Jerac

A wing of A-Wings

Recommended Posts

Hello everybody!

UI0HAjO.png

I am a fan of many Star Wars spaceship designs, and while most of them I consider to be "among my favourite", the classic movie A-Wing permanently occupies the top of the list. This caused me to build this little ship many times in my life, basically since I was able to assemble two bricks together. This build I am showing today is currently the end of the line for plenty of iterations, most importantly the one from 2008 some people here know:

aw001.jpg

 

I still like how it looks, even after all these years, but this build had plenty of issues. First, it was fragile: even on the photo you can see it has stickers wrapped around its wedge. They were needed, as the interior consisted of a mess of flex tubing, minifig arms and similar pieces arranged in a way to hold the cones in exactly proper angle. Which, actually, did not work, so I taped the sides to make "missile launchers". The ship also uses some rare pieces, for example the 30x20 wheels coming from one single set released in 1978 or something, there are no landing gear, I didn't like the front wedge notch being in different angle, and on top of that, I messed up with proportions in some areas.

10 years later, working with BrickVault on instructions, topic of renewing the A-Wing was sure to return, and it did. I hoped it would be a simple renewal of an old concept, but it ended up being totally redone inside, so it still looks like 2008 one, but this time it can be safely picked up. It also has proper missile launchers, even if a bit too far back compared to the original, and foldable landing gear I am really happy with, as it folds seamlessly. Most of the issues with proportions and overall "cleanliness" were also fixed. Surely this is not an ultimate A-Wing but I worked pretty hard to make it as close as possible to such one.

Having the movie ship done was not the end of the story, though, as BrickVault guys really wanted the Rebels' show ships, too. Originally they were supposed to be recolors and not much more, but it looked wrong. Rebels' designs are notorious for making odd alterations to classic designs, and a recolor of base RZ-1 just did not look good enough. So there we go, I though, let's make these few little adjustments to make the Rebels' ship.
Few little adjustments are:
- move the engines a plate or two toward the bottom, because they are not centered horizontally like they are in RZ-1
- remove the notch in front wedge and add that few details required in various colour variants
- make the engines shorter and add the little notches they have around in front and back, while still having similar dimater to the original RZ-1 engines
- make different "center thruster" housing
- make rear body shorter
- make stabilizers smaller overall and wrap up behind engines
- change the fuselage assembly behind the cockpit 
- update the cannon design

...it ended up being half of the ship redone, eh, but I believe it was worth it!

The ships are done in several variants:

GO3fExA.png

K72CTgI.png

kP767xr.png

 

W1rSfoC.png

kelX9VE.png

xPmJZ9x.png

G3vscV0.png

nAuQSTT.png

 

Instructions for this design are available at brickvault.toys, and a little summary and showcase of some features is available here:

Thanks for watching and tell me what you think!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

AWESOME! :D I just wondered yesterday why the A-wings are being left out. Can't wait to buy the instructions and build 'em.

Edited by danielwerner

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
10 hours ago, danielwerner said:

AWESOME! :D I just wondered yesterday why the A-wings are being left out. Can't wait to buy the instructions and build 'em.

Thanks!

Because BV guys insisted on the rebels' ones and I insisted on making them true to the show, not just a recolor of rz-1. It was much bigger change than I anticipated and took a while, even though I took a shortcut and just rendered few of them instead of actually building.

Edited by Jerac

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
On 11/23/2018 at 9:15 AM, Jerac said:

Thanks!

Because BV guys insisted on the rebels' ones and I insisted on making them true to the show, not just a recolor of rz-1. It was much bigger change than I anticipated and took a while, even though I took a shortcut and just rendered few of them instead of actually building.

I've bought them and can only say: Great work, as always! I was actually just collecting parts to build the Krispy A-Wing (which also is very well made), but this has perfected the design in every way. Scapped my plans and now building one RZ-1 in dark red (the classic, a must have) and one R22 in the inverted blue (was hard deciding on the color there).

The ONLY negative aspect is that horizontal 1x1-clips don't exist in dark red. I'm actually thinking of paining (blasphemy, I know) a few with Khorne red Citadel paint which would come pretty close in terms of color. It's no big deal at all, just a shame, but I understand there was no other feasible way to solve it. :)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

And I missed that? Hm, in the parts list I supplied BV with the clips are reddish brown, as are 1x3 inverted slopes. Could you please check if you have these two pieces in reddish brown? We might have a deployment issues, thanks for catching it!

