[SPC] Cat C - Message Intercept Barge

[bit21]

A not so long time ago, colonisation had just begun on a planet not that far away with a barely breathable yet windy atmosphere. After a few research and exploration outpost, a second organisation had just established its base. Initially peaceful relations soured over the newcomers intrusive curiosity, disappearing equipment and their refusal to tell what they came for in the first place.

The reservations were mutual. Acting like they own the place just because they were here first?! Ha! Exploration and research -- digging and blowing up things! Do they know what they are doing? They almost forced us to eavesdrop on them! And then they even send the police after us just because one of their generators disappeared.

Of course, these troubles seem like peanuts now, after the fateful earthquake. Water was breaking through from the nearby mountains, quickly flooding our base. Just when all space-worthy friendly ships were far away, and probably not in a position to quickly come to rescue! Our only glider offered only weak propulsion and mild levitation that did not even work on water. We almost decided to ask those pesky guys in colorful uniforms for help, but who knows what they would have done? (Send the police after us on trumped up charges? Maybe they would have blamed the earthquake on us? Hey, maybe they caused it? Well, at least they managed not to talk about it on the airwaves, and it seemed they were hit, too.)

So there was only one sensible way forward: Scrap the base, build a ship out of it, roam the new sea to see how the other guys could finally help us. Whether they want it or not, arrr!

"Hey, whose locker is that? You were not supposed to bring personal belongings to the station!" "Erm...which station?" "Don't make fun of me! What is this? What could you possibly need a sword for?! And this!? A ...crossbow?" "Yes?!..." "Ok, I see..."

Personal backstory: Late last year, my parents wanted to refurbish their guest room -- my old room -- and handed me my Lego collection in a box. Also, my daughter got her first Lego - a small princess set. My dark ages thus ended only earlier this year, when I tried to (ab)use my old Ice Planet and Futuron sets to create something resembling an ice castle. I found the results unconvincing, but my daughter liked them and was happy to expand them, rainbow warrior style. Interestingly, when we looked through my collection and I asked here what we could do with it, she asked me to build the Message Intercept Base! And so I did, and she played with it a few times (not spacecraft launches or anything, rather people walking around and making telephone calls or something), and I tried to remember little me playing with it. I drew a blank. I remember I liked the base when I got it - it was my largest set - but it was the only Blacktron I in my collection and so I probably neglected it a bit. I also remember not liking that the opening mechanism did not really serve a purpose (I eventually owned, and preferred, the Cosmic Laser Launcher), and that there were only three trans-yellow corner panels, so one could not build an airtight control tower thing out of it. So, back in the (almost) present, I again thought about what to build out of the MIB parts, and how to integrate it with princesses or at least the castle sets my wife had recently "aquired" from her parents' attic.

It just so happens that the above is my first MOC as an adult based on some serious thought beforehand. In fact, I had the idea with the quarter-dome-as-sail and hull-made-of-panels and side-support-quarter-panels some time before I came across this forum, but it was the SPC that prompted me to actually build it. Hope you like the result!

Edited April 30, 2015 by bit21

[Razi]

I like the yellow elements

[VolumeX]

Nice1, great idea, Glad see the dark ages are behind you. GL for the contest.

[___]

Nice try - I'm a conformist!!

[Commander Turtle]

I really like the sail idea. I hope you take another photo though - you really want to get a bit lower and more side-on with that boat, otherwise it could be mistaken for just being a regular cockpit!

[bit21]

Thanks everyone.

I hope I will have time tomorrow for a few photos in daylight. [Edit: done, edited first two photos in initial post.]

Interestingly, while aimlessly browsing MOC galleries some weeks ago, I saw a two masted ship with quarter panel sails in Ice Planet trans-orange. I pressed the back button quickly because I had not yet started building my ship and did not want to look too much at it, so I am not sure how to find it again, but I think it had a hull made of bricks (not sideways 3x2x6 panels) and non-moveable masts.

Edited April 30, 2015 by bit21