[MOC] Kyle Katarn's Moldy Crow

[MaximillianRebo]

A while back I posted my purist figs of Kyle Katarn, Jan Ors and Mara Jade, but never got around to posting photos of the ship that Kyle and Jan flew in the first two Dark Forces game: the Moldy Crow. Not sure how close my moc is to minifig scale, but I'm happy with the scale I used and the detail I was able to achieve at that scale, including a cockpit with space for both pilots. Close to 1000 pieces in total and no super rare pieces needed - the dark tan flag pieces on the wings and red window pieces on the side intakes were a little difficult to source in Australia - and luckily I didn't have any trouble with all the reddish brown pieces used in the build.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 28, 2024 by MaximillianRebo

[Max_Lego]

Nice work!

2 hours ago, MaximillianRebo said:

Not sure how close my moc is to minifig scale

The size and dimensions of the Mouldy Crow are, as far as I remember, very ambiguous, varying from a medium starfighter to a large freighter. Here is an article on the subject.

[Big_Daddy]

From my favourite piece of EU media, excellent work!

How about the structural integrity, is it swooshable?

[Samppu]

Ah, I love it! Good work on smooth angles and well-crafted versions of the figures. Can the minifigures access the cockpit somehow?

[MaximillianRebo]

Thanks everyone!

22 hours ago, Max_Lego said:

The size and dimensions of the Mouldy Crow are, as far as I remember, very ambiguous, varying from a medium starfighter to a large freighter. Here is an article on the subject.

I spent a lot of time looking at screen shots from the game and also cross section photos from books and yeah, there's a big discrepancy. One cutscene in the game shows Jan sitting in the cockpit with the hatch open and the ship doesn't look much bigger than a starfighter, while the cross section illustrations include a sleeping area (albeit cramped) in the nose section and space behind the cockpit where the crew access the docking ring on the top of the ship.

I built the whole thing in Stud.io first before attempting a physical build, starting with the wings/engines, and the rest of the ship went through multiple revisions as I tried to keep the whole build to scale with those original sections. I'd go as far as saying the scale of the whole ship was basically decided by piece 3176 which I wanted to use the get the curved ends on each engine section, and everything scaled up from there.

11 hours ago, Big_Daddy said:

How about the structural integrity, is it swooshable?

It's definitely solid; the only issue with swooshability is that the wings/fins make the whole build fairly back-heavy, but the easiest place to pick it up is around the cockpit area which is too far forward. The balance point of the ship is about 2/3 of the way back and while there are spots to grip onto, the body of the ship is a lot thinner at that point so it's not as easy.

9 hours ago, Samppu said:

Can the minifigures access the cockpit somehow?

Yes! There's a hinged hatch directly above the cockpit which I removed for the close up photo. It's 8 studs long by 6 wide, so there's enough space for adult fingers to place the figs in their seats.

[Max_Lego]

15 minutes ago, MaximillianRebo said:

I'd go as far as saying the scale of the whole ship was basically decided by piece 3176 which I wanted to use the get the curved ends on each engine section, and everything scaled up from there.

I also sometimes determine the scale of my MOCs considering one very important piece's size (unless I am building strictly at 1/32 scale). That's how my TIE Fighters MOCs - their sizes were determined by 6x6 viewport dishes, 1x4 slope bricks and the fact that TIEs have ambiguous dimensions (though the width and height of my TIE Interceptor are accurately at 1/32)