Wishlist MOC wave: A-wing and TIE interceptor physical models

[Mandalorianknight]

Galactic Civil War MOC wave:
After my Siege of Mandalore MOC sets (I may come back to that one for a venator some time), I'm doing another wave based on something I always wanted from lego sets when I was younger: sets for the ground forces, grunts, unnamed men and women of the rebellion and empire! I aim to make this wave one of various rebel and imperial vehicles and builds for the conflict between the factions past just rebel starfighters and AT-STs. (The TIE bomber will be making an appearance though, as lego has effectively spit on the grave of the official set). As with my previous wave, all sets are made as if they were official sets, meaning they've got play features, figures, and the dreaded stud shooters. This was done because I prefer my MOCs to fit in with the official sets I collect, and because I'm not great at MOC making in general.  Starting things off are some battle packs to get the foot soldiers of the rebellion and empire, as well as a set styled similar to the 501st legion set, giving the rebels a much-needed ground assault vehicle.

 

 

Rebel Fleet Troopers Battle Pack ($14.99), 140 pieces:

"Build the rebel speeder and fight for freedom with the LEGO Rebel Fleet Troopers battle pack! This action-packed Star Wars set includes a rebellion speeder with removable turret, three rebel fleet troopers, and Rebel Friend from the Lego Star Wars video game franchise."

Man, was this a nostalgia trip for me! This was my favorite set as a kid, I must have 20 of the fleet troopers off bricklink alone! I modernized the model to fit lego's newer style, and changed the colors to make it the same color scheme as other rebel ground vehicles. Some other notable changes from the original set include slightly downsizing it to reflect lego's new style of more detail with smaller pieces and including fan-favorite character rebel friend with the classic megaphone blaster. 

 

 

Imperial Troops Battle Pack ($14.99), 140 pieces:

"Build the turbolaser turret and help the empire fight for order with the Imperial Troops battle pack! This Star Wars set includes a rotating turbolaser turret with articulated cannons and control turret, along with two stormtroopers, a navy trooper and an imperial officer."

Another fun build, I've always liked the idea of functional builds in battle packs instead of random vehicles, so the turbolaser was a natural fit. A full tower would have taken it over the price point, so I kept it at the turbolaser itself. Included are imperial troops in lego's somewhat annoying 2-1-1 layout, although we get stormtroopers so often I thought it would work here. The other figures are an Imperial officer (the black suit would in this case represent a stormtrooper officer, I believe), and a navy trooper. 

 

 

Rebel Legion X-34 Landspeeder ($34.99), 335 pieces:

"Play out an epic conflict in the battle between the rebellion and the empire with the Rebel Legion X-34 Landspeeder set! Fire the flick-fire missiles and rotate the mounted gun on the rebel speeder, defend against the imperial attack with the P-tower turret, or fight for the empire with the stormtrooper's blasters! This Star Wars set includes four rebel fighters, including a Twi'lek and a Rodian alien, as well as two enemy stormtroopers."

You probably recognize the speeder as luke's, and it's an interesting story how I ended up using this. The rebellion is never seen engaged in ground battles in the original star wars trilogy aside from hoth, where they only use T-47s and turrets. (the P-tower is included here as shown in the first image, based off a design I previously made to go alongside an old rebel tank MOC.) More ground battles are fought in Rogue one and Rebels, but again no ground vehicles are used. This led me to look to other sources, such as Battlefront 2 and the tabletop game Star Wars: legion. In these, a version of luke's landspeeder with a mounted gun is playable. I thought it looked pretty cool and made sense that the rebels would weaponize civilian craft in their fight, just as they did with their snowspeeders. In fact, the battlefront speeder's paint job implies that it used to be luke's speeder. I tried to make this set different from the official luke's landspeeders while still maintaining accuracy, and I believe it turned out quite well. The paint job is influenced by what colors some parts were available in as well as custom paint jobs players made for the tabletop game's speeder. The figures are also influenced by that game, with a rocket-launcher toting Twi'lek and Rodian sniper among the rebels. It's priced higher than the 501st pack due to a slightly increased part count and the battle droid being replaced with full minifigures.

