[M4-23 - Imperial Ship] Epsilon-Class Imperial Personnel Transport

[Mandalorianknight]

Cutting it a bit close (and up to 3 more entries to come tomorrow, if I can squeeze them in), but here's my second imperial ship, the Epsilon-Class Imperial Personnel Shuttle!

The Epsilon-Class Imperial Personnel Transport (I'm making all of this up, by the way) was an imperial transport shuttle in the vein of the Lambda, Sentinal, Delta, Rho, Zeta, and Omicron shuttles, though it most closely represented a diminutive Lambda.

The Imperial Personnel shuttle was the brainchild of Grand Admiral Thrawn, who, in keeping with his valuation of efficiency, commissioned a small, cheap shuttle that could relay officers from ship-to-ship, or from a capital ship down planetside. In the image above, Thrawn welcomes an imperial engineer and his crew, escorted by spacetroopers.

The shuttle was piloted by a single imperial. 

The main hull housed three passengers. Enough for an officer and two guards, or three members of an engineering corps or scanning crew.

Unlike larger shuttles, which featured ramps lowering from the cockpit side or floor of the shuttle, the Imperial Personnel shuttle simply had a rear hatch.

Although the Imperial Personnel Transport was most commonly seen in the hanger bays of Thrawn's katana-class dreadnaughts, the shuttles could be seen in the New Beyond in multiplanetary systems transporting personnel from planet to planet.

A common sight in the territory of Thrawn's remnant was for an Epsilon-Class shuttle escorted by two TIE Reconnoiters. In the event of a rebel skirmish, or more likely an altercation with one of the many alien species in the new beyond, the Reconnoiters and their Spacetroopers provided an oft-underestimated punch, strong enough to distract the invading force while the Personnel Transport either reached it's destination or retreated to the safety of a capital ship's hanger bay.

 

The ship turned out a little too similar to a diminutive Lambda for my tastes, but I'm satisfied with the purpose it serves overall. Let me know what you think!

Edited June 5, 2023 by Mandalorianknight

[Brickshipyard]

What a great take on the Greek letter Class shuttles! Good functionality and smoothness all around. Definitely a ship you should build in person if you ever get the chance. The build looks very solid.

[Jody Meyer]

I am curious as to why you did not put faces on any of the minifigures?

[Mandalorianknight]

27 minutes ago, Jody Meyer said:

I am curious as to why you did not put faces on any of the minifigures?

It's generally just a stylistic choice with me, as the stud.io software I use has limited face prints (I also tend to leave off torso prints if there's not one very close to the design already in stud.io).

On 6/5/2023 at 4:51 AM, Brickshipyard said:

What a great take on the Greek letter Class shuttles! Good functionality and smoothness all around. Definitely a ship you should build in person if you ever get the chance. The build looks very solid.

Thank you! I'd love to build it in person, but I think I'll wait two years until I own a larger apartment or house, I'm about out of space as-is.