[MOC] Boonta Ziringa (SHIPtember 2025)

[o0ger]

Hello everyone! 

It's been a while since I posted here. I just thought I'd show you my latest Star Wars related MOC. 

Originally commissioned by a Quarren syndicate on Trask, Boonta Ziringa was designed as a salvage vessel, but after a violent power shift in the syndicate, the ship was acquired by the Hutts as compensation for a lost shipment. The Hutts transferred it to Tatooine, where it was used as a transport barge in service of the Hutt kajidic Desilijic during the Jabba rule. In the chaos following Jabba's demise, Boonta Ziringa was bought from the Jawas by a native Tatooine entrepreneur named Varek Marr. When Boba Fett assumed control over Tatooine and ushered in a long-awaited period of stability, Varek offered Boba his services. Boonta Ziringa sailed the Dune Sea for many decades, until it suddenly disappeared from Tatooine planetary records.

When travelling across the planet surface, Boonta Ziringa would use the resource-efficient repulsorlift drives to stay afloat. Its massive sail would catch the hot winds of the Jundland Wastes, propelling the vessel at breakneck speeds with minimal fuel consumption.

This is my entry for SHIPtember this year. It’s my first-ever digital SHIP, built and rendered with Bricklink Studio. It is (obviously) heavily inspired by this concept art by John Wallin Liberto, made for the movie The Creator. When I saw his drawing, it was love at first sight — I knew I had to build my own version! 

I had major issues with the diagonal decals on the sails. I learned that PartDesigner is extremely bad at handling decals on large imported objects, so I had to apply them  to small groups and individual elements instead. It was mind-numbingly tedious, but totally worth it! :) 

During the build process, my brain usually starts visualizing the final result. I saw this ship swooshing across a desert landscape like the Star Wars planet Tatooine. Once that image took hold, I couldn’t let it go — I had to place this ship into a Star Wars setting. 
 
Name: Boonta Ziringa (Boonta's Shadow)
Length: 138 studs 
Number of elements: 3401 

What do you think? Does this ship fit into the star wars universe?

[sandtrooper]

Your design for this is very well done! I could easily see this being in a Star Wars related media.

[L-Gauger]

Wow! An incredible design! 

It's a good fit for the 'Star Wars' look for sure. The only thing is that in the Star Wars universe, it's rare for equipment to remain in "as-built" condition. The general aesthetic of your build looks like a brand-new ship, but the color scheme of the hull (gray and tan) is more normal for older, well-used ships in Star Wars media. A great point of reference is the Millennium Falcon. When new(er), the ship is white and blue: 

Then later on the ship is silvery gray with small patches of remaining paint: 

Your build is excellent, don't get me wrong. But I think it would be even cooler if you could build some "history" into your model, like was done with the Millennium Falcon. Note how not only the paint color changed, but the escape pod was removed and the communication dish was changed, along with several other harder to spot changes. I think your model would be a great base to develop into an "as built" variant and a "well-used" variant, something like this: 

As-built variant: 

- Make the ship a tad more colorful. Maybe try swapping white for the gray, and dark red or standard red for the dark tan. 

Well-used variant: 

- Keep the color scheme as you have it now. 

- Integrate lots of greebling on the hull, engines and possibly even the sail, to make it look like some of the exterior panels are missing and some improvised repairs have been made. 

A project like that would be big undertaking, but for this model in particular I think either variant of your ship would fit absolutely seamlessly with a collection of official UCS Star Wars sets.