Classic Space SHIP - real life (finished) MOC - Project Upsilon

[Murdoch17]

This vessel, (called Project Upsilon) was Classic Space forces secret weapon against any potential uprisings of any alien, robot, or human race outside of the Galactic Space Congress. I say WAS because it's death-star level super laser was never used due to a planted Blacktron bomb sending the station and it's crew hurtling through hyperspace toward a black-hole in early 1988 during the early hours of the attempted Blacktron coup. The station was never recovered and almost all of the crew was presumed killed by the black hole except for blue astronaut Benny, who fell off the station before it reached full light speed while doing regular maintenance to the solar arrays.

(Benny survived a day floating out of conciseness in orbit off Jupiter II before being found by retreating Congressional forces. He still wears the broken helmet and smudged suit from that day as a reminder of the eternal sacrifice of his fellow two crew members that were lost. He was, for a time, secretly considered with suspicion regarding the loss of the ship by rouge operatives of the Galactic Space Congress' black ops division.)

Thirty-one years later in 2019, the station is found floating in the very far-off Delta quadrant of our galaxy, completely iced over. The crew are flash-frozen from that horrible day in 1988, and the main computer is barely running on emergency battery power. The clock on the computer is checked by Benny himself: over 200,000 years have gone by! (The ship went inside the black hole which deposited the ship in the very distant past via a time vortex.) The fusion reactors are restarted, and the barely-functional computer begins to wake up the two crew. Then it is discovered that a third frozen astronaut is on board in Benny's bunk, a pink one, who was not on board when the ship was blasted off towards the puncture in space / time. Who is she? Why is she there? The answers may lie inside the thawing mainframe core of the 1980's computer...

Here is what I've been working on for a year or so on my computer, and more recently in real life. Overall this 101 studs long beast in real life is quite light, although it's not to easy to hold while taking a photo... I had to have another person help me with this picture as the 14 top and  bottom stands that keep it level on the table don't make very good holding points for flight!

The eight yellow triangular things are movable solar panels, while the cockpit seats two Classic Space mini-figures. The large super-laser emitter on the front is a Death Star-like cannon, used only in times of last resort against unfathomable enemies to the normally peaceful Classic Space fleet. (this would mean potential Blacktron, Robotron or Spyruis incursions, if it hadn't been sent into a Black Hole and time traveled back 200,000 years within minutes of first coming online in 1988.)

The ship featured both a dual fusion reactor system and solar panels in eight moving segments as a backup in case of emergency as well as powering the super laser. This would prove vital in keeping trajectory equipment's backup batteries charged and cryogenic crew storage frozen solid for several hundred-thousand years.... you never know how long this station would have lasted otherwise on just fusion alone!

The brand-new cockpit should seat two figures, ideally the yellow and white astronaut's from the Benny's Space Squad set. (70841)

The solar panel's intense energy from even remotely nearby stars powers the super-laser. (In case you were wondering what those black-and-white pods were on the solar panel wing struts, they are small maneuvering rockets.)

The rear of the ship. I was inspired to create the engine pods on the space station after seeing a older post by Flickr user Karf Oohlu as seen here. The access hatch to the inside of the station is visible at the extreme rear near the two engines. 

I plan on using the white, yellow, and pink astronauts for the lost classic space crew of Classic Space station Upsilon. Benny was  also part of this 1988-vintage crew, but managed to loosen himself from the Blacktron-sabotaged space station before it reached the black hole whereupon it vanished, presumed destroyed, with it's crew (minus Benny, who was badly damaged but ok) assumed dead.

NOTES:

I would have put this SHIP (which stands for "Serious Huge Investment in Parts", in case you didn't know!) in with my other Classic Space stuff, but I think it's best to keep mini-figure scale base and this major space ship separate, as it's not meant to land on planets' surface's. Anyway, this is my first SHIP, and most likely my last one as well.

EDIT:

main post edited and pictures revised 9/03/19. Real life pictures added!

Comments, questions, suggestions, complaints and such are always welcome.

Edited September 13, 2019 by Murdoch17

[icm]

Thanks for posting this.  I've thought about doing Shiptember for the past couple of years, but haven't been up to it yet.  Speaking as someone who's never built a SHIP, I applaud your determination to get it done this time.  It certainly fits the SHIP standard, and it fits well with your personal interpretation of Neo Classic Space.  That said, if you're not planning to build it until next year you've got plenty of time to improve the design because...well, like many Shiptember spaceships, it just looks like a shish-kebab.  I can see your design process in there: you've got the engines at the back, a big comm dish at the front, some big wheels that are meant to represent spinning habitat rings, some solar panels; but aside from my personal experience with Bricklink (which suggests it would in fact be very expensive to build IRL), it just doesn't look like a seriously huge investment in parts.  I guess I just like to see creations that focus on advanced building techniques to achieve clear aims in structure, shape, and function rather than simply aiming to achieve a fixed size.  For instance, if the blocky octagonal sections near the bow and stern are intended to represent hangars for fighter craft, you could try to show that in the build rather than just using some castle panels to sketch out the module in the simplest way possible.  Perhaps the solar panels could be made larger and more prominent to emphasize their function, or the hab rings could be enlarged and brick-built to give some sense of scale that doesn't depend on an auxiliary build of a mini Benny ship.

