67 Longship

Build 12/11 2005, Pieces 1500, Steps 201
LWH: 81/40/19 studs, 63,69/31,32/14,33 cm

This one contains overall exteriour shots, of the top and belly of the craft, while the two other contain Engine and guns, and Interiour, landing gear & hatch

Inspiration: Being historically interested and living in Denmark, one of the old 'Viking homelands' I'd felt for a while that 'somebody' ought to make a decent Viking faction comparable to ones like PCS (USA), Iron Reich (Fascist Germany), Eastern Block (Russian style Communism), Jade Empire (Chinese style Communism) etc - and especially as an opposition to the newly created Galactic Inquisition: Anyone in for some torching of monasteries?

Later, I found out that there were actually some people from the Danish LUG that had already made a Space Vikings theme, that my craft didn't fit into colourwise (brown, basic red and black: no dark grey or dark red): too bad, I don't think I have the right pieces in those colours... anyways, being an experimental builder, it's probably the first and last time I try my hand on a spacification of a Viking ship: been there, done that.

The dragon's head

Goals:
1) Build a Space Viking ship that actually resembles a Viking ship.
It should have good raiding capabilities:
2) Capable of carrying plenty of troops and loot
3) Heavily armed: Capable of defending itself against moderate attack and act as heavy weapons support for troops
4) Fast enough for surprise attacks and timely withdrawal before the reinforcements start to arrive
5) Insertion: VTOL engines and wingtip landing gear
6) Maneuverability: Capable of hovering around in cities (lightly defended and a lot of stuff to loot)

Optional:
7) SHIP size
8) Mortar/artillery piece

Introduction: For some strange reason, I started this craft 27/8 2004: only two months after I finished the dreadful Hoverbus project.
To cut a long story short: it was fun and interesting to make the front, stern and cabin area, and lay out the basics of the rear (engines, wings, stern), but I kind of lost interest when it came down to actually doing the dirty work of designing the engine area in the rear compact enough to fit the craft, while still allowing for a pointed stern, maneuverable engines and wings, and a working landing gear.
It probably didn't help that I got started on a one- year course that included an innovation project in cooperation with the Lego Company that I, naturally, spend all my time on ;-)

So besides a few short burst of work with months in between, the Longship Project turned out to last more than 15 months during which I made 12 other models.

The nose is hanging a bit, partly because the stand is attached at a weak spot, and partly because the cabin area in the front is basically an hollow shell

Not a SHIP: In the lego spacer's terminology, a SHIP (Seriously Huge Investment in Parts) is the biggest class of lego spacecraft defined as minimum 100 studs (or ca. 79cm): The ultimate challenge to a Spacer (at least to make a good one).
Now, at 92 studs, the Hoverbus got pretty close, and I could easily have extended it above 100 studs, but since it was only made virtually in MLCAD, it wouldn't really have counted anyways, despite the huge investment in time it demanded. Very early in the Longship project, it turned out that the basic design of the craft simply wouldn't look good if I tried to "stretch" it to the necessary 100 studs.
After I found that out, I started pondering over what other design I could make that would fit the SHIP standard: without looking stretched, without just being a larger stack of bricks, and preferably being a totally new design that would only fit the SHIP standard, instead of something I could just have tried in a much smaller scale.

The final drop: But it was nagging me that I hadn't finished the Longship, and especially because I felt I had evolved in another direction both technically and stylistically, while building those 12 models and generally hanging out at CSF: The project seemed to go increasingly stale and old-fashioned by the passing of time, and I started worrying about losing the motivation to finish it altogether.
By late autumn 2005 I came up with the special SHIP design for Dagger Project, and this was the final drop: Starting the huge Longship so short after the Hoverbus seemed to have worn out my initial inspiration and drive to build the Longship, and I decided not to start on the Dagger Project until the Longship was finished and out of the way.

This was the motivation I needed, and with some intensive building during the first two weeks of December, I cleared this clutter or unfinished business away, and was ready to concentrate on new projects.

Belly, overview: a little hole in the clouds threw the lighting totally off

The craft was presented in the following threads:
CSF, Byggepladen, and even managed to be highlighted by Lenny Hoffman on Lugnet despite the many studs.

Rear: engines and secondary gun

Center: cabin hatch and landing gear/wing hinges

Main gun, forward wings and stern guns

Go to: Engine and guns, Interiour, landing gear & hatch