UCS TIE Silencer

[Anio]

Hello fellows,

 

This week I completed my latest Star Wars model : the UCS TIE Silencer.

 

UCS TIE Silencer by Anio, sur Flickr

UCS TIE Silencer by Anio, sur Flickr

UCS TIE Silencer by Anio, sur Flickr

UCS TIE Silencer by Anio, sur Flickr

UCS TIE Silencer by Anio, sur Flickr

UCS TIE Silencer by Anio, sur Flickr

FlickR gallery : https://www.flickr.com/photos/anio-ucs/albums/72157709153591627

Brickshelf gallery : http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=577799

 

And a small video to see the model in flesh in bricks.

 

So, what can I say about that model ?

I started working on that project about 1 year ago. And quickly I gave up as I couldn't find a nice way to achieve the windscreen.

And recently, I tried again to design that model. And I figured out a way to build the model with a pair of 30372 trans-red windscreen.

That was the starting point of the whole design process.

It was pretty tricky to make those windscreens fit into the build, as they are longer than needed (only the front part of the windscreen is necessary to design the required shape). So I had to find how to build with/around them in a strong and discrete way.

As you can guess, I used some SNOT techniques. I also tried to includ some black lines in the windscreen with part 51739 , like the real ship.

 

Designing it was not as easy as it looks. One thing I struggled a lot with was the half plate offset I had to deal with on the side of each SNOTed windscreen.

To fill that gap, I used this type of bracket: . Basically, they are used as they were some kind of half thick tile 2x4 inverted.

And of course, the ship has an interior, with detailed cockpit.

UCS TIE Silencer by Anio, sur Flickr

To be honnest, it is not exactly minifig scale (the ship is a bit bigger). But like UCS Y-Wing #75181, I think that it works pretty well visually speaking, so I went for it.

 

The build is modular. Here are the various sub-assemblies of the model :

 

As you can see, the core of the build has a Technic frame to provide stability. Besides the trans-red windscreen, one thing I am happy with is how the various modules fit together at the rear of the ship :

In the end, the model is rather big : 60cm long.

But it has a very reasonnable part count : only 1481 elements.

 

I don't have much material to present the design process. Basically, the only thing I have left is the wing design. On the picture below you can see the 2 versions of the wings. The design on the bottom of the picture was the first version, and was obviously wrong after I studied more carefully all the reference pictures I gathered.

 

I you have any question or want some more details about the build, feel free to ask. Will do my best to answer.

Hope instructions will come some day. :)

Cheers,

[namioik]

Beautiful

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

What exceptional model! 

The modern shape that lowers the center of gravity and the width of the central body make me think "this is the Ferrari of the TIEs"

I love the large back propulsors with trans-red tiles ...it would be great if this could be an official Lego set! 

[Chromide]

Awesome build, great job!

[ProvenceTristram]

Very nice model. Pity the source material destroyed the franchise.

[tfcrafter]

1 hour ago, ProvenceTristram said:

Very nice model. Pity the source material destroyed the franchise.

Really, never would've guessed from all your previous Star Wars comments.

But great work @Anio, saw the model on Flickr a few days ago, and it is quite impressive. The cockpit design is very ingenious.

[ProvenceTristram]

57 minutes ago, tfcrafter said:

Really, never would've guessed from all your previous Star Wars comments.

But great work @Anio, saw the model on Flickr a few days ago, and it is quite impressive. The cockpit design is very ingenious.

[Anio]

Thank you guys. :)

On 6/21/2019 at 8:58 PM, LEGO Train 12 Volts said:

it would be great if this could be an official Lego set! 

Well, regarding the build itself, I guess it could more or less be turned into an official set.

But I doubt we will ever get any UCS set from Episodes 7, 8 and 9.

For such products, TLG seems to commit on Episodes 4, 5 and 6 only.

[Xelveki]

That looks amazing. I don't know how you do it.

[Anio]

14 hours ago, Xelveki said:

I don't know how you do it.

