This idea first occured to me when dark blue arrived on the scene. I thought it would be unassailably cool to build one of the "Holy Grails" of Classic Space in all dark colors; dark gray, dark blue and trans-smoke for the windows.
I'd begun to build a mock-up, but the parts selection for dark blue was woefully inadequate. However, the really nasty monkey wrench wasn't thrown in until I suddenly realized that, for some inexplicable reason, despite original dark gray being around for decades, this part was NEVER produced in that color!
I know that the original part (3839a) was only produced in original gray, black and white. However, I was amazed that an original dark gray version of the second mold had never seen the light of day as this seems to be one of those parts that just pops up everywhere!
So, I tried to treat it like a creative obstacle (much like the color change, nyuk!), but I finally had to abandon this MOC as the parts necessary are just not available. I've got a much better chance of being the next president of the USA than seeing a trans-smoke 4 x 10 plate!
Here are all the variants that I could muster. I started with the gray/trans-green combo and then worked my through several other themes.
I've always had a great fondness for the gray/trans-green combo of such Classic Space sets like the Mobile Lab and Alien Moon Stalker, so my first variant was based on that. One of the many challenges was choosing decorated bricks that would work given that many of the designs don't exist on bricks in the proper color. Oh man, what I wouldn't give for a 4 x 10 trans-green plate!
The Futuron version was fun because I had to rework the main logo area at the front of the cockpit. I also had the first of many challenges trying to fashion a 4 x 10 transparent roof. This one is a combo of a 4 x 4 hinged plate and a 4 x 6 plate. I added 1x2 grille tiles as they were around by then. One of the more rare parts in my collection is seen here, a 1 x 4 trans-dark blue antenna, which has only ever appeared in another Holy Grail Classic Space set, #6990 Monorail Transport System.
The Blacktron I variant was also quite fun, as I got to use more rare parts like the Classic Space engines in yellow! This ship also spawned a mirror version you'll see at the end!
Since dark blue parts are still fairly scarce, I thought that a dark red version might be possible. Thankfully, there were a few more parts available, but other challenges arose. The main one being that this part:
has also never been made in original dark gray! Luckily I had a few of these:
from #7186 Watto's Junkyard, and they fit the bill quite nicely!
Finally, I had this odd decorated piece kicking around:
I only remember it from the first RC set, but it's been in a few others. I thought that it would be fun to have a reverse or "mirror" version of the Blacktron I variant, and it gave me the chance to use another fairly rare part (at least for me); the 1 x 4 antenna in trans-yellow.