Quote Originally Posted by SuspectimusPrime View Post
Are there any good guides out there for designing/Bricklinking your first custom?

I am considering building a custom TIE Fighter heavily based off the TFA mode - I'm thinking base frame + wing joint to keep things simple for myself, with colours heavily swapped out for shades of red. Looking for tips around:
* Going from ideation to LDD
* LDD to Bricklinking
* How to choose from Bricklink sellers etc. Maybe general weights/cost tables or calculator for different countries & perhaps delivery times (to save time researching into each country's national post website).
* Maybe a rule of the thumb number of spares as a % so the design is not royally screwed by a few missing critical pieces (I don't have disassembled sets to salvage from, so this project is do or die).
* Anything else a noob should be aware of?

Thanks in advance guys.
I am putting the final touches on my own custom. It has taken me ages to do as it ended up much more complex that I first thought. I had to take it as a learning step bit by bit as I never found suitable guides. It was basically an evolution. As I went on building it, I kept revising the build based on functionality and vision of what I wanted to accomplish. There were a lot of compromises along the way too. Also structural integrity was a big concern, specially around moving or pressure parts.

Unless there is already something pre-existing that matches your custom build closely, you just need to get a basic design plan, order a few bricks and then begin with the foundation. As you build it, you will know what other parts you will require.