“I don’t think that I could ever have need for such a large vessel.” The customer said, rubbing his chin, appraising the junk parked in front of them.
“Come now, sir, size means more cargo space. More cargo space means-“
“More for raiders to steal?” The customer cut in.
“I... er... The main shipping lanes are very safe these days, thanks to the GEG, I’m sure you’ll find that her hull plating will be more than sufficient for the few remaining raiding parties.” Another lie, but he did not want to lose the customer. “For the price you’ll admit it's a lot of ship.”
“For the price yes.” The customer replied, not really paying attention. The light from the larger of the two suns was glimmering off the canopy of a vessel parked a few mantras to the rear. Not even in the main line up of ships on offer. To say she had been parked was a bit of an overstatement. Crashed looked more apt a word, but there was something about her that called to him. “What about that one?”
The salesman looked around the ship he was gesturing to, to the outdated mining craft the customer was looking at. “That?” He almost laughed. “That is about five minutes away from being towed for scrap. The drill bit alone would get me-“
“Let us have a look shall we?”
“I really don’t think this is the ship for you, sir, do you know anything about vacuum mining?” But the customer was already striding off. “I thought you were looking for a cargo vessel, this one has very little room thanks to all the-“
“Room can always be made.” The customer smiled as he reached the ship. To many she would have looked cumbersome and clunky, but to him it looked like home already. “A Spiner Class is she not?”
The salesman was taken aback slightly. He had not really taken the time to research the ship she seemed that outdated and obsolete. “I think so yes.” He lied. He quickly rattled through what he did know;
“She comes with the externally mounted vacuum drill. Hardest material known to man, that will pierce any asteroid you can land on and never go blunt. I hear they gave them a life time guarantee! Same side, further down, your escape pod, probably wouldn’t take much to convert that into luxury living quarters...
“On the other side,” The salesman continued, walking the customer round, “are the engines. The side mounted configuration was to balance out the weight of the drill with the Jump engine centrally at the rear.”
The customer ran his hands down the external paneling and realised that the forward section was glazed. “Nice for looking out at the stars.” The salesman said, noticing the customer’s actions. Maybe he could get a sale after all. “Shall we take a look inside?”
The large, sweaty salesman motioned towards the front of the ship. Below the elevated cockpit was a bay door leading inside what looked like a dumping ground for all manner of junk. As they manoeuvred between scrap metal and old engine parts the salesman mentioned something about having the ship gutted on sale, but the customer wasn’t really listening.
The interior of the ship was dark and grimy and it looked beautiful. Where the salesman saw broken cabinets and battered panelling, the customer saw a kitchen, living quarters and a home. The side viewing dome that allowed the control of the drill was also covered in so much dust that visibility was near zero.
“I’ll take her.” The customer said, holding out his hand. The salesman eyed him suspiciously.
“You do know that to sell you a mining ship, even one this old I’ll need to see a license. I can’t be giving something like this to someone without proper zero-gee certification or proof of intent. The GEG would have my sales permit torn up. Especially with some people not believing the war is over.”
“I have more than adequate training, trust me.” The customer said, almost too gruffly. “And as for my intent, I want nothing more than to simply disappear and make a small living for myself.”
“Yes but,”
“Maybe this would help?” The customer responded pulling out his credit chip from his coat pocket. The Salesman recognised the GEG emblem immediately and licked his lips. “I’ll pay you what the ship is worth in it’s current condition, the price you would have got for the drill, and you wont have to clear out the junk.”
The salesman dry washed his hands again, he felt hotter inside than he did out and mopped his brow. “Deal.” He said, wiping his hand on his dirty trouser suit before accepting the customer’s. “And your name?” he asked as he took the credit chip and scanned it.
“Skylar, Ryjax Skylar.”
<<>>
An extract from the story I'm in the process of writing, but obviously as a Lego blog you may be wondering why I've given you this. Well, it's simple, the Alessia is my latest creation, the ship, and the main character is inspired from one of the minifigs in series 12. The Space Driller. But first, before the ship, let's meet the crew!
From left to right, Ryjax Skylar. The captain of Alessa. Pippin, the engineer. Commander Temperance Sol, scientist. Jason Vista the pilot. Larry, trainee chef, but photographer wannabe. And Merlin. Yes, Merlin. It will become clear in the story why he makes an appearance.
They each have their normal attire, and space suit capabilities. Well except for Merlin. Should he ever need to spacewalk he can easily cast some form of bubble spell around himself.
They each have their own accessories also, pertinent to their role in the story.
But that's enough of the crew, the ship is why I started this post! And here she is, the Alessia!!
Scale wise she should be about 4 times the size, but lack of bricks and sheer weight on completion made this a little hard. Let's start at the beginning, the drill bit. Made from the hardest material known to man, you may recognise it, and a few other bricks, from the miners sets from years back. The two lower sections are contra-rotating.
