Benny's Classic Space models - spaceships, robots, and buildings!

[Murdoch17]

On 8/13/2018 at 3:32 AM, GeoBrick said:

Nice work. The main comm dish definitely looks good on top of the embassy. And I like the gates. I kinda wonder how a gatehouse/tower on or around it would look.

I do hope, with the expansion in living space Benny will get an increase in staff as well?

Sorry to disappoint you @GeoBrick, but that version of the embassy has been scrapped due to cost overruns.

So I went back to an earlier, cheaper version and revised it to more recent standards as seen in the first post or above, plus it matches my space 70's sci-fi theme better anyway. To answer your second question, i have about 10 makeshift astronauts using this torso that work in this building as office workers.

Well, what do you think?

[Murdoch17]

With this photo I was trying to replicate the 1950's pulp sci-fi futuristic feel of publications like Popular Mechanics, but in comic format like Buck Rodgers / Flash Gordon of the 1930's.

To create the stellar-vortex background, I used an old image from my Doctor Who stuff on my computer's desktop background and then stood my now-finished robot in front of it, blocking out the digital TARDIS in the process. I then took a photo of the resulting image, and added the words in MS Paint.

Well, what do you think?

P.S. I fixed the ankles which solved the stability issues and added the 33 number parts. However, the radar dish that was ordered at the same time will be shown off only when the new embassy is built in real life. (which should be around early December)

[Murdoch17]

Okay, so the Classic Space road-train / 75217 MOD has been ordered as of today...

...but the catch is it sadly won't be built until late October / early November due to space constraints. 

I did, however, find all four of the larger 6 x 16 blue panels and trans-yellow parts in my own parts bins though, among other necessary things for the build... and some things that were too cool to leave alone, like the rotary telephone and 1 x 4 printed danger tiles.

Any thoughts?

[Murdoch17]

I decided that the large elevated porch area on Benny's Classic Space Embassy building needed something to fill in the empty space. I looked at the SP III-era Classic Space statue from 2009 and decided it was much too expensive at almost eight US dollars for the single figure.

So I made my own statue using more available parts from Brick Link.... now I just need to build the building, which should happen in December of this year.

[GeoBrick]

On 8/17/2018 at 3:27 PM, Murdoch17 said:

Sorry to disappoint you @GeoBrick, but that version of the embassy has been scrapped due to cost overruns.

So I went back to an earlier, cheaper version and revised it to more recent standards as seen in the first post or above, plus it matches my space 70's sci-fi theme better anyway.

Well, what do you think?

Oh, it still looks marvelous.

But I kinda wonder if a sort of 'helipad' (the space version of it) on the roof wouldn't be better, with the comm dish placed on a mast to the side of the embassy (but connected to it for stability reasons).

[Murdoch17]

3 hours ago, GeoBrick said:

Oh, it still looks marvelous.

But I kinda wonder if a sort of 'helipad' (the space version of it) on the roof wouldn't be better, with the comm dish placed on a mast to the side of the embassy (but connected to it for stability reasons).

I actually tried that at first @GeoBrick, but realized that having a secure spaceship landing area right next door inside the walled area kinda made the exposed rooftop helicopter landing pad idea kinda a moot point. Besides, then I would have to make a ladder / stairwell to reach the roof, and it's already pretty intricate and small as it is right now! Anyway, while I wait for my last package of road-train parts (that I can't assemble until November anyway) I thought I'd make another go at a proper Classic Space train. See below for more details, but this one will never be built, as you will soon find out below.

I already have a real-world Aerotrain LEGO model completed, and was fiddling around in LDD with various color schemes on the LDD counterpart while bored when I came across this Classic Space version of the train. I had to take out the upside-down slanted coach windows because the parts don't exist in trans-yellow yet, but otherwise it was very simple conversion. I only added the different windows, a communications dish, red and green directional lights, and a bigger horn that looks like a rocket thurster pod.

I don't think I'll be building this one, but I though it was cool enough to show off. (The classic space slope from Benny's spaceship would go right above the headlights, of course, if built in real bricks) If it were really built, I would deck the track out in blue and trans-yellow tiles, and add a 9v motor to the engine for LUG shows alongside my CS base.. which because of the price of 9v stuff I won't be doing. That and I just got the other road train parts ordered and I don't want to have two Classic Space trains on my base, plus I don't like making duplicates of anything, and a duplicate Aerotrain, even in CS colors, is just too much.

But what do you think of this Classic Space / trains mashup?

