So three months later, here are the pics of my Sinner vs. Hinckley smackdown 2 entry: The Artemis Fighter Pilot Academy. Plus the stages I went through in building the MOC.

The Artemis Fighter Pilot Academy

Here is the academy without the fighter.

Here we see the newest pilot student, Collethia, taking off for a practice flight. She will be closely watched by the headmaster, Dr. Keiken-with-Castle-Wizard-head.

Another shot of the academy and the landing strip.

And another.

One of the security officers.

Another security officer.

Roof details. The 33 degree slopes are snotty!

The Artemis Fighter and it's hotty pilot!

The engines.

Side view and a nice shot of my favorite detail, the Exo-force robot legs used as exhaust vents.

Thrusters, landing gear, engines and general innards...In all honesty, I think when I built this I was still unclear on exactly what a thruster is... :-$

Nose down, bird of prey fighter >:-)

I believe I added pitch and yaw adjusters. :-$

Part II-the process

Here is a timeline of how I arrived at the final model:

I originally had the idea of a futuristic space fortress.

I always envisioned a landing pad.

I toyed with the idea of the fortress being built into a mountain.

Then messed around with different window configurations. I wanted to build my MOC as part of a unique space-castle theme.

I started building the basic shape of the "mountain" and the landing pad.

I wanted the front "gates" to be very futuristic, yet sit in a classic castle style setting.

I have envisioned this technique with the corner slopes for quite some time and hoped it would fit into this MOC as I like the effect. It added a drama to the front gates that I think helped define the feel of the whole MOC.

I messed around with several configurations for the whole "fortress."

I really wanted to use those "Slave I cockpits" as windows...

...but it never looked right and it caused problems with how many bricks it would take to cover the sides.

My original concept involved a royal family attacked by an evil villain so I wanted there to be a barrier...

Here are some configurations I played with...

And as I began to like the cockpits less and less and started building the structure up...

...the closer I got to the final product. :-)

I didn't take pics of the progression of the spaceship because I was running out of time. As I am not normally a spaceship builder, I just kept going with the Artemis Fighter, doing my best to make it work. The final product is pretty much the same shell it had the entire time. I just re-structured parts to make them work and moved things around...

Wow! You read the whole thing! I hope you enjoyed it and please feel free to let me know what you think of it. *sweet*

As I said commenting the Smackdown, I just *wub* this MOC!

It has such a nice play-set aura to itself *y* *y*

And the In Process pics are a great addition to this tread. I sure can find some good ideas for future building :-$ .

Thanks for sharing, Hinckley *sweet*

LuxorV

This is fantastic! It's fun and interesting to see the different stages you had whilst building the MOC. In the end it's a very creative build, which looks great. The lil' ship is also neat, nice and futuristic, and it looks awesome at the end too! *y* *y*

~Peace

Fascinating! I love seeing how MOCs evolve...especially ones that end up like this *wub*

Cool MOC Hinkcley! *y*

Love the roof, how did you do that?

The building looks like it came straight from the Harry Potter space age :-D

Ohw..and if the pilot doesn't seem to be able to fly the artemis, she can always get a job on my ship X-D

The nice little details on the academy make me quite like this :-$ And the spaceship is quite good for someone who never builds any ;-) Great job

Thanks for this great look at your beautiful MOC Hinckley, I love this academy. Sorry to say my vote went to Sinner, I loved Strife.

Still, it was a very hard competition, and this is a very worthy moc (considering it won :-P ). I love the clean, victorian (or whatever age, you get what I mean :-$ ) look of it, and the Artemis Fighter is very well designed, even if you didn't know what thrusters were at the time X-D The landing gear in particular I like.

Thanls also for the pics showing your progress, it is always interesting to see that and you made a lot of innovative and smart choices. Overall, a real winner!

Batbrick is Back! >:-)

I was absolutely stunned by the Artemis fighter when I first saw it, because I knew you were limited to only a few sets. I was hoping to see some more pics of this project but I certainly wasn't expecting a walkthrough. Whatever happened to the FFLSM (sorry if I got the acronym wrong, forgot what it stood for) for the whole community? I was looking forward to that.

Edited January 17, 200817 yr by john cleese

Thanks John. And I believe you have the acronym right: Free Form Limited Set MOC. Sinner was heading that up, perhaps he can tell us if there's still hope for it. *sweet*

I would have never guessed that you went through such a process in designing the Academy. The front gate is really outstanding. In the pic where it's shown alone and on top of the moutain, it really does pop out at you. The Gate also hits it right on the nose where Future Space meets Classic Castle. This is a sweet mixture, Warhammer 40k anyone? I wish you could have incorporated the bigger blue windows. Maybe it could have made a really sweet skylight. Then it could have been a bit symbolic. "Always looking to the skies" "Being one with the skies" "Letting Heaven shine in." Nonetheless the final product turned out very clean and stunning. *y* *y*

Well Hinckley, what can I say? As I have said before, this is a beautiful MOC. It was what I thought you should make as you have a much better sense of style than me. :-D I especially liked how you did the roof; I have never seen that done before. It makes them into 57 degree slopes! X-D You did a much better job using the rock pieces than I did. I wanted to make mine into a rock wall, but I was out of pieces by then. On that subject, to be honest, I was more than a tad grumpy at the time that you chose to not use any of the orange pieces, and made a far smaller MOC. I was expecting to be beaten on style... but not because I used more pieces and colours. A few people even commented that yours blended the colours better which annoyed the begeezzies out of me. But I think Gylman put it best;

Very different entries. Making the decision basically comes down to what you value more - the overall look and cohesiveness of the final product vs the success in achieving the goal of the contest, which is to mix & match different themes and turn it into an original creation.

