obijon

Hi there, no problem. It is just the space robot body piece used in the old space sets. I have shown an exploded view of the nose below. On another point i believe those 1 x2 slopes are now available in light grey without the grille so there is an easy update......

thanks both. I actually liked the show. As a fan of Clone Wars the witches really did not bother me one bit and there were some original ship designs too...

Hello everyone. It’s been a long while since I posted anything but I have been building. Having watched Acolyte last year (I quite enjoyed it – the witches for one thing did not bother me being a fan of Clone Wars) there were quite a few nice new ships to build. I had the prototypes built and the last bricklink order arrived just before Christmas. I was going to build the models and do my (bad) photography over the holidays but life took over. A bad bout of flu which turned into a bad chest infection (coughing blood!) put paid to that plan (ill for 3 weeks!) and then year-end with work meant I have been busy. But finally……. ……..here we have six new models and six custom minifigures as there are no official sets. POLAN JEDI TRANSPORT The main ship of the show and the model I spent the most time on. The one thing I wanted to do with this one was make the hyperdive section separate from the main body like in the show. This was the main trick with the model. The 2x2 plate/tile with 2 studs which slides into the gap on the hyperdrive and also the 1x1 round stud on the hyperdive section which sticks to the 1x3 jumper plate on the engine section of the shuttle provides enough clutch so that it stays together and is swooshable and then pulls apart without breaking. The fins on the back of the hyperdrive are attached using 1x2 wheel plates with the pins attached to 1x1 round plates with holes. I really like how his model turned out. Displayed with a custom Jedi Master Sol figure. ESCAPE SHIP Following on nicely from the Polan is the Polan’s little escape ship. Obviously not to scale with the Polan model! A simple little model, no tricks but captures the shape nicely. Displayed with a custom Mae figure. EXILE II A unique design for a ship this one. The difficult part was how to attach the fins top and bottom without them being wider than the side pylons. The 1x2 plates with technic holes solved this perfectly and allowed the 1x1 headlight plates to attach into them to build the cockpit section and front beam to hold everything together. The colour choice of the model was based on the production model. The wedge plates for the fins are not available in sand green so I used light grey. I think the overall proportions are pretty close. Displayed with a custom Stranger/Qimir figure. JEDI VECTOR STARFIGHTER A really nice looking starfighter this one. No real tricks on this one either. The ship is built along 2 pairs of umbrella stands which clip to the main hull and attach the wings. The colour scheme reminds me of Poe’s starfighter. A really striking little model which adds a splash of colour to the collection. The pictrues also make this model look a lot larger than it actually is. I think I nailed this one! Displayed with a custom Yord Fandar figure. PALWICK PRISON SHIP Another unique design this one for Star Wars. For some reason the front section reminds me of the Oberth-Class USS Grissom from Star Trek III minus the control tower? Another model which is quite a simple build but captures the overall shape of the source material without any real building tricks. Displayed with a custom droid prison warden. I think the castle helmet works well with the green robot eyes. CANTAROS Lastly for this update, the model I am least happy with. Mainly because I could not get enough decent reference pictures for the rear of the ship. The engines etc are a bit of a guess. I have built it using bricks for the wings and the model turned out how I envisaged it but if more references become available this one will get updated probably. I have used red rather than dark red as the 2 x 6 wedge plates used at the rear of the wings are not available in dark red (or weren’t at time of building). It’s quite a nice-looking model, just not sure of its overall accuracy. Displayed with a custom Venestra Wroh minifigure. At some point I plan to build the Trade Federation ship seen at the start of the series too. As ever, let me know what you think. Jon

So the A in A-Wing stands for Acclamator!

This Rebels thread being dragged up has reminded me that I do need to build a proper Ghost. It was on my list after watching Ahsoka but then Bad Batch Season 3 and Acolyte happened.

The pictures of the Phantom II can be found in this folder: https://bricksafe.com/pages/obijon/reference-pictures All should be self explanatory from these but let me know if you need any help.

Thank you. I do not have time to prepare full instructions I am afraid. The Phantom II is quite a simple build. I still have the model so I can post some exploded pictures of it and all should be crystal clear?

