Heinlein's Gay Deciever - In LEGO® Bricks
From the top, you get an idea of Gay's overall shape. The large cylinders to the rear of the cabin hold the power and water supplies (more on that in a bit) as well as serving as massive air-intakes.
The details on the roof are my concession to "making things look cool." I tried to make things look functional, and, in fact, even managed to work some details from the book into the mix.
The wings are retracted in roadable mode. Gay is described as "awkward to drive" in this mode, so I didn't spend a lot of time looking for an elegant solution for ground steering.
Looking closer, we can see the forward looking sensor array, as well as some unidentifiable machine-looking stuff. The book detail comes in when you look on the left hand side, and notice the little black widget with the blue lens.
In the course of figuring what could be stowed in every nook and cranny and what that would do to Gay's balance, I had discovered that my husband had a highly illegal laser cannon. I said nothing, merely included its mass and distance from optimum center of weight in my calculations. I sometimes wonder which of us is the outlaw: Zebadiah or I? Most males have an unhealthy tendency to obey laws. But that concealed L-cannon made me wonder. - page 74
The widget with the lens is the "concealed L-cannon" that Gay has installed. I took the "purloined letter" approach to things, since there wasn't any good way to have a side panel open to have the l-gun pop out. (I had it in my head that it would work just like the concealed chin gun on the Millennium Flacon - luckily I was able to get past that.)
So...how does it work?
Pretty straightforward - it lifts up and allows for a 320° arc of fire (estimated - it can tilt down quite a bit before it would slice into Gay's hull.)
This matches up with the book - Gay destroys some Russian ornithopters on Mars while a commander is standing (presumably) right in front of the front windows. If the L-gun was mounted on Gay's underside, it would have sliced him in two. As it is, he didn't even notice the gun firing until it was pointed out that his ship was ablaze.
The grounded ornithopter began to burn fiercely - but the colonel did not see it. We saw it - but he was looking at Zebbie. - page 167
A bit of artistic license here - I just wanted to show what the L-gun firing might look like. No beam - the above scene rules that out, but I figure a bit of lens flare is acceptable.
I couldn't fit the parts needed to have the l-gun rotate, but "in reality" the L-gun would have side-to-side motion as well. There's nothing in the text that requires this, but I think it'd only be reasonable to include.
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