LucasLaughing

Wow, the boss has been busy lately: http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2014/10/the-many-lives-of-darth-vader/100842/ (It's worth it to read the captions too)

No worries - I'm horrible at commenting in any kind of timely manner I'm glad you liked the action shots - I was happy with them, but I was a little worried they would look weird or corny, so thanks for the feedback (and yep, those are Chima crystals - good eye). Yeah, the story took a bit of a dark turn there; I think my character is still figuring out how to deal with it, and I hope to explore that more in some freebuilds. I might need to schedule an appointment on your therapist couch My sigfig came in a weird assortment of sets, most recently in the hotdog cart polybag. If it's hard to get, you could always use my character on a day he hasn't shaved in a while...

Thanks Markus! Thank you! I'm fortunate enough that I've never experienced actual combat, but I have read a fair number of military books (mostly memoirs by soldiers) and watched a few documentaries. Thanks! I'm really happy with how the gunship turned out

Wow, this is a hell of a build! I'm loving the micro-asteroid base; the little details like the glassed-in biosphere and the power generator that looks like it's built into the rocks are excellent. I like the Nubian freighter too - looks like a sweet combination of functionality and firepower. I'm not as familiar with the Dark Forces story line but I can see it'll be giving grief to the rebels so I approve

I agree, the micro-landscape is beautiful; I love the rocks with the snow on top. My favorite shot is the last one, with the ship heading off into the distance. Great work!

Thanks for the additional input - I really like your ideas! I'd been toying with the idea of injury or capture, and some of your other suggestions also got my creative gears turning. I've copied your comment into the document where I keep possible ideas and story arcs Thanks! Yeah, this is part 1. I was worried that the post was going to be too long, so I decided to split it into 2. I figured that would give me more space to show off my gunship as well

Very nice action shot! I like the contrast between the yellow lighting indoors and the white lighting outdoors. Love the atmosphere on this one! Is the rain effect in your first picture digitally added?

Nice work! I think almost all official sets can benefit from a little modding, and it's fun to make them more your own.

Thank you for your thoughtful and very helpful feedback - you obviously put a lot of time and thought into your comments, and I really appreciate it! That's a very fair critique; I spent a lot of time getting all of the lines to line up, and when I was done I realized the building was a little monochrome. I added the black highlights at that point, but that's a good idea about introducing more color with props / other scene elements. Thanks! I always try to be very intentional about posing my minifigs; I figure there's no point in telling a good story if none of the characters look lifelike Oh man, I thought I'd be able to sneak that past you guys by turning it sideways . My builds / photography always end up taking far longer than anticipated, so in this case I knew I wouldn't have time to build a new building, but I can see now that I should have at least modded it a little. Thanks I have some general ideas about my character and his goals, and I have a few text documents filled up with possible story arcs. Then, I tend to adapt the story to whatever the mission ends up being. I always have more stories in my head than I have time to build... This might be a dumb question, but could you give me an example of what you mean by "out of your comfort zone." Do you mean a non-military mission, or just looking at things in a different way? I'd definitely like to hear more of your thoughts in that regard. Thanks!

Congrats on the promotion, Beaver and Josh!

Awesome work! So many great details - I love how you did the ground-level door and the white stripes/SNOT work on the floor - very subtle but nice effect.

Thanks! The stickers are from an Aquaraiders set: http://brickset.com/sets/2160-1/Crystal-Scavenger Thank you :-) ... I figure at least some of my stories should have happy endings. Thanks guys! I've been working on the ship for quite a while, so I appreciate the positive feedback!

My commando team has finally returned from Bothawui. Here's my final report: Bothawui Battle Blues (part 2)

Thanks!