That's all for now, to follow will be an imperial set in the style of the 501st, a TIE bomber, and of course more ground vehicles for the empire and rebellion. If you have any suggestions or ideas, I'd love it if you commented with them! (Especially if it's something canon I can do for the imperial 501st style set, I have no clue what's small enough to fit there besides a Z-74 speeder bike) 

Edited February 27, 2021 by Mandalorianknight

[ARC2149Nova]

36 minutes ago, Mandalorianknight said:

If you have any suggestions or ideas, I'd love it if you commented with them! (Especially if it's something canon I can do for the imperial 501st style set, I have no clue what's small enough to fit there besides a Z-74 speeder bike) 

I.T.T. it's perfect!

Anyways, very good as always. The figure choices are pretty boss too. 

[TeddytheSpoon]

These are great as per - the landspeeder set looks fantastic, I love how the spring-loaded shooters are integrated.

[Mandalorianknight]

10 hours ago, ARC2149Nova said:

I.T.T. it's perfect!

Anyways, very good as always. The figure choices are pretty boss too. 

How did I forget about that? Alright, next set will be the I.T.T. and a speeder bike!

Thank you for the kind words!

6 hours ago, TeddytheSpoon said:

These are great as per - the landspeeder set looks fantastic, I love how the spring-loaded shooters are integrated.

Thank you! I must have spend two hours on getting the spring shooters in there, I'm glad to hear they paid off!

[Omand]

Excellent designs and ideas.  Not sure if 6 mini-figs would actually be included by Lego for a speeder build like you have made, but I love the idea.

Cheers :)

[Makin Bacon]

22 minutes ago, Omand said:

Excellent designs and ideas.  Not sure if 6 mini-figs would actually be included by Lego for a speeder build like you have made, but I love the idea.

Cheers :)

I think 5 would be the most, seeing as this is supposed to be a sort of rebel equivalent to the 501st clone troopers set. That set comes with 6 figures, however 2 are battle droids, which Lego seems to include more of than they would standard minifigures in sets.

[Mandalorianknight]

@Makin Bacon and @Omand:

Thank you!

About the figure count, as makin bacon says, I was trying to invoke the 501st battle pack. I agree about the battle droids, which is why I upped the price a bit, though it is still a bit unrealistic. 

[Mandalorianknight]

UPDATE: Imperial Troop Transport

 

Stormtrooper Corps Troop Transport ($39.99), 454 pieces

"Stage a battle between the empire and rebellion with the stormtrooper corps troop transport! Fire the stud shooters on the rotating turret on the trooper transport, load the transport with the three troopers, and escort the transport with the scout trooper's speeder bike! This Star Wars set includes the Imperial Troop transport as seen in The Mandalorian. Included in the set are three Stormtroopers, a scout trooper, and two rebel troopers!"

Thanks to @ARC2149Nova for the suggestion to make the ITT! I've seen a lot of good ITT mocs, but I noticed they all seem to be pretty big, so I tried to make one at a comparatively small scale. This is based off the vehicle in the mandalorian tv show, as opposed to the model seen in star wars rebels, which I was surprised to see is very different. I will say that the ITT doesn't look as good with the troopers removed from their side pods. For the interior, you can see the cockpit, some more space for troops, a weapon rack, and storage for a 4x3 container, here filled with 6 thermal detonators. The speeder bike is based roughly on the 2020 hoth speeder bike, with some changes made to the main body, foot pedals, cannon, and vanes. The figures were tough to choose, as I wanted to keep the 4/2 figure makeup of the 501st set, so the two rebel foot soldiers were easy to figure out, but it was tougher for the imperials. The ITT should be piloted by a combat driver per rebels, with an officer behind in the cab, but I also wanted to get a large amount of stormtroopers. I settled on three troopers and a scout for the speeder bike, since we don't actually see the ITT driver in the mandalorian. The rebels are based on the Sullust rebels from battlefront 2015, since Navarro has a similar climate.

