Grand Army of the Republic Planetary Forces

[Legostein]

Hello and good evening to everyone!

Afer several sets of combat capital ships and starfighters, it's time to shed some light on planetary bound combat craft. We'll start with the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) and their ground and air combat vessels. Please find below the summary image of what we'll see on this page. To avoid overlappings with the official Mini line and due to the fact that I don't think the official ones are that bad, I chose a much smaller scale for some of the models to be clearly different.

As the Clone Army is introduced in Episode II, most of the models come from this episode. Let's start with Episode II - Attack of the Clones then. All images are links to the image and instruction galleries.

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One of the most popular vessels of the GAR is the Low Altitude Assault Transport (LAAT) also known in short as Republic Gunship. Although the model presented below is very tiny, it is quite detailed nevertheless. It features all four gun glass emplacements, twin cockpit, angled wings, rockets and colour scheme. I had to use a connection I usually avoid and don't like that much, but there are so many 2-wide versions of the LAAT out there, that I said to myself to make a 1-wide version. The construction is very compact to include all the details and thus made it quite tricky.

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A variant of the standard LAAT is the Low Altitude Assault Transport/carrier (LAAT/c) also known as Carrier Gunship. I built it in the same style and scale as the LAAT so that they can be used together. The great thing is that even for this small scale, it can really carry a combat walker! It is attached by a great piece, a small pulley wheel which also allows for a studs inversion.

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Now let's take a quick look at the micro AT-TE walker ( All Terrain Tactical Enforcer) the LAAT/c can carry. I liked the official version, and the tiny LAAT and LAAT/c gave me the possibility to go for a really tiny micro model here. But even if only having 11 pieces, I think it's recognizable as AT-TE. It looks so simple and primitive, however required some thinking as well until I came up with what you see below.

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Another common walker of the GAR is the SPHA-T walker (Self-Propelled Heavy Artillery/Turbolaser). The shape of this walker is really unusual and required normal Mini scale. It uses many half stud and off-set techniques. The feet use 1x4 offset plates, as these are among the very rare cylindrical pieces of 2/3 height.

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A very rarely seen, and probably lesser known vessel appears in Episode III - Revenge of the Sith. It's the High-Altitude Entry Transport-221, also known simply as Republic Assault Gunboat, not -ship. The design is very slim, and thus not easy either. For the tail, the angled hinge piece worked out best. A nice thing for the side engines is that the little hose cones exactly slide into the stud notches of the 2x2 cone in the front.

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As so often, I'd like to close with a vehicle from the Expanded Universe, this means it does not appear in either of the six official movies. Nonetheless it's quite popular and well-known as it appears in a number of computer games. It's the TX-130 Saber-class Fighter Tank or simply Republic Fighter Tank. The shape is very angular and thus tricky to design. Fortunately there are wedge plates of many sorts which can be used. The characteristic front "face" with the two small "eye" windows is realized by a transparent black 1x2 tile which is separated by the 1x3 slope in front of it.

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With that I am done for today. Thank you for your time and interest. Have a great week!

~ Yours Christopher

[Dennimator]

Wonderful! Just wonderful!

My favourite is the LAAT/Rep. Gunship. I´ve always liked that spaceship, it´s one of my favourites, and this really captures it´s looks!

This is the best mini-scale LAAT I´ve ever seen. Is it OK if I make a copy of it?

And the way you made the LAAT/c capable of carrying the AT-TE on such a small scale is really great! You´r way of using classic pieces really amaze me! You certainly deserve your "Moc Expert" tag.

EDIT: Also, can we please get some close-up pics on how the LAAT´s wings are attached? Thanks.

EDIT 2:Never mind, just noticed that you can click the pics...

Edited December 21, 2009 by Dennimator

[prateek]

Awesome job on all of them. The legs of the AT-TE are kinda weak, but it's understandable for this scale. My favourite has to be the Republic Tank

[lightningtiger]

Very good 'Legostein', I really not in to this microscale gear, but I must say they look perfect !

The LAAT and TX130 are my favorites out of them all if I was to choose.

Keep up the great work 'Legostein'.

[JimBee]

Very nice! My favorites would have to be the AT-TE and the LAAT/c. But I don't understand which pieces you're using to attach those two models- you said pulley wheel... and for the SPHA-T, what 2/3 cyndrilical pieces are you talking about? Is it possible to provide links or solo pictures? It would be much appreciated to know these stud-inversion techniques.

[Dennimator]

Very nice! My favorites would have to be the AT-TE and the LAAT/c. But I don't understand which pieces you're using to attach those two models- you said pulley wheel... and for the SPHA-T, what 2/3 cyndrilical pieces are you talking about? Is it possible to provide links or solo pictures? It would be much appreciated to know these stud-inversion techniques.

Here´s a pic from his BrickShelf:

[CommanderFox]

Oh wow!

Another fantastic lot of Minis Legostein

My favorite out of all of these has to be the TX-130 and the SPHA-T. They are both so accurate, I was stunned!

Next would have to be the gunship, a very nice and different mini from the Lego version.

The drop ship and AT-TE are excellent aswell.

And lastly the Republic Assault Gunboat, is a very nice mini model, Ive only seen this once or twice but it looks very accurate, well done.

Im really looking forward to seeing your minis next week!

CommanderFox

[Swash Buckler]

Nice stuff love all the others but At-Te- is well... i don't like it it is good that it actually can be carried with Laat/c but i would like to see better one from you since all others are amazing- At-Te is good too but not as good as others...

[Artizan]

wow all look amazing i didnt know there was a 1x4 slope?!

[drdavewatford]

More superb minis !

My favourite is the Republic Fighter Tank, but they're all great.

Nice job, Legostein.

Dr. D.

[Big Cam]

Another lovely set of mini's!

Just brilliant, you really need to get a job at LEGO making SW mini's, they'd make so much money off of you.

[Commander_Rob]

Great models, all of these. I wouldn`t even say that the SPHA-T is off-scale, it might look too big compared with the others, but those things are freaking large, over 140m (AT-TE: 13m). So if these were to be to scale with each other, it`d be too small!

[Darth Legolas]

The way you did the TX-130 and the SPHAT astounds me. I've always, always wanted Lego to make a full size SPHAT! That would be the greatest set!

Nice job!

[The Legonater]

Ah yes, the gunboat. Did you guys know it was originally gonna be a CIS ship? I love these. All of these. Enscpesially the gunship, the others just seem too bulky. I'd still like to see a min Battle of Coruscant diorama...

[RileyC]

wonderful as usual!

My favourite has to be the republic fighter tank it looks just so perfect!

[CommanderFox]

The way you did the TX-130 and the SPHAT astounds me. I've always, always wanted Lego to make a full size SPHAT! That would be the greatest set!

Same here. After Lego released the drop ship, I thought, now if only they'd do an SPHA-T.

Excellent work again Legostein!

CommanderFox

[Legostein]

Hello everyone!

Thank you for your many replies! And thanks to KimT for highlighting it. I am glad to serve the community well. Now let me answer some questions by giving some general information.

All images are always links to the galleries as written in the original post. The vessel's name is always in bold and also a link. All links point to the corresponding BrickShelf gallery. There you will find more images (usually one from every angle) plus complete building instructions for all models.

Thanks again for your comments and have some nice holidays!

~ Christopher