Better Be Heaven

Yoder's been separated from the vast majority of his Lego collection, this seems to have resulted in an explosion of building from him. 2+2=5. He's got the main wave of a recent microscale building bloom, which was instigated by Jerac (blogged below). They contain the same essential colour scheme, though this just seems to help in the comparison of the ships.

First up is the Ventura MkII, a light gunship. It's definitely got an interesting shape, and it looks more fightery in style. Looks like a wasp, or a hornet - the big engine cylinder in the back like the abdomen. I'm unawares if this look was on purpose, though it seems that if it isn't then Yoder had some indirect influence running through the veins. Colour scheme is tightly kept here, red stripes are perfectly placed. The various uses of blacks and greys is a little spotty, but only if one begins to get very picky. It would really be interesting to see this in a minifig scale, to see how certain parts would be built scaled-up. Now that I look at it, I think that 2x2 slope on top could be lost, but I'm just getting picky myself.

Next! The Gluckliche Reise long range freighter. A quick google search of that brings up... well, it's MOCpage and some viking boat clipart. Oh well. Very different in scale and shape from the Ventura, it's actually slightly reminiscent of the Rising Phoenix which he did. Slightly. The use of those inverted slopes on the nose is a great idea, I used it for the engines on a cruiser and the engines on a fighter, but here it's all the more front and center - a greater use. The stud-inserts fit well with the greebs on the front of the nose, though some part of me wishes the antenna were off centre. The bridge truly conveys the look of a spacified cargo ship, very similar to the big tankers and ships of the present. The use of yellow to act as the outer hull plating it great - that whole outer hull technique is a favourite of mine, as was mentioned in the previous post and probably several before that - and more to come. The 2x2 round tiles on the bottom give a neat shape and look, seemingly fit for containers of some kind. Engine pods are go!

Dogstar One! Destroyer-class frigate. This one is the basis of the next cruiser too, so it's even better for comparison. With this and the other small ship of Yoder's I saw on flickr [link] , the Apache Rose, I think he had a spurt of Battlestar influence. This much less than the Apache, but it still has this feeling of a battlestar, particularly when looking at from a rear angle. Something about those engines. I love the dark-bley turret, and tried using it on a recent ship, but didn't have enough claw/gun barrels to pass around. The offset secondary bridge behind the main one makes me happy, being offset and all. Not sure I like the square cannon on the side of the nose, just doesn't fit. This one also lacks that special hull plating effect sadly, which I think would have pushed it over the edge of awesome. Plenty of sensor antennas though, those always seem to help with microscale.

Two! As if the first weren't enough, he went and turned it on it's side. I like this one better, it's more vertical construction [compared to the last] seems all the more spacey. The bridge on this one seems to suggest a larger scale, and the little bits tacked on the side further this. This one uses the hull plating effect, however less than the freighter, it still does. The use of grills for the inner hull is cool, a quick way to make a small place look greebled when low on parts. This rendition of the dogstar seems more military than the first, I'm betting that I'm making that connection from the more vertical construction mentioned above. I'm curious how he made the neat flame effects on his photoshop'ed pictures, it looks rather neat.

Anyways, I guess that about wraps it up. I missed actually featuring the Apache Rose, though I think it's too small for me to try and come up with something long winded to say. Check out my newest microscale, feature on Snoikle.