[MOD/MOC] UCS Delta-7 Jedi Starfighter

[Captain_Quinn]

For a few months I've been playing around with redesigning the 10215 UCS Obi-Wan Starfighter (Delta-7 Aethersprite) with a few objectives in mind:

1. Change the colour scheme to match Anakin's Delta-7, as per the Clone Wars animated series... but only in bricks.
2. Improve the canopy to rear cockpit lines so that the curve is smoother and continuous.
3. Have landing gear that can carry the weight of the set
4. Have the option of a droid socket in front of the cockpit. Ideally this would be sized to fit the 30611 R2-D2 polybag build.

As is always the case with a Lego design/build, compromises are made between style, colours, parts availability/count, function, build stability, etc. I've redesigned pretty much every aspect of the original design, with only a few core elements left untouched. The wings, engine shrouds, central hull and cockpit have all been changed extensively.

I've yet to build this in bricks, so I don't know if what I've chosen so far will work. I do know that some of the pieces I've selected aren't available in the colours I want. 

Here's a few test renders. I'd be interested to hear anyones thoughts and feedback on how to improve this. 

[NathanR]

Wow, that's impressive! I really like what you've done with the cockpit, and the landing legs look like sheer genius.  

3 hours ago, Captain_Quinn said:

Have the option of a droid socket in front of the cockpit. Ideally this would be sized to fit the 30611 R2-D2 polybag build.

Hope you already own one... the R2D2 dome, and even the entire poly bag, is becoming quite expensive now.

[sandtrooper]

Looks very good.  Hope you build it with actual bricks.  Would like to add it (at least the Obi-Wan version) to my collection.

[Captain_Quinn]

On 17/10/2017 at 8:06 AM, NathanR said:

Wow, that's impressive! I really like what you've done with the cockpit, and the landing legs look like sheer genius.  

Hope you already own one... the R2D2 dome, and even the entire poly bag, is becoming quite expensive now.

Thanks man. I went through about 5 or 6 ideas for the landing gear before deciding on this design. Ideally they would have slid down/out so that they extend from the wing tip rather than just fold down. I plan to keep tweaking and if need be, I'll probably work a design for functionality, figure out the scale, then design a MOC from scratch at that scale. A bit back-to-front, but it will give me some latitude with scale for the engines, cockpit and internal structure

I've got an R2 polybag on order with a bunch of parts for this build, so hopefully should have one shortly. 

17 hours ago, sandtrooper said:

Looks very good.  Hope you build it with actual bricks.  Would like to add it (at least the Obi-Wan version) to my collection.

Cheers. I'm aiming to, as I'd like to make it part of a display for our local AFOL groups next event. The Obi-Wan original (10215) was the first UCS set I Bricklinked parts to complete. I'd definitely recommend it, especially now that @Anio has designed a UCS scale Eta-2 Interceptor that uses the droid dome. I have to admit that the second I saw his creation, I wanted to either tackle that design challenge myself, or build one of his.

[Ellisss_2]

Hello, Captain_Quinn!

Nice build, I love the shaping of the top section in front of the cockpit. Great job with the colour scheme aswell! 

There is something about the model from the side view that I’m not sure about. I think there are too many plates and bricks at different levels, maybe more snot is needed.

Kind regards, Ellis.

[Captain_Quinn]

Hi Ellis, thanks for the feedback, mate... the challenge in this one was trying to get the shape right, and yeah, there's a lot of plating going on. 

Looking at the side view, I originally thought it might be the position of the landing gear in relation to the length of the ship, but all the images I can find have the landing gear just so. What I'm thinking it may be is that in these shots, the top of the hull is practically horizontal, whereas practically all the canonical sources have the upper hull from cockpit to leading tip as a downward slope with edge of the wings appearing horizontal when viewed from the side.  The other thing it may be is the plating on the side of the cockpit... I'm not sure how I'd go about a SNOT technique for that area. 

[Captain_Quinn]

Ok, so I've been tweaking the design a little... made a few improvements, corrected some mistakes and prototyping certain areas in bricks to see if they function well enough. 

