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First posted 6/30/2005
Finally, it's done! Saber-Scorpion's customized Skipray Blastboat, the
Stingray. If you looked at this ship and went "huh?" then you
obviously haven't read my Star Wars Fan Fiction. You can find it in the
Art & Writing section. You will also find
a page about the Stingray itself there as well.
Here are the characters of the fan fiction... MG-16, Scorp's custom-built
assassin/combat/protocol droid; Saber-Scorpion, the notorious Jedi Hunter; and Krysta,
former Jedi, then Sith, now renegade. Krysta doesn't become an official
member of the terrible trio until part two of the fan fiction.
I actually built this hunk of junk a long time ago, but could never
inspire myself to complete it. There are many things on here that I could
probably improve... especially the TIE wings on the sides... but I really
don't think it's worth it. I'm satisfied with it how it is.
Yeah, the wings flop all around. I tried to make the bottom one heavier so
that when you picked the ship up, the bottom wing would sink down and the
wing with the scorpion tail printed on it would be facing upwards. That
part works perfectly. Too bad I couldn't take a decent picture of it
without showing me holding the ship. You wouldn't want to see me,
now would
you?
Yeah, the ship has a giant scorpion painted on it. If you are thinking
"but wait, scorpions don't exist in the Star Wars universe!" then you
obviously didn't notice the normal, earth-like snakes on Dagobah in The
Empire Strikes Back or the normal earth-like ducks on the Naboo lake in
The Phantom Menace. If these animals are present in the Star Wars movies,
why not a scorpion?
In today's LEGO customizing world, "studless" designs are all the rage.
This ship, unfortunately, is all but impossible to make "studless," so I
didn't even try to hide any studs. This ship has studs all over the place.
This shot is simply to prove that the scorpion tail is "painted" on both
sides of the wing. By the way, if you're thinking the ship is too big for
a Skipray Blastboat, you're wrong. I measured it out. According to the
Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels, the Skipray Blastboat is about 25
meters long. Assuming that the average minifig is 2 meters tall, and since
he is six studs tall when laid out on a plate for measurement, that would
mean that 3 studs = 1 meter. Since the Stingray is about 60 studs long,
that means it comes out to about 20 meters. So, if anything, the Stingray
is actually a bit too SMALL!
Here's MG-16 opening the maintenance hatch.
Since this ship has to accommodate both Scorp and Krysta on those long
hyperspace journeys, I put in two sleeping beds. On the wall there is
Saber-Scorpion's collection of lightsabers from the Jedi and Dark Jedi
that he's taken out. And finally, there's Scorp's swoop bike.
There's nothing like a ship with a little personality. Like the Millennium
Falcon, for example. This is one thing that the Star Wars Prequels lacked:
a ship with any personality. They could have made the Queen have a cool
starship and use it all the time, but instead her starship was just a big
silver blob, and she was constantly hopping in a different silver blob so
that we never grew to like one in particular simply from familiarity.
First it was the Episode 1 silver blob, then the episode 2 Spruce Goose,
then the little rocket thing from Duck Dodgers in the 24th and a Half
Century...
Anyway, what I was trying to say was: the Stingray has lots of
personality.
This is like a scene that you never see in the Prequels. Right here,
Krysta could be saying "You certainly have your moments. Not many of them,
but you do have them." Then MG-16 could prepare to jump to lightspeed and
say, "Hold on to your buttz!"
I tried to put more than my usual amount of control panels in here this
time. I also gave the ship some nice seats. Good? Yes? No?
Here's what the ship looks like from a minifig's point of view. Yep,
there's a rope in there. That's in case the ship needs towing out of a
swamp or something. What? The Force? Oh, all right, you got me - it's
actually for those nice fast rope descents from midair. I love those!
The ramp lowers...
The swoop rolls out... revealing the cargo bay/prisoner "cell."
For this demonstration of the prisoner cell, we have a volunteer captive
Jedi, 880_ZERO.
Who needs to freeze your prisoners in carbonite anyway?
Oh, I almost forgot another very important member of the team: R2-S3! In
my fan fiction, he rarely ever leaves the ship.
This "extending-neck" concept was introduced by Star Wars Episode 1's
Naboo N-1 Starfighter. Awkward-looking, isn't it?
Most R2 units who stick their heads out in space tend to get them blown
off. But most R2 units don't have a swiveling gun turret at their disposal
like R2-S3!
Oh, right... here's Scorp's swoop bike. It folds up for easy storage.
Here it is unfolded. A huge difference, isn't it?
I've always wanted a speeder bike ever since I saw Return of the Jedi...
so I couldn't let my Star Wars character go without one!
The swoop can awkwardly seat two passengers.
MG-16 complained to Scorp about the ramp being too steep, but did Scorp
ever listen? No, no one ever listens to the droid...
I admit it's not the grandest model I've ever built, but I think it has
some appeal, personally...
 
I'm sure a lot of you wanted to see the ship in flight mode, so these big,
desktop-sized images are just for you!
UPDATE: Around the end of 2006/beginning of 2007, I started building a
Stingray re-make, since I was never quite satisfied with my original. I
never was able to keep the inspiration flowing long enough to actually
finish it, but here's the beginning of it anyway, if you're interested:
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