Edited August 30, 2018 by Murdoch17

[Murdoch17]

Well, I had to use a couple of nice coupons, but it's been done when I had given up hope: Benny's modular classic space walls have been ordered  as shown for Christmas.

I scrapped the Embassy-style building and went back to the original town-based building I already own to make things cheaper, and then ordered all the parts shown from Bricklink with two 20% off coupons I've been saving. Granted, I won't be able to build it until late December, but when I do, it's gonna be so cool!

[Murdoch17]

This model was heavily inspired by set 75916: Dilophosaurus Ambush from the first series of Jurassic World sets.

I'm thinking about adding two of these jeeps (and a bunch more astronauts) to the base at some point in 2019.

The rear of the vehicle has a spare tire, license plate and tail-pipe, plus the roll-cage folds back to allow for you to place the driver in the seat.

[Murdoch17]

After going to my local LUG meeting today to display my Classic Space stuff and having the robot fall over and apart (again), I have come to the decision that the knees were too fragile for it to work with the upcoming LUG Christmas display. (This will entail the robot to stand for about a month-and-a-half without supports or human intervention, unless it falls apart again!)

Thus, I replaced the knee joints using the method shown in the picture above. The lower leg does rotate freely now, but that's the price I'm willing to pay for having the robot not topple over at the slightest breeze or bump of the table.

Any thoughts?

Edited September 8, 2018 by Murdoch17

[Murdoch17]

This building is just a flight of fancy for the future. I was basically curious to see if 2012's Haunted House (set 10228) would look good with Benny and his space base as his house / command center. I've already got the majority of the parts in other models that would be torn apart anyway to make this, so it's really not that big of a deal to make in real bricks.

I took out all the 'ruined' bricks and changed the colors to blue, white, trans-yellow, and light-bluish gray.  The model also has a sign on the second floor advertising it's classic space heritage, which means it should have two of this print.

As you may have noticed, there are sections of the fortress walls attached to the front of the house. They seems unevenly spaced, but this is because the house is not "in system" with the rigid grid-like wall sections. I made a 6/8 wall section and attached it to one side of the house, and 2/8 connector on the other side. This allowed the house to become "in system" and actually centers it very neatly on the side wall of the fort.

Inside the house on the lower floor is TV with VCR player, couch, lamp, table and stove, along with stairs to the second floor. The second level features Benny's bed, curio cabinet, Classic space supercomputer (seen here ) and a model rocket. The attic floor features a model city with monorail and a vintage '80's video-game arcade cabinet. You get to the attic by pulling the outside pin which  causes the attic ladder to fold down automatically.

The house opens and closes on four hinges, and locks shut on a single Technic pin.

Here we see the house connected to the already-ordered modular base walls.

Model backstory up to 1988:

In 1903, the successful banking tycoon Randolph Keystone died, leaving his business, stately Victorian mansion, and fortune to his only daughter, the budding mathematical genius Sylvia. She and her husband, George Star, would take her father's business to new heights, but also take her education to the forefront of mathematics and science, with a fixation on astronomy and rocketry. Her great grandson, Benjamin (Benny) Star, would sell the family banking business to much of the community's dismay in the mid 1970's, and then began to fill the Victorian mansion with many electronic gadgets, a huge Radar Array, and a large mainframe computer. He also became a college-educated astronomy major, astrophysicist and NASA test pilot dropout (too radical in rocket design for their tastes) before leveling the grounds in what used to be the Victorian hedge maze and gardens just in time for the newly-formed Classic Space force to come knocking at his door in 1978 while looking for a home base. They built tall security walls and a gate around where he had leveled the ground, plus adding noise deadening technology to the house to keep the home's windows from shattering every time a ship took off. Several years later, a bigger spaceport was completed nearby, and by 1986, Benny's rather small base was considered too tiny for use by the newest capital ships and is now used only by commander Benny's personal fleet, with the house has also been converted back to Benny's own usage instead of office space as well.

 

What do you think of this potential model? (backstory idea by @icm)

Edited September 19, 2018 by Murdoch17

[icm]

I like the idea of building Benny's command center with parts you already have, but I think the model in your August 17 post is a better fit with the walls of your base.  That model looks like an integral part of the base's design, because its prominent vertical lines, shallow slopes just beneath the roof line, and flat roof echo the same lines in the profile of the walls and the 45-degree angles on the corners.  This model is well done for what it is, but in context I imagine a story somewhat like this: Benny inherits the mansion of his great-great-grandfather Benjamin Star, who brought the railroad to town in 1885 and became extremely rich as a result of his rail empire (of which you've built quite a large sample).  Ignoring the protests of the local historical society and the zoning board, Benny guts the mansion of its magnificent 19th-century furnishings and installs a bunch of mysterious electronic equipment.  He razes the beautiful woodland park cultivated by his ancestor the railroad baron and builds his own little private spaceport in the backyard.  Economic havoc ensues, but eventually everyone concedes Benny was all right when he plays some major role defeating some major threat from space.  Does that sound like something Benny would do?

