Siege of Mandalore wave MOC: UPDATE: System Scale Headhunter Starfighter

[Mandalorianknight]

When I saw the last four episodes of clone wars, I though they were pretty clearly trying to make it as if it was a movie, with the episodes picking up at the exact moment the previous one ended, the film-like intro at the start of the first episode, etc. So I thought it would be fun to make a wave of sets for it, since it looks like there'll only be two tangentially related sets for it officially. Although it's not at all what I expect the january 2021 wave to be, I chose the format of the sets based on the format of the past few january waves. 2 microfighters, a microfighter pack of two, two battle packs, a duel, a $20-30 location-based set, and around four other sets. I'm not sure I'll do the full wave I outlined in the "future star wars sets" thread, but we'll see. I also tried to make the first render for each set look somewhat like the front box art of a set, with the build posed and using some 8l bars as "lasers".

PART ONE: MICROFIGHTERS:

Gauntlet Starfighter Microfighter ($9.99): 84 pieces. Minifigure: Rook Kast

The villians don't have many vehicles in the arc, since there's little space/atmospheric combat and the mandalorians all have jetpacks, but I though Maul's Gauntlet would work well at this scale. The pilot is Rook Kast, one of maul's lieutenants who pilots the ship in the Son of Dathomir comic, although not in the arc itself. All the figures are just giving a general idea of what they'd look like using the limited prints on stud.io.

 

The primary sort of play feature in the set would be it's ability to have the wings flip up for it's landing position. When in flight mode, the wings are kept from pointing down by the 1x2 rail plates. 

 

 

AT-TE Microfighter ($9.99): 105 pieces. Minifigure: 501st Clone trooper.

The AT-TE is an interesting vehicle to do at this scale. The 6 legs all use clip connections, so I have a 2x2 round brick in trans-clear at the bottom to keep it from collapsing.

I've got a 501st clone trooper set as the pilot, who sits on top to man the main cannon.

 

 

Headhunter Versus Tank Droid Microfighters ($19.99): 196 pieces. Minifigures: 501st clone pilot, B1 battle droid.

This 2-pack is based on the battle of yerbana at the start of the arc.

There isn't much to say about the headhunter, it's a pretty simple build. The original design I had was longer and more proportionate, but I changed it to keep the more chibi look of the microfighter line.

This thing was a pain to build. It unfortunately doesn't have moveable treads, but I think it's somewhat accurate overall for the size. Even though it's a droid, it does fit a pilot, as the other droid microfighters (vulture droid, spider droid) fit pilots as well.

That's all for now, but the battle packs are next and I can't see them taking long since the focus of those is usually just the figures. I'll probably do an ahsoka vs maul duel set and a location-based mandalore battle as well, but I'm not sure if I'll do the larger ones.

Edited July 18, 2020 by Mandalorianknight

[TeddytheSpoon]

These are pretty great, especially like the Headhunter.

If it doesn't get made as a playset, I'd say the blue Y-Wing would be a prime candidate for a microfighter, maybe alongside a Vulture Droid. I'd love for them to put Rex in that set but I would imagine they'd put him in a more expensive set, so maybe a clone pilot.

Looking forward to see what you make of the Mandalore location set!

[Mandalorianknight]

16 hours ago, TeddytheSpoon said:

These are pretty great, especially like the Headhunter.

If it doesn't get made as a playset, I'd say the blue Y-Wing would be a prime candidate for a microfighter, maybe alongside a Vulture Droid. I'd love for them to put Rex in that set but I would imagine they'd put him in a more expensive set, so maybe a clone pilot.

Looking forward to see what you make of the Mandalore location set!

Thanks you! 
The Y-wing was definitely a candidate for the Microfighter and probably one LEGO would have done I just couldn’t think of any way to make it besides more or less how LEGO made theirs, and didn’t want to just be lightly modifying existing stuff (which I ended up doing anyway with one of the battle packs)

I’ll have the battle packs posted by Sunday, and then try to get the duel and location set up by Tuesday.

Edited June 13, 2020 by Mandalorianknight

[Mandalorianknight]

UPDATE: BATTLE PACKS AND DUEL.

