Tom_Brick

Update: It's finally ready. The instructions to my new TIE MOC are now available on my Rebrickable page. My original postings are below in case you're interested in how this model came about, but here are some renderings of the final product. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Hi guys, I'd like to share my current TIE-project, what my though processes were, the compromises I made, etc. To start off, why a new TIE Fighter? I already have two TIE Fighter versions which I'm actually quite happy with. Here I have to take a short detour to the topic of scale. Minifig scale is generally defined as ~ 1:40. However, I typically make my models a bit bigger, somewhere between 1:30 and 1:35, the reason being the anatomy of a minifig. The most striking difference to the anatomy of a real human is the lack of lower legs. One consequence of that is the fact that a minifig that is sitting down is almost as tall as one standing up. So when you look at it, a sitting minifig appears to be a larger scale human representative than a standing minifig. Since in most ships the pilot is sitting down, I tend to use that as my yardstick and hence make the model a bit bigger than classic minifig scale. That has however the downside that once you place the minifig next to the ship, the scale looks off. My first goal was therefore to build a TIE model that could be used in a setting like a hangar without looking out of place, so it had to be 1:40 in scale. My second goal was focus more on the interior as well and try to replicate the ball shape made of triangles inside a TIE. This goal I had to give up on, but more on that later. My third goal was simply to try something new and potentially learn a thing or two in the process. So, I started out with the cockpit and here is my first version: As you can see, I used the triangular traffic signs to approximate the interior shape, which I think worked rather well. Unfortunately, it came with some costs, most notably the structure I had to use to attach the "arms" to the cockpit. When closed, the cockpit looked like this: Not terrible, but decidedly too much like a rhomboid and not enough like a sphere. I played around with it given this general setup, but it only got worse. So I scrapped the arm design completely and did something very different which meant that I couldn't fit in the triangle into the cockpit anymore. As you can also see, I went for the thinner rounded corners to define the cockpit shape, that way I had more interior space. But again it came with a downside, namely that the width of the cockpit has an uneven number of studs which caused countless issues down the line. Anyway, I kept the rounded corners and made new arms which led me to this result: Here, I did something completely different to my normal MO. Designing a MOC is always an exercise in making compromises. This time, I compromised on getting a more spherical look overall and in return to live with all the gaps that are the result of it. Particularly looking at it straight from the front reveals a lot of gaps: I decided to live with the gaps, seeing how well the ball-shape came across otherwise. The pictures don't even do it justice, it's even better in 3D where your brain sort of fills in the gaps automatically to create the sphere in your mind. The inside is now slightly less exciting though: I still have some triangle in the top area, but none near the floor. Also, I did manage to add an entry hatch up top: In the back, I used the same rounded corners as in the front, giving it a symmetrical look. Unfortunately, that again meant to compromise. In this case, I had to give up on having a hexagon shaped window in the back, instead it's a rounded square. Also, again because of the odd width, I could only use 1x1 & 1x2 trans-black bricks to build the window. Not particularly elegant, but it does provide a lot of stability, so at least there's that: Lastly, as can be seen in the images, I used the brick stacking method on the wings for the first time. I did that for two reasons, first of all, as I said above, I wanted to try out new things, secondly, with the changes to how I constructed the arms, my typical method of attaching the wings would've looked a bit off and it also would have made the whole thing a bit wider, which wouldn't fit to the scale of this model. That's where I'm currently at. Here are some more pictures: Next steps: Next up would be to split up the model into build-steps. That's where I usually find smaller issues or potential improvements maybe also some optimisations. Despite the small size, I'm at more than 1000 pieces for this MOC at this point. Then, I definitely will have to test-build the thing. I think I may well have designed the cockpit on the razor's edge in terms of structural integrity. Particularly the top-front portion where the two rounded corners meet and the way I've connected the arms to the cockpit may be a bit too flimsy. Also, the cockpit floor is a bit wild in terms of its construction in order for me to make best use of the space in there. All of which can hopefully easily be rectified if there emerges a need for it. Now that I don't have the triangles on the floor anymore, I could raise the floor by one plate without issue which should provide all the stability I need. As for the rest, I hope it's solid enough, but worst case would be for me to close to top hatch. However, all of that may take some time. I've already spend my entire Lego budget and more for this month. So it'll probably be a while before I test-build this sucker. I'll make sure to update this post once I'm done.

