Jerac

There is one book - called "Essential guide to star wars vehicles" - which is awfully, and I mean, AWFULLY wrong on many vessels. Using this one almost guarantees you to make your model wrong. This applies however, only to the vehicles which appeared in movies, as all the other can be done however you like it. As for where to get images from - sadly, google and plenty of searches. "ilm a-wing model" "star wars a-wing filming model" "star wars a-wing movie model front" etc etc. I simply know which models are real and which are not so I can quickly verify if one particular is a 3rd party model or a real one. http://www.theforce.net/swtc/exhibit/tie.html This website has plenty of photos of SW models used for filming. Some of them are damaged or incomplete, and there are many more photos on google, but for example once you know that the filmin Interceptor has one gun missing, then any photo of a dusted interceptor model with a gun missing is the valid one.

Thanks! Please tell me afterwards how do you like the building experience itself and what would you change. Designing instructions and build flow was bigger part of the job than building the model itself so I am very, very curious!

Mr Crisis, you can't measure like that. It has to be as close to orthogonal view as possible and no angles! Anyway - I've shown you the tools and now you can work the maths yourself :) I can tell you if the A-Wing "feels" right, after all I spent quite a time mastering my own (which is... not really perfect :D). But for that I'd need a couble of general 3/4 views.

Okay so if I may put my three cents. The most important piece of advice I can give you is to NEVER USE NON-OFFICIAL RESOURCES for your canon builds. Using non-official resources will cause you deal with: - your own mistakes - mistakes of the modeller of the 3d model you used - (potentially) mistakes of modellers of anything previous modeller based his design on (see where is it going) - changes due to limitations in LEGO artistic medium. Using 3d models is cool because they are easy to measure, but I assure you, they are always wrong, just for the very simple reason if you don't have the very original movie model in front of you, you're not going to get it perfect. So what you're left with? Photos of movie models and screen grabs from movies themselves. This is one of actual ILM filming models. Let's plug it into Sariel's scaling tool, do the same with the reference model you are using and see how it compares. We're measuring proportions between engines and the distance between them Oops. We have ratio of 100:160 (roughly!) to 100:180. You've just been tricked to do your design wrong by someone who made a little mistake in his model. Judging by that - altough I can't properly measure your model - you have it a tiny little bit too slim, but that's easily fixable. That said: your design is nice. It is clean and definitely has an A-Wing vibe. Most of the details are captured right. It is missing that little angle change about 1/3 triangle's length where it becomes a little bit more narrow. Engines feel off because that 3d model is also wrong. Sorry for that wall of text... I hope it is helpful anyway.

....excluding polybags, I'd say this is very unlikely for ANY lego set.

Your feedback is the most valuable kind: critical yet helpful, as it precisely points what is wrong and how can it be improved. As such, it actually caused some stir at BrickVault, which is good, giving us a way to improve. We have talked about it and will do it better next time. Don't worry about my cut, it is fair and I am happy, enough to build many many more ships.

Well, but there are plenty of ways? Hinged plates are just good because they nicely join pieces of panels at best possible points (at corners), which is great for durability. They are also looking reasonably well. What exactly do you have a problem with? I might help?

Other TIEs are in progress. I won't ruin the surprise by saying which ones will be first but your input is very valuable and will cause some... shifting on the list, perhaps!

I generally do not make instructions. This roughly triples the amount of effort to make something and I prefer to use that time just for building. That said... this case is special. There actually are instructions available, just not freely. These two are commissioned builds for BrickVault: https://www.brickvault.toys/collections/all As such, they are much sturdier than my usual models. I'll just leave this here... :D Obviously you won't do it with the Interceptor due to its geometry, but they are both as sturdy as reasonably possible and perfectly swooshable. Thanks for appreciation!

This question is way easier to answer than you expect: any design which is minifig-scale fits. This is because SW movies are quite inconsistent in scaling of TIEs, mostly because there were multiple models built for different scenes. Just pick whatever one warms your heart most and you will be good to go!

Thanks! I am glad you like them! Any wish list for the next TIE variant?

