Siegfried

Thanks for all the kind words and the comments/ideas guys! *wub* Thanks! Errr... no thanks! X-D IMHO artificial gravity has good reason to exist in movies and TV only! :-| Sorry for the confusion. This is exactly how it is right now. I took these photos today. Yes, I agree. Impartial looks like something someone would make if they just bought a set with lots of blue in it! :-$ I still haven't got many grey engines and it shows! (I think I do have 4 now though....) In the airlock it was deliberate, in the cabin, I decided to use something other than blue. Not sure why I chose yellow and red, but I haven't changed this since I first made it. It all looks a bit tacky now. :-$ Perhaps, but remember that this is designed to operate in zero gravity most of the time. Thus it doesn't need landing gear at all! The biggest reason why I gave it landing gear was because I didn't want it to rest on the lower cannon. I will give it some thought though, afterall it would also improve the cannon arcs! I don't recall saying that, but I could have.... 8-| I can see myself adding a depression down each side with greebles to break up the side, but I don't want to ruin the arc of the side cannons.... I agree those slopes don't work; I should either slope the whole thing, or remove them. I think I will remove them... It's a "lower sensor array". I thought it looked cool at the time, but I'm not so sure now... :-$ Not at all. If I wasn't prepared for critism I wouldn't have posted it! Thanks very much for your ideas. I look forward to what you think of the Mk8 prototype! Well this wasn't too demanding piece wise. I think it has less than 1000 pieces. Give it another go! :-) Well that is how most modern fighters (and airliners) work today. However one time Airbus was demonstrating this and the plane was wrong... Thanks! I always feel sorry for mini-figs who are expected to stay in a cockpit all the time and be happy! :-P Gee thanks! :-$ I love you too... I agree. Prior to taking these photos I did make a few minor changes, but it really needs more than a tweak... There are a few parts that even I feel look too square, especially around the forward thrust drive. There are six guns, two top, two side, two bottom made from technic pin connectors. The side ones have targeting arrays for ranging. Well, you are speaking to the wrong person here; as an ex-Radar maintainer I love large arrays! X-D I used to work on this... ...but the side ranging arrays will probably be removed as I am sick of looking for them when I bump them off! :-P Does this help? :-P I hope you're right!

Oh my M&g!Bl*y gawd, that it incredible. *wub* I never even thought of doing that. 8-

Welcome to Eurobricks. I've never heard of the Toa of Plasma.... long time no Bionicle it seems! :-$

Thanks! That could be your best picture yet! :-D Nope. I decided months ago I was going to change the head of the Walrus as the older ones are far more cute, and I was planning from the start to make a story about it. By the time the BrickLinked head arrived (from Germany) I had decided on two possible stories; Hinkley poked me in the eye I drank some old alcohol on the padde steamer I asked my wife about what she thought and she gave me a third idea; this one! The whole "darkness" paragraph was written by her, but I did paraphrase it a bit. Yes, Stinky lives! This was also a good excuse to show off the Paddle Steamer that I Bricklinked half the parts for at the same time. It's even better that I thought it would be too! *wub* I never knew that the wheels were just big enough so they rolled; it's so fun to do spins with it! :-D (One day I will grow up! :-$ ) He also likes fine women... especially if they wear Clam scents! :-D Thanks everyone for your comments!

King Kahuka - He was not followed, he was worshipped!

Actually this comp is over. Gylman won as Hinckley was not eligible to win.

Thanks! I use these... ...to make it five wide inside the cab. I was quite happy with the result, but it was harder than I thought! :-P

I had a few. Sep 2 Sep 9 Sep 10 Sep 10 I'm a bit jealous actually. :'-(

Sad to say I agree, that truck is too much form over function! I was hoping for a IR car with steering.... :'-(

That's pretty cool for an "excuse to use those mosaic peices"! *sweet* I like your makeshift trolls! :-D