Obviously I am happy that you are happy with the design, too!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
11 minutes ago, Jerac said:

And I missed that? Hm, in the parts list I supplied BV with the clips are reddish brown, as are 1x3 inverted slopes. Could you please check if you have these two pieces in reddish brown? We might have a deployment issues, thanks for catching it!

Obviously I am happy that you are happy with the design, too!

In the parts list the inverted 3x1 slopes are in dark red, which is fine since they exist (but are rare). However, the horizontal clips only exist in reddish brown (or red, but that's even further away from the dark red tint). For most that's probably fine, but it just bugs me too much so I feel I either have to paint them or find some way to solve it with other pieces. :) So I don't mean there was any errors in the parts list, only that I personally feel I can't use reddish brown there.

Edited by danielwerner

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

You really are one of the best Star Wars builders I know of, and this A-wing is an example of that. I was familiar with your earlier version from 2008 and always considered this the best A-wing out there, mostly because you nailed the round shapes of the hull so damn well. The fact that you improved your older version shows a lot of skill, I like the fact that you made your new version without the black sticker the most. It looks better now and more realistic I think. I assume this took you a lot of time and frustration, to get your A-wing where it is now, but the result is indeed amazing. Would love to see more creations of you in the future! So let me ask you right away, have you got any plans for new projects so far? 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

My dream would be to get my hands on the instructions (or at least the Studio-files) for the Starcraft Battlecruiser, and the Warcraft 2 Dreadnought (both featured on Flickr). Always loved Blizzard games, so that would the best thing ever.

On topIc: Which color variations do you like the most, fellow builders? I'm really not sure if I like the rugged or clean dark red A-wing the best. And with the R22 I like all equally much.

Edited by danielwerner

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
15 hours ago, danielwerner said:

My dream would be to get my hands on the instructions (or at least the Studio-files) for the Starcraft Battlecruiser, and the Warcraft 2 Dreadnought (both featured on Flickr). Always loved Blizzard games, so that would the best thing ever.

On topIc: Which color variations do you like the most, fellow builders? I'm really not sure if I like the rugged or clean dark red A-wing the best. And with the R22 I like all equally much.

I like the blue and green version the most. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

@Jerac Did you go full time? :D I can't keep up with your pace of putting out models, each of which looks like hundreds of manhours :D Extremely impressive!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
2 hours ago, Kristof said:

@Jerac Did you go full time? :D I can't keep up with your pace of putting out models, each of which looks like hundreds of manhours :D Extremely impressive!

No, but I was considering this. Seriously. 
For now I want to release one more model in 2018 to wrap it up nicely and it seems it is possible!

Thanks everyone for support!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
5 hours ago, Jerac said:

No, but I was considering this. Seriously.

Yeah, the question wasn't even meant as a joke either :D It seems like you could be one of those guys.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
39 minutes ago, Kristof said:

Yeah, the question wasn't even meant as a joke either :D It seems like you could be one of those guys.

One of these? Is anybody living off making instructions?
I can't be an official LEGO designer after I, uh, slightly messed up the interview and made myself some enemies there, ah the joys of being young and stupid :D
 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
32 minutes ago, Jerac said:

One of these? Is anybody living off making instructions?
I can't be an official LEGO designer after I, uh, slightly messed up the interview and made myself some enemies there, ah the joys of being young and stupid :D
 

Now there's a story I'd like to hear. ^^ Anyway, I think I prefer your own works, since if you worked for LEGO you would have to make a lot of sacrifices in terms of piece count, playability, build-difficulty, retail price, etc etc etc. The only thing I care about when it comes to MOCs are design accuracy and robustness of the final build. :)

*cough* please do a Starcraft Battlecruiser next *cough*

Edited by danielwerner

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
On 11/24/2018 at 4:36 PM, danielwerner said:

My dream would be to get my hands on the instructions (or at least the Studio-files) for the Starcraft Battlecruiser, and the Warcraft 2 Dreadnought (both featured on Flickr). Always loved Blizzard games, so that would the best thing ever.

On topIc: Which color variations do you like the most, fellow builders? I'm really not sure if I like the rugged or clean dark red A-wing the best. And with the R22 I like all equally much.

the dreadnaught and battlecruiser are my favorite too.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
11 hours ago, Jerac said:

One of these? Is anybody living off making instructions?

