StealthX

[captaintau]

I thoroughly enjoyed the New Jedi Order and am currently awaiting the latest installment of the Legacy of the Force series.

I'm rubbish at MOCing, but wanted to do something.

So I decided to create a StealthX. It's taken me from early December until a week ago to complete. It'll probably be an ongoing project anyway. Although it's "finished" now, there are still a couple of things that I'm not completely happy with.

I'll do this in segments since I have a lot of photo's of the overall progress, including first build, first major mod and minifigs.

What I did to begin with was take the X-Wing on Hoth and BrickLink parts in alternative colours. Anything white became black, red became dark bley and tan became light bley. Bley stayed bley. This was stage 1. Photo's:

Front

Side

Top

As you can see, it's not really black enough. Still, this was a successful conclusion to stage 1. In hindsite, I wasted a lot of money on this stage. I should have gone more black right from the beginning.

Stage 2 to follow another day

[No_Name]

I for one *wub* that ship and I wanted to make one but I don't have the X-wing :'-( . Any way Amazing just make it blacker and *y* *y* I also love that book series and I'm on Sacrifice

[JimBee]

sweet! *sweet* i really like the color choice! X-D

Edited February 18, 2008 by JimButcher

[iamded]

Nice! It looks great in black, I reckon stage 2 will look awesome too! *y*

~Peace

[aayla-secura]

Wow! I never have seen before CT a pic posting X-D

Its a nice moc! The black makes it really cool! *y*

[captaintau]

Yes, you are all correct, it's not black enough. That will come in stage 2. Sorry for posting this in several bits, but with the photo' size, my skills and my dial-up connection, it makes sense. I think it also tells a story.

Now, it was at this point of the project that I completed my primary minifig: Jaina Solo. This, I'm really quite proud of

What we're got is

- A Y-Wing pilot's body

- Princess Leia's head, which makes sense since Jaina is the daughter of Leia. I wasn't worry about yellow or Fleshtone. It was Fleshtone that came up on BrickLink and I think it works

- A white rebel pilot's helmet with no pattern

- Some brown hair with briad that I stumbled upon that definately reflects her look on the covers of the nevels

- A Chrome Lightsaber hilt

- A purple lightsaber blade

I'm still trying to BrickLink a black helmet to go with the black StealthX

[Asuka]

Your Jaina

[Ras 74]

Looks interesting Cap!

Do you got a reference picture?

I

[captaintau]

I don't think there is a reference picture, just descriptions in the books and on the Wookieepedia.

Essentially a StealthX is an X-wing but BLACK, a little shorter and with specific upgrades such as an increased sensor package in the nose and carrying shadow bombs (no propulsion method other than the Force, so truly "shadow")

This brings us nicely on stage 2

In stage 2, I made LOTS of modifications and attempted lots more that didn't work out. Along the way, I gradulally replaced more and more parts with black. I didn't go 100% black from the outset as I though that splashes of bley would highlight the black and the shape and angles of the StealthX.

The biggest changes were reducing the size slightly. The Stage 2 StealthX is one stud lower (by changing the landing gear), one stud narrower on each wing and one stud shorter in the nose. Because the nose is angled, I think that this means that it's actually less than one complete stud shorter, but the point remains.

First photo' is of the front. You can see

- The sensor package on the nose

- smaller wings at the nose to brak up the shape. I've used some artistic licence here, since I figure the StealthX will have angles like a real-life Stealth bomber

- the use of 1x1x2/3 tile/slopes to smoothen out the shape

Second photo': the side. Here you can see

- The R9 series astromech, which I'll come to later

- The Astromech socket, which I'm particularly proud. I'm gonna take more photo's of it since the ones I've take so far are rubbish

- The photon torpedoes. This is what I really want to fix, but can't think how. I've tried several things but nothing's worked so far. I'm open to suggestions

- Mods to the rear of the weapons and change of thruster colour as the StealthX uses a unique fuel

- How mmuch work I've done to the sides of the cockpit and the fuselage behind it. I've used off-center plate placement ont he 1x4 bricks-with-side-studs to raise the slope pieces by half a stud! Lot of work with a tiny bit of movement, but I think a far smoother end look.

- The bricks behind this (1x2 grilled bricks) have been removed to drop the sides by one stud for mods on the top without increasing the height. This has meant I've been able to put in handgrips for minfigs or droids. Again, it enhances the shape

- A shadow bomb, which I'll come to later

Next photo': the top

- Everything above, from a better view

- Also the back. I've replaced the cog with what I feel is a better handle using some technic parts

- Since the photo' was taken, the binoculars on the nose have been taken away

The rear:

And finally, a different view of the front:

[Asuka]

Now it really starts to look very cool! *y*

I especially like that distinct nose and the heavier look of your laser cannons.

Perhaps it would be good to use a tripod or something like that to support your camera,

black is really not that easy for taking pictures.... :'-(

[Ras 74]

Now it starts to look really bad.

Just wonder what you use to take the pics?

Would be nice to see more crispier photos of all the details.

-Ras-

[captaintau]

Yeah, I'm not much of a photographer. My room has poor lighting. Black is difficult to photograph. The final pic's (which I'll probably post on Thursday rather than tomorrow night due to teaching) need re-taking as I can't see anything on them!

In the meantime, the latest installment.

The R9-series astromech was a challenge. Someone on here suggested using the black astromech. Good idea in principle, but then hwo do you tell an R9-series from the R2-series? I used pictures from the New Essential Guide to Droids to guide me. This is what I ultimately came up with. I am very pleased with it, actually.

The Shadow Bombs. I knew what I wanted to do here from the outset. The plan worked. On these, simplicity is key. They're nothing more than black thruster pieces lined up the "claw" of a black Lightsaber hilt. Simple as that. The relative rarity of black Lightsaber hilts made this the most expensive part of the build, though.

[captaintau]

Final StealthX pic's for now.

The final mod that I made, I am particularly proud of.

I noted that the Astromech was exposed and we've seen a few destroyed in the films. Plus, being white, it tends to stand out amongst the black StealthX. Looking down, there's also a lot of free space. So, I created a socket closure. Just two arms relying on two lots of 2x1 plates with stutter-hinges. Simple.

Here it is closed

Here it is open:

Here's the mechanism in isolation:

And finally, I had a spare Astromech head, so I created a maintainance droid thing:

[Asuka]

That socket closure mechanism rocks, captain, and that maintainance droid looks pretty good too! Black Beauty on! *y*