Siegfried

Solar sailing! The idea of a space craft that is powered by the light pressure and particles ejected from the sun ('solar winds') is one that I've found fascinating for about 20 years. (More on that later, and no I'm not old.) There's a great write up on the science here so there's no need to take my word on the believability of the idea. Unfortunately the concept has only been tested in reality land to a limited degree; for example Mariner 10 (sent to Mercury and Venus) used the method for some attitude control to reduce fuel usage. A recent attempt to launch a small sailer was un-successful as the booster failed. Much of the problem is that to get maximum speed you need to go as close to the sun as possible. This makes the density of the particles increase (as does the solar winds), but this also increases the danger and reduces the potential application of the technology. In the near future I can see solar sailing being used for probes, but anything more I doubt I'll live to see. For some time solar racing has seemed to me as a very possible application of the method. I think it'd be an interesting sport and full of danger; what more could you want? I made this one as part of my new De-Classic-Space comic. Will it re-appear? Not telling...! Incidentally, the fishing line I used to suspend the model is obvious in this shot. As you can see from the raw photos, the sail covering was an effect I did (using a program called GIMP), and not bricks. I did consider several options when making the covering; plastic food wrap, old LEGO packets, loads and loads of transparent parts... but ultimately since I was making this for the comic doing it as an effect made more sense. Also, if I brick built it there would have been too much weight, forcing me to strengthen up the struts. That would have ruined the look I was going for and/or made the photo taking much harder. Technically I'm partially wrong here; the sails probably should be reflective for maximum efficiency. In my defense, it's quite possible that the solar winds would be the bigger driving force this close to the sun, and thus picking a stronger material could be smarter. I also liked the idea of a moving sail. My concept for the use of this feature is that close to the sun they would be sideways most of the time for safe acceleration as well as pilot shielding, but for maximum speed when departing the suns orbit they'd go forward. Feel free to pick on my idea... Ahhghh! It's broken! Who did it? Oh, it was me. The cradle was deliberately coloured red; I actually made it in black but I re-built it in red for pilot visibility reasons. The pod can get in and out of the cradle without breaking it. The pod itself. Technically this is the 'space-craft' as the sails are comparable to a battery in an electric car. They'd obviously wear out fast considering their usage. The name itself is a 'homage' to solar sailer a short story by Arthur C. Clarke. The pods need an engine and thrusters to get to the sails and back to the start, as well as manoeuvre during the race. I have a overly verbose write-up here for any who are curious of the race format. Yes, this is my 'inspiration'; a book I read as a teenager. There are some similarities in basic design, but looking at the background racer, their sail seems much bigger. It's actually a quite good book; Mark Smith and Jamie Thomson did a lot of good gamebooks in the 80s. (Anyone else read them?) I'd like to claim that I based this off an old Clarke story... but it wouldn't be true. I didn't read the story until later. Because it needed to be functional to a degree, I built the sailer in an interesting way. First I built a cradle concept, then I built a pod concept, then I built the full sail. At the end of building the sail I just couldn't get the original pod concept to work, so I started again. This is the original design, the front being to the right. The final pod ended up being slightly higher and a lot wider at the bottom. This did ruin my original concept a bit as I wanted the pods to be able to enter the sail in the back and exit via the front. I'm not sure if I'll take this pod design any further; it'll probably fall in the sorting bin soon! On the other hand if I ever do an actual race it could be handy... Thanks for looking!

Well since you've asked for feedback, good or bad, here it is! Good! I love the scene setting overhead town idea! Very cool. The sets are good enough to carry the scene and the photography for the most part is good. Bad! Spelling and punctuation. Many lines I had to read several times to be clear what was going on. The last line in particular; you missed the "t" in "the" and "t" in hunt. Bad keyboard? Overall it's quite interesting!

Yeah, for 26 pages $32 AUD + $15 AUD is a bit much. I'll stick to following your stuff on-line. At least you're a staff pick! If you don't mind me asking, what's your cut? Looking at their prices it would seem about $5 AUD...

My local Toyworld had sold out on the Endor sets when I went there last week. I'll have to try to drop in again next week. Any idea of how long it's supposed to be for? Well it is about sales. No sales, no talk!

Yep that'd comfort me! I'll be looking out for the next part!

Cool! It sure does set up the story a lot. (I thought it looked more like snow too... )

Yeah, I think you're right. 1983 had this set... ...and it wasn't what I had in mind at all. I do agree with Holodoc though, techniques aside, neoclassicspace do target the same set range that I see as Classic Space.

