DarthTwoShedsJackson

"Sixty! Looks like I won." - Ahsoka Tano, The Clone Wars season 2 episode 5... and there's no way to call for an airstrike to get a tie in this case.

I can't see results when I vote, and I'm not even sure if my submitted vote is considered by the poll. Anyway, my pick is Ahsoka Tano. Since I firsted watched The Empire Strikes Back as a kid when it first hit the theatres, Vader has been my favorite character. But since 2008, his apprentice managed to surpass him and Ahsoka is now my all-time favorite Star Wars character - closely followed by Vader and Luke Skywalker - the reason for this being her personality and how she is written, her character-arc, and what she represents in the context of the Force and the setting: Ahsoka, like Luke Skywalker in the EU (and hopefully in the new canon sequels, too), has actually managed to find a balance between the Light Side and Dark Side, using both and not being ruled by any of the two (unlike the Jedi Order and the Sith) - this has been exemplified throughout her scenes in season two, especially in the finale when she faced Vader. It's interesting to me that Vader, who has been prophecised to bring balance to the force, is mentor/father to the two force users who actually managed to balance the Force within themselves - his former apprentice Ahsoka and his son Luke. The reason for me picking Ahsoka, though, is not just what the character means to me, but also because it is a beautiful minifigure - not perfect, but close and very well designed. Her face, though, is perfect for an adult LEGO Ahsoka.

Is it possible that LEGO is re-making older UCS sets to also kill the horrendous aftermarket prices? That'd actually be something I'd applaud them for.

I'm pretty disappointed with this set - it's a very very poor rendition of a Millenium Falcon and not worthy of the UCS-label at all. I like that this Falcon finally has some interior, but it's all wrong. And let's not even talk about the exterior - the cockpit is the wrong shape, the wrong size compared to the rest of the ship, and even in the wrong position - it needs to be forward on the right side! They made an attempt at the mandibles, but they are far to short, and have the wrong shape and angles, too. This is very bad. I like that they attempted the segmented sublight-drive to the rear, but once again, it is the wrong shape, size and proportion. What were they thinking? I can only hope that it'll not be that long again until we get yet another UCS Millenium Falcon, but this time designed much more accurately than this sorry excuse...

I wanted to have a Minifig of Anakin as he made a short appearance when Ahsoka cut open Vader's face mask on Malachor. Since I'm pretty sure we'll never get this Minifig, I finally decided to modify two parts and make my own. Since people here in this topic have modified parts to get updated Minifigs before - like rubbing off prints - I'd say it's legitimate for me to post this here, even if the modification is a bit more involved. The parts I used are the following: -Darth Vader from set 75150 -Anakin's head from set 9494 First of all, I took a very sharp hobby knife with a narrow blade and carefully cut out the right lens from Vader's helmet. Then I cut in the vertical damage above and below the lens where Ahsoka's lightsaber cut into the metal. I used regular printing paper to carefully smooth-out and round-out the edges of the cut so that they look as shiny like an official element from Lego might look. Next I filed away 1mm from the top of Anakin's head and from the stud. I also cut away the antistud in Vader's helmet. I did this until the eye of Anakin's head visible throught the removed lens on Vader's helmet lined up with the left lens which is still intact. Then I carefully glued Anakin's head into the modified Vader's helmet to make it one clean, modified element, which can be removed from the neck-peg on the minifigure torso and the lower part of Vader's helmet:

I know the digital model on which your MOC is based, and you did a great job at capturing the shape and proportions. It's hard to get it's sleekness in Lego, and I've pondered myself how to build this in Lego some time ago. I'm confident you could improve the overall look and suggest more sleekness by cleaning up the colour scheme. In my eyes, the red is a bit too cluttered all around the model and ruins the shape a bit. I'd love to see a version with a straight red stripe on the sides and the other red parts exchanged with white on the nose. That way, you create a visually sleeker looking nose, because your eyes are not distracted by the red noise, and guided by the long red stripes. This is meant as constructive criticism to improve you otherwise neat build.

Many thanks again, guys! A pin conection would have been clever, but there's just no space for the technic bricks with holes required for this. Instead, the internal structure is held together by staggered 1xX-plates, which also tie together the frame of bricks with studs on three sides and onto which the slopes are mounted. Instead, the connection is achieved through jumper plates. Here's a link to a photographic instructions of how to build my McQuarrie prototype A-wing, on which this latest version is based. This should give you an idea.

Oh, thanks to all of you for the kind words - I'm glad you like the models! I have only so much time for LEGO, even though I love the whole process of coming up with and building and later improving a MOC. The reason for this is not work or family, but having several creative and time-consuming hobbies (converting and painting miniatures for wargames on competition level, for example...) First of all: Thanks to you, too! Secondly: The U-wing, it seems, will start to haunt my dreams. To be honest with you: I started to disassemble my U-wing MOC in order to take photographs of the build. Then I realized two things: I could build some elemets and sub-assemblies more efficiently, and instead of spending a lot of time taking photographs, I'd rather build something - the result of which ended up in this thread. However, I plan on eventually building a slightly bigger U-wing in the future, so we'll see. Sturdy! No, in all seriousness, the build of the nacelles is pretty straight-forward, nothing fancy here: I guess this should give you more than a clue.

