Learn how LEGO Model Designer Nathan Heigert combined LEGO System bricks with Technic mechanisms to create 11389 Project Hail Mary.
Building a spaceship in LEGO bricks is no easy task, especially when it requires blending System and Technic elements together — LEGO Model Designer Nathan Heigert ound the perfect balance between the two for 11389 Project Hail Mary .
Project Hail Mary, a new sci-fi film directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller and starring Ryan Gosling, is set to hit cinemas soon. It is based on the novel by Andy Weir. The story follows Ryan Gosling’s character, Ryland Grace, on a journey through the stars — a journey that takes place on the ship known as the Hail Mary.
“The brief was presented as wanting to make a microscale set based on the Hail Mary from this upcoming movie,” says Model Designer Nathan Heigert. “And as a sort of ‘nice to have,’ there’s this feature of the ship motion, the centrifugal motion, that is important to the movie. So we wanted to see if we could implement that at all. There are three components to it, where it first extends the crew compartment, then at a certain point it rotates 90 degrees, and then that’s when the centrifugal motion kicks in.
“And I thought, cool, that’s going to be awesome. But I wasn’t really sure how to do it. So right off the bat, I took some stabs at it, and you can imagine how inelegant those versions of the idea were. But it was all about demonstrating the potential. I took a couple weeks to try out different ideas.”
As Nathan was experimenting with different ways to get the motion working just right, there was one thing that was always constant: the scale of the model.
“It was always going to be within a few degrees of this scale, just because of the challenges of depicting something that exists in zero gravity,” Nathan explains. “The spacecraft has these long, unsupported sections that if you build too big, they start to weigh down and sag. And so there was going to be an obvious upper limit to how big we could do this. Then once the mechanism component was included in the model, you also have the parameters like the clearance of the ship going around to ensure the radiators don’t collide with anything and that your hand is never in the way.”
Upgrade your LEGO hobby! If you take out a subscription to Blocks, the monthly LEGO magazine, you’ll get each issue first and at a discount, plus other perks including a free digital subscription and the chance to win LEGO prizes every month.
With the scale pretty much locked in place and weeks of prototyping done, it came time to start homing in on the finer points of the design and figuring out how exactly to build the function while nailing the aesthetics of the ship — things that Nathan soon learned would require mixing System and Technic elements.
“Even though it only took a few prototypes to hit on the principle of the design, it was all about fine tuning it and playing with different ways to drive the motion,” Nathan says. “I had to learn a lot about Technic and gears and all the tolerances and forces that go into driving a function like this.
“One of the key compromises in the design is that we had to rely a lot on Technic components, just for structural soundness and in order to effectively drive the function. It was a question of how far we can go with pure System brick building, and we came to the conclusion that we couldn’t rely on that. We basically have a façade on the front of System bricks, then when you drive the function, you’re going to be focusing on that and less on what’s happening in the back.”
And for Nathan, working with Technic was something he hadn’t much done before jumping into this project. Some themes lean heavily on Technic — many a Star Wars ship is a shell of plates around a Technic core — but Nathan had previously worked on LEGO City, a mainly System-focused theme.
“We treat Technic models quite differently than System models,” Nathan explains. “There’re dedicated designers to all Technic models, and you can make the jump from one to the other, but it’s so technically different that it’s really just easier for a designer to focus on one or the other. So I did have to learn quite a bit because I’m working on the System side. It wasn’t brand-new information to me, but there were things about the way the drive train works that it was necessary to learn basic mechanical principles.
“My initial instinct with the function was to make it so it goes as fast as possible. But when you do that, it’s inefficient and it starts to skip and click and it doesn’t work well. So I made good use of the designers in Technic and made several visits over there to talk through the design and learn from the best. That was super useful.
“And coming from City, I liked to work with functions. And even though this is different, I know from experience that the principle is to keep it simple. You need it to work right every time. It’s unclear at first, how it works. But when you see what goes into it, it’s quite easy to understand. So I’m glad that we were able to make use of that simple mechanism to drive this complex motion and that it worked so well.”
Nathan’s hard work blending System and Technic elements certainly shows in the final model. And that wasn’t the only challenge he faced: He also had to come up with a way to portray Rocky and design the whole model for a movie that wasn’t even fully made yet.
If you’re interested in purchasing 11389 Project Hail Mary, please consider doing so via our affiliate links to help support the work we do here at Blocks, online and in print.
And if you want to find out when new LEGO sets are announced, sign up to our free newsletter. Of course, if you really want to upgrade your LEGO hobby for the true insider experience, take out a subscription to Blocks, the monthly LEGO magazine for fans.