The next parts of the wave are the battle packs and duel set. The battle packs aren't all that interesting, as the focus is on the figures and I can't apply new prints with stud.io, but I like how the duel turned out.

332nd clone troopers battle pack ($14.99): 

The battle pack is 114 pieces and contains a normal phase 2 clone, as well as a variant each for the 501st, 212th, and 332nd. The 332nd wouldn't actually have an orange-red helmet mold, it's just to differentiate it from the 501st here since I can't add prints to the helmets.

 

The build is a BARC speeder, I did my best to make my design as different as I could from LEGO's official design while still maintaining accuracy. And since it's a battle pack, I had to add the stud shooters onto it.

Mandalorian warriors ($14.99)

I saw the idea in the future star wars sets thread of a battle pack with 2 mauldalorians and 2 nite owls (Thanks, @ArrowBricks!), so this is where the general idea of this comes from. The set is 117 parts and the build, like most of lego's battle packs, isn't really based closely on anything, although I tried to make it look a bit like the tunnels. It's got two main play features, the exploding wall and the catapult to make the mandalorians "fly" with their jetpacks.

Due to the lack of prints it's difficult to tell, but it would have a female nite owl, male death watch (like an update of the 2011 one), and then a male mauldalorian and female mauldalorian. 

Duel on Mandalore ($19.99):

We've had a few duel-themed sets in recent years, so I made one for the duel between ahsoka and maul. To get the more intricate design of the windows I think it'd need stickers, but I tried to get the general idea across. The set is 196 pieces.

Another render showing maul on his throne. 

I gave the build those hinge pieces for the same hinge the other duel sets have. There wasn't much I could think of play-feature wise, so it's mainly exploding windows, the main windows that explode right before they fight and the window ahsoka pushes maul through. Poor Maul, he's constantly getting knocked into pits or out windows by force users. .

Next up will be a 300-ish piece mandalore battle, then the battle of yerbana. I'll probably try a headhunter build as well, though I'm not sure I'll build the gauntlet starfighter and venator.

[DarthTwoShedsJackson]

On 6/12/2020 at 8:57 PM, Mandalorianknight said:

When I saw the last four episodes of clone wars, I though they were pretty clearly trying to make it as if it was a movie, with the episodes picking up at the exact moment the previous one ended, the film-like intro at the start of the first episode, etc.

They did this because this was the first storyarc ever in an animated Star Wars show that actually entered movie territory with respect to when the events depicted happen. Hence the original Star Wars-theme at the start of the first episode of the four. What I was particularly fond of was the score playing during the final moments: It was specifically made to sound like the surreal synth-tapestries of Blade Runner, especially the 'Tears in the Rain' piece, and the allusion is genius, since the clones and the replicants in Blade Runner were so much alike: Created to serve in highly dangerous situations, doing work no one else wanted to do, being discarded once their service was no longer required, having artificially shortened life-spans and being considered less than human by many whilst actually being much more human than those who ordered and conducted their creation.

Edited June 15, 2020 by DarthTwoShedsJackson

[Jerry McGlade]

Really cool MOC's!

[Mandalorianknight]

On 6/15/2020 at 12:55 PM, Jerry McGlade said:

Really cool MOC's!

Thank you!

On 6/15/2020 at 11:01 AM, DarthTwoShedsJackson said:

They did this because this was the first storyarc ever in an animated Star Wars show that actually entered movie territory with respect to when the events depicted happen. Hence the original Star Wars-theme at the start of the first episode of the four. What I was particularly fond of was the score playing during the final moments: It was specifically made to sound like the surreal synth-tapestries of Blade Runner, especially the 'Tears in the Rain' piece, and the allusion is genius, since the clones and the replicants in Blade Runner were so much alike: Created to serve in highly dangerous situations, doing work no one else wanted to do, being discarded once their service was no longer required, having artificially shortened life-spans and being considered less than human by many whilst actually being much more human than those who ordered and conducted their creation.

That's a great allusion, I love the star wars score and things like that add to it so much. The story of the clones is one of the most tragic stories in star wars, too.

