Wurger49

Another LEGO set, another Gunship! This time in the white and blue colour scheme! The Low Altitude Assault Transport/infantry gunship was a military repulsorcraft. Besides serving as an infantry transport, it was also used to provide air to ground support like the Mi-24 Hind and UH-60 Black Hawk. The X-Wing style windscreen made me think about how to design the canopy, reversing the orientation of the windscreen allowed me to fit two pilots inside the canopy, a similar look to the AH-1 Cobra’s plexiglass canopy. The gunship was operated by both a pilot and gunner, who were seated in a stepped tandem arrangement in which the commander was placed in the rear seat while the gunner occupied the forward position. The cargo bay can stand 4 minifigures, it’s also tall enough for the K-2SO. The back side panels have a slit window thanks to their implementation on the U-Wing. This gunship packs a punch. There are two nose mounted laser cannons with a massive missile launcher on each wing, the missile launcher design is based on the engine pod design of the U-Wing. This combined with the angular windscreen can be seen as an early Imperial Gunship model as the Empire prefers the industrial look over the organic shapes of the Republic-era ships. Like my other gunships, building this model is a breeze as I broke it down into multiple sections. The back thrusters were built into the design using grille pieces. The back ramp does open up but the entrance into the gunship is blocked by the structural column. Round bricks from the U-Wing engines serve as another structural column behind the cockpit. The wings are attached via towball plates and their angles are set by a support 2x6 white plate on the dorsal spine of the gunship. Thanks to the many brackets inside the set, this is a very solid model for swooshing around. You can pick it from the spine and swoosh it around holding the cargo bay floor or the 4 side panels. Do not try to pick up from the wings. After comparing to the gunship I made from the 75402 ARC-170, it’s surprising to see how similar in size they, even the cargo bay opening and location are similar. It would be awesome to see they go onto many different missions together supporting each other. This gunship is an evolution of my different gunship alternate builds from different sets, it’d be a fantastic addition to any LEGO Star Wars collection! Instructions are on Rebrickable: https://reb.li/m/220055

cheers mate, seeing different designs from everyone provides impetus!

During the lull of Lego Star Wars releases between Jan and May, I look for other themes to do alternate builds on, like the military aircrafts I did with the Creator 3-in-1 Race Planes. While I was browsing for other sets, the Ninjago Ras and Arin’s Super Storm Jet in its blue and orange colour scheme sparked my interest. The Milano is the home for the Guardians of the Galaxy. Sleek, fast and packed with personality, it’s Peter Quill’s prized M-Class starship. With its vibrant orange and blue paint job and unmistakable silhouette, the Milano soars through the cosmos on wild adventures, from daring heists to galaxy-saving missions. I love the bird-like profile of the Milano, with its back-swept wings and feather like winglets, plus the vibrant colour scheme. I started off with the beak of the Milano, the two panels are attached at a 90-degree angle, nestling against sloped curves on the top. I literally spent the first night working on this beak, especially on its connection to the rest of the fuselage, before giving up and call it a night. The design finally got going on the second night after working out how to connect the triangular pieces and worked out how the wings will connect. The canopy is clipped on, and you will need to take it off before placing the minifigure. The cockpit is very spacious and sits a minifigure, trans-light blue pieces made up the dashboard. I tried to smooth the transition between the nose and the wing leading edges via more curved slopes and pentagon tiles. The wings are angled through the swivel hinge plates, they deliver the back-swept wings with straight curved slopes. Ninjago swords and blades are used to represent winglets, I can’t believe this jagged blade piece is still not on Studio even though it was released in 2021, I had to use a different piece to substitute it on the Studio model. Two large rotating thrusters are positioned on the side of the fuselage, and a small central thruster is mounted on the tail. Trans-light blue pieces are built under the trailing edge of the wings to represent vents. Plates and 4x4 inverted slopes are stacked to build the back portion of the fuselage, all the way to the swallowtail of the Milano. I like how the two triangular inverted slopes visually connected the tail to the 4x4 corner wedges. Due to the stacked construction method, the core fuselage of the Milano is rock solid, much stronger then the connection of the beak and wings. After building the model, you would know to pick up the model any where from the central fuselage to the tail and swoosh it around with no concerns. I used four sloped wedges to create a crossed-shaped dock for the Milano, trying to maximize parts usage. This is by far the most vibrant design I have done, the bright light orange really pops out from the black and dark blue pieces. It’s really rewarding to see this alternate build achieving the bird-like profile while being sturdy enough for play. I hope this would be a worthy additional to any LEGO spaceship collection.\ Instructions are on Rebrickable: https://reb.li/m/219578