The whole drill bit lowers and raises on the angle arm, for when the Alessia has landed on the asteroid or planet on which it wishes to mine.
The controls are situated inside and to allow maximum visibility there is a glazed bubble for Ryjax to be able to see what he's drilling.
Moving around the ship, next to the viewing bubble, you have the escape pod. Within the story Ryjax converts this into a small shuttle which we shall look at in more detail in a second.
Continuing around, counterbalancing the weight of the drill bit, the two engines are mounted one above the other. You may recognise the rear mixer from the cement truck being used here. Again, this was due to weight and number of available pieces. However I like how they look and I got inspiration from the large tank/ship from the Galaxy Squad model.
The central rear engine is the 'hyperdrive / warp' engine. I haven't decided what to call it yet, but that's the gist of that one.
The other side has the glazed viewing window that gives you a lovely vista from the dining area inside. And then a bit further forward there is something I'm still a bit unsure about. It's a fully glazed compartment. At the moment I'm toying with it being a stasis chamber...
Using the Agents canopy was tough to get right due to it being connect on its top at the 'base' and the bottom at the 'top'. I always struggle when getting the measurements of length when matched to height of stacked bricks.
If anyone has a good rule of thumb for how many studs length fits exactly to stacked bricks that would be awesome.
From the front you, like many in the universe I'm creating, may think that the Alessia looks a bit ugly, but I, like Ryjax think she is beautiful.
The unsymmetrical, clunkiness of her, the fact she is designed more around use than aesthetic enamours her to me.
As mentioned, she is not scaled correctly as per the story, but the cockpit still has room for two side by side.
They can both sit upright and minifigs can have hair or hats on and still not be impeded by the cockpit. This is a must for me in all models I make, sometimes makes it harder, but I dislike how Lego do, on occasion, just have the character laying down with no visibility out or method of control.
The corridor to the rear of the cockpit as with the elevated cockpit itself was inspired by Serenity from Firefly. And a little from the Millennium Falcon.
My aim was to allow the player to see that there was a way in and out and that the cockpit was a part of the ship as a whole, and not some segregated section for a pilot to sit.
The cargo bay door, as described in the story, is at the front. Again, inspiration came from Serenity here. It is 10 studs long and 6 wide, so pretty good for a cargo compartment. Had the ship been at the correct scale there would have also been a set of steps up into the main ship as this is situated partly beneath the floor.
Now what does every freelancing cargo ship need? That’s right! A smuggling compartment. The Alessia has one at her centre. The hatched top of a tomb from the Adventurers sets fitted perfectly in the square ‘bracing’ piece.
Next we have the top view. I wanted to make a ship that was not only playable, as in internally and externally, but also could be ‘covered’ so it looked like a complete ship when being zoomed around the living room. This is the first time I have created a model with removable panels like this, and the large Police Seaplane roof sections helped greatly. It is connected by one stud at the rear, two in the centre and two at the front.
The yellow Technic brick is used to brace the top half of the ship, as when its lifted the walls may collapse in on themselves. It allows you maximum visibility into the ship while still zooming.
I wanted to give each crewmember their own designated space. Due to the smaller scale actual living compartments are a dream more than a reality.
Larry has the Kitchen area, with bench table for group meals, cupboards for ingredients and the prime view out of the window for his photography.
Pippin obviously has engineering!
Merlin is given the rear ‘living’ area. He has a shelf for his potions and space to test new spells.
Captain Skylar has his control seat for operating the drill. You can see behind him the accessories tower. Everything that the minifigs ‘own’ and need for space missions is stored within the Alessia!
This is Larry’s view from the outside. You can see the chainsaw accessory attached to the rear of the ship for those missions that need a little more than a huge great drill!
This is Larry’s view from the outside. You can see the chainsaw accessory attached to the rear of the ship for those missions that need a little more than a huge great drill!
Underneath where Merlin stands is the the compartment where their space suits are stored. I like to be able to keep everything n one place for a complete set. It’s not the easiest to access, but it keeps everything internal.
And lastly, the shuttle craft. Converted from an escape pod, the controls now mean that is it just a one man craft and detaches as below;
The flight controls are very basic to keep the size down, but a minfigure, complete with accessories and space attire can fit in there. Or in this case, Temperance Sol with her big hair!
Other than that I tried to make the Alessia look as industrial and beefy as possible. She is by no means a fighting craft, but a mobile space home for the crew that find themselves put together.
Let me know what you think, I’d be very interested to see your thoughts. Just please try to keep criticism constructive.
Have you liked any of the Minifig series characters more than the others? Did any of them inspire a set just for them? Do you like to write and use Lego to build your inspiration? Let me know and leave a comment. I would love to hear from you!
Until next time!
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