[SoNE Freebuild] 6-4 Boarding Party

[goatman461]

I've been wanting to do a fairly large ship for Goatm for a while but I didn't quite have enough bricks to do a SHIP. This, however, is 40 studs long and definitely inspired by some of the great builds I've been seeing in progress on Flickr. Everything is to minifig scale. There is a large hangar, small cabin with bunks just up the ramp, and an elevator leading to the flight deck.

This is a very simple ship because it is only used for quick missions to steal tech, assassinate targets, or disable capital ships. Once fired from an ISD, this ship latches onto another ship, tears open the hull, and unloads the boarding party. A large turret is mounted on the back of the ship to fend off enemy fighters once attached. Tie fighters can also be attached to the hull for deployment and cover on long distance missions.

Goatm's flight crew is protected by heavy armor plating and a low profile atop the ship.

Here, the boarding crew ready themselves in the hangar. Goatm has collected a rag-tag group of heavy hitting pilots to do a smash and grab on some Rebel starfighters and destroy the capital ship behind them. The mech is an experiment using a rapidly aging clone.

Below is how the hull can be removed for loading larger starfighters.

The gunner has to have great abs for this job.

Bonus pic and main reason I designed the hangar the way I did. Does anybody get the reference? Don't worry, Goatm doesn't get shot at the end of this one and that Rebel doesn't have any ears to cut off.

[soNE VI Freebuild] 6-4 - Ram, stuck in the middle by goatman461, on Flickr

I would like for this freebuild to be judged, but no rush, I don't need the points for Episode VI. C & C greatly appreciated.

Edited October 30, 2014 by goatman461

[markus1984]

WOW - this is really a big ship!

I must say it looks absolut great in all details!

Nice story and good points for the empire!

Thats all i can say .

markus

[LucasLaughing]

Very cool build - excellent greebling and little details on the hull! I like the idea of a mean, stubby little ship that gets fired from an ISD.

As for the inspiration - shall I call you Mr. White?

[Aland1916]

Wow, great freebuild, one of your best! This ship looks really awesome, like a heavy, robust bounty hunter ship. And a nice group of misfits there!

[Fuppylodders]

Oh blimey, this is brilliant! I love ships with interiors, and the cool mech that you have done too. The exterior greebling looks really well done too, not just mashed on. Did you happen to get inspiration for the design from one of the Warhammer 40k boarding ships from forgeworld? (Just a guess). I am interested to see how a Tie fighter attaches though, I think that would top off my picture hunger from seeing this!

[goatman461]

Thanks guys.

Did you happen to get inspiration for the design from one of the Warhammer 40k boarding ships from forgeworld? (Just a guess). I am interested to see how a Tie fighter attaches though, I think that would top off my picture hunger from seeing this!

I'd never heard of Forge World, but the images from a google search look pretty cool, like they could fit right into the Star Wars universe. I may look through those ships for inspiration in the future.

I didn't really build anything to specifically attach a Tie because I was kind of tired of building this one and I really didn't want to scrounge together enough parts for a Tie. I had also considered building a fold-up Tie fighter to fit in the hangar, but again, got too lazy.

shall I call you Mr. White?

Mr. Blonde, actually. Although Mr. White is a cool sounding name.

[Manx]

Wow, fantastic ship. Great, very original!

[BEAVeR]

Amazing SHIP (Smallish Huge Investment in Parts), goatman461! Despite it not making the 100 studs, it still is very impressive both in size and in detail.

The shape seems a bit boxy at first, but you did a nice job in breaking it up with several sloped sections. And the low profile at the top makes sense considering the function of the ship. And despite the low profile, there still is a lot of detail and texture present, so it seems to me that you succeeded in a lot of delicate balance exercises! What I love most is that the details aren't just technical ones. Sure, you have vents and fins etc, but you also worked with tiles and offsets, and the seems between the tiles must all be part of your plan to make this ship look awesome. The features like the nice cannon or the delicious front make it even better.

Yes, that front is really nice. Not only are the details there very nice, but you also integrated the slopes very nicely, so that that section sits firmly in the ship. That's way better than 'slapping it on', and makes this ship stand out. There are some strange things to the front, however. Firstly, I would like an explanation for the fact that just one of the cones is of a smaller size. If there's some super nice story behind it, incredible! But if not, then you could have tackled this a bit better. If it is because you don't have enough of those larger cones, then you should add more of those smaller ones, so that there is a particular pattern to it, and one can easily assume it's there for a reason. The ones in the four corners could all be a bit different, for example, as those are the ones to really grab on. Use it as an idea and integrate it as something that can be seen, and don't try to hide it. These probably are some great sources of inspiration!

The second thing is that I don't really see how the ship mechanically works. In the sense that when it 'hooks' itself to another ship after ramming it (maybe the 'Leech' would be an equally suitable, and more disgusting, name), I don't see how the crew gets out. So it might be nice to have some pistons to indicate how the doors move exactly or something like that. You're not just building beautiful ships here: you're trying to design a thing that looks like it can work. Then your ships will have a new level of realism, and will stand out a bit more... if they even need that, because it's already such a beauty.

It's nice to see that you built this ship as something that can be viewed from every angle and still look amazing. The only thing that is a bit inferior to the rest, is the back of the ship. It isn't designed to travel long distances, but there should be sufficient power to give it enough speed to ram (oh, and then there should be safety features so that the crew doesn't get shaken around!). So there could be some more beef to the engines, possibly with some small boosters. And another suggestion to make it better, is that when you introduce texture to your build, almost everything should be covered in it, so those last smooth areas in the back could be considered as an area to show off your nice techniques even more!

Of course, those remarks are only in the margin compared to how incredible the rest of the ship is (including the boarding party with that mech that might have been an afterthought, but really doesn't look like it!). When we can build again at full scale in future episodes, I have no doubt you will be the nemesis of all Rebels with such amazing builds. So keep it up and keep making the Empire proud! Here's some propaganda:

[MKJoshA]

I wasn't a fan of the boxy shape until I read that it was supposed to be fired from an ISD. That makes perfect sense and makes your ship a fearsome sight to behold.

[goatman461]

Amazing SHIP (Smallish Huge Investment in Parts), goatman461! Despite it not making the 100 studs, it still is very impressive both in size and in detail.

strange things to the front

a bit inferior to the rest, is the back of the ship

Thank you. You managed to pick out the two areas I did last and therefore got lazy on (especially lazy when it came to how the hull would be breached); good eye. I did think of the cones as being part of what breaks through the hull and the small cone was just a damaged or worn down part. In the back, I wasn't too worried about propulsion because were talking about the vacuum of space and an initial push would be enough to get this box to target.

I think I'll try another one of these larger ships in between SoNE episodes. Got to finish a dark trooper build first, though.

Thank you for blogging. I hope it's not taking time away from your Felucia building.

[Shadows of Nar Eurbrikka]

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