So, those are my two cents.  My opinion's only worth about two cents here, since I've never attempted a SHIP myself.  My seriously huge investment in parts this month ought to be just sourcing the missing parts for all my incomplete sets and the various little creations I've posted here.  You've certainly done a good job in showing how to do that kind of thing sustainably and affordably.  You said you've ordered the parts for the walls of your Classic Space base - have you been able to order the parts for the "embassy" yet?

[Murdoch17]

On 9/12/2018 at 12:41 AM, icm said:

Thanks for posting this.  I've thought about doing Shiptember for the past couple of years, but haven't been up to it yet.  Speaking as someone who's never built a SHIP, I applaud your determination to get it done this time.  It certainly fits the SHIP standard, and it fits well with your personal interpretation of Neo Classic Space.  That said, if you're not planning to build it until next year you've got plenty of time to improve the design because...well, like many Shiptember spaceships, it just looks like a shish-kebab.  I can see your design process in there: you've got the engines at the back, a big comm dish at the front, some big wheels that are meant to represent spinning habitat rings, some solar panels; but aside from my personal experience with Bricklink (which suggests it would in fact be very expensive to build IRL), it just doesn't look like a seriously huge investment in parts.  I guess I just like to see creations that focus on advanced building techniques to achieve clear aims in structure, shape, and function rather than simply aiming to achieve a fixed size.  For instance, if the blocky octagonal sections near the bow and stern are intended to represent hangars for fighter craft, you could try to show that in the build rather than just using some castle panels to sketch out the module in the simplest way possible.  Perhaps the solar panels could be made larger and more prominent to emphasize their function, or the hab rings could be enlarged and brick-built to give some sense of scale that doesn't depend on an auxiliary build of a mini Benny ship.

So, those are my two cents.  My opinion's only worth about two cents here, since I've never attempted a SHIP myself.  My seriously huge investment in parts this month ought to be just sourcing the missing parts for all my incomplete sets and the various little creations I've posted here.  You've certainly done a good job in showing how to do that kind of thing sustainably and affordably.  You said you've ordered the parts for the walls of your Classic Space base - have you been able to order the parts for the "embassy" yet?

Thank you for commenting @icm, I'm sorry I didn't get back to you sooner. I built this model as a test to see if i could get it build for under $150 USD, which, according to Bricklink, might just be possible as long as prices stay stable for a couple more days. I really did not want it too be too expensive, or touchy with physics, as too many of my projects look good on LDD and don't look so good in real brick. For example, I tried to mockup a spinning arm segments for the solar arrays that ended badly because it was just too weak and I couldn't get it any better, no matter how I tried.

As to the Benny ship, i replaced it with a different, mini-figure scale model and restructured the post with new pictures and text such as the screenshot above. Please take a look at the first post for more details.

[Murdoch17]

BUMP:

I was really worried about the structural integrity of the thin rod-and-plate pieces I had used before on this design before, and the possibility they could sag under their own weight, so I revised the design into the shape you now see in the first post. I used a lot of bigger bricks, some panels, and more secure Technic rods to do this, but it should work a lot better now. (I also added more black A-frame supports for when it is set on a level surface too.)

Compare this to the post above.

[Murdoch17]

Parts are on order from Bricklink, real life pictures coming soon!

First posted updated in a major way, new LDD pictures, new text, etc.

Edited August 27, 2019 by Murdoch17

[Murdoch17]

SWOOSH! Pew! Pew!

Incoming transmission from Classic Space HQ! Set phasers to FUN, and prepare to board the Project Upsilon, now brick in the real world built in the first post!

[Laura Beinbrech]

I meant to comment on this last week when you posted the updated LDF file, but it looks even better in the actual bricks, and very swooshable.

You also did a good job of combining new elements & techniques with the old-school Classic Space look.  Excellent work!

I'm actually planning (well have been planning for the past several years) to make a SHIP based on a heavily modified version of Benny's Spaceship Spaceship Spaceship! that I bought when the set first came out...  Not sure if the SSS counts as a SHIP at its current length, but I plan on adding full interior, including engineering space (and making the cockpit into a proper bridge by adding vacuum-tight doors to the bulkheads allowing minifigs to walk between compartments without leaving the interior), which will most likely require lengthening the ship anyways.

Only reason I mention my project is because, by some strange coincidence, it will feature Benny & I had actually come up with a rather similar backstory for it....

[PaddyBricksplitter]

Cool design, those large ships are difficult to build.

[Murdoch17]

On 9/4/2019 at 8:43 AM, Laura Beinbrech said:

I meant to comment on this last week when you posted the updated LDF file, but it looks even better in the actual bricks, and very swooshable.

You also did a good job of combining new elements & techniques with the old-school Classic Space look.  Excellent work!

I'm actually planning (well have been planning for the past several years) to make a SHIP based on a heavily modified version of Benny's Spaceship Spaceship Spaceship! that I bought when the set first came out...  Not sure if the SSS counts as a SHIP at its current length, but I plan on adding full interior, including engineering space (and making the cockpit into a proper bridge by adding vacuum-tight doors to the bulkheads allowing minifigs to walk between compartments without leaving the interior), which will most likely require lengthening the ship anyways.

Only reason I mention my project is because, by some strange coincidence, it will feature Benny & I had actually come up with a rather similar backstory for it....

Thanks for commenting, and great minds think alike I guess!

On 9/4/2019 at 11:58 AM, PaddyBricksplitter said:

Cool design, those large ships are difficult to build.

Thank you. They are a little outside my comfort zone... this took at least a year to design and then a week to build. (with some structural tweaks / two BrickLink orders after it was supposed to be finished design-wise of course!).