Most people here in this forum don't know me from Adam. Probably because I'm new here. As a way of introducing myself to the EB community, I've decided to post my MOCs for review and comments.

Some general notes first. I start all of my MOCs as MLCad designs. I find that I can refine the design to where I'm satisfied with it, and not buy unnecessary parts that may never be used again. In the long run, it's cheaper that way, and with my limited bricks budget, cheaper is definitely better. My intention is to eventually build all of my designs in real bricks, but it is going to take a long time before I can build some of them.

Second, if you see a white background on any of the pictures, it came out of MLCad. Any colored backgrounds are POVRay renders. I'm still on the learning curve for POV-Ray, so the lighting or camera angles may be off. I'm getting better, but some of the older renders are subject to some problems.

Last thing, I Promise. I started doing TIE variants for a few reasons. First, out of all the starships in the SW universe, the TIE Defender is my absolute favorite. Thats why it became my first MOC. Second, all TIEs follow the same general design: a somewhat spherical cockpit ball, pylons and wing panels in various shapes and sizes. I thought that I could do one design, and merely modify it to get other designs, essentially learning my "trade" in the process.

How wrong I was. Every single design has been from the ground up. The only thing that has carried over between designs is the ubiquitous UCS Stand. Even that gets modified between designs, depending on shape and center of gravity. So much for my grand plans.

I've prattled on long enough. Now for some good stuff.

The first UCS scale MOC I ever created was a TIE Defender. I Posted these images on FBTB months ago, and garnered some much needed feedback. The end result was a complete re-design, making this model Revision 1. You may submit comments if you like, but I'm more interested in Rev. 2 comments.

(nb: Most of my images are large, so I'll refrain from making any deeplinks here. Sorry, you'll have to look at another page.)

Here you'll see the entire model, on its stand. It doesn't look too bad in all honesty, but the wing panels are far too stubby. This problem came about because of my inability to scale a drawing correctly. And I call myself an engineer.

A Front View and a Rear View. I give these mostly as comparison shots to Rev 2.

The full Gallery, in case you are interested.

Now onto Revision 2. Whenever possible, I use a schematic for sizing my TIE MOCs. I'll print the schematic out on 8 1/2 x 11 paper, and use an engineer's scale to get relative sizes. Then I'll convert them to stud lengths and brick heights. All of my TIE MOCs are scaled off of the Windscreen, since that was the one piece I was gauranteed to use. My assumption is that Sienar Fleet Systems would use a standardized windscreen in all models to cut down on production costs. Seems like a logical assumption.

Here is an Isometric View of the entire model, sans stand. To be honest, the stand is pretty boring. Just know that it is included. As you can see, the wing panels are greatly elongated over their Rev 1 counterparts. If they look heavy to you, THEY ARE. I built a set for my TIE Avenger MOC (topic to come at a later date), and the pylons ended up collapsing under the weight. So the wing panels on all of my MOCs are undergoing a major re-design to lighten them up. But the overall shape should stay the same.

This Shot shows the connection of the pylon to the main hull, the cockpit ball to the main hull, and the greebs in between. I thought it was an interesting shot.

A Front View and Back View, for comparison to Rev 1. The cockpit ball is the only thing that carried over from Rev 1 to Rev 2 unchanged.

A view with the Windscreen removed, showing some of the interior details.

The entire Rev 2 Gallery, though I've given you all the screenshots in there already.

The pylons on Revision 2 look really blocky, unfortunately. Rev 1 used 4 x 4 round bricks, but covering up the holes on the sides proved to be very tricky, and I decided not to attempt to re-create that again. Unfortunately, the pylon should be 4 studs by 4 studs. I did my best to camoflage it. The connection between the panel and the pylon is going to change, somewhat drastically, when the wing redesign is finished. I'll post pics on Brickshelf when I'm done. Don't look for them next week, it'll be a while.

In conclusion, The TIE Def IS my favorite of all the TIE variants. It will probally receive the most tweaks, improvments and re-designs before I'm truly satisfied with it and try to build it for real. I want it to look nearly perfect. It deserves no less.

All comments and criticisms are welcome. I am by no means perfect, and these designs were both fairly early in my (still young) MOCing career. Anything to make my designs better is appreciated. I'll do my best to answer all feedback.

EDIT: The wing design is complete. I've put some WIP images on BS. They can be seen Here and Here.

Let me know what you think. For some reason POV-Ray and I were fighting over lighting and camera placement today. POV-Ray won, so there are no close-up images of the re-designed Laser Cannons. Sorry

Edited May 12, 200816 yr by Walter Kovacs

Hey there Walter Kovacs!

Those are some really good designs you have here, and one really sees the improvement from your first try to your revised version

I like your model very much, it seems to contain not that much parts, mostly large plates, is this correct?

