Walter Kovacs

I remember your AT-AP MOC. That is really nice work there. My MOD wasn't intended to be an earth-shattering improvement. It is supposed to be a low-cost way to MOD many copies of the battle pack and remove the second seat at the same time. As for building while driving, I knew I wasn't going to have any build time when I reached my destination. It's amazing how easy it is to build by feel only. I'll second the wish for an AT-RT. But when life gives you lemons... As for the Commander gear, I am using the BPs as regular troop builders. So I don't need the kama or pauldron on any of the clones. I opened the dark bley commander gear from the spider droid, RGS and AT-TE sets, so I have enough of the headgear accessories floating around already. And besides, it's much easier to keep track of 15 unopened polybags, should I ever need to off-load a set or ten, rather than trying to keep track of 135 separate pieces kept in a box. If I ever find the need to open one, I know where to find them. Besides, I still have the extra set from the RGS unopened. I'd open that one first. Ask and you shall receive: Front View Top View

I'm sorry you had to move this topic, White Fang. When it was in the Reviewers Academy, the teachers agreed it belonged in Other Themes. *shrug* I guess it ended up where it belonged eventually.

When giving advice to aspiring writer's, most authors tell them to "Write about what you know." So in that vein, I will use set 8014 - Clone Walker Battle Pack as my first review. I own 15 copies of this set. To say I am familiar with it would be a gross understatement. I could assemble the walker in my sleep, if ever that was necessary. I've even assembled the set while traveling at 65 mph (and yes, I was driving. Not sure if that's a good thing or not.) Set #: 8014 Name: Clone Walker Battle Pack Theme: LEGO System / Star Wars / Clone Wars Year: 2009 Pieces: 72 Minifigs: 4 Price: USD 10.99, CDN 13.99, EUR 14.99, GBP 9.79 Links: Bricklink, Peeron, Brickset PACKAGING The Box: There's nothing special about the box front. Standard Clone Wars style white border, the "Build Your Army" logo in the bottom left. The art does show the walker in action, firing those flick fire missiles. That's probably the farthest the missiles will ever fly. And the Back: The back of the box shows what everyone is likely after in this set: The Minifigs! Four nice phase I clones, including a Gunner. In a pinch, the Gunners make nice substitutes for Pilot Clones. It also shows one regular clone in the full commander gear. Take a good look, it'll be the last Commander you see in this review. Along the bottom is a picture of the two Battle Packs for this year. I find it interesting that you get a picture of the set you have in your hands on the back, but this is intended as an impulse set of sorts, so I guess that's OK. I apologize for the crumpled look of the box. I had taken some pictures of a brand new, unopened box, but the photos came out blurry. I had to dig it back out of the trash . INSTRUCTIONS Front: Back: Parts List: Random Instruction Page: The instructions are very clear. No issues trying to discern Dark Gray from Light Gray or Black. That might be because of the limited piece count, though. The back has a part list, as is standard in almost all sets nowadays. The opposite page has a nice scene with some of the 2009 Spring line in action. THE BUILD The Contents: There are three bags that come with this set. The largest contains most of the big pieces. The medium sized one has the small parts. The minifigs are spread out between these two bags. The third bags contains the Clone Gear, in a nice Black color. As I said before, I own 15 copies of this set, and I have yet to open one of the Clone Gear bags. So don't expect any photos of the gear. I'm not going to do it, no matter how you whine and plead The DSS: Can it really be dreaded? There are only two stickers. They aren't THAT hard to get aligned correctly, but it does ake a little patience to get them on straight. MINIFIGS What Everyone Wants: There they are. Three bright, shiney Clone Troopers and one Clone Gunner, just begging to be deployed into an RGS or AT-TE. Because this set is relatively inexpensive, they do make excellent filler for your phase I vehicles. There are only three Blaster Pistols, so unless you open the Clone Gear bag, one of the clones will be going into a gunfight without a gun. The Walker's pilot doesn't need a gun, right? CLONE WALKER The Walker - Front View: Side View Back View The Walker in this set is almost an afterthought. As far as Battle Packs go, it isn't a bad vehicle. The legs could use a little more detail, but it really does fit nicely into the Clone Wars theme. The flick fire missiles feel like they belong here, as opposed to just being tacked on. The cannon on the front is simple, but effective. I find the parts selection to be rather nice. I like using wedge plates in my MOCs, and this set comes with two pair. It has two nice 1 x 4 Bricks with studs on the side for SNOT techniques, which is always useful. And the finished walker has two cheese slopes in Light Gray. I no longer need to substitute Dark Gray. Yeah! The legs do move, which is a plus. Unfortunately, any position other than both feet flat on the floor is unstable, which limits the poseability. The Walker, with Friends: Here is the Walker with a pilot and a passenger. I'm not sure why LEGO keeps giving us vehicles with two seats. A single seat walker with three ground troops would have worked well. It probably has to do with circumventing the No Action Figure clause in their contract. At any rate, I am not really thrilled with the two seat aspect of this set. But that is what MODs are for (more on that later). DIE, Clankers!: When the droids see this, it usually is the last thing they see. Extra Parts: Here are the extra pieces that come with this set. Did I mention that I love the Light Gray cheese slopes. HUH Now, for the Huh Moment: As I mentioned, I have bought a lot of these battle packs, mostly for the clones. Imagine my surprise when I realized, just last week, that the clones have two DIFFERENT face prints. They look like mirror images of each other, but they are clearly different. I hadn't heard anyone mention this before, so I thought I'd throw it out there. Of course, this revelation caused me to channel my inner DeNiro. Are you looking at me? Are you looking at ME!? You must be looking at me! I'm the only one here! Thank you, thank you. My acting skills are unparalleled. Playability: 7/10 - The flick fire missiles don't fire well, at least the legs move. Minifigs: 10/10 - Four Clones. 'Nough said. Design: 6/10 - The Walker is solid, if not very well detailed. Price: 10/10 - The Price-to-Parts might be off a little (as it is on all BPs). But four clones for $11 ain't bad at all. OVERALL: 33/40 - If your looking for cheap clones, look no further. If you're looking for a great Clone Wars era vehicle, then this set isn't for you. But I'm guessing you knew that already. Here is a link to the Brickshelf Gallery (when public). MY MOD As I have mentioned several time before, I have many copies of this set. 15 copies is enough to pack both versions of the RGS, both AT-TEs, the new AT-OT (all un-MODDed) and a MODDed Twilight full of clones, and still have enough left over to have one clone for each of the 15 Walkers. But the Walker has two seats. What to do? MOD it, of course: This MOD is cheap (~$0.40 on Bricklink) and can be done with minimal changes to the original Walker.

