to the freighter being old and slightly battered. Here it is from behind:

This shows the internal construction:

And a close-up of the door detailing:

Now all I need is a freighter to incorporate it into!

James