Thank you

Hello everyone! It’s been a while since I posted anything as work and life has been rather busy. I have been building in that time just that not got round to taking photos (bad ones) writing this essay etc. I return with an update of 6 models from Seasons 2 &3 of The Bad Batch. Let’s start with season 2. AT-AC The All Terrain Armored Cannon (AT-AC), was a bipedal walker used by the ground forces of the Galactic Empire during the early Imperial Era. The walker was an early model in the production line that would eventually produce the AT-ST (RoTJ) and AT-DP (Rebels). The front of the head of this walker reminds me of the Imperial Troop Transport. There are no real tricks for this one although I have used the ball joints for the top joint of the legs. I don’t know why I have not used these before on walkers…… Displayed with an Echo minifigure. REMORA The Remora was a transport utilized by Echo during his time with the Clone Underground. The ship was once a mining vessel that had been retrofitted for stealth infiltration, making it ideal for insertion and extraction missions. The high-speed ship was also equipped with a detachable leech vessel (which I have also included). The design of this is based on the Meson Martinet captained by Sidon Ithano and briefly seen in Force Awakens and later in Resistance (I have built that too but that’s for another day). Again, no real tricks for this one, although I like the use of those technic pieces for the engines. A custom Fireball clone figure is used for the display. Now on to Season 3. CX DAGGER VESSEL The CX Dagger vessel was used by the Clone X trooper division of the Galactic Empire in around 18 BBY. It was dagger-shaped and featured twin red-colored engines in the back. A really simple little build. Only little trick is that the dark grey engine section is attached to the rest of the body by the two prongs at the back and is not connected to the large wedges at the front. This was to keep the thickness to a minimum. I am not overly happy with this one but not sure how else to build it in this scale. Displayed with a custom CX Trooper. The helmet is from the General Zod minifigure with the chrome removed using peroxide and then scraped gently with a craft knife. I would rather use official pieces but there was nothing close. IMPERIAL RESEARCH VESSEL This was a type of Imperial transport utilized for the capture, containment and transport of various cloning experiments conducted by the Advanced Science Division. It was manned by Imperial commandos led by Imperial royal guards. One such transport, transport 904, saw its Zillo Beast "Specimen A" escape while traveling in hyperspace forcing it to crash. Another fairly simple build and probably my favourite build of this batch (pun intended). There are a couple of little tricks, like using the door rail plates to fill in gaps when the model goes to 3 studs wide at the front. I also like the use of the horizontal hinge for the bridge at the front. The front prongs are attached using bars and bricks with one stud. Displayed with a custom Dr Hemlock minifigure. No mutilations this time, just labels. ASAJJ VENTRESS’ SHIP The ship had a unique silhouette due to the uneven wings of its fuselage. Outfitted with proton torpedo launchers for escaping dangerous entanglements, the uneven wings on either side of the fuselage cut a silhouette as unique as the ship’s captain. This was a fun build. It was a challenge to keep the wings only two studs high but managed with interlocking parts. The brackets for the engines also helped with the stability. The main trick was for the tie fighter like panels and how to attach them. Took a bit of tinkering but using brackets, clip tiles and plates with handles I finally found something that worked. I also like the use of those tooth pieces for the part of the engines on the wings. Due to the wingspan this model could have seriously got out of hand size wise. Displayed with a custom Ventress figure (all official parts!). PROVIDENCE The Providence was a starship owned by the pirate and treasure hunter Phee Genoa. It has that Star Wars Ugly feel with what is obviously the engine section from an Imperial Shuttle of some sort. Quite a simple build with the tail held together along an umbrella stand bar. The front section is built around brackets. The Phee minifigure for the display is built with all official parts. The hair is from a mini doll. Let me know what you think Cheers, Jon Link to the full Bad Batch Gallery below: https://bricksafe.com/pages/obijon/bad-batch

Hi all Having started to build the Dagger Ship from Bad Batch I need an X Trooper/Assassin for my build display. Any of you minifigure experts got any ideas for the helmet? Cheers Jon

Thanks very much. Here are screenshots of the Wanted List from Bricklink. Should be pretty much complete, may be extras. Enjoy building!

Thanks again.

Thanks both. The size of the model(s) is normally determined by a piece, or pieces, which defines the shape or is central to the design. For the cruiser it was the front section. The front of the cruiser is 4 studs wide and as it is long and thin made it a long model. In general the maximum size is that it has to fit on the stand without looking stupidly large, so a feel.