One area that I thought to try improve was the design of engines. In the source material, the engines horizontal midline sits in line with the lower surface of the wings. The 10215 design splits them into the forward cone shaped section (attached directly to the wing) and the engine pod (attached to the hull below the cockpit). At this time I can't think of a better way to design, fit and position them to reproduce the canonical look, so the forward part has a twist compared to the rear. In order to change this, I'll need to redesign the entire wing and how it mounts (which will be a christmas season project, I suspect). For the moment, I thought to improve the rear section of the engines, specifically the engine nozzle.

The simplest way to do this was to replace one of the 60208 Wheels with a 4x4 Round Plate with central hole, and attach a 4742 Hollow Cone with no studs (on the right below). This looks ok in my opinion, but I wanted a little more detail. This is where another compromise is likely going to be made. Of the two designs, the one on the left is visually more appealing. However, in trying to brick-build this I found that the stability isn't real good and the conical appearance isn't possible (the 1x1 modified plate with horizontal clip ends up hitting its neighbour, and annoyingly, the modified tiles are easily bumped and removed). This prompted the middle design, using a 1x2 modified plate with clip. No angling of each is really possible, precluding the possibility of achieving that conical shape. Whilst more stable, and achieving the external look (for the most part), the rear view isn't particularly appealing in my opinion. 

Anyone got any advice on how i could go about achieving this conical shape with the 4x4 restriction, but achieving some stability ?

Edited October 26, 2017 by Captain_Quinn
Updating link to images

[Hold0511]

Sorry I can't see your pics - just a grey no entry sign?  might just be me

[Captain_Quinn]

16 hours ago, Hold0511 said:

Sorry I can't see your pics - just a grey no entry sign?  might just be me

Should be visible now. If not, please let me know.

[Hold0511]

Yup can see them now.  I had the same problem with my UCS Clone Wars Y-wing - I had a bigger and hence more delicate version of your left build.  In the end I went down the middle path - it was easier to shape as the engine is 8x8 v's 4x4 but the same comprimise.  It was easier on the Y-wing as I used slopes and not the gill pieces.

[Captain_Quinn]

A quick "procrastibuild" (building when I should be studying) update.

I did a quick "don't care about colour" prototype build yesterday, and have come up with a few improvements for internal mechanisms (especially around the upper hull in front of the cockpit), as well as testing and improving the rear dome of the cockpit and tail section. I've added a few wedge plates to improve the lines between the wing and hull and moved the rear wing mounts forward to better replicate the multiple curves of the rear section. This was the source image:

And what I've finally come up with...

 

[Captain_MKA]

I really wish that lego would release more UCS Clone Wars ships. I love the model but wasn't R2 in the center in the show? I really do love the touch of the landing gear.

[Hold0511]

2 hours ago, Captain_MKA said:

I really wish that lego would release more UCS Clone Wars ships. I love the model but wasn't R2 in the center in the show? I really do love the touch of the landing gear.

There are two Delta 7 versions, the 7 (droid in wing) and 7B (droid in the centre line) - Lego released both models under the same Jedi Starfighter name - this  of course is the standard Delta 7.  The current release of 75214 is Anakin's Delta 7B

[Captain_Quinn]

I based my design off the UCS Obi-Wan Starfighter, and with the release of the buildable R2-D2, the droid head dome was the perfect choice to do an Anakin's version. The 7B Heavy Variant of the Aethersprite replaced the integrated astromech with a droid socket in front of the cockpit, and the cockpit section is slightly larger and detachable, for use as a lifepod if the ship is destroyed.

Since my original post, I've refined the design, removing the integrated astromech and replacing it with the minifig sized droid head in front of the cockpit, updating the forward landing gear to better handle the weight balance and changed the way that the panels attach in front of the cockpit.

 

[Anio]

Much sleeker design. Well done !
But you really have to go with 86500pb04 R2 piece.

[Captain_Quinn]

I wanted to use the R2 Dome piece, but it's a little too big. The proportions just don't match up for the angles and cockpit, and the top pf the dome extends way too high.

I've thought about how to do a large scale Delta7B that has a droid socket that would fit the R2 buildable figure