Huge Invisible Hand model built with Lego bricks..

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2008-01-18 05:01pm

Just saw this a few minutes ago and thought I'd share it:

http://gizmodo.com/346462/lego-master-c ... ship-model

Because it's about six feet long (approximately 1:600 scale to the actual ship), the amount of detail on it is simply incredible.

VT-16 · Post by **VT-16** » 2008-01-18 06:26pm

I did love that design, very distinct. Neither Imperial nor Mon Calamari influenced, much like the Neimoidian battleships.

wjs7744 · Post by **wjs7744** » 2008-01-18 07:11pm

I agree it's a cool design, but why is it not being based of Imperial or MonCal ships such a suprise? Incidentally, I always thought that the "Wizard's Tower" reminded me a little of a similar structure on a MonCal cruiser.

VT-16 · Post by **VT-16** » 2008-01-18 07:20pm

Because the EU won't let those two design lines die, and everything else is third party shit, apparantly.

wjs7744 · Post by **wjs7744** » 2008-01-18 07:35pm

Well, I haven't really read any of the EU, so I can't speak as to that, but it's hardly unique that it doesn't resemble Imperial ships much. I don't think any of the CIS ships look Imperial or MonCal, nor do the Naboo for that matter. In fact, the only prequel ships that do resemble Imperial ships are the Republic ships that are the logical antecedents of those Imperial ships and so should look like them.

VT-16 · Post by **VT-16** » 2008-01-18 08:35pm

The EU is for many people some kind of infalliable measuring stick, and it's nothing but Imperial Star Destroyers or Mon Calamari Star Cruisers as far as the eye can see. That was until they started wanking to the Bothans, the Hapans, and the Vuuzhan Vong in addition.

Out of millions of systems, a handful of species or cultures gets all the attention, all the time. Other people making something similar in the navy is treated as something big.

Marko Dash · Post by **Marko Dash** » 2008-01-18 11:49pm

what i really want to see is an Ex built to scale with the ISD kits.

wjs7744 · Post by **wjs7744** » 2008-01-19 01:06am

VT-16 wrote:The EU is for many people some kind of infalliable measuring stick...

I'm not sure I quite understand you there... In any case, what about the centuries before the Empire?

VT-16 · Post by **VT-16** » 2008-01-19 05:38am

The only thing known about that era, was that rich Core sectors like Corellia, Humbarine and Kuat made big warships for self-protection, and these were several miles long.

wjs7744 · Post by **wjs7744** » 2008-01-19 09:21am

Well, like I said I haven't read much of the EU, but I was thinking more of things like this, rather than locas fleets.

As a matter of fact, this and it's smaller sibling seem to me to fit in well with the Consular cruiser from TPM.

VT-16 · Post by **VT-16** » 2008-01-19 11:15am

The Hammerhead-class cruiser is actually a lot bigger, about the size of the Dreadnaught-class heavy cruiser. It was a solid design apparantly, because it survived for about 3000 years in service. Not sure if it stayed in service after the end of the New Sith Wars.

wjs7744 · Post by **wjs7744** » 2008-01-19 11:29am

This has kind of gone a bit off topic. Maybe I can bring it back with a picture?

Looking at some of Dr. Saxton's images, I guess the two ships are not as similar as I remembered: Image.

In case anyone is wondering what the hell I'm wittering on about, I thought that the Calamari ships had a similar dorsal tower at the back, but it is in fact much smaller than I remembered.

Anguirus · Post by **Anguirus** » 2008-01-19 12:18pm

Well, according to the ICS it was designed by Quarren...probably he threw that in because the ship is somewhat based on old concept art for the Mon Cal cruisers.

Alan Bolte · Post by **Alan Bolte** » 2008-01-19 04:16pm

Pretty awesome, but it looks like the proportions are a little off. Like maybe it's shorter or thicker than it should be.

Havok · Post by **Havok** » 2008-01-19 07:36pm

The model build is amazing. As far as the IH's design, it just looks like they cut a Mon Cal ass off and mashed the nose of the transport from TESB on the front of it. Nothing that unique.

