The last defence of Outpost 7709 against the pirates from Strife

[Siegfried]

Yeah yeah yeah, I got my butt kicked in the Hinckley vs. Sinner Smackdown #2,; but I still liked what I made! :-P Thus I am here to rant about it! I decided from the start that I was going to do a ship and a destroyed base. The base would use the orange and yellow pieces, plus the blue canopies, and the ship would use the rest. I wanted to do a curved ship due to the large amount of cylinders that the Town House set had. My original idea was for the whole ship to be curved; however I couldn't make a cockpit that I liked. I then decided to dodge the issue and design a cockpit that I liked, and then try to integrate it. That proved harder than planned as I had trouble deciding on what to use between the top and bottom. Eventually I decided to use the big triangles, which then forced me to make the front a set width, and that then prompted me to add the wings which I felt carried on the design from the front. Then I integrated the back and the rest is just details!

I wanted to make a ship that docked at the top, and that is why the airlock is there. It actually has three doors; top, front and back. In the end though I didn't do that as I changed my mind about the base. (More on that below.) Most of these photos have been posted already, but I'll show them here for ease of reference as well as for those who didn't see them the first time.

The struts that you can see in the cargo bay are structural. I was at first going to have the ship landing gear free but I found that aside from the fact that it flexed under the weight, it prevented the door from opening. Thus I solved two problems by adding the strut and the pads. I think it looks sort of bird like... :-$ You can also see in this view the forward thrusters.

Not much to say here except that this photo was very hard to take. My room had Lego everywhere by this stage and I needed to get under a table to achive this angle. :-P

I quite like this. The idea of this gun was that it was a heavily armoured anti-personal weapon to protect crew leaving via the main hatch. Thus it was supposed to look light and boxy.

Since the vectoring thrusters are so far back I wanted a large thruster in the front. It is hard to tell in this photo, but it actually is more than just one piece. At one stage it was red but I thought it looked silly. Thus now it looks "better" but you can't see it. *wacko*

You can see here that I left a void space for the thrusters. The center part is for the pilot to enter the cockpit.

Rear view of the same area. Until the last minute the bunks were where the control panels are, but I got sick of breaking the top to get the sleeping crew out. Anyone who has looked at my Impartial will notice vast simularities with the design and construction. :-$

Here you can see the triple airlock and the cargo bay. I specially designed the beams to make it easier to carry and swoosh and thus it is extra reinforced. (Halfway though the build it started breaking under the weight due to excessive swooshing so I decided to over-compensate.) In the end though I found the best way to carry it was to open the cargo bay and hold it from the bottom. It was originally my plan to suspend this while taking the photos, but I ran out of time.

I was very happy with my main engine solution. I was not happy with my anti-air guns... but the earier versions were worse. :-P (Some parts have fallen off the bottom right. I noticed them after I uploaded the photos. :-| )

I was very happy with the curved wall. It was my first time using the technique and I plan to give it another go soonish. You can also see here the bottom of the thrusters. (They do rotate but they are not stiff enough to hold in position.) They went though several re-designs and aside from the fact that I think they should be bigger I was happy with them in the end. Note the missing 2x1 plate forward of the cargo hatch; I was completely out of 2x1s at that stage! :-D

For those that are curious how I attached the wall I have partially disassembled the side so the "secret" is revealed.

The first time I saw one of the silly disc launchers I thought "It might work OK as a gun barrel". I'm still undecided. This area was complex to make as I needed to cover the axels as well as strengthen the sides. Thus it has two half stud changes.

Well, i'm out of time so I will cover the base in about 8 hours when I wake up. Goodnight! *sweet*

[Lord Of Pies]

I think it is very good. Especially the curved underneath. *y* However I think the photo in the competition did not do it justice. :-/

Having seen it in greater detail, I can see that you used much more SNOT techniques than I though at first. Also the turret is awesome. :-$ If a wee bit boxy!! 8-|

[zero1312]

Very good work, pal!!! *y*

That might give me the ideas to do one myself!!! ;-)

[Siegfried]

On to part II! The original idea for the base was that it would be largely destroyed, thus letting me use the useless pieces! I wanted to make it look burnt out, but I wasn't able to do it convincibly enough. I then broke the base and started on a another ship, but I change my mind soon after when I realised that it wouldn't make sense for a ship like Strife to be attacking a ship in space, so I had to then rebuild my base! I then had a lot of trouble trying to find a good way to use the big orange curved pieces, but after several hours of experimenting (no joke!) I stumbled on the design that I used. That then enabled me to make the side building. At this point I decided that I had enough of a base, so I though it only fair that I gave it a defender, so I used the canopy to make a service mech that is holding a cutting torch attached to the bases fusion plant. It was hard to tell in the original photos though.

