[Town/City] Chevy Corvette in 15 studs WIP

[JPCJedi]

Gallery when public.




As you might now, the price of LDD/DesignbyMe has gone through the roof, so before I invest far too much in getting this set and its sisters delivered from Denmark, what have I missed here? How might I take it a step further with the designing here?

[theJudeAbides]

Seems pretty square-ish/blocky to me. Corvettes (and all other sports cars) are all about smooth, sleek, curvy lines, and I don't get that at all from this. I realize this is probably somewhat a result of the scale, but I still it's curviness could be improved. As a minifig-scale car, this works quite well, but as a sleek sports car, it falls a bit flat.

Please don't take this the wrong way, it's nothing personal. Just trying to give you feedback that's helpful. I assume that's what you wanted, given you posted this as a WIP.

Again, you've got the size and scale right, now you just need to focus on the details of making it a corvette rather than just another generic car.

[JPCJedi]

Oh, I appreciate the comment, believe me.

You're right in mentioning scale, because for me it starts with the cabin. I'm something of an anti-car-guy that way. I guess I'm also trying to show how easy it would be for the LEGO company to make their cars realistic, if I can go part of the way with just LDD. They could make all the dedicated slopes they'd need and use extra-large car chassis to result in low ground clearance. After the initial cost of design, making the cars realistic would only double the retail cost of each set in terms of size, but they'd be four times as appealing. Why not a $20 roadster with two minifigs instead of this $10 thing?

Still, I just honestly don't see how I could take this Corvette further than this, especially given the LDD limitations. For instance, the roof is too square, but adding more 1x1 cheese wedges would make the roof too thick. I could use this piece to finish the roof, but LDD only has it in black.

What do you think?


So please, give me some ideas here. It's too square I know, but if it really falls flat, how can I give it more zing?

[theJudeAbides]

Well, first of all, I would recommend not using LDD + DesignByMe but rather LDRAW + Bricklink. For one, LDraw is much more flexible in it's parts usage and allows you much more freedom in building (if you know how to use it). And for another, I'm sure you'll find Bricklink to be a far less expensive place to buy the parts you need.

For the car, I'd recommend looking into curved parts like this, this, this, and this. One of the main things that bothers me about this, though, is the squareness of the wheel wells. I'd recommend at least using inverse slopes to curve them up a bit, or perhaps that mudguard piece.

LEGO has introduced a lot of nice curvy pieces in the past few years, and most of them should prove useful to you. Think outside the block!!

[JPCJedi]

Well, I'm working on it. Here's a little Civic-sized 2+2 coupe using some of those pieces that are in LDD. Again, it shows what's possible. Please pardon the mixed colors.


I'm of two minds about this curvaceousness. On one hand, I like this result. I'm starting to appreciate what other AFOLs go through. I thought I was already looking at my work in the cold light of day, but yeah, no wow factor.

On the other hand, I like my squarish cars just fine. My only goal was to fit five minifigs in the box. *sigh*

I've realized, LEGO has done the curvaceous thing too with the Speed Racer sets. But my primary context was the dinky cars from the 90s. Those things, like my boxy cars, only vaguely resemble their real-life counterparts, and yet they are iconic sources of nostalgia. In fact I think LEGO sets have a certain charm when they look unrealistic. You know, it's campy.

But of course, if that was enough for me, I wouldn't be designing five-seater cars.

Hmm, that's more complicated than I thought it was.