INDEXED Everyone remembers their first time. For me, it was in 19*cough*somethingsomething*cough*. We were at her house, and her mother was gone for at least an hour. She slowly unzi... uhhh. Sorry, wrong story. Um, yeahh. Anyway, I do remember my first time. It was 1977, in late summer. Our neighbor, who worked for a department store called Famous-Bahr, said that the main store had a travelling LEGO display. So my family filed into the car and drove into downtown St Louis to see this display. To tell you the truth, I don't remember much about the display itself, but I DO remember that my parents bought me my first LEGO set. Set # 456, the Spirit of St Louis. Set #: 456 (also sold as Set # 661) Name: Spirit of St Louis Theme: LEGOLAND / Large Vehicle Year: 1977 Pieces: 49 Minifigs: 0 Price: $5.00 USD? (Bricklink MISB start @ $175.00 USD, Used Complete ~$35.00 USD) Links: Peeron, Bricklink, Brickset Packaging Box Front: The original box that my set came in was most likely trashed 5 minutes after returning home. This image was lovingly stolen off of the Peeron page for this set. I feel lucky that I even got this much. Similarly, I have no pictures of the plastic baggies the set came in. Truth be told, I can't be sure that there even WERE plastic baggies that the parts came in. THE SET Side View: Well there she is. My first set ever . Actually, I seem to recall the real Spirit of St Louis was silver colored, not Black and Yellow. If you need a history lesson, the Spirit of St Louis was Charles Lindbergh's plane when he made the first trans-Atlantic solo flight. More details can be found on the Wikipedia page. The overall shape is pretty close, at least. The cockpit window could stand to be moved forward one stud, but everything seems to be relatively close. The tail piece isn't the right shape, but it is likely the only tail piece LEGO produced at the time. If you look closely, you can see the various bite marks that my brother and I inflicted over the years. I know some people would be aghast that there are bite marks, but brick separators wouldn't come out for another 10 years. Besides, we were young. We didn't know any better. I certainly had no idea that it would become my obsession. There are some interesting part choices here. Everything is brick and plate built, as you might expect. The same set nowadays would have lots of slope, wedges and wedge plates to round things out. But LEGO was all about the brick in '77, so bricks are what we got. The black inverted slopes worked pretty well asthetically as the wing struts. The wings are simple 4 x 10 plates, nice and square. There were no minifigs in this set. If I remember correctly, 1977 was just about the time when minifigs made their first appearance. I know I have one other set from '77 that does include a minifg, at least. I don't have a lot of comments for the following photos. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. 3/4 View Back Back 3/4 Top Front PARTS Interesting Pieces I have no idea if there were any extra pieces that came with this set. I kind of doubt it. Instead I took a photo of some of the interesting parts to the model. That translucent white piece didn't photograph so well, but it is a Technic Axle 8. That's right, sets from 1977 contained Technic elements. The two black parts are the forerunners to the 1 x 2 Technic Brick, as well. Everytime I hear someone on the forums complain about Technic elements in system sets, I think back to this set. The round brick is special as well. Here is a closer view of it, complete with bite marks . Round Brick As you can see, the stud is closed. It is only one of two closed stud 1 x 1 Round Bricks that I own. They stopped appearing in sets in 1981, for those that are interested. The DSS You thought you were going to escape this heading, didn't you? Surprise! Yes, even in 1977 LEGO sets had stickers. The oldest printed elements I can remember were in the Classic Space sets that started in 1979. Again, when people in the forums complain about DSS in sets, I can only help think of this set. And chuckle to myself maniacally. The sticker has held up really well considering it's been stuck on the brick for 32 years. No discoloration, very little curling. I think if all stickers held up this well over time, there would be less DSS complaints. THE RATINGS Playability: 6/10 - The set is quite swooshable, and the propellor spins. Outside of that, though... Minifigs: N/A Design: 6/10 - The overall shape is quite good, especially given the era. The color choice leaves a lot to be desired. Price: 1/10 - It's been retired for 30 years. It's going to cost you to get your hands on it. Overall: 13/30 - This set is for true collectors only. I can't imagine anyone wanting one because they want to play with it. It was a great set back in the day, but the design feels REALLY dated. And if you're wondering, mine is NOT for sale. Ever. All the photos, plus more, can be found in the Gallery.

