Neo Classic Space

Matt Holland has built a nice little gunship.

The black and yellow stripe in slopes is a particularly nice touch. We also rather like Matt's interceptor, even if the colour of the cockpit is wrong.

Today we catch up with the military arm of the Federation, and one of their "big guns", Mark Stafford's LL-077 Solar Enforcer.

The LL-077 was one of the most heavily armed ships of it's era. Capable of decimating ground targets and maneuverable enough to more then hold it's own in a dog fight with the emerging threat of Blacktron. It's only drawback was it's own firepower, if all guns were fired at a target straight ahead the ship it would stop it's own forward momentum after only 5 seconds of firing, and early test pilot often found themselves in negative spins.

Mark says: Face it, whatever the classic space ship looked like, to a kid of the 70's they looked something like this in our heads, bristling with guns and ready for action! Just like in that Star Wars movie or Battle Beyond the Stars! Hope you all like it!

Today we continue our adventure in Classic Space  with one of the Federations's finest fighters, the LL-560 Seraph by Peter L Morris.

The Seraph is a heavy fighter built for fleet defense and attack operations. It features two heavy plasma cannons and two short range photon rifles. The cockpit is well armored, though visibilty is poor. Many pilots initially complain about the tunnel-vision effect, but they quickly fall in love with the overwhelming firepower and superb maneuverability.

Few Seraphs are in service, however, due to their extreme cost and high maintenance requirements.

Today we feel the need for speed with Jeremy Todd's LL-101 Predator.

When Deep-Space Marine Boon Conray disappeared while flying missions in the Cressida Nebulonic cloud, he was presumed dead. Boon returned after many years a changed man, scarred by deceit and greed. Conray brought with him, from the brink, a technology he wasn't prepared to share with just anyone... especially the Space Federation. Boon's new technology gave already swift ships an unearthly boost. Within a year of his return, every pirate from Galalagos to Mythephony had their very own “BoonBeam” drive. Even the fastest Federation ships were being left in the stardust.

The federation has always maintained that its objectives are peaceful exploration and co-operation, but then the most heavily armed forces often do. If that's the case, one of the most peaceful ships is Carl Greatrix's LL-666 Terrorhawk. Of course the trail of wrecked ships it leaves in its wake are pretty peaceful too...

Neoclasspacishuzimo were comissioned to create a desperately awaited fleat of long range ground attack interceptor / bombers. The Neoclasspacishuzimo "Devil Hawk" being their most succesful result amongst other battle proven designs in their "Bird of Prey class". LL-666 is THE battle hardened ship, dominant in all theatres of war, even ones it was not designed for and wears its number of the beast with pride, many expected due to the normaly ill-fated number for it to fail miserably.

Returning to their own universe, the Classic Space Federation are proud to present the LL-444 Interceptor from Doctor Sinister.

Dr Sinister says: Having once owned a large Moonbase made from early 1980's LEGO Space sets as a child, I wanted to recreate the wonder and joy of being able to swoosh a LEGO spaceship in the classic livery around my living room.

The brief I gave myself was to create a small one-man fighter craft that would pay homage to both LL 918 (my favourite set as a child) and the larger LL 928.  There's a small resemblance to LL 928 in the general shape of the craft and the upright winglets on either side of the cockpit.

This lovely little creation is actually an old MOC of Flickr user Nolnet

It use a really nice combination of forms. It's retro because Nolnet only used parts available in 1987 and cabriolet? Well it's one of those rare open-topped blue and grey numbers that the Neo Classic Space scientist dabbled with - feel the solar wind in your visor man!

Edit: Thanks to the anonymous poster who pointed out my error when I said it was made with parts from 1978.