May I present to you: my second LEGO Space MOC, the Blacktron Star Fighter! This is an alternate build using only parts from set 40580: Blacktron Cruiser.
Also check out my first LEGO Space MOC, System Explorer, combining 70821 + 70841.
Blacktron Star Fighter Alt Build
The official build is a throwback to the original 6894: Blacktron Invader, from 1987. But, I am really dissatisfied with its tubular shape and wings that face the “wrong” way, so much so that I didn’t bother to build it. But I have now designed an alternate build!
- A sleek fighter with a tapered body and a nice top-down silhouette.
- Retain the assistant robot (with one modification).
- And like the original, the robot can be stashed in a storage compartment.
- I my solution to “fill” the long nose and how I connected the under-carriage cannon. The downside is the “loss” of the metal detector.
- All remaining pieces incorporated into a launch platform side build, with hooks for the hammer, wrench, and spare parts.
- A build using 100% parts, including spares!
The red and yellow stripe and thrusters are inspired by Luke_Bricks’ XL 15 Blacktron Cruiser MOC
Accurate angles in Bricklink Studio 2.0
Using Bricklink Studio 2.0 the second time around was easier, except I kept trying to guess the hinge angles for the tapered fuselage. That’s dumb... instead just “trig the s--t out of it” (to mangle the oft quoted line from The Martian by Andy Weir)
Any calculator will do, I used Calculator.net, but FYI the is a LEGO Angles Chart for standard pieces. In my case:
- height a = 2 studs,
- length b = 11 studs,
- therefore, angle ⍺ = 10.305°
To chuck that into Studio accurately:
- Click on the whole hinge
- Then hover over the tool icon to expand it and click the hinge icon (the last ^ one)
- Now, click on one of the two sections of the hinge to rotate
- And again, hover over the tool icon and click the rotation icon (the first one)
- Then, click on the arrow representing the direction of rotation (when it is highlighted in red) - but do not drag or adjust it
- Finally, click on the text box and edit the angle directly. One final tip: feel free to use negative numbers like below:
