Benegiser

[MOD, MOCs] 2nd Gen Rebel Squadron Circa 0 BBY

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Hello all! One of my projects for the last couple of months has been recreating the wide variety of Rebel Fighters which were involved before and during the Battle of Yavin (as well as a ship or two from my own headcanon). And now, I have at least enough to confidently share a few of these things with the folks of EB. Keep in mind, my goal is not accuracy to the real ships but rather accuracy to the style of LEGO playsets from 2004 to 2007. While these ships do occasionally make use of pieces from beyond this time, my primary goal was to retain the LEGO look from around this time while also including the main color and shape features from the real ships. This was made possible thanks to some incredible MOCs, which I will credit as they appear. Let me know if you'd like closer shots of any of the models, and feel free to give me any pointers or suggestions. :)

To start with, the surviving members of Red Squadron:
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Red Two and Red Five are primarily based on their retail counterparts (from sets 6212), with the colors altered to reflect their film appearances ever-so-slightly. For example, the solid red stripe on Red Two as opposed to the broken one on Red Five, and a few general differences in details. The studio models all had little differences between them, and LEGO makes that easier to achieve. 

Next, the surviving member of Gold Squadron (and friend):
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While the basis of this model is (obviously) the 7658 Y-Wing, I was mainly inspired to color-match it to the 10134 UCS set and remove the rather lackluster (IMO) play features. This included swapping out many parts and adding quite a bit of additional greebling, particularly on the back (where the play features interfered with detail the most). As well as the "standard" version, I also created a version with a great deal of different greebling and coloring to represent the legendary "Red Jammer" studio model. Instead of a member of Red Squadron, this tricked-out version in my mind belongs to Princess Leia. 

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Here you can not only see some of the difference in details, but also a peak at my Blue Leader model-- again, based on the legendary prototype studio model, this time representing the elusive Blue Squadron. Like how the studio model eventually became Red Two, the two models also share many details, but with colors again switched to represent the studio model better. 

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These representatives of Green Squadron (Green Leader, Green Three and Green Five) take their inspiration from a variety of sources. Rebels, various fan-models, and some other fan resources. Once again I tried to give them some individual identity with use of different colors and switched-out greebling, especially evident on the differences between Green Leader and Green Three. 
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These two R-22 Spearheads (belonging to Red and Blue Squadron) are primarily based on 6207, but with a few notable changes to bring them in line with the commonly-agreed Spearhead look, mainly concerning the afterburners and the side cannons. When (eventually) I build these, Blue Six will get some decals to represent the detailing from Ralph McQuarrie's concept art. Red Nine was colored mainly to match the appearance of the A-Wing in the droids cartoon (and other sources where the Rebel Spearheads are colored red).
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I must give the major props for this custom to Spectorist on Rebrickable  for this U-Wing. While he developed a very nice skeleton (a hypothetical 1999-styled U-Wing), I felt it needed a considerable update to bring it in line with the 2006 LEGO aesthetic. This mainly concerned replacing the slopes with smoother pieces and replacing certain outdated parts with more modern equivalents. In the end, I'm very proud of how this turned out. 
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The ugly-duckling H-60 Tempest Bomber was the first major stab at a ship which hasn't had much presence in MOCs. In the end, I'm happy with it, though I'll be curious to see how this holds up when it is fully assembled (I had to basically improvise the cockpits). 
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I found TLG's Z-95 Headhunter to be somewhat unsightly, so I was happy to find this MOC from GuyDudeMan27. However, that custom had its own set of problems, including its very precarious construction. I tried to make his two-engined version work, but instead opted for the more classical four-engined variant (I am still trying to figure out the two-engined version, though. I want to take a stab at the version from Star Wars: Commander). 

So, what is next? I want to try and do Rebel versions of some Clone Wars vehicles, including an ARC-170. I also want to try an R-41 Starchaser, which will be an interesting stab since it has little to no MOC presence

What do y'all think? Any questions or comments welcome. 

Edited by Benegiser

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6 hours ago, m4st3rt3ch said:

Nice, especially the Ys look fine :)

Thank you! I must be in the minority, but I really love the shape of the 7658 Y-Wing. I think the main problem I had with that set was the coloring (it was too white) and the undercarriage. You can't see it well in those renders, but the underside (especially of the back middle portion) got a lot thicker with my version. It makes for a much more pleasing dorsal view. 

Edited by Benegiser

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