My Su-35 was extremely well received so I decided to follow it up with the current Russian 5th Generation jet fighter Sukhoi Su-57 Felon, featured in the movie Top Gun: Maverick. The Su-57 is the first Russian fighter aircraft designed with stealth technology and is expected to succeed the Su-27, and acts as the competitor to US F-22 and F-35. Sukhoi used existing Su-27 airframes for testbeds for various subsystems and concepts, which was reverse implemented to the Su-35 to bridge the gap with existing fourth generation fighters. The aircraft has a wide blended wing body fuselage with trapezoid wings, two widely spaced engines and has all-moving horizontal and vertical stabilisers. I moved the 12x6 wedge plates out to create the blended wing body, with 10x3 curved wedges smooth out the connection from the leading edge root extensions to the cockpit. The aircraft has two separated podded engines and a twin tail. The space between the two engines housed two internal weapons bays, and smaller side weapons bays in fairings near the wing root, I used two technic 1x5 round plates to represent the weapons bay fairings. Internal weapons carriage eliminates drag from external stores and enables higher performance compared to external carriage, as well as preserving the stealth shaping. A pair of 4x1 inverted curved slopes are used for the rectangular intakes, and the two engine pods are built by stacking plates. The twin tails are brick built, I can’t do the canted version but the horizontal tailplanes are done quite well using different cut tiles. The 45° cut tiles in white, dark azure and dark blue gave me the chance to try out many different splinter camouflage patterns, this time for the original user of the plane, instead of aggressor squadrons. My Su-57 is slightly smaller than my Su-35, but it looks bigger due to the wide blended wing body fuselage, it has a shorter nose for an active electronically scanned array radar, longer engine pods for large internal weapons bays. Like the other models from this series, it’s very swooshabilty. Instructions are on Rebrickable: https://reb.li/m/217605

cheers, that particular design got to credit LEGO, haha.

Thank you! the colours sure do match, they now use the digital pixel camo pattern.

As I was doing the 3D modelling of the Super Hornet, who is in the aggressor splinter camouflage, the idea of doing the Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker got cemented in my mind. The Su-27 and its derivative Su-35 had been on news during recently times due to the current Russo-Ukrainian War. The Ukrainian Air Force had inherited the Su-27s after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, this created an interesting scenario where two oppositions are fighting each other with the same weapons. The Sukhoi Su-27 was the Soviet’s response to the American F-14 and F-15 in the 1980s. The Shenyang J-11 is a Chinese license-built version of the Su-27. The airframe used blended wing body fuselage plus LERX (leading edge root extensions), they are vortex generators to reduce overall wing load to enhance high alpha maneuvering capabilities. I used the 10x3 curved wedges on top of the 12x6 wedge plates to create that look. The entire wings of the Su-27 needs to be more angled on the leading and trailing edges compare to what I can do with the available wedge plates. The aircraft has two separated podded engines and a twin tail. The 'tunnel' between the two engines, as on the F-14 Tomcat, acts both as an additional lifting surface and hides armament from radar. A pair of 4x1 inverted curved slopes are used for the rectangular intakes, and the two engine pods are built by stacking plates. The twin tails and ventral fins are brick built, not the most accurate of shapes but the horizontal tailplanes are done quite well using different cut tiles. The 45° cut tiles in white, dark azure and dark blue gave me the chance to try out many different splinter camouflage patterns, this time for the original user of the plane, instead of aggressor squadrons. My Su-27 Flanker is bigger than the F/A-18E Super Hornet, the two stud-wide central protruding spine pushed apart the engine thrusters and the twin tails which used up a lot of pieces. The nose of the Flanker sits higher relative to the ground due to the blended wing body fuselage. Like the other models from this series, it passes the swooshabilty test. I kept the black display stand as it is, so you can build a spare stand and use it for your other MOCs. The Su-27 looks great in-flight on display, you can easily remove the landing gear pieces from the model if you prefer to see it flying. Instructions are on Rebrickable: https://reb.li/m/215524

is the hornet called a racer?