2021 remake! Initially it started as a minor update to fix few issues, most notably weak guns/windshield attachment, but over time scope of the changes grew and grew and grew. Changes: - Cockpit now can has space for the pilot in any type of the helmet, including the grossly oversized one; - Cockpit interior now features new controls layout and few more details; the "bowtie" detail taken almost 1:1 from 20feet's variant, with a slight modificiation to make it match the intended "flow' of the cockpit a bit more to my liking. Big thanks here! - gun and windscreen attachment is redone to be much more solid; though this particular change was already implemented in First Order TIEs; - top dish was replaced to use 4x4 one. This is a bit controversional, but bricklink prices for the 6x6 one are extreme, because they appeared on only one set some time ago. 4x4 is much more popular and so this is a better option for a model which is supposed to be built by other people too. - side struts were redone to resemble original ones a bit more. I had great help here from 20feet who helped me to go through few ideas and find one which is a nice compromise between screen accuracy and fitting rest of the ship's styling. Thanks again! - side struts were made longer, as I made a slight scaling mistake in the original TF. - wing/panels are basically an entirely new build. The shape, which has proven to be a little bit controversional due to being much more rectangular, is more similar to what movie and Rogue Squadrons game TIEs are using. I know it is not 100% perfect and a bit too rectangular, but this particular layout enabled me to use most of 1x2 grille bricks, aside from the slopes. I believe it is a good trade-off and the angle is definitely closer to the original, even if wrong in the other direction now. - I also tried 20feet's vertical stacked bricks idea and it looks great - on black background. It is included in the instructions pack, and is probably the best choice for people who will display the ship against black background. Otherwise, gaps between bricks are quite noticeable. Still - a super interesting idea and one which got implemented! - New wing cores: Hexagonal, finally! Again thanks for 20feet's insistence on making them better! I thought my original idea was good enough but it was worth pushing a bit more! - New color variant! This was Charlie's idea (one of Brickvault leads) and I was skeptical even after building it. Thankfully, he insisted and so, over time, this variant grew on me to the point that I now believe it is the best looking one. It is a bit assymetrical but overall a compromise worth doing! - New universal stand debiuts here, and I intend to use it - in various similar versions - for all future ships in this size. So, yeah. Quite a remake. I apologize for delaying it this much, especially after repeatedly telling people the update is "soon". Sorry. This is the first time since 2019 where I finally was able to get everything right. Since T/F shares almost entire core with the T/I, I redid it too: Interceptor shares most of the changes with the Fighter. Initially I did not want to redo the panels - I thought they were perfect, but, well, yeah. They were not. Having Rogue Squadrons 3d models as the sources enabled me to get proper dimensions finally. Ultimately, the panels simply required lenghtening the back part and making those weird offset guns at the tips. I still believe it is an odd choice, but nonetheless, I tried to replicate it. The red one is a Royal Guard TIE Interceptor and aside from the obvious new racey paint scheme, it also features smaller additions to the wings. I tried to keep the angles same as on the main panels, which was quite a challenge, but eventually it ended up being perfectly possible. At this rate, 3.0 is scheduled for release around 2024. Let's place bets on what will change, and please tell me what's the weakest part of those designs, so I can focus on them in the future! I want to ditch 3x3 dome pieces as they clog up the interior, and this probably will be the focus of 3.0 - if I get some good ideas to try. And who knows, maybe I'll be able to make a perfect T/F wing panel this time? --------------------- Yet another LEGO TIE Fighter. How far can this classic design be pushed? How many ways are there to build an eye sandwitched by hexagonal solar panels? Is there a perfect design already? This is where beauty of LEGO as form of modelling strikes with full power, as answers to these questions are: Very far, infinite ways, and no, there is no perfect design available and never will be. In 2014 I have built this: It worked, and I think for 2014 and what was available back then, it was pretty good. It had obvious flaw though: no space for a minifigure, and it was also a little too small in scale. I was limited mostly by the fact there were no proper cockpit pieces, and my attempt with literally the only other one was... not spectacular, not to mention it needed painting with A LOT patience required. The new model takes advantage of this cockpit piece, which allowed me to push that original 2014 design further. I know, I am late to the party, years - literally - behind other designers of great TIE models, like Bricks Feeder or Rebel Builder, yet I hope I can bring something new into the T/F building scene. Originally I thought I would just stretch the build here and there but no, heheh, no way. Literally the only unchanged parts are the eight quarter (or one-eighter?) dome pieces, which are to me still the only way to have smooth and roughly spherical design without holes all around. Unfortunately when we look at a closeup of a real movie-filming model of the T/F we see how far are we from true modelling but I say we're collectively inching towards it pretty nicely. I have said this plenty of times but original designers of TIE Fighters really did all they could to make them unbuildable properly, naturally unknowingly - who would think adult guys 30 years in the future would try to recreate the design using perhaps the weirdest medium available?. The T/F is just a sphere, two struts and two flat hexes. Except: 6-diameter central cokcpit piece would require a 9-diameter ball, minifig-scaled TIE would require an 8-diameter ball and don't even get me started on sources for TIEs dimensions. If you think that Illustrated Guide To Star Wars vehicles is helpful, well, not much. I dare to say this book did awfully lot of harm to LEGO Star Wars MOCing scene. So is my TIE perfect? No, not yet. I promise though, I did all I could to make it as good as possible, with no compromises made. And this time it houses a minifig! The design is super sturdy to my standards, nicely swooshable - for a reason, but I will get to that later. Naturally having a T/F built opens a way towards the Interceptor, which for me is among the best looking spaceship designs in any sci-fi. While the core design is similar, the ball has some differences, mostly to accomodate longer struts. This is because LEGO curiously didn't develop 2x9 plates and for once I was in a situation where I can't really replace 2x9 plate with anything without compromising structural integrity. Having that solved I went onto the wing design and OH GOD INTERNET WHAT HAVE YOU DONE. If anyone knows angle on the panels and can prove it, gets a free beer. With shipping. Because the wings are angled in all dimensions, good luck guessing proper values from photos. Because of the IGTSWV book, half of the models (and I don't even mean LEGO models) existing are wrong. And then because of SW animated series, the other half of the models are also wrong... ...so my source of reference was this: Then after having all that done, I experienced another unexpected problem: The ship is top-heavy and won't stand straight. I added tiny legs on the bottom edges of wings which help a bit, and because the design is quite sturdy, the T/I requires no stand. There you have it. Yet another T/F and T/I. I hope you like the designs and I hope I managed to introduce something new to the very competitive scene. Enjoy! ...but wait, there is more! I would not build these models if not a commission request from BrickVault: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrhb3SP2lZBgguLHIWWuHOQ Originally it was meant to be just a few TIE models based on the 2014 design I had, just LDD files, but over time we developed a much more interesting designs and... instructions for each of them! The instructions are paid and please understand, it took weeks to develop them, error-proof, make the experience enjoyable and builds sturdy enough to be handled easily. Normally I do not make instructions, as I prefer to build with real bricks than to do electronic designs. The instructions are designed to have dozens of simple to follow steps with just few pieces per step, have submodels where needed, parts list for each step and a total bill of parts at the beginning. Additionally, in few places, there are notes to watch out for some particular details. I can fully understand now what LEGO designers go through and I can imagine amount of effort required for making instructions for larger and more complicated designs. I am pretty sure it took more time to design instructions for the recent UCS Millennium Falcon than to design the model itself. Thanks for watching and Happy New Year!

