Newb question

[tdwsaturn]

What do the cores of your ships usually look like?
Without all of the bits that make it pretty.
I'm curious because the outside parts are pretty easy to figure out how to build, but not so much the core of the ships.
Y'know, cuz they're not visible.

[Valtarshol]

I don't know about other people, but I find it easiest to start in one of two ways:
1: Build the ship on a spine of vertically oriented bricks that have studs on the top and two sides, or for thicker ships a double row of bricks with studs on one side.
2: Build the ship on a spine of horizontally oriented travis bricks and 1x1 plates; the specific ratio is 1 brick, 2 plates, another brick, another 2 plates, and so on. For a thicker ship this one's easy enough, but some spacing can get funky, since it needs bricks with studs on the side in alternating directions. As a result, sometimes having more fiddly, small bits near one end or another can get harder to manage.

[Luke_BMM]

What do the cores of your ships usually look like?
Without all of the bits that make it pretty.
I'm curious because the outside parts are pretty easy to figure out how to build, but not so much the core of the ships.
Y'know, cuz they're not visible.

A number of people - myself included - were really taken by Hyvemind's Nimbus Mk II core. It's pretty great for making fairly small frigates with lots of options for exteriors.

[Atavism]

Just to chime in, you're going to see a lot of spaced out SNOT or Travis brick cores, or the same general idea but with cubes made of brackets. Another technique is to just stack bricks front to back, and use a technic brick to SNOT brick connection to add panels when you need to.

EXAMPLE

[tdwsaturn]

Hmm... I'll have to dig around my collection more to see what I have available.

Along those same lines, what parts are the most frequently used?
What parts would you recommend?

I'm looking to make a big purchase of parts on Bricklink so I can build as many ships as I can.

[Atavism]

Building ships is more similar to traditional lego modelling compared to the mechs, which actually makes it harder to make a standard parts list. There's a few things, SNOT, curved slopes, tiles... They're usually helpful. It's going to really depend on your personal style

[Blorf]

There also seems to be a wider range of things that are accepted. Frames, in general, need identifiable things like legs. Those need to be functional in holding the frame up. Ships just need to hold together: physics don't matter so much and nobody knows what a 3rd-century SC engine would look like.

[tdwsaturn]

True and true.

But having a "commonly used parts" list would be crazy helpful in getting started.
Especially for those new to the mini/micro scale builds. I'm used to huge sized creations.

[Blorf]

Anything with a bar, a clip, a stud with a hole in it, or has studs facing two or more different directions will give you a lot of flexibility. From there, just buy parts and colors that appeal to you.