I'll start with what I didn't like. I was making this on the last day but stopped work on it when Hinckley said he was finished and sent me his photos. As I said to him at the time;

I'm taking photos now. I was going to add more minor details but there really isn't much point; our entries are very different and I can't see the additions I had planned making much difference. In short, you have made a beautifully detailed base and a small ship, and I have done a bigger ship with a similar sized but less detailed base. I think you will win, but it will come down to preference, similar to the Jipay smackdown.

Thus I stopped work on this and kept it in the background. I don't like small ships anyway...

Ahghhhgh! I looks even worse from the rear. The best part is the bottom but I didn't take any photos of that. It is now in my sorting bin! :-P

The mech is supposed to be giving the finger... but it wasn't as convincing as I hoped. :-/ (My bet is with Strife winning BTW.)

I love that head! I hope Lego sell it again.

While it is simple, I actually liked the mech. I plan to re-work it.

The previously unseen back! I planned to take photos of the base from the back but without knocking a hole in my wall it would have been hard.

I was going for the pre-fab look. The rocks behind are lame, but I didn't have any pieces left to disguse them better.

I was very happy with the accomadation block. Yes, it's a box with a whacky roof, but it's my box with a whacky roof... There is no interior. I was planning to add some but I ran out of time.

The control tower was harder that I thought, but it isn't obvious. To make the room sit on the top involved a bit of work. The quarter (?) stud gap underneath the canopy is one of the few visible signs.

...and that's all! A few more pictures are here. Overall I am happy with what I made, and the base turned out far better than I thought it would with the pieces I had left. Thanks for looking! *sweet*

[zero1312]

Totally sweet!!! ;-)

I love the simple mech design. *wub*

[Asuka]

That

[DJ Force]

Hey, what do you want, I

[Lt. Col. Thok]

Man, you should have won. I voted for you! The base looks quite awesome.

[iamded]

I think I voted for you. To be honest I can't remember! *wacko* This is very cool, I love he mech, the base is sweet, and the ship is hugely awesome! Great job, heck, even the little buggy is cool! :-D *y* *y*

~Peace

[Corvus]

Y'know, I don't think the pictures I saw quite did this MOC justice... The more I see of it, the better it is. I love the airlock on Strife, the cannon, and in fact pretty much all of it. I hope you plan to re-work it...

The base is pretty cool too. The control tower is *wub* !

[Hinckley]

Come to think of it, there's no first prize either-except for pride, but that's a sin-so you're not supposed to have it 8-| . There's really only first punishment and you won that!! *sweet*

I have to say, this looks awesome! I think the pictures you chose for the smackdown, unfortunately don't do it justice...

The ship

• I really love the struts and I didn't realize they were structural...knowing that makes them my favorite part of this...
  
• Your thrusters are so tiny compared to mine...I'm so shocked :-P
  
• Cool hatch. You know it's funny I had something similar in our last competition that I ended up taking out...so needless to say, I think it's very clever!
  
• I really like the anti-personnel weapon!
  
• I like all of the realism in the airlock.
  
• The main engine is a work of art in and of itself! *wub*
  

Your engineering skill is always strong and apparent in your work. I think the one thing I would suggest is going for a little more form over function. The amazing techniques are clever, the disc shooter connection, the hinges and the struts and...everything really. But you don't see how cool it is until you look inside, so I would suggest working on pretty a little more. *sweet* That's not always though, Staunch was magnificent! Beautiful shape and everything. I love this ship as well, but the overall shape grew on me. Even as a pirate ship, I don't mean pretty obviously, but a stronger sense of the ship's shape-age and geometry both...

The base

This is 100 times cooler than it looked in the pics you chose. This is really clever and the concept you chose works really well. That is certainly their last defense. Poor Coll :'-( All she can do is give those nasty Space Pirates the bird! It's really so clever because you can see it's been wiped out and rebuilt for desperate shelter. Even the rocks add well to the feel. This is a really fun playset and it can be so great to play with in the world you created. Refugees trying to flee a pirate-ridden planet. It's awesome. Nice use of the orange wedge pieces and canopies as well. I can't wait to show mine and what I tried to do with the canopies...I didn't even look twice at the orange after last smackdown I got reemed for my color combinations... :-|

The mech

Ugh!! LEt me choose your pics for you next time. This is excellent! Backwards facing legs!! Is there any other way to go? Hey, now that I'm thinking of it, let's do a post apoc diorama smackdown next time we piss eachother off! *sweet* *y* It is great that we kind of switched concepts this time. You almost did the exact same thing I did with the College of Engineering vs. the Mutant Dinosaurs. They built their last defense and that's why the colors don't match. I get it!! The mech is a cool example of this. I see it as something they re-tooled a mechanic mech they beefed up with some ammo.