VT-16 · Post by **VT-16** » 2008-01-19 08:48pm

What transport in ESB looked like that? :S

I like the airship propeller sound that goes with it.

Cykeisme · Post by **Cykeisme** » 2008-01-19 08:55pm

Anguirus wrote:Well, according to the ICS it was designed by Quarren...probably he threw that in because the ship is somewhat based on old concept art for the Mon Cal cruisers.

Yeah, I never got the "Free Dac" part about the ship's designers, until I read somewhere else that "Dac" is the native name for their world.
It's the "Free Dac" movement, chiefly composed of Quarren, who want to "free" the planet from the Republic and allied with the CIS to do so.
Then Kit Fisto kicks their butts and grins.

So yeah, the Recusant and Providence class ships are supposed to have Calamri aspects in their design.

Havok · Post by **Havok** » 2008-01-20 12:24am

VT-16 wrote:What transport in ESB looked like that? :S

I like the airship propeller sound that goes with it.

here you go... little MS paint action for you.

I noticed this almost immediately when I first saw this ship, but maybe it is just me.

Darth Servo · Post by **Darth Servo** » 2008-01-20 04:28am

Meh, they're all pretty phalic.

VT-16 · Post by **VT-16** » 2008-01-20 05:41am

Except the front looks nothing like a GR-75, more like an extended Dreadnaught-class. :P

Illuminatus Primus · Post by **Illuminatus Primus** » 2008-01-20 01:20pm

I don't like the cylinder designs; I wish there was a SW warship bible like Roddenberry did for ST. You'd have a basic format of a conical/pyramidal hull within certain ratios. And then let the designers slap weapons on it in a logical array and then put superficial styling around that.

wjs7744 · Post by **wjs7744** » 2008-01-20 07:46pm

What, you don't like this?

Sorry, but I don't see why all SW ships should look the same. Besides, the ST bible only really applies to federation ships, I would hardly say that these is similar.

Illuminatus Primus · Post by **Illuminatus Primus** » 2008-01-20 08:28pm

Most of the other ships suck and call into question why the Feds build their own ships like that. Ships should generally look the same because form follows function; occasionally a different design or combat philosophy should show through - or even alien thinking and ideology - but all of the following ought to be subtle and follow distantly behind functionality. And if it does not, these ideologically-built ships should be shown getting their ass kicked by ships getting the job done; drawing scary ships shouldn't do the job that the script should be doing of establishing a background story and developing a villain. Instead it should be a credible backdrop for warfare; a tool for getting the job done.

Hence, I emphasized certain warship aspect ratios, engine volume/total volume ratio, reactor volume/surface area ratios, etc. - and the styling can be superficial additions after form and logic determine the general form.

Anyway, the blockade runner is a special case; it has only two prime weapons and is designed primarily for speed. It makes sense therefore to has a sleek hull and huge engines and just two turrets sticking out that can cover pretty much all firing arcs. But the bigger you go, the more dispersed your weaponry should become and the more general/standardized form should be. The LCS may be really radical, but do aircraft carriers or cruisers really look that different?

wjs7744 · Post by **wjs7744** » 2008-01-22 12:00pm

Well, the similarities of seagoing ships don't really apply for starships. The hull shape of an ordinarry ship is greatly dependant on it's hydrodynamic qualities, something which doesn't apply in space, where there is no water.

As for the ratios you mention, I wouldn't really know whether the different ships in Star Wars (or for that matter Star Trek) actually have vastly different ratios.

Knife · Post by **Knife** » 2008-01-22 01:10pm

VT-16 wrote:I did love that design, very distinct. Neither Imperial nor Mon Calamari influenced, much like the Neimoidian battleships.

While they're not rip offs, it's pretty obvious to me that the IH and her sister ships are fairly simular to Mon Cal designs. It's not the Impstar/Vicstar type simular in that their just rip offs rather just the flow of the hull and the general shapes.