[MOC] Pasaana HS-19 Cargo Loading Transport Skimmer - AKA "They Fly Now"

[radmiralthrawn]

They fly now!
They fly now?
They Fly now.
- The Rise of Skywalker

While perhaps one of the most mocked moments of dialogue in the entire saga, I always thought the Pasaana chase sequence featured some fun new vehicles! I was a bit disappointed when the official Lego set only came with Rey's red speeder (an Arunskin 75D skimmer) and skipped out on the blue speeder that the "They Fly Now" crew uses (an HS-19 cargo Loading Transport Skimmer). Thankfully, most sequel era sets are pretty cheap on Bricklink and I was able to cop a 2nd copy of the 75250 Pasaana Speeder Chase set for ~$10 and started tinkering to adapt it to the larger, blue skimmer. 

This was what I'd consider my first original MOC. While my prior efforts have been alt builds or set MODs, this is my own original design! It is inspired by the 75207 Imperial Patrol Speeder for the triangular front profile with the "draped" paneling, but modifying that technique to fully cover the technic core and prevent the panels from moving.

The two skimmers mirror each other in many ways and I tried to replicate the mirrored tapers and elevation changes on my model. The end result might be a little overengineered, but I'm very happy with how sturdy it is, how it looks, and how many details I was able to capture. And better yet, they are in-scale with one another at ~1:33, which is squarely in the zone of what is considered "minifig-scale" for vehicles.

 

During the process, I did often wonder why I made this. It's one of the least liked movies in the saga, from one of the most mocked scenes, and the speeder is barely in it. But I did have a lot of fun with it. It was a great starter MOC to kick my creative gears into motion. It's small enough not to be daunting, but it presented plenty of opportunities to try out some fun building techniques and learn about the color availability of various parts. I hope people enjoy it as much as I did. Instructions are available for free on my Rebrickable Page.

Fun Lego Fact: This MOC uses the modified 1x4 plate with studs in Sand Blue because the 1x4 tile in that color only released in a single Knights Kingdom set in 2006! The aftermarket prices of those tiles are obviously very expensive, while the modified plates used here instead are available for $0.07 on PAB Bestsellers! And I think the swap also helps to add some texture to the model and ultimately improved the look.
 

Party Time at the Pasaana Festival:

 

Some more photos on my Flickr

Happy May the 4th to all!

Edited 1 hour ago by radmiralthrawn