LDD MOC: FNS Black Pearl, SSF-03

[Laura Beinbrech]

Well, due to current budget and time constraints, I haven't been doing too much actual building, however I did manage to successfully design a fairly large-scale submarine in LDD..

I present the Federal Navy Ship Black Pearl:

Sub Final by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr

The Black Pearl is the third ship in a top-secret building program initiated by Admiral J. Hook of the Federal Republic Navy to combat both underwater pirates and sea monsters. The submarine is fusion-electric powered, meaning that in addition to extracting oxygen from seawater, it can also extract hydrogen for use as reactor fuel/in its fuel cells (for silent running mode). The sub is equipped with eight 3" blue laser cannons, which are capable of engaging close-range surface and underwater threats (i.e. most smaller sea monsters), as well as two torpedo tubes that either can hold one MK-55 long-range sonar-guided torpedo or two MK-10 short-range sonar guided torpedoes each. The torpedoes are mainly for dealing with large underwater threats (i.e. those pesky Kraken) or attacking enemy surface ships. Usual loadout is one MK-55 and two MK-10s for greater tactical flexibility.

Sub WIP Interior by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr

In this interior view, you can see the airlock/diving chamber in the sub's nose (useful for deploying SOCOM commandos or undersea Search and Rescue divers), immediately aft of which is the communications and operations room, which has the weapons control consoles. Amidships is the crew berthing with bunks that fold up when not in use and in the aft end of the sub is the engine/reactor room with the engineering/reactor control console.

Sub Cutaway View by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr

In this cutaway view you can see the interior of the Conning tower, with the quartermaster's console and the captain's chair. The periscope can be raised and lowered. The two other tubes sticking up are the snorkels for when the sub is operating at periscope depth.

Note: The captain is supposed to be Jack Sparrow, but they didn't have any of the PoTC parts or prints in LDD, and the reason I used the butcher's hat is because for SOME reason, LDD ALSO doesn't have the series 4 Sailor hat (even though they have every other CMF accessory!)... Also, I DO plan on actually building this thing, eventually, but that could be quite a while (although I did find a BL site that had several of the most key pieces, along with some others that I need for other projects), and the coloring of the stripe/details might change, pending part availability.....

I basically came up with this as a representation of a long-range high-endurance submarine built to a similar scale as my other ships (i.e. it is about the same length as my frigate). I had some trouble with the hull design, but after a month or so I hit upon what, I think is a good design, and went from there. I may yet change the rudder/aft divin plane design, though.

So, what do you guys think? Wacky enough for ya?

Submarine.lxf

Edited March 16, 2012 by Hikaro Takayama

[zinfinion]

Excellent work! The moon pool in the front with the compressed air to equalize pressure is a really nice touch. The hatches, torpedo tube doors, and just all the small details are perfect!

Also, major kudos for attaching the .lxf file. So many posters that make MOCs in LDD fail to do so for some reason. It's really hard to appreciate all that hard work if I can't spin it around and open it up and peek at the insides.

I look forward to any upcoming MOCs you might be working on.

[Laura Beinbrech]

Thanks for the compliments! I was in the Navy (but not on subs), so shipboard details sort of come naturally to me.

I may have to get a MOCpages account, because this one LXF file used up half my total attachment space.

[vynsane]

This is great, lots of intricate details!

As for ease of sharing files, zinfinion and I are both proponents of Dropbox as a way of housing a repository of LDD files you want to share.

Also, since I see you use Flickr for hosting/sharing your pics, if you do end up using Dropbox for the LDD files and link to them over there, please consider adding one to The LEGO Exchange!

[Laura Beinbrech]

Thanks for the info! I'll have to see about signing up for a dropbox account.... Provided they don't get randomly shut down by the government like Megauploads did.

That Flickr group looks pretty good too!