Here's the pictures, comments follow at the bottom:
This is my first attempt at building a mini model, and I was struck by how important each and every piece is. It's a constant battle between form and function, which almost always means compromise.
The arm and "hand" went through many redesigns - my priority was to make it as functional as the full size version, and then make it look as good as I could within that constraint. I'm not totally happy with the hand's looks, as it doesn't completely close around the rocket, but it's the best I've come up with so far.
I also toyed with using black 2x2 radar dishes for the wheels, but couldn't decide which I liked better - in the end I ended up using these 2x2 rounded bottom plates because I already had 8 of them :)
The trans-yellow front presented some challenges - if I had some 1x2 trans-yellow plates it would have allowed a slightly better design - the blue plate wouldn't have had to extend under the trans-yellow to hold up the 1x1s I had. The two Bricklink sellers with lots of trans-yellow 1x2s at the time only shipped to the USA :(
A 1x1 version of the 1x2 grille tile would have been great for ladders.
The 1x2 yellow tiles at the rocket's nose are too big, but everything else I experimented with (various yellow plumes, 1x1 levers in all yellow, even minifig hands!) looked even worse.
On a related note, I was also working on a very large "tribute" to 6950 - part of it was making a huge rocket. Not wanting to pay $50 for enough macaroni lego to build a huge version of the rocket, I thought I could save some money with a bunch of 4x4 turntables in black and white. I didn't realize how much give these turntables have, making it look quite impotent when the rocket is held horizontally. So, here's a picture of it before it gets scrapped.
Last Update: 2003.03.01
Robin Harbron - macbeth@tbaytel.net