[M4-25 - Asymmetrical] - Bracca's Flash

[Thedbbuildworks]

[M4-25 - Asymmetrical Starfighter] - Bracca's Flash


 

“This beautiful abomination has 3 event horizon sub-light engines bolted onto it, y’know those a-wings that they say won the new republic the war? Those things only have two, amateurs if you ask me.

Just enough life support to avoid a flight suit,
Acceleration is Yes, Comfort is No, Lightspeed is maybe so start with smaller jumps, just a couple parsecs at most, and for the love of god don’t light-speed-skip this thing, it will not thank you for it.

Weapons? Might as well pop the cockpit and shout Sleemo at the other guy… look, if you want safe, go mod a T-16 and ask your mother which sky-lanes are nice and gentle, but if you want to leave anyone and everyone coming after you in the dust, this thing’ll deliver… As long as it doesn’t disintegrate… I’m kidding!… mostly, I’m serious about the Lightspeed skipping, don’t do it.”

 - Tam Viic to Yolee Kene



I struggled with all categories this year, i'm terrible at flexing my creativity.
give me a reference image and i can copy it really quite well, but to design my own thing... i'm not great.

this entry dragged and dragged with dozens of iterations until i read Doug Chiang's design principles in the below blog
https://vfxblog.com/2016/09/24/doug-chiangs-4-principles-of-star-wars-design/

from there i wouldn't say it was easy, but i locked onto a couple of basic ideas



"why is it asymmetrical?" was the first question... well because its scratch built, the parts of the ship to hand dont fit together in a neat way... that got me thinking about scratch built stock cars, coupled with the scum and villainy theme of this years competition i got it! ITS A GETAWAY VEHICLE



The first thing i built was the engine block, its chunky, brutal and most importantly, its wide, giving me plenty of room to keep things off centre, i kept it mostly DBG to highlight that its stripped bare and barely functional, most likely found on a scrap heap and cobbled together.



next i tucked in one side of the ship, creating a 45 degree slope towards the nose that i filled with industrial looking shapes (pipes, vents) all nestled in that traditional star wars burger structure.

when i greebled this i kept referring back to Doug Chiang's advice of "not standing out" so i kept it simple.

another principle i focused on was using very familiar star wars shapes in an unfamiliar way, so i went with an x-wing style cockpit, however i found the E-Wing print worked better due to its more geometric corners and detail, like its a welded frame holding the glass rather than a purpose built cockpit.
unlike the x wing however i buried the windscreen into the ship a bit, this loses the pilot their right field of view, but adds to the low profile dragster aesthetic.



Originally the nose of the ship was more symmetrical, however it wasn't the category requirements that made me change it, as i worked out the narrative behind the ship i realized i wanted it to look more dangerous to pilot than it already did, the idea was for the ship to be so optimized and bare-bones that it was at risk of exploding at any second.

A relatively huge engine block sitting right behind a small angular frame for maximum speed, the only way i could really tie that together was to "strip" the bodywork as much as i could, ergo the skeletal right arm of the nose.

Built in a scrapyard on Bracca, so fast all you'll see is the flash of engine, or the flash of the whole thing burning up...

Braccas Flash

Edited July 1 by Thedbbuildworks
corrected catagory title

[Sentinel_Brix]

Wow, what a ship! I love the shape, the angles, the bareboned look... very inspiring. 

And I really enjoyed the presentation of the Bracca Flash. The intro message? Hilarious! 

[Thedbbuildworks]

3 hours ago, Sentinel_Brix said:

Wow, what a ship! I love the shape, the angles, the bareboned look... very inspiring. 

And I really enjoyed the presentation of the Bracca Flash. The intro message? Hilarious! 

oh why do you have to be so nice!? im supposed to hate you because you've absolutely knocked it out of the park and are gonna wipe the floor in the scores

seriously thanks man, your submissions are incredible and they've only made me hate every little thing about my own builds

do you have a process for figbarf-ing? i struggle to not see them as ugly throughout, especially incorporating non-star wars pieces and prints?

[Eternal Maul]

Love how the bricks perfectly shape the angles ! And the colors match well 

[Yperio_Bricks]

I can only second what the others have said! The shape of the ship, the angles and colors look great! I especially like the red, blue, tan and dark orange splashes of color that add to the rugged look of the ship.

The edited picture of the ship high above the city looks fantastic 

[Thedbbuildworks]

4 hours ago, Eternal Maul said:

Love how the bricks perfectly shape the angles ! And the colors match well 

 

4 hours ago, Yperio_Bricks said:

I can only second what the others have said! The shape of the ship, the angles and colors look great! I especially like the red, blue, tan and dark orange splashes of color that add to the rugged look of the ship.

The edited picture of the ship high above the city looks fantastic 

Thank you Both, it's a great vindication for the frustration of the build that its appreciated by those especially talented within the community!

[Sentinel_Brix]

7 hours ago, Thedbbuildworks said:

oh why do you have to be so nice!? im supposed to hate you because you've absolutely knocked it out of the park and are gonna wipe the floor in the scores

Hilarious   

7 hours ago, Thedbbuildworks said:

seriously thanks man, your submissions are incredible and they've only made me hate every little thing about my own builds

Really big thanks for the praise but that ball's not over the boards yet. There is serious competition from some great entries and I'm sure you're a serious contender for 1st place in many categories!  

I guess many builders would be extra critical with their own builds. I checked and all your builds entered are neat. 

7 hours ago, Thedbbuildworks said:

do you have a process for figbarf-ing? i struggle to not see them as ugly throughout, especially incorporating non-star wars pieces and prints?

No "process" I'm aware of  

It's trial and error probably. I sometimes develop a character and look for the perfect representation in Lego minifig possible. Sometimes I have a cool fig barfed and it starts to "tell" its story and develop into an interesting character. 

If you're looking for parts outside of Star Wars, I realized that there are some good star-wars-y figure parts from Ninjago. 

[MKJoshA]

Thanks for sharing your research process and personal struggle. It's always interesting to see how people come up with ideas for their MOCs. And your efforts have certainly paid off! This ship really does look like a getaway vehicle. And while compact, it's full of details.