This review was my third in the Reviewers Academy. I thought the members of this forum would be interested in reading it. Enjoy! For my final Reviewers Academy review, I decided to review a set that is out of the ordinary. And in my collection, they don't get much more out of the ordinary than this set, which has NO standard bricks or plates. Also, it's one of the few sets for which I actually have the original box. Set #: 8378 Name: Red Beast RC Theme: Racers \ R/C Year: 2004 Pieces: 65 Minifigs: 0 Original MSRP: $40.00 USD Links: Peeron, Bricklink, Brickset PACKAGING Box Front: The box shows what I assume is the main model. In actuality, there are instructions for four different models in the booklet, and the parts can be combined into literally thousands of different configurations, although they all look pretty similar. In the lower right hand corner you can see all four models that are in the instruction booklet. The front also shows the radio control unit, along with a pair of creepy, disembodied hands holding it. Box Back: The back of the box shows a better view of the four models. It also has a parts list in the upper right hand corner, which is nice, since there isn't one in the instruction booklet. THE INSTRUCTIONS Instruction Booklet Cover: The instruction booklet shows the main model again, with a return of the disembodied hands. Instruction Booklet Back: The back of the instructions shows other sets from the Racers line of 2004. I see at least two other RC sets. The DSS: I applied the stickers for this set years ago, so I was ecstatic when I found a picture of the DSS in the instruction booklet. Brings back memeories of trying to get the darn things on straight. On the opposite page, you can see how to install the batteries. This set requires six AA size batteries, plus one 9V battery for the remote control. The Table of Contents: This page shows all four models, with page numbers so that you can find the instructions quickly. It helps a little bit, although I usually find the model I want faster by flipping through the booklet, trather than flipping to this page first. It might have helped if this page were first in the booklet, but it's not. It's three or four pages deep, which really hampers it's usefulness. Random Instruction Page: The instructions are pretty well laid out. There is an inset showing which parts are needed for each particular step. But with only 65 parts, it really isn't difficult finding which one is needed. THE SET 3/4 View: I chose to use the model that is most prominently displayed on the box for this review. All of the models are very easy to put together. Basically, you use these flexible pins for all connections, and all other parts are pinned to the main body using flexible brackets. Assembly takes about 15-20 minutes per model, and about that long to change between models as well. Front View: Side View: Back View: I have to admit, the car does look pretty snazzy when complete. All sleek lines and powerful engines, ready to tear up the nearest asphalt. Size Comparison: Since this set contains no bricks or plates, nor any studded elements, for that matter, you might be wondering just how big the final product is. Well, here you can see it against set# 456 - The Spirit of St Louis. The wings on the plane are 4 x 10 plates, so you can see that the car is massive compared to any system sets. Parts: Since all of the parts are used in at least one of the models, there are no true spare parts (well, there are a few extra flexible pins, but that is it.) So instead, I decided to show the parts list. I've never seen any of these parts in any other set other than this one (I'm sure they are in the other RC sets, though.) The Important Part: So far, I've touched on the nuts and bolts of this set, and how un-LEGO-like it is. But one very important question remains: How well does it function as an RC vehicle? Let me tell you, it ROCKS. The controls are very responsive. The instruction booklet claims that it has a range of 65 feet. I've never put a tape measure to it, but it certainly seems to have a large range. I've never had the car go outside of range, at least. The car is a little slower than other RC cars I've played with, but not too bad. It doesn't do very well in tall grass due to it's low profile, but really short grass presents few problems, and flat surfaces like asphalt and concrete are ideal. Battery life is excellent for a RC vehicle. Those six AA batteries have easily given me over 4 hours of fun. Much better than the 15 minutes a standard RC NiCad battery generally gives. And the 9V seems to last forever in the controller. If you use rechargeables, you'll get lots of life between chargings. I use disposables, though. The other major advantage is that the model can be readily changed. Don't like the looks of the model? Move some parts around. Because of the flexible nature of the connectors, the model is more durable than a standard hard plastic RC car, which might break on a hard impact. I would never worry about breaking one of these pieces in any impact. THE VERDICT: Playability: 10/10 - The RC plays like an RC vehicle should. If you like RC, you'll love this. Minifigs: N/A Design: 8/10 - All of the models look cool, and it is as customizable as any other LEGO set. Price: 6/10 - Despite being out of print, the sets available on Bricklink are still very close to MSRP. Can't beat that with a stick. Overall: 24/30 - As long as you ralize that you are getting a LEGO version of an RC vehicle, you will not be disappointed. My son and I love racing each other out in the driveway. I highly recommend it if you like RC. Here is a link to the Brickshelf Gallery, which will be viewable when public.