Hello all I have finally finished my Ahsoka collection after a Bricklink order got lost and I completely messed up another order! Work also took over as it was year end but finally they are done. There are seven models for your visual delight. I will try to keep the descriptions short so if anyone wants to know how certain parts of the models have been built let me know. Now the models, in no particular order……… AHSOKA’S T-6 SHUTTLE I was not going to build this as I had already built a clone wars model which admittedly I did not spend much time on. However, having watched the series I realized that Ahsoka’s shuttle was the signature ship and I needed to do a proper job and I wanted to make the cockpit and engines section rotate together. The ship is built around using a technic liftarm to hold everything together. This allows the ship to be the same top and bottom and also allows the cockpit and engines to rotate. I have also added the extra engine and gun turret. NEW REPUBLIC E-WING Finally this ship is in canon! It was always one of my favourite EU/Legends ships. Simple enough build for anyone that has built an x-wing polybag before! 😊 No real tricks. I do have to admit to using a sticker on the nose. It is an official sticker from one of those Ferrari sets from the petrol station. It just didn’t look quite right being all white. I am surprised LEGO did not release this ship as an official Polybag. ETA-CLASS SHUTTLE Another Clone Wars Era ship brought in to live action. For some reason I never got round to building this before. Maybe there were too many shuttles! A simple little build and I have used click hingers for the wings for those of us that are OCD about having the wings at the same angles! MORGAN ELSBETH’S SHUTTLE Another simple build. The cockpit area was the main problem. The shape is not perfect but I think the use of the wedge pieces was the best compromise. I tried to be clever angling plates but the model would have just become really big with that wingspan. I settled on using dark tan (with some gold pieces) as it is the closest to gold. RP82 FIEND FIGHTER This is probably the most striking model of the collection due to it actually having some colour! I am pleased how this one turned out. It could have been built smaller with a cheese slope as a cockpit but that model would have been tiny. It actually looks bigger in the pictures than it actually is for some reason. The engine parts front and back are attached using 1x2 plates with a wheel pin. 2X4 and 3x6 wedge plates provide the different angles for the wings. SCOUT FIGHTER Obviously a very similar build to the Fiend. The rear section is changed to incorporate the bottom fin and both kinds of 2x4 wedge plates are used for the angles of the wings and the outer parts of the wings on the Fiend removed. I have built a custom HK-87 Droid for the display as there is not a pilot minifigure available. NEW REPUBLIC CRUISER The largest model of the collection and the one that took the most time. This almost got too big for my liking but just about stays within the size I am looking for. The front section is a simple enough build. The rear engine section was far more tricky. The wedge plates have been angled using a combination of bricks with studs on sided and plates. There are 5 engines in a small amount of space. I am not 100% happy with the rear section but it is very difficult when it is only 5 studs wide to get all the angles. Let me know what you think. Jon

MERCENARY SHIP This model again is added here for completeness, Nothing clever really just a flying wing with some greeblies! The engines were the trickiest part and settled for attaching them to 1x1x2 brackets on the plate which holds the whole thing together accross the model. I do like the custom Vect Nokru minifigure. One of my favourites especially as custom figs aren't really my thing. Where possible i want to use an official figure. Hope to have the Ahsoka models done over Christmas....... Jon

FERRIX FERRY SHUTTLE has now been included in the original post

thanks again

Thanks again. LEGO know where to find me 🤣. most of these models on the magazines look like afterthoughts. There has been the odd exception - the last Falcon was good, the turbo tank. If I was paranoid I would think that they copied my design for Reys Speeder from Force Awakens a few years back.

Thanks again. I do try and get as much detail as possible in to these little builds.

Thank you very much. It is around 60 parts so I suppose it shows what could have been. I have that turbo tank model too - I modded it quite a bit though. I should publish that at some point!

Hello all Just the one model this time. The Ahsoka collection has taken a bit of time due to the recent Bricklink issues............ The latest issue of the LEGO Star Wars Magazine supposedly has a mini model of Yoda’s Jedi Starfighter: Yes, really, that is supposed to be Yoda’s Jedi Starfighter. Even if you use your imagination (like you are supposed to do with LEGO) and give the designer the benefit of the doubt, er no! . Basically it’s a re-coloured TIE Striker. As a MINI builder I know the limitations of these small models but really! This is just lazy and no-one would know what it was if it didn’t have it printed on the bag. The cockpit section is way too tiny compared to the wings for starters and there should be wings/s-foils top and bottom. I have had this one on my to do list for a long while but I have not got round to it but this just made me want to do a proper job on this one when my son brought this home and told me what it was! Rant over, now to the model! 😊 The cockpit is 3 studs wide not 2, and I have used the 3x3 cone as the back of the cockpit. This is all held together with a bar through a 1x1 brick with studs on 2 sides. The wings are angled forward using those rounded 1x2 plates so you can turn the wedges. I also really like how the 2x2 wedges at the back of the wings sit snuggly against the cone so there is no gap. The foils may be slightly too big but are much better than having none and overall the model’s proportions are almost spot on to the source material. Colour wise I have used green not dark green as the cone piece is not available in dark. There are probably too many pieces for a magazine gift model but this shows what can be done. Let me know what you think. Jon Full Bricksafe gallery can be found here with loads of other models: https://bricksafe.com/pages/obijon

Thank you. Of these the Speeder Bike is my personal favourite. Quite surprised about the Skiff.....

