[MOC] Lucrehulk-Class Federation Core Ship

[Graupensuppe]

I liked they way the central sphere of the 75016 Homing Spider Droid is built, so I decided to use it for a very tiny episode 2/3 core ship. The included minifigures are an Utapauan warrior, a Battle Droid Pilot, and a Neimoidian captain:

The upper half of the ship can be opened up to place the Neimoidian and Droid Pilot on the bridge:

The lower half of the ship can be replaced by a version without the landing legs:

In episode 3 the duel between Obi-Wan and Grievous starts inside a similar core ship, but this model is obviously too small to depict that scene. So I added a display base that fits the ship as well as their minifigures:

Piece count is 218 (319 with the base and additional minifigures).

[Graupensuppe]

"There's an unusual concentration of federation ships over there, R4..."

[BEAVeR]

Hehe, that really looks like an official microfighter! The shape of the sphere indeed looks great, and I like how the ridges in that rim piece look like the texture on the real deal. You could even say that those exposed studs on the top are meant to represent similar features you can see on the versions that appeared in the Clone Wars, so that's not bad at all! My favourite thing about this creation, though, is how the Neimodian and the battle droid sit in it: they just look so happy to go off on an adventure in their wacky spaceship! Definitely the thing that has made me smile the most today!

I like how you attached those landing supports because those Technic pieces also do a great job as extra mechanical detailling down there. Still, I'm convinced that you could get even more detail in, I even tried it out in LDD. If instead of that 1x3 Technic piece and a cross axle you use a Technic half pin with stud and put some plates on top of that, one of them being a 1x1 plate with handle, you can also connect those legs and suddenly you have an extra bar to put some details like droid arms or legs (actually those legs of the Grievous figure would be a great match in terms of shape, but I think they would be a bit too big) there to really fill it with details. Also, on the top you could maybe add a binocular piece or some more special pieces than the standard bricks you used now to make it read as small details more.

But anyway, a lovely small build! They really look great in that aerial shot you posted above!

[Graupensuppe]

On 3/5/2020 at 3:05 AM, BEAVeR said:

I'm convinced that you could get even more detail in, I even tried it out in LDD. If instead of that 1x3 Technic piece and a cross axle you use a Technic half pin with stud and put some plates on top of that, one of them being a 1x1 plate with handle, you can also connect those legs and suddenly you have an extra bar to put some details like droid arms or legs (actually those legs of the Grievous figure would be a great match in terms of shape, but I think they would be a bit too big) there to really fill it with details.

Could you take a screenshot of that?

This is how it's currently built:

[BEAVeR]

Quite simply, this kind of construction was what I was referring to as a minimal modification to your original design. Other types of robot/skeleton arms work well too. Since you are just using the pin hole of those Technic bricks, you could just as well replace them with ordinary 1x1 bricks with stud on the side. Using a headlight brick can even bring the grey bows closer to the center without colliding with the central ring. And the extra studs that come available then might be used to attach something to to fill in the gaps between the legs to make the bottom half feel more like a sphere again, but I'm not sure whether such a thing can be done.

Anyway, I hope it is clear now and that it might be of some help to you. Rebuilding part of your creation also made me appreciate some new things like how you managed to attach the spheres on both halves. Good stuff!

[Jerry McGlade]

Nice build