Steampunk Sebulba's Boonta Steam Podracer

[Rolli]

All contest long I wanted to build a podracer.. Finally the time had come - and whose pod was cooler than Sebulbas? I guess I don’t need to say much more.. ;) I tried to keep the Steampunk bits in line with the vehicle and I guess it worked quite well.. I tried to add as many details as possible - it features flames in the exhausts, the saw that Sebulba can extend, all the lattices and lines on the wings, etc.

This is a part of a collaboration with Legopard who is running for 3rd place. See his Tatoosteam together with my podracer in Skaerbaek!

Apologies for the very very late post (as I'm writing this the deadline for posting ends in 20min). This is my most unstable model until now which made photographing it a nightmare! It broke like 25 times (had to totally rebuild the wings twice while photographing), then Photoshop screwed up two hours of editing and erased the shots I did yesterday. Now I took pictures again this morning - I’m still not satisfied but they have to do..

In the first image the gold thing between the wings is missing as it broke and I forgot to attach it. Sorry for that!

Second image showing the segments side by side:

Finally I'd like to thank fbtb for this amazing contest. I never imagined that I would make it to the final! I won’t win this one I guess as Markus just outdid himself with his Falcon but I enjoyed building for it anyway. Thanks for organising this Steampunk madness, thanks for all those who participated and made it such a challenge and thanks to those who voted and left great feedback in the various forums!

Finally: Thanks to my brother in arms Legopard / Jonas who helped tremendously at every stage! Fingers crossed for your duel!

Thanks for watching, looking forward to your feedback! Detailed shots whenever I'm calm and relaxed when looking at the model - might take a while

Markus

[Zerobricks]

You guys are ROCKING with these steampunk machines! I have ni idea how you made such nice curves in the centerlines but its gerogeous! Awesome stuff

[Rishab N]

This one looks really good. I like how you made the curves too

[Brickmamba]

That is too sick, good luck sir

[Rolli]

Cheers guys! Glad you like it! :)

[robuko]

Just amazing. The quality and amount of output you guys have pumped out for this contest is sensational. Why did you go for a more conventional steampunk look on this one? Good luck!

[TWP]

Congrats for making it to the finale, I really liked your previous builds so it is very well deserved!

I also like this one, it has the same type of steampunk style to it you used in your other MOCs.

Although I think your execution of the pod racer in steampunk is almost flawless, for the last round a better choice of vehicle could have been made to fetch more votes on FBTB IMO. I'm not here to criticize that though (and it's about fun in building either way), it might have other reasons (well, actually I hoped for you making a SSD in your style )

Good luck!

[Rolli]

Just amazing. The quality and amount of output you guys have pumped out for this contest is sensational. Why did you go for a more conventional steampunk look on this one? Good luck!

Thank you! There are actually quite a number of different reasons:

First of all I tried hard to keep the feel of the original model. Maintaining the color scheme was very important to me as well as the general shape. Also I wanted it to indeed be a podracer and not mash it up with something else like I did the two rounds before with the pirate theme or the 'orient express'. You can't really picture the badass Sebulba delivering letters or being a Victorian police man (sorry, not really coming up with great examples here but you get the idea..).

Then two other things came into play that totally influenced the model: I still have most of the other models I built for this contest intact as I'm doing a Steamwars display with Legopard at the Fanweekend in Skaerbaek in 4 weeks. This made the part selection utterly limited, for example all my pearl gold and brown was pretty much gone. Then the podracer features another 'issue' (which really isn't one as I worked around it and as I liked the challenge): Its turbines are circular, they have a small diameter and the podracer is a symmetrical vehicle. There is just not a lot of space to do something crazy as I did the last two rounds and also you are pretty limited regarding techniques or you have to be pretty inventive. It has to hold together after all.

[...] for the last round a better choice of vehicle could have been made to fetch more votes on FBTB IMO

Haha, no offense taken, no worries. I just never do something just because the majority would like it, thats just not me. I guess I'm more an artist than a people pleaser

Actually it was quite easy to decide. I was joking with Legopard to do a collab for the final pretty much from the beginning of the contest as we chatted quite a lot about it weeks before. It was something that hadn't been done before and how amazing would it be to mess with everybody and upload a collaborative entry. He didn't make it to the final final though but that didn't change the decision.