I am glad that you like it! :) The model has proved to be surprisingly durable - after all that years it is still fully operational, altough it went through one "general repair" where its gearing was also reduced to help with turning on bad surfaces. The only problem I have with it is that 99,9% of its life is being showcased on some exhibition where it just stands and does nothing else. All that mechanical stuff there wasted :( If only there was a wireless way to charge it, mmm.....

I tried, but my computer couldn't handle it. Long beams made of pieces were actually bending which caused problems when trying to join something together. I actually did a little more, but not much... anyway later I tried extrapolating amount of pieces required based off this LDD model, but I failed miserably. Even if the model was finished it would not help me at all, because finished one, the one shown in this topic, is completely, 100% different. I guess no pair of pieces is connected the same way like it is in LDD model :D In fact, even such basic thing as direction of building has changed: my model has SNOT-bricks' studs facing the spine, and the LDD one has them facing the front, which is much less durable. Proportions are wrong in almost every dimension, too. And not by few percent, this LDD model would be 1-meter wide, should be 1,32 meter wide and is 1,25... I guess skill with real bricks does not really help with digital designing ;) Thanks everyone again! I am surprised by longetivity of this thread! Who knows, maybe it will survive long enough for second tour of presentation? :D

:D Do you have a link? I cannot find it :)

Not pneumatic, a flex hose. Bricklink lists them as "Hose, Rigid 3mm". Rails on Jabba's barge were made of this, and many many other sets have them as well. This thing has "eaten" almost 50 of individual hoses... 32L each! (naturally, mostly cut to pieces where required ;)) That sums up to 12 METERS of flex! Normally I wouldn't do that but I found a shop which offered a very nice deal for buying entire lot of 50, so I bought them all and used wherever possible.

I wouldn't, every time I tried using LDD and then converting it to real model it ended in a beautiful catastrophe :) Not to mention that no way I could afford it. Go for kickstarter, we cannot use it here but you might be able to do so, and I am sure that there will be many people willing to donate.

