GrandEmperorBinks

Eurobricks Vassals
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Everything posted by GrandEmperorBinks

  1. GrandEmperorBinks

    [MOC] "Gold 5" BTL-A4 Y-Wing

    It's been a while... I've recently finished a large redesign, which incorporated @Jerac's technique to help the build be more stable - thanks mate! Unfortunately I had to sacrifice the landing gear. But oh well. I also cleaned up the greebling to make it neater and more accurate. The first lot of pieces from bricklink also arrived the other day - it's time to build it irl! I'll keep ya posted
  2. GrandEmperorBinks

    [MOC] "Gold 5" BTL-A4 Y-Wing

    Gold 5 was a BTL-A4 Y-Wing Heavy Starfighter, built by Koensayr Manufacturing, and serving as part of the Rebel Alliance. As was common with the rebellion's aging fleet of Y-Wing's, Gold 5 was stripped of it's armour plating by rebel technicians to allow for easier maintenance, and was heavily modified in order to improve performance and to keep it operational. Part of the venerable Gold Squadron, Gold 5 was piloted by Davish "Pops" Krail (according to Legends), an experienced veteran pilot. Gold 5 was destroyed during the assault on the first Death Star at the Battle of Yavin. My aim when I set out to make this MOC was to make a minifigure-scale rebel Y-Wing that was highly detailed, but more importantly, the details matched to the original studio filming model. What a high target to aim at... My decision on which member of Gold Squadron to make was largely influenced by what reference pictures I could find. In the end, I found the most pictures for the Gold 5/Gold 3 model (they were the same physical model used to film both), and so my decision was made for me. The reference pictures I used can be found here, if anyone would like to play a game of spot-the difference. In terms of details, I've done my best. Any suggestions would be appreciated though. A fair few sections in the pictures were pretty hard to make out, and so I had to go with my best guess as to what I thought I was seeing and what I should be trying to replicate. Admittedly, the engines were built by (somehow) managing to reverse engineer the engines used on Jerac's Y-Wing model. I couldn't help it, he absolutely nailed the design, and I couldn't think of any better engines to use. The Ion cannon on the top of the cockpit is in the same situation. Thankyou Jerac for the great designs, and sorry for pinching them! The rest however is all original. As of this post, the entire model is buildable irl as far as colour's go, except 4 pieces. I have used 2x 65426 in yellow (one on top, one on bottom) and 2x 65429 in yellow (again one on top, one on bottom). These are used to create the yellow detailing on the cockpit/head. I hope to come back to this model in the future and, among other things, rectify this by finding a solution that will work irl. If building irl, I would also use 30327pb05 as the windscreen, but unfortunately stud.io does not have this piece yet, so the pictures show a different print pattern instead. I mentioned earlier I plan to come back to this model. Hopefully soon, I will do this. My aims will be to rectify the unavailable pieces, and add (functional) landing gear that can fold up and away. I don't know whether I will be able to or not, but I am going to give it a go. After that, I plan to build it irl and test whether it's actually stable enough, or whether it will fall apart... 🤞 But now, the renders... Please feel free to share your criticisms, suggestions, or ideas! I also made a "generic" rebel Y-Wing which has more generic greebling and a few features that the Gold 5 model never had, but was essentially the same as this model with a few surface details changed. A BTL-B Y-Wing (the type flown by the republic during the Clone Wars, which has full armour plating) is also in the works, but has sort of been left and not touched for a while, but I will come back to it eventually. Anyway, I hope you enjoy, this is certainly my favourite MOC that I've built. I hope someone else can enjoy it too! -Binks
  3. It began with @mcphatty's excellent mod for this set (check it out on his rebrickable if you're interested). Adding the inner wing pylons really helped, as well as some of the more minor changes he made. I was still unhappy though, and wanted to push for further accuracy. First up was some minor colour changes of pieces, mainly removing any dark bley, replacing it with either light bley or black, where appropriate. I ended up figuring a solution for the famous inset "exhaust" at the back of the cockpit - although this shape is sometimes referred to as a window or hatch instead. Regardless, I managed to capture the shape pretty well and am happy with how that turned out. Next was a slight change to the "arms" that connect the cockpit to the wings - I ended up reverting some of ron_mcphatty's changes, so it became a blend of the set, and his mod. The biggest change of all came in the form of the cockpit and it's interior - taking inspiration from the @BrickVault / @Jerac model, I changed up the controls. I then added the dark bley paneling at the front of the cockpit window, something which has been omitted from almost every version of TIE Fighter I've seen. I like to call it a dashboard. Overall I'm quite happy with this mod, although I still think it could be improved further in future... Maybe one day. Also happy to take suggestions if there is anything you want to point out for me to fix/change! The model, built and rendered in studio. They aren't the latest renders, and have not been updated with the dashboard in the cockpit interior. The dashboard on the interior of the cockpit viewport. It just fits and allows the window to close 99% fully. Reference photo of an original studio model. Visible is the dashboard.
  4. GrandEmperorBinks