 

UPDATE: BATTLE OF MANDALORE: 

The first "normal" set on the list, since the others were battle packs, microfighters, and a duel. Most waves seem to have a location-based set for $20-30, so I made this one.

Battle of Mandalore ($29.99): 284 pieces.

As you can see, the set's based on the initial phase of the siege. I used screenshots from the show as reference. The main area is one of the many walkways we see the clones and mandalorians fighting on. The minifigures are Bo-katan, Captain Vaughn, and Gar Saxon. I thought it would be a nice addition to have the three leader characters in one set. Vaughn would have the only new mold in the wave, a phase 2 helmet with visor that we'll see on another figure in the headhunter. . Two of the play features are shown here, the function to explode the crates by Vaughn, and the collapsing part of the walkway caused by pulling the technic bushing below bo-katan.

Another angle, this time with the two play features shown earlier not in use. Since the set, despite the play features, is more or less just a walkway, I added parts for the mandalorians' gadgets. The shield, rope and flamethrower are all simple builds, but I think they'd add some more playability were it a real set.

One last angle. The hole at the right of the image is a small representation of the pit entrance to the tunnel system. 

I really like how this one turned out. Next up is a set based on the battle of yerbana, which will be comprised of some smaller vehicles. After that will be the headhunter, and possibly a playscale venator. My original list had the gauntlet fighter, but @Kozikyo86 made a great moc of that one and I don't think I could make a good set of it without it being a copy.

[Agent Kallus]

Very nice, I like this idea of a wishlist wave as digital mocs to articulate your ideas, I might do the same, if you'dn't mind. Though I think Gar Saxon would also need a new part to do his Mauldalorian helmet justice.

[Mandalorianknight]

8 hours ago, Agent Kallus said:

Very nice, I like this idea of a wishlist wave as digital mocs to articulate your ideas, I might do the same, if you'dn't mind. Though I think Gar Saxon would also need a new part to do his Mauldalorian helmet justice.

Thanks! And you're right, Saxon would need a horned helmet mold. Let me know if you do make digital MOCS for your wishlist wave, that'd be great to see!

[ArrowBricks]

Congratulations @Mandalorianknight these are fantastic! 

Love seeing my idea come to life aswell as yours. 

You should continue with these for sure! 

[Mandalorianknight]

22 minutes ago, ArrowBricks said:

Congratulations @Mandalorianknight these are fantastic! 

Love seeing my idea come to life aswell as yours. 

You should continue with these for sure! 

Thank you! I'm glad you liked how the battle pack you outlined turned out!

Next up I'll have a set for yerbana, with new spin on the tank droid design and the command center.

[ArrowBricks]

16 minutes ago, Mandalorianknight said:

Thank you! I'm glad you liked how the battle pack you outlined turned out!

Next up I'll have a set for yerbana, with new spin on the tank droid design and the command center.

Look forward to it boss! Would love to see a massive Clone Wars wave from yourself. 

[Tanner]

Nice

[Navity]

Nice

[Mandalorianknight]

On 6/17/2020 at 5:27 PM, ArrowBricks said:

Look forward to it boss! Would love to see a massive Clone Wars wave from yourself. 

Thanks! The next few sets are all going to be clone wars, although I'm thinking about maybe doing a TIE bomber after the headhunter and venator.

@Tanner and @Navity, nice.  I'm kidding, thank you!

I also want to say you guys should check out @Agent Kallus's "wishlist wave mocs" thread. He's made some really great sets from Clone wars, rebels, the mandalorian, and more.

So here we go, I've got to tell you this was a pain to design. The main build took way longer than I expected it too, and although I'm still not fully satisfied I don't think I could improve it anymore.

Battle of Yerbana ($49.99): 615 pieces, 3 minifigures, 3 droid figures. (the price is lower than you'd expect from a 615 piece set because of all the tank tread parts, the previous tank droid was $19.99 for 267 pieces)

This set is representing the battle of yerbana at the start of the arc, with the NR-N99 tank droid, separatist command platform, and a BARC for the republic. The BARC of course isn't in the scene but I wanted a build for the republic and it's a common GAR vehicle. (hey, maybe one of those piles of rubble they hide behind in the scene is a destroyed BARC ) The figures are Anakin, a 212th trooper, a 501st jet trooper, 2 b1s, and a super tactical droid.

