With an impressive minifigure complement and plenty of wing-flapping, landing gear-extending action, this year’s 10327 Dune Atreides Royal Ornithopter was an early contender for my favorite LEGO set of 2024. Still, for some, its higher-than-average price per element might be as hard to swallow as the Water of Life, so we’re fortunate we have GolPlaysWithLego to create this iconic aircraft at a smaller scale.
One of the biggest challenges in rendering the ornithopter at any scale is making those long, spindly wings. Heck, the official set had to create a whole new piece to solve that problem. In this case (in an inspired choice worthy of the Kwisatz Haderach) the wings are ingeniously made from garage door panels. Here’s a rear view, where you can see the boarding ramp and landing gear recreated with beautiful fidelity. It just goes to show that when it comes to desert power, bigger isn’t always better.
How are the garage door panels connected?
I could be wrong, but it looks like small pieces of (cut) flex-tube.
As I wrote in my description, this is “mixed brands”, because I allowed myself some recolors that LEGO hasn’t produced (like, roller skates in dark grey, and the garage doors themselves not officially available in dark grey). So the garage doors are attached using the 1×1 lone studs pretty common in non-LEGO sets. Probably the best part ever made that LEGO will never make (because kids would lose them inside of bricks).
4081’s would also have jointed the doors but would have looked more bulky.
If I had to produce pure LEGO instructions I would have used 98135 swords for the wings for pretty much the same length. Only I didn’t wanna place an order for them and I already had the doors lol.
You can also spot a 1×3 slope in the back. This year LEGO has released a 1×6 slope and soon a 1×4, but we still have no 1×3. I also used a special 1×2 slope with a little indent for a nice added detail.