[MOC] United Airlines Boeing 777-200

[Freezeur]

Hello everyone!

I'm sorry for coming totally out of the blue. I might have already posted on this forum but ages ago, to be honest I don't even remember. 

Let me (re)introduce myself very quickly: I am a Lego fan and occasional MOCer from France (sorry for the potential English mistakes!). For some reasons I haven't been really active these last times in anything related with Lego but I still follow, directly or indirectly, the main "activity" in terms of official sets, MOCs and all that stuff.

However, last year, I decided to go for a new MOC: a Boeing 777(-200) with the United Airlines livery. It has been a CRAZY adventure, which kept me busy during like 11 months, which makes this MOC the one I spent the longest time working on, and by far, even though I haven't built a lot of MOCs yet. That's also the MOC that got me to search the most deeply in terms of technic, which made it the hardest one to build for me. To make a long story short, the main challenges is to be able to hold the wings (and all the back of the plane) "suspended" (sorry if it isn't the good word or expression), and also to have all this LOUD mass stand on 3 "thin" landing gears.

Actually, I have completed the build at the end of 2020, so let's say 1 year ago, but it took me until July of this year (2021) to be able to have good pictures. I don't know why I'm introducing my creation here so late lol.

Its size is around 155x160cm and I used an estimated 10 000 parts (I should go for a count).

I would have so much to say, and I really don't know what to begin with, so I'll just cover a few things:
- Some of you might already know the crazy MOCer and FlickR user BigPlanes. His creations (mainly his Boeing 787 Dreamliner) have been a big source of inspiration, and I owe him a lot. Not because he "helped" me (I did everything by myself, in my own style, anyway I don't understand all his techniques), but because seeing his creations gave me the proof it is possible to make such a model stand, otherwise I might not have gone for it.
- For the first time, I EXCEPTIONNALLY used some stickers, but as little as possible (for example I willingly removed the ones on the cockpit or outside the doors). I really make a point of reminding this is all Lego, and even though I want to make my model look realistic, I don't want it to look like it's not Lego anymore, or to look too customized. I almost kept nothing outside the tail (of course), and I have to say I'm pretty glad about how it looks (by the wayn, the work for the stickers was a PAIN, it took me SO long and so much effort, mainly because the stickers are all 100% self made).
- One of the reasons why the build took me so long is because I struggled to use as little illegal techniques as possible! I am now proud to say that most of the plane is reproducible on LDD!
- Of course, I didn't use anything like glue, inner metallic or whatever structure or blablabla.
- I let the interior of the plane convertible. I'll see later what I'll do with it! 

See you soon!

My FlickR page: https://www.flickr.com/photos/139537220@N03/with/51345305617/

Edited November 24, 2021 by Freezeur

[Chilis]

Omg! This is beautiful!! So big and well detailed <3. Bring it out on IDEAS and you`ll have my vote for sure! Keep bricking!

[Roses]

Outstanding sculpting on the cockpit area, well done!

[Johnny1360]

Yes, you really knocked it out of the park, great job indeed. Planes are notoriously difficult to build in LEGO form and I love seeing a good one but this is a whole new level, it all looks so good it is hard to focus on what I like best, although I am sure there are some not so perfect solutions used, I fail to see them.

Above all, way to stick with it and not only finish it but share the great photos, thanks.

One question, I assume you used some sort of blue print, this should maybe go in the scale modelers forum. I am no expert but it looks good enough to me, lol. Definitely front page material.

Edited November 24, 2021 by Johnny1360

[koalayummies]

That is without question one of the most realistic aircraft I've ever seen built in Lego. Some of the hardest things to recreate in this medium are the flowing, almost entirely rounded and curved shapes of airplanes and this thing looks like a scale model that you also managed at minifigure scale. Most impressive and amazing work!

[brimbolet]

Didn't realize until the last picture that your plane is soo big! Simply stunning.

[Man with a hat]

Oh, WOW. 

Absolutely amazing. This is incredible. I am truly surpised at how accurate this is. All those impossible double curved surfaces. Outstanding.

[Freezeur]

Hello everyone,

Thank you very much for all your kind messages, it is really nice from you ! 

I will try to answer to everyone:

- Chilis: I can bring it out on IDEAS but there isn't even a single doubt that this won't be selected by LEGO to become an official set, mainly because there are way too many pieces.

- Johnny1360: Actually I didn't detailed the searching and building process, but no, I didn't use ANY plan, blueprint or so!
As I wanted the plane to look realistic, of course I had to look at pictures of the (real) one, but that's all. The "funny" thing is that, when I really needed to have a measurement (particularly when it came to proportions), most of the time I measured things on pictures by sticking a measuring tape directly on my screen! And I didn't always have my computer with me, which means that in a lot of cases I measured things on my PHONE screen, with a measuring tape!
Thus, I used to work using a "ratio", a kind of chart with 4 colomns : size in real life, size in cm on the picture, size in LEGO, number of studs in LEGO. Finding Boeing 777-200's official sizes was also tricky for some reasons, but mainly because it's not always precise and it changes from one source to another. For very small details though, I sometimes worked on softwares such as Paint to use another ratio, this time measuring it on pictures by counting the number of PIXELS!
I was aware that, even though I tried to be precise, this way of working was still full of approximations, and might lead to some proportions/size problems, but strangely enough, not really!
One thing I also used a LOT was the Wikipedia (you see the approximation ) "Boeing 777" page. But, once again, that helped, but it was quite limited. Anyway I tried to make a mix of all these sources and to find the best compromises, everywhere.
The thing that was the hardest to measure/calculate was ANGLES, mainly for the tail. I set up a whole new system of measurement to find its good placement and inclination. If you're interested, I think I still have funny pictures of that process.
Also, I want to say that I used measurements on the main parts of the plane (let's say for spacing the doors correctly, for example) in order to have a realistic model, but I didn't do that everywhere, for 2 reasons: there are some parts that you just can't reprodruce with their realistic size/proportions in LEGO (the windows, for example), and also because I wanted the keep a part of "freedom" in the building (and additionally because sometimes only, trying to be as accurate as possible wouldn't result as the most eye-pleasing solution).

- Koalayummies: building it at a minifig scale wasn't my first goal, all the more so since, unlike my model, minifigs don't have realistic proportions, but I'm actually glad it turned so, and my plane is convertible! 

Edited December 2, 2021 by Freezeur

[Johnny1360]

Cool, the end results were great for such a long arduous way of scaling it, looks very close to the real thing, any closer and it couldn't be LEGO, right? 

And yes it would be great to see those other build process pictures too, I just love this plane. All the hard work that went into it definitely shows.

Edited December 2, 2021 by Johnny1360

[alvinofdiaspar]

C'est magnifique! Absolutely stunning details - I could barely tell this is Lego at first glance.

[Feuer Zug]

That's a big 777. Your attention to detail recreating all the curves is amazing. Great work.