(MOC) Suwantek TL-1800 Freighter - 1505 pieces

[Mandalorianknight]

As a few of you know, the past month or two I've been working on a MOC wave with the set slots chosen by users on this site. This one (my own choice) was one I was especially proud of how it turned out, so I'm giving it it's own thread before I do the thread for the full wave (I'm about 75% done with the wave, by the way) So for those of you who don't know, the Suwantek TL-1800 is a fairly obscure freighter (Hey, @Kdapt-Preacher, I might have found one you haven't done yet!) primarily featured in the Timothy Zahn (of thrawn trilogy fame) "allegiance/choices of one" duology. This specific model is the ISB-modified freighter stolen by a group of renegade stormtroopers after they sort of accidentally defect from the empire. Since it was primarily featured in a book, the only official image I can find is a pretty rough-looking draft that, upon any level of inspection, quickly falls apart as a vague mess. So I had some fun with a bit of artistic license.

Here it is in all it's glory. The Suwantek is 1505 pieces not including figures.

Here it is with the top panels and cockpit windscreen removed. You can see most of the interior, comprised of (right to left): 3-seater cockpit, gunnery stations (we'll get to that in a minute), secret compartments, 2 rooms with a sliding door in between, equipped with beds and consoles, and in the back, a compartment for Brightwater's speeder. I've done very little testing, but this can fit 15 people at bare minimum, more if you get creative and/or remove the speeder. Let's take a closer look at each section:

Here we can see the cockpit (seats a pilot, co-pilot, and passenger), as well as the gunnery station. The guns themselves can rotate 360 degrees. I like how I did the sides of the cockpit.

Here's a close up of one room. For some backround, since the ship is modified by the ISB, there are secret compartments containing stormtrooper armor and blasters. Technically, there should be at least 6 rooms, but obviously if this was figure scale it'd be as big as the falcon, so we've only got 2 here, with a sliding door between them. Each room contains a bed, a console, and a door to that secret armor/weapon compartment. 

And the slot for Brightwater's bike in the back. The circular parts on the sides can fold down to allow for the bike to be removed or placed in.

Here's a possible figure selection were it to be a set. L-R; Mara Jade with magenta lightsaber, Deric LaRone with blaster, Searben Marcoss with blaster, Korlo Brightwater with pistol and lucky coin, Joak Quiller with pistol, Taxtro Grave with sniper rifle, a stormtrooper suit, and a scout trooper suit.

I hope you like the model, and I look forewords to showing off the rest of the wave once I'm done!

[Kage Goomba]

Holy crap...I think you nailed it!

 

Fantastic!

<just read that book - again - for the Nth time>

[Kdapt-Preacher]

Nice! That's an appropriately obscure one--I always love seeing the old-school EU ships getting some attention. You're right that I haven't made one, but were I to do so it would look something like this. I've been vaguely thinking for a while about how to fill out another set of small freighters that I half-completed months ago, so I appreciate the suggestion!

[Mandalorianknight]

12 hours ago, Kage Goomba said:

Holy crap...I think you nailed it!

 

Fantastic!

<just read that book - again - for the Nth time>

Thanks! To be honest, I always imagined the ship looking more like Hound's tooth when I read the books, though I think the official design fits much better than that.

I LOVE those books. I think they're the most underrated and unknown part of the old EU. It's a pipe dream, of course, but I feel like the story of Larone and co. would be an excellent D+ series.

12 hours ago, Kdapt-Preacher said:

Nice! That's an appropriately obscure one--I always love seeing the old-school EU ships getting some attention. You're right that I haven't made one, but were I to do so it would look something like this. I've been vaguely thinking for a while about how to fill out another set of small freighters that I half-completed months ago, so I appreciate the suggestion!

Thanks, and no problem! 

That's probably as good as you can get at that size. I'm wracking my brain to think of ways to get a cockpit or the gunwells in there, but the only thing I can think of is replacing the two 1x1 slopes in front with a jumper and black 1x1 slope for the cockpit, and then you lose the shaping of the frontal fuselage. Anyways, I look forewords to seeing those freighters!

[Kage Goomba]

4 minutes ago, Mandalorianknight said:

Thanks! To be honest, I always imagined the ship looking more like Hound's tooth when I read the books, though I think the official design fits much better than that.

I LOVE those books. I think they're the most underrated and unknown part of the old EU. It's a pipe dream, of course, but I feel like the story of Larone and co. would be an excellent D+ series.