This is an awesome MOC, Sinner. Once again, we had a close competition and I had a lot of fun. I feel honored to have beat you as I'm a huge fan of your technical ability! Great job, I love you! *wub*

:-P

[Siegfried]

I think it is very good. Especially the curved underneath. *y* However I think the photo in the competition did not do it justice. :-/

Having seen it in greater detail, I can see that you used much more SNOT techniques than I though at first. Also the turret is awesome. :-$ If a wee bit boxy!! 8-|

But I like boxy! :-D That was the problem of my MOC; I made it too big and complicated and thus it was hard to photograph. I tried to highlight what I thought were the better parts, but maybe I was wrong! :-P

Very good work, pal!!! *y*

That might give me the ideas to do one myself!!! ;-)

Totally sweet!!! ;-)

I love the simple mech design. *wub*

Thanks. *sweet* I hope you do build your own.

That

[Shadows]

After having a chance to see all the detailed shots of this, I've come to the conclusion that trying to disguise who builds what ends up just cheating everyone.

To explain: Yes, it's nice to supposedly vote solely based on the build. I'd do that no matter what the competition or who was in it, and some will just vote for who they like even if it's junk. But ultimately, I think the winner ends up being the best build, whether people know who it is or not.

That said, trying to disguise who's is who's and picking a small number of limited shots just cheats us out of seeing all the real selling points of the work. Not letting the builder explain it leaves us guessing their intent and missing out on the coolest parts.

SO, after all that rambling, I'd like to make a suggestion.

Should there ever be one of these again, and I'm sure there shall, treat it like an election. Both sides post a thread of their creation with as many pictures as they want, and all the explanation and commentary they feel inclined to provide. Campaign that sucker, kiss babies, give out cigars, bribe people, make impossible promises and tell everyone you'll cut taxes. Well, something like that. *wacko*

Then vote in another thread.

[Hinckley]

After having a chance to see all the detailed shots of this, I've come to the conclusion that trying to disguise who builds what ends up just cheating everyone.

.... Well, something like that. *wacko*

Then vote in another thread.

Could I bring you some tissues to dry your cry-baby eyes now or do you just want to use the hem of your skirt? :-P

I like pretending no one knows whose is whose when it's obvious :-D . I think we should continue it as a fun tradition. As far as campaigning goes... :-X ...thanks but no thanks. I'm against the idea and I think it ruins the fun spirit of our competitions. :-) But thanks for being interested and stalking us and junk! :-P

[Shadows]

I like pretending no one knows whose is whose when it's obvious :-D . I think we should continue it as a fun tradition. As far as campaigning goes... :-X ...thanks but no thanks. I'm against the idea and I think it ruins the fun spirit of our competitions. :-) But thanks for being interested and stalking us and junk! :-P

Looks like someone took the word campaigning a bit too seriously, or maybe they're just chicken :-P

All I'm saying is that since we already know whose is whose anyway, giving each participant the chance to show off their work in detail would give the voters a better opportunity to make up their minds, fully informed and might just balance the playing field a bit. If the MOC is the important part, we need to see all of it. Just because someone has more experience picking the money shots for their entry, doesn't mean the other person didn't build a better MOC, it just means they may have had a harder time showing it off.

Speaking of which, did you ever post the detailed shots of yours? Unholy innuendo alert, Batman! No, I'm leaving it, you know what I mean. ;-)

Oh, and I'm stalking Sinner, but you keep getting in the way. :-P

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go throw this skirt in the dryer.

[Hinckley]

Looks like someone took the word campaigning a bit too seriously, or maybe they're just chicken :-P

maybe...

All I'm saying is that since we already know whose is whose anyway, giving each participant the chance to show off their work in detail would give the voters a better opportunity to make up their minds, fully informed and might just balance the playing field a bit. If the MOC is the important part, we need to see all of it. Just because someone has more experience picking the money shots for their entry, doesn't mean the other person didn't build a better MOC, it just means they may have had a harder time showing it off.

Repeated point well taken: more pictures presented by the builder might be a good idea. I, personally, like the idea of unlimited pics better than us presenting our own. I like works to speak for themselves. But, Sinner does point out a lot of cool things when he presents his that you can't tell by the pictures alone, so maybe some more description would be more fair...we'll see.

Speaking of which, did you ever post the detailed shots of yours? Unholy innuendo alert, Batman! No, I'm leaving it, you know what I mean. ;-)

Honestly, and I did this last time too, I waited a week after Sinner posted his so as not to pull focus away from him displaying his... :-$

Oh, and I'm stalking Sinner, but you keep getting in the way. :-P

Oooh...stalking a walrus, there's a challenge. :-| Why don't you just lure him in with one of his three vices: Bucket, clams, castle princess...

:-P