As Commander_Rob said, there is no set scale for the UCS sets. Each set is big enough for the designers to show some exellent details, while keeping the price point to whatever they were limited too during design. Only the two TIEs are scaled to each other, unless I'm mistaken. This is because the windscreens would be the same size on both ships. A five digit number on a set does NOT indicate a UCS set. It simply means the set was a LEGO S@H exclusive, and weren't intended to be sold in retail markets like Target or TRU (although many ended up there anyways). IMHO, the sets that have display placards giving details of the ship are the true UCS sets (X-Wing, TIE Interceptor, AT-ST, TIE Advanced, Star Destroyer, Death Star II, Millenium Falcon, Tantive IV, Y-Wing and Naboo Starfighter). Just for example, the TIE Interceptor and X-Wing UCS sets have set numbers in the 6000s, and the Santa Fe Super Chief carries a five digit set number (10020, to be exact). I don't think anyone considers the Super Chief part of the UCS collection. The UCS Batmobile was set number 7784 as well.

I've taken a good, long hard look at the official Santa Fe Set (set # 10020, BTW). The Super Chief is a different engine (I believe it is an EMD E6, but don't shoot me if I'm wrong), but many of the details are similar, especially the warbonnet color scheme. LEGO's Super Chief set uses yellow 1 x 1 Bricks for the long vertical stripe separating the light gray from the red sections. I was trying something a little different, using a SNOT technique to make the vertical stripes the same width as the horizontal stripes. The technique requires even numbers of studs to work well, so the height of the engine was set by those details. I could lower the overall height of the engine by 1 brick and 2 plates, but that in my opinion makes it look far too short. I could always abandon the SNOT technique and follow 10020's path, and then the height of the model would be unconstrained. Perhaps I should just try it and see how it looks. I'm not comfortable with trying to make this model an 8 stud wide design. I know it's been done before, but I prefer to stay with the 6-wide standard baseplate. Thanks for the comments.

My father-in-law is a complete train nut. His favorite line is the Santa Fe. A few weeks ago we took a trip to Chicago to visit a train museum just west of the city. (We also paid a visit to the LEGOLand Discovery Center there XD ). I only saw one Santa Fe engine there, but I managed to take a few pictures of it. Here is one of them. That woild be my father-in-law and my son in the picture. I also have been using photos gleaned from the internet, like this one. As we were leaving Chicago for home I had a brainstorm. Why not reproduce the engine we saw in the museum in LEGO for Christmas. Had I thought of it earlier, I would have taken many more photos. Here is the result of my design, using MLCad. I apologize for those that dislike MLCad, but in this case it really helps cut down on unnecessary Bricklink Orders. Side View: This is my first attempt at a train engine, so I would appreciate plenty of comments from everyone, especially those who are more experienced designing trains. Front View: I plan on using some custom stickers to add the Santa Fe on the sides and the yellow symbol on the front end. Back: Here is where I really could have used an extra photo or three. I have no idea what the back end of the engine is supposed to look like. I took my best shot, but this design can certainly be improved upon. Top: I could use a little guidance onthe top as well. I made a few assumptions that there would be some exhaust fans, and addd a few grills, but if any other details would help, I'd appreciate the comments. Side from Back: Like I said, I intend to build this in time for Christmas, so I have plenty of time to make adjustments to the design. I would like it to be the best it can be. As always, questions, comments and criticisms are always welcome. The Brickshelf Gallery, when public.

Thank you all for the comments. This is one of the models I'd like to keep together permanently. I'm lying. I'd like to keep all of my UCS models together permanently. To answer Natman8000's question, I have a UCS scale TIE Defender 95% assembled. I've run into a few difficulties which will require a Bricklink order or two. So that will take a few weeks before I can get that one photographed and uploaded. In the meantime I am assembling all of my MINIs, including the ones I have created. I'll photograph them when I get them all built. Should be next week sometime. As far as new projects, I have been promising myself I'd finish my Nebulon B-2 model. I just can't seem to find a design for the main hull that I like. I know for a fact that I'll be unable to build it, but someone I know would loe to get his hands on a parts list and instructions, so I might get some pictures from him. I've also started designing a TIE Shuttle (which will be converted into a TIE Bomber, Revision 2) and a TIE Oppressor. I think I've got a workable hull design on the Shuttle, which is a big deal. All I have on the Oppressor is the wings, but there's quite a bit of detail there, more than any other TIE I've worked on.

