Quote Originally Posted by kup View Post
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.
Thanks for your feedback, kup. Glad to hear that project you mentioned earlier is drawing to a close!

Time is against me on this project, as I want it for a specific purpose. Though if I don't make it I do have a plan B and C. The general idea was to swap out colours from 75101, however it has evolved to changing the wings and potentially adding a payload section. I figured if my other adjustments are symmetrical then it should retain structural integrity (much higher than pre-2013 sets).

I downloaded LDD last night and had a play with it. Seems easy enough however there's no way to test for structural integrity. I'm trying to limit multi-angled joints so in theory (going to eat these words) I should be able to save myself multiple orders and seriously save on time/reordering.

Just want to achieve the minimum viable product here. Not adding moving parts, additional play features, or too many others parts that offsets the centre of gravity. Got ideas on extra features, but I might only consider those after the first build is done. Plenty of silly add-ons and mods ideas out there to play with later on: http://i.imgur.com/qG4lpz3.jpg