Wow! It's amazing how good renders can be these days. If it wasn't for the wheels I'd be fooled at a casual glance. Looking closer, the gears that control that lights don't look quite real, but it doesn't pop out (ha ha!) as much as the wheels. Great work and I look forward to your Technopedia update!

....er... Stay on Target!

What did you have in mind? Olive Oyl?

To me it's always been 78-83! Things started changing after then.

Thanks! I'll be using it soon!

Ahhh; but the question is "what is minifig scale"? Minifigs are in no way scaled realistically, nor is there much consistency in regard to set-to-set relation. Personally I think this set is the perfect size.

I love this set. I bought the recent AT-AT with the intention to make a hybrid that more resembles this one. I haven't got around to it though... This version does so many of the details better, especially the "hump". Thanks for the great review!

...and so it is merged. This is at least the third topic I've merged on this issue!

Happy Birthday Jinzo!

I agree completely. I'm not even a huge Marvel fan, but IMHO this is bad news. I hate mergers.

Comic first, explanation later! I've been wanting to do a space-based comic for a long time. Seeing stunning MOCs from people like Keith Goldman, Chris Giddens and Mark Sandlin (to name a few) highlighted to me how successful LEGO space constructions could be, and was one of the major reasons why I got back into LEGO. I've had an idea of a story for a while, but a few things were holding me back; bricks and ability in particular! When I made Impartial I had a go at photo editing, but I just didn't get the whole layering thing then. It didn't matter at the time though as Impartial was most of my collection! Years later my collection is around 20 times bigger and I'm able to build multiple ships. So recently I decided to give it another go... and here it is! This episode however is not complete; the next part is on the surface requires another MOC or two. My time is getting a bit tight at the moment as I'm moving to another state, but I hope to finish it before I leave. If not it'll be months... Considering this is my first attempt at photo editing I'm decently pleased, but I know I have a long way to go. It's been around 3 weeks of free time work, learning as I went, and it's all been a very interesting. (I'm using GIMP.) The sun I found on the net early on, but everything else I created from nothing. If I get around to it I'll see if I can do the sun too! In regard to the story, at this stage I make no claim to have 200 single spaced pages in a triple-encrypted file… but I do hope to soon. I'm want to make the story "epic", and include large space battles. The comic will feature existing and new MOCs, and I’ll be making a universe encyclopedia as I go to explain details. My goal will be to keep the technology scientific and not fantastical… and I’ll be hoping people pick on me if I falter. Many stories, such as B5, started out very believable, but by the end were not much better than Star Trek. The comic itself will be hosted on my new site, De-Classic-Space, but for the most part there will be no need to go there as I plan to post it here too. Please make comments, even if they aren't nice! Just be gentle with me; it's my first time.

Done!

I feel the same way! My MOCs are often re-built for strength reasons as it annoys me if they can't handle play. In fact a few LEGO sets I've broken due to that; Aero Booster is a good example. Cool looking set, but waaay to fragile. I was a shame though as it was so fun to swoosh!

Yeah, it's true for me too. I get concerned at part damage so you won't find me crashing LEGO into walls. A few years back I was trying to motorise the 7344 dump truck, but it kept going too fast, hitting a wall and generally breaking. I gave up after a few attempts for this reason. If I was a kid I would have just kept doing it!

I think I still play... in fact I think I play with LEGO more now than before! Back then I used to focus on building as big an aircraft as possible, and when built I just left it together for a week or so before making something else. Today I often build things like space craft, swoosh them around and I keep wanting to write stories involving them. For the most part I don't consider myself a collector. I very rarely spend a lot of money on just one set or part. Without getting into details, I had a bit of an odd childhood (I think many people do), and that could be why. Or I could just be wrong!

Yes! We do offer help via the Reviewers Academy if you want. Reviews receive from 500 to 10,000 page views. If you review a new and un-reviewed set you'll probably get at least 5000, otherwise it'll probably be only 500. Considering you're planning on doing older sets you should be safe, but new reviews have overloaded peoples sites before, so it is a valid concern.

Beautiful work! I love your corner windscreen solution. Yeah; I've got some ideas! (The crane is a Liebherr LG 1550.)

A bit! I feel the same way about LEGO, book and car collections; use them! (I don't get army building either.) But I collect many things, especially Japanese statues and figures. I'll have to post some photos in community one day. Yeah, it's why I wish TLG would bring them back, but elevated trains would be good enough. I much prefer your setup. That's the same monorail that my friend has.