And now, the much delayed but still thrilling conclusion to my Bothawui trilogy. 1. Flight of the Birdman 2. Bothawui Battle Blues (part 1) That hurt. I cough, taste blood. Limbs appear intact. Breathing hurts. I'm still alive, so that was just a low-powered range-finding shot. The next one will take down the building. Sarge: Birdman? Birdman: Get clear, I'll cover! I can see the tank through my rifle scope - looks like a T2-B with upgraded guns. Wont take long to recharge the cannon. The turret is already adjusting slightly, aiming toward the base of the building. It's been about 10 seconds since the first shot - Sarge and Grace wont have time to get clear. My rounds wont damage the tank, of course, but tank gunners are cocky - it's practically a law of nature. I'm pretty sure this one wont let a direct challenge from a mere foot solder go unanswered. Sure enough, the tank barrel pauses, then elevates back up toward me. His next shot will take off the top of the building, but that should give Sarge and Grace more time to get out. Time starts to slow. My heartbeat seems to echo through the city. I have a clear vision of Marla, and feel an intense regret. I deserve this. It's been twenty seconds, the gun should be recharged. There's a ripping sound, and a flash, and the tank rocks to the side, as if smashed by a giant fist. A bright orange flower of flame blossoms from its side. Pilot: Did someone call for a taxi? Sarge: Yeah, but you're late, so don't expect a tip. Pilot: Typical ground-pounder. Keep your heads down a minute while I clear an LZ. Jen, put one more missile into that tank to be safe. Gunner: Roger. Gunner: If you come in sideways, I'll bet we can knock those little trees out of the way. Pilot: Good thing we paid for the damage waiver... Pilot: Acklay, we are on the ground and deploying ground troops to cover. Come on out. Grace: Well, I suppose it's not the worst extraction I've been subjected to. Sarge: We aim to please, ma'am. ------------- I've admired the last few Republic Gunships, but they all seemed a little too pricey, so I decided to make my own. This is a modded version of 75021. All parts are official LEGO elements. The eye stickers are from the Aqua Raiders sets. The winch is still a WIP, but I'm pretty satisfied with the rest of the build. The biggest changes I made are to the rear of the ship. I filled in a lot of the gaps, and rebuilt the engines to look more like the movie model. The main guns swivel 360 degrees, and the barrels elevate up and down. It holds 8 troops comfortably, and I'm sure I could squeeze more in if I didn't care about them being too secure. I have a few more pictures (and larger versions of these pics) on my flickr page: https://www.flickr.c...57648599544675/ Mods: since this freebuild is partly an expansion of my previous one, I wonder if you could judge them together as if they were just one freebuild? Thanks!

I actually got to see this in person at BrickCon this weekend, and asked about the wings. The wings apparently have a counter-weight and move automatically as you switch from landing to flight mode. I didn't get to see the wing motion from super-close up, but they seemed to work well. He did say that the pilot's area needs to be manually rotated.

Beautiful build, as usual I'm loving the ground texture/detail, and also the little trail of debris coming from the sandcrawler. Great work!

Nice work! I like the humor, especially the chrome helmeted cleaning droid. Glad to have you building for the Empire!

Thanks! Thank you, and thanks for the constructive feedback. This one was tricky to photograph; I think the kitchen table wasn't quite big enough, so when I tried to get the whole scene there was too much background ... I'll have to come up with a different photo set-up for my larger builds. Thanks! Rockets would be good, but I figured if they had too much equipment it would be hard to believe that they could land with the wingsuits. Thank you! Conclusion will be posted either tomorrow or Monday, depending on how crazy life gets...

Awesome - I like seeing all the stories tied together here. You two had some excellent builds for this episode!

Part 1 of the story: Flight of the Birdman Sarge: Hawkbat, this is Acklay; what is your ETA? Pilot: Acklay, Hawk Bat will be on station in 5 minutes. Sarge: Hawk Bat, copy. Be advised, the LZ is hot. I say again, the LZ is hot. Pilot: Roger Acklay. Hot LZ’s are our specialty. I had no problems linking up with Sarge and the ISB agent, but things went south from there. We'd been told to expect little to no resistance on the ground, but apparently the rebels didn't get the memo. We’d spent the last hour in a running lightfight,moving through the lower part of the city. It was the weekend, so we didn't need to worry about civilians being caught in the crossfire, but that also made it much easier for the rebs to find us on their scanners. We were currently holed up in a broadcasting building. We were hoping the signals from the antenna would interfere with the rebs' sensors. Sarge covered the courtyard, while I handled over-watch. We instructed the agent to stay inside; whether she'd listen or not was another matter. The agent in question was not what we were expecting. One hour earlier, at the rendezvous point... Stranger: Over here, boys. Recognition code zulu eight four kilo whisky. I'm Grace. Sarge: I'm Sergeant Ryan Brintt, that's Corporal Lucas Kirana. Can you take us to the ISB agent? Is he close? Grace: I am the agent. Sarge: You're the agent? Grace: Affirmative. Are we going to stand here chatting until we get captured, or did you have some sort of extraction plan? Now: The last 10 minutes had been quiet. With any luck, the rebs wouldn't find us in the next 5 minutes and we'd have a smooth extraction. Damn. The rebel blasters wouldn't damage the drop ship, but the heavy cannon might. We'd have to take them out. Sarge popped up as the rebs were dismounting and hit the nearest two. He dove for cover as the turret gunner opened up. I hit the driver, but my shot at the gunner deflected off his helmet. I was ready to target the gunner again, once he started shooting at Sarge, but I didn't get a chance... Grace walked out the front door and slotted the gunner with two clean shots. Birdman: Dammit, you're supposed to keep your head down! Grace: If you weren't such a lousy shot, I wouldn't have to -- Sarge: TANK! To be concluded... Update: the final part has finally been posted: Bothawui Battle Blues (part 2) Mods, could you please treat parts 1 and 2 as a single build, and just award me the points for one? Part 2 is largely a continuation of Part 1.

This is an awesome build! I agree with Josh - I love the fixed blaster turret on the weapons level, and the conversation between you and Beaver was funny.

That's very cool Beaver, thanks for putting it together!

Thanks! I was quite pleased with how that turned out...

Thanks ... and, no chance, but I'll take the request as a compliment