If we were talking about the films (and TV series), then I would have been solidly in the OT camp. But since we're talking about the LEGO sets, I had to go with Clone Wars. The sets have been some of the best LEGO has produced to date. The V-19, TX-170, AT-TE and RGS are all incredible. Oh, and there are some droid army sets in there, too Although if the poll gave me a choice for all of the above, I probably would have picked that.

When creating my models, I like to experiment with different techniques. If I used the same technique for every model I make, eventually they would look stale, no matter how different the source material is. This experimentation also gives me options, in case the "standard" approach does not work. And sometimes this experimentation results in something really special, in this case the TIE Phantom: The TIE Phantom (wikipedia page) is one of the more recognizable TIE Alternates. It has three wings, radiating vertically from the hull, much like the TIE Clutch and TIE Shadow. Unlike the Clutch and Shadow, I used a different method for generating the hull. I originally came up with the idea for the Shadow, but the hull section was too large for that model and was perfect for the Phantom. The laser cannons at the end of the wings are very simple, by design. I wanted to see how they looked, and the result is acceptable. Besides, I really wanted the main focus to be on the hull and cockpit on this model. The entire model is very swooshable, provided you know where to hold it. The entire bottom (here's a picture) is held on by just four studs (from a pair of these pieces), so if you grab it the wrong way, you'll pop that section off. Once you know where to hold it, though, and you'll never have a problem again. Front View: In case you couldn't tell, the cockpit was very much influenced by the UCS Millenium Falcon. I didn't see many options for creating a cylindrical cockpit in the scale I wanted using any of the windscreen pieces. The UCS MF gave me the option I needed. Here's another view of the front. Back View: The back side of these hexagonal based models is always difficult. There are no wings that will fit together nicely on a hex shape, and I had used solid dishes for a lot of models (Defender, Clutch and Shadow), so for this model I chose a webbed dish. It shows some of the inner workings that I'd prefer were hidden, but overall it works well. Cockpit: The cockpit was much more of a challenge than it might seem. Because of where I attached the cockpit to the hull, I had no vertical studs on the inside of the cockpit. It made for an interesting design. Here is a photo of the cockpit with the bars left on. There are lots of details I know that I've left out, so please feel free to ask lots of questions. Comments and Constructive Criticisms are also very much welcome. Here is the Full Gallery, when public. If you are wondering what's next, then I'll tell you. I have one more UCS Scale MOC to show, the TIE Defender. Unfortunately, I ran into some unexpected techinical difficulties. It'll take a small Bricklink order to fix the problem, and won't look as good as I had hoped (at least in my opinion), but it will hold together, which is an important step. Unfortunately, I can't make this order any time soon, so it'll be a few weeks before I finish it off. In the meantime, I'll be assembling my MINI collection, including all of the MINIs I've designed. I'll probably have them done next week.

Wow. I've been Front-paged. I'm not quite sure what to say. I didn't create any of my models for the accolades and glory (well, maybe just a little bit ), but to really push my understanding of LEGO MOCing and to force myself to develop techniques I had never used before. I still have much to learn. What some of you may not realize is that all of the models I've created started out as MLCad files. The finished products that I've been presenting are the first time that I've put the bricks together. And for the most part, they've gone together without major modifications, which surprises me more than anyone. I appreciate all of your comments. I will continue to create TIE Alts until I am satisfied with all of the results. I'll be on vacation next week, but the following week I'll have pictures of the TIE Phantom ready. Hopefully by that time I'll have solved the tecnical issues I'm having with the TIE Defender (the wings don't want to stay on the pylons . It's going to take some design modifications to make it work, which sucks. It's the only model I can display and still build the system sets from my collection. Back to the drawing board, so to speak.)