(I thought about it for 2 minutes if I should do the Falcon. I found it to be quite a boring model to do and went for the podracer due to being way more complex but also because it is indeed a model that is very rarely built. I knew pretty much from the start of this round that Markus would build the Falcon, and there is no point in competing with the exact same ship. If I wanted to beat him I had to beat him in a different way - he is phenomenally effective at building big stuff that looks amazing, theres just no point trying the same thing and hoping it actually yields a result..)

I'm pretty happy with the - yes, indeed - unusual choice. Its crazy how few comments it actually receives but I can live with it as I'm totally behind my decision. I love the final MOC, way more than Markus' Falcon (no offence at all, it is very well done, just not my style!)

A lot of people hoped for SSDs, Death Stars, MFs, RBRs - but why? Whats the point? They are actually totally boring ships and quite easy to do (unless you go big and I have the feeling that thats the thing that people are expecting..). If you make it all the way to the finale you want to do something unusual I think, surprise the crowds, play with them in a way. Excite them with something they didn't expect. Which totally worked I think.

Edited September 5, 2014 by Rolli

[gavralcraw]

Awesome! Love the colours and the way they transition. The bits of gold are pure gold :)

[Manx]

Wow, amazing! Great colours, great parts and awesome techniques.

[Steph 104th]

Lovely work, the colours fit together perfectly, I think it looks better that the actual version.

[BEAVeR]

Excellent work Rolli. Your view of things, following what you want and not really caring about the (lack of) comments, is admirable and makes you more than just a builder that piles bricks. I hope you still want to listen to what I have to say however . But first things first: amazing job in making this final an amazing Markus vs. Markus duel, ready for history!

Now about the MOC. It has been said plenty of times how amazing it looks. the colors and details are alone for manly tears. And the way you made all of the round parts with different techniques is beyond my imagination. I especially like how those 'fins' come out of the rear blades. Another thing that I appreciate a lot is the fact that you didn't overlook a single part of the build. I sometimes see that people build excellent motors to a podracer, but neglect the pod itself a bit (because it is too boring?). You, on the contrary, made of the pod an independent work of art. The extra turbines and engines are nice, and I like how they complement their big brothers. Also, from what I can see, the actual interior looks very cosy. It's a shame there aren't too much pictures yet. I'd like to see those flames, that cockpit, that saw and the inside of the wings. I'll stay tuned...

What I liked so much about your previous entries, was their originality. You mentioned it here that you couldn't really think of another function to give to this fearsome racer, and I see that is very hard conceptually (although highway police would have been hilarious). But you don't necessarily turn it into something completely different. You can stay in the racer theme, for example. But you could translate elements differently. the big 'wings' for example, could be made into real wings or spoilers. Or those grills in there could be transformed into a suspension for the real engines at the tips. Technically, you could even give wheels to it, making it into some kind of monster truck, but I can't really imagine that myself... And there are other options. The cockpit, for example, could be attached in a different way to the model. It could be between the engines, or those engines could be placed vertical to each other. And the power beam in between them could be yet another suspension system. There could be a protective roll-over cage in the cockpit, and somewhere hidden parachutes ready for the brakes. So all in all, there are still plenty of possibilities (and I bet there are better ones than i could imagine) to make it original, without making it entirely different altogether. You don't always have to turn a mosquito in an elephant. You can just as well turn that mosquito in a super badass secret agent in exosuit, so to speak .

Apart from my lazy and far-fetched comparisons, trying to convince you to be once more creative but in another way, this MOC doesn't really need that. In fact, it is a great Steampunk creation in its own right. But I think this contest has learnt us all that there is so much more possible on a conceptual note, and you were one of the greatest contributors to this notion. So amaze us once again, not only with your incredible techniques, but with your amazing mind as well! After you have let of steam, of course...

I'm curious what we could get then. Because this is already awesome. And it's a really good sign if we're living in a world where this kind of MOC doesn't even win a contest. But you can be proud. You already won at least one avid fan in me, and I wish you good luck with everything still to follow for you!