Hello all This time I present 4 little models from the Original Trilogy. I will keep the descriptions of these short: IMPERIAL SPEEDER BIKE This is a very intricate little build and I have managed to keep it really small. The main body is built with a brick with studs on all sides attached to a 1x1 bracket. The nose is attached using a t-bar and bar holders with a clip. I think I got all the main details in for such a small model. For some reason I think the pictures make this model look a lot bigger than it really is – or maybe it’s just me! Really like how this turned out. DESERT SKIFF Sticking with RoTJ here is a simple little model of the desert skiff from the opening part of the movie. I could have made a simple little version only 2 studs wide but would not have got any detail doing that. No real tricks on this model. T-16 SKYHOPPER Barely seen other than as a model (Luke’s toy) and in the special edition of ANH this little model has one neat little trick. The fin is attached using a plate with handle attached to 1x1 clip tiles on the body. I wanted to do something different other than make it with bricks as it would just have looked too wide. ESCAPE POD Very simple little model built using 4x4 round bricks and plates. Again it could have been built smaller but wanted to do something a bit different. The cone is hollow to allow the 4 engines to be added the right way up. Let me know what you think. More soon. Jon Full Gallery Can be found here: https://bricksafe.com/pages/obijon

Thank you, the Corsair was the one i spent the most time on. It is a bit of a tight fit when you spin it but it does work! Thanks again.

