Base I Control Tower

I love aircraft control towers, so I used the Star Wars Escape Pod decorated curved walls to try and suggest giant power cells (for all the different radar dishes and antenna) and stacked them to give the tower the appropriate height. Fortunately, this height proved a perfect fit for a combo of the two different kinds of one-piece staircases to provide minifig access to the tower.

I tried to make the hatch at the top of the stairs resemble the one inside the base for a little continuity. In the left photo, my finger's on the ledge that opens the hatch.

I don't know why I took this picture of just another bank of control panels, but the tinted lighting is nice!

For once, I wanted to have a radar assembly that wasn't just another big dish, and I tried for the boomerang-looking one that rotates constantly as opposed to just aiming in a specific direction.

I also thought it should be crammed with antenna of all kinds. Those 16 stud-long lattice plates were perfect for the rear section.

Base I Control Tower

REDUX!

Since I had stated that this whole theme was designed to emulate actual sets, someone suggested that the Control Tower was lacking in playability. They were totally right of course, so I went back and expanded the tower with the addition of a garage, landing pad and monitoring room.

Once again, I was lucky in that I was able to divert the staircase onto the new landing pad without too much rebuilding. I was also able to use some of the uber-cool 2x2x5 lattice bricks to support the staircase. I just LOVE those girder pieces! They're one of my favorite pieces of all time!

Someone posted a technique of removing steering wheels and attaching them to these spigot pieces, and I love the look and wanted to use it as soon as possible.

The landing pad on top of the garage fits the Pad Hopper. I was really pleased with the little triangular weapons station.

In these two shots you can see how the monitoring room and garage door open up to provide thorough access to the interior. I like the two overhead lights on the roof of the monitoring room. Speaking of lights, this will be the last time I use this tablecloth for photography. Even two 500 watt lamps aren't enough to compensate for that dark green background!

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