Aeroeza

Cheers Sucram! It felt really a eureka moment when the penny dropped whipping up that solution for the nose! I'll be spilling a yarn & waxing lyrical about it to the grandkids one day, with my dentures flying loose and hearing aid turned off so as all protest can easily be ignored. Hope you enjoyed reading the 'update blurb' this time around too! I genuinely appreciate your comment icm. We didn't want to leave any stone unturned, and really hope AFOLs who decide to invest their time in our MOD enjoy it all the more as a consequence...

UPDATE!! Allow me to present to you our NEW Directors Cut of GotB’s 75355 UCS X-wing Starfighter... Although these ‘add-ons’ are not critical to the completion of the model found in our main instructions, what we have endeavoured to create with this additional free release is basically a smorgasbord of display choices and optional little ‘extras’ for you to enjoy should you be wanting to push the potential of your X-wing to its absolute limits! Hopefully you’ll find something in our Directors Cut that floats your boat, elevates your heart rate or simply pushes all the right buttons in all the right places because it sure did for us! To begin with we’ve added a couple of additional ‘greebles’ we just had to throw in at the last moment. Our initial build succeeded in keeping much of Henrik Andersen’s DNA intact but there was the odd personal preference we had left out in deference to his build which we’ve now decided to present here for your consideration. Next you will find a modification for properly incorporating Luke into his cockpit. Although not to mini-fig scale we’ve come to appreciate that many AFOL’s would enjoy this UCS with our erstwhile hero at its helm. This MOD wasn’t as straight forward as it sounds but we are ecstatic with the result. Again, not a necessary change but a welcome one for many. But the biggest challenge we set ourselves for you to explore is a display variant of our model with ‘accurate’ and stable landing gear. It seemed only natural for a UCS X-wing to have this capability, especially as we had already hidden a little ‘Easter Egg’ into our build’s cockpit to augment this very display potential. You see, there are already 3L bars in place which can be extended to ‘hold-up’ the canopy much like the pneumatic pistons present in the film’s full-sized cockpit mock-up. What a feature to waste! So how did we go about making our landing gear? Well, let’s make a short story long in the expectation that you’ll enjoy the ride…. There’s a plethora of differences between the original four ILM X-wing models, their pyrotechnic copies, the life-sized soundstage props built, and the off-the-shelf commercial modelling kits used for filming in the ‘Original Trilogy’. That’s not to mention a simplified 3D version found in Star Wars: A New Hope’s ‘Special Edition’ and a whole new era of practical, digital and full-sized assets and props created for the Disney era. Luckily, we had been spoiled for choice when it came to available primary source material with our initial X-wing project regarding the very era of Star Wars that mattered to us the most. First, there were fantastic orthographic blueprints reproduced for the Rebel Starfighters Owners’ Workshop Manual which, as we had come to understand it, are at least in part based on 3D scans of the ‘Red Three’ hero model. Second, but by no means least, were high-resolution images of the hero ‘Red One’ which had only recently become available due to its auctioning in the United States. These all proved an invaluable prize for detailing our X-wing and in understanding the more esoteric oddities of ILM’s masterpiece just when we needed clarity the most. However, there is no equivalent primary source material available for an X-wing’s landing gear. Of course, there are images and scenes from several of the films you can gaze at as well as toys and model kits, BUT no Lucasfilm blueprints existed publicly providing their dimensions or angles for what would truly satisfy our thirst for accuracy beyond Steve Gawley’s initial X-wing blueprints from 1975. And these had long been superseded by what eventually appeared on the silver screen. Furthermore, not only did the original and ‘Sequel Trilogies’ differ in their depiction of both gear and corresponding undercarriage details but even the computer game Star Wars: Squadrons has its own ‘take’ on the look of it all! To be fair, when conceivably supporting the weight of a Lego model that tips the scales at just over two kilograms, some of these takes are more forgiving than others! For instance, the gear found on the full-sized studio prop of the X-wing in Rogue One has less ground clearance to that found on the prop in A New Hope. Also, its front gear’s main strut is strikingly beefy, angled more directly to the ground with a skid constructed to hide a wheel underneath so as the prop could easily be towed around a sound stage. In contrast, the full-sized prop used in ANH sat higher above the ground and being built from less robust light-weight materials, was designed instead to be re-built in situ and then lifted about by crane for a ‘Repulsor’ lift-like effect in the movie. It seemed to us the wisest candidate to base our landing gear on would be that found in the Disney era of Star Wars however the purists in us were compelled to attempt the dimensions found in the original films. After all, it was Luke’s Red Five we were recreating here, and our own ‘love note’ on the subject matter demanded its full pint of blood, sweat and tears! Having made this decision our second problem to solve was to work out the length of the primary, secondary and even tertiary landing gear struts with their respective skids and undercarriage doors from ANH’s full-sized prop. It’s a given that at this scale Lego can only really approximate these, but we still wanted to get as close as feasible and in so doing understand our own margin of error. But how could we maintain our own high standards of reference material for this phase of the project? Well, given none existed, the simple fact of the matter was we just had to make our own…. Time for a little context! Stage H, Shepperton Studios, Surrey England, June 1976. A solitary full-sized X-wing prop has been transported in various parts from Elstree Studios, Hertfordshire where it is then rebuilt beside a full-sized Y-wing. The Y-wing’s starboard engine nacelle is altogether missing but, never-the-less, both constructs prove a convincing facsimile of the draughtsmen’s plans especially after receiving their final dressing from the prop-department. Stage H is the only soundstage both available at that moment in Great Britain and large enough to accommodate Lucas’ vision. The hanger set’s temple columns stand over ten meters tall but still, despite the size of the space, only via the art of filmmaking can a vast fantastical Rebel hanger-bay, and the squadrons of snub fighters it is meant to house, be fashioned convincingly enough for the overwrought, budget conscious production to pull off. Forced perspective, the use of a matte painting and five wooden cutout fighters carted about on shopping trolley wheels complete the illusion. It stands to reason no one on set that day could predict just how iconic a design these two fantasy starfighters would soon become or how much the zeitgeist generated from this film would capture the imagination of so many