After playing the good old X-wing and Tie fighter series of videogames in my rare spare time lately, I had the urge to build my favorite tag-team of the Rebel Alliance: The Y-wing to deliver a huge punch to large targets, and the A-wing to clear the path for the Y-wing towards the target. I already had a good base to start with for the A-wing with my McQuarrie A-wing prototype, but I improved and modified the build once more. First of all, I made the sides smoother and the angle of the sides more accurate by getting rid of the slope bricks, and using a straight assembly of tiles mounted on a hinge instead. Here I also applied a sticker - something I normally don't do - but in this case it looks much better with the long dark sticker on the front two thirds of the sides to represent the dark gap in the fuselage for the torpedo- or missile-launchers. Also, it's an official sticker from Lego originally used for the canopy of an older A-wing set. I also made the fuselage in front of the engines one stud shorter, and the part of the fuselage in-between the engines one stud longer - both of which required a re-engineering of the internal structure, mainly for sturdiness. I also brick-built the engines differently to the official set in the recent wave, and also made them one stud longer. This gave me the right proportions compared to the studio model used in Return of the Jedi. The engines are also angled less than those of the McQuarrie prototype-version in order to give the fins the correct angle. With the Y-wing I basically had to start from scratch, which initially required some sketch-building mainly to get a grasp of the correct proportions of the engines and the cockpit sections and to get the size correct for minifig scale. As with the A-wing, I also wanted to SNOT-built it with studs-up in all 6 directions, and give it accurate greebling and detail as much as possible. I quickly realized that it was important to get the contrast between the smooth elegant cockpit and front sections of the engines and the cluttered, mechanical fuselage right. I also aimed for retractable landing gear, so that I can display it in landed mode or flight mode along with my A-wing. What can I say? I'm pretty happy with how both have turned out, and building the Y-wing with all the greebling was lots of fun. Both are sturdy - something which was particularly important with the Y-wing because the engines are heavy, as is the rest of the model, which is why the flat wide struts that connect the engines to the fuselage have their core built right into the inner structure of the engines and the fuselage, resulting in a very solid connection which prevents the struts from bending at all under all the weight - neither in landed nor in flight mode - and the engines not wobbling at all. Feel free to comment, and tell me what you think. Happy building!

Many thanks to all of you for the positive feedback! I've been very busy during the last few weeks. I'm also almost done with a few tweaks on the model, and have reserved a huge chunk of time this weekend for taking pictures and posting photographic instructions. I'll keep you posted.

Thank you, guys. And thank YOU very much for this, @kylefriz! That's very much appreciated.

The U-wing has received a few improvements, too, and I will provide instructions in the same manner someday around christmas, because I have a few days off then. So don't worry, they're coming!

Taking a few critical looks at my original A-wing MOC, I decided that a few important improvements were in order to get the shapes and proportions right. So I spent a few hours during the past few weeks to revisit the built, and a lot has changed - quite a lot, especially with the internal frame and the way this model is built. The changes were neccessary to accomodate the more correct outer shape, and to retain the sturdiness of the original MOC. Now Ahsoka's ride was finally finished, and after a few intelligence missions into imperial territory and a daring escape, Ahsoka asked Chopper to check her A-wing for imperial transmitters in an abandoned facility from the Clone Wars before returning to Phoenix Squadron. "What have you done, Chopper?! When I told you to take this thing apart to check for transmitters, I meant it figuratively, not literally!" "Badoop, ba ba. Arrrrrh!" "Ach, okay. Now let's check these sub-assemblies, and then help me put this thing back together, understood?" "Woop, woop!" If anyone would like to create an lxf-file - be my guest! Enjoy and have fun!

Iffy is only halfway to describing my opinion on the matter. I generally like what they do with Star Wars now (Rebels, Rogue One), but I have strong reservations as to HOW they go about it. I'm happy for all fans of Han Solo that they get a movie about his past adventures, but I wonder what they will do - Han Solo is a cool character, but he didn't have much - if any at all - of an arc in the Original Trilogy, and to be honest, I'm kinda sick of stories telling us where already established characters, events, gimmicks etc. come from, especially if there stories are already told. While they are generally doing a good job at introducing and developing new characters - like in The Force Awakens - I have my objections as to how they handle well-established characters, especially those whose stories are not completely told yet and who still have some journey ahead of them. Case in point: I loved that they had the courage to inject Darth Vader and Ahsoka into season two of Rebels, but aside from two excellent scenes (Ahsoka learning what became of Anakin in the Jedi Temple on Lothal and the two meeting for the last time on Malachor), I was a bit disappointed - not by the superficially ambiguous end (and if you pay attention to what is being said, shown and alluded to throughout the season it's not ambiguous at all - she's alive), but by what little they did with Ahsoka. I understand that they didn't want Vader and Ahsoka to overshadow the Rebels, but if you introduce such characters to a season, do more with them! I'd have made two regular episodes revolving around Ahsoka in addition to what we got - one last mission together with Rex, and one mission on her own. Instead we get only a handfull of scenes, two of them very impactful and nicely done, and that's it - the character is in limbo again. That's not how you do it justice, it's more like throwing a bone - a tasty one, yes, but still only a bone. Back to Han Solo: What do they want to do with the character, especially now that we know of his greatest contribution to the galaxy as part of the Rebellion already, and his dramatic death at the hands of his own son? Go back to some good old smuggling, or him meeting Chewbacca, or getting the Millenium Falcon? That'd be like going back and show how Vader was as a little kid - oh, wait...! I'm pretty sceptical. I'd rather have stories going forward, to be honest. So, what about the Lego minifigs? I don't see why Lego wouldn't create new prints for the faces of the younger Han and Lando. I guess they maybe have to, depending on the terms and details of the licensing contracts with Disney.

