MOC mini a-wing

[DonBrizzel]

Another one I put together. This one was TOUGH! I still don't know if I fully 100% like it, I may have to break away from my SNOT designing to make this one better, I don't know. Any thoughts?

[Brickdoctor]

Yeah, for the A-wing, you basically have to either do it with real physical bricks so you can use illegal connections with a bunch of little bits in order to get the shapes and details you want, or you have to make it larger to make it work in LDD. (I've done one that's slightly larger in LDD; I can't really see many places where that can be made smaller in LDD without losing some of the shaping.)

[DonBrizzel]

I did try to make it wider, to use a better cockpit here:

I can only imagine that this would be Porkins' A-Wing. :laugh:

The proportions do not looks right with a wider base and cockpit, and I can't make it any longer because I need to keep it in scale with my X-wing and Y-wing.

Blasted! If 3 of these Starfighters didn't take out an SSD, I wouldn't even worry about making them!

I also thought about taking a page from the Lego Mini Jedi Starfighter, but I don't think I could achieve the angles correctly in the middle.

BTW, really like your Midi A-wing!!!

[Brickdoctor]

Make the other two bigger.

As a quick fix, I think rotating the engines a bit (The top fins are supposed to be angled towards each other.) will help break up the blockiness. Then there should be a gap in the middle of the nose, so I'd work that in. Instead of building around the 2-wide middle section, make that 1-wide (The cockpit piece's bottom center tube will fit around the single stud so it remains centered.). Then the gap between the two halves of the hull is 1-wide; fill that in with a SNOTed plate on each side, which will leave a gap of a half-a-plate down the middle. (And it'll also eliminate the tile and the plate on the top and bottom of the nose.

I also suggest changing the forward-most pair of SNOTed curved bricks into regular slopes. That'll get rid of the double curve, sort of humped shape you have right now, and instead you'll have one curve in the back flowing into one slope in the front.

[DonBrizzel]

Okay Brickdoctor, great minds think alike! I was actually in the middle of doing the gap in the middle when I saw that you posted to do so!

I also replaced the front most curved brick with a straight slope. Still a gap, but the overall look is a TON better. I also snotted the center of the body differently, and like you said, which I also like much better. I did not like the wider cockpit on it though, so I found an alternative. Lastly, I forgot to rotate the engines! Thank you for reminding me. There was a reason I did the engines like that!!

Here she is now, and I am about 200% happier with the result!!

Gap in the middle with slope:

New cockpit and fuselage area:

Front view to show the rotated engines:

[Brickdoctor]

I think it'd look better with the wider cockpit. With the 1-wide cockpit, there's more exposed hull, and that makes it more obvious that there's a lot of surface area there that's perfectly flat instead of curving and sloping towards the edge. Plus right now the cockpit is the same width as the fins, which when you look at them together makes the cockpit clearly too skinny and the fins clearly too fat.

[DonBrizzel]

I'm trying to get this x2 cockpit to work, but no matter where I put it, I either have gap or integrity issues.

[BEAVeR]

You're really on the right way with these star wars minis! I made an A-wing myself, but much smaller. This one looks already really great. My suggestions

- try replacing the flat bars you used for cannons with something that has more structure to it. Maybe a piece like a screwdeiver or a ski pole would do a good job.

- for the engine ring: instead of just placing that 2x2 round plate right after the engine glow, try placing a 2x2 trans clear round plate between the two, the make the ring 'levitate' more. Maybe you coyld even use a round tile instead of a plate. I've the feelng a real ring would make it even better, but I've no idea how to do that. I they'd only make those one rings two wide...

I like seeing you improve your design. Shows some real dedication. Congrats!

[DonBrizzel]

You're really on the right way with these star wars minis! I made an A-wing myself, but much smaller. This one looks already really great. My suggestions

- try replacing the flat bars you used for cannons with something that has more structure to it. Maybe a piece like a screwdeiver or a ski pole would do a good job.

- for the engine ring: instead of just placing that 2x2 round plate right after the engine glow, try placing a 2x2 trans clear round plate between the two, the make the ring 'levitate' more. Maybe you coyld even use a round tile instead of a plate. I've the feelng a real ring would make it even better, but I've no idea how to do that. I they'd only make those one rings two wide...

I like seeing you improve your design. Shows some real dedication. Congrats!

Thank you for the suggestions and the kind words. I made the changes you said, and like them both! Unless someone comes up with a split the atom type idea, I think the A-wing is done. I will post a picture of it some time later when I post a picture of the whole family (LDD). Just made up at mini TIE Fighter as well, will post that tomorrow.

I am having too much fun. One can get themselves addicted is one is not careful!

[Brickdoctor]

I've the feelng a real ring would make it even better, but I've no idea how to do that. I they'd only make those one rings two wide...

I used a steering wheel for mine.

[DonBrizzel]

This is my final render of the a-wing. I tried and tried to make the x2 cockpit work, I just couldn't

No worries, though, even though it looks a bit silly, and would most likely look better with the x2 cockpit, it's the same size as all of my other cockpits, so it will work side by side.

[Commander Colt]

Very nice, I like the development through the thread as more opinions are heard.

I like the guns and nose on the final model, fire the screwdrivers!