mortesv

This is a stunning moc, and it has the quality of a fine official product. You have really chosen the details you render with model at this scale very nicely. The small discrepancies there are, are mostly due to the scale of the ship and the fact that is have minifig play features. In other words, at this scale you have done a bang up job :) One thing I would consider is lifting the bottom most engines a plate a two - this way to be more in line with the film model. I myself, is planning on building this ship in UCS scale, meaning it will probably be somewhat larger (and no, I wont make it 1,5m long!). I would like to know what your model's brick count is and I would gladly pay you a little fee for getting a copy of the LDD file for inspiration. Again, great model!

The model is fine. But it could be better - thus needs modding Using tiles on the nose as Anio points out seems like an obvious choice. Larger engine intakes as Cavegod mentions should also be achievable. It seem the designers has a policy against correct sized engines - the 7191 had the same problem In all the movie shots I have found it is obvious that the 10240 engines are way too small at 4 studs width. Instead of jumping to a 6 stud diameter - which would be too big, there are plenty of existing wheel elements that approximates the diameter much better.

The old one had a torpedo in the tube! :D I like the new wing mechanism and the T-bar engine intake.

That frigate would indeed be awesome!!

To sum up my thoughts on the new UCS X-wing: I'd rather spend my money on every other not yet UCS realised OT ship, crawler, barge etc.. It is an improvement over the last entry - which already were quite good (except a few odd colours and stickers). But it is also clear that it is just a 'face lift' of the old design. It is as close to simply begin selling the 7191 again as you can get. From as business standpoint this no doubt makes perfect sense. For me it is a big 'meh'

Excellent pics Bob! You don't have to change your design that much to go studs down. If your can find room for it you can use the "old flat hinge trick" and turn the studs around in 2 plates thickness :)

Great to see you are still going strong Bob! I like that you have the front most engines sloping beautifully I would suggest though, that you make the area around the engines stud down - that way you'll get way more detailing option :) Keep it up! Morten

Hi Seifer, thanks for the nice comments - just PM me when you can :)

Hmmm, guess I'll have to sell mine for 5000 then - it is only fair, because it has at least 500 more bricks :P

Excellent progress Bob! Looks great, however the city should extend a bit further backwards. I see it will be a bit too much to take away a 12 x 3 wedges, but perhaps you should build some of the city on top of the hull plates. Keep bricking! ;)

Hi Georg At first I thought you were just reposting my own pictures – then I realized that they were yours and that you have faithfully recreated much of my detailing. I’m very flattered I want to reply as thorough as possible, but I am not at home at the moment, so no pictures. I’ll get you some as soon as I get home, but here goes: Regarding lowering the back. I can’t remember exactly what I did, but I do know it had something to do with actually raising the front leg 1 plate. This results in having to put 1 plate between the top of the back leg and the hull. At the same time I lowered the two sections, which the bottom engines are attached to – as well as lowering the section, which the other engines are attached to. Then I raised the middle engines (when looking form the side) 1 plate. All of this is takes a bit of time to figure out and requires a bit of tweaking of the back area. The gap between engines and top hull can be minimized by systematically identifying the resting points of the top hull plates. Once found, you simply remove the bricks at these resting points – especially at the tail of the ship. This way you’ll also lower the profile of the entire ship. Remember, before you do this you must have lowered the entire city as I explained in an earlier comment. A quick note there is that I have elongated the tail of the ship (and the city) 3 studs, which helps the length of the tail be more proportioned with the length of the ship. Lastly building the bottom as you have done in the lfx file would be really awesome, but will you hang it from the ceiling? :) Will get you some pics soon! Keep it up! Morten

Quick question: shouldn't the UCS set(s) have been announced by now? Or perhaps there will be no UCS for 2013?

Hi Georg, your tail fin seem to be on the right track . The trick here is trying to line up the angle you get from the new bottom with the tail. When making this alignment you see whether it will be necessary to lower the 3 x 12 wedges or not. But when I think about it, I think I lowered everything back there 1 plate... It looks as though you have enough bricks to take the tail into production - then you'll get a better overview of what you need to order. Regarding your other design - which I find very interesting, there are some issues, but I think they could be overcome. One way of going about it could be to drop the legs entirely and make a string system and simply have to model hanging from the ceiling. I know it is a bit crazy, but if pulled off it would look amazing On the other hand having the model simply rest on the legs could also be done, but it would require a lot of stability of the bottom - at an angle that would be quite a challenge. A quick note - in terms of stability of the entire model, I have only removed plating that was "in my way". Thus some of the core of the flat bottom still exist and creates some stability. Keep it up - talk to you soon Cheers Morten

