FNS Inferno & RNJS Thunder Child

[Laura Beinbrech]

Yes, I know, more of my lame ship MOCs, but you get a two-fer this time:

Introducing the Federal Navy Ship Inferno and the Republic of New Jersey Ship Thunder Child

PT Boats Side View by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr

The FNS Inferno is the lead ship of the Inferno-Class Coastal-PT boats deployed by the Federal Republic of America and in fact, pre-dates the Final War. The Inferno was originally a cabin cruiser that was purchased by the North American Union in the early stages of the Final War and armed with heavy machine guns for fighting Blackgaard loyalist insurgents in coastal and river engagements. After the cataclysmic Anti-Matter missile exchange initiated by the maniacal Dr. Regis Blackgaard, the Inferno was the only surviving Naval asset for the remnant of the North American Union that would eventually become the Federal Republic of America. Over the years, the original Twin-.50 caliber machine guns forward were replaced by a 1.5" (38mm) auto-cannon, a side-mounted twin Merculite Missile launcher was added, then replaced by the MK-50 sonar-guided torpedo racks and the aft .50 caliber machine gun was replaced by a BA Heavy Industries 7.62mm NATO minigun (this replacement occurred shortly after contact was made with the Free State Redmond, which has since joined the Federal Republic as a full member state).

PT Boats Front by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr

The final modification to the Inferno was the new superstructure configuration that was added during its latest shipyard overhaul. This superstructure was designed by the Republic of New Jersey when they developed their Lightning-Class PT boats based on the Inferno-class (which at the time still had an open upper-deck/bridge), as part of the tech-trading deal and alliance the two nations signed after discovering that their mutual enemy, the Grand Duchy of New York, was led by none other than Dr. Regis Blackgaard, architect of the Final War.

PT Boats Aft by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr

The RNJSThunder Child is typical of the Lightning-Class PT boats, and has virtually identical weapons systems to the Federal Navy Inferno-Class. The main differences are the fact that the Lightning Class boats' hulls are narrower and longer than the Inferno-class boats, giving them greater speed, but somewhat less maneuverability and a greater tendency to roll about in heavy seas.

PT Bridge Interior by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr

In addition, the bridge area of the Thunder Child, like all Lightning-Class PT boats, only has one watch station (Conning officer), whereas the Inferno, like all boats in its class, has two watch stations: Conning officer and Weapons Officer (who has a small sonar display/torpedo launch conrol pad)

Further differences are in the layout of the area below decks:

PT Boats Interior by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr

In the Thunder Child, you can see Chief O'Brien manning the master plot, with an enlisted sailor manning the radar console. In the Inferno, you can see the duty engineer manning the engine control board and Lt. William "One-Eyed Willy" Jensen at the master radar display.

Finally a picture of the two boats' crews:

PT Boat Crews by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr

The three sailors to the far left are NJ Navy enlisted/junior NCO's, 2nd from the right of the NJ Navy personnel is Chief Petty Officer O'Brien and the furthest right of the NJ Navy personnel is Lt. Hermione Ginny Wells, the Thunder Child's CO. The left most of the Federal Nay sailors are enlisted/junior NCO's, second from right is Chief Petty Officer Jackson, and at the Far Right is Lt. William "One-Eyed Willy" Jensen, the Inferno's CO.

Well, I hope you guys like my PT-Boats! I had fun making them. Fun Fact: The Inferno is, in fact, an ORIGINAL 4011 Cabin Cruiser that has been modified, and is one of the few sets of my brothers and mine to survive my first dark age, and I also started modifying it as soon as my brother relinquished his claims to it, and in the general order of upgrades that I outlined above.

BTW, free cookies to whoever gets the various movie/literature references I threw in here (to be fair, Captain One-eyed Willy was one of my brother and my first custom pirate captains, along with Captain Admiral James Hook and Captain Long John Silver....

[lightningtiger]

Interesting creations and even more interesting crews....totally Sci-Fi......keep them coming 'Hikaro Takayama' !

Brick On Fight On !

[Laura Beinbrech]

Thanks, Lightningtiger! Glad you like them... Believe it or not, but the RNJS Thunder Child was a semi-table scrap.... I decided to buy the new City Fishing Boat just to mess around with the hull, and due to my current set budget, decided to see what I could do with pieces that I happened to have on hand. It took a while to get her together, but I liked the results enough to see if I could modify the Inferno to have a similar super structure.... Also, as you can see, both the Federal Republic of America and the Republic of New Jersey are very tolerant societies and have an equal-oportunity policy when it comes to military enlistment.

Oh, and since nobody seems to want to guess the references, here they are:

The Inferno and One-Eyed Willy are both references to the old 1980's movie, "The Goonies", which helped fuel my brother and my passion for pirates... As a matter of fact, we saw it as a re-run on TV, "Captain Blood" (old movie with Errol Flynn) and the theatrical re-release of Disney's "Peter Pan" about a year before LEGO Pirates came out....

Chief Jackson is a reference to "Down Periscope" (one of the two quatermasters driving the sub was seaman Jackson, the former Navy Academy basketball player).

The Thunder Child is a reference to H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds and is named after the torpedo boat that managed to destroy two Martian Tripods before being destroyed itself, allowing a refugee convoy to escape. The captain's name (Hermione Ginny Wells should have been a dead giveaway).

Chief O'Brien, of course, is a reference to Star Trek, Deep Space Nine.