Cheers mate. Yes, a lot of compromises for the chin intakes.

After designing the F-16, I wanted to design the F/A-18 Hornet as I am a fan of “The Mover and Gonky Show”, where two ex-fighter pilots, who have flown the F-16 and F/A-18, and their guests discuss everything from aviation to racing to life and anything in between, highly recommend to check them out on YouTube! https://www.youtube.com/@themoverandgonkyshow McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet is a twin-engine, midwing aircraft, it also served as the baseline for the later Boeing Super Hornet. While it does not have a blended wing body design, it does have leading-edge root extensions (LERX), which the 10x3 curved wedges can be used again. The 12x6 wedge plates are perfect for the F/A-18’s wing, a trapezoidal shape with a 20-degree sweepback on the leading edge and a straight trailing edge. While I managed to recreate the shape of horizontal stabilators very well, I couldn’t do the canted vertical stabilizers with the pieces available. A pair of 4x1 inverted curved slopes are used for the rectangular caret intakes, this combined with the large leading-edge root extensions made this alternate build a mix of the original Hornet and Super Hornet. The 45° cut tiles in white, dark azure and dark blue gave me the chance to try out many different splinter camouflage patterns, I tried to emulate the camouflage used by the Fighter Squadron Composite 12 (VFC-12) from the United States Navy Reserve, those patterns replicate the ones deployed on Russian fighters like Su-35s. VFC-12 serves as an aggressor squadron, simulating enemy tactics and aircraft to prepare US Navy pilots for real-world combat scenarios. The Hornet is bigger than my F-16 alternate build even though it uses less pieces. Like most of my other designs, it’s solidly built and passes the swooshability test from my son. I kept the black display stand as it is, so you can build a spare stand and use it for your other MOCs. The F/A-18 looks great in-flight on display, you can easily remove the landing gear pieces from the model if you prefer to see it flying. Instructions are on Rebrickable: https://reb.li/m/216889

My second design takes us back to the current age, the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon, now part of Lockheed Martin, is one of my favourite single engine fighter jets. It has frameless bubble canopy, cropped-delta wing incorporating wing-fuselage blending. A blended wing body has no clear dividing line between the wings and the main body of the craft. Not only it looks cool with the 10x3 curved wedges around the cockpit, it reduces drag and creates more lift. A conventional tri-plane tail arrangement is built with two tiled horizontal stabilizers and a brick built vertical stabilizer. The wings uses 12x6 wedge plates, the 72° angle is too high compared to the actual wings of the F-16, ideally the 63° angle wedge plates should be used. Though I think 12x6 wedge plates will be perfect for F/A-18 wings! Wingtip rail launchers are represented by 1x5 smooth end technic plates. The air intake is built using 4x1 inverted curved slopes, it’s also not the right shape but it will have to do. At least the tricycle landing gears are at the right places and the overall shape of the model is close enough to a F-16. The 45° cut tiles in white, dark azure and dark blue gave me the chance to try out many different splinter camouflage patterns, I tried to emulate the camouflage used by the 64th Aggressor Squadron from the USAF, those patterns replicate the ones deployed on Russian fighters like Su-35s. The F-16 model is a bit smaller compared to the P-38 Lightning I have done, using about 100 less pieces. However, it’s more solidly built and great for swooshing around. I kept the black display stand as it is, so you can build a spare stand and use it for your other MOCs. The F-16 looks great in-flight on display, you can easily remove the landing gear pieces from the model if you prefer to see it flying. Instructions are on Rebrickable: https://reb.li/m/216286

cheers, really tried to get the camouflage to pop!