Hello again everyone, This time I present 6 models from Season 3 of The Mandalorian! Let’s get straight into it shall we? GAUNTLET FIGHTER/TRANSPORT The Kom'rk-class fighter/transport, also known as Kom'rk Class fighter transport or the Gauntlet starfighter, was a type of starfighter and troop transport used by the Mandalorians and seen first in the Clone Wars animated series. This model initially started off being planned as a mod of the old official polybag of this set but turned in to a complete rebuild. Most of the parts have been used but a lot more have been added. The cockpit section and rotating mechanism completely replaced. That newish technic brick with the 1 x 2 plate attached was perfect for the attachment of the wings. I have also tried to make the colour scheme the same on the top and bottom of the wings, something the polybag didn’t do. I also like how the bar for the front cannons on the “Bar 1L with 1 x 1 Round Plate” pieces sit in the plate notches of the 1x2 wedge pieces on the front of the cockpit section. I have kept the classic white and dark blue colour scheme used in the animated series. I really like this model. Displayed with Bo-Katan. FANG-CLASS STARFIGHTER The Fang fighter was custom-built for starfighter combat, and the vessel's narrow attack profile and pivot wing technology could be used to achieve unmatched agility. This fighter again was first seen in an animated series but this time Rebels. I was disappointed we did not see enough of this fighter in The Mandalorian to tell whether they were still using the pivot wing which allowed the cockpit to spin much like the B-Wing but with the cockpit in the middle of the space frame and not on the outside. The official LEGO model of this also does not spin but I don’t think that really tells us anything as the designer was probably just given stills from which to base the model. My little model however does spin! It spins simply on an axle piece through 2 technic bricks on the body and can be turned by using the main engine assembly as a wheel. The curved slopes for the cockpit fit quite snuggly to the 2x4 wedge plates on the body so there is only a small gap. The new 2 x 6 wedge plates are perfect for the front fangs which are finished off by 1x2 wedges. Another thing wrong with the LEGO model is the position of the cannons which should be at the front. I have of course fixed that too on my little model. I have also used the same colour scheme as my Gauntlet rather than white and dark grey the LEGO set uses. Displayed with a Mandalorian Warrior. CUMULUS-CLASS CORSAIR The Cumulus Class Corsair was a type of corsair ship used by the Pirate King Gorian Shard (who we will come on to later). This model ended up being a little bit bigger than I would normally like to build but I really wanted to use those Modified 4 x 4 with 3 x 3 Curved Cutout pieces for the shape of the wings. The shape also needed the 2x6 wedge plates for the front section so before doing anything else the model was 14 studs long. I have used various inverted slopes to get the shape of the hull, switching between light grey and dark blue for the stripey colour scheme which is mirrored as much as possible on the top of the model. There is quite a nice little trick near the front where the two different types of 1x1-1x2 brackets are top and tailed (twice) and attached to the hull in the hole of the 1 x 2 dark blue technic brick right at the front. This allowed the 1x1 tiles and cheese slopes to be attached and create a smoother transition of the slopes on the hull. The stud notches on the 33 degree slopes also double as the recessed cannon emplacements (by accident). The engines were a bit of a problem as the two clusters needed to have 3 engines. It did not look right with 2 so I had to settle for using/stacking the light attachment plates and the bulb pieces as using a 3 plate long configuration of round tiles, for example, would have been too high and looked out of place. It is quite a nice-looking model and think I have got most of the features – there is even a flight deck with Snub Fighters (guess the next model!). It is displayed with a custom Gorian Shard minifigure. If only the yeti/bigfoot head came in green (no new mold required LEGO just recolour this one and you can give us a Gorian Shard figure!), or the Hagrid hair piece or any suitable hair pieces for that matter. In the end I got inspiration from my son’s now defunct Hidden Side sets and used the yellowish green hairpiece from those sets. The gold jacket is atlantean armour and the sash is just made from coloured paper! PIRATE SNUB FIGHTER The Pirate Snub Fighter was a type of snub-fighter that was used by pirates during the New Republic Era. A squadron of these was kept on Gorian Shard’s corsair. This was quite a simple build. I really wanted to use those inverted slopes for the front of the ship as they have stud holes on the back which makes them easy to attach to the hull. I also wanted to use those trans-black slope pieces for the cockpit after I noticed them on one of my old Ferrari sets and thought they were perfect for the job. There is a little trick with the wings at the back as they are angled just by using 2 1x6 plates and they are positioned against cheese slopes to get a consistent angle each side for those who are a bit OCD. I could have built a smaller model than this, but it is by no means huge, and a smaller model would have had much less detail. I also think the pictures make this model look bigger than it actually is. Displayed with an official Snub Fighter Pilot minifigure. QUARREN FREIGHTER A Quarren freighter was operated around 9 ABY by Shuggoth. This ship came under attack by Mandalorian Axe Woves' privateer fleet. This was not a tricky build, but I wanted to get as many of the ‘antennas/spikes’ into the model as possible. The colour scheme of the model was also determined by part availability. It’s a shame the Bar 1L with Angled Hollow Stud pieces do not come in brown (yet?) so the nearest colour I could use for the antennas was medium nougat. They are ‘fine’ but would look better if the model was all the same colour. The trickiest part of this was to try and keep the organic feel in LEGO that all MonCal/Quarren ships have. The build is basically just a stack of round plates with a wedge piece on top. The fin at the bottom is just attached to the main hull with jumper plates. The model does the job and is recognizable at the scale. Displayed with a custom Quarren Officer. MODIFIED N-1 STARFIGHTER This was originally built a while ago for Book Of Boba Fett but as it is a major ship in Series 3, I have added it here too for completeness. As we know a modified N-1 starfighter was owned by Din Djarin following the destruction of the Razor Crest (grrrrrrr!). Djarin and the mechanic Peli Motto worked together to build the N-1 starfighter as a replacement. When I first thought about a model for this I thought just changing the colour scheme of one of the official Naboo N-1 polybags would do the trick, but once I did that, I realised I wanted more detail. The model grew from wanting to use the plate with two handles for the guns at the front but to do this the wings needed to be upside down (as the handles are offset slightly below the plate) and so an idea was born. The front is inverted using brackets attached to a technic brick with 2 holes which also allows the body to incorporate the third engine at the rear. Flipping the wings at the front also allows the “turbo” to be added in front of the cockpit in the stud hole in the bottom of a 2 x 2 tile with 2 studs. The tail is attached using one of those 1x1 round plates with a bar. Overall, this was quite a tricky little build with a lot of parts interacting to keep the size and shape this small. A few flat silver and gold pieces are also added for detail and contrast. Displayed with Peli Motto, because you know, Mando is on my Razor Crest display. Let me know what you think. Jon Full Bricksafe gallery can be found here: https://bricksafe.com/pages/obijon