33 replies to this topic

[Brickdoctor]

Yes, this was originally going to be a TIE/ln, but the angles wouldn't line up in LDD the way they did in my prototype physical model. So I did this instead. There are a couple portions that are 'floating' because of a critical connection LDD wouldn't accept, and I didn't color check every single part, but it should be buildable in real life.

I love the wings. I'm not so happy with the back side of those pylons connecting them to the rest of the craft. But they were the only thing that worked without using illegal clip-to-clip connections.


I, of course, had to do as much as possible in 1-brick-thick SNOT. But that turned out well; it provided an opportunity to include all those gaps in the back area.


The front end of the pylons, on the other hand, turned out pretty well, I think. This was what I was stuck on for about two weeks and finally finished today.


Not totally happy with the cannon, either, but they were the best I could come up with in LDD.


The underside does suffer a little bit, but from piece limitations that do exist in real life and not just in LDD, not from neglect.


The wings... Love how these turned out. Except the grey part in the middle, which I couldn't find a brick-built solution for in LDD.

Few more shots:




Overall, this is the first time I've done a model in LDD meant to fit in with the rest of my newer Star Wars minifig-scale MOCs. (the 74-Z, T-47, T-16, and AT-ST) If I ever get the pieces to build it for real, I think I could do it even better, but for an LDD model built by someone who thrives on illegal connections, I don't think this is that bad, if I do say so myself.

Finished August 2011, C&C welcome, thanks for looking!

[Masked Builder]

Very nice DOC! I like the way you've tackled the wings of the TIE.  And you've gotten it greebeled it pretty well too.  I do like all of the little angels.

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Beautiful wings!  
I like the perfect shape of this model!

[M<0><0<DSWIM]

WOW, Doc!  This is impressive...MOST impressive! The SNOT work is brilliant, especially in the wings and I love the attention to detail in the back portion of the body.  I would say the only week parts would be the cannons under the cockpit and the cockpit window itself.  Otherwise, if this was a real set, I would totally buy one.

[Lobot]

Excellent work Brickdoctor!  The shape looks very accurate, and I really like the detailing on the wings    You must have a lot more patience than me; I’ve tried using LDD a couple of times and it drove me nuts!  

[lightningtiger]

Now this would have been an AWESOME brick-built creation if one had brick-built it, besides it's the best SW LDD creation I have ever seen !
Those wings, SNOT all over.....so cool, nice work 'BrickDoctor' and may the Eurobrick be with you always !

[Ceroknight]

Well done Brickdctor!
I really like the use of SNOT on the wings and the back.
Are you planning on making an actual one anytime soon?

[Big Cam]

BrickDoctor I have to say I'm usually not a big fan of LDD stuff, but the way you used such small pieces so there are all the right seams, it looks stunning.  I mean at first glance it almost doesn't look LDD.

Great work.

[Brickdoctor]

M<0><0<DSWIM, on 31 August 2011 - 08:38 PM, said:

I would say the only week parts would be the cannons under the cockpit and the cockpit window itself.  

The cannon would have two trans-red Barraki eyes in real life, and the cockpit window would be printed with the Eta-2 pattern. They don't look as good here.

ceroknight, on 31 August 2011 - 11:58 PM, said:

Are you planning on making an actual one anytime soon?

No. The majority of my grey pieces are already tied up in other MOCs, and I don't plan on buying more anytime soon.

[-R8-]

Wonderful!    Beautiful SNOT work on the wings. It is cool to see the outline of all the individual bricks on the wings, as it gives us a real sense of the complexity and thought that went into designing it. I am curious as to which piece you used for the angled portion of the wing. It must be studded in order to accommodate the attachment of the 1x2/3 light bluish grey tiles.

[Brickdoctor]

-R8-, on 01 September 2011 - 01:04 AM, said:

I am curious as to which piece you used for the angled portion of the wing. It must be studded in order to accommodate the attachment of the 1x2/3 light bluish grey tiles.

This piece. I own a couple physical ones, so the idea to use them this way's been in my head for a while.

[wokajablocka]

I love the smooth looking wings with awsome detailing on the inside frount. Nice solid looking MOC, would love to see it build Doc .

[Fallenangel]

There are a lot of good things going on in this MOC - very nice...

I'll start with what is probably the best part of this MOC - the wings. I really like the tiled border that the SNOT build made possible, and the piece you've used for the angled edges is perfect. The simple solution of hinges work well here, and I can't get over how spot on the detailing on the insides are. Just fantastic.

The wing pylons look great in spite of being studded and really captures the angular look of that area, something I've found difficult to properly execute at this scale. As you said, the back sides aren't exactly the most presentable, but considering how little space you have to work with the wedge bricks are very effective in retaining the shape.

I love how well you've captured the squat, blocky look of the "tail" section and nailed the shape with those cheese slopes. What looks to be traces of a hinge in the back is not only accurate but a fun Easter Egg (BasOne ). The entire hyperdrive area looks really good; the shaping is somewhat off (can't be helped, I guess, due to the sloped bricks available) but the smooth SNOTed look of the region is quite fitting and the gaps are spot on.

Regarding the cockpit - the Lowell Sphere technique works very well here next to the angled wing pylons. The clips you've used to represent the laser cannons aren't too bad actually - they kind of do look like the ball-and-socket joints that are there after all (it's a shame they couldn't be placed higher up - or maybe the bottom just needs a 3x3 inverted dish to be complete... more on this later)

I'm a little surprised that you didn't SNOT the underside as well - limitations are limitations, I suppose...

Overall, a great MOC. There is just one suggestion I would make, though, and it's a pretty big one.

On MOCpages, Brian Tobin said:

One thing that stands out [on the TIE Advanced x1] is the cockpit "ball"...it looks big in comparison to the rest, doesn't it?...

...Well, it is, because the rest of the ship is smaller in proportion to it than LEGO's official version, every custom I've seen, and even every rendition ever sold in any form (except the new Master Replicas version, since they did the sensible thing...modeled it straight off the ILM original, not any other source!

This is really the only thing I would suggest reworking on this MOC. Since the x1 studio model used the same cockpit ball as that of a TIE/ln but was more compact, the cockpit ball ends up looking huge in comparison to the rest of the craft, as evident in shots like this one. When I first saw this MOC, the shape of the main body reminded me of 10175, which suffers from the same problem. This is also apparent when you consider the width of the "tail" of your MOC relative to the diameter of the cockpit ball in comparison to the same ratio on the studio model. I think the issue may have arisen from the fact that you've represented the windshield with a 4-wide dish instead of a 6-wide dish. I'm afraid I can't offer much in the way of technique other than referring you to Gareth's outstanding rendition (I've been wondering whether the ball could be done this way at minifigure scale but haven't had a chance to try it out), but I can tell you that a diameter of around 8 studs would better suit an MOC of this size. Perhaps if you were to do something like this...

[Brickdoctor]

I'm not quite sure what you mean by 'SNOT the underside'.

As for the size, I just sort of made it up as I went along I hadn't seen that shot; I built the sphere to start off, built the back based on what bricks were available, and then added the wings based on the length. And 8-wide Lowell sphere is easy, using Bram's sphere generator, but I want it to stay 6-wide to match the TIE/ln and TIE/in I eventually want to build. I'll have to work on downsizing the rest of it...

[Fallenangel]

Brickdoctor, on 01 September 2011 - 01:50 AM, said:

I'm not quite sure what you mean by 'SNOT the underside'.

You've got the SNOTed cheese along the sides of the tail, so I expected you to have studs facing downwards to allow some more greebling in that area. I'm guessing from the way you've included the brackets that that isn't possible.

[Jedi master Brick]

This is a great Moc and you had me fooled for a second that it was a physical Moc     The snot work is stunning and the canopy looks very interesting too  

[Mr Man]

I love the Wings Brickdoctor. The rest of the MOC is also excellent, does a fig fit inside?

[Brickdoctor]

fallenangel309, on 01 September 2011 - 10:49 AM, said:

You've got the SNOTed cheese along the sides of the tail, so I expected you to have studs facing downwards to allow some more greebling in that area. I'm guessing from the way you've included the brackets that that isn't possible.