I have updated my design to make it sleeker, lengthening the nose by 2 studs.

haha, thank you, great potentials from this set! Happy to give ideas to others.

I was really impressed when I first saw the 31160 Race Plane, it’s the perfectly priced Creator 3-in-1 set. I can straightaway see myself using 2 sets like what I had done for the 60430 Interstellar Spaceship to create multiple fighter planes. The first one I have done is derived from the main build, a single piston engine race plane who looks like a mix between the late model Spitfire and P-51 Mustang. The original plan was to design the De Havilland Mosquito, which around 200 were built at the Bankstown Aerodrome which is close to my home. I used to visit the aviation museum on the airport until it was permanently closed back in 2016. Unfortunately, like some of my other adventures, it didn’t work out. I couldn’t figure out how to use the 10x3 curved wedges effectively; then it struck me that those curved wedges could help lengthen the engines into booms of the iconic Lockheed P-38 Lightning. The P-38 incorporated a distinctive twin-boom design with a central nacelle containing the cockpit and armament. The twin-booms contained the overly lengthy turbo-superchargers, engines and tail assembly. I want to point out while my LEGO design has a taildragger landing gear layout due to the pieces available and weight distribution, the P-38 had a tricycle undercarriage. The 45° cut tiles in white, dark azure and dark blue gave me the chance to try out many different disruptive camouflage patterns, I settled on the current version of opposite white patterns on the wings and dark azure patterns on tail plane. My boy loves propeller planes as the propellors spin when he runs around the house, I had to promise him a bigger and better one before I disassembled the original LEGO race plane. I didn’t disappoint; I taught him to hold the P-38 where the wings are connected to the booms while swooshing it around. For adults, it’s easier to hold it from the back of the cockpit nacelle. The model is just strong enough for play, just need to be aware of the weak points around the tail assembly. I kept the black display stand as it is, so you can build a spare stand and use it for your other MOCs. The P-38 looks great in-flight on display, you can easily remove the landing gear pieces from the model if you prefer to display it on the stand. Instructions are on Rebrickable: https://reb.li/m/214020

thank you!

Remember when I said I hit a road block when designing the Gauntlet and had to change to the Fang fighter? Look how things can change in a few days. I managed to improve upon the design and delivered the Gauntlet with a better wing pattern arrangement. The Kom’rk Class Gauntlet was the original Mandalorian starfighter that first appeared on the Clone Wars series. Its signature cranked arrow wings can pivot 360 degrees around the cockpit to reduce the G-force on the pilot while doing heavy maneuvers. The essential pieces are the 1x6 technic bricks with 5 pin holes, and the 1x2 technic bricks with 1 axle hole. They allow the 360 rotating cockpit to be mounted on the centerline. It is connected using a technic axle pin with friction ridges, which you do need to push the cockpit back after a bit of play. I originally had both wings on the same connection, but there is no way to hold the wings in place during flight so I scrapped it. This means the wings cannot rotate into an upright position for landing. The underside of the central fuselage is built with inverted slopes and bricks so the Gauntlet can rest on the table without any unnecessary movements. The Gauntlet has twin engines on each wing, while the Fang Fighter has only one on each wing with a central engine behind the cockpit. I modified the wings to accommodate the twin engines. The four engine outlets are made by two 2x2 round plates connected on axle hole bricks, I had to use the spring loaded shooters as engine mounts. The Gauntlet has long forward mandibles with twin laser cannons in between, while the Fang Fighter has the cannons on the wings. Due to the different wings I managed to design a much cleaner dark red pattern with the tiles and plates available to me. The placement of those 3x6 round half plates are not only for looks but also for structural reasons, the overall wings with layering are very solid. There are enough technic beams and pins to build a stand with 2 angles to display the model; The stand allows for the Gauntlet to be displayed with its wings on a pivot, showing its quintessential feature. This cool starfighter will make another fine addition to any LEGO Star Wars collection. Instructions are on Rebrickable: https://reb.li/m/214280

