The Midnight Swan

Short version

Long Version

The Midnight Swan is a giant airship. I have always liked building ships from the very beginning of my Lego builds. I think one of the first sets I got was the Aqua Raiders sunken pirate ship. Over the years I've built many ships but with this one I really wanted to push myself with my building. I didn't want to just use the big ship pieces and build a ship on top of those, I'd done that many times before. This time I wanted to do something unique. So I made it bigger than any ship I had ever made and halfway through I decided to make it into an Airship.

With the tragedy of the Hindenburg, airship travel ended before it really got going, and this ship is an image to what might have been. As I was building I was inspired by many great ships, both flying and normal. One of the biggest was the Airship from the movie Stardust, but others like Destiny's Bounty, Misfortunes Keep, The Flying Dutchman, and the Argo II were major inspirations on the design.

I also wanted to appeal to other fans both young and old, my favorite sets growing up were always the ones with cool functions, so I built as many moving parts as I could. When the ship is pushed forward on the hidden wheels the oars row, the guns on the forward deck rotate and the propeller on the front of the blimp spins. The machine guns swivel, the ballista rotate and the turret in the back spins around 360 degrees. The wheel turns the rudder as well, and there is an escape boat hidden in the middle. Knowing the size of the build I built in a handle in the center of the ship that can support the entire builds weight, though for balance use another hand on the front.

I feel like this will make an amazing Lego set because there isn't really any other sets like it, there are plenty of boats, but no Airships. The moving parts make it really cool and the sheer size and detail will make it a talking piece for those who collect and display sets. I feel The Midnight Swan is an original set that many fans young and old will enjoy building and playing with.