In medieval times, those seeking to learn a trade were apprenticed to a master. They would stay apprenticed until they produced a work that proved that they were worthy of being called a master; in other words, a master's piece. Although LEGO MOCing isn't a trade, and no-one that I know of is in a LEGO apprenticeship, if I were, I'd humbly submit this model for consideration. The Scimitar Assault Bomber (Wookiepedia page) is one of the ore interesting TIE Alternates. Not technically a TIE (it only has a single Ion engine), it presented quite a few challenges. The cockpit is cylindrical, unlike almost all other TIEs. Behind the cockpit is a hexagonal section, which is always trouble in LEGO. To compound the problem, the hexagonal section narrows as it moves towards the cockpit. The rear of the hex section transitions into a rectangular sction, which is thinner, but wider, than the previous section. At the engines, the hull flares out. And the wings are concave, as opposed to the much simpler flat, bent wings of many of the TIEs (think: TIE Interceptor). Here is the final result: As you can see, the model is huge. It comprises just under 2000 pieces, and measures 23 studs long by 46 studs wide, which translates to 14" x 23" (or 58cm x 36cm, for those that prefer metric). I tried something different for the wing design. Instead of using locking hinges like I usually do for bent wings, I used a series of technic angle connector #3 (and #1) and 2 x 2 plates with pin. The result was a wing design that was structurally sound, but very light for it's size. Just for comparison, the Cockpit section weighs more than one wing. The trade-off is that the wings cannot hold the weight of the model. It has to remain on the stand, or the wings have to be removed. Again, I am using Pearl dark Gray hoses instead of Light Gray for the detail around the edge of the wings. The dark grey doesn't photograph very well, but doesn't look all that bad in real life. I am missing some running down the center of the wings. I had some more hoses, but they were too long, and are reserved for my TIE Defender, so I couldn't cut them down to size. I don't think it detracts too much. Here is a Side View for a better look at the wings. And here is a view that no Rebel base wants to see: a bomber coming right toward them. Here is a shot of the back of the beast: As you can see, I really went nuts with the details. This model is where I finally decided that if there are studs, they should be covered with some sort of detail. I gave it my best shot, at least. I also tried to detail out the front and back of the pylons. By comparison, the sides of the hull are relatively bare. From what few source pictures I could find, there didn't appear to be much detail there at all. The underside has very little detail, which shouldn't come as much of a surprise. You can see the rows of concussion missile launchers well in this photo. The concussion launchers were the first things I designed. I made them as their own section, and the are held in place by a pair of 1 x 4 technic liftarms with boss. The plating on the bottom of the model keeps them from rocking fore and aft. The Engines: The engines took several iterations to get something I liked. I tried a simple brick built section, but that didn't llok right. I tried a twin engine variation, but that didn't work, either. I like the way the arch bricks cradle the single engine. Ideally the black pieces on the outside of this section would be Light Gray, but apparently I don't own any 1 x 2 bricks with studs on the sides in Light Gray (or at least none that I could find). The engine section clips on to the rest of the hull with 2 3/4 pins. The connection isn't great, but it works. It left a little gap between the hull and the engines :( Cockpit: The cockpit was a bit of a challenge. It needed to be big enough to hold a pilot and a bombardier, but according to my scaling, it wasn't all that long. I decided to put the pilot and his partner back to back, like in a Rebel Snowspeeder. That allowed an efficient use of space. As usual, I probably went a little overboard on the printed controls. It felt like it was necessary in the Scimitar's case. Here is a front view of the cockpit, minus the windscreen and side. Unfortunately it is a little blurry; the camera focused on the back of the cockpit, and left the foreground out of focus. The Gallery has many more photos for you. Please feel free to peruse it at you leisure. Comments and Criticisms are always welcome and encouraged. Also, I am certain that there are plenty of things I should have mentioned, but didn't. I'll answer any questions you might have. Happy MOCing!

I'd like to be a part of the Reviewer's Academy. I'm looking mostly for help with my LEGO photography, but tips on effective reviews are also a great thing to have in my repertoire.

Thanks for the comments, guys. So do I, DoctorDude. So do I. According to Wookiepeidia, they are from SW: Legacy. I don't pay too much heed to the source. As long as I have an image to work from, I'll attempt to build any TIE Alternate.

I am honord that I was the inspiration. This really turned out well. I especially love the pylons, excellent work there. Much different from my own design. I assume you were working off of rev 2.8 of my TIE Def design. I have become aware of the flaws in that design. I'll be building (and posting) revision 3 in a few weeks. We'll see if I've taken care of all the bugs then.

Thanks for the comments, guys. The back of the cockpit wall is made out of panels, so it would be easy to change them to a trans-black instead of light grey color. But I went with grey because I tohought it more likely that the drone flies by sensors, and has no real need for visual confirmation. The windows would be superfluous, and a totally unnecessary expense (that is, if transsteel cost more than whatever the rest of the hull is made out of). As for the cockpit interior, the original design was much more spartan, with a full sized droid. I changed it during the build, feeling the droid should be much smaller, and adding a little sci-fi, mechanical detailing. It took me all of one minute to come up with what I photographed. Given a little more time and thought, I could have made something more organized, but I was eager to finish the build *shrug* Sometimes messy works out OK, though I agree it could use a little less clutter.