Yeah, it wasn't. Not at this scale. The panels I used to outline that area on the top already take up half the available space; which doesn't leave enough space to flip the studs over.

[Hollander]

You did it again Doc, a neat LDD version of the TIE advanced. I spot some lovely SNOT building and some other nice techniques, like the way you did the wings (especially the part where it heads another direction).

[Legostein]

Hello!

This is a great version of Vader's TIE Fighter! It's a very complex LDD construction. I find it sometimes more hard to create something virtually than with real bricks, thus I can imagine your ard efforts to obtain this fighter.

Cheers,

~ Christopher

[Praiter Yed]

It's no small feat creating this in LDD especially for someone with your passion for illegal connections . I think it's fantastic and I like almost every part of it but I do have one pretty major issue ...

I don't know if this is just the way I see it, or whether it's the way LDD renderers it (especially with the 'outlines on bricks' feature activated) but the Lowell sphere doesn't seem to work for me at this scale - all I see is a cube. Another reason could be that with the Tie Advanced a large amount of the sphere is integrated into the hull and wing pylons. Have you built the sphere in real bricks at this scale and does it work? Is it just that the electrical impulses from my eyeballs to my brain are a little off (nobody else has mentioned this so maybe that's the case)?

I sort of feel bad mentioning this, especially because I think the rest of it is absolutely superb. So still a big   from me.

[Brickdoctor]

Praiter Yed, on 01 September 2011 - 08:28 PM, said:

I don't know if this is just the way I see it, or whether it's the way LDD renderers it (especially with the 'outlines on bricks' feature activated) but the Lowell sphere doesn't seem to work for me at this scale - all I see is a cube. Another reason could be that with the Tie Advanced a large amount of the sphere is integrated into the hull and wing pylons. Have you built the sphere in real bricks at this scale and does it work? Is it just that the electrical impulses from my eyeballs to my brain are a little off (nobody else has mentioned this so maybe that's the case)?

After you stare at it long enough, yeah, you will see that. I have built it in real life and it does look good, so I think it's a combination of the two things you mentioned. Plus it's a 5-wide Lowell sphere core, which is one of those sizes where things don't match up too well.

[Fallenangel]

Praiter Yed, on 01 September 2011 - 08:28 PM, said:

I don't know if this is just the way I see it, or whether it's the way LDD renderers it (especially with the 'outlines on bricks' feature activated) but the Lowell sphere doesn't seem to work for me at this scale - all I see is a cube. Another reason could be that with the Tie Advanced a large amount of the sphere is integrated into the hull and wing pylons. Have you built the sphere in real bricks at this scale and does it work? Is it just that the electrical impulses from my eyeballs to my brain are a little off (nobody else has mentioned this so maybe that's the case)?

I think it may be due to the construction of the wing pylons. On the x1 studio model, the pylons form an 'm' where they meet with the cockpit ball to retain the spherical shape (something also in Gareth's x1 and 10175); on the other hand, Brickdoctor is more or less forced at this scale to use 2x4 wing plates and 1x2 tiles for that area, which, when used in conjunction with a cockpit relaint on stacked plates to create the illusion of a sphere, results in the end product looking more square than it would were a different approach taken at a larger scale. This is further amplified by the fact that the cockpit ball on this MOC is smaller than it should be.

[Praiter Yed]

Brickdoctor, on 01 September 2011 - 08:55 PM, said:

After you stare at it long enough, yeah, you will see that. I have built it in real life and it does look good, so I think it's a combination of the two things you mentioned. Plus it's a 5-wide Lowell sphere core, which is one of those sizes where things don't match up too well.

Well if you've built a real one I'll believe you   . I'm sure it is down to the combination of things I mentioned. Largely the LDD lines, I think these cause a very sharply defined edge plus as fallenangel mentions above I think a lot of the sphere shape is lost in the wing pylons so that's another big reason why I'm failing to see a sphere.

If you build another Tie Variant and I still see a cube then maybe I'll need a trip to the opticians   .

[Brickdoctor]

Praiter Yed, on 03 September 2011 - 05:31 PM, said:

If you build another Tie Variant and I still see a cube then maybe I'll need a trip to the opticians   .

I'll build a Bomber next then - it has no spheres in it.