That's some mighty fine modding there Dr. S! *wub*

Impartial, a Jury class medium fighter. Large and overly detailed rant here. :-D

"Impartial" was the third off the production line of the "Jury" medium fighter class. Jury fighters were designed as the general "anything" craft, and are used for numerous missions, ranging from escort to assault. They were designed around the THNKR-2 combat system which comprises of two main sensor arrays, several smaller arrays and a utility bot, all controlled by a central AI integrated into the ship. The top array, while electronically steerable, can also rotate to enhance the data and/or reduce interference. The lower array is designed to cover the areas that the top array misses, and it is designed to also serve as a high-resolution mapping sensor. The utility bot is non-sentient and acts as the "hands" of the ship, enabling it self-maintain. The bot is generally seen by the crew to be the "brains" of the ship and, while it is discouraged by Defence Command, most have a name. The bot on Impartial is known as "Max". Jury fighters have a single main fusion plant, with an smaller auxiliary as backup. Aside from electricity, the power from the plants are used to generate plasma that is used in the four thrust drives, the boost drive, and the six plasma cannons. The four thrust drives allow Jury fighters to decelerate almost as fast as they can accelerate and each also has a directional thruster for manoeuvring. The single boost drive is designed for long acceleration and is much more efficient and powerful than the thrust drives, but it requires around 60 seconds to come up to full power and the same to be shut down. Thus it is used for exiting from a planet and for normal transits, not combat. While the Jury class was designed for space, they are capable of planetary operations. The landing area does need to be large however as they do not have the power to do a high-sink-rate landing. This is because they have no dedicated descent engines, instead the directional thrusters are used. The pilot needs to come in low, and simultaneously slow forward velocity while allowing the ship to descend. Generally it is encouraged for the THNKR-2 to be used. Take off is less of a problem as once the Jury is clear of the ground it can pitch and then use the main output of the thrust drives. Some pilots have been known to use this method to land, but after several crashes caused by engines melting this technique was banned. Jury fighters have no problem leaving the gravity well of most planets, but the average planet departure will require 25% of the onboard fuel. It is important to note that the auxiliary fusion plant does not generate sufficient power for planetary operations. While the weapon systems of this class is designed to be effective to all targets, they are best used against similar sized or larger ships. This is because the plasma cannons have only 5 degrees of non-mechanical steering, and the turret can only rotate. (This is a limitation caused by the decision to prioritise the power of the cannon over its ability to be aimed.) Thus the technique of smaller and more manoeuvrable targets tends to rely on combining the cannon arcs and rotating the ship. There is a laser emitter forward, but this has been found to be too light for heavy targets, and too hard to aim for light targets. They are referred to throughout the fleet as the "Warning Shot" as this is seen by many as their only use. At a casual glance the aiming limitation of the plasma cannons might seem to be a major flaw, but due to the THNKR-2 it is almost irrelevant. Jury fighters are quite capable of being piloted from a console inside the ship, or in some cases by THNKR-2. In combat the second is generally watching sensor data and processing target data, and forward station is crewed by the commander who picks what targets are the highest priority. The THNKR-2 is left to actually fire the cannons. The THNKR-2 guides the pilot to positions of optimum fire power by either indicating ideal positions on the HUD, exerting force on the control sticks, or even by overriding the commands of the pilot in times of urgency. Jury fighters work well in groups as they have more than enough capacity to transmit full sensor and target data between ships and thus are excellent at combining firepower for maximum effect. One THNKR-2 can control up to four Jury fighters with no loss of capability. Most of the hull of the ship is armoured, with the majority being on the front, back and sides. For this reason when in formation Jury fighters tend to form up in vertical flights where practical, especially since the weapon and sensor arcs are mutually supportive this way. Under the armour is a network of cooling heat sinks, which are needed for atmospheric insertions as well as combat. In service it has been found that this is often not enough to radiate all waste heat in battle; many Jury fighters have been destroyed by simply overheating. The armour is capable of handing most light laser fire, and its ability to handle plasma depends more on cooling the area fast enough. Physical impacts like projectiles or missiles are not handled as well; protection from such weapons is best achieved by avoiding or eliminating the threat. For a fighter of this size, the Jury is remarkably habitable. Due to its size it does not have gravity, but it does have sleeping, eating and sanitation facilities, as well as proving enough room for the crew to move around to a limited degree. However, there are no facilities for exercise other than using tension straps. For this reason it is not recommended to use a Jury for any mission that will require the ship to be space bound for ten days or more. The only way into the ship is via a airlock to the rear. The 1000th and last Jury was completed over five years after the first and was known as the MK7 due to several major revisions made to rectify design limitations. For example, latter Jury fighters had provisions for missiles and had a more powerful fusion plant. Today 835 Jury Medium Fighters are still in service, with Impartial being the oldest. Like most military equipment, demands have been put on the Jury fighters beyond their intended functions. The lack of a D-Drive is seen by many as a major weakness of the class as their powerful sensors make them excellent picket ships. To combat this imitation they are often packed into a shuttle and then Dimensioned into a new area using the shuttles D-Drive. This has resulted in disaster several times when the shuttle was ambushed prior to being able to launch the fighters, so the practice is officially banned. It still is done by many however so Defence command has decided as a priority to attempt to retrofit the Jury fighters with a D-Drive. Recently Impartial was selected to be modified into the prototype for this, and it will be known as the MK8. It is hoped in this revised version to also rectify some of the other minor flaws in the design of this excellent fighter. Notes This was made using the Lego set 4402 and a few extras. It isn't quite finished yet, hence the reference to the MK8 version. I made this around 2 years ago when I had far less Lego but it still isn't how I want it as I miss a few parts. My main mods planned will be to the front of the cockpit area and the rear main engines. (I want to work in the new cement mixer drum..) Most of the rest I like. I am making, one ship at a time, two fleets, one that is for order, the other for freedom. (Neither are good or bad, but it does depend on your perspective.) This one is obviously for order. In case you haven't noticed, I have a smartypants way of naming my ships, in that I have the class name relating to the ship name. :-| I'm such a self-servicer. :-D Feel free to give suggestions for improvements, but remember that it is designed for space so it is not supposed to be overlly streamlined. I feel the same way about landing gear too for the same reason! X-D Just the same, feel free to call it a flying brick! :-P Thanks for looking. Brickshelf folder (When moderated.) EDIT: I change the links to Flickr...

