[MOC] Stormdrake Mk. III Heavy Recon/Strike Fighter

[Sajuuk]

Hey all, I don't know if this MOC is technical enough to be posted on the Eurobricks forums, but I wanted to share with you my current build of the first starfighter MOC I built after coming out of my dark age.  It is designed to be a multi-role starfighter, equipped as both a heavy reconnaissance and strike fighter.  The Stormdrake is outfitted with three powerful magnetically thrust vectored fusion drive arrays, heavy shields with numerous emitter vanes, a host of sensors and scanners including an advanced reconnaissance imaging and analysis suite, plus a high-gain sub-space radio antenna located on the aft ventral side of the ship.  The fighter is armed with four particle beam-lance cannons as well as six plasma-burrowing thermonuclear anti-capital ship missiles.

On a build note, the more I worked on this MOC, the more it took on a vaguely draconic appearance, especially the landing struts.  A bit of fantasy whimsy in an otherwise sci-fi setting.  The inspiration for this MOC came from designing a main hull similar to the Liberty Patriot light fighter from Freelancer alongside wings that vaguely resemble the Vagyr assault craft and lance fighters from Homeworld 2.  The role/classification of this starfighter was also inspired by the modern-day combat roles of the F/A-18F Super Hornet.

Anyway, thanks for checking this MOC out and let me know what you think!

[Peppermint_M]

Alright, feedback is of course going to be flavoured by my own personal likes in spacecraft: 

Further angles and rotation on the engines would make it really stand out; while the friction hinges are a great way to add one angle, a multi-rotated "off grid" (that is not squared) build makes it next level. So the V shape is cool, but dip them so they are no longer exactly level with the body of the craft and it is a cooler look again. That can be achieved with use of technic bricks and pins. 

Colour would be my next thought: breaking up the solid dark bley with even light bley or more red would allow definition to the segments and shapes. Of course, there are a lot more flat silvers and other metallics available now in parts and shapes that make great "outlining" for the build but keep the more military look.  (I am a huge fan of Chris Foss spaceships, so my spaceships are more vibrant...) but that is going to be a case pf building up a collection of buying new parts.

The stud-less look is always a slick choice, but I like a few mechanically greebles peeking out from what would be smooth panels on the craft. So, all the studs don't have to have a tile on, switch some out for a clip and a lightsaber handle, or a pair binoculars with screwdrivers in. Or even just grill tiles. The studs are hidden, but it looks a little more detailed.

I hope this helps, I supposed the next stop for ideas is to look at the other builds out there and ask the builder what they did.

[Sajuuk]

Thank you for the feedback @Peppermint_M! 

I get what you're saying: I'll definitely look into canting the wings/engine along the x-axis in addition to the current canting along the y-axis, as I really like the idea!  If not on this build, then an idea for the future!  What I will try to do (assuming I can come up with a solution) is add some sort of rotational pitch, so each wing can rotate independently, yet can still be level with the craft for the sake of the cannons (sort of like the Mandalorian ships from SW: The Clone Wars).  Otherwise, I might look into relocating or redesigning the cannon assembly to accommodate a static pitch to the wings.

It's funny you say that because the original MOC used light bley quite extensively.  I wasn't sure if people liked it or not, so I went ahead and replaced the light bley bricks with dark bley.  I'll definitely try to add back in some light bley bricks, although in a better fashion as I did before.  Although, now that I'm looking at the original build versus this one, it does seem that those light bley wedges did seem to work to break up the MOC better than the mass of dark bley.  Thank you for pointing that out!  I'm also a huge fan of Chris Foss's designs, especially since he influenced the majority of the Homeworld series concept art and vessel design.  I guess I really need to revisit those designs, especially in terms of how they are colour blocked.  I focus too much on shape, and not enough on colour, so being a bit more adventurous in that aspect is definitely something I can improve!

I agree...I think everything I make needs more greebles!  I'm definitely going to look into how to make small, linear greebles that can fit into the space of a 1x(X) plate.  I think it's high time I learned that by now haha!  I think I'll start by trying the lightsaber handle and clip idea in light bley, maybe attached to a light bley lightsaber blade/bar and some mini-fig hands.  The linear greebles thing definitely something I'm going to experiment with, and also try to retrofit onto all of my MOCs because they're all in dire need of some greeble love.

Thank you!  I am sincerely grateful for your feedbackI  It's given me a lot to upgrade on this MOC, and I've definitely learned a bit more about building technique.  I'll also poke around for builds that I really like on the forums and ask the creators about ideas that I could possibly integrate into my own building.