I didn’t realize that I have passed double digits for my 75402 ARC-170 alternate builds when I did my V-19 Torrent, that’s a new record for me with more to come! A big thank you to everyone that has watched my videos and bought instructions, or just a like and a comment on the video and design pages. The Fang Fighter was designed to build upon the successes of the Kom’rk Class Gauntlet. It presents a sleek, angular silhouette with a double delta wing, featuring non-straight leading edges. The central fuselage accommodates the cockpit at the front and a single ion engine at the rear. The distinctive double delta wings can pivot 360 degrees on a swivel, equipped with laser cannons and ion engines. This reduces the G-force on the pilot while doing heavy maneuvers. The essential pieces are the 1x6 technic bricks with 5 pin holes, and the 1x2 technic bricks with 1 axle hole. They allow the 360 rotating cockpit to be mounted on the centerline. It is connected using a technic axle pin with friction ridges, which you do need to push the cockpit back after a bit of play. I actually started with designing the Kom’rk Class Gauntlet but hit a road block and changed to this eventual design, not everything works out in the end in alternate builds. The white wheel piece and the sloped wedges make great engine mount going from narrow to wide, while the wing engine mounts are rather rudimentary using slopes and grilles. The underside of the central fuselage is built with inverted slopes and bricks so the Fang fighter can rest on the table without any unnecessary movements. A technic pin and an axle made the laser guns mounted on a pin hole plate attached the underside of the wings. Due to the lack of dark red wedge plates I didn’t have what I wanted for this design, so the dark red patterns are a bit forced, especially with the those 3x6 round half plates on the wings where they need to stick out towards the nose. However, with a heavy layering of plates and tiles, the wings are very solid. The stand is built using wheel, barrel and cylinder pieces held together by technic pieces. The stand allows for the Fang fighter to be displayed with its wings on a pivot, showing its quintessential feature. This cool starfighter will make another fine addition to any LEGO Star Wars collection. Instructions are on Rebrickable: https://reb.li/m/213857

The V-19 Torrent starfighter was used by the Republic Navy during the early stages of Clone Wars, it was eventually succeeded by the Alpha-3 Nimbus-Class V-Wing. The V-19 was a sturdy, fast and long-range space superiority fighter. It possessed a flat, broad and roughly square shaped fuselage with a cockpit mounted towards the back of the hull, various curved bricks and slopes are used to build up the hull so it’s tall enough to sit a minifigure inside. The large domed canopy provided pilots with great view of their surroundings. The starfighter also possessed two powerful ion engines that are mounted in nacelles located port and starboard that also contain the connections and control mechanisms for the fighter's primary S-foils. Furthermore, a third engine is housed in a vertical stabilizer, they made the V-19 very fast and nimble. The vertical stabilizer can rotate up and down via an axle connection on a technic beam and bricks, as it is quite heavy, I had to design a mechanism to hold it up while the ship is landed. I used one rotatable lime 1x2 technic beam on the back of the cockpit and one on the stabilizer; they interlock to hold it up, and in-flight mode, you can rotate the beams to release the stabilizer. Another lime 1x2 technic beam at the underside of the ship is used to keep the stabilizer at 90 degrees angle when rotated down. After trying a few other methods including illegal connections, I feel this is the best way. I also want to point at this vertical stabilizer is half brick-built, combined with technic beams and plates. The two foldable S-foils are plate-built, the angle of the fold down is set up 2 technic pins inside the engine nacelles; and the angle of fold up is set by the slope built on the wing roots. A pair of large wingtip-mounted lasers cannons are built using spring-loaded shooters for their bulkiness, plus some other pieces include long bars. I used the same design features I deployed on my Nu-Class Attack Shuttle, but that rotatable vertical stabilizer with lock mechanism sure took some designing, and it’s structurally sound as it’s half brick-built. The rest of ship is also very solid including the S-foils won’t snap off when the folding down, a problem I encountered and fixed on my Nu-Class already, it passed the swooshability test from my son. The V-19 is another cool Republic-era starfighter from the Clone Army, especially with its folding and rotating features and two large laser cannons, making it a fine addition to any LEGO Star Wars collection. Instructions are on Rebrickable: https://reb.li/m/211421