Edit: I think there's room for about 8-12 figure in the transport. 6 in the side pods, the pilot, and 2 more can fit comfortably in the interior. If you remove the cargo and pack them in more tightly, you could probably up it to 12.

Once again, if you have any suggestions or comments, please let me know! I'm not exactly sure what else to build for this wave aside from a TIE bomber.

Edited August 5, 2020 by Mandalorianknight

[n1majneb]

Excellent designs, I really like the repurposed landspeeder

[Omand]

Love your Imperial Troop Transport.

Cheers :)

[Mandalorianknight]

Thank you, @Omand and @n1majneb!

[Kit Figsto]

They all look fantastic!  I've always thought the Troop Transport design was a bit odd, why have the Stormtroopers (or prisoners, as seen in Rebels) on the outside of a moving vehicle, but nonetheless, your rendition looks great.  I also love the updated Rebel Scout Speeder, I think you nailed the idea of the original while getting it up to modern standards.

[TeddytheSpoon]

12 minutes ago, Kit Figsto said:

They all look fantastic!  I've always thought the Troop Transport design was a bit odd, why have the Stormtroopers (or prisoners, as seen in Rebels) on the outside of a moving vehicle, but nonetheless, your rendition looks great.  I also love the updated Rebel Scout Speeder, I think you nailed the idea of the original while getting it up to modern standards.

I believe the one we see in Rebels and beyond is based on a Kenner toy, hence its slightly odd design. That was my first thought when I saw it in the show as well, but then this is a universe where walkers are seen to be a valid military asset and not something that can be defeated with some tough rope. 

This is a great rendition of it, as per usual!

[Omand]

Hello,

I should have added in my previous post that I think you have integrated the stud shooters and launchers very well.  Very appropriate play use that does not look added on as an afterthought, or simply there as a "play" feature.  The features truly look like part of the design process and the whole model.

I wish we would see similar use in actual Lego models.  Some are very well done, but in the X-Wing models in many cases the shooters/launchers look just tacked on.

Of course, what I really love is no stud shooters for the mini-figs. :)

Cheers

[Mandalorianknight]

On 8/9/2020 at 10:01 AM, Omand said:

Hello,

I should have added in my previous post that I think you have integrated the stud shooters and launchers very well.  Very appropriate play use that does not look added on as an afterthought, or simply there as a "play" feature.  The features truly look like part of the design process and the whole model.

I wish we would see similar use in actual Lego models.  Some are very well done, but in the X-Wing models in many cases the shooters/launchers look just tacked on.

Of course, what I really love is no stud shooters for the mini-figs. :)

Cheers

Thank you! For the X-34 I had to redesign the whole chassis to fit them in without them being obtrusive, I'm glad it's appreciated. I agree that in lots of official sets the stud shooters seem tacked on.

On 8/7/2020 at 6:14 PM, TeddytheSpoon said:

I believe the one we see in Rebels and beyond is based on a Kenner toy, hence its slightly odd design. That was my first thought when I saw it in the show as well, but then this is a universe where walkers are seen to be a valid military asset and not something that can be defeated with some tough rope. 

This is a great rendition of it, as per usual!

Thank you!

One thing I really liked about TLJ was that the walkers had cable-cutters on the legs to stop the rebels from using a few ropes to take down multi-million credit walkers. Still doesn't make them usable compared to tanks, as you can just shut down a leg to crash it, but it's a nice touch.

On 8/7/2020 at 5:56 PM, Kit Figsto said:

They all look fantastic!  I've always thought the Troop Transport design was a bit odd, why have the Stormtroopers (or prisoners, as seen in Rebels) on the outside of a moving vehicle, but nonetheless, your rendition looks great.  I also love the updated Rebel Scout Speeder, I think you nailed the idea of the original while getting it up to modern standards.

Thank you! The rebel scout speeder's always been a personal favorite of mine.