Anyway, thanks for posting this build.  Hope you get to build your favorite form of Benny's command center in real life without too much more delay.  Have the parts for your Arctic-styled space base arrived yet?

[Murdoch17]

10 hours ago, icm said:

I like the idea of building Benny's command center with parts you already have, but I think the model in your August 17 post is a better fit with the walls of your base.  That model looks like an integral part of the base's design, because its prominent vertical lines, shallow slopes just beneath the roof line, and flat roof echo the same lines in the profile of the walls and the 45-degree angles on the corners.  This model is well done for what it is, but in context I imagine a story somewhat like this: Benny inherits the mansion of his great-great-grandfather Benjamin Star, who brought the railroad to town in 1885 and became extremely rich as a result of his rail empire (of which you've built quite a large sample).  Ignoring the protests of the local historical society and the zoning board, Benny guts the mansion of its magnificent 19th-century furnishings and installs a bunch of mysterious electronic equipment.  He razes the beautiful woodland park cultivated by his ancestor the railroad baron and builds his own little private spaceport in the backyard.  Economic havoc ensues, but eventually everyone concedes Benny was all right when he plays some major role defeating some major threat from space.  Does that sound like something Benny would do?

Anyway, thanks for posting this build.  Hope you get to build your favorite form of Benny's command center in real life without too much more delay.  Have the parts for your Arctic-styled space base arrived yet?

The August 17th command center was actually my first choice, but it's cost overruns kept me from ordering it.... $220 dollars was the original price, and it only kept going up from there according to my daily Bricklink custom list-checking, so I did not order it. Also, the final parts on the orange base were supposed to be a stopgap project in case costs kept creeping up on the Classic Space base, but I took a gamble and did not order the orange parts.  Instead I ordered the modular Classic space walls using two Bricklink stores' 20% off coupons I had in storage that I'd forgotten about. (I can always come back to the arctic base models later)

Anyway, I might use your story idea, as it sounds awesome.

Edited September 18, 2018 by Murdoch17

[Murdoch17]

Security jeeps added to the main post.... a little extra cash came my way, so these two cars were built.

[Murdoch17]

I finally got around to taking pictures of the revised Astro-Bot 33 (inspired by Hachiroku24's Iron Giant model ) without knees and with the new ankles.

It really helped with model stability, which is good because of my upcoming Gateway LUG Christmas display. This will entail the robot to stand for about quite a while without supports or human intervention... I just hope my tinkering is good enough. (If not, I'll just have him sit down.) These two new pictures are in the first post.

Edited September 21, 2018 by Murdoch17

[Murdoch17]

This is Betty MK-II, the production version of a 1960's prototype building cleaner robot by Kristel Enterprises that was bought in large numbers by Classic Space command for modified use on their spaceships exteriors.

In actuality, I was inspired by this pretty cool older model named Betty by builder @Kristel to create this robot using some newer parts. I plan on adding this robot to my real-world fleet of model's eventually.

 

Any thoughts?

[Kristel]

6 hours ago, Murdoch17 said:

Any thoughts?

Great to see Betty has gone into production.  I'll pm my paypal email for the the royalties!

[Murdoch17]

On 9/27/2018 at 5:42 PM, Kristel said:

Great to see Betty has gone into production.  I'll pm my paypal email for the the royalties!

I'll have to get back to you about that! 

This car was a @hachiroku design of the Hudson Hornet that I modified into being build-able for Benny and my Classic Space base. You can see the original model here. I also took inspiration from set 10232 (Palace Cinema) for the rear taillights and the top of the hood. (As a side note, this newer model of Benny's car is a possible replacement for the current car seen in the first post, which is just a bit too big for my tastes, and has already been used stylistically on another space-y model in another color... which I had forgotten when I ordered Benny's car originally. Of course, the first car would donate most of it's parts to this later model when it is built in real life.)

As usual, the Classic Space logo piece goes on the middle of the rear of the trunk on the center 4 x 2 slope.

The entire roof of the car lifts away to place Benny at the controls, like as shown.

Comments, questions, and complaints and welcome still!