throughout the decades that followed. And it’s within that blissfully unaware moment that a quick anonymous snapshot was taken of the X-wing prop, levitating gracefully above Stage H’s floor, with a 35-mm camera lens. It turned out that a poor low-resolution digital copy of this snapshot was the best reference for us to use in our particularly geeky mission. Screen grabs of the Rebel hanger scene from our Star Wars Blu-Ray disc collections either did not show the fighter from the best angle or the focal-length of the camera distorted its fuselage too much for our use. Basically, the solution posited by us was to build our own 3D model of an X-wing using the Rebel Starfighters Owners’ Workshop Manuel orthographic plans and then match that as best we could to the photograph. Once done we could generate 3D topology of the gear itself from the overlaid ‘match’ and finally render out new orthographic portraits of an X-wing with its undercarriage doors and landing gear deployed. There could never quite be a perfect overlap between our model and the shot used though as not only did ILM back in the day have rather poor trans-Atlantic communication with the carpenters at Elstree but each had their own take on Steve Gawley’s production blueprints. Throw in some lens distortion and an unknown zoom setting and you end up with quite the challenge! However, those inaccuracies aside, our photogrammetry proved useful enough for the task at hand and we now had our own schematics based directly on primary source material. Judging by the latest measurements cited for the length of an X-wing fighter we could now confidently state just how high the gear held the X-wing above the ground, the dimensions of each skid, the length of each strut and what angle they should ideally be positioned in. Having just solved our second problem it only remained for us to build the damned things in Lego! Did we happen to mention already that the model weighed two kilograms? Okay, well we knew we wanted our landing gear to be modular so as it would be simple enough to swap out and return the model to its flight stand. This sounded like a plan! We did however ponder for a long time on whether to use a base plate or small stand as the primary source of stability for the undercarriage or rely instead solely on a trio of robust gears to support the whole model. Gears alone would be ideal, but we had learned through several iterations of our undercarriage MOCs that the whole thing tended to sag sadly over an hour or two of pained observation. Even the subtle draft of a passing cat added cause for anxiety, promising imminent catastrophic collapse of struts or skids with sudden force and equally bruised aspiration! Weight wasn’t the only obstacle. When it came to pins and bars and such Lego’s building software, Studio 2, wasn’t always as helpful as you might think with its confusing array of connective possibilities and impossibilities. The preponderance of old variant friction pins in our Lego collections was also an early unexpected obstacle when problem solving the build. We quickly learned that only through prototyping with the newest available pieces could we bring reality to a promising Studio 2 hypothesis and then again of course only when the cat wasn’t in the room or had instead found a possum to chase away during the witching hour of a frenzied Lego building night! Only in our wildest dreams did we think we could engineer a solution strong enough to support this UCS without the constant use of a baseplate or stand for stability. But we like to think we got there! We certainly knew we had hit a home run when a solitary rear gear MOC held aloft a 2-kilogram laptop! With the benefit of hindsight, our solution now seems all so obvious. Make each primary and secondary strut reinforce one another, fully weight bearing and firmly connected to the fuselage. Lock the rear primary struts into their skids as though hammering in the foundations of a pier. Remove any sideways give and use friction pins where possible to prevent forward lean. Finally, take no prisoners regarding the strength of the lower forward gear as it will need all the help it can get! All this had to be combined with an eye to accuracy and scale, not to mention our hope to execute it with a degree of pleasing aesthetics which could be in keeping with the colour of the source material and overall style of our X-wing MOD. In the end, regardless of strength, we decided to include an elegant stand to use with the three gear modules. Its purpose though is primarily for long term display and storage. We know the rear gears are as tough as a proverbial tough thing armed with a list of proverbs long enough to startle a hibernating sloth from a cryogenic deep freeze sleep! However, the front gear just might not enjoy the cruel test of time as much as the rear ones will. Don’t get me wrong, it is very strong, especially when combined with its two laptop bearing cousins, but it would be remiss of us to assume it could win every bar brawl that came its way over the length of time it might take for Lego to release another UCS X-wing. Even Rocky Balboa had to call it a day eventually! To make the Landing Gear Stand a bit more useful we threw in a modification for it so that when it wasn’t acting as a walking cane for an aging geriatric MOC it could moonlight as a flight stand that angled the model parallel to its display surface. The centre of gravity of our X-wing MOD is pitch perfect for just such a pose and positions it purposefully for a Death Star trench run. For those of you who dig our landing gear solution but prefer to keep your 75355 UCS X-wing in all its fragile, un-swoosh-able original glory, we’ve designed a conversion kit! So, for a few dollars more and a fist full of extra bricks any 75355 can perch atop our MOC and rest those weary S-foils from their droopy tendencies. But why end there? We thought it prudent to also update our initial instructions based on fabulous feedback and support we’d received from the community over the last two months. This has further strengthened and simplified our build, making it fair to say that this final incarnation of our X-Wing MOD is not only even more solid but also gets a fair number of bonus kudos points for extra swoosh-ability when compared to its namesake! There are also new custom printed stickers, including an updated placard design, offered by our friend Stefan over at CustomStickersGermany. Bonus Tip!! We cunningly used a 1 x 8 rail plate for our greebling on the wing tips so as the wings can be closed flush with the help of a rubber band or a slightly modified paper clip! And that’s it!! This is not only the end of my diatribe but also our first, hopefully not last, project. We would therefore like to shout out a big thanks to folks like hypodorius and ron_mcphatty who have generously shared their ideas with the MOC community. We are also very grateful to mountainridernzl and jmkiska who have contributed directly to the success of this project and really helped us fine tune our processes. It’s done now and with it too an era within our lives that allowed the three of us to pool our talents, hone our art and make new friends…. Gotta love The Brick! Download GotB's 75355 X-wing Starfighter UCS - MOD on Rebrickable. Also, checkout our free Landing Gear MOC and 75355 Upgrade Kit here. Cheers all, Aeroeza, rde and Rilted – GotB September 20th 2024