Yeah, that was slightly hyperbolic :blush: I don't know anyone who would make living just purely of of making instructions. But instructions and some commissioned models maybe? :D And sure enough I join Daniel in the interest in the backstory!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I just finished building the green version of the R22 and I must say the building experience blew me away. The design is extremly ingenious and I had several moments where I had a big dumb smile on my face when putting sub assemblies into place. Kudos to you Jerac! Had to substitite some parts forthe time beeing because I am still waiting on that last BL-order.

I have some questions I would be glad to have answered.

On the pictures in the thread I saw that you used yellow clips to hold the black pieces in the cannon bay of the dark green version, in the instrictions the clips are just grey. I looked but couldn‘t find pictures of the source material to help medecide which color is more accurate. Can you tell me anything about that choice?

There is a step in the intsructions where it shows two black minifig screwdrivers, I can‘t for the life of me figure out where they should go. 

Lastly I had a bit of trouble placing a minifig with this helmet on. Only could make it fit comforttably, when removing the headrest 1x2 tile. Did I miss somerhing or ist it just a thight fit.

 

Thanks again for designing that awesome model. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

 

Quote

Thanks again for designing that awesome model. 

Thanks! 
Sorry for the helmet. I just give up. Whatever I do, it is always not enough space for the helmets. I keep adding more space, A-Wings having easily most roomy interiors of all my ships and this just is not f**king enough! Apparently I need to give up and start buying sets, eh, to know the new parts better, especially on minifigs, which simply never bothered me.

As for screwdrivers, do you got instructions with arrows pointing them out? If not, ask BrickVault to send you an update. I marked where they should go. It is hard to describe with words but I will try anyway... so you have these side sections with missile launchers, right? When you attach them, they wobble a bit left to right. The screwdrivers go vertically to the little space which is in their rearmost part, to secure the sections in place. These screwdrivers are not attached "in system", they just slide in and that's that. 

Clips issue: Those are missile bays btw ^^
The clips shoud be black. But then whey they are black, they are visible from the bottom and form an ugly stripe, which is why I made them grey. This way they flush on the bottom and are not that ugly in the missile bays. In my photo model they are yellow just because the ship has few splashes of yellow already, and it just looks right. I still believe yellow looks best, but most accurate is LBG.

Edited by Jerac

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Any thoughts about how to make a sturdy and secure stand for these A-wings? Or do you already have one you could share? :) I myself am a total MOC-newbie and found I'm incapable on creating one myself. Would love to display mine in some way but not sure how.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
59 minutes ago, danielwerner said:

Any thoughts about how to make a sturdy and secure stand for these A-wings? Or do you already have one you could share? :) I myself am a total MOC-newbie and found I'm incapable on creating one myself. Would love to display mine in some way but not sure how.

Hmmm I just used the one for X-Wing - except for the axle. Just take the axle away.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
On 12/24/2018 at 10:19 AM, Jerac said:

 

Thanks! 
Sorry for the helmet. I just give up. Whatever I do, it is always not enough space for the helmets. I keep adding more space, A-Wings having easily most roomy interiors of all my ships and this just is not f**king enough! Apparently I need to give up and start buying sets, eh, to know the new parts better, especially on minifigs, which simply never bothered me.

As for screwdrivers, do you got instructions with arrows pointing them out? If not, ask BrickVault to send you an update. I marked where they should go. It is hard to describe with words but I will try anyway... so you have these side sections with missile launchers, right? When you attach them, they wobble a bit left to right. The screwdrivers go vertically to the little space which is in their rearmost part, to secure the sections in place. These screwdrivers are not attached "in system", they just slide in and that's that. 

Clips issue: Those are missile bays btw ^^
The clips shoud be black. But then whey they are black, they are visible from the bottom and form an ugly stripe, which is why I made them grey. This way they flush on the bottom and are not that ugly in the missile bays. In my photo model they are yellow just because the ship has few splashes of yellow already, and it just looks right. I still believe yellow looks best, but most accurate is LBG.

I feel you when it comes to helmets. Seems to be the number one "complaint" you get. I got it to fit, just need to raise the minifigs arms a bit more or remove the headrest like I said.

Got the screwdriver placement from your description. Another ingeniious technique.

I finally managed to take some photos of the finished model. I went ahead and voided my warranty though, because the landing gear (especially the front one) bothered me a bit. When I changed that I had to change the rear one aswell, so I went ahead and remodelled the rear bottomsection, the cockpit and changed a few markings on the top.

45963105404_927158c611_o.jpg

45963105684_b4abf82be7_o.jpg

45963105214_9e3e07917b_o.jpg

Gonna built the Tie Advanced next ;) Parts are ordered.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    No registered users viewing this page.