I thought the goal was to mix & match, which is what I did... :'-( I suppose that is the weakness of contests like these. ....or maybe I'm just a bad loser! :-$

EDIT: I'm not saying that mine is better than yours (although I am saying mine is bigger than yours), I'm just saying that it seemed that I was judged by many for doing what I thought we were supposed to be doing...

Past hurts aside, it is interesting to see your build process as you did change your mind many times. We build completely differently. Like Staunch, inside Strife is a technic spine which I built early on and then build around it, adding detail later. You seem to make bits of detail first and see how you can work them in. I too had some trouble integrating the Slave 1 cockpits, it's a shame that you couldn't get it to work the way you wanted. It would have looked more like a "space-castle" then. I would have liked to see a royal family in a space castle. I think the fighter was the best part as it. I didn't realise that the side panel lifted up. :-$ (I like the pilots name! :-P )

Whatever happened to the FFLSM (sorry if I got the acronym wrong, forgot what it stood for) for the whole community? I was looking forward to that.

So was I. :'-( I think the FFLSMP will need to be re-proposed as it has been too long since it was last updated. Additionally, many people (including me) would have used the pieces that were previously free. Due to the lack of success in generating interest I am concerned that it would become another failed contest so now I would prefer to do either a weight limit contest, or a contest where you have to build something out of a list of pieces. More on the latter later. X-D

...Due to the lack of success in generating interest I am concerned that it would become another failed contest so now I would prefer to do either a weight limit contest, or a contest where you have to build something out of a list of pieces. More on the latter later. X-D

Don't remind me of that contest :'-( ! It was the first I partecipated to, here, and it was the reason why I joined EB after some time of 'guesting'. I built the entry in about 5 minutes, photoshop-ed it, and entered the contest. I was so excited!

And then, it ended in nothing *sing* :'-(

Well, enough for the past.

Looking forward to your next idea for a *wacko* contest, Sinner *y*

LuxorV

mine is bigger than yours

:-| Not this again. It's the unit that matters, not the number. We're talking inches to centimeters. Yours isn't bigger! :-$

Way to randomly burn someone with your post. :-D *sweet* *y*

As far as the concept of the contest, I was never really aware of a specific rule that we had to mix and match the themes or sets. I certainly chose to match mine instead of mix. I was actually following your example from the first competition, I thought. I had so many complaints about the way I mixed the colors in my first entry and I thought that was one of the reasons you were successful, because you stuck to a more specific color pallete and didn't try to get the blues and greens in there. But, you're right in that it was a very specific strategy on my part to keep the colors consistent.

I think we should come up with a brand new concept for our next smackdown, which we can hopefully wait until Summer for. :-$

Way to randomly burn someone with your post. :-D *sweet* *y*

I have no idea what you are talking about. ;-)

As far as the concept of the contest, I was never really aware of a specific rule that we had to mix and match the themes or sets.

Well there wasn't! Hence the reason why it is tough titties for me that I was silly and built something so big! :-P

I was actually following your example from the first competition, I thought. I had so many complaints about the way I mixed the colors in my first entry and I thought that was one of the reasons you were successful, because you stuck to a more specific color pallete and didn't try to get the blues and greens in there.

Actually I used all the blues, but most of them were inside the engine and cockpit. The greens I cheated on as I tossed them in the food box. :-D But I suspected that was why you avoided the orange last time. Did you consider using them in a separate MOC?

I think we should come up with a brand new concept for our next smackdown, which we can hopefully wait until Summer for. :-$

I agree... but I have no idea on what yet. X-D

But I suspected that was why you avoided the orange last time. Did you consider using them in a separate MOC?

No. Complete avoidance was the strategy. I put them in a bin and put them away so I wasn't even tempted by them. :-$

Next time, Steampunk MOC? Large scale size limit? *sweet*

No. Complete avoidance was the strategy. I put them in a bin and put them away so I wasn't even tempted by them. :-$

:-D

Next time, Steampunk MOC? Large scale size limit? *sweet*

Yes. I think it would be a great idea. *sweet* We did mention that earlier, didn't we... 8-| I've been wanting to make one anyway! :-P

What can I say, I still love it! *wub*

A good solid little fighter and a surprisingly classical style base, not classic base, but classic classic. I'd like to see a movie in that style, a retro-modern-futuristic conglomeration of elements and themes. Yep, one of those. *wacko*

I'll shut up now :-$ and just mention that I still love it. *wub*

I love only two words for this: Absolutely beautiful!!! *wub*

I wish I had the parts the build something like that, but sadly I have mostly black and grey parts. |-/

I love only two words for this: Absolutely beautiful!!! *wub*

I wish I had the parts the build something like that, but sadly I have mostly black and grey parts. |-/

Well at least you know what sets you need to make it! X-D

Well at least you know what sets you need to make it! X-D

Well, that's true. :-D