[MOCs] The Workhorse and the Racehorse of the Rebel Fleet

[DarthTwoShedsJackson]

After playing the good old X-wing and Tie fighter series of videogames in my rare spare time lately, I had the urge to build my favorite tag-team of the Rebel Alliance: The Y-wing to deliver a huge punch to large targets, and the A-wing to clear the path for the Y-wing towards the target.

I already had a good base to start with for the A-wing with my McQuarrie A-wing prototype, but I improved and modified the build once more. First of all, I made the sides smoother and the angle of the sides more accurate by getting rid of the slope bricks, and using a straight assembly of tiles mounted on a hinge instead. Here I also applied a sticker - something I normally don't do - but in this case it looks much better with the long dark sticker on the front two thirds of the sides to represent the dark gap in the fuselage for the torpedo- or missile-launchers. Also, it's an official sticker from Lego originally used for the canopy of an older A-wing set. I also made the fuselage in front of the engines one stud shorter, and the part of the fuselage in-between the engines one stud longer - both of which required a re-engineering of the internal structure, mainly for sturdiness. I also brick-built the engines differently to the official set in the recent wave, and also made them one stud longer. This gave me the right proportions compared to the studio model used in Return of the Jedi. The engines are also angled less than those of the McQuarrie prototype-version in order to give the fins the correct angle.

 

With the Y-wing I basically had to start from scratch, which initially required some sketch-building mainly to get a grasp of the correct proportions of the engines and the cockpit sections and to get the size correct for minifig scale. As with the A-wing, I also wanted to SNOT-built it with studs-up in all 6 directions, and give it accurate greebling and detail as much as possible. I quickly realized that it was important to get the contrast between the smooth elegant cockpit and front sections of the engines and the cluttered, mechanical fuselage right. I also aimed for retractable landing gear, so that I can display it in landed mode or flight mode along with my A-wing.

 

What can I say? I'm pretty happy with how both have turned out, and building the Y-wing with all the greebling was lots of fun. Both are sturdy - something which was particularly important with the Y-wing because the engines are heavy, as is the rest of the model, which is why the flat wide struts that connect the engines to the fuselage have their core built right into the inner structure of the engines and the fuselage, resulting in a very solid connection which prevents the struts from bending at all under all the weight - neither in landed nor in flight mode - and the engines not wobbling at all.

 

Feel free to comment, and tell me what you think. Happy building!

 

[Moppo]

They're perfect. I don't think I've ever seen such an accurate Lego A-Wing before. 

[Littleworlds]

Two beauties! I always liked the look of the Y-Wing with its no frills (but lots of greebling!) approach. Very well done representation. The A-Wing - what can I say: its the space-counterpart of a race-car and you got it perfectly! Clean and smooth. Just like made for darting around. Superb builds! 

[brickmasterben11]

That Y-Wing is a beauty! It's very proportionate and puts 75172 to shame!

[xboxtravis7992]

Beautiful work on the two! 

[AntocMerrick]

One of the best A-Wings i've ever seen! (Y Wing looks great too BTW :)

It may be inappropriate to ask about it in this thread, but how is your progress on a U-Wing you've made couple of months ago?

[Ellisss_2]

Hello, @DarthTwoShedsJackson!

Amazing job on the rebel craft; they look beaut great job!

The underside of the A-Wing is fantastic, I love how very few studs and brick undersides are showing! The accuracy of the A-Wing for it's size is unbelievable. 

I am loving the Y-Wing greebling, you have captured it excellently!

Kind regards, Ellis.

[Leonardo da Bricki]

These are excellent models, well done!  I personally like the Y-wing the most, WAY better than Lego's version. How did you build the engine nacelles?

Edited March 14, 2017 by Leonardo da Bricki
Missing word

[Inthert]

That's one nice looking Y-wing! Really like those engines. Using tiles on their sides in-between the sloped wedges for the A-wing makes of a nice profile, not too thick, not too thin.

[DarthTwoShedsJackson]

Oh, thanks to all of you for the kind words - I'm glad you like the models! I have only so much time for LEGO, even though I love the whole process of coming up with and building and later improving a MOC. The reason for this is not work or family, but having several creative and time-consuming hobbies (converting and painting miniatures for wargames on competition level, for example...)

 

3 hours ago, AntocMerrick said:

One of the best A-Wings i've ever seen! (Y Wing looks great too BTW :)

It may be inappropriate to ask about it in this thread, but how is your progress on a U-Wing you've made couple of months ago?

 

First of all: Thanks to you, too!

Secondly: The U-wing, it seems, will start to haunt my dreams. To be honest with you: I started to disassemble my U-wing MOC in order to take photographs of the build. Then I realized two things: I could build some elemets and sub-assemblies more efficiently, and instead of spending a lot of time taking photographs, I'd rather build something - the result of which ended up in this thread. However, I plan on eventually building a slightly bigger U-wing in the future, so we'll see.

 

42 minutes ago, Leonardo da Bricki said:

These are excellent models, well done!  I personally like the Y-wing the most, WAY better than Lego's version. How did you build the engine nacelles?

