Aurora Sievert and Hurricane III

This is (supposedly) the final speeder built for my Speeder "bike" contest series. The build was first published on New Elementary with my articles concerning Tipper End family of pieces: Analytical one here and MOC-based one here. I recommend taking a look if you haven't already; they're very intriguing pieces.

This is the only speeder on the series where I built the rider first. Last time with Azure Mayfly resulted some heavy changes on the vessel as I hadn't perceived the size of the figure very well. I wanted to make the speeder special and unique, so I didn't trust on mere intuition with it. But figures are easier. Aurora Sievert began with idea of making a top with white windshield piece as the strap and 90s solar panel piece on the stomach; it would create a sense of shirt tucked into trousers with some linear folds. White made such a nice combination with reddish brown skin, and bow-shaped hole above the bust added a nice contrast. The legs and bracers feature yellow-to-red gradients, a design revamped from Lumière from 2017; however, this time it's perfectly sturdy (Lumière was extremely fragile, but I've gotten better at this). The legs are quite usual overall, with vibrant-coral gaiters, and I'm quite happy with the platform shoes. Interestingly the tires used below the knee are old type with metal axles from 70s. It takes considerable force to separate them from their hubs.

Hair patterns and shapes are interesting subject; often when discovering new parts I find myself asking "can it be used as a hair?". This time the part is stylised flame pieces with marbled dark blue and bright yellowish green pattern. It makes a nice twin-dyed hair, and neither of those shades had not appeared as a hair colour in this project before. The tricky part was the connection: the pieces have only a TECHNIC axle in the end. A pin hole next to would have made them more versatile and frankly more Lego-ish. Now their flow isn't perfect on all shots, I would have liked them to flow behind the figure when riding the speeder.

The speeder! As I mentioned, I wanted to do something different. The first three speeders were quite usual motorbike-like variant, but Azure Mayfly broke this pattern, being inspired by Air Pirate speeders in Miyazaki's Laputa, with the rider hanging on the back with a safety strap (I recently had to re-design the strap as the rubber band gave up). So the first idea was essentially a chair with some wings, radiators and engines stuck into it. I made few sketched during a critique in December (this is already an older model). I'll publish them later on with bunch of others. The I chose the colours. I ended up using yellow, as it hadn't been featured as a speeder colour yet, but is appropately bright and vibrant. One of the main points behind these big speeders is using unusual, large sci-fi-fitting pieces hard to utilize; this time that meant Fabuland car roofs, octagonal Aquazone piping and tipper end pieces.

The tipper ends formed half-a-dodacegon (more about them in the NE article) as the main structure. The width of it is not in the stud coordinate system, so the seat is centered by being freely adjustable on long Technic axles. Another important points of connection are grey ship's wheels on the sides. they're from NE's Parts Festival, and offer sturdy connection to Fabuland car roof radiators (with SNOT construction made with Aquazone piping, as seen on the rear views) and the wings. The wings use Ninjago dragon wing blade pieces in medium blue; their shade looked very nice with the yellow. While the main thrusters are behind the ship's wheels, there are little steering thrusters on the wings, with hot rod exthaust pipes connecting them to the engines. This might actually be the first time I use those pipes on anything, despite having them around for years. They're quite complex pieces. Joysticks for steering are in the middle of the machinery.

The seat uses tan to represent light leather; it would look odd with a figure with tan skin but works here. Making the figure first made designing the seat much easier. Of course it's very hard to sit on, as real soft padding can't be made with hard bricks. Curved pieces are used to make it more believable, and there's even neck support for comfort and ergonomics. Aurora Sievert stays firmly seated with a series of straps and safety belts that make the speeder look like hyperspeed dentist chair from future. The name of the speeder, Hurricane III, refers to Plain Ride's Strange Trial album that has tracks Hurricane #2 and Hurricane #3.

-Eero