Reputator

Excellent work! Probably the best Y-Wing I've seen. I like that the astromech sits properly in its socket. If you ever decide to make a LDD file available, should one exist, that would be amazing!

Ahaha, perfect. This should be real.

Really nice. I like the use of incongruent angles to show damage.

This. It was the one that started it all, not just for the line but also for me personally. Still holds up amazingly well for its age too, I think.

Considering you were able to put the droid front-facing that's actually better than many official sets can do.

I like that you incorporated play features into it. Most people only focus on just making a model, and making it look good.

Nah I'm not leaving it on. I have other plans with the 75082 set (gonna need a couple of them), but this isn't one of them. This is the one case where I'll keep the "vintage" TIE cockpit. I'm really excited about my next TIE project though, and it's gonna be something totally original!

Here it is with the newer cockpit slapped on there real quick. Looks alright, but definitely much larger.

Yeah I know! It's really tempting to just Bricklink the two dish pieces and build up my own cockpit for it. Only downside is it would effectively make the cockpit a good deal larger, and perhaps throw off the scale. I think I'll just take the wings off of my TIE Interceptor and slap that cockpit onto the Defender's wing assembly, just to see what it looks like. If it works out I'll post pics!

I was thrilled to death when I found out this had been accepted into the new canon. It's just such a cool ship, way more advanced than any other TIE, and completely awesome looking on top of it all. That realization just made me want this set all the more, but the original model is marred by a number of substantial flaws. So how about a before-and-after? Re-familiarize yourself with the original TIE Defender, a set I hardly ever see anyone talk about anymore. Before (click to enlarge) The original model definitely has the look (please excuse the ugly hairy appendage). The proportions and everything are good and the structural integrity is decent for the most part. You might say it's a little chunky looking, but it's hard to fault it much for that. Here's a close-up of one of the wings. It's simplistic almost to a fault. The 1x2 grills just don't work as wing frame braces, almost conveying a "pixelated" appearance from an old Atari game. The model also sported a swivelling cockpit, ala B-Wing. You could pivot the wings around in any angle, which looks cool but AFAIK is a complete fabrication on Lego's part on the actual capabilities of the craft. Here you see the pilot, awkwardly sitting inside of a completely featureless cockpit with no controls. Maybe he was trained by a Sith and controls the ship using the Force? After The new-and-improved TIE Defender. A close-up of the wings with a complete frame all the way around, and added center detail. Slightly modified cockpit. It now sits in a fixed position and no longer swivels independent of the wings. The pilot sitting with his new kitted-out flight controls! The "yoke" is the same used on the latest TIE sets. The original model cockpit opened from the top -- the roof and front dome all one piece. It was LAUGHABLY fragile, using a ratcheted hinge that was much too strong for its limited support. A much smoother, wider hinge is now used at the bottom -- WAY more durable and a much more silky movement. --------------------------------- The TIE Defender is an amazing Imperial craft. It looks wicked, and has that too-good-to-be-true, almost fanfiction quality that you often see of Extended Universe creations in how seemingly invincible it is. The fact that the powers-that-be smiled upon it, and grandfathered it into the current canon via Star Wars: Commander is such an awesome move, and allows collectors of strictly "official" storyline Star Wars sets an excuse to add this one in with open arms. Hopefully it will start getting more attention now, and who knows? It might even make a cinematic appearance in one of the side-story movies!

Were you hoping to make the landing gear retractable or do you just need a brick with a technic hole in the center?

Yes, 8m axles with end stops. The stops run all the way through to the inside of the cockpit, so the axles are going through three 1x2 technic bricks in the walls of the pod. The wing panels are attached via a double inverted slope piece. The axle is able to run through this as well. It all holds together very sturdily, making this almost too swooshable for someone of my adult age. :P

Using the ever-versatile 75082 set, which I believe is the first Interceptor on this site to do so (I've lurked). Previous MOCs I've seen using this set were for a TIE Fighter or Vader's Advanced TIE. UPDATE! VERSION 2 I've made major changes to the wings of this MOC to be better proportioned, detailed, and more accurate. The wing mid-sections are now 6 studs wide, while the wings themselves have been lengthened by one stud each, and pushed back. You can see the original version here: