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**UPDATED 6/25** Fixed and Upgrade Parts for SpaceX Mechazilla Launch Tower 1:144 scale

Fixed and upgraded parts for MikeNotBricks Starship Launch Tower & Launch Pad with Functional Chopsticks at 1:144 scale
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updated November 13, 2025

Description

PDF

Some parts will also work with:

@Josefson_162880 SpaceX Starship and orbital launch tower 1:144 scale (He actually just uploaded MikeNotBrick's design)

@hulkbuild_267368 Starship Orbital Launch Integration Tower "Mechazilla"

@Anubiz3D SpaceX Starship Orbital Lauch Tower Mechazilla with GSE Tanks (Rescale my 1:144 scale parts to fit  his 1:200 scale model--scale factor of .72)

*******NEW PARTS ADDED 6/2025***********

  1. I added a cable chain to the chopsticks assembly. When I was at a launch (IFT-7) I noticed it (see pictures). It works well and looks good, but only if you don't move the chopsticks. There isn't enough mass on the chain to make it bend naturally, so it won't work like a real cable chain. But I don't move my chopsticks, so it looks good. This assembly goes on the back left side of the tower when looking at the tower from the front where the OLM is. 

    Assembly:
    1. Print 3 cable chains. Glue the back of one cable chain segment to the long tab of another piece.
    2. Print 4 of the cablechainBackingConnectorWRetainer.stl. They are the connectors for the backing pieces. The post goes on the left and they point to the right.
    3. Print 4 cablechainBacking.stl. They go end to end with the tabs together. Glue a connector (above) to hold them together.
    4. Print the cablechainTopBottomBacking.stl. The narrow one is the top piece. Flip it over and glue the end tabs together. Align the right sides of the top tab and the piece below it. This piece is narrower because the left side will align with the QD arm mount. This moves the whole cable chain backing assembly a little to the left so the chopstick wheels won't hit it when moved.
      The other piece is the bottom backing. Flip it and glue the tabs together.
    5. Glue the backing to the tower. Align the top of the backing with the middle of the QD mount. Put drops of glue on the tower to the bottom of the backing.
    6. Gently fold the long tab of the connected cable chain 90* over the boxes of the chain. Glue the tab to the top of the chopstick carriage. The boxes of the chain should be facing to the right. I may add some small pieces to connect the chain to the chopsticks carriage later. 
    7. Grab the bottom of the chain and pull it up to the bottom of the QD arm mount. See where the cable chain will start to double back on itself and gently start to bend 3 or 4 links of the chain there. This puts the “J” in the chain.
    8. Glue the end of the chain to the left side of the QD arm mount.
       
  2. I added the antenna on the top of the tower. If you are printing this new, the top piece of the tower (NewTopSegmentTop.stl) has a hole to insert the antenna. If you are adding this after printing, there's a little mounting box that glues to the center of the top piece and has a hole for the antenna (see pictures).

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I was printing MikeNotBrick's excellent Mechazilla design (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5908857), but had issues with a few things and redesigned some things to make the build easier. My parts fix some of his parts, but does not include all the parts needed. You still have to download his files for some parts. MINE ARE NAMED THE SAME AS HIS BUT HAVE THE WORD “NEW” AT THE FRONT OF THE FILE NAME. I also put the number of each part to print with each part in the “Files” section. If I don't have the part, then use his.

The biggest problem I had was the posts on the top of the tower parts kept breaking off. I made all of the round holes square. I removed the connection posts and made rectangular prisms as connector links. They can be printed horizontally so the stress when assembling the tower is perpendicular to the plane of the layers. Simply put, they won't break. And if the holes print a little small, it is easy to sand the links until they fit.

The spool mechanism for securing the string that raises and lowers the chopsticks was hard to assemble. I widened the gap to make it easier to slide the cable spool-stop. I also removed the posts that supported the cable spool shaft. One broke off my print when I was trying to remove the stuck spool-stop. I made them so they could be printed horizontally, which increases their strength. I also redid the shaft and gears so that they could be printed separately. This also made them stronger.

The posts that connect the Quick Disconnect Arm to the mounting bracket snapped off (stress parallel to the layers). Those parts took nearly 20 hours to print and a ridiculous amount of organic support, so there was not a chance in, well, you know, that I was going to reprint those pieces. Instead, I designed glue on replacement parts with posts. I figured that a few add-on parts that take away a tiny bit from the realism of the model was an acceptable tradeoff.

Then, as I was putting the stabilizer arms on the QD Arm, another post snapped off. So, I designed a replacement part for the two posts on the front. I had to use nippers to cut the rest of that bracket off so I could glue the new part on (See the last picture).

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Model origin

The author remixed this model.

Differences of the remix compared to the original

  1. Removed the connecting posts from the tower segments. Made the holes square and created a square post to connect the segments.
  2. This also meant that I had to do the same for the Base Bottom and the Base Top.
  3. Made the cable spool modular and easier to print. This also increases the strength of the parts. (Make sure the teeth of the gears face the same way when assembling it. See the pictures for an example of the wrong way and the correct orientation.)
  4. Made QDMountingBracketReplacement to fix broken mounting posts on the QD arm. It's a complicated and long print, so when two little mounting posts broke off, I wasn't about to reprint the whole thing. These parts glue on. The part for the top only fits on one way.
  5. The posts that hold the stabilizer arms also broke. I made a piece to replace them (NewQDArmFrontStabalizerArmPostReplacements). I had to use nippers to cut off the arms that hold the posts and the bottom of the QD Arm. The new part has a wall sticking up to glue onto the back of the QD Arm. When I get some time, I'll probably modify the QD Arm and remove the part I had to cut off. Then the two parts will fit together cleaner. But this works for now.
  6. NEWLY ADDED JUNE 2025--I added a cable chain to the chopsticks assembly. When I was at a launch (IFT-7) I noticed it. It works well and looks good, but only if you don't move the chopsticks. There isn't enough mass on the chain to make it bend naturally, so it won't work like a real cable chain. But I don't move my chopsticks, so it looks good.
  7. NEWLY ADDED JUNE 2025--I added the antenna on the top of the tower. If you are printing this new, the top piece of the tower (NewTopSegmentTop.stl) has a hole to insert the antenna. If you are adding this after printing, there's a little mount that glues to the center of the top piece and has a hole for the antenna (see pictures).

Planned and Possible Additions: (Compatible with already assembled towers)
1. Add parts (LED mounting brackets, wiring raceways, battery compartment and switch) to be able to add LEDs to the tower.
2. Possibly an addition to the OLM to raise the Starship model a few inches and LED mounts to Add yellow, orange, and red LEDs in the middle of cotton or other fluffy material to simulate a launch.

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