    [MOC] "Gold 5" BTL-A4 Y-Wing

    So I've recently made a few changes, beginning with cleaning up the engine greebling (it was previously too dense/much) I've also added landing gear, though at this point they are there more for accuracy rather than actual functionality, I don't believe they'd hold the weight of the starfighter very well. Nontheles, here they are: (1 on each engine) (front) Although it isn't shown, I have also strengthened the wing pylons internally as previous posts in this thread have suggested. Thanks all for the support and kind words so far!
  5. GrandEmperorBinks

    [MOC] "Gold 5" BTL-A4 Y-Wing

    Thanks! I do have to admit that technique was not originally mine... i nicked it from Jerac Also, expect to have an update in a few hours everyone!
  6. GrandEmperorBinks

    [MOC] "Gold 5" BTL-A4 Y-Wing

    Will do! Hopefully I'll get some time to work on it in a day or two.
  7. GrandEmperorBinks

    [MOC] "Gold 5" BTL-A4 Y-Wing

    Yeah right. Interesting. Never even thought of that. Thankyou for the help jerac! And the tolerance for me taking inspiration (and a little more) from your model 😳 Hopefully I'll have another update on how it's going soon, if anyone is still interested in this.
  8. GrandEmperorBinks

    UCS 75313 AT-AT Modding

    Looks like it. It looks good too!
  9. GrandEmperorBinks

    [MOC] "Gold 5" BTL-A4 Y-Wing

    Yeah! I might hit you up on that offer, I'll DM you my discord, that might be easiest if you were ok with that. It should be good, but never hurts to get a second opinion.
  10. GrandEmperorBinks

    [MOC] "Gold 5" BTL-A4 Y-Wing

    I think I just improved the wing pylon's stability by about 5000%... Thankyou everyone for pointing out the wing's most likely stay up irl. I went back and I think I have found a solution. Before, this section was simply a bunch of 1x1 round slopes on brackets. Now, it is some technic pipes that are connected at both the engine and the main body. This should hopefully stregnthen it enough. It also looks better, at least to me, and doesn't sacrifice the width of the pylons or have any other aesthetic issues. Time to replicate it on the other side... Sidenote: Looking at the brickvault model, it's wings are also only a few plates thick, but it also has this tubing technique at the back... Surely this means it'll hold? Fingers crossed... Edit: Picture didn't load, now fixed
  11. GrandEmperorBinks

    [MOC] "Gold 5" BTL-A4 Y-Wing

    Thanks all for the kind words and ideas! In terms of making the wings thicker, I'm hesitant as it would throw out the proportions, but if it comes down to it, I will look into all of your ideas. I could look into at least partial use of technic, but as ForgedInLego said technic isn't always needed to make things stronger - though it's certainly helpful. Hopefully this afternoon (so in a few hours) I'll be able to give this a go in stud.io and see if it will still keep the look I need/want while making it stronger. I'll let you guys know how it goes!
  12. GrandEmperorBinks

    [MOC] "Gold 5" BTL-A4 Y-Wing

    Thanks mate! 43719 looks like it could work, I'll give that a try. Unfortunately I am one of those nerds you speak of... Also, apologies, but could you explain a little more your idea for the liftarms in the engine pylons?
  13. GrandEmperorBinks

    UCS 75313 AT-AT Modding

    @cheech , this is the picture he sent to me of what he had done. His explanation for the mod was as follows (paraphrased): "...all you have to do is flip the screen upside down, basically the hinge parts and anything attached to them. Then pull the wedge plates off the ends, leaving the 1x1 with bar and attached these in in its place (in Light Bluish Grey). And there is an added 2x6 plate under the 2x6 tile on the underside of the viewport." It looks pretty good imo, and I'm definitely going to be doing it! Credit to my mate known as Empire Lego in the Lego world. P.S. that display looks great mate! Well done!
  14. GrandEmperorBinks

