A Common Enemy

[DarthNick]

(1)Overall shot. - (2)A view of the Pirate Cannon Shooter and Imperial Cannon Shooter.

(3)A view of a Pirate gal with her hands up in excitement, and another Pirate yelling in disgust at the exploding bird. - (4)A view of an Imperial guard, looking in jealousy as the Pirates score the winning point.

(5)A view of the Imperial Captain paying the Pirate Captain. - (6)A better shot of the Pirate receiving his payment.

Here's a link to the set, with additional images: PTVII: A Common Enemy

Please let me know ASAP of any suggestions you may have. Thanks!

[Tereglith]

This is a very nice MOC! The building is very sleek, and you did a good job on the exloding seagull and cannon blast. I like the idea as well- seagulls ARE annoying as heck! The only thing that I would suggest changing is the heads of the gulls, if you can. White clips with a yellow tooth piece or hand underneath would look better and more birdlike.

[MetroiD]

Another last last last minute entry! Yay! (As a matter of fact, it's already 1. December in my corner of the world!) This one is pretty much in the balance as far as violence is concerned, at least in my books... SlyOwl did not specify whether animal violence is tolerated, but I think the contest administrators will go along with it - even though the sight of that seagull exploding is rather gory.

That's a proper idea for a sport though - and it's just what I'd actually expect seadogs to start practicing, unlike Tereglith here who's pretty sure they can put those times of bloodshed and slaughter behind them and start putting away So there's a nice combination of originality and realism - likey!

Another advange to this MOC is the usage of the best possible expressions - you didn't need to explain anything, from the sheer violent joy in the pirate lass' expression to the dissatisfied look in that Imperial soldier's face - it's all spot on and even though this might seem like an easy job given the current pattern of minifig face expressions, I still think it's often overlooked. I like how you've handled it here!

As to the seagulls - you've made quite an accurate representation using clips and hands there - kudos for that, I myself enjoy seeing these pieces utilised in an innovative manner. Tereglith's suggestion about using tooth pieces is nice, but I'm not really sure you can actually find a way of connecting those without making the neck look too bulgy - and even if you did, seagulls don't generally have too long beaks, so I think you should keep the current design. Not that you have time to change it anyway...

One thing I'm not certain about is the exploding bird. While I get the blood bursting out of it (and I admit, I'm not overjoyed by the sight... because I actually like seagulls quite a bit), I don't really see the cannonball that hit it. Where is it, has it vanished in thin air / blood? It should be pretty much the size of 2/3 the bird here, but I can't find it anywhere - have you perhaps forgotten to include it? And as to the smoke coming out of the cannon - it's a fine depiction, although I think that using the ice cream cone technique (i.e. piling ice cream cones on top of each other so that they look like smoke) would have looked better here. Another thing you could have used is the interconnecting skeleton arms technique - that way you could have shown the projectile of the cannonball hitting that poor, defenseless, innocent bird (gotcha there, didn't I :P).

To sum it all up - a nice MOC with some very cool touches and a good (albeit bloody) idea. Good luck in the contest!

[DarthNick]

Thanks to both of you, I really appreciate your comments and suggestions.

So to address those suggestions:

Tereglith: I have to say I'm gonna go with TheOtters about the seagulls, although I did try your suggestion, and must admit I don't like the look as much.

TheOtters: I didn't really consider this to be violent (at least not for pirates anyways) and believe that it isn't too gory. As for the cannonball, someone already mentioned that on Flickr. There are two reasons (or perhaps excuses ) that I have for why there is not a cannonball shown. First of all, I believe that it would to too crowded near the bird, and may end up looking sorta messy. And second I had figured that the cannonball would have shot through the seagull and would be "off set" if you know what I mean. And as for the smoke, I don't have any ice cream and think that the skeleton arms technique (which I have used before) wouldn't fit well, as it would also make the scene too crowded.

And BTW I'm ain't no vegetarian and enjoy my chicken(ya, it's a bird) at dinner (and maybe I'll just have to try seagull someday ).

[MetroiD]

And BTW I'm ain't no vegetarian and enjoy my chicken(ya, it's a bird) at dinner (and maybe I'll just have to try seagull someday ).

Just make sure you don't hunt & catch it using cannonball fire, else there'd be nothing left for you to eat Which wouldn't be too bad, seeing as seagull meat has never really been much of a delicacy...

I get your point regarding the cannonball and it sounds quite logical. A cannonball among all that blood and feathers might really look a bit too much. As to the smoke - this solution works just fine, I was merely suggesting something you could try out in the future, when those pirates start hunting griffins for example!

And hey, don't take my comment about the gory details here too seriously - I like to think that I still have some twisted sense of humour, so I see this entry as a fun MOC, which is just what it is. I'm not going to start ranting about condoning hunting & animal violence, don't worry :)

[DarthNick]

Oh no worries, I wasn't taking the gory details too seriously, as it was very easy to see your humor in it all.

[Commodore Hornbricker]

I love your entry. You can't trust a man doesn't hate seagulls!

[DarthNick]

Thank you Commodore Hornbricker!

[maydayartist]

Common??

This is Enemy number one!!

Destroy them all

Very nice idea and lovely implementation.

[Commodore_Norrington]

a really cool MOC, i love to see it....

not too big but simple and awesome....

[badboytje88]

The idea of this MOC is great. I to hate birds crapping on my car or worse, on my head. I like the idea of the pirates and the imperials shooting the birds out of the sky as hobby/sport but I do not like the exploading bird. But that's just what I think. Overall I think you did a pretty good job.

~Bart

Edited December 2, 2009 by badboytje88

[MetroiD]

I to hate birds crapping on my car or worse, on my head.

You'd hate them even more if they crapped on your visor while you're doing 100 mph on your bike.

It is at such times, after having pulled off and while cleaning the birds' excrements from my helmet, that I think to myself: "Bless them, it definitely ain't that bad... thank God that cows can't fly!!!"

Sorry for the off-topic, DarthNick, but I guess you'll appreciate this as a proper excuse for this sport of yours :)

[DarthNick]

Thank you maydayartist, Commodore_Norrington, and badboytje88 for your kind words about my MOC.

And to TheOtters, you betcha.

[prateek]

Great MOC. I just love the blown up bird

[Zorro]

Great entry, I love how you wrote the background story too.

Much luck with the voting.

[Captain Zuloo]

Great work DarthNick! I love the reference to 'big wigs' in the backstory. Like Zorro said, it's nice to see a story behind the MOC.

This entry has been

[DarthNick]

Thanks for the blog Captain Zuloo! Much appreciated!