[Murdoch17]

Welcome aboard the Astro-train! This stream-liner was a mix of the 1950's Earth train-set called the "Aerotrain", and the 1980's landmark speed-record-breaker "TGV" series built specifically for use by Classic Space forces as high-speed, high-security ground transports for senior level officers such as Benny.

Unlike the Aerotrain, the Astro-train can have cars added or subtracted to it's consist, with the normal amount being three to five coaches plus the engine. (three are shown above) The train is nuclear Fusion powered, with a top speed of 300 MPH possible with banked curves and level track otherwise.

In reality, I liked my take on the Classic Space Aerotrain, but it can't be built due to design and motorization issues. thus, I stretched the design into the model you see here, with added bonus, of the engine being able to pull freight cars, (such as Benny's road car on a flat car) too.

This train is able to be motorized by 9V by easily replacing the front bogie with a motor. Also, the front 4 x 2 slope is missing this print,  while the two 1 x 1 tiles near the windscreen are missing this number "60" print and the four fans on top of the loco are missing this turbine print.

This is the baggage car, and like the rest of the train, all the doors open.

This is the passenger car. (actually there are no inside details, so it can be whatever you want it to be!)

I'm not too happy with the rear of this car, but I couldn't think of a good end cap for it... if anyone has any ideas, I'm open to any and all suggestions! (pictures would probably help the most if you do post an idea below)

BUILDER'S NOTES:

Now, this Astro-train is a flight of fancy only and will never be built, as my 75217 CS-styled Conveyex MOD should be built in real life this weekend, with real-world pictures coming by late Sunday or Monday. This newer model will take up my train spot on my Classic Space layout, even though it doesn't use actual train tracks. Also, parts are on order to fix an issue with Astro Bot 33's arms, as his hands keep coming off his wrists. 

Edited October 31, 2018 by Murdoch17

[Murdoch17]

Now loading in the main post, the Classic Space secure cargo transporter! (75217 MOD)

This fuel hauler is finally finished in real life, and pictures have just been added to the first post. Also, Benny's new car (the '50's Hudson Hornet-like one) and some new arms for Astro-Bot 33 (the hands kept falling off the old ones!) have been ordered with some birthday cash. You should be seeing the new post sometime next week or so.

Any thoughts?

[Murdoch17]

(slight bump)

Benny's car (inspired by @hachiroku and his Hudson Hornet model) and the revised house / office pictures with new radio antenna have been uploaded into the first post. (I apologize for the quality of some of the pictures of the car, as they are kinda fuzzy. They are the best ones of all the photos I took at that point, and i gave up trying to retake them.)

Next up to be built: the modular base walls on December 25th-ish... this should be the last bit to be built, before calling this project complete.

[Murdoch17]

This just-ordered model is basically 2012's Haunted House (set 10228) but heavily modified for Benny and his space base as his house / command center. I've already got the majority of the parts in other models that would be torn apart anyway to make this, so it's really not that big of a deal to make in real bricks. I took out all the "ruined" bricks and changed the colors to blue, white, trans-yellow, and light-bluish gray, with dark red for the roof slopes.  The model also has a sign on the second floor advertising it's classic space heritage, which means it should have two of this print on either side.

As you may have noticed, there are sections of the fortress walls attached to the front of the house. They seems unevenly spaced, but this is because the house is not "in system" with the rigid grid-like wall sections. I made a 6/8 wall section and attached it to one side of the house, and 2/8 connector on the other side. This allowed the house to become "in system" and actually centers it very neatly on the side wall of the fort. This also allows for the house to still swing open to access the details on all three inner floors and still connect to the fort shown in the post just above this one.

Edited November 25, 2018 by Murdoch17

[icm]

I'm glad to see you've finally ordered the parts for Benny's space command center.  I look forward to pictures of the real build!  But the dark red roof clashes with the walls; I preferred it in black.

[Murdoch17]

20 hours ago, icm said:

I'm glad to see you've finally ordered the parts for Benny's space command center.  I look forward to pictures of the real build!  But the dark red roof clashes with the walls; I preferred it in black.

Thanks @icm, the real world pictures should be up as soon as the part get here. The dark red roof is supposed to imitate the terracotta roof materials of the south-western USA, where the building is *fictionally* supposed to be built. (That and dark red was much cheaper than black by quite a bit!)

[Murdoch17]

Until the modular base walls and gate are added on December 25th of this year, this teaser picture is the only shot of the Classic Space control center you will see.

 I have added some inside surprises and taken out a few of the living areas to turn this from Benny's house into a true command base for my neo-Classic Space astronauts.

Hope you can stand the suspense!

[Renny The Spaceman]

Ooo, snazzy!