First is the main build, the NR-N99 Corporate Alliance tank droid, or as it should be called, the snail tank . This went through 3 complete overhauls of the entire build, although each time I kept the 5x5 curved quarter slope pieces. I wanted my tank droid to be a completely different build from the official lego ones, and I think I at least accomplished that in the end. There are gears on the inside allowing the treads to turn so it can roll, of course, and the obligatory spring shooters on the side bits. This was quite possibly the most frustrating build I've ever done in stud.io, the tank droid just has such a unique shape.

There's almost nothing to say about the BARC. I like the 212th (501st is overrated, 212th and coruscant guard for life ), and since they were the main ground force in this scene I gave the speeder it's orange markings. The BARC is just a recolor of the one I did a few weeks ago for the clone battle pack, I didn't have any real improvements for it.

The droid command center is downsized quite a bit, but I think it works. It can have 3 droids at the consoles, and has a ramp for the tactical droid to walk up. Again, not much to this build as the main feature is the tank droid. The super tactical droid would ideally have a new mold, but I used the normal tactical droid one for it here.

One last image of everything together. The 212th trooper wouldn't have orange arms, just some orange printing on the torso and legs, since looking at the S7 212th troopers there isn't much orange on the arms.

Let me know what you think about this set, next up is the headhunter, and then I'll start work on a playscale venator.

Edited June 23, 2020 by Mandalorianknight

[TeddytheSpoon]

This looks great, the tank droid might be the best build yet in this thread!

I've been thinking about converting some of my TCW builds to 212th colours but wasn't sure it would work, seeing your BARC makes me think I might do just that though. I also share your opinion that 212th > 501st 

[Mandalorianknight]

On 6/23/2020 at 4:18 AM, TeddytheSpoon said:

This looks great, the tank droid might be the best build yet in this thread!

I've been thinking about converting some of my TCW builds to 212th colours but wasn't sure it would work, seeing your BARC makes me think I might do just that though. I also share your opinion that 212th > 501st 

Thank you!

Glad to hear I can help spread the 212th spirit 

[V-2929]

On 6/23/2020 at 5:35 AM, Mandalorianknight said:

First is the main build, the NR-N99 Corporate Alliance tank droid, or as it should be called, the snail tank . This went through 3 complete overhauls of the entire build, although each time I kept the 5x5 curved quarter slope pieces. I wanted my tank droid to be a completely different build from the official lego ones, and I think I at least accomplished that in the end. There are gears on the inside allowing the treads to turn so it can roll, of course, and the obligatory spring shooters on the side bits. This was quite possibly the most frustrating build I've ever done in stud.io, the tank droid just has such a unique shape.

That's such a nice tank droid. It's a kit I'd like to see Lego redo, and this really nails it.

[ArrowBricks]

Once again @Mandalorianknight this is an amazing creation! 

This set would be amazing on the shelves most definitely! 

That Tank Droid is phenomenal! Love the command centre too. 

I eagerly await more of your work, bravo.  
 

[Mandalorianknight]

2 hours ago, V-2929 said:

That's such a nice tank droid. It's a kit I'd like to see Lego redo, and this really nails it.

Thank you! 

55 minutes ago, ArrowBricks said:

Once again @Mandalorianknight this is an amazing creation! 

This set would be amazing on the shelves most definitely! 

That Tank Droid is phenomenal! Love the command centre too. 

I eagerly await more of your work, bravo.  

Thank you! I'm taking a break for a day or two, but next up is the headhunter, then I'll attempt a venator!

Suggestions are also welcome, since I'm not sure what I'll do after those.

[Pedilego]

You've already done the things I'd find most compelling for TLG to make, and very well at that - I come into this thread to see every post on the chance you have another awesome concept.

