Unfortunately, these black and white pictures are all that I have of one of my most favorite space creations from early in my AFOLdom. I don't recall giving the vessel an actual name, but I regarded it as being a multi-purpose research/exploration craft. The smaller fighter that mounted at the rear could detach and serve as an auxilliary patrol vehicle and also provide added defense.
There was a set of doors at the rear of the vehicle that could be opened but I didn't take any pictures of them. There were four distinct levels to the interior which were especially noticeable in the front of the ship, which I had purposely shaped to resemble the bow of a sailing ship. I've always liked it when larger spaceships can recall such nautical grace in some aspect of the design.
After these last two Polaroids were taken, I'd had the ship together for many months and decided to dismantle it. I kept the smaller fighter together because I liked its design too much to take it apart. As luck would have it, this was around the time that the Ice Planet 2002 sets were released. When I saw the new cockpit pieces in the Deep Freeze Defender, I knew that I had to incorporate them into my fighter.
Here's the StarWing in its final version. The 1x2 trans-orange bricks in the Gungan Sub finally allowed me to add windows to the sides of the ship and I recently remodeled the rear windshield area to remove a trans-orange corridor piece that I had cut (*gasp!*). These days, I'm attempting to follow a more purist approach and never again take Dremel to abs. BTW, U.E.C. stands for "United Earth Community." Someday I'll finish that script!
Here you can see the rear engines and armaments. The tailgunner has a quad laser cannon and two torpedo launchers at his/her command. I still haven't decided what the two antenna at the top rear are for. I originally envisioned them as being guns of some kind, but now I've just left them on 'cause they look cool. I call it a StarWing because if you look at the ship from the front or back, the six engine pods form the six points of a star (kinda hard to tell that from this picture but trust me!).
I really like the way the 1x2 decorated panels are aligned in relation to the pilot. Kinda ergonomic, 'eh?
This view shows the array of controls available to the tailgunner and also shows the forward ion cannons. This was the most remodeled section of the ship and I was never fully satisfied with it.