The troop transport is a pretty weird design. As @TeddytheSpoon says, it was a kenner toy, I imagine the "hey let's put the troops on the outside of the vehicle, what's the worst that could happen" design was to allow kids to fit as many figures as possible on it while keeping the sound box on the inside. Still pretty funny though.

 

My power's out and will be for a few more days, but I'll be working on a TIE bomber ASAP.

[Agent Kallus]

These are all pretty good, my favourite has the the rebel BP as I had quite a few of the original back in the day and it's cool seeing an updated version.

[Mandalorianknight]

On 8/19/2020 at 10:29 AM, Agent Kallus said:

These are all pretty good, my favourite has the the rebel BP as I had quite a few of the original back in the day and it's cool seeing an updated version.

Thank you! I'm a big fan of the rebel battle pack as well, I may have mentioned this before in the thread but I've bought wayyyy more than I should have off of ebay. 

 

UPDATE: TIE/sa Bomber

Imperial TIE/sa Bomber ($129.99), 1195 pieces

"Eradicate the rebellion with the imperial TIE bomber! Load the bombs and spring shooters, place the pilot in the opening cockpit, and launch into attack! This Star Wars set includes the TIE/SA bomber as seen in The Empire Strikes Back. The set's features include an opening cockpit, storage area, and bomb bay, as well as firing spring shooters and bomb drop function. Included in the set are two Stormtroopers, two TIE pilots, an imperial officer, hoth rebel soldier, Han Solo, and rebel officer leia organa!"

(in the zoomed-in images, the parts to press down on or turn to activate functions are shown in RED to make the functions more clear. In the rest of the images, they're shown in the colors they would be were this an actual set.)

The idea of this project started a month ago when, as the third in a series of interviews in which the designers gave some confusing and irritating answers, Lego stated that they had no plans to make a lego TIE bomber due to the size and how "niche" it was. I then set out to make the bomber at as low a price as possible in the style lego does. At 1195 pieces, or $130 with how lego prices things, I didn't entirely succeed, but hey, you can't tell me the bomber is less iconic than kylo's shuttle or the gozanti. I'm pretty happy with how the design itself turned out, however, especially at making it in a way that it fits with the most recent TIE fighter and Striker models. There's a fair amount of functions, with bombing and storage in addition to the basic cockpit opening and spring shooter launching functions. The storage area was made just because of how much extra space there was in that cockpit module, so I wanted to use it for something. The bomb drop function was a headache to design, but can successfully hold and drop two bombs. The "wings" are supported by plates to stay in the position they're shown in. 

Let me know any suggestions or comments on the model, and especially any suggestions for what I should do next!

[Samppu]

This would make an excellent set indeed, and the bombing mechanism seems cool. Perhaps better marketed if it would be somehow based on the Squadrons game rather than episode V?
The only thing I miss is a function to launch some sort of a missile as well.

[Mandalorianknight]

On 8/22/2020 at 10:56 AM, Samppu said:

This would make an excellent set indeed, and the bombing mechanism seems cool. Perhaps better marketed if it would be somehow based on the Squadrons game rather than episode V?
The only thing I miss is a function to launch some sort of a missile as well.

Good idea, I was planning on doing that, but I couldn't figure out how to differentiate the pilots. As you'll see, I did take your advice for this next starfighter moc.

 

A few minor updates:
 

First off, the smallest MOC I've ever made, more of a joke MOC really. It's kind of an alternate promo for the Lego Star Wars: the skywalker saga game, because look, I love milk mustache luke, it's a funny figure to make, but i don't get why they didn't do a promo for something from the games themselves. So here it is:

Rebel Friend and Minikit (Promo), 38 pieces

 

So, it's a polybag based on some elements exclusive to the lego games. There's the classic minikit, which being made out of legos in the game itself wasn't exactly difficult to make. There's also a crate filled with studs, the currency in the games, in the correct denominations (silver=10,gold=100,blue=1000,purple=10000), and the figure is lego's character created for the games, Rebel friend himself. He of course has the classic megaphone blaster. 