Now look what you have done; there is a three way tie! :-P

Welcome to Eurobricks! A few people have said that and it surprises me as it isn't that uncommon in fantasy; Dragonlance, Pern, Magician....

Welcome to Eurobricks Beastboy... or is it "light"? *wacko*

Welcome to Eurobricks! That's a smarty pants name and I like it! :-D

You naughty boy. You should be sleeping! It's great! The dwarves do seem to be in need of a more logical mine layout! :-P

:-P Spongebob makes a good zombie; who would have thought!

Thanks for trying though! *sweet* Thanks! I just downloaded it and it is great. *wub* Indeed! I love that. It looks good up and down. *wub* Thanks for posting that; it looks so cute. :-D You should buy the bag charm as well! :-P

Actually that was one of the questions I missed! Thanks; I will add it to my collection! :-P

Comments; I expected that none of us would survive this experience so I am a bit surprised. I didn't like the usage of the set number as a code number, but that could just be me getting annoyed that I didn't work it out! Like Hinckley I was glad that in the end there was a real monster. I think the length was good, but as you say, people got busy and stopped posting and thus the story had trouble moving. I loved it when you included Lego scene setting shots. Sorry for being a smarty pants in regard to ship stuff. Questions include; Did the boat people know their back story from the start? If so, who else did? I knew nothing.... Did we miss any other things that we were supposed to pick up on? Mr Masons code seemed to be a red herring to me. Did I miss something there? It seemed to me that you designed it so each character had a backup. Am I right? The ship and the rust/bad condition; was this supposed to be in regard to bad maintainence or something else? Was the story 100% set it did it change depending on what we did? Were there multiple paths? I'll try to think of more later! :-P Thanks very much for hosting this. It was an interesting experiment that I was glad to be part of. *sweet*

Owww he didn't mean any harm. I'll keep his part quiet if you can.... Want a hug? "There's a sad sort of clanging From the clock in the hall And the bells in the steeple too, And up in the nurs'ry an absurd little bird Is popping out to say "coocoo". Regretfully they tell us, But firmly they compel us To say goodby to you. So long, farewell, Auf wiedersehen, good night, I hate to go and leave this pretty sight. So long, farewell, Auf wiedersehen, adieu, Adieu, adieu, to yieu and yieu and yieu. So long, farewell, Au'voir, auf wiedersehen, I'd like to stay and taste my first champagne So long, farewell, Auf wiedersehen, goodbye, I leave and heave a sigh and say goodbye, Good bye I'm glad to go, I cannot tell a lie. I flit, I float, I fleetly flee, I fly. The sun has gone to bed and so must I So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye, Goodbye, Goodbye, Goodbye! "

I'm doing circles around the ship! *sweet*

Wahoo! This is better than Disneyland... not that I think Disneyland is that good... :-D :-D