The Mystery of Slave III

True of false? “After Slave II was severely damaged, Fett returned to using Slave I. However, Soon the old ship proved to be but a shadow of it’s former self. While considering what his next acquisition would be (Slave IV) he decided to use Slave III as his mobile base of operations.”

Now-offline, Jason Smith’s site AsylumShipyards.com, was a gallery of kitbashes and scratchbuilds space ships. In the years that the site was up, it featured several photos a model — maybe the only online reference? — of Slave III (see the Archive.org cache).

Not every bounty is a living being. On rare occasions, Boba Fett has been hired to retrieve property, more often then not, a ship. Slave III is a Mandal Motors Recovery Class Hauler that Fett has had docked in one of his bases for some time. Originally, designed to act as a deep space hauler and tug, the Recovery Class boasts six high capacity thrust engines, capable of pulling over 100 times it’s own mass. It also possesses a capital scale tractor beam projector. Together, these enable the Recovery to retrieve and tractor vessels as large as a Corellian Corvette.

After Slave II was severely damaged, Fett returned to using Slave I. However, Soon the old ship proved to be but a shadow of it’s former self. While considering what his next acquisition would be (Slave IV) he decided to use Slave III as his mobile base of operations.

With the extensive modifications that he had made, Slave III proved to be every bit as formidable as the past ships. Fett removed the towing clamp and added a primary drive engine in the main hull of the ship. Tweaking the six thrust engines he increased the maneuverability of Slave III tenfold. As not all ships that he hunts are lying dead in space waiting to be captured, Slave III boasts fore and aft pairs of ion cannons mounted near the lower stabalizer wings. Slave III‘s remaining armarment of cannon and torpedo tubes lay concealed with in the ship, lending to its casual appearance. Internally, Slave III contains the same sensor suites found in Slaves I and II, as well as two holding cages and a modified pursuit swoop.

The design of Slave III was based on the artwork of Feng Zhu
seen here [Editor’s note: dead link]. It was completely scratchbuilt from styrene (with the exception of 3 minor greeblies). This model was also an experiment in lighting. The model is lit by an AAA Mag-lite, which acts as its stand when mounted into the base.

None of the model photos are preserved, but our own Sadriel Fett came through to preserve Jason Smith’s model.

Also, the artwork of Feng Zhu is now at a new address, but Slave III doesn’t appear to be in the gallery. His work is pretty high profile, with art for Lord of the Rings.

Fortunately, there’s a page up as a result of this inspiration. Tommy de Bruyn built a LEGO copy after seeing the AsylumShipyards.com version.