This is just a redesign of the "mystery ship" that Blackdog has been chasing around since early this summer. Don't read too much into the design change; these ships are still working for the same faction and doing the same thing they've always done, which is sneaking around for enigmatic reasons and E.M.Ping anyone who finds them before running away. The only reason I changed the design is that I was unsatisfied with the way it looked before.
Also, I suppose you could say that this ship was able to carry ground troops, unlike the previous version.
I don't play EVE online, but this new design is kinda inspired by their artwork. So I owe Predator an apology for giving him crap over his post. Seriously, I was acting like a total dooshbag.
I really am serious about the apology, despite the joke at the end. And the ships came out pretty well.
The spotter plane design was one of those awesome little builds that came together in an afternoon. Apart from Dinoreich, there really isn't an established 'look' for minifig-scale Britannian vehicles, so, lucky me, I got to make up my own. It helps that the Britannian aesthetics vary from sector to sector.
The guns on the wings are my favorite detail.
This is probably the most compact aircraft I've ever made that I actually like. And it's about the same size as a Czech or Assyrian fighter. I don't build large aircraft because I *want* to; I build large aircraft because every aircraft I build ends up bigger than it's supposed to be.
I really like writing the Britannian battle reports, since I get to make 'British' jokes and use lots of purple prose. I used to hate writing these things back when I ran TFBS, it always came out sounding so dull.
And here's our mysterious VTOL opponent, this time without its robotic payload.
The main inspiration for it was Roc77's 'Little Bird' VTOL. That thing is a great design; compact, efficient, easy to reproduce. I imagine the 45th union makes a good buck selling them to other armies; certainly I expect we'll be seeing a lot of them before long. If I can spare the parts I might even make a Britannian version.
Armament consists of twin-linked MK.II autocannon, and two miniguns. The autocannon was actually used in the battle -- it fired at the Britannian bombard, and missed. The shot would have looked really bad since the bombard was directly underneath the gun and the gun can't elevate, so I just left it out.
The main engines are from my old Post-Apoc VTOL, just modified to clean the colors up a bit.
Yep, they tilt. No landing gear though.
Totally autonomous and equipped with a versatile weapon payload, these things make perfect scouts and expendable skirmishers. Of course, that's not why I built it...
...this is why.
It can actually carry four mechs, the three robots you saw in the battle plus my hardsuit. I didn't use the hardsuit in the battle because I wanted the attacking force to be entirely robotic. You've seen all the mecha before and some of you may have figured out, at this point, who is behind the mysterious incursions into Britannian space. Mum's the word, for now...