When I go about designing a UCS scale TIE Alt, I usually focus my energies on one or two key details. The wing shape is a given, so these details are usually elsewhere. For the Predator Class Starfighter, there were three elements that I felt were absolute necessities in the final model. Aside from the large, graceful wings, the design had to include four engines on the back of the cockpit ball, four lasers placed around the cockpit ball perimeter and the wings absolutely HAD to fold back for docking. Here is the result of my efforts: Ideally the wings should cradle the sides of the cockpit ball. Try as I might, I simply could not find a way to get them closer without some serious structural problems. Perhaps offsetting the connection between the hinge and the wing with a few of these bent Technic Beams would work. I am a little worried about the torque that would add at the hinge, but it might do the job. This close-up of the ehgines shows a few of the big challenges on this model. First, the rear deck really encroaches on where the engines lie. So I had to keep the deck as thin as possible, which really limited what I could do structurally to support the wing hinges. I knew that I was going to use this Technic Hinge, along with its partner, to get the wing movement. The end result is that there is some droop in the wings due to their sheer size (the wings are 39 studs long). At this time, I don't see how I could add more support and still keep the engines where they are now. Another major challenge was the back of the cockpit ball itself. I typically use this cockpit piece for the back, but the deprssions that I would use for the engines are 45 degrees off of where they should be. The challenges of rotating that piece and still mainatining a cockpit interior, much less actually connecting the wings, were a little too great for my meager skills, so I built a custom back out of plates and wing pieces. You can see from this picture that I have indeed managed to get all four engines on the model. I flirted with using 2 x 2 x 2 cones for the engines, but when I went to plate building the back of the cockpit, I thought the round cone would detract from the rectangular plates. So I used the quad slopes instead. The final, and perhaps greatest challenge, was how to actually connect the wing deck to the cockpit ball. I used two of these technic connectors (the dark grey parts that you can see in the back view), and then used a 1 x 11 Technic Beam that extends to the sides of the cockpit. You can see part of this beam in this picture. This also gave me a framework to build the top and bottom of the rear deck plating. It took me quite a while to get this one right. The cockpit itself is pretty standard (for me, at least). Probalby a bit too over-printed, but the Predator did have hyperdrive and shields, so there is at least a reason for the increased instrumentation. Some of you may be familiar with a predator that has a slotted windscreen. According to the Wookiepeidia entry (link is at the top), the Squad leaders had a normal windscreen, while the rank and file pilots used the slotted windscreen. The only way I could think of to get a slotted style windscreen would be to take a blank, gray windscreen, and apply some custom decals to get the slots. Unfortunately, TLG has never made this windscreen in a solid gray color. The closest I could find (and the cheapest alternative) is Tan, which could be painted grey. This is way beyond my skillset, so the squad commander version is what I built to. As promised, the wings do fold back. Because of the extreme length of the wings, the center of gravity of the model with the wings folded are behind where the stand sits, so the model has to lay on a table with the wings folded. The final design challenge didn't seem like a challenge at all when I started designing. I thought it would be easy to get the four laser cannons arrayed around the cockpit. It wasn't The side cannons weren't too bad. The Technic Beams connecting the wings to the cockpit provided the structure for the side cannons. But the top cannon really was a nightmare. In the end, I used a technique I had seen used in MINI building, using the two and three finger hinges to get an inverted plate near the top of the cockpit ball. That's all I got. As always, Comments and Criticisms are more than welcome. Feel free to check out the Gallery, when public.

This is another in my series of UCS TIE alternates, this time the TIE Drone. I first saw this TIE as part of the TIE Collection set, and I found it's shape oddly appealing. As far as the design timeline goes, this model lies somewhere between my TIE Avenger and Scimitar Bomber (real brick version coming soon) models. So you should see some improvement over the earliest designs (TIE Bomber), but not nearly as polished as my latest models (TIE Shadow). I will refrain from adding my own commentary this time, as it seems to have killed my previous topic TIE Drone: The overall shape of the TIE Drone is very simple, relatively speaking. Pretty traditional cockpit ball, standard pylons. The angle of the wings is unique, as is the band across the front of the cockpit. The wings are also very squared off, as this side view shows. I wanted to give a good shot of the front of the model, minus the wings. Most of the detail is on the front, so I removed the wings to eliminate the shadowing that the wings tended to create. In case anyone had any doubts, the back of this model was very much inspired by Reto Geiger's excellent (awe inspiring, phenomenal, etc.) TIE Fighter model. I tried to emulate it as best as I could. The interior of the cockpit is changed a litle bit from my original design. I made the drone itself much smaller (which you can barely see now), and added some hoses to enhance the mechanical feel. In my mind, the printed tiles on the sides of the cockpit are for maintenance purposes (though would the empire really waste time on maintenance?). The tiles on the drone's stand are to give it that WOPR feel (Shall..we..play..a..game?) As always, Comments and Criticisms are most welcome. Sometime next week, I should have my Predator Starfighter built and photographed. The gallery, with lots more pictures, can be found here.