The Colonial Viper is the primary space superiority fighter deployed by the Colonial Fleet, originally developed on Caprica, at least a decade before the 1[sup]st[/sup] Cylon War. The viper is built around 3 powerful engines behind a long nose with a distinctive three-pointed silhouette. I started designing the triple engine mounts, the massive white wheel pieces created some troubles which I had to design around, I even thought of taking them out of the design at one stage, but felt the engines would be too short. In the end, I love how they turned out as the side cooling intakes and check out the top intake with curved bricks! No sizable gaps are visible around where the cockpit is connected to the engines, and I tried many different engine layouts with the cylinder and barrel pieces. The final version chosen has the dark red round brick lined up with the dark red stripes on the wing, the grey technic axle was just a tad too long for the engine, luckily I was still able to connect the trans-dark pink round plate as exhausts. The stabilization fin was brick-built, compared to the plate-built wings, I have to say that brick-built just feels special. Dark red plates and tiles are used to create stripes on the wings, two laser canons are mounted on the forward wing tips. The small anhedral wings are optimized for space flights where maneuvering is done by thrusters. The Viper can still hold its own in atmosphere with its high wing load using its great speed and acceleration. The 1x12 bricks made the nose design a breeze, the dark red pieces are all just the right length to cover up the entire nose, with a white slope mounted vertically on a bracket as the tip. Even the light bluish grey pieces are the right length for the underside of the nose. I never get that in other alternate builds. There are enough technic beams and pins to build a stand with 2 angles to display the model; I would not recommend swooshing the model around on this stand as the 4 stud connection isn’t strong enough. However, the main fuselage of the model is rock solid, you can hold the Viper by the inverted curved bricks on the underside for play. While this is not a Star Wars starfighter, I believe this Colonial Viper will be loved by our community and many of us have watched Battlestar Galactica, plus the Viper is just a cool fighter! So say we all! Instructions are on Rebrickable: https://reb.li/m/212719

cheers mate, the ARC-170 gave so many opportunities

The 75402 ARC-170 has many long wedge plates and long bricks, so I thought it was possible to build a Venator around that. I followed the same design philosophy of the 75404 Acclamator where there is just the top angled hull and a central core. The White Queen was launched! The Venator-Class Republic Attack Cruiser had a hull characterized by two wedge shapes and a dorsal superstructure near the aft containing two bridge towers. The port tower was the starfighter operations command bridge, while the starboard tower served as a primary helm and command bridge. I started with designing the hull by trialling out different wedge arrangements, finding the right balance between the front and back hulls. The central core was built up quickly using long bricks like the 1x12 ones. For once there is enough dark red tiles for the central hangar roof, and the republic insignia sticker really helped to complete the Venator look. The hull plates are connected via pin hole plates, I tried different ways to lock in their angle. In the end, the hulls are locked in on top from the superstructure; technic beams, and inverted slopes and wedges held it up from the bottom. I tried to keep the underside of the ship as clean as possible, keeping symmetry and serving its structural function. With its simple design philosophy, the model is extremely solid around the core and hulls. The dorsal superstructure was mainly built with slopes and bricks, with two wedge plates mounted on brackets to give the side walls a bit more layering and detail. The cut-out slopes gave the best angles for the front wall, more traditional slopes were used for the back wall. Four clip plates represent the defensive laser cannons; they also have the function of locking the hull plates’ angle, if only LEGO gave me two more of those clip plates! At the stern of the ship, there are four primary thrusters and four secondary thrusters, mounted beside the pronounced hyperdrive tail. I had to use 3x3 barrels to represent the big thrusters, the fact that all 4 thruster types are built differently clearly showcased the many workarounds I had to pull out in alternate builds. The stand is built using wheel and cylinder pieces held together by bushes on an axle rod. The stand can rotate 360[sup]o [/sup]and the ship won’t fall over. I can also grab the stand and swoosh the Venator around with no concerns, the stand connection point is right beneath two sloped wedges, gives more support to the fingers that is holding the model. I am very happy with the size and shape of the White Queen, using less than 400 pieces from mid-sized LEGO set. This Venator scales well with other midi-scale ships like the Invisible Hand and Acclamator, making it another fine addition to anyone’s LEGO Star Wars collection! Instructions are on Rebrickable: https://reb.li/m/212121

