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LRR Mobile Laser Cutters


aidenpons
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Both of these projects came into existence because I wanted some LRR MOCs, yet had extremely few distinctly LRR pieces with which to do anything. One spare teal brick (actually that's not quite true, we had two teal bricks - the other was a Belville lampost, which is not exactly the most useful...), one Loader Dozer chassis with wheels, and one brown rollcage (no grey bit which goes below the rollcage). My previous MOCs have been mono- or duo- crome (duochrome? bichrome? dichrome?), I realised that I could start to use different colours if I started by blatantly stealing somebody else's colourscheme. large.OldTonguePNG.png.8d1938f4e3d7f8cb3ab33829018396f5.png

 

Given a couple of spare "parts" I had loafing around (like an Exo-Force gatling gun, an engine which would fit in the Chrome Crusher), I thought that the best way to go would be to create a couple of wheeled mining lasers - nice and simple, without any of the annoying things about drilling vehicles - how does the Chrome Crusher actually drill anything if its drill only extends past its rollcage by a couple of studs? And is the Granite Grinder supposed to just stomp over the rubble, despite the fact it can't lift its legs? I'm too much of a perfectionist and something like that, where a vehicle clearly can't perform the given function, would have required far too much hassle (though being an interesting idea)... so I decided to go with lasers.

 

 

In the end, this became two vehicles - one small, slightly bigger than a Small Digger, and one a lot larger, about the size of a Chrome Crusher. Neither of them I have witty names for.large.OldTonguePNG.png.8d1938f4e3d7f8cb3ab33829018396f5.png

 

Here's the smaller one:

 

Spoiler

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I suppose I should apologise for using a Power Miners rollcage, but I think it fits quite nicely, even if it is an absolute pain to adjust. As you can see, my only non-lampost teal brick has been used to moderate effectiveness - how else can you use only one 1x3 brick without making the entire model an odd number of studs wide? The laser is also something I think I had around for a while - consists of poking a bar through that weirdly-shaped light grey brick at the front of the laser which you never quite can find a use for. Because of the double-jointed system and the turntable, the laser can point basically anywhere.

 

 

And now for the second one. This at least has a bit of lore to it, other than a couple (okay, a lot) of pieces I threw together for the first one.

 

"Originally designed for blasting down rock to form new tunnels, where drilling vehicles were too slow, the still-unnamed vehicle goes by the nickname "What the Large Mobile Laser Cutter Should Have Been." Ever since Rock Monsters were discovered on Planet U it has instead been utilised as a defensive weapon. Its high rate of fire makes it much more effective than standard laser cutters at defensive purposes. Furthermore, it can also pelt Slimy Slugs - beings which are otherwise too quick and too numerous to be shot from atop a slow lumbering vehicle. Its power consumption is so high it requires an on-board Energy Crystal; a small price to pay for blasting new caverns across inaccessible lava caverns, pelting monsters from a distance, and creating fireworks on Chief's Birthday."

 

Spoiler

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If I remember correctly I had the barrel design around for quite some time. Essentially this model started from the top laser and the bottom chassis, with everything else built to fit.

 

Spoiler

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This hinge allows pointing near-vertical (about 80 degrees) and 45 degrees downwards, which is quite nice mobility provided by a single joint. It was also a nice spot to put an Energy Crystal. After all, this gatling gun requires more power than can be delivered by an internal combustion engine (although as RRU has pondered, why do such vehicles have combustion engines if they're powered by crystals?)

 

 

The back of the vehicle contains a 1:116 model of the LMS explorer ;) along with a slightly more powerful handheld scanner and a bit of bent hosepipe because I thought it looked nice there.

 

 

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I spent some time decking out the cockpit. It's quite hard to fit two LRRs in there that look like they actually could be doing something (as opposed to waving their hands ineffectually near a control panel as per the Tunnel Transport), but I'm very happy with the result. I saw those coloured lights in the Lego Agents truck (they've visible in the middle of the truck, above the crane and below the rockets), saw how simple they were (in pieces and in implementation) and decided that anything with a large control room should have one of those. Sometimes even two large.OldTonguePNG.png.8d1938f4e3d7f8cb3ab33829018396f5.png

 

The steering wheel is mounted really awkardly. But there's a great reason for that - when the LRR sits down in his chair, the steering wheel is on his lap. Which I felt was more fitting than a standard upright steering wheel for something of this magnitude (and also saved me one stud of space, hooray! large.OldTonguePNG.png.8d1938f4e3d7f8cb3ab33829018396f5.png)

 

Spoiler

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The two hooks in the top right corner are for the two weapons that the LRRs are holding in the out-of-focus background large.OldTonguePNG.png.8d1938f4e3d7f8cb3ab33829018396f5.png On the other side, there's a gap to the left - that's filled by two Sonic Blasters which the LRRs are also holding.

 

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There's one more thing and that's the design of the LRRs. I have every LRR set - in fact, the Hover Scout aside I have every single set twice, and several thrice, except the Rock Raider HQ. As a result, I have absolutely no classic "Sparks" minifigures. What I do have are a whole heap of Exo-Force torsos... and a whole heap of typical smiling faces. One of which has suffered extensive degradation due to "going swimming" in ice-cream containers full of water large.OldTonguePNG.png.8d1938f4e3d7f8cb3ab33829018396f5.png (our Aquanauts have also been heavily affected by this...)

 

Spoiler

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also yay the carpet fluff is in focus?

 

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Creating any LRR weapon is easy enough - Sonic Blasters are absurdly easy. And if you've got the studs then Pusher, Freezer, and Lazer beams are all absurdly easy to make. And they make a nice addition to any vehicle in a side-stash.

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Really great effort Aiden. I'll forgive the use of Power Miners parts because it actually does suit your build.

 

The laser canon looks pretty cool and the second AT-01 looks like he's had his face melted from a laser accident.

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