I def appreciate the inclusion of Rook. The showrunners obviously made a point to have a lot of female Mandos on both sides & we really need them represented. Even just more generally speaking, we need more subtle variety in the costumes/minifigures & yours offer that thru her and others. Speaking of the platform battle, yours really captures the feel of the infantry battle with good minimalism / low part count, and the holo-shield that the lead commando uses is a nice touch, too, so nice I decided to steal it hahah.

That said, regarding ideas, you could do a blue Y-Wing, a scaffolding take on the Tano-Maul duel, and/or a Jesse hangar confrontation. Also, personally, my favorite part of the battle might just be the intro from out of the gunships and into the skies. I can't count how many times I've watched the YouTube mashup of the start of ROTS+TSOM. Can't help but notice you haven't had Rex or Bo, either. Maul's capture, Maul's escape/hallway scene, and the crash site are memorable, too, but probably too dark. You could find a way to incorporate the 3 droids on the Venator.

[Krisproductions]

Excited to see where this build goes. I've been wanting to upgrade some Corperate Alliance tanks, I like the use of new pieces, but adding the spring loaded shooters in there? Why? 

[Mandalorianknight]

8 hours ago, Krisproductions said:

Excited to see where this build goes. I've been wanting to upgrade some Corperate Alliance tanks, I like the use of new pieces, but adding the spring loaded shooters in there? Why? 

Thank you! 

Spring shooters are there because I'm trying to make them as if they were real sets. If you'd like, I can do a quick edit that removes them, it'd only take me a minute or so.

12 hours ago, Pedilego said:

You've already done the things I'd find most compelling for TLG to make, and very well at that - I come into this thread to see every post on the chance you have another awesome concept.

I def appreciate the inclusion of Rook. The showrunners obviously made a point to have a lot of female Mandos on both sides & we really need them represented. Even just more generally speaking, we need more subtle variety in the costumes/minifigures & yours offer that thru her and others. Speaking of the platform battle, yours really captures the feel of the infantry battle with good minimalism / low part count, and the holo-shield that the lead commando uses is a nice touch, too, so nice I decided to steal it hahah.

That said, regarding ideas, you could do a blue Y-Wing, a scaffolding take on the Tano-Maul duel, and/or a Jesse hangar confrontation. Also, personally, my favorite part of the battle might just be the intro from out of the gunships and into the skies. I can't count how many times I've watched the YouTube mashup of the start of ROTS+TSOM. Can't help but notice you haven't had Rex or Bo, either. Maul's capture, Maul's escape/hallway scene, and the crash site are memorable, too, but probably too dark. You could find a way to incorporate the 3 droids on the Venator.

Thank you so much!

Rook was pretty important in some comics that cover how Maul gets back to mandalore, so I really wanted her in a set.

Bo-katan's actually the blue mando in the platform battle set, though you can't really tell with the lack of helmet prints. Glad to hear my commando shield is catching on.

These are all good ideas, now I really want to do a small little comic-con type set with ahsoka and the crash site! The three droids will definately be on the venator. 

[Agent Kallus]

I like this set too, especially your Corporate alliance tank droid, it looks better than lego's official ones. It's almost surprising that lego haven't released another one, given they're recent focus on kashyk. 

[Mandalorianknight]

On 7/4/2020 at 11:21 AM, Agent Kallus said:

I like this set too, especially your Corporate alliance tank droid, it looks better than lego's official ones. It's almost surprising that lego haven't released another one, given they're recent focus on kashyk. 

Yeah, it's surprising that with all the kashyyyk sets in the past 6 years we still haven't gotten stuff like the ornitherapter or tank droid since before they started making so many kashyyyk sets. And thank you!

I ended up taking a much longer break than I was going to, but I'm working on the headhunter now.

Any suggestions are welcome for sets from any era, but here's some ideas I've got.

Playscale venator (this will be after the headhunter, probably): Roughly the same size as the star destroyer from 2014.

Wookie defense: probably about 500-700 pcs, it'd have an ornitheraptor, wookie hut, and some separatist stuff.

Rebel scout speeder remake: battle pack remake, this wouldn't take long so I'll probably just do it in a few days.

Again, any suggestions from any era are welcome.