I'm fairly new to my adult reintroduction of Lego, and this has meant i've had my beady little eyes on more of the larger more advanced sets to build, which inevitably has lead me to drool over some of the EOL more expensive sets available. And like a lot of people out there I can't justify paying (read: my wife won't let me pay) hundreds sometimes thousands on a set just to build it and break it down again (maybe display it if she thinks it's pretty and there's room).

 

So with budget in mind I started bricklinking 10221 Super Star Destroyer.

 

Now, apart from a few of the more expensive parts (I'm not bothering with minifigs) I've actually stayed fairly true to the original colours, but as I'm looking at the instructions (printed at work to keep the price down) and browsing bricklink, I'm realising that I could have substituted a lot more of the colours (for the bricks that aren't even visible) and kept the price down even further. Not only because a different colour would have been cheaper but also because I could have reduced the amount of stores I purchased from and thus reduced shipping costs.

 

I still have a few things to purchase but they're all very common cheap pieces but all-in-all I've managed to keep this build well under $400 ($200 when I tell the wife). If I had of read the instructions earlier and figured out which bricks don't show and could have been a different colour I think I could have got it down close to $300, when you compare this to the $550 I would have to pay for a used set on Ebay I'm pretty happy with the outcome (obviously this could change when everything arrives, I build it and get OCD about everything not being the exact right colour).

 

All this leads nicely into the inevitable question.

 

How many of you, that actually read this far down, would sacrifice targeted brick colours for the sole purpose of keeping the price of a set down just so that you can have the fun of building it? And I'm not talking about just buying the black masts for 10179, I'm thinking more along the lines of having the whole insides of it black if you knew that you couldn't tell by looking at the outside of it and it saving you half the buy price.

 

P.s. Since I doubt my wife will find this build very pretty, and she'll inevitably find out exactly how much I spent, I'm going to have a little foresight and ask if anyone would be interested in buying this after I'm done building it?

Thanks much for the feedback. I'll give the black posts a shot. Nice to hear it looks fine.

Here is a pic of it. Not the best angle but you can see the contrast with the black post and brown circles between them. really looks fine imho. I still went with brown for the narrow posts on the top. The side supports (ladder looking things) being black helps them blend in nicely. 

Edited February 17, 20178 yr by marcandre

7 minutes ago, Poly 30286 said:

@Alpinemaps Do you care to elaborate on these "stalled projects"? Or are you satisfied with sharing your picture of miscellaneous padded mailers?

Picked up from here: 

 

I've talked about my Halloween Town, Fairgrounds, and Winter Village ideas for years, but I've never fully implemented them.  We take a couple sets out at the right time of the year, but don't actually have a full on display set up.  I decided it was time to get my displays idea restarted.  So I'm stocking up on plates and tiles, and other parts I need.  I've had a few ideas on how to build actual displays, and I finally want to start attacking these ideas.

I'm way behind schedule, though.  I thought I'd need 4-6 months to be able to get ahead of the game (e.g., if I started working on the Winter Village stuff now, I'd be ready for December).  But reality is, I need to be about 9 months ahead of schedule.  So a lot of what I'm buying right now is for the Winter Village, but it probably won't be on display until December 2018.  I'm primarily trying to build a small stream (with a bridge) and a lake.

As soon as I get ever a part of what I'm trying to do built, I'll post it.

I'm also trying to build the Celebration 2017 set:

Almost done getting all the parts for that.

 

@Alpinemaps I hear you loud and clear. I started BL'ing a 10228 Haunted House last September. It took me until this February or March to finish acquiring the pieces without dying of fright. All those pieces have been counted, sorted, and placed in a box since about April. Due to um, LIFE, I will not have it built until Halloween 2018 at the earliest.

 

Have fun opening your packages. I don't know if you are strictly stick to the list when ordering, but it's often a surprise for me. In each pack there's a few "oh yeah, I forgot I ordered that too".

56 minutes ago, Poly 30286 said:

Have fun opening your packages. I don't know if you are strictly stick to the list when ordering, but it's often a surprise for me. In each pack there's a few "oh yeah, I forgot I ordered that too".

I try not to do that too often, because costs skyrocket if I just let myself do that.

But, I always try to look around a shop to make sure there isn't a little something I might want/need, especially if I'm spending < $10 at the shop.