neo-classical space

Hangar Bays 3 & 4 – A MOC Made From 60304 Road Plates

Tuesday, 15th December 2020 By Caz

My latest review for New Elementary has just been published. It anaylses long-anticipated new Road Plate system found in set 60304. I also received some of the other new City line to review, but that article is yet to come. I won’t repeat my thoughts on the set here, but you can read it for yourself.

The major new components are an 8x16x2/3rds printed piece to make crosswalks; a 16x16x2/3 plate which forms most of the road surface; numerous 2×4 tiles with a white stripe to fill in the crosswalk and attach them to their neighbours, and a completely smooth 5x8x2/3 ramp to attach to the edges of the road system to give vehicles a smooth transition onto the floor or table top. There is also an unprinted variant of the 8×16 element.

Having examined the parts carefully, I was intrigued by the underside of the plates, which looked even more interesting than the topside! It reminded me a lot of industrial panelling, which gave me an idea. I was able to combine the new road plates from all five of the sets I was sent, giving me a total of 11 large plates, 3 half plates with printing, 2 half plates without printing and more than 18 end ramps. They quickly turned into Hangar Bays 3 & 4, the MOC you see here.

MOC: NCS 918 Interceptor Mark II

Thursday, 18th January 2018 By Caz

I’ve been working on a NCS spaceship MOC for a month or so now, but it’s finally evolved into something I’m happy with. Initially I gathered together all the bley, blue and trans yellow pieces I could find and bodged this togther:

I was quite pleased with the shape of the wings and the engine, but the front was hideous. I desperately needed some better trans yellow pieces for the cockpit. The engine details were nice and greebly, and there was quite a bit of yellow around as well as blue and bley.

After “borrowing” a couple of trans yellow windscreen parts (6070) from Benny’s Spaceship outriders, I was happier with the front. But I also rebuilt the wings quite significantly. Still a lot of blue and yellow accents everywhere, which isn’t quite in the NCS canon.

Benny was the first test pilot for the craft. He gave me quite a lot of feedback on what could be changed before the ship could go into production.

Eventually after a Bricklink order or two had come through, the final model turned out like this. I’m really pleased so much of the original engines made it through – and the simpler colours in the wings are much better, I think. Plus the new wrap-around windscreen makes for much better visibility.

Here’s a comparison shot – of my new 918 Interceptor and the original 918 model from 30+ years ago. My craft is a fast, highly manoeuvrable patrol ship meant for low-planet orbit or short inter-planetary hops. I like the wing shapes seen from above here. Yes, I know the bumblebee stripes are 90° off from their “correct” NCS orientation, but changing them to face forward would require another radical wing rebuild, so it’s staying like this for the moment. Besides, the original 918 doesn’t have any stripes at all!

NCS 918 MarkII Interceptor vs old 918 One Man Spacecraft

I hope you enjoyed seeing how my MOC evolved into the final configuration.

MOC: Intergalactic Tower

Sunday, 14th January 2018 By Caz

The Federation needed a headquarters building in Micropolis so they commissioned the best architect in town to build them something impressive. Here you see the result: Intergalactic Tower, built with lots of the pieces I got from the Sith Infiltrator set, and some more of those 2×2 trans yellow bricks from Monday’s haul. One of the pieces which particularly drove the design was the chunk at the bottom of each tower section, 30373, formally in the wing sections of the Infiltrator ship. The rest followed quickly, and I used plenty of odds and ends I had been collecting in light grey, trans yellow and blue to finish things off.

MOC: Intergalactic Tower - Front — MOC: Intergalactic Tower – Front

MOC: Intergalactic Tower - Rear — MOC: Intergalactic Tower – Rear

Watch the video on this Block by Blockhead:

Benny’s Spaceship, Spaceship, SPACESHIP! (70816)

Saturday, 9th December 2017 By Caz

I haven’t yet see The LEGO Movie, but Benny’s Spaceship, Spaceship, SPACESHIP! (70816) set has taken my eye because of its cool shape and Classic Space colours. So I was pleased to find a used but complete set available from eBay a while ago.

It arrived as a box of bits, all jumbled up and in none of the numbered bags big sets tend to come in straight from the factory these days:

70816 Bennys Spaceship, Spaceship, SPACESHIP! Box of Bits

Undaunted by the challenge, I set to and sorted the bits out into a semblance of order before building the magnificent machine. It looks rather fab with its outrigger mini-ships and an adversary in a sleek black ship to chase. It’s also remarkably swooshable for its size. Yay! The top view is definitely the best – underneath there are a few of those blocky Technic frames on show, which could do with a few inverted slopes to cover them up.

Anyway, I was very happy with my craft and so was the pilot. No wonder he goes around with that stupid grin on his face all the time!