LucasLaughing

Hooray - go Empire! Thanks again to the judges for all the hard work you put into this game, and thanks Beaver for coming up with a very fun episode!

Thanks Josh! I had a lot of fun with this build ... I just wish I had enough parts to make a second engine and complete the racer

Thanks Goatman! I'm afraid I wont be able to get a build up this week, but next week should be good. Thank you! Glad to be part of the team.

Greetings team! Lu here, just arrived in system as an explorer. I wont be able to join any expeditions until next week, but I'll keep an eye one this comm channel to see what the best destination will be.

Lu Caslaug-Hing (call me Lu), signing up as an explorer for Octan. Wow, it's hard to believe I'm actually here. After years of training, in everything from astrogation to light demolition, I'm finally ready to take my place as part of the team. The trip through the anomaly was ... uncomfortable. They say everyone experiences it differently - for me, it felt like tripping and falling, but falling in-ward instead of down. I can't imagine what it was like before they had the G.A.T.E. systems perfected. Yet another thing to ask my parents about if ... no, when we find them. They've got to be out here somewhere - anomaly or not, people can't just disappear. Right? --- Avatar image: Behind the scenes shot:

Yep, he posted some WIP shots in the 'Secure Comm Channel' thread last week - those are probably what you're thinking of...

Awesome entry - your photography made the scene seem much larger than it is. Did you plan out some of your shots beforehand, or do test photos as you were building? Also, nice job with the 'action' poses of the minifigs, and the little mechanic droid is a cool detail.

Awesome job with the hanger - the overhead crane looks great and you've got a some cool background details. I like your dialogue and your use of the alien language - it can be tricky only showing one half of the conversation without making it confusing but you pulled it off. A few more close-up shots would have been cool, but I was in the same boat with the last minute photo shoot, so I know how it goes!

Hah, no worries! It was with great reluctance that I started watching Ep1 clips, and I still have some mild mental scarring from the experience

This is rad - it definitely has the feel of a bustling Tatooine market. Great job on the minifig posing, and I like all the little details (like the 'gonk' droid - I didn't spot that until my second look). Good work!

Wow, as I said before, this is fantastic. The 'cut-away' ended up looking good, and I like that it was expanded to the hallway and piping too. I think my favorite part is how 'alive' this scene feels. You've got a ton of minifigs, but none of them seem superfluous - they all look like they're doing something or going somewhere. Love it!

Great story - it seems plausible and very well thought-out. The workshop is excellent too, I especially like the bins overflowing with parts. The engine is small, but you've got some very nice angles and details; the use of the rings for dual energy binders is a good touch.

The scorpion looks awesome, and the building definitely looks like it belongs in the desert - I like how you've got it angled instead of aligned with the base. "it had been because of his great ability to follow orders that he was in his position. This is a great line - I can picture your character repeating it in future missions, possibly with more and more bitterness (at least if you keep hanging out with Goatm and I)

You've got some nice details here; the workshop is a bit bare but I like the tools on the wall and the work bench. The shelves are nice but I think they could use a few more tools or parts on them. The podracer engines look cool.

Thanks guys! Thanks! Pod Racers are weird because there's such a huge range of engine sizes; I initially worried mine was too big, but after looking at wookiepedia and watching the pre-race 'procession' scene from Ep 1, I realized they just run the gamut from huge to tiny. Also, I was grateful for the extension so I figured I'd work it into the story a bit Thanks Goatman! I spent a long time (probably too long) building and rebuilding the engine, trying to make it look plausible (the Star Wars cutaway book definitely came in handy) so I'm glad you guys dig it. The title was a last minute idea; although my girlfriend remains deeply skeptical, I'm convinced that the answers to many of life's questions can be found in musicals

