[M - D03] Expedition D8D03

[Big Sal]

Location: D03

Tags: Civil, Science

Are you sure you don’t want a helmet Sal?

I’m sure I do want a helmet Williams - it’s freezing! But this glorious beard simply won’t fit in one.

Uh…right. Anyway, I thought you were supposed to be curing hay fever on Aeristus?

What? Oh, yeah… I, uh, ‘delegated’ that…

I really don’t think this is what Sal had in mind!

So I take it the ice core drilling isn’t going well?

Ugh, no. It’s so damn cold that three of the generators have given up completely. We’re down to the last one.

But it only takes one to power the drill and I need that ice core yesterday, so get drilling!

Sal, if that last generator dies we won’t even have enough power to radio for help. We can’t risk it.

Damn it Williams, science is all about risk! Fire it up!

Haha, see! It’s working!

The generator can’t take much more of this! We need to shut it down!

NO! Keep drilling, we’re almost there!

Almost… almost!

Whoops…

Thanks for reading! The snow effect is the first time I've tried anything like this - let me know what you think of it! The spoiler contains all the photos without the snow effect, in case you hate it. Any other comments and criticism welcome, as always

Oh, and the drill really works!

Edited July 20, 2015 by Big Sal

[SpacerSteve]

Wow! Great use of the ice planet base! I also really like how you used the tank tracks to make a snow covered tarp. Great build this week!

[soccerkid6]

I do believe this is my favorite build of yours thus far Such brilliant use of the raised baseplate, wonderful snow effects, and a crazy cool working drill

Sweet MANTIS buildings as well

[EpsilonEta]

Defiantly better with the snow. Also, I vote to put Sal in charge of all MANTIS operations, can't fail

[Master_Data]

Awesome build!

[Graham Gidman]

Terrific work!

[Aliencat]

Really cool build, great use of that baseplate!

[LittleJohn]

Amazing build, Sal! The baseplate works beautifully here and I love that the drill actually works!

[rodiziorobs]

You had me at Ice Planet baseplate

Once again, great details everywhere Sal!

I love the legs and the overall design of the drilling station. Some clean Sci-Fi while also being very industrial.

Edited July 19, 2015 by rodiziorobs

[shmails]

You are so great at combining fantastic, funny stories with perfect pictures. I like the snow effect, it adds to the mood, and as always you builds are so creative!

[mediumsnowman]

I love the story and equipment, but I'm not a fan of using the huge premolded baseplate. Still a great build though!

[David FNJ]

Wow, that drill is just amazing! That story is just hilarious Typical Big Sal

Great job incorporating that base.

[mccoyed]

Great build. Echoing everybody else's specific compliments because this build is bang on.

[Kodan Black]

Funny story as always. I like how you made the mushrooms and put snow on top of everything. The sagging tarp with snow is very nicely done. No helmet could hope to contain that glorious beard!

[pombe]

Stand back, for Big Sal is going to do science!

Excellent build and great idea to use that baseplate for functional purposes! The ice core drilling is awesome!

Great story as always and I personally like the snow effect which makes it feel more real and cold.

[Commander Turtle]

Great work again Sal. It's always good to see you at work, not least because you do more harm than good to your company! Building up the baseplate with white snow makes it work pretty well considering, and I like the photo editing.

I think Vesa Lehtimäki is the hero for special effects and he does a really good talk about it here. I thought this was pretty inspiring, maybe you will too

[NuckElBerg]

As always, great build Sal! Great science is about knowing which risks to take. Unfortunately for Big Sal though, he seems to want to take them all. I was a bit sceptical about using such a large, raised, prefabricated baseplate, but you utilized it very intelligently for hiding the drill, so creds for that! Anyway, great snowy build, I really think the added snow adds to the overall mood, so good choice!

[robuko]

I can actually feel the cold from this build! Very bold use of the raised baseplate, and it looks great here. Very convincing ice core drill too!

[aeralure]

As always the story and the build is great fun. Really like that the drill works too. The snow was definitely a nice effect here.

[mrcp6d]

Dang man, this is way cool. 6983 was one of my favorites of my childhood LEGO sets (Deep Freeze Defender & Solar Snooper FTW!), so that base scores some major points with me.

[Big Sal]

Thanks so much everyone! Glad you liked the snow effects. I know some people don't like the big shaped baseplates, but I started on this build and it was just sat there on top of my pile of baseplates, all like:

"Oh, I see you're doing a build on a cold planet. You might even call it an ice planet. Y'know, like that theme I'm from. You'll probably need to build a lot of rocks to hide that ice core. Just saying. I wonder if I'll ever get used for a MOC..."

And how could I resist? It's just so beautiful

[Andromedas Gates]

The judges awarded you 5 points.

[Mike S]

As usual, another great build and story!

[Ferdinando]

I'd be speechless if I wasn't busy laughing for the flamethrower guy. Awesome!

[Umbra-Manis]

Awesome build sal!