Subject:
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Re: Schpiffkraft Hakenkreuz
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.space
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Date:
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Mon, 15 Aug 2005 01:45:43 GMT
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Viewed:
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4276 times
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In lugnet.space, Allister McLaren wrote:
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Richie,
I’m sorry that your requests for more constructive criticism, something more
helpful than ‘not funny’ or not winning some mysterious contest, for example,
have thus far met with nothing but silence. If I may be so bold, I’d like to
offer some advice on ways I think this moc may be improved. Take it or leave
it as you will.
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I wasn’t going to respond again in this thread. I’ve just spent two days away
from Lego, away from lugnet, sitting in the sunshine, trying to get my head
around what I may have done, wondering if it will be possible to dig myself out
of the hole I’ve made :( . I have been preparing a fuller response on several of
the issues raise, which I’ll finish and post soon.
But because you’ve actually come up with some well thought out constructive
criticism rather than just trashing me for dubious ends or just to be part of
the anti-(perceived)nazi bandwagon, I will respond.
Thanks for your feedback, it is appreciated.
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I’ll start with some general comments.
First of all, the photography is truly appalling. You really need to invest
in a better camera, or learn to use the one you’ve got properly. Most details
are lost in the very grainy, low resolution picture. Make it easy for us to
look at the pictures, or we won’t look at all.
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I agree with you on the photography. My camera is old, but at this point I’m not
able to upgrade due to personal circumstances. As it is, I have a window of
about half an hour per day where I am able to take pics this good.
I hoped I made it a bit easier to look at the pics by including them in the
post, rather than giving a link.
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I mentioned that most details are lost due to poor image quality, but the
point is probably moot considering the pointed lack of detailing there is to
lose. The overall shape, well yes, there’s probably a limit to what you can
do with a fairly basic geometric shape like a swastika, but you clearly
haven’t even tried to apporach that limit.
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I was going for something smooth and sleek, with just a hint that there is some
awesome technology just below the surface. This clearly didn’t work.
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First off, take a look at what Jon Palmer does with similarly basic shapes in
his Alphabet Project.(near bottom of
page) By stylising the shape, adding strange little detail panels here and
there it becomes more of a spaceship, and less obviously the character that
inspired it. The appropriate level of how much of each is apparent is a
personal thing, by my considered opinion is that you’ve strayed too close to
suggesting one shape (the swastika) without enough suggestion of the other.
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Thanks. I am not much of a space builder, but I am keen to expand my skills.
I’ll have a look at those.
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So how does one do that? Well, it’s all in the details. First of all, I’d
have made it a little bigger, but I understand you’re playing on the old
spiffcraft that was a fad here some time ago. This size still has some scope
for improvement.
The top surface is a little bland. Tiles and a few grills are a bit easy. If
the ‘wings’ were 1 or 2 bricks deep, which would also add a bit of depth to a
fairly 2D construction, you could insert some inset panels with some subtle
greebling. You could then also include some sort of thruster in the tip of
each spoke. This would suggest a spinning type of locomotion, which is
unusual and cool. Then you could get rid of those ridiculous brackets (I
hesitate to even refer to them as thrusters).
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Yeah. I can see spinning would be cool. Thanks for the idea. And inset panels
too (that’s what I was trying to do with the grills).
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If possible, it would be cool to actually try and get the wings to rotate
around the cockpit, or at least suggest that they do.
The underside is, frankly, disappointing. I see no effort being put in here
at all. My seven year old could, and has done better. The ‘thrusters’ I’ve
dealt with above. The missiles, again, are ridiculous. You couldn’t use them
for insecticide, let alone genocide. With the thicker wings mentioned above,
you could put cool fold out panels in the outide wall of each wing (or put
lasers in two. With the thrusters and missiles gone, you can then make panels
underneath that suggest some cool anti-gravity technology.
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Well, I thought of it as ‘anti-grav’ but yes, I guess it does need something
more to show it. Thanks.
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The landing gear seems to serve it’s purpose, and no more compact solution
immediately presents itself. I’d leave them as they are.
The cockpit, from what little I can see of it, seems to be rather devoid of
detail. What, is there a set of handlebars in there? The Grand Fuhrer should
expect no less than 4 studs worth of instrumentation, and probably should
have a driver.
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I was trying to imply simplicity in operation. The Grand Fuhrer, might not be
terribly bright, for instance, and could cope with nothing more complex than
simple scoort controls.
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‘Ra! for the return of the bubble canopy.
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You like it? I tend to think if it doesn’t have a bubble dome, it’s not spacy
enough.
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Basically, the whole thing needs fleshing out. Bigger, thicker, more thought
put into the details, and please, please, please, better photography.
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Fair enough.
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Now, as to the subject matter itself. Is it funny? If not, why not? How can
it be made funny? Is it possible to touch on such subject material and make
it funny at all? Mmmm. Thorny questions indeed.
I personally, don’t find much humour in mass mudering regimes, but you made
no mention of such policies being adopted by the Space Nazis, so I guess it’s
still open to debate wether that aspect should be considered.
To be honest, I’m not sure the idea of Space Nazis is itself the point of the
joke, if it’s even a joke at all. With every other node on the political
spectrum being turned into a space sub-theme, it’s only going to get harder
to come up with new ones as new builders try to carve their niche. It’s a
logical extension of this that perhaps makes it inevitable that the Space
Nazis would pop up sooner or later. Less a joke, I suppose, than it is a
comment on certain lugnet.space conventions. A better executed moc might have
made this point more effectively, but I can appreciate a certain amount of
ironic humour in posting such a basic moc as a new theme. Does that mean I
‘get’ it? I dunno.
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You raise some good issues there, Allister. I’ll address them (along with
others) in the more detailed post which I am preparing.
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All up, it’s a bit of a basic moc, but the idea is good, and has potential
for some cool and unusual ships. I encourage you to develop the theme
further, and you’ll find new ideas and improvements will almost present
themselves. If the build quality can be improved, it might even end up being
a fairly popular theme, in the same league as PCS or the Eastern Blok. I see
no reason why you can’t do that.
Cheers,
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Cheers!
Richie Dulin
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: Schpiffkraft Hakenkreuz
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| (...) scoort? I googled it, but all I found was references to dutch websites about soccer. Lar, maybe you could help me with my google technique???? ROSCO (19 years ago, 15-Aug-05, to lugnet.space, FTX)
| | | Re: Schpiffkraft Hakenkreuz
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| (...) This sort of post-hoc rationalisation for shoddy work is more popularly known as 'continually laying bubble', after a certain semi-famous (URL) thread.> Keep layin' it(1), bubble boy. 3o:) (2) Cheers, Allister (1) to turn a phrase. (2) and I (...) (19 years ago, 15-Aug-05, to lugnet.space, FTX)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Schpiffkraft Hakenkreuz
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| (...) Richie, I'm sorry that your requests for more constructive criticism, something more helpful than 'not funny' or not winning some mysterious contest, for example, have thus far met with nothing but silence. If I may be so bold, I'd like to (...) (19 years ago, 15-Aug-05, to lugnet.space, FTX) !
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