Tatooine. Sh*t. I can't believe I'm back on Tatooine. I've been here a month now, waiting for a mission. 'Here' is a sprawling warren of repair bays and maintenance shops, a little southeast of Mos Espa. There are stormtroopers at all the entrances and exits, but inside it's a decidedly non-military atmosphere. If I had to guess, I'd say this is an ISB facility. The folks I work with seem to fall into one of two categories: there are broken, tired looking soldiers, waiting for the Empire to figure out what to do with them, and then there are extremely skilled technicians and mechanics who were born the wrong gender, or species. Or both. I'm not sure what planet Nejj is from, but she can repair or rewire anything that uses electricity, and she's absolutely fearless when it comes to heights. If she were human, and male, she'd be running this entire facility; instead, she's sweating away with the rest of us grunts in the shops. The repair bays themselves hold a wide variety of craft, from landspeeders to military walkers, (a surprising number of them are filled with V-wings being refurbished). My task, for the past three weeks, has been a pod racer. Why does the Galactic Empire need a souped-up pod racer? We can guess, but the first thing you learn working for the ISB is not to ask too many questions. The hours are long and the work is hard, which is good; the last thing I need is time to think. For a while it looked like we were going to miss our deadline for finishing the pod racer, but a sandstorm blew up at the last minute and the race was pushed back two weeks so that they'd have time to repair the damage and clear the sand out of the viewing area. The Jawa word for sandstorm is "Shug-Nubbuth," which translates literally into "The Tooth Cloud." Supposedly the wind-blown sand can reduce a bantha to bones in less than an hour. We all ended up sleeping here in the barracks for two nights - it was too dangerous to travel. I was worried that, without my nightly medication (the distilled, Corellian type) the nightmares would be back. Luckily, some of the officers here had liquor stashes that rivaled my own, and I have enough combat pay saved up that I could afford the inflated prices they were charging. We finished the right engine and assembled the racer last night, just a few hours before deadline. I'm not sure what our next project will be. I'm not sure how long I'll be here. I'll worry about tomorrow if it comes.

I wouldn't mind seeing a deadline extension either ... April is ended up busier than I expected.

Wow - that looks great! Thanks for the WIP pics and showing how you pulled off some of the trickier bits ... if I try my hand at a locomotive I'll definitely have to use this as reference.

Awesome build - I'd been wondering what happened to your character. I really like your use of the old school exhaust pipes in the wall- that's a great shape and I had to stare at it for a minute to figure out how you pulled it off. My only feedback would be to try making the minifig poses a bit more dynamic. Maybe have the stormtrooper and officer looking at your character, and perhaps have your character bent a bit at the waist so it looks like he's trying to arch away from the torture device.

I really like the idea of having a place to put up character bios with links to the different builds we've made ... especially for those of use who have been here since the start and amassed rather lengthy back stories. I do agree with others, though, that a sub-forum for freebuilds would be ideal - they disappear off the main Star Wars page way too fast and it makes it hard to keep track of what everyone's put up.

Thanks Tariq! Thanks, Goatm! I know I've probably relied on this particular landscaping technique too much - one of my goals for this Ep. is a studless base... we'll see how it goes. Thanks Kodan! Thank you! I've definitely been a fan of the Kashyyyk and Geonosian battle packs for giving us more options for military torsos.

Cool ship! I like how you use different sized curved bricks to give the cockpit a more interesting shape. The landing gear and loading ramp are great details. I like the story, too, how your character keeps getting caught up in circumstances beyond his control; I'm interested to see how it turns out.

This is also my favorite out of the four you posted; the "sound effects" are simple but spot-on and add a lot to the scene. My only criticism is that the character of Raven seems a little too stereotypical in this scene. In prior scenes, we learn she became a captain, survived a pirate attack and managed to escape the rebels after having her cover blown. In this scene, though, she needs help up, and is mostly concerned with her hair and her coat. Just something to keep in mind as you're fleshing out her character.

I like how your story is progressing - I think we can all relate to being given a crappy assignment and not having any choice in the matter My only feedback is in regard to the minifig posing. I think your character is in the right place for protecting the commander, but turning his head so he's not looking straight ahead might make him look more watchful. Ditto on the stormtroopers - maybe have them looking different directions, and perhaps having their weapons "at the ready" instead of aimed. Other than that, I agree with Goatm; I like your subtle use of color and both the door and the hallway greebling look great.

Thanks VK! I spend a lot of time thinking of / writing the stories so I'm glad people are enjoying them. I think you make a fair point about the setting - it can be tough sometimes since the look/feel of the Star Wars universe can vary so much from place to place and film to film, but I'm intrigued now, trying to think of specific build (non-character) details that might make a scene instantly recognizable as Star Wars vs other SciFi. Thanks Jannik! I definitely enjoy portraying the fight of the "common" soldier - often glossed over in the films. Even on the new 'Rebels' show, it bugs me how they are making stormtroopers more "human" by giving them dialogue, but they're still killing them off in droves without any apparent consequences. Thanks for the feedback about the acronyms / jargon - I try to walk the line between making it sound authentic while still keeping it accessible to people who don't watch military documentaries. That's a good point on the soldier's uniforms too - I can see how that would be confusing.