Alright, here's the actual set, though again a minor one.

Vanguard Squadron A-wing Starfighter ($34.99), 441 pieces

"Take to the skies with the Vanguard Squadron A-wing Starfighter! Place the pilot in the cockpit, rotate the cannons and fight the empire! This Star Wars set includes the iconic A-wing starfighter in the colors from the Star Wars: Squadrons video game. The set's features include an opening cockpit, and rotating blasters, as well as retracting landing gear. Included in the set are a stormtrooper, two A-wing pilots, and Lindon Javes.

So first off, I want to make very clear that the engine design is 100% copied from the 2017 model. There's no way to make the engine I could think of any better than the official lego one. Other than that, everything else is different. Now, the biggest thing for me was changing the "wings". Lego's always done such a clunky job on the A-wing's wings, that really doesn't get the sleekness and shape across. I spent hours on a very complicated ball-join solution...and then scrapped it entirely and found a much more simple one. I think there's room for improvement, and I plan on coming back to this, but I think as is I've at least got the sleekness down. The coloration is based on this image  of what I believe to be the default a-wing skin for vanguard squadron in the game. This was done to differentiate it from the traditional lego a-wing. The cockpit contains room for the pilot to stash his pistol, as well as some controls. One minor thing is the spring shooters aren't there, because A-wings only contain the wingtip cannons and the spring shooters don't fit in there.As for the figures, the stormtrooper is just kinda there, to provide an enemy for the a-wing. The pilots, of course, would have the a-wing pilot helmets, not x-wing ones, they're just like that because stud.io doesn't have the a-wing ones. The one in the orange x-wing jumpsuit is in the trailer as the a-wing pilot, which might be a canonical inconsistency but since it's in the game I kept it. The final figure is the "generic good guy officer" the past few a-wing sets have had, in this case again from the game, Lindon Javis. I'm pretty proud of my wing design here, this is the first moc I made I'm 100% bricklinking the parts for.

What do you guys think? Let me know any suggestions or comments you have!

[Agent Kallus]

That's one nice A-wing though I will say my personal favourite of all the things you've build for your wishlist waves would have to be that Tie Bomber, but I'm a big fan of ties.

[Mandalorianknight]

On 9/7/2020 at 8:48 AM, Agent Kallus said:

That's one nice A-wing though I will say my personal favourite of all the things you've build for your wishlist waves would have to be that Tie Bomber, but I'm a big fan of ties.

Thanks! And if you're a fan of TIEs, you're in luck!

UPDATES: Y-WING STARFIGHTER AND TIE/LN interceptor

Vanguard Squadron Y-wing starfighter ($79.99), 909 pieces

"Bomb the empire to oblivion with the Vanguard Y-wing starfighter! Load the bombs, equip the turret, place the pilot in the cockpit, and fly for freedom! This Star Wars set includes the Vanguard Squadron variant of the classic Y-wing, as seen in EA's Star Wars Squadrons. The set's features include an opening cockpit, storage area, bomb bay with bomb drop function, and removable turret. Included in the set are Hera Syndulla, Gold Leader, Feresk Tassat, a rebel astromech, and an imperial stormtrooper!"

So as you can see, there are some major changes between the 2016 y-wing and this one. One of the main ones is that the main body is a bit thicker, which I think gives the y-wing a chunkier, more bomber-like like look here. You can see in the third image the gear that, when turned, causes the bombs to drop. Squadrons has an emphasis on customizing starfighter components, so I wanted to represent that with the swappable turret and different coloring for the bombs to represent different ammo types. I decided to further differentiate it, I'd base it on squadrons, so included as figures are Hera, who appears in the game (or at least in the trailers, I haven't seen her in the game's campaign yet), and Feresk, the y-wing pilot for vanguard squadron. This is the vanguard squadron color scheme, but I wanted to see what my design would look like as a classic y-wing, so for the first time with one of my mocs I've rendered some alternative color schemes, classic and "red jammer".

