Kit-bashing a gunship

[koromo]

I missed out on the 7676 gunship when it was in the stores. Neither I nor my wallet are prepared (at least for while) to hunt down a kit on chance finding it on ebay or BL. (Let alone X-mas pricing).

Ive been pondering of late what sets would it take to construct a Gunship, if I were to deconstruct a few in favor of this craft. The idea is along the lines of the old supersets back in BTII and M-Tron where 3 sets combined into a super-vehicle.

so far I have figured I'd need to cannibalize:

- V-19 Torrent for the wings and engines
-2 V-wings (ROTS) for the cockpits and deep red pieces
-Seperatist spider droid for the gun pieces and Cmdr Fox to stand in for Cody
-Hoth battle pack or Endor for a speeder
-ARC starfighter or {Rep attack shuttle} for more hull, wing and engine pieces.
-Trifighter droid for the bubble cockpits.

Im sure the AT-OT Dropship would more than cover half the necessary pieces, but I do not have that one, though I am curious of any other combinations, thoughts or ideas.

[koromo]

So I have decided to go with this project though in a slightly different manner. I have found a few nice lego sets on clearance (not SW) and have been culling them for parts to build the Gunship.

However I have expanded my parts list to try to finish a Rep Tank, Ashoka's Fighter and perhaps the AT-TE {long term challenge}.

And I have downloaded the instructions, and added the part-out lists on bricklink.
However I have yet to buy for the first time on BL and hoping to narrow my online scavenger hunt to most essential pieces.

I am not looking for exact part colors but hopefully in the same grouping, that Republic deep red is hard to find.

If you have any of the angled, modified and or not-so-common bricks that would fit the four sets Im working on please let me know.

I am sure I'll have something to trade( or could buy). Recently acquired the magma mech and smash n grab, two seaplanes, two clone walkers, and the city minifigure box on clearance. I am not sure I am fan of purple bricks...

Thanks for reading

[legitimatealex]

I think you would be better off posting this specific post in the Buy/Sell/Trade forum.

[BobaFett2]

I think you would be better off posting this specific post in the Buy/Sell/Trade forum.

He's not buying, selling, or trading. He just wants to figure out how to make a gunship without buying the set.

[koromo]

I think you would be better off posting this specific post in the Buy/Sell/Trade forum.

He's not buying, selling, or trading. He just wants to figure out how to make a gunship without buying the set.

Please leave this thread here for now, I kinda wanted to mark down my rather ambitious project.

If I make any direct request for specific parts or opening a trade dialog I will do so in the trading sub-forum.

Thanks :D

[hatcher]

I did something similar (made my own gunship) a few years back. I used a website called peeron.com. It has most of the lego sets ever made and most of them (at least the older sets) have complete inventories that are cross referenced with other sets that have the same parts. I used it to help me figure out what parts I already had from other sets (it shows all the color choices for each part as well if color isn't an issue). I also used it to make my own UCS Millenium Falcon. That took me about 6 months to track down all the pieces I had, and then figure out what parts I needed to buy from bricklink.

Peeron is a bit behind on inventorying the most recent sets, but for older sets like the gunship its all good.

[koromo]

Peeron is most helpful thank you for that lead. Though it would be nice to have the new sets listed to help factor in new releases into the project. For that I check the Lego online instruction PDFs.

I am getting along well so far collecting pieces. [boxed kit is listed at 1034 ]
Though there are a some pieces that seem beyond kit bashing.

Focusing on the more unique pieces like those half-sphere-and-socket grey gun mounts. I may use the construction method from the original release gunship that used wheel rims but I like the newer style. I guess I will have to put these on my bricklink scavenge list. Hopefully they do not become too rare to find/buy.

The more regular pieces I think I can come up with eventually, some others I may do on an occasional pick-a-brick.

Or TLC could do a re-release in the near future if we can have 4 releases of Slave 1s and 5 Falcons why not another Gunship from the TV show?

[BobaFett2]

Peeron is most helpful thank you for that lead. Though it would be nice to have the new sets listed to help factor in new releases into the project. For that I check the Lego online instruction PDFs.

I am getting along well so far collecting pieces. [boxed kit is listed at 1034 ]
Though there are a some pieces that seem beyond kit bashing.

Focusing on the more unique pieces like those half-sphere-and-socket grey gun mounts. I may use the construction method from the original release gunship that used wheel rims but I like the newer style. I guess I will have to put these on my bricklink scavenge list. Hopefully they do not become too rare to find/buy.

The more regular pieces I think I can come up with eventually, some others I may do on an occasional pick-a-brick.

Or TLC could do a re-release in the near future if we can have 4 releases of Slave 1s and 5 Falcons why not another Gunship from the TV show?

Because the TV show stinks in general?

[Luciant]

LOL

I was considering doing this same thing to several sets I'm missing in my collection, and I've been considering how to do it as well.

I'm thinking the easiest way is to use peeron.com for the list of parts, as well as link to sets that have the same pieces. It also links you to sites that sells those specific pieces... (i.e. I am missing a yellow 8x8 Circular pre-printed piece from Harry Potter 4701 Sorting Hat... i got the set dirt cheap practically unopened, and I can buy that 1 piece for like $1 plus shipping or less i think... I haven't done so cuz I wanted to go through my other sets for missing pieces like that and make a bulk purchase to save on shipping. >:) Gotta save where you can no?

