TheBear

The astromech is oversized compared to the minifigure so it ends up being significantly bigger than it should be in minifigure scale models, but that's ok because lego has different proportions to real life. If you compare the UCS to a studio model it turns out that the astromech in the UCS model is only slightly too small and a 3 stud wide one would be too big.

Both 10240 and Psiaki are excellent and look amazing for display, so it basically just comes down to what size you want. Personally I have Psiaki because I prefer a model that is compatible with minifigures. Sourcing the parts for a Psiaki is quite a big job and is a lot more effort than just buying an official set.

Thanks for the comments everyone, it makes me more determined to keep going.

That would be a nice thing to do considering how much they cost, but I don't think they will!

Gondor soldier for me too. Preferably in a set like this.

With all this talk of a new cantina set I was curious, how big would a cantina have to be to fit in everyone from the movie? The best reference for the cantina is this site. Not only does it have a full list of characters but it has a really good map of the floor plan and a best guess of where everyone is standing. I’m going with his “movie accurate” floor plan which consists of the main bar with 6 large alcoves around it, plus the slightly smaller alcoves behind the bar, and the main entrance. Using placeholder figures for everyone I started off with the bar. It turned out to be a lot bigger than I was expecting, but the bar in the movie is actually huge. Using the size of the bar as a guide I then started sizing up the alcoves. The 6 main alcoves can be treated as being identical, except for the placement of the furniture and windows, so this is a nice modular component. Unfortunately there is no Lego element that can give us the nice deep arch of the alcoves so I have gone with 12x3 arches combined with straight sides. One of these alcoves contains the bandstand with the seven Modal Nodes, the others contain one or two round tables and the side chairs. This size seems to be big enough to accommodate that and fit in all the people that are supposed to be in each one. Finally I built up the smaller alcoves behind the bar and a rough main entrance and hooked it all together. Just for fun I put in placeholders for every known person in the cantina in the places they are supposed to be. I'm afraid my placeholder figures are rather poor because I just used whatever I had to hand. The nice thing about this floor plan is that not only does it have the possibility of being modular but if each module was put on it's own plates then it has the possibility of opening out in a straight line just like the official set. Plus, parts can easily be removed for photography or play. How close did I manage to get to the movie? I took these comparison shots to find out. I am fairly happy with these. Although it seems it is still slightly too small to get accurate angles it is the best I could do and for me it is close enough. Of course, building a cantina is the easy part, populating it is a lot more difficult. There are about 80 different characters in the cantina and only a fraction of them are represented in Lego form. Even with the new Bith and Ithorian heads coming this year, customs are the only way to go for a lot of the aliens and probably always will be. I honestly don’t know if I will ever complete this which is why I am posting it now, but I plan to slowly work on it over the long term.

I really expected the Sullustan to be a B-Wing pilot but you are right, the guy in the cockpit is the grey suited one. So if the guy in the middle is Airen Cracken then it could well be Nien Nunb in Millennium Falcon clothes. It seems strange that they would give the pilot a grey Y-Wing suit, but it would be fantastic to get it since we would then have all 4 rebel pilot suits from Return of the Jedi.

This is looking brilliant, I can see how much time and money you have put into it already. The floor is really nice, it reminds me of the patchwork hanger floor from Home One in Return of the Jedi. The minifigures are looking excellent, the diversity makes it much more interesting. I have wanted to do something similar myself but haven't yet made the investment. I have always been a big fan of your ships, your "snubfighters" image was what inspired me to build my own. I started with Psiaki's X-Wing (after seeing your version) and then went on to build your B-Wing. I know you built the B-Wing years ago now but it is still the best minifigure scale model out there. I look forward to seeing how the hanger progresses.

And I'll be getting one to put in my build of your B-Wing :)

Let's hope there is a plot involving Ponda Baba, Dr Evazan, Kabe, Mosep, Muftak and Takeel. Then another plot that involves Nabrun Leids, Hrcheck Kal Fas, Hem Dazon, Gotal, Feltipern Trevagg and Reegesk.

Hi, do you remember if Ten Numb had a molded head and whether he had breathing aparatus?

I assumed this was a typo and he meant B-Wing pilot, but I would personally be delighted with a grey ROTJ Y-Wing pilot with a custom helmet. I would also be very happy if it was a B-Wing pilot with custom headgear. The old Ten Numb is looking really dated, if the new one has a custom molded head then it will be really nice. Airen Cracken as the third figure in this set is very unexpected.

Anyone old enough to remember the original kenner figures will recall walrus man, hammerhead and snaggletooth. I think this is part of the reason why people want these characters in Lego form, because in addition to Greedo these three came out very early on in the Kenner line and many people had them as kids.

The engines look superb lit up and all the changes you've made look great. I look forward to seeing future updates!

Here are all the helmets we have so far: http://www.bricklink...=W&catString=16 If you click into them you can see the minifigures and the sets they come in.

It is nice to get Red Ten and the head of R2-X2, even though there is no suitable body for him. Personally I think the printing looks superb. My 3 year old loves playing with the micro x-wing and for me the parts are pretty good spares.

I'm intrigued by this, could it be a Rebel Alliance officer / technician from Home One? But then it should have a cap. Or could it possibly be.. Prune Face!?

Compared to the actual studio models the droid is only very slightly too small, it's just that we are used to seeing the droids massively oversized on Lego models (and rightly so on the system scale models). A 4 stud wide head would be way too big. Here are some good reference shots for comparison http://www.modelermagic.com/?p=5942 It's easy to say things like the engines are too small, the body is too wide, but these things are just a consequence of the Lego system. There are no suitable 5 stud wide cylinder parts for example to make the engines bigger. The only thing I don't understand is why they made the windscreen completely the wrong shape. It should slope inwards towards the nose, not outwards. I guess it was a consequence of the way they built the nose but I can't help feeling they could have done that bit better.

Your work is always incredible. The facade looks very realistic and I love all the little details you put in. You can see something new every time you look at it.

Obscure characters are part of what makes Star Wars so interesting to many people. But of the 80 or so characters in the cantina scene Wuher, Ponda Baba and Dr Evazan are the least obscure after Greedo and the main cast since they actually have a major part in the action. If you want obscure, try Tzizvvt, Reegesk and Mosep Binneed.

You actually need seven Bith to make the band, plus another one for Lirin Car'n

21. Darkblane - 3 24. SpacySmoke - 2

Nice job squeezing a coffee bar and all that merchandise into the available space. If I were doing this I would increase the floor space a bit by reducing the size of the balcony around the escalator.

But there are 7 squidwards in the cantina band

You're right, they are wearing jackets, but I don't see anything on the old torso and leg print that is specific to the snowspeeder pilot so I bet they use the new print on the next snowspeeder set