I think it looks better with these color schemes than in the vanguard one, honestly.

Next up is a TIE lego hasn't done since 2006.

Titan Squadron TIE interceptor ($69.99), 698 pieces

"Outfly the enemy with the imperial TIE interceptor! Load the spring shooters, place the pilot in the cockpit, and launch into attack! This Star Wars set includes the TIE interceptor, as seen in Return of the Jedi and most recently EA's Star Wars Squadrons. The set's features include an opening cockpit, spring loaded shooters, and tiles to change the TIE's markings. Included in the set are a titan squadron TIE pilot, an Allegiance TIE pilot, captain Terisa Kerrill, a scout trooper and endor rebel trooper!"

Alright, this is something I've wanted to do for forever. First off, you might notice the clips don't line up right, I've done some physical drafting of this and it should work in real life but it's not something stud.io allows.The wings were a pain to get at a good angle, but in their current position they're supported and you could just set this thing down without the wings folding, were it a real set. The figures were fun to choose, I wanted one of the new TIE pilot types from squadrons (more on that later), so I chose the Allegiance pilot, loyal only to the emperor, and of course captain Terisa Kerrill is an interesting character I wanted to put in the set. The endor rebel and imperial scout are just there because there needed to be some combat troops. The 8 2x2 tiles would have prints with various imperial emblems, meant to represent squadrons's fighter customization. 

I really wanted to do some of the crazier new TIE pilot variants like Regicide or the shoretrooper pilot, but I think I'll put them in my next moc, a TIE reaper.

 

Any thoughts on my starfighter builds? let me know any feedback or suggestions, as well as any ideas for future set mockups from any era!

Edited October 7, 2020 by Mandalorianknight
Fixed the interceptor.

[Samppu]

Especially the TIE Interceptor is super cool!
One vertical gray stripe is missing from the wings, unless this is based on a variant that does not have it?
Also the cockpit ball around the canopy window might benefit from a more rounded shape with e.g. the brick id 62360 in light bluish gray.

Anyway, this would make a great set I believe!

[Mandalorianknight]

8 hours ago, Samppu said:

Especially the TIE Interceptor is super cool!
One vertical gray stripe is missing from the wings, unless this is based on a variant that does not have it?
Also the cockpit ball around the canopy window might benefit from a more rounded shape with e.g. the brick id 62360 in light bluish gray.

Anyway, this would make a great set I believe!

It is indeed a variant, the "@Mandalorianknight completely forgot about the stripes" version of the craft.   I honestly can't believe I missed those gray stripes, I've fixed the error and changed the images accordingly. Thanks for pointing it out so I could fix it.

As for the part suggestion, it's an interesting idea. I messed around a  bit with my model and it could definitely work, but It'd require me to re-do the structural skeleton of the build. As this model is meant to fit with the 2018 tie fighter model and the bomber moc I made earlier this year (and I'm lazy), I think i'll leave that part as it is. Thank you so much for the suggestions!

[Agent Kallus]

I was looking at this earlier and something seemed off with tie but I wasn't sure what, now it's got the stripe it looks even better but it still looked good before.  I do see what you mean about the boxyness of the y-wing ,thought I think you maybe over did it a bit, but it still looks good and if these were real Lego sets both would be on my radar as ones to pickup.

[Mandalorianknight]

On 10/8/2020 at 11:36 AM, Agent Kallus said:

I was looking at this earlier and something seemed off with tie but I wasn't sure what, now it's got the stripe it looks even better but it still looked good before.  I do see what you mean about the boxyness of the y-wing ,thought I think you maybe over did it a bit, but it still looks good and if these were real Lego sets both would be on my radar as ones to pickup.

Yeah, I may have overdone it a bit with the y-wing. I gotta say, I wish I had waited to build these until after I got squadrons, actually being in a dogfight with these ships gives you a much better look at them than reference photos.

Thank you very much, my goal here is of course to make them look like actual sets so it's very nice to hear that you think they'd make good sets. 

Edited October 13, 2020 by Mandalorianknight