Thanks for sharing YavinBase. I’m loving your last image in particular as that’s one hell of a collection you’ve got there! And it’s good to see that X-Wing in such auspicious company! I noticed also you’ve raised the canopy piece by a plate which got me thinking that you may want to check out KK3D’s modification of this area in the UCS X-Wing 2023 – Mods thread as it absolutely has its merits! However, in case you're interested, this wasn’t a direction we wanted to go. The main issue (mostly) is the height of 75355’s rear fuselage rather than that of its canopy. Lowering the top of the rear fuselage by the width of a 1x1 brick & the base of it by two (even three given its angular front/rear profile here) would be ideal. My image attempts to communicate these observations. The red lines are those of the studio model (as depicted in the Rebel Starfighters Owner's Manual), the blue is 75355. I’ve scaled the UCS’ fuselage to that of the orthographic image while matching their centerlines. Notably, the canopy’s position on the UCS is actually quite well placed, lining up almost perfectly with the height of the studio model’s rear fuselage. Unfortunately adjusting the fuselage here to match in Lego would necessitate the lowering of the S-Foil in our MOC (not possible given how it is mounted). The angles of the front & rear profile would also significantly suffer if not simply no longer line up. The point at which the fuselage begins to taper toward the front might also need to move back 4 or 5 studs if you wanted the underside to be more accurate, which really could put the cat out amongst the pigeons as I'm not even beginning to consider how the internal structure here would then need a powerhouse of an overhaul! Alternatively, raising the canopy, likewise, introduces proportional challenges to the sleekness & broad accuracy of the forward fuselage.... So, you really have to choose between your 'evils' here! Henrik’s solution is understandable given the balance of issues at hand. We certainly didn’t think we could resolve these problems to our satisfaction without introducing an even greater degree of 'proportional dysmorphia' throughout the model! We ultimately found we could do more justice to the build by better matching its orthographic view from above while focusing only on the side profile of the forward fuselage rather than its rear. I’m not saying it isn’t impossible to solve…. But we’d have probably had to throw the baby out with the bathwater with this UCS as well as our S-Foil which wasn’t really in our design brief. Henrik’s DNA needed to stay & so did our lift arms! But what really matters to us here is that you enjoyed our MOD/MOC! Go MOD it some more!!! I'm now leaning toward the happy thought that there's got to be some rather careful swooshing going on in that Lego room of yours!!!

