Parts used: Frame and legs: wood pieces and thick MDF
Flight deck: cardboard, polystyrene, cut-up plastic folder for windows
Command module: cardboard, cut-up plastic folder for windows
Engines: empty food cans and toilet rolls
Front guns: PVC piping
Cargo module: cardboard box with hinged ramp
Generous use of masking tape and adhesive, and a few screws
Exterior paint: Black and grey (gray) tempera.
Interior paint: Silver tempera
After having spent my cash on new action figures, I thought about all the cool vehicles that I could never afford as a kid (or as an adult for that matter), or that had never been produced. One of them was a decent transport craft for Cobra. I was inspired to do something after looking at the Cobra Constrictor project Matthew did on JoeCustoms. I also looked at what materials the playset customizers were using. I looked around in my shed, the cupboard under the stairs, and in the attic, for bits and pieces I could use to make a transport craft. I think it turned out fairly well for a first go.
The background story to this vehicle is below:
Cobra is suffering significant cash flow problems. These problems are due to failed corporate investments in the new-build housing market and sub-prime mortgage racket through ARBCo Industries. Also, significant loss of funds via Extensive Enterprises has been reported, a result of the various corporate investment banking collapses. These problems have affected Cobra's new vehicle development and procurement programmes. Additionally, Cobra's relationship with Destro's MARS Corporation has soured greatly of late, prompting Cobra's senior officials to employ a new vehicle development strategy.
To that end, Crimson Guard operatives working within the UK Ministry of Defence discovered that Action Force were experiencing major funding issues, due to the British Government's instructions to the defence ministry to make billions of pounds of savings over the next few years.
With its own vehicle development programme hit by this "streamlining" exercise, Action Force created the Computerised Recyclable Assimilation Programme - Integrated Transport (CRAP-IT), an endeavour designed to create new vehicles from the amalgamation of decommissioned vehicles, electric and electronic waste and other recycled equipment.
Upon learning of Action Force's CRAP-IT initiative, Cobra conceived a similar vehicle development strategy. Under the Jointly Utilised Non-proprietary Knowledgebase - Renewables, or JUNK-R, programme, Cobra has developed the Rapture, an armoured, aerial troop and equipment transport.
The Cobra Rapture is capable of operating in the most hostile of environments. The cargo module, which is carried on the underbelly of the Rapture, can transport a large detachment of personnel and vehicles to a target zone. The module can be detached from the main craft and turned into a ground station, maintenance bay or a basic triage facility, among other uses. The Rapture can provide ground-support fire-power to eliminate any incoming ground-or-air based adversaries using its forward-mounted twin cannons. An optional, armoured command module, located behind the flight deck, provides mission commanders and communications staff the ability to effectively co-ordinate any operation.