[BobaFett2]

LOL

I was considering doing this same thing to several sets I'm missing in my collection, and I've been considering how to do it as well.

I'm thinking the easiest way is to use peeron.com for the list of parts, as well as link to sets that have the same pieces. It also links you to sites that sells those specific pieces... (i.e. I am missing a yellow 8x8 Circular pre-printed piece from Harry Potter 4701 Sorting Hat... i got the set dirt cheap practically unopened, and I can buy that 1 piece for like $1 plus shipping or less i think... I haven't done so cuz I wanted to go through my other sets for missing pieces like that and make a bulk purchase to save on shipping. >:) Gotta save where you can no?

I didn't know peeron links you to where they sell the part. You can get it cheaper on bricklink anyhow http://www.bricklink.com/search.asp?ite ... &colorID=3 - although you might not get the same shipping prices

[Luciant]

When buying individual pieces, It seems the most expensive part is really the shipping. Most pieces individually cost less than $1, so in my opinion the only way to really justify ordering individual (or specific pieces), is to buy them in a bulk to disperse the shipping cost over the whole order...

That's where I've realized I've "burnt" the most cash when I've purchased on Ebay... not paying attention to shipping or sellers to try to combine shipping... as I go I'm getting more cost conscious though =) I just keep telling myself "Yes it's expensive, but there is a GREAT secondhand market should I ever need to get rid of them..." =)

[koromo]

Yeah shipping can be a bugger. Since I've been finding other parts outside the gunship I have a good start on those other vehicles I mentioned so I hopefully can bundle some batches of parts to bring them all closer to completion.

I can't believe I'm considering bashing the 2007 slave I to do this but I guess it's easier when I got the '10 at a good rate.

[autobrick]

Koromo, please keep us updated with your Gunship project; I missed out on 7676 as well so this is something I may do in the future. I am planning on building my own Cafe Corner and it never crossed my mind to build my own 7676.

As an aside, if you were to buy all the parts separately (as opposed to buying a new set) on Bricklink, you would save roughly $55 (although this figure is an average and does not include shipping): http://www.bricklink.com/catalogPOV.asp ... ondition=N
You would save even more if you are willing to forgo the minifigs.

I did something similar (made my own gunship) a few years back.
...
I also used it to make my own UCS Millenium Falcon.

Wow, that is amazing (especially the UCS Falcon!). Would you care to share details (how much did it end up costing, strategies, etc)?

[hatcher]

I did something similar (made my own gunship) a few years back.
...
I also used it to make my own UCS Millenium Falcon.

Wow, that is amazing (especially the UCS Falcon!). Would you care to share details (how much did it end up costing, strategies, etc)?

Well, it was definitely an insane thing to do. :)
The whole process took me over six months. First, I had to enter all the sets I owed in Peeron.com's data base. Then I did a "try to build" on the UCS Falcon. This gave me a list of all the parts I had, all the parts I had in different colours, and all the parts I didnt have. I converted this list to a spread sheet, and then started cross referencing the parts I had with the sets they were in. Some of the pieces were in sets I didn't want to take apart, so I had to add those parts to the needed list. Then, I downloaded and printed off the instructions for the UCS Falcon. They filled four duotangs. Once I knew what parts I needed, I went to bricklink to start ordering parts. Here was my first problem, peeron and bricklink use different names for some of the parts, so I had to cross reference the parts names from the peeron list to the bricklink. Ordering parts was interesting, as some of the parts I needed were not available in the quantities I needed. So, had to go through the instruction manual page by page looking for the parts, and determining if I could use a different colour piece without compromising the ships appearance. Once I finally had the parts ordered, I then had to start pulling the pieces from my collection. Some of the parts were in sets I had on display, so I had to take them apart. It was a lot of work. Finally, I was able to start assembling. The assembly itself took about a month, working for about an hour each night. Of course, along the way you discover you are missing a part you thought you had and have to go track it down.

In terms of cost, I think all told I spent around $150 on bricklink to get all the parts I needed. Of course, that doesn't count all the parts I pulled from my collection.

I still haven't figured out how/where to display the thing, its HUGE! But I have no plans to ever take it apart, not after all the hard work I put into it.

[koromo]

As an aside, if you were to buy all the parts separately (as opposed to buying a new set) on Bricklink, you would save roughly $55 (although this figure is an average and does not include shipping): http://www.bricklink.com/catalogPOV.asp ... ondition=N
You would save even more if you are willing to forgo the minifigs.

Yeah I will have a more substansive update on my to-do list, though I have other things on my time of late. Snow anyone?

Granted I am avoiding the $250 floating price tag on a complete kit as there is a premium on the discontinued 7676 compounded by the presence of single-issue Cody and Ventress. I don't feel like yielding to price adjustment and neither does my wallet.

I have made the overall task easier and cheaper since I am not going after the mini figures or the detachable items like the bacta tank, etc.

My reference is the inventory from the instruction's pdf. I have made some scribbles about pieces that can vary in colour and major pieces I have already set aside.

At present I should do an audit of the parts I have in the bash bins which consist of clearance lego kits and some duplicates from my SW collection.

My next source of parts would be some display models that I'll be breaking down for long term storage. That forces me to do some photography work of my whole collection and make some arrangements for particular scenes that I have been meaning to do.

The step after that is ordering pieces from PaB and BL or chance finds in a PaB crawl.