mortesv

[MOC] The EMPIRE STRIKES BACK - Rebel Fleet

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Finally! I am done!

Or am I?

...

Luke is sitting in the rather uncomfortable steel chair of the Redemption’s medical bay. His new mechanical hand feels cold where it is attached to the bone. Stupid Vader… His glance wanders up towards the large viewport. He squints as the light of the hundreds of billions of stars in the galaxy greets him.

But the glow of the stars is just a faint glimmer compared to the magnificence of the kickass Rebel Fleet just outside!  

My latest creation is the Rebel Fleet as seen in the last scene of the Empire Strikes Back:

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Fear the Might of the Rebel Fleet!

 

UPDATE: Many more fighters:

 

Overview

The fleet is made up of the following ships (Updated):

 - 15 T65A X-Wings

 - 16 BLT Y-Wings

 - 6 A/SF B-Wing Heavy Assault Starfighters

 - 5 RZ-1 A-Wings

 - 2 TIE/LN Starfighters

 - 1 Lambda-class T-4a Shuttle (Tyderium)

 - 1 heavily modified YT-1300 Light Freighter (The Millennium Falcon) aka. a piece of junk.

 - 3 GR-75 Medium Transports

 - 1 CR-90 Corellian Corvette (the Tantive IV) aka. A Blockade Runner

 - 1 EF76 Nebulon-B Escort Frigate with medical retrofit (The Redemption)

And…

 - 1 heavily modified Firespray-31-class Patrol and Attack Craft (Slave 1)

 

As you can see a few guests have snuck in – not all of them are especially welcome. There are a number of unidentified ships in the fleet scene, but rather than speculate on the exact scale and shape of these ships, I have focused on creating “Guests to Scale”.

 

 

The Fleet

Or “Home, sweet home”, as it is known to many rebels.

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The Fleet.

 

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Straight Perspective. This angle gives an overlook of the fleet and a sense of how the different ships relates to one another.

 

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Flying away. I was a bit challenged capturing the entire fleet from this angle – a few ships are missing in this shot, but a wall was in the way.

 

 

The Flagship

Leading the fleet is the flagship, the Medical Frigate – Redemption.

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The Flagship. The Medical Frigate is currently the flagship of this ragged fleet. The eagle eyed amongst you may be able to spot that I once again have made a number of modifications and added detail. Hint: The changes can be found from front to back on the ship :)

 

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Charting the Course. The flagship leads the way. Mmm look at those engines…

 

 

The Falcon

The most famous (and infamous) ship in the Rebel Fleet. This old YT-1300 freighter has seen more action in its lifetime than half the Imperial Fleet.

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Falcon and Transport. This picture is interesting because it shows the Falcon’s size in relation to a number of ships (the fighters closest to the camera not included). The Falcon is naturally dwarfed by the Transport, but it is also worth noticing how little space there must be on the bridge of the Transport. Two pilots would be hard pressed to fit in there.

 

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Closer. Here the docking ring and cockpit are in focus, but we also get a sense of scale in relation to the characters in the viewport of the medical bay.

 

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Falcon Front View. Several types of smaller crafts and fighters can dock and resupply with the frigate.

 

 

The Rebel Fighters

Escorting the fleet is a range of different, specialized fighters, from A-wings to Y-wings.

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Fighters. Five types of fighters can be seen this picture.

 

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A-wings. Beginning alphabetically, we have two A-wings zipping by the Deflector Control tower of the frigate. A-wings are among the fastest fighters in the Rebel Fleet, giving even a TIE Interceptor a run for its money.

 

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B-wing. Two B-wings are in the Rebel Fleet, they are not on direct escort duty, but more than capable of disabling even larger Imperial ships with their formidable array of deadly weapons. The B-wing was developed by none other than Admiral Ackbar and is the most heavily armed fighter in the Rebel Fleet. The fighter is mainly used in hit and run missions against Imperial targets.

 

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X-wing. The X-wing is the most common fighter in the Rebel Fleet. Today it is on escort duty, but this all-round fighter is capable of so much more; for example transporting force-adept farmboys around the galaxy and blowing up multi-trillion-credit Imperial installations.

 

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Y-wing. Six trusty old Y-wings serve as escorts in the Rebel Fleet. The attack fighter mainly serves on bombing runs but can also be used for escort detail. The fighter is one of the oldest active fighter designs in the rebel fleet and has gone through a number of modernizations. Most Y-wings have their engines’ hull plating stripped to make the heavy fighter lighter.

 

 

The Corvette

If you freeze frame the last scene of the Empire Strikes Back, you can just make out the silhouette of a Blockade Runner flying in the background. The model for this ship is most like the Tantive IV, which is the one I used for reference when building my CR-90 Corellian Corvette.

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Corvette Front View. The Corvette trails the Medical Frigate in the fleet. It is the second largest ship in the convoy and sports formidable anti-fighter capabilities. As such the Corvette could easily fly without fighter escorts, but a prudent fleet admiral has assigned four Y-wings to escort the ship – this may prove to be a very wise decision.

 

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Corvette Side View. As Slave 1 zooms past the Corvette the main canons try to train on the target, however the target is much too fast.

 

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Front/Side. The Corvette is followed by two more Transports.

 

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Corvette Engines. So many glorious engines.

 

 

Unwelcome Guests

Building at this scale it became very hard not to build other crafts, which may not be a part of the Rebel Fleet. I am a sucker for scale models and seeing ships in relation to each other, plus it gives the entire scene a sense of action. This is not just a Rebel Fleet meandering the outskirts of the galaxy; stuff is about to go down :)

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Slave 1. Boba Fett jumps in from hyperspace, almost colliding with the Rebels. Can the Imperial agent sabotage and disable the frigate before he has to flee? Even the powerful Slave 1 is no match for a Rebel Fleet this size, so he has to be quick.