Looking good GeOrc!! I’m very flattered by your project, and your progress looks excellent 1. Regarding the snout, I have removed the old “center tip” and simply extended the A-frame a bit. From here on it gets a bit tricky. I have placed a 1 x 1 brick with a singe side stud, bottom up on the lower hull plates. When placed correctly the side stud will just “hang” on the backside of the extended A-frame. This is kind of a hack but with so little room, there were no space for any more stable hinge solution. 2. The tail fin construction is a little hard to explain (because I cant remember exactly what I did), but it is not that difficult to make. I think I used the 12 x 3 wedges already there (don’t remember if I tweaked their height). I used these to attach hinges on which the two fins sits. As you speculate I have increased the distance between the bottom hull and the top of the backmost column. This also meant that I had to put an extra layer of plates beneath the front leg. 3. Actually I have just received a shipment of this brick http://www.bricklink...tem.asp?P=11203 to help tidy up the bay area. 4. Lowering the city is a bit tricky. I actually lowered the engine module about 1 plate as well - which entailed some work... I began by removing the layer of tiles below the minifig brigde. Then I removed all plates at that “height”. The backmost middle city area with the command tower I removed the bottom layer of bricks attached to the technic bars and replaced them with a single layer of plates. Keep it up and let the questions keep coming! :)

Always a tease AC Cant wait to see your progress. I see you have used the cockpit piece from the UCS TIE Interceptor, so I guess it will be built to scale with that and you use old grey colours? Keep bricking!

Just bought the lovely midi-scale Millenium Falcon 7778 and the 8099 Star Destroyer. They are both really well built and have great detailing for such tiny ships

Your LLD looks amazing! I cant wait until you get started on this - I am already contemplating how I could tweak the model further, so I look very much forward to your ideas! Quick note: some places I have not used the optimal bricks simply because I did no have them at the time. Since you have recreated everything faithfully there are a few places where I have used two shorter plates instead of one longer. However it haven't posed a problem so far, so you should be ok :). If you look at my newest pics, you see that the "fins" taper a bit more now, but that is quickly changed using a 3 x 12 wedge and some smaller plates. Regarding the hinges they somehow fit the plates in a way they almost hold them up by themselves... Well since the leg is just at the center of where the two plates meet I modified that to hold them in place. Initially I didn't think it was the most elegant solution, but neither is a big leg going into the model, so since is is already there I might as well use it I'll post more pics of this on flickr asap. The minifig bridge was sacrificed when lowering the entire city by removing plates. The model is still hollow under the city but there is no room for the silly bridge anymore Looking forward to you progress! Cheers Morten

Ah, that is a neat idea! I have also added an extra leg to my UCS ISD - that is also very modded and heavy. Although it began sacking way before I modded it :)

Well is was a bit of a precaution. I have added hundreds of extra bricks to the area so the rear is somewhat heavier than the original - furthermore I also elongated the end a bit. My experience with the UCS ISD tells me that even though initially very stable, long spans tend to begin sacking over the years - the core technic bricks simply begins to bend. Since I intend to keeps this model until my dying breath I am playing it safe @ GeOrc, I will post more shots of the SD on my flickr as soon as I get home today :) I continue to mod it from time to time. When Lego some day makes a 5 * 2 wedge I'll be really happy :)

Hi Georg, thanks for the kind words. You can find more shots - of several of my ongoing UCS mods - here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mortesv/ I have a problem that I have a hard time stopping modding my models - I often find a new detail I want to add. In regards to the SSD, I have bought several hundreds (much more than 500 anyway) bricks and changed many fundamentals of the model - so I would say that it is probably as much of a MOC by now as it is a mod. However this is not to discourage you. Building the original is a rewarding experience and I got a lot of ideas how to make things different along the way. For me it was one thing at a time; lowering the profile, removing the minifig bridge, removing the bottom while still maintaining stability. Adding details and greebles - researching the film model etc. I think you can make all the changes much faster than I did because the "research" has been done. Take take a look a my flickr and let me know what you need CHeers Morten

My biggest problem with this announcement is how cynical it is. It respect Disney wants to make money, but statements like "we will produce a Star Wars movie every other year until end of time..." doesn't exactly fill me with confidence in the creative vision for the story or the franchise for that matter... It is like SW has become a generic substance you can just (bi)annualise - like EA sports games.

Thanks guys :) @Bob - did you use all your money on your SSD?? BTW, I have just finished part 2 of my UCS ISD mod - Part 1 was the engine section, Part 2 is the command section - would any of you be interested in a post (in a new thread) about that?

Hi Bob, hope your project is progressing nicely. I promised a while back to post a pic of my very minor UCS B-wing mod in this thread - well, here it is, Bob The dark bley clamp has been greatly reduced in size and I have closed and tweaked the area under the cockpit a bit. It may be hard to tell in the pic below, but I have added the small "fins" below the dark indent on the main wing. All in all very minor mods - but I like them

Got the Advent Calendar and the midi ISD - that set is sooooo cool looking, and now it will set at my desk at work :)

Just got the UCS B-Wing and a free TC-14 from my local LEGO shop! Can't wait to get home from work!