[Podracer]The Flying Skeleton

[Flynn]

After retiring from his military services, Captain Leonard Hearn decided to live on Tatooine (God knows why) near Mos Espa. There, he chose to try his hand at podracing, and thus built the Flying Skeleton. He took an old cruiser he owned, then modified them extensively to make his racer. The name was coined by a friend, joking at how much Hearn had stripped from the original parts, especially with the left narcelle.
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I was really lost for a design after deciding not to do my themed pod (Which will make its way here sooner or later), and then I decided to use this as the base for the cockpit. Here's a couple pics of how the cockpit was built:





The pod isn'y supposed to be steampunk, it just happens to look that way. Ironically, this is more steampunk-ish than my actual attempt at steampunk was.

Oh, and can anyone guess at my oh-so-subtle homage with my dear pod Captain's name?

[Galagoo]

You know, even though the engine design (the design of the one on the right; the greebling on the left one looks somewhat messy and unfinished) is solid and neat, it's actually a bit too solid for being called "skeleton".
Therefore, I'd recommend adding rather much greebling. The greebles on the left engine could be improved and organized, too, since - as I already said - I think they look rather messy.

As for the pod, even though it looks pretty good, I'd still suggest removing some of the heavy plating. After all, they cover nearly entirely the piece around which the pod is built, which is a pity in my opinion.

By the way, you might want to tinker the colours, too. The transparent cable, for instance, ought to be replaced with a black one, if only possible. It just doesn't look right.

[Flynn]

My original intent for the pods were that one would be finished and the other would be stripped down to the core. I'm not a huge fan of how both engines turned out, so I'll definitely be making changes there. As for the plating of the cockpit, if I remove the plating, what I get is a cockpit that looks extremely messy and unfinished, and I think it looks rather nice as it is. However, I could probably shrink down the plates themselves, which would also help the "skeleton" appearance.

Oh, and the transparent cable is the best I can do, those cables are literally all I have for the pod.

[Blackninjatom]

you could cover the cables in technic pieces like turkguy. I think the pods are too small, if you could enlarge them, then that would allow more room for detail, coverings, and greebles. I do like the wagon wheel though.

[FizzyPoppers]

Well, it's not that it's a bad podracer, but the whole thing looks "messy". there aren't enough details, or greebles or something? (no clue what greebles are -fail-) I love the idea of one regular engine and one engine stripped down, but you have to make it noticable and clear in order to have what you want. In this case it just looks like you ran out of pieces and had to improvise. One last thing, be sure to make bigger engines. It dosen't matter how long they are, but short and skinny dosen't cut it for an engine going at 300 or so MPH. Honestly, this currently won't get in the first 3 places, but you could get a bit far if you improve.

[Flynn]

Well, I worked on it a bit.



I improved the size of the engines, which allowed me to strip down the left ngine even more. I also removed some plates on the cockpit and was able to find a couple more cables to replace the transparent one, although I don't really like how it turned out. Also, this picture isn't very good at showing the best of the pod, I'll be retaking it tomorrow.

Oh, and here's a pic of the base model used for the engines, which I modified a bit to get the final result.

[Galagoo]

Hmm, looks nice. The new engine design is much better, and especially the left one is greatly improved. Nice work with the greebling, too. I also like the new pod, it's more nifty and swooshy.

However, two ideas crossed my mind. The cables look good - great that you could find more black ones, I personally like the result - but rather unbalansed, the one with the two sylinders being on the left side with the already stripped engine and the sleek one being on the right with the untouched engine. Therefore, I think it might look pretty good if you switched their places and thus divided the worn look more evenly on the whole vessel, not just one side of it.
In addition, even though the greebling on the left engine does look neat, the grey plate with some bare studs on the front just looks like it would need more black greebling on it. As much as possible, preferably.

By the way, for building the stands you might want to use some other colour than one of the primary colours of the MOC. It looks rather weird.

[Flynn]

Thank you for the comments, I'll try to implement those when I retake the pictures.

And, yeah, I'll change the stands. I only used dark grey because I got a huge surplus of them at Pick-a-Brick when I was planning a JP MOC. I'll change them to black or something.

In addition, even though the greebling on the left engine does look neat, the grey plate with some bare studs on the front just looks like it would need more black greebling on it. As much as possible, preferably

I assume you mean the plate with the black wire on the left engine?

[Galagoo]

Indeed.

[Flynn]

Well, here it is:



Also, I took the liberty of uploading the original design for the pod. The cockpit's basically the same, but I hadn't really hit upon a decent idea for the pods, and this pod I designed...was far, far worse than any of the versions above.



In the background, you can also see two distinct WIP's which will both make there way here before the month is out . The one on the right is easy enough to guess, any thoughts on the one on the left? I've already dropped a couple hints in the thread already.

[Blackninjatom]

This is quite the improvement from the original. Engines are bigger which is nice, and I also like the greebles, on the skellie engine, more. I actually was thinking put pieced together cable on the skellie side, but that's just me. I'd keep working on it, and greeble that skellie engine up as much as you humanly possibly can; and by the time the deadline comes I think you could have a sleek, yet seriously greebled pod. Again very nice improvements.

[Galagoo]

The greebles on the left engine are much better, but I agree with Blackninjatom; greebling them gradually even more during the rest of the month might result in some seriously cool skellie engine.
Basically, the more the better, I'd say.

As for the cables.. Having seen the change, I have to admit that they did look better other way around. Don't ask why, I really don't know, but the earlier pairing was more visually appealing.

By the way, could the WIP MOC on the left possibly have something to do with this? It would (more or less) explain the pilot's name, but the MOC doesn't really look boxing-related..

[Flynn]

Whoah, I never even knew about that. No, that's way off. Although the pilot's name is the key to the puzzle*.

As for the greebling, I'll see what I can do to break it down further, although I rather like how it looks now. Thank you for the comments!



*Shorten "Leonard" down to "Len". When I was trying to think of the pilots name (Which is a combination of 1 person's first name and the other's last-and yes, they are both connected) "Len Hearn" didn't really sound that good, so I changed it to Leonard.

[Galagoo]

Ha, I think I got it!


Am I right?

[Flynn]

You know, I completely forgot I asked you to do that avatar. Stupid of me, wasn't it?

So, yeah, that's it. Waiting on my Cruncher Block head to come in, then I'll remodel the Pie Shop and upload it on here.