    UCS 75313 AT-AT Modding

    After reading through this a while back I've begun modding my AT-AT. @TaroPTY's gap-filling mod for the head was the first to go ahead! I've used the 2 AT-AT pilots from 75288 (2020 playscale AT-AT) as the door gunners (as per @Tris637's post), but am yet to have a loadmaster and a deck officer. After ruining my eyes trying to make out more detail on the pictures in my copy of the Vehicle Cross-sections book, I've decided I'll go with the following for both: Torso: 973pb4111c01 Legs: 970c00pb0411 Head: Any appropriate head with a chinstrap Helmet: 36043pb03 In the empty space at the back-top of the walker, behind the fuel tanks, I've added some various crates to represent the cargo the AT-AT is supposedly meant to be able to carry. I apologise for the lack of pictures, but as you'll find out in a sec, it's difficult for me to get reasonable quality pictures right now. In terms of the door guns, I've used this fairly simple setup: This folds away neatly (back of the blaster clips into the clip above and the entire weapon faces to the floor) and is not in the way of the door opening or closing, and can just be held by a minifig standing on the edge of the doorway. Not the best, but workable. I am also in the process of creating the drop-lines. So far i have this (below), but i feel I'm going to need to make a bricklink order soon. It extends outwards far enough, and folded up does not interfere with the doors, nor the drop-lines on the other side. This may be changed later, I'm thinking changing the half-liftarm to this and putting the axle, with a string at the end, through that. It'll make extending easier, and allow the line to be rolled up/down as needed. There are 4 of these mechanisms total, 2 to each side. I do plan to change the front viewport to, a mate on discord came up with a much better version that i hope to implement soon. Until then, I welcome feedback, suggestions and constructive criticism! -Binks Edit: Apology for posting on an older/semi-dead post
  15. GrandEmperorBinks

    I converted the LEGO Ideas Blacksmith into a pub!

    Nice! Old Joe in the corner is a nice touch, but overall it's really cool what you've done while sticking to the original build fairly closely!
  16. GrandEmperorBinks

    [MOC] Omega-7 Fighter

    This MOC is my take on an Incom Corporation vehicle. It is meant to be a vehicle that exists in the star wars universe, a custom fighter craft used by the Rebellion during the galactic civil war, but just never was shown on screen. It mainly uses parts from 75218 (X-Wing) but also uses parts from 75211 (TIE Fighter) and a few pieces from a few other sets. It features Full hyperdrive capabilities, powerful weapons, light shields, and it is speedy as hell, thanks to it's almost oversized engines, but one of it's few disadvantages is that it cannot have an astromech and so can only hold a few hyperdrive coordinates at a time. It can hold one minifigure pilot comfortably, meant to be a generic rebel pilot, and has functional landing gear. The pictures are too large to upload here sadly, but you can check it out here, as well as get free instructions for it. Please note the rendered studio models do not have the stickers that were used in the actual model. I hope everyone enjoys one of my older, earlier mocs, which is still one of my best
  17. GrandEmperorBinks

    [MOC] Omega-7 Fighter

    Thanks @Sarah_H7744! That was one of my goals when I built it!
  18. GrandEmperorBinks

    [MOC] Omega-7 Fighter

    Thanks for the kind words! And thankyou for the information, I'll definitely remember that! Thanks again, -GrandEmperorBinks
  19. GrandEmperorBinks

    HELP! ! !

    Ok, thanks for the help! That's why I asked first. Thanks! Also, I didn't join just to do that, though was hoping it might be a little bonus on the side... Thanks for the help though!
  20. GrandEmperorBinks

    HELP! ! !

    Ok thanks! Good to know! Mostly why I was asking to be honest is because I was hoping to maybe share my Aussie Lego Users discord server... All good though. Yeah makes sense. Thanks again! Quick question though - as I asked in my original post, how do I create signatures?
  21. GrandEmperorBinks

    [MOC] Rebel midi squadron

    Thanks. And that's understandable about the 'too much is too much'. You've done really well though!
  22. GrandEmperorBinks

    HELP! ! !

    I'm a new member, only been here for a few days, and was wondering about the advertising policy here? Is there anything official, or is it more just a few widely accepted Do's and Dont's? And what are they? Also, I was wondering about the signatures a lot of people have at the bottom of their posts. Where can I set one of them up, as I've looked through the edit profile section but cannot seem to find anything about them. Thanks, GrandEmperorBinks
  23. Yeah, which I'm glad for. I'll see if i can get a second on special, I got my first the other day in Target because they had a 20% off sale. Cool to see another Aussie here too!
  24. This is so cool! I appreciate the exploded view pictures to help build it, and can't wait to get a second! I was going to buy two, but hadn't really thought of what to do with two vehicles! Now I have a solution! I will definitely build this when I can! Thanks for the great work!
  25. GrandEmperorBinks

    [MOC] BTL Y-wing Starfighter

    Very nice! This is the best minifigure scale Y-Wing MOC I've seen in a long time! The greebling is really accurate and detailed, especially that section behind the astromech droid! As you mentioned, my only problem with it is the kind of boxy shape of the cockpit plating, but I understand why you took the approach you did. Overall, good job!