This is the earliest of my TIE designs that I will be building. There is one earlier model (a TIE Defender), but I was so disappointed in how it looked, that I don't even have the file anymore. TIE Def fans, do not dispair; the TIE Def is the last model I will build. Being one of the first models, the first thing that you should notice is that it is very plain and blocky. There are very few greebles, as I really hadn't gained confidence in my greebling skills. The model itself is very stable once it is fully assembled, but getting it to that stage is a challenge. There are several slope bricks which aren't support very well (or at all), and the entire assembly wanted to collapse while in construction. In fact, while photographing it, I tried to remove a few elements to get a better picture of the cockpit. The result was a large pile of LEGO on the floor and an end to my photography session :( The rear view really shows some of the problems of this model. The center section is very blocky, and could really use some greebs badly. The two pods have two different back ends, so to speak, which throws everything off. The engines are in the wrong location (there should be one each on the back of the two pods). The wings could be 3 or 4 studs longer. And the top of the two pods need some greebs to set them off; as it is, they are very plain looking. The front of the ordinance pod and the center section are one of the few places where a used any greebles. The bomb chute (the little thing that hangs down from the ordinance pod) looks decent enough, but the strut holding it needs to really be re-thought. I thought the front of the ordinance pod looks OK, but could probably use an update. The center section definately needs some work. The cockpit is very spartan inside. Two printed slopes on either side of the pilot's seat, a printed tile on the control stick, and two printed inverted slopes above the pilot's head. Compared to later models, there's very little detail there at all. When I first envisioned doing the TIE Bomber, this is the detail that I knew I had to include. It is a moveable rack for loading bombs and missiles into. I even made some missiles and a crate of bombs to be loaed into the rack. The rack doesn't extend out as fas as I would have liked (it gets caught on the round 2 x 2 plate that holds the back of the door on), but overall I was pleased with how this detail came out. One of the few things I was pleased with. The doors that hold the missiles and bombs in open and close. :) Behind the cockpit, I added a lot of detail, trying to get some mechanical looking greebs. It came out a bit cluttered, but it isn't bad. Too bad you can't see them unless you take the ship apart. I tried to make the back section open, but the hinge got a little too complicated. Here is a view of the rear section of the cockpit pod. The controls here I imagined were for diagnostics. If you get the feeling that I am not happy with the design, you would be right. I will do an updated version in the future, it's just not on my radar screen quite yet. At the time I first completed it, it looked great to me. But I've done much better work since then, and this model looks very dated to me. Here is the full Gallery, when moderated. Next up will be another early model, but one I am much happier with, the TIE Drone (or is it Droid?).

You're the second person to make that comment. I'll tone it down a bit in future endevours. I'll see what I can do

Yes, the rear of the hull is the same one as the TIE Clutch (one of the reasons I could get it built and photo'd quickly). Don't get too excited about the progression. The Clutch and Shadow are two of my latest designs. The next one I will build is my earliest, the TIE Bomber. You should be able to see a marked difference in my designing skills. I used the white tiles in the cockpit as opposed to light gray purely based on economics. Light gray are expensive; white are much less so. The white 2 x 2 slope in the cockpit was chosen based on the pattern. I could have thrown any printed slope, but I liked the pattern on the white one, so I went with it. Thanks for the comments, guys.

In my insane fool's errand to design and build at least one UCS scale version of every TIE Alternate (I've counted 44 thusfar, and I'm sure there are others I've missed), I have been looking for ships that share common elements, so that I can re-use designs, and save myself some headaches. I found some of these similarities when I compared the TIE Shadow to the TIE Clutch. The hull section of the Shadow and Clutch appear to be identical, and the cockpit ball of each ship are very similar. And so, I give you my TIE Shadow: The major difference between the Shadow and the Clutch are the wings. While the Clutch has stubby, angular wings, the Shadow has much longer, elegently curved wings. I tried to emulate the curves as best I could, but it isn't easy to achieve in LEGO. The hull section is completely unchanged from the TIE Clutch model, so I decided not to focus on that area in my photography, or in this thread. This side view really shows how I tried to emulate the wing curvature. It looks good, but I feel like there is room for improvement. Any suggestions here are welcome, even if it requires a radical philosophy change. This back view is one of my favorite photos that I took. I feel like it really shows off quite a bit of what this model has to offer. I promised that I would take a better photo of the cockpit interior, and here it is. Onions disagrees with the amount ot printed pieces (and I do concede he has a good point), and it will be something I will take into consideration on future designs. Or if I ever revise this design. Just for comparison purposes, here are the cockpit balls of the TIE Shadow and the TIE Clutch, so that you can see the differences. The Shadow lacks the laser battery below the windscreen, and has what looks like an intake on the sides. Here is the link to the full gallery, when public. Any Comments and Constructive Criticism is welcome.

Thank you. One of the reasons I prefer UCS scale to minifig scale is due to the amount of surface area you have at your disposal for greebling. You can add a bunch of small elements and not disturb the overall shape of the model (too much). The "wings" on all of the TIEs are actually solar panels. But most people, myself included, refer to them as wings. The TIE Defender is similar in that it has three sets of wings, but the TIE Ds panels are swept outward (sort of inverted from the TIE Interceptor) and are mounted at the end of three pylons. The Clutch, Shadow and Phantom are unique in that they have no pylons supporting the solar panels (the only other TIEs like this are the Lancet , and Raptor, off the top of my head). Thanks. It will become my basis for future TIE ball cockpits. The control stick might need a little tweaking, but overall I am very pleased with the way it came out. I wish I could have gotten a picture from the top of the cockpit so you could see everything well. Maybe when I photograph the TIE Shadow, as it will require some disassembling to get a good shot. Someone on FBTB thought there were too many printed pieces. While I respect his opinion, I had to disagree with him. Speaking of photography, does anyone have any tips on how to improve mine? I seem to be struggling to get the lighting correct. I have used Hinckley's photography topic to get to this point, but I could use a little extra boost.

Oh, I still do all of my designing in the digital realm first. It's just that I finally have enough parts via Bricklink to actually build what I've designed. Besides, designing in MLCad first does allow me to buy intelligently from BL. Although I do have to admit that it feels great to build in real bricks, and not those virtual ones And thank you for the compliment.