Well, with skill, obviously. :p
Just kidding.

Actually, the thing is to catch what the ship really is. And to put a lot of effort in what strongly defines the identity of the ship.

On the TIE Silencer, I can mention : the angular red windscreen, the tapered rear engines, and the simple and streamlined wings.

Generally, I try my best to make the design as simple as possible. I optimise the build as much as I can.

And this naturally gives some kind of elegance and finesse to the final model.

 

The way you can "decrypt" how the whole thing is built also participates in how delicate the model is perceived. Hence the modular design.

 

You may find it silly, but I think that the piece count is generally a good indicator of how optimised the model is.

It gives an interesting perspective between the means used (all the parts) and the final result that could be achieved with them.

For example, if you can achieve the same thing in 1,400 or 1,700 elements, then always go with 1,400 elements. Not because it is cheaper. But because if you do it the right way, you will always have better result with fewer elements.

[Mister Phes]

Thank you for sharing, @Anio - your TIE Silencer has been posted on the frontpage of Eurobricks!

[Hold0511]

Looking very mean and menacing.....so now I'll need to add this to your T-70 X-wing to balance it out nicely....

Can't wait for instructions for this dark baby.

[Jody Meyer]

OMG sexy 

[Anio]

Thanks guys !

Frontpage is much appreciated. :)

[Xelveki]

On 6/26/2019 at 4:13 AM, Anio said:

You may find it silly, but I think that the piece count is generally a good indicator of how optimised the model is.

It gives an interesting perspective between the means used (all the parts) and the final result that could be achieved with them.

For example, if you can achieve the same thing in 1,400 or 1,700 elements, then always go with 1,400 elements. Not because it is cheaper. But because if you do it the right way, you will always have better result with fewer elements.

This makes a lot of sense. I suppose looking at existing UCS and other people's other builds is a reasonable place to start for building some of this stuff.

[Anio]

10 hours ago, Xelveki said:

I suppose looking at existing UCS and other people's other builds is a reasonable place to start for building some of this stuff.

I did when I designed my AT-TE in 2009 or my Speeder Bike in 2013.

But definitely not for this project.

[Ellisss_2]

Awesome TIE, the engines look fantastic and it's made with only 1481 bricks! 

[Anio]

On 6/30/2019 at 3:50 PM, Ellisss_2 said:

Awesome TIE, the engines look fantastic and it's made with only 1481 bricks! 

Thanks buddy. I am glad you like it. :)

[darthulvyan]

Excellent work. you really nailed it. 

[Cygma]

Beautiful design that really captures the menace of the Tie Silencer.  Any plans for parts lists or possibly instructions in the future? 

[Anio]

Thank you Cygma. :)

8 hours ago, Cygma said:

captures the menace of the Tie Silencer.

I think it is due to the build that is both simple and sharp.

As for plans, well, send me an email and I will see what I can do.

[Brick-Wombat]

Love the way you designed the red cockpit!!! Much more elegant than TLG's approach. 

[Anio]

On 9/13/2019 at 9:36 PM, Brick-Wombat said:

Much more elegant than TLG's approach. 

This is because of the scale. It is just a bit bigger than 75179, and so it gives a lot of opportunities to tackle the model in a different way.

The interesting thing here is that you generally don't need to increase the size like crazy (+100% or +200%...) to go from a minifig scale set to a UCS model.

+40% / 60% is generally more than enough.

You can check with many UCS sets and their minifig scale version (TIE Fighter, B-Wing, ISD, Slave 1, Y-Wing, X-Wing).

There are few exceptions, such as UCS MF and UCS Snowspeeder.

edit : my UCS TIE Silencer in "only" 44% longer than 75179.

[Jerry McGlade]

Thats pretty awesome!

[native1]

I'm a little late to this as I just came out of my dark ages with my son! This is simply amazing!!  Do you have a parts list or an Studio 2.0 file perhaps you could share?  I would be more than happy to provide a donation for your time in designing an amazing lego creation.

Happy New Year!!