Kris Kelvin, The Prime Judge of the Zbudujmy.to association - friend who has helped me a lot during preparations to the exhibition and (mentally) during building :)

What I have learned some time ago with the starcraft battlecruiser is to build the hull first and leave detailing till the end. This way, perspective of making cool details will constantly push you towards finishing. And there is less chance to get into such situation. As for skills... I have chosen the ISD because it is the simpliest ship to do right in large scale. There is that man who routinely builds huge sw ships of awesome quality, particularly the MC-80 Home One and Invisible Hand, and these designs both in original and lego version are much much more complex than the ISD. In fact building it felt so obvious that I was in kind of paranoic state where I feared that one day I will wake up seeing someone already finished his ISD making mine obsolete :)

Yeah, outer skin is perfectly possible - at worst there will be some minor adjustments needed. You won't be able to do it in LDD though, because there are some illegal connections or just parts which are not connected at all (entire top section, terraces and up) just lies on the bottom, triangular hull section). So if you really wish to do so I will help as much as I can :) If you wish, I can send you entire folder full of photos. They are not suitable for presentation due to shadows, reflections and such, but might be useful for recreating detailing. I cannot, however, take any new photos until the end of exhibition as I am about 350km from the place :) EDIT: There will be some modifications later on.... maybe it would be better for you to wait for the refit? Altough this will be in some months...

In those places where there are no lateral loads, only pulling, a pair of 1x6 plates is perfectly enough - at least it was during transport. We'll see how is it after 3 months ;)

I think I should say sorry for NOT posting my other MOCs here previously. Sooo <3 reception :) THANKS! :D That's in one of the presentation's photo - the cost of parts which I had to buy is very roughly 5000$ AND there are parts which I already had not included. As for man hours... since some time I am alone, so I could spend a lot. And I did. Since beginning of the year, average 2 hours per day, you can do the maths yourself :)It was not of course 2 hours literally each day. Sometimes I spent entire weeekend on this, and some weeks I didn't touch a single brick. Probably the worst was the final crunch in last week when I wasn't even sleeping properly, to get the thing as much done as possible. Considering that I driven for 350 kilometers having about 6h of sleep accumulated in 3 days... that have been, uh, not wise. I applied but I was to arrogant and stupid, which normally I'd immediately realise... but I was so excited I didn't. Another sad tale where a man ruins his life by being stupid. Oh well. I shouldn't; Warsaw exhibition is held by lugpol whose governing body is very strictly against any commercialisation. Since this ship was almost completely funded by various attempts of me monetizing the hobby, it would be hipocritic to go there with it. So instead I opted to stay longer at Swarzewo and then take it to some fan convention. That'd be amazing! But how would you render bent frame bricks? :D I did that on purpose in the frame; in zero-G the ship would be actually quite not straight, more like ( instead of |. Gravity, however, pulls on heavier ends of that ( and make it again |. Thanks everybody again! I am sure I will return with more MOC's as well. Since this is Thrawn's flagship, it needs some escorts. Not that I want to touch a brick in few next weeks (or months :D), but it really needs an Interdictor cruiser to-scale, one or two dreadnoughts from Black Flotilla and maybe a Lancer frigate? I was thinking about a Victory SD, but that would be probably too redundant; for most people that'd be just a "ISD lite version".

As a maniac of lego engineering and durability, I find that movie an amazing piece of knowledge. This set is really a tough model and for sure far more durable than many others of this size, but notice how it is destroyed so totally that no distinguishable piece is left. Another thing worth noting are mechanics of the final breakdown, when the central spine stops first but floors don't (what a tremendous force, to rip those floors downwards from the walls!), and then the floors buckle up, destroy the walls and eject entire core in midair. Fantastic thing to watch over and over again.

Just don't make the same mistake I did with my way smaller ship and DON'T go for LEGO frame. It makes no sense, nobody will see it anyway, and bragging rights for the look beak bragging rights for the interior. So while some people might say I have currently the best SD done, I am really really waiting to be dethroned by you and that beast when it becomes alive, for it is indeed going to be the best looking SW ship ever! If I may suggest something, go not only for 2x2 tiles but 6x6, 8x16, 2x4 and so on. This will make really nice texture, with 2x2 only you will have one huge piece of pavement. Oh, and btw, I don't know what does it have inside but if you go for lego interior, there won't be just 70k of pieces, no way :)

Aside from being a cool movie by our LUG member - Allemov, it also shows some scenes where the SD is taken out of the car and carried :)