 

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Slave 1 Up Close. The little Slave 1 moc features as much de detail as possible: a fully rendered back side with engines, poseable wings, canons and a translucent cockpit. The wedge slope is from the 6964 mini Slave 1 set.

 

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Imperial Shuttle and TIE Fighters. Have the Rebels already captured and secured Tyderium? And two TIEs? Did Boba Fett track the Rebel thieves and follow them to the fleet? Why don’t we see these TIEs in Return of the Jedi? So many questions!

 

  

The Rebel Transports

Rebel Transports are the backbone of the fleet. They carry supplies and mobile bases the ragtag group of freedom fighters can put up anywhere in the galaxy.

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Close Quarters. A 90 meter long transport flying side by side with the flagship and being utterly dwarfed.

 

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Enjoying the View. The Transport captain is probably thinking the Princess is waving at him from the viewport of the Frigate.

 

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Side by Side. The Rebel transports have very limited armaments, thus each transport is escorted by two X-wings, piloted by the elite Rouge Squadron.

 

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Containers. Each transport features dozens of containers. I have made sure that each transport features a specific container configuration – they can’t all transport the same stuff :)

 

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Details. Besides the container configuration, each transport features unique detailing. Having three carbon copies of the same ship is boring and by adding different detailing to the ships, each craft gets its own storied life.

 

To sum up

Building this fleet has been a challenging experience. It has been frustrating at times, but also very rewarding. Thanks to all the comments and feedback from all of you who commented on the various ships, and thanks to the EB staff for the shoutouts!

I leave you with one last shot:

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Rebels in Space!

 

As always, please let the comments fly!

                

Edited by mortesv

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Spectacular.  The whole setup is just great, but for whatever reason I really like your GR-75s.  Relatively simple, but the shaping and detail you've added works really well.  Now you need to get working on a Death Star to the same scale!  :wink:

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That's simply awesome, mortesv... .. :wub::wub::wub:

It's clearly been a labour of love for you, and I'm in total awe of the result.  The Nebulon B and Bloackade Runner are both exceptional; but oddly enough the tiny Slave 1 & Falcon keep catching my eye.  Even at such a small scale they both look brilliant.  I haven't built anything since I managed to break my hip neatly in two earlier this year, as I've been finding it difficult to sit still for any length of time, but I'm seriously tempted to make the Nebulon B a project for the winter.

 

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What can I say? Oh yes - rebels rock, and your fleet looks the part and ready for action. Inspiring project, and lovely execution.

 

But a display as epic as this, doesn't it scream for imperial counterparts in scale? :wink:

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This is sooooo great! Absolutely jaw dropping! Thanks for sharing your work with the community!

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2 hours ago, Lobot said:

That's simply awesome, mortesv... .. :wub::wub::wub:

It's clearly been a labour of love for you, and I'm in total awe of the result.  The Nebulon B and Bloackade Runner are both exceptional; but oddly enough the tiny Slave 1 & Falcon keep catching my eye.  Even at such a small scale they both look brilliant.  I haven't built anything since I managed to break my hip neatly in two earlier this year, as I've been finding it difficult to sit still for any length of time, but I'm seriously tempted to make the Nebulon B a project for the winter.

 

Thanks for the support Lobot! I am sorry to hear about your injury, I hope it gets better soon. Let me know if you decide to take on the project - just send me a PM :)

 

2 hours ago, DarthTwoShedsJackson said:

What can I say? Oh yes - rebels rock, and your fleet looks the part and ready for action. Inspiring project, and lovely execution.

 

But a display as epic as this, doesn't it scream for imperial counterparts in scale? :wink:

I have thought about it, but an ISD would be over 6 meters long! :)

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These ships look really awesome. Who wouldn't want to have these on display. And I don't mind that you added a few more ships in comparable size! :classic:

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Most impressive collection. Congratulations.

You know what may prove more dangerous to your rebel fleet than the Imperials? Dust! :D  Perhaps you should think of a large, plexi case for these treasures.

 

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This is really fantastic! The ships look so good - from the big frigate to the tiniest star fighters - wonderful :classic: :thumbup:

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So enjoyable to look at and read. A simply magnificent piece of work. Fantastic effort and execution and thanks for sharing so many images. Cheers

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What an awe-inspiring display. Brilliant job! I love the inclusion of the Slave I and the Imperial shuttle.

If only that medical frigate were a real UCS, I'd buy it in a heartbeat!

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Thanks for the comments guys! :)

Someone sent me this:

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This reminds me of final most shot of ESB, if anyone feels like it, please make more of these :)

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18 hours ago, mortesv said:

Thanks for the support Lobot! I am sorry to hear about your injury, I hope it gets better soon. Let me know if you decide to take on the project - just send me a PM :)

Thanks mortesv, it's certainly been a rather interesting 6 months!  

I fell really hard onto concrete and managed to break my femur completely in two, just below the 'ball' part.  I had surgery to re-enforce it with a large alloy bolt, followed by 12 weeks on crutches, which was incredibly frustrating.  The consultant has been very pleased with my progress, and it's all fused really well, but I'll need to have it monitored for another 18 months before I'm finally given the all-clear.  I'm still not 100% at the moment, but I'm just very grateful that I can walk again as I'm usually very active :classic:

....I'll be in touch shortly!

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