Commander Turtle

Planet: C04 Aeristus Tags: Exploration Commander Turtle uncovered some curiously human ruins on his last mission. He has been recalled for a formal debriefing on Orinshi, while his team are left testing the drones on Aeristus. You're right, this isn't too difficult. Careful there, if you go too fast it might overheat. Oh no! What did I just tell you? You've got to be more careful! Okay, we might need to start over. When do you think C-T will get back? ~~~~ Meanwhile, a train brings Commander Turtle to the Kawashita Group HQ. He has been ordered to meet the mysterious "E", a Vice Admiral and the head of the Exploration division. Vice Admiral, it is an honour to finally meet you. I take it you are Commander John Turtle. Yes, ma'am. Then the pleasure is mine. I have heard many things about you, some of them positive. I hear you captured a fearsome alien, and rescued one of our scientists from certain death. Most importantly, I hear you have absolutely not discovered anything suspicious on Aeristus. Am I correct? Well, mostly. I wanted to speak about Aeristus- Commander John Turtle, I will not have you spread misinformation and half-truths. Kawashita will not pursue your spurious claims, and you will not lie to me. ...Of course. You are at a crossroads. If you play your cards right, you will go far in this company. And for this, I need your loyalty. Are capable of loyalty? I am. Then we will hear no more about this. ~~~~ So, obviously getting thicker into my story. It might come and go a little since I'm getting very busy until September, but I'll do part 3 and on when I get the chance. Maybe once all the challenge building is done I'll have time to do the next part justice! This one started with the microbuild. Featuring an illegal-but-technically-purist build in the train, because the end cap is held on by stickers to the piece of resistance. I think that whole thing came out pretty well. I only wish I had more time to bring the other 2 builds up to the same standard! C&C welcome. And finally, we know Commander Turtle's first name

That is some nice rockwork. I do wonder though, why is it called the Death Ray™ if it clearly doesn't create death!

Wow! I know you have extended plans here, very excited to see how your builds link up over time. Also, can't help but love the autocorrection to Big megablocks gun ;)

Excellent work! I love your retro-future aesthetic, your vehicles are a treat.

If I may be blunt, I'm not entirely sold that including a premoulded motorbike fulfils the spirit of "land vehicle", although that's no criticism of your build - I love that it nests. I'm just surprised that it counts, given that Bob said a few pages back that there were minimum requirements.

46 to NuckElBerg, thanks

I don't think any corps are going to fight over home planets since they can't be dominated by an invading force. MANTIS have nothing to fear from us!

Nice work Sal! As a seasoned hayfever sufferer, I'm glad I'm not MANTIS! Also allergic to cats, so they'd probably inject me with something that makes me grow fur...

You should definitely be a Kawashita builder! Great use of the styling cues of the two companies between the mech designs. The only immediate way to improve this in my eyes would be to invest in a cheap light box, to really boost the photo quality. Not saying they're bad or anything, just room for improvement :)

That sounds typical NuckElBerg. I think Operative Q just builds big! Very creative ship design, very out-of-the-box. I'm assuming a little inspired by the Heart of Gold, at least in name One critique: I find the cockpit piece very bland. I've got it myself, but it's from Lego's era where they were trying to simplify building so it's a bit ugly. It could work better if it had some kind of hood over it, or if it was built up on either side a little.

Maybe it would be good to formalise it. E.g. if it's not visible on your sigfig, specifically ask whether the part is allowed. So the altbricks leaves have been allowed for example, and anything else not in your sigfig pic should be assumed not allowed until answered otherwise.

Great ships, they look like they're lifted straight from an anime. Neat greebling and nice cockpit. Thanks for responding quickly to new orders!

Hah! I have a special place in my heart for brick separator builds. I take it that's Dragonfire, and possibly Graham?

Thanks everyone for the kind words. Thanks! That bay is a small part of my Landship from last week Cheers! Most of my guy is from Worriz, who is available in a super cheap poly. One red arm, one dark bley. Emmet hair, and the only actually rare part is his face from the Constitution Train Chase. Oh, I'm sure he can outrun a boulder!

Nice shaping! Did you know this would work in advance or was it a tablescrap that worked out excellently?

Thanks. And yeah man, I had one of these scratched up gems from the original Mars sets, but Bricklink helped me find some in perfect condition. You can see my camera in it!

That's exciting. Our fleet of ships can always use more modernising!

Nice work Graham, good texturing for a small build. I spy unconnected boat plates

Tags: Exploration Planet: C04 Aeristus On the grasslands of Aeristus... Why exactly am I exploring with this and not the Hummingbird? Because that's what our orders were. You always say I shouldn't question authority, Commander! You shouldn't question my authority, Sonja! Because I'm always right. Question other people. ~~~~ I have found something bizarre. It appears to be ruins, of some kind. They're very old, must be at least 50 years old. Or a hundred. I have no idea, I'm not an archaeologist! Sonja? There are little relics of people. This makes no sense, there were no people here before. Send a report through to HQ, this needs more investigation. Commander, you're not going to like this. HQ say to abandon mission immediately. You are not to collect any samples. You're right I don't like that! What are they thinking? They also say you must attend a formal debrief at Orinshi. I don't like this, not one bit. I'm going to bring a sample for Fabian. Commander- I know what they said. To be continued... Trying my hand at making something decaying. Definitely an area I want to get better at, I envy the builders who make decay look easy and natural. C&C welcome.

Nice work! The interior has worked out especially well, and I like the way the sides have turned out.

These are very good vignettes. Slight critique with the storytelling, keep all the "meta" stuff to the end unless absolutely necessary. I'm trying to get involved in the story, I can find out it's a microscale Wasp later! It would also be nice to have more of the "story so far" summary at the top, one paragraph where you say how Raven has infiltrated and trained with the Dust Demons, and last week fed information back to Koro. Now she is visiting their HQ for the first time! It doesn't have to be long, but it should say enough that we could have not read your earlier stuff and still understand what's happening Sarah Connor is definitely a Terminator character, the Dust Demons will be making jokes at her all week!

So apparently a massive 2000pc Ninjago set is coming out with a whole load of red/dark red: http://imgur.com/a/vvq9A Also lots of interesting Japanese styling cues, for inspiration.

Actually we didn't give them water with this loan. Nice try though Narb!

The first was a challenge build, marked on a scale of 1-10. Everything else is 1-7, so the first one's "5" was much easier to get

Ah nuts, the MANTIS are multiplying like bacteria! On the other topic: if I see a builder asking for constructive criticism, I'll try to give it. I also generally try give out presentation advice since presentation is more objectively possible to get better at. I can handle a critique too, so I'll start putting a "CC welcomed" tag in my threads or something.