87 Razorback

Finished: 7/11 2008 (22/3 2009), Pieces: 621, Steps: 220 (143)

Inspiration

This moc has been shaped by a lot of different impulses:

Technique: The primary impulse for this moc came from the building technique I’m using on the OLREC-wip I started back in 2006.

Prototyping/concept art mocs: During the summer and autumn of 2007 I experimented with using MLCad for designing spaceships to create my own “concept art” (because concept art mocs are almost always better than regular lego mocs). Since the program isn’t intended for it, the success was rather mixed though.

Simple/Iconic: The third impulse in this moc is simplicity – I wished to make something that regular people could appreciate, instead of just the lego spaceship connoisseurs – If you look at the most famous spacecraft icons, they usually have fairly clean and recognizable designs.

... And a bunch of different (fighter) designs: OLREC wip (building technique), Shrike Interceptor (nose/engine combo), Swordfish Fighter (cockpit), Stratosphere Fighter (nose bottom), Colonial Viper (wing configuration)

Achievement

Building the nose of this moc was incredibly difficult, because the curved hull hardly leave room for anything (especially not a cockpit), and the chunk of greeble in the nose alone took about 8 hours to complete.

Except perhaps the tailfin, I had to rebuild everything at least three times before it looked decent and fitted properly together – the rear section was especially difficult because I had to cram intakes, landing gear, greeble, and finish it off with engine, despite the 2x2 stud central core and despite the fact that the narrow curved hull continues right through the engine section (check out the MLCad file on the instructions page).

And it didn’t help that the curved slopy section right in front of the tailfin is actually stud-reversed, not a bit.

Oh, and the fact that I’d settled on an edgeline-colourscheme, and had to work hard to avoid the curving technique looking really messy definitely didn’t help either.

But anyways: it’s my first moc that actually has a retractable landing gear with wheels – and room for missiles!

History

20080301 MLCad sketch (WIPSketch Fighter5)
20080302 Body, wings, engine, 1st version, gun 1st version
20080602 Photography: Gun 2nd version, Engine 1st and 2nd version
20080603 Engine 3rd version
20080611 Renderings: MLCad sketch
20080622 Photography: Engine finished
20080830 Front greebs and cockpit (4 hours)
20080831 Front grebes (4 hours), engine intakes and missiles
20081012 Smaller guns
20081013 Edge colours
20081014 Intakes filled
20081107 Inside of engine completely reworked and finished, colours finished, finished

Tweaking

20090306 MLCadding (6 hours)
20090307 MLCadding, New intakes
20090314 MLCadding, Rearranging file (3,30 hours)
20090322 Lengthening of nose
20090323 Adjustment of MLCad-file
20090325 Photography
20090325 Announcement

You can find an MLCad file for this moc on my instructions page if you wish to try to build it yourself.

Or you can download the picture to the right if you wish to play around with colours: I'm always very interested in seeing what colourschemes people can come up with for my designs (click image for larger version).

This moc was entered into the "Show us what you got-contest" in the Starfighter group on Flickr, presented on Flickr, and in this thread on CSF.