The Alpha-3 Nimbus-Class V-Wing was a stubby, wedge-shaped starfighter. The wedge shaped fuselage is similar to the Delta-7 that was manufactured by the same company Kuat Systems Engineering. This design feature was later carried to the Rebel A-wing. The V-Wing featured radiator wings similar to those fitted on Eta-2 interceptors, when landing, the wings rotate downward to form as landing gear. The radiator wings are rotated vertically while flying, giving its distinguishing look like the future Tie-fighter. The wings are connected to the technic cylinders which allow for their rotation, the cylinders do come loose with play as there is no friction from the axle inside and the pieces are tightened to position via a technic bush and a round axle hole plate on each end. You just need to push the pieces back to tighten them again. The twin laser cannons are nestled between the wings and hull, connected to another technic cylinder, they are designed to rest on the fuselage to reduce unwanted movement as the cylinders rotate independently from the ones that connect the radiator wings. A small wedge is connected onto the back of the cylinder like source material. There is a white central spine for the wedge-shaped hull. From the wedge sloped nose, I used a variety of tiles and slopes leading up to the single seat cockpit. Inverted pieces are used to complete the sloped underside of the ship. The dark red curved bricks are placed below the windscreen like the source material. I only used an astromech head sitting behind the cockpit. Flanking the astromech are two deflector shield heat sinks, they can open up from the 2 pin hole plates. At the tail of the fighter, there are two vertically stacked ion engines. The technic stand can display the model in 2 different angles, I would recommend to swoosh the V-Wing around on the stand. While the body of the V-Wing is rock solid, the technic cylinder will come loose with play, but it’s very easy to push them against the fuselage to tighten. My son was immediately drawn to this version of the V-Wing like the Jedi Bob’s version, unfortunately as I expected, as the cylinders rotate independently it was hard for him to get them in the right position in relation to each other. He didn’t mind as he was swooshing it around but I would categorise this one as a more of a display model, another fine additional to any LEGO Star Wars Collection. Instructions are on Rebrickable: https://reb.li/m/211412

After doing the Z-95 and the Razor Crest, I thought of taking a low hanging fruit of the N-1 Starfighter as it shared many features of the other two. The clone pilots patrolling on Naboo got a squadron of N-1 on their hands and definitely preferred the N-1 over the Z-95 due to its great handling and capability to take an astromech. Things were going smoothly with engines pods done quickly, then I hit a roadblock on the wingspan of the N-1. There are plenty of 3x8 wedge plates with only two 3x6 wedge plates; the 16-stud wide wing was definitely too wide, so I built the ship with 14-stud wide wing and it was still too wide in relation to the cockpit and fuselage. I was about to give up with I saw the two pieces of 2x6 wedge plates, bingo! I got my 12-stud wide wing. I also wanted to build 2 starfighters as there are 3 windscreens from the ARC-170, so I was building the N-1 with minimum amount of pieces with the hope to leave enough pieces for the second ship. After I finished designing the wings and nose, I realized that I will get a half-arsed N-1 and another shoddy model. So, I scraped the 2 ship idea and concentrated on building the best N-1 alternate. I didn’t build an astromech slot as it took up too much space, just used the dome head piece behind the cockpit. The rear finial was connected to jumper plates and curved slope. The dark red wedge plates created the pattern leading to the flat silver grille pieces, they represented the laser cannons grooves. Spring loaded shooters have been built into the belly of the ship for play functionality. If you handle the model around the fuselage and wings, the structure is very sturdy, just be careful with engines and rear finial. The technic stand can display the model in 4 difference angels, small changes are made to the one in the A-Wing. The end product is a nice sleek Republic N-1 Starfighter, it’s much more minifigure scale compare to the massively oversize LEGO official Mandalorian N-1, will make a fine addition to any LEGO Star Wars collection. Instructions are on Rebrickable: https://reb.li/m/210609

congrats to the winners!