First of all - thanks a lot to all of you for the Kind comments! It uses some parts from the set, but is completely scratch-built. The way the underlying structure of the fuselage is constructed is completely different from the set, as is the cockpit, the rear, the engines and the way they are attached, and the troop compartment. Also, I didn't use the large canopy from the set for the front of the troop compartment, but the canopy piece from the Resistance X-wing/Poe's X-wing, since it's angle better suits the ship's profile. The wings are completely SNOTed, and the fuselage is a bit longer than the official set. If I get around to it, I might post some breakaway-pictures - the model breaks down into sections easily, so this will not generate too much fuss for me.

What can I say? Oh yes - rebels rock, and your fleet looks the part and ready for action. Inspiring project, and lovely execution. But a display as epic as this, doesn't it scream for imperial counterparts in scale?

I'm currently busy collecting minifigure parts for and assembling lots of new, original Star Wars characters for a slightly fanboyish and ambitioned continuation of a certain story, leading into new stories around favored characters and lots of new ones. We'll see where this will go, if anywhere... In the meantime, I assembled a new MOC of the Rebel U-wing featured in Rogue One. I like this ship because it presents a new, sturdy and easily recognizable shape among the already established rebel ships, and because I love the idea of a troop-transport with hyperspace capability, as befits the tactics employed by the rebels. I went for stability and sturdyness - as I like to do - and getting the shapes and proportions right. A sleek appearance also was a main goal, so as to underline the straight, sharp lines defining the design of this craft. I hope you like it: The cockpit section can be removed to access the pilot seat and the (smallish) troop compartment: The wings fold back and line up perfectly with the back section of the fuselage to which the engines are attached, leaving no gap in flight mode. When in flight mode, the wings snap into place via a ball joint-connection similar to the official set. When in landing mode, the inner side of each wing is firmly attached to the side of the front part of the fuselage via two studs: The doors to each side of the troop compartment slide open and close without leaving gaps: Enjoy, comment, nitpick, or just leave a reply.

Sure, I have nothing at all against other MOCers using this as a starting point to build their own MOCs and do with it what they want - that's why I posted all these pictures! The only demand I have is for you to have fun with it.

Now that EVERONE wants a tag, I don't want it. Damn contrarian reflex... No, seriously, there are a few clubs I'd like to join - so, can I also have a Star Wars theme tag?

I'm usually only posting in the Star Wars forum, and I love to build all sorts of vehicles. From time to time though, I want to build something from the real world, and I'm particulary fascinated by the look and design of military vehicles from WW2, which brings me back full circle to Star Wars, since the design of Star Wars is significantly inspired by WW2 military vehicles. So I set out to build an iconic tank - the Tiger 1. Granted, there are lots of Lego-versions of this vehicle out there, and a quick google-search immediately makes it obvious from which creations I took cues on how to build certain elements - because why re-invent the wheel? Still, I did many things differently and on every step referenced an accurate model of the vehicle. The turret is my own take, because I felt that none of the turrets I saw in other creations truly captured the characteristic shape in a clean, uncluttered way. You will notice that I simplified the gun to keep the overall look uncluttered and avoid unnecessary texture where should be none. Last but not least, I also built the model with a detailed interior to make it more interesting as a whole. I hope you like it, and feel free to comment.

No, I was discussing movie sets... oh my!

Dagobah's cave of trials should look similar to the hallway in the bowels of Coud City where Vader ambushes Luke (which also appears in Rey's vision in The Force Awakens). The curve and wall texture is exactly the same, only obscured by vines and roots on Dagobah. They actually used the same set when filming both scenes, but heavily dressed up the Dagobah-version to make it less obvious. Great foreshadowing and visual storytelling there!

I dunno, I don't get the mindset of scalpers and - flippers are they called, why does this make me think of friendly dolphins...? If you look at a creative toy and think "whoa, invest in it, put it into storage and sell it for more later", there must be something wrong with your mind and/or personality in my opinion.

The most recent update on Yoda's hut: The lights went out in his hut in the first half of Return of the Jedi. Good bye, Yoda.

Hush! There are some very, very, VERY spoiler-sensitive and easily-triggered people around here. You shouldn't blurt out spoilers regarding the upcoming season of REBELS like mentioning Ezra's and Sabine's new haircut and style so non-chalantly! Oh, btw: Darth Vader is Luke's father - can you believe it?