Thanks again! I agree. For me the cost of including exclusive minifigures was a backward step which can only compromise the proposed budget of a UCS. I'm wanting clever builds that approach a high degree of accuracy with full printed parts & exclusive pieces (such as that elusive X-Wing canopy) if required. That's it. Minifigures are a distraction unless the build, by happenstance or design is tantamount to minifig scale (which, let's face it, has a wide degree of interpretation). I understand people love their minifigures though, & clearly including them in UCS sets has proven a commercial success for Lego over the last decade. Cost is certainly a constraint but the S-Foil in 75355 was likely a design choice committed to early on for the set. It might therefore be that deadlines were a consideration in this case too. Had the S-Foil been more robust I doubt we'd have felt compelled to attempt this MOD. By & large recent UCS sets have been excellent, but outliers clearly happen. I guess that's all part of the drama of being an AFOL! I'm happy to hear you've taken the plunge & heartened to hear thus far it's proving a fun build for you! Let us know how it turns out!

We’re absolutely delighted to know you enjoyed our build so much & your comparison photos are just awesome! You’ve reminded us of why we deep dived into this MOD/MOC in the first place & have really made us feel like the hard work has paid off. Your review is genuinely humbling… Thank you. I’ll be sleeping easy tonight!!

Molto apprezzato RedWolfwere!

I’d just like to add to Rilted's last post that early on with our dabbling’s adjusting the angle of the canopy was considered. Jerac had executed just such a trick to great effect with his minifig scaled X-Wing. Unfortunately, the system scale X-Wing canopy verses the UCS’ have very different proportions. Angling the UCS canopy to capture this slope can disrupt the silhouette of the model rather than improve upon it. Not only do you run the risk of dropping the height of the canopy too much, but the angle of the forward windscreen can look oddly acute. Basically, the same trick doesn’t play out so well with this canopy piece and you can lose far more on the swings than you gain on the roundabout. At least, that was our impression... Also, we didn’t want to change the look of the side panels of the front fuselage section so much that it was no longer recognisably Henrik’s X-Wing. Our whole design philosophy was after all to maintain his aesthetics as much as we could.

Really appreciate your sentiments ClassicLook! Thank you!! 'The Gents' are sometimes a little irrationally on the fence as to whether it's classified as a MOD or MOC but, realistically, given it is based on all the elements we loved most about 75355 we always came back down to Earth and accepted that it's just a MOD. Admittedly though, a thoroughly comprehensive one. We're just being a bit cheeky calling it a MOD/MOC! I really hope you enjoy the building experience when you get around to it. There's plenty enough new there to surprise those who have already built the original and lots of homages to and inspiration taken from Henrik along the way as well.

Cheers stevej. It's certainly proven to be a most unexpected way to make friends around the world. Gives me an excuse to hit a Greek beach & a Scandinavian mountain while 'The Gents' plan our next MOC or MOD in person! The whiskey will flow.

I had a little play in Studio and recreated Red 3's port side using a 2x2 half wedge. Collisions caused by the 2 x 3 dark red plate with our modified build meant the original mounting approach for the 2 x 2 tile from 75355's had to be restored. Importantly, what I refer to as 'the band' which softens the transition between the angled forward top fuselage plate and angled top plate of the nose cone, is maintained. It's this 'band' that helps the 1 x 4 width of the fuselage on top to become a 1 x 3 nose cone. It isn't a significant modification to our nose cone or side fuselage panels. Adding the additional half wedge for the lower rear section present on Red 5 is easy enough too. However, the underside fuselage plate would then need to be adjusted to account for the widening gap again. As to whether it's better shaping? Well, there are pros and cons here that are best left to the eye of the beholder.

