The Alien Frigate

I finished modeling the Alien Frigate (the aforementioned big ship in my basement) and decided that it would be easer and better to just take pictures of the thing rather than try to organize all of the sections of it so I could get good renderings. So here it is, as a bunch of photographs rather than renderings.


The first picture shows the frigate "assembled," that is, as a ship, with all of its sections attached. It's huge, heavy, but surprisingly rigid. It has over 1300 pieces and is 26" by 29" by 6.6". It requires two hands to hold comfortably, but is nevertheless swooshable. You don't, however, get the feeling that it would be particularly nimble in a fight, so I included a couple of turreted guns (immediately above) to help fend off smaller ships. Woe to any foe who crosses in front of it - this thing is armed to the teeth.


Once landed, the frigate breaks down into the central structure plus four smaller ships: the half-saucers that flank the rear turrets assemble into a classic "flying saucer;" the drone, shown in an early post, is a combination of the port gun pod and the wing pods; the last two ships are LEGO's Warp-Wing Fighters which I modified so that the rear detaches. The pod/array on top of the central section opens to reveal another turret, a communications array, and a seat for an operator.


The flying saucer itself contains two guys and a little car, making it perfect for exploration. It's surprisingly fun to fly the thing around and even more fun to pull it apart, open it up, and transform each half of it into a little base. Because the tops open completely, it's easy to get to and put stuff inside the saucer.


Here's the rendering I did from the finished model. This is just the central section of the frigate (without all of the other sections attached). I like the color selection better on the rendering - not being constrained by what's in my collection and being able to think over the colors more carefully, I biased the overall scheme more towards gray. Seems more in keeping with the UFO theme.