I don't think one needs to be a Soyuz superfan, just a fan of contemporary space travel.. However, given the size of this thing, it'll definitely be a tough proposition. Then again, if Lego can pump out a Colosseum, why not? Either way, thanks for your support.

OK, I've never been into Transformers, but to build all of these out of Lego is absolutely amazing. Well done, I love the skill involved here.

A while ago I did a version of the Russian Soyuz spaceship and didn't really know what to do with it. So I decided to put it up on the Lego Ideas platform. If you like it, I'd really appreciate it if you guys could support me on there. Like the real thing, my model can be split up into the three main modules. The side panels of the modules can also be removed without much effort, everything is connected with clips and/or ball joints. Here's the link to the Ideas submission again: https://ideas.lego.com/projects/ba7ba120-7b75-488e-abbc-cae1bb88027a

Thank you. I'm pretty sure Luke is using a regular steering wheel in the movie, though it might not be round...not sure TBH as they never show the interior in detail. R2 will be difficult I guess...didn't they tie him to the speeder in the movie? I guess you could carefully place him behind Obi-Wan, but securing him would be a challenge. As for C3-PO, what could be done would be to replace the 1x2 dark orange tile behind Luke with a 1x2 plate modified with a single stud. That stud could be used to place C3-PO there without him getting into conflict with the central turbine there (see pictures below)

Luke's Landspeeder may not be the most original MOC I've ever done, but as always, I was driven by the feeling that I could still contribute something new to the game. While I do like some of the existing MOCs, none of them fully met my personal, subjective taste, so I went about doing my own version. You can see the results here. Instructions & Inventory are on Rebrickable: https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-79226/thomin/lukes-x-34-landspeeder/#details

@Lfm55 @Hold0511 @caiman0637 Thanks guys. I based the design upon this rendition of Mara Jade's ship that was designed according to the description in the Jedi Academy trilogy:

I've been somewhat productive recently. My latest MOC is indeed the heavily customised Z-95 of Mara Jade. The instructions are now available on Rebrickable: https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-78976/thomin/mara-jades-z-95-headhunter Unfortunately, the wings can't be rotated forwards, that would have required a completely different wing construction which wouldn't have worked as well, so I made the choice to always have the wings point backwards.

Thanks. As for the discrepancies, there are various renditions of this ship and I tried to base mine on the first appearance in the game TIE FIGHTER which is slightly more angular than later versions. One reoccurring issue is of course the entire topic of "Minifig-Scale". Minifigs don't have a human anatomy which is why it's impossible to have both the perfect size and the perfect proportions. In this case, I had to make it slightly taller than the original in order to fit a minifig. That was the compromise I settled on. Alternatively, I would have had to significantly increase the size of the ship or accept not being able to fit a minifig.

Since I've recently been dabbling in the Star Wars EU, I figured that I could tackle a cool ship that was fist introduced in my favourite Star Wars game of all time, the 1994 simulation TIE FIGHTER by LucasArts: Meet the R-41 Starchaser. Here's a link to Wookiepedia in case you're interested in the history of the ship. And here is my Rebrickable page where you can find a part-list and instructions.

@MaximillianRebo @MAVERICK26 Thanks guys, I appreciate it.

All around a great job. Though despite all the fantastic details you've added over time, the engine assembly is probably still my favourite part.

I'm currently reading Timothy Zahn's Spectre of the Past / Visions of the Future books. In it, the Preybird starfighters do play a role, so I looked them up to see what they're like. I then found the Drexl-Class starfighter which started out as a prototype for the Preybird before taking on a life on its own. I really liked the design and figured that somebody should do a MOC. So I did. Instructions are available on Rebrickable: https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-77478/thomin/drexl-class-starfighter/#details Here's a drawing of the ship: And some more renderings of the MOC:

I've added a black version. Original post has been updated.

Love it. The details are amazing...

Instructions are now ready. I've updated the original post.

After seeing the ship in real life, I tried shortening the tail by 4 studs which works better IMHO. I also used ingots along the whole tail in order to not have the hard 90° edges. Now I'll slightly update the stand, then I can finalise the instructions.

You can also use Bricksafe (I do it all the time), you just have to insert the picture properly. Click on "Insert other media", then "Image from URL", then paste your URL.