Thanks MBrick.... It certainly kept us busy when time permitted & we're relieved to have completed it by our self imposed deadline of May 4. As for the io file, well, after discussing with it with 'The Gents', we're of the opinion that handing it out felt like giving away our first born! The umbilical cord is strong with this one! Apologies!!

Cheers Sucram! I must admit I'm having fun here & I'm chuffed to read you are too!

Yep! Me too… The online debating discourse has been rife with critical posts on this set beyond the usual price tag complaint Lego invariable brings about. I guess we just ‘own’ our own concept of what an X-Wing should look like, even if it’s a vintage Kenner X-Wing with an oversized R2 unit. (Mine had the 'battle damage'… always regretted adding those stickers dammit)! 75355 seems to suffer from its own sense of ‘The Uncanny Valley’.

And we have! Thanks so much for your observations! Let me expand on some of our decision-making processes behind the build…. An argument can be made that the way we have approached the nose cone’s side ‘transition’ is a clear deviation from the appearance of Red 5 – and they’d be right. However, it is worth pointing out that the four hand sculpted fuselages used for the hero models in ANH aren't identical and are also somewhat asymmetrical. For our Lego rendition we hit the research road. What we came to truly appreciate about the hero models of ANH & ROTJ (none were made for ESB as they used an MPC model kit instead) is that there are few X-wing nose cones that are alike! These differences are found primarily at the rear of the cone where it connects to the fuselage. However, port and starboard sides could also have discrepancies between one another on a single model too! 'Broadly' speaking there were three variants in particular within all these discrepancies that caught our eye... The first, I’ll call Type 1 (as depicted in Henrik’s original build) has an upper section with a wedge-look, the angle of which pretty much continues to the lower section creating an overall swept back look. Type 2 has a slight concave upper section and a more acute angled lower section when compared to Type 1, giving it a softened swept back appearance. Type 3 depicts a deeper concave shaped upper section and almost 90 degree angled lower section. The ‘swept back look’ has gone. How they blend with the fuselage also differs for this lower section. Some are quite distinct, appearing to be almost a separate component to the fuselage while others have little distinction at all and gently merge into it. Notably, the hero Red 5 nose cone is wildly different to the hero Red 3. Red 5 has the more swept back look on top and semi swept lower section. Red 3 on the other hand has the deeper concave upper shape (at least on the starboard side) with a lower section dropping suddenly (port and starboard). Both models have nose cones that remain distinct in form where they connect to the fuselage. The million-dollar question is - which nose cone can be best replicated in Lego form at the scale we were working with? The answer is Red 3. Thanks Biggs! The reference used for our nose cone was therefore the hero Red 3 model (Type 3) from ANH rather than the hero Red 5 (Type 2). Our take here was regardless of call-sign, if ILM built it & we use it for reference, then it would be right for our project! These differences to Red 5 allowed for treatment of the cone as a complete & separate modular build for better integration with the rest of the X-Wing’s dragster front. There was less call for a diagonal half-tile on the cone’s upper section and none for the lower. The use of the modified tile with curved cut-outs on the upper-rear section also proved a fair match to the concave look of Red 3 while allowing too for a streamlined flow into the side panels of the fuselage that compared well with the broader source material. Personally, I’m really enjoying the look and clean flow of the ‘roundedness’ of our cone as it segways into the X-Wing’s angular hexagonal silhouette. Scaling the schematics (while using the canopy as a reference point) to an orthographic top render of the front fuselage also proves an interesting reveal... This is a render of our first prototype nose to explore the solution. It's not identical to our final take (the above has a slightly different top panel) however it does show not only how close we got (proportionally a 1 x 3 rather than 1 x 4 nose cone top plate is the way to go), but that the front fuselage of 75355 is really at a different scale to it's rear due to the width of the canopy piece. That said, it's quite remarkable what the original designer pulled off!

Thanks mate! I was a little intimidated by using BL too.... Ordering the parts for our MOC/MOD was the largest order I'd ever attempted to date. But, once I'd set up my wanted list in Rebrickable before I knew it I had'em! Five orders in total, all within my home turf of Australia for $247 AUS including postage & handling. Four days later and they're all here! I'm ecstatic to finally be converting my virtual build into the real thing! The link should be up BUT, to quote it "....we are currently in the process of setting up a distribution point for the package including the building instructions and sticker sheet in PDF format, together with the parts list available for ordering through Bricklink or Rebrickable services." Our May 4th celebration is complete! Stay tuned!!!