The Basket Case A zepplin moc

[john cleese]

Firstly i didnt know whether to put this moc in the moc forum or weather it would be alright to put it here.

Anyway this would be my second moc you might recall the first to be a thrown togeather pirate vessel, pictures of which were taken with neither a steady hand nor good lighting. and with that i hope that you will like this second offering

The Basket Case was a speedy one man air craft, designed after the Spy zepps used by The Coalition of wobbly custards or The CWC; one of many warring political parties (and one which was indeed very silly) existing and operating and scheming at this time. It was created single handedly by a rogue spy who was given the design by a foreman friend of his who also wished to disestablish The CWC. The spy, With his vessel, sought to make sense of what was clearly silliness. Going by the pen name Pennings Namings the 4rth and later by the alias Ali A.S., while he lived in the British Raj; he would daily record the transpirations below his balloon, usually hovering above battle fields. Frequently He would land it and sneak into rooms where politicians would be found shaking hands over coffee, making their very silly political alliances and what not. When he should finally have all the pieces in place he would distribute a document containing what he had recorded as casually as a paper boy would distribute the news, so that the most corrupt and silly parties wouldn't be trusted, the Coalition of wobbly Custards incidentally being one such party. He was a credit to his race, we remember him as a Laura Secord of sorts.

about the model: Well i think its alot better than the Black Parrot Schooner. I used some SNOT thechniques in designing both the Balloon and the hull and did my best to add lots of detail with the tanks, the fins and the blue gem lamps. I also beleive that this is the first zepplin using a custom made fabric balloon, however i could be mistaken.

all comments are welcome :-)

Basket Case front 1

Basket Case front 2

balloon 1

balloon 2

balloon 3

basket 1

basket 2

basket case back

[Athos]

Hmmm... how to put this? Got a picture or even a link?

Steve

[john cleese]

very sorry its all deep-linked now, each image has its own url.

[Asuka]

That

[john cleese]

i feel the reason this has been getting few replies is due to the blurriness of the pictures. I'm sorry for this and if it would be appreciated, i could take clearer images, you see, i didnt really realize how blurry these were until i posted them on brickshelf and had a chance to look at other photos and compare them to mine. I would really appreciate replies though. :-)

[simonwillems]

I like the idea of combining lego with fabric/cloth it must have been hard to shape it like this, though the balloon seems a bit small to be able to carry all the weight of the basket.

The front of the balloon is nicely done with the rounded red cockpit piece.

There are not much balloon MOC's around, keep up the good work!

[mrts]

Hi there!

I really like this zepplin! It has some cool details and a nice overall look! *y* I think its very nice.

Small critic:

- I also think the balloon is a little to small, but thats nothing major

- i personally dont like the use of the fabric, i would suggest making the balloon part also out of lego bricks. But thats just a matter of taste.... ;-)

[Athos]

I'm not real keen on the fabric balloon. It looks like its about to deflate. I also think the lights on the balloon and the tan plates at the bottom make it look less like a balloon. The basket is done well and I like the steam boiler thing (not sure about the prop though). The underside looks interesting, but I can't see how it is done very well.

Steve, who wants to make a zepplin someday...

[john cleese]

Oh you must have looked at the entire gallery and saw that pick of the balloons underside. I added it in there just because i thought it looked nice, and people might just suspect that i just put some horizontal clip plates on there when infact its something more presentational. I just wanted to show people that i put some thought even into the parts that you wouldn't notice at first glance.

actually thats a good point about the plates. once upon a time the balloon was built out of plates of different colors to give it a patched look, it looked fine then, but now it looks as though the little fabric ballon is supposed to carry the weight of the basket and those extra plates. However even when it was built from plates i said to myself "Hey it might be neat if it was made out of fabric, maybe more zeppliny looking." I still like the fabric balloon more than its brick built counterpart but i think Mrts was right in saying its a matter of taste. I think i will use this knoledge to build a second Zepp, a larger one, and i shall dub her the celsius... maybe.