Sturdy! No, in all seriousness, the build of the nacelles is pretty straight-forward, nothing fancy here:

I guess this should give you more than a clue.

Edited March 14, 2017 by DarthTwoShedsJackson

[Leonardo da Bricki]

Just now, DarthTwoShedsJackson said:

Sturdy! No, in all seriousness, the build of the nacelles is pretty straight-forward, nothing fancy here:

I guess this should give you more than a clue.

Thanks, I wasn't sure how the angled portions were attached.

[mrcngrck]

love this small side windows in the a-wing. so clever

[AntocMerrick]

2 hours ago, DarthTwoShedsJackson said:

Oh, thanks to all of you for the kind words - I'm glad you like the models! I have only so much time for LEGO, even though I love the whole process of coming up with and building and later improving a MOC. The reason for this is not work or family, but having several creative and time-consuming hobbies (converting and painting miniatures for wargames on competition level, for example...)

 

 

First of all: Thanks to you, too!

Secondly: The U-wing, it seems, will start to haunt my dreams. To be honest with you: I started to disassemble my U-wing MOC in order to take photographs of the build. Then I realized two things: I could build some elemets and sub-assemblies more efficiently, and instead of spending a lot of time taking photographs, I'd rather build something - the result of which ended up in this thread. However, I plan on eventually building a slightly bigger U-wing in the future, so we'll see.

 

Sturdy! No, in all seriousness, the build of the nacelles is pretty straight-forward, nothing fancy here:

 

I guess this should give you more than a clue.

Ahh, got it. Nothing bad though, same thing happened to me a lot of times :)

I just wanted to find a way to modify my U-Wing to fit 2 pilots without diassembling it much.

BTW ,your Ghost MOC inspired me to modify my set , so I have to thank you for inspiring me!

 

Edited March 14, 2017 by AntocMerrick

[RogueTwo]

These are some phenomenal MOCs.  The Rebel "alphabet" fighters have always been my favorite, and these creations do them proud.  I LOVE how you made the landing gear on the A-Wing, while still keeping the perfect dark red coloring.  I was struggling to modify 75075 in such a way, but honestly, that set is so flawed that I should probably make one from scratch.  Also, that Y-Wing is suberb; the nacelles have always been severely undersized on the official LEGO sets.

Also, @AntocMerrick, Good to finally have Blue Leader on Eurobricks.  

[TWP]

Ooh, these are very nice TwoShedsJackson! I particulary enjoy the look of that Y-wing, it has some very neat design elements I haven't seen on one before!

[broesl]

Really great MOCs!
At first I thought the engines were a little bit too big compared to the rest of the craft but after looking at some pictures of the Y-Wing, I think your version has better proportions then the official sets. Especially the axles look too big on the official sets smaller engines.
I also think your A-Wing is my favorite yet. It's very impressive how you combined the even width of the rear section with the uneven front section.

Is it connected with pins?

Edited March 14, 2017 by broesl

[Umbra-Manis]

Great pair of craft here!

[darththeling]

The underside of the A Wing and the rounded tips of the Y Wings are brilliant. Inspired and inspiring builds, DarthTwoShedsJackson!

[DarthTwoShedsJackson]

Many thanks again, guys!

 

10 hours ago, broesl said:

I also think your A-Wing is my favorite yet. It's very impressive how you combined the even width of the rear section with the uneven front section.

Is it connected with pins?

A pin conection would have been clever, but there's just no space for the technic bricks with holes required for this. Instead, the internal structure is held together by staggered 1xX-plates, which also tie together the frame of bricks with studs on three sides and onto which the slopes are mounted. Instead, the connection is achieved through jumper plates. Here's a link to a photographic instructions of how to build my McQuarrie prototype A-wing, on which this latest version is based. This should give you an idea.

 

[AntocMerrick]

19 hours ago, RogueTwo said:

These are some phenomenal MOCs.  The Rebel "alphabet" fighters have always been my favorite, and these creations do them proud.  I LOVE how you made the landing gear on the A-Wing, while still keeping the perfect dark red coloring.  I was struggling to modify 75075 in such a way, but honestly, that set is so flawed that I should probably make one from scratch.  Also, that Y-Wing is suberb; the nacelles have always been severely undersized on the official LEGO sets.

Also, @AntocMerrick, Good to finally have Blue Leader on Eurobricks.  

Thanks !:)

I didn't plan to join these forums (after being part of a Star Wars Battlefront community), but some beautiful MOC's here have changed my mind.

[TheBear]

Great job on both of them

[PaulPrime]

Sir, that is the most beautiful Workhorse I have ever seen. I am almost tempted to try to replicate it. In your expert opinion, does it worth the cost to purchase the latest one from TLG and mod it, or shuld I go directly to the secondary market?

Edited March 15, 2017 by PaulPrime

[Kodan Black]

Both are just awesome. Love how sleek that A-wing is! Looks so speedy. The Y-wing looks appropriately industrial and workhorse with a great amount of detailing and greebling!

[roadstermatt]

great work with both ships

 

you have sorted one of my biggest bus with the y-wing the position of the astromech

[ChiefPie]

Great job with the builds! 

(Post 1,000 yay)