Let me know what you think!
You can't see it very well, but I actually have the landing lights on the tips of each wing. They're on in all of these pictures, but you really can't tell. It looks really neat in person, though!
Believe it or not, I actually had this modle done before I saw the picture of the 2001 model that is supposed to be comming out soon. They use the same Star Wars engine piece for the wing attachments as I do. But their shuttle is much smaller! (and doesn't have lighted wings - I'm proud of that, can you tell?)
Here's the left side. Looks a lot like the right side, doesn't it. Funny thing about symetry...
You can almost tell that the lights are on in
this picture! Especially the ones on the top and right wings.
Here's the side view... In retrospect, I think the cockpit should be a bit smaller. It looks a little out of proportion to the rest of the model. Maybe someday I'll go back and work on that. I haven't changed it yet however, because it took a long time to work out the geometries for the cockpit area the first time. I'm sure it wouldn't be much easier the second. But its on my list of possible future improvements.
Here's a close up of the cockpit.
And a close up of the wing mounted guns. This was a real challenge for me. But I felt it was important to get this detail as it is one of the few details on the Landing Shuttle. Also, note the "air intake" on the side of the main body just above. It was difficult to get much info on this detail, but I like how it came out. You can also see it in cockpit close up just above.
This shows how I mounted the top wing (note that it isn't Studs Up). It just has three 2xn's sticking out of the bottom with a row of tiles on one side and plates on the other. This makes it fit quite snugly in a 2x2 hole. Also note the extra 1x1 space I left in the center hole for the wires for the wing light.