Minifig Scale U-wing

[Ablyss]

Hello everyone,

First post on this forum, even if I follow it since a while.

So, that's my first real MOC, a minifig scale U-wing.

There are some people having done a U-wing since the release of Rogue One. For mine, I try to keep the original proportions right in length, width and height, using the scale 3 stud = 1 meter. The size of the whole ship is about 63cm long, 18cm wide and 7cm high.

I think this ship is difficult to realise in minifig scale, because of shape, the windscreens, the slide doors and the interior. There is not so much space to put solid structure elements around the cockpit.

I choose to keep some technics and esthetic choices from the original Lego set, as for the wings, the doors and the reactors, even if this ones are to thin compare to the original ship.

 

For reasons of solidity, I linked the reactors of each side together. Without this, the reactors bent too much.

 

I use the same technic than in the Lego set for the doors, but I had a transclear element to be fair to the moovie. 

 

The inside. I improvise a little for the shape of bench but i tried to make it not too bulky.

 

The front. I used plates for this part of the hull for a better realism, but this technic could not be apply on the rest of the ship because of a lack of space and solidity.

 

Ten fat minifig can stand on or sit in the cockpit.

 

I used the same element the Lego to link the wing along the main hull. Because of the weigh of this wings, the light grey elements at right help a lot to sustain it.

I also hide landing gear in the wing but I didn't any way to add one in the rear of the ship.

You can see more in my flickr gallery:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/152467379@N08/

 

 

Tell me what do you think of this. 

Ablyss

 

 

Edited March 1, 2017 by Ablyss

[jamiejme]

Looks really good, a lot better than Legos. However, I think you've ended up with the wings looking a bit too 'straight'...other than that it's very good

[Ablyss]

Thanks.

I know for the wings, but I wanted to do something "regular", clean. On the original ship, the slight angle of the wings begin at the level of the front hull. To do that, we'll need a plate with a 1 for 12 angle, but we don't have a such element.

[Ellisss_2]

Hello, Ablyss! Welcome to the forums!

This looks great for your first MOC, I love how the whole top section is removed to access the interior, great idea!

I would, however, agree with jamiejme the wings are not the correct shape. They should curve further down the wing's ridge, your wings are too straight, the wing curve should actually stop just after the start of the cockpit. 

Kind regards, Ellis.

[neueruse]

Nice work. Really love the improvements to the cockpit and bay area.

So you're using the same windscreen for the top and bottom? I'd be interested in seeing how you built out the main structure in the middle of the ship and how it differs from the stock model. How many additional parts did you use besides those that came with 75155?

[Ablyss]

There is no much choices for the windscreens, so yes, I used the same for the top and the bottom. It was a little bit challenging for the upper one to built the hull around it.

Lego used technic beams to link the passenger area to the upper hull, and put this beams in the axis of the ship. This fixation wasn't possible to make something fair. So I use angular plates (see the following picture) and plates that I link to the technic brick of the structure or to other angular plates. It's complicated to explain but that's the basis of the technic, it enables to respect the thin hull and even give slight curve to it with special parts. The result is solid enough I think.

 

I don't remember how many parts I use back from the set but it should be around 200, the whole ship has about 900 parts.

[roadstermatt]

nice work there I think I will be revisiting mine

[Aethersprite]

Fantastic. This is the best mod/MOC of the U-Wing that I've encountered so far! I love the interior space; if only Lego's official set were as good as yours. 

[aukevin]

Very good.  Getting two people in the cockpit is exactly what this ship needed.

[Ablyss]

Thanks for your comments. And sorry for the redaction of the first post. I saw a lot of mistakes, that my english level doesn't explain. I think i was tired when I wrote it.

i understand that some people are disappointed when the see the Lego U-wing, even if it still a good Lego set. This ship is really important in RO and iconic yet, you just have to see how many MOCs and mods have been done since the release of the moovie. So Lego could have done a better and a bigger ship. After its shape, the most interesting thing of the U-wing is its passenger and cockpit area, that the Lego designers clearly missed. My ship proves that something better in shape and play features was afordable with about a thousand parts. Of course several things should be modified on my MOC to make a set with. For example, the ship is unbalance with open wings mode. (I juste checked it, the wingspan is 90cm), and, most important, I didn't integrate spring-load missiles. 

If some people are interested, I'll be happy to share the LDD file in private message.

[AntocMerrick]

Wow, i really like your MOC!

Definitely makes me want to modify mine

Do you plan to post an LDD file ?

 

[Hell_Hawk_33]

Nice. Love what you did for the cockpit and interior.

[roadstermatt]

looks good

[Ablyss]

Thanks.

Recently I think that the lower canopy could be improve using a 6 bricks height window frame with glass, to put neons on sides. But in my opinion, if it will be more fair, it will be difficult to have a good and smooth rendering.I remind that I hate stickers, even more on big and expensive part.

[AntocMerrick]

8 hours ago, Ablyss said:

Thanks.

Recently I think that the lower canopy could be improve using a 6 bricks height window frame with glass, to put neons on sides. But in my opinion, if it will be more fair, it will be difficult to have a good and smooth rendering.I remind that I hate stickers, even more on big and expensive part.

Coincidence or not, but I modified mine just like you said (using transparent glass pieces)

I used the bottom windscreen for canopy , which forced me to build the  a new one myself given the lack of needed pieces.

[Ablyss]

18 hours ago, AntocMerrick said:

Coincidence or not, but I modified mine just like you said (using transparent glass pieces)

If you manage to have a good result, don't hesitate to post pictures.

[AntocMerrick]

On 9 апреля 2017 г. at 7:12 PM, Ablyss said:

If you manage to have a good result, don't hesitate to post pictures.

Well, i don't know if i can call it a good result, but here it is anyway..

 

I used the attachment method similar to the official set , plus a non-lego gray double-sided piece

Sorry for the pics quality and background, i had to use an editor to resize the images ?

[Ablyss]

1 hour ago, AntocMerrick said:

Well, i don't know if i can call it a good result, but here it is anyway

It's on the way . The second picture is indicative. It's far more realistic than the canopy (and easy) option, and the rendering is on the line of the lower hull.

The most difficult in the brickbuilt option is to do the triangular windows on each side. Their shape is really hard to reproduce, there is no much space to build them and attach them. Maybe most of people don't care of these stupid side windows but I'm perfectionist.

[AntocMerrick]

47 minutes ago, Ablyss said:

It's on the way . The second picture is indicative. It's far more realistic than the canopy (and easy) option, and the rendering is on the line of the lower hull.

The most difficult in the brickbuilt option is to do the triangular windows on each side. Their shape is really hard to reproduce, there is no much space to build them and attach them. Maybe most of people don't care of these stupid side windows but I'm perfectionist.

Yeah, i agree about the triangular side windows. Perhaps i could try sticking black studless pieces to the grey ones on the sides.

I still have no idea how i'm gonna do it but i hope i'll find a way (i hope you too will figure out how to accomplish this ?)

 

[Star wars lego guy]

Great, great job there, mate! For the wings I used a hinge piece with 1x_ flat piece to create just the angle I wanted. Hope that helped, great job!

[WizardSleeve]

looks awesome

 

[jameseilers]

Look good, and the proportions for the fuselage are spot on. For the wings going with a SNOT method might give you a better shape or you could try the 4x9 wing pieces (https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=2413#T=C)