SCAP (Self-Contained Attack Pod) strike package
So back on Saturday June 20th, there was a LUGOLA meeting and I was planning to attend.
I wanted to bring something for display, so I decided to build the kind of MOC I love: a spaceship.
(MOC = My Own Creation. It's Lego-speak for stuff people build that's not a factory set)
I like the Lego Mars Mission theme, what with the mostly white vehicles with black and orange trim,
so I used 3 sets as a source: Ultra-Drill Walker, Hypersonic Operations Aircraft, and Recon Dropship.
I wanted to build something big, with extra features, so I needed a lot of parts.
Unfortunately, I had a bunch of stuff to do during the week, so I didn't get cracking on the MOC until
the evening of Thursday June 18th. I fired up the DVD player, dumped all the Lego parts on the table,
and went to work. I designed a pair of gunships first, I was planning to attach them to a mothership.
I christened them Orca-class gunships, because of their shape and coloring.
It took about 8 hours to complete the two Orcas before I knocked and went to bed. I had watched 2 DVDs:
Disc 2 Season 10 of "Top Gear" (4 episodes) and Disc 2 Season 2 of "FutureWeapons" (5 episodes).
I resumed work on the MOC at about 7pm on Friday June 19th. The mothership was tough to come up with.
I wanted it to have a cargo bay in rear for some kind of armed buggy, but that meant making a big ship.
Lego is notorious for skimping on parts and making spaceships that aren't always sealed or fully enclosed.
And I had a lot of Technic beams, with holes in them. I had to attach parts to them to cover the holes.
That's a pet peeve of mine, spaceships with unsealed cockpits.
I worked and reworked and rereworked the design of the mothership until I had something workable.
The cross-section of the mothership turned out to be narrower, but just as tall as I imagined.
When the rear section was 80% done, I concentrated on building the front section and cockpit.
I finished the mothership and was fairly happy with the result. Now there was only one thing left to do:
design and build the armed buggy for the cargo bay.
It had to be cool, it had to have guns, and it had to actually fit in the cargo bay.
By the time 5am rolled around, I had finished the buggy, but it didn't fit! Aaaaaaargh!
I redesigned it so the guns were slung lower, which meant removing 2 guns. I fiddled with other bits,
and eventually it fit! And it was cool! And it had 6 guns (down from 8)!
And it was 5:30am and the meeting started at 11am! So I went to bed.
The DVD player had not been used this time. The VCR had played for me 5 episodes of MST3K to help me in
my task: "King Dinosaur", "Wild Rebels", "The Hellcats", "Cave Dwellers", and "Crash Of The Moons".
I woke up at 11am and made it to the LUGOLA meeting at noon.
And I unveiled my MOC, the SCAP (Self-Contained Attack Pod) strike package.
It's called a "pod" because it's a group of cetaceans. The mothership is a Rorqual-class attack transport,
the two fighters are Orca-class gunships, and the armed buggy is a Fluke-type mobile artillery unit.
And here is the SCAP strike package in all its glory on Flickr.
There were parts left over, and I made something else with them. Watch for that soon.