 

Timothy Zahn is literally the only thing giving legitimacy to the new timeline - I'd love to see him reintroduce the old time line books back in some how frankly.

 

Also if you've not yet read the new Zahn books (Thrawn series - 6 of them) - highly recommend you do. :)

Edited August 25, 2022 by Kage Goomba

[Mandalorianknight]

10 hours ago, Kage Goomba said:

Timothy Zahn is literally the only thing giving legitimacy to the new timeline - I'd love to see him reintroduce the old time line books back in some how frankly.

Also if you've not yet read the new Zahn books (Thrawn series - 6 of them) - highly recommend you do. :)

I've read his new Thrawn trilogy (great books, and I like how he didn't just try to remake his original masterpieces into canon), but not the Chiss Ascendency trilogy. It's definately on my list though.

I did a quick color swap to show off a non-disguised imperial version, I honestly think it fits as an imperial vehicle at that scale. 

[Kage Goomba]

1 hour ago, Mandalorianknight said:

I've read his new Thrawn trilogy (great books, and I like how he didn't just try to remake his original masterpieces into canon), but not the Chiss Ascendency trilogy. It's definately on my list though.

I did a quick color swap to show off a non-disguised imperial version, I honestly think it fits as an imperial vehicle at that scale. 

The chiss books are "prequels" to the Thrawn Trilogy - his years in the Chiss Ascendancy - and its utterly insanely good.

May even get inspired to make some Chiss ships ;)

[Kdapt-Preacher]

2 hours ago, Kage Goomba said:

May even get inspired to make some Chiss ships ;)

I have looked and looked to see if I could figure out how big the Springhawk is supposed to be...

[Samppu]

Oh, I really love that book and seeing this marvelous piece inspired me to grab that story from the shelf again!


- Samppu

[Mandalorianknight]

On 8/26/2022 at 1:07 AM, Kdapt-Preacher said:

I have looked and looked to see if I could figure out how big the Springhawk is supposed to be...

I think it appears at the end of the Thrawn comic alongside an imperial shuttle. Not sure if the panels themselves are helpful, but at the very least it's a situation where it appears alongside a ship with a known size in visual media.

2 hours ago, Samppu said:

Oh, I really love that book and seeing this marvelous piece inspired me to grab that story from the shelf again!

Thanks! It is a great book. I think they should adapt at least the Hand of Judgement's part into a disney+ series.

On 8/25/2022 at 10:59 PM, Kage Goomba said:

The chiss books are "prequels" to the Thrawn Trilogy - his years in the Chiss Ascendancy - and its utterly insanely good.

May even get inspired to make some Chiss ships ;)

Yeah, I know, I've just never had the time. That said, I've started reading whenever I'm eating a meal at college, and I ran through the entire 90s Thrawn trilogy in a week, so... I hope the campus library has them.

[Kdapt-Preacher]

41 minutes ago, Mandalorianknight said:

I think it appears at the end of the Thrawn comic alongside an imperial shuttle. Not sure if the panels themselves are helpful, but at the very least it's a situation where it appears alongside a ship with a known size in visual media.

Yeah, that comic the best source we currently have. It's the Steadfast, not the Springhawk, but same thing for these purposes. That panel is immensely useful because it's the only current visual depiction of the ship, so the model would be based essentially entirely on that image, but unfortunately the shuttle is much closer to the 'camera' than the cruiser is, so it doesn't really give a sense of scale. I'm actually going to be talking to Timothy Zahn this weekend, though, so if I get an opportunity I'll ask him directly.

[Yperio_Bricks]

The freighter looks fantastic! I like the red and tan color scheme. And there is so much interior space. So good

[Samppu]

On 8/29/2022 at 9:51 PM, Kdapt-Preacher said:

Yeah, that comic the best source we currently have. It's the Steadfast, not the Springhawk, but same thing for these purposes. That panel is immensely useful because it's the only current visual depiction of the ship, so the model would be based essentially entirely on that image, but unfortunately the shuttle is much closer to the 'camera' than the cruiser is, so it doesn't really give a sense of scale. I'm actually going to be talking to Timothy Zahn this weekend, though, so if I get an opportunity I'll ask him directly.

Wow, I would be really curious to hear about this! Like in general did he introduce the concept of the ship personally (I guess so?) or alternatively was it accepted or maybe even introduced by the Lucasarts or someone else first, or did he just imagine the concept and then someone else tried to give it a picture, how it should look like.

- Samppu