You can always squeeze in another shelf somewhere Seriously though, thanks for the compliment. I have to admit I never heard of a TIE Octopus. The Clawcraft was according to Star Wars Legends the product of a cooperation between Empire and Chiss Ascendancy. Thanks, I agree that we need more Chiss stuff (hence this ship ) unfortunately, their tech really isn't well described. At least I haven't been successful yet tracking down designs of their ships outside of some large battle cruisers. The Clawcraft is the big exception, though that one isn't pure Chiss.

Update 2: Black version now available I've added a second MOC to my Rebrickable page here: https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-76368/thomin/nssis-class-clawcraft-black/#details However, I've only done that in order to have both inventories up there. Both MOCs contain the instructions for both the black and the white version. Update 1: Instructions are now available Thanks everyone for your kind words. I have now implemented the small changes I talked about, created the new instruction file and uploaded everything to Rebrickable here: https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-76042/thomin/nssis-class-clawcraft/#details Dimensions: w 20.4 cm x l 45 cm x h 20.8 cm (with the stand, the height goes up to 25.4 cm) The stand is not necessary, the construction is solid enough. Here are some new pictures: Original post below: _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Today, I finished my test build. I did find some flaws in my initial design plans. The stand wasn't strong enough to carry the weight of the ship due to the long lever coming from attaching it to the rear of the ship. That was an easy fix though. I added a simple support that goes right under the centre of the cockpit. No more lever. The stand is still a bit wobbly, so even though there are now zero stability issues, it subjectively feels as if there might be. I think I will live with that though. I prefer the stand to be sleek and wobbly to being fat and sturdy. I will however play around some more with it a little bit, mainly in order to simplify it a little bit and possibly making it a bit smaller. I made an embarrassing mistake when designing the attachment points for the wings/claws where the distances between the bricks modified wasn't right. Again an easy fix, unfortunately, I didn't have enough white pieces to fix it, so I temporarily used light bluish grey which is why on the photos, you'll see grey stripes on the wings where they shouldn't be. Other than that, I'm really happy with the outcome so far, but there's also some things I may want to look at again: It's way more sturdy than I would have thought. In fact, you don't even need the stand, the ship can just be placed on its wings without problem, despite the angle which isn't ideal for that kind of thing. It's almost a play set...only holding it by the tail might be a bad idea...other than that it's as solid as anything. The clawcraft has a functional hatch through witch you can access the cockpit and easily put in a pilot. This time around, I put in a lot more detail into the cockpit than I usually do...though I might simplify that again as you really can't see it once it's finished, I'm not sure about the length of the tail yet. Online you see different renderings, most of which have a shorter, fatter tail whereas others have a long, slim tail. The problem is in my case that the tail simultaneously functions as a rail for the stand, to make it easy to slide in the liftarms that hold the ship, If I make the tail fatter, I'd need to completely rethink & rework the stand, which given the front-heavy nature of this model might not be easy. In the rendering above, you'll see that I used the lightsaber-hilts with hand guards for the four laser cannons. I eventually settled for the regular lightsaber-hilt for cost reasons. Those other ones are crazy expensive and I'd need four of them Next up, I'll play around a bit more. Once I'm happy, I'll update the instructions and put them on Rebrickable.

Absolutely brilliant work.

Yes, those modified bricks are supposed to represent blaster shots. The scene is currently disassembled (I need more space ) but I've taken another detailed picture where you can actually make out the light grey pieces next to the light bluish grey bricks. But if you look at it from a regular distance, you can barely see a difference, if at all.

Personally, I usually buy used bricks, not for the character, but for the price. I don't mind the small scratches and discolourations, so I go with it. One case where I was deliberately looking for some colour variation was when I built my Nevarro diorama (see below). I had so much grey wall that I felt it needed some character. I didn't want to introduce greeble or somehow broken surfaces because in the Madalorian, it was indeed smooth walls. Then I tried to use some other colours...small spots of tan, dark tan or dark orange. That didn't work for me at all though. So I added light grey pieces next to the light bluish grey and in general looked for as much variations in the grey colour as possible...in the end you can barely notice, so it was a bit of a wasted effort. Since then I have experienced some annoyance with yellowing though. Usually not a problem with the stuff I buy for my Star Wars Mocs, but something I have experienced when purchasing the old pieces needed to restore my childhood Classic Space sets. But at least with light grey and white bricks you can actually get good results by bleaching them.

Thanks

Yeah, the pictures I looked at when designing this ship had a distinct mesh structure on the solar panels (same as the interceptor) whereas most other TIEs have a smooth surface. i think the studs actually approximate the mesh-look rather well.