The only thing that I don't like too much is the connection between the cockpit and the pylons, they appear to be a little bit bulky...maybe you can find some way to make them look more sexy, uh I mean sleek?

Best regards, Benny

Great stuff! I'm quite fond of the TIE variants myself and still plan to build an example of each one of them (right now I only have these). If you require pictures or info on TIEs, please don't hesitate to send me a PM; I have hundreds of photographs you may use, as long as it brings good MOCs :)

A very good work.

I don´t mind the blockyness of your pylons, after all the cockpit ball isn´t an utmost smooth sphere too and the pylons fit in

to the overall shape very nicely. But it looks a little like the upper pylon´s a tad longer than the side ones and I´m not sure

about that.... and, maybe, a bit more greebling for the backside of them could work well too. The interior´s very fine indeed,

and the wings look superb. The perhaps best (IMHO) improvement over your first version´s the downsizing of the main hull,

where the pylons meet, in relation to the cockpit section. All in all a very beautiful creation for sure.

Thanks for the feedback, everyone.

I do agree that the pylons are in need of some heavy greebling. As this was an early design, I wasn't sure exactly how to go about it. One look at my TIE Avenger pylon, and you'll see just how comfortable I've become with the greebs.

The back is in need of some updates, as well, though I still like having the Ion Engines on the pylon. Helps get them in the correct orientation.

I like your model very much, it seems to contain not that much parts, mostly large plates, is this correct?

You'd be surprised. It comes in at 1939 pieces, making it the second largest MOC I've designed to date (My Nebulon B-2 is the largest. I have a feeling that my TIE Scimitar currently under design will dwarf them both). Estimated cost new, via BL, is $300 USD, not including S&H. If I went with pieces I already own, I'd need to order 310 pieces @ $65 USD, again not including S&H. All of this does not include the wing re-design that needs to happen, but the piece count difference should be close to a wash.

HJR - I've seen your work before. I have to say that I'm particularly fond of the TIE Vanguard. Excellent work there. The Nsiss Clawcraft is really good, too. I haven't paid much attention to the Clawcraft, yet. It'll likely be one of the last models I attempt. I need to practice different techniques, first. Like you, I am trying to get a UCS scale model of every TIE Variant. An overwhelming task, to be sure.

As I've mentioned above, the TIE Scimitar is my current project. Then some TIE Wing re-designs, and on to the TIE Predator. My initial scaling says that the wings will be on the order of 41 studs long. That is going to present quite the challenge, believe me.

Are you planning to incoporate a stand again for v2/3? Personally my favorite feature of the 10175 was the fact that Vader's Tie was removable from the stand.

From most of the reference pics Here for the Tie/D your wings actually look very tall to me. I would also beef up the cannon's on each of the 6 wing tips and move them to be on the interior of the wings tips if possiable, refrence pics make it look like there isn't a lot of stucture to them.

Are you planning to incoporate a stand again for v2/3? Personally my favorite feature of the 10175 was the fact that Vader's Tie was removable from the stand.

From most of the reference pics Here for the Tie/D your wings actually look very tall to me. I would also beef up the cannon's on each of the 6 wing tips and move them to be on the interior of the wings tips if possiable, refrence pics make it look like there isn't a lot of stucture to them.

I thought I had mentioned the stands above. Oh well, it doesn't hurt to reiterate it. Yes, Rev 2 does have a removable stand. I don't include it in the POV-Ray renders because I think it detracts from the overall look.

Actually, the Rev 2 stand is quite a bit different from the others I've used. Instead of a single post that goes through a hole in the hull, cockpit ball, etc. it has two saddles which cradle the two lower pylons. If you really want to see details, I can throw up some quick MLCad scans to show what I mean. Otherwise, you can wait till I actually build it. By then I'll know for certain that they'll actually work .

When you say tall, do you mean the Pylons themselves look too long? I'll double check my measurements. I could have rounded up a fraction of a stud, when rounding down would have looked better. I believe they are pretty close, though. Could be paralax from the pictures your looking at. I will double check.

The laser cannons are on my list of things to do with the wing re-design. I've got some new ideas on greebing them up. They should look pretty awesome, if what I have in mind works out. They'll at least look better than the 4L Lightsabre blades I'm currently using. I'll definately give you some images with the redesign when it's done.

EDIT: I've checked the scaling on the pylons. Let's see if I can describe this clearly. Looking head on, the Pylon length that should be visable above the cockpit ball is roughly the same length as the diameter of the cockpit ball. In other words, you should be able ti fit a second cockpit ball in between the cockpit and the inside of the upper wing (or any wing, for that matter). My pylons are right at that length, at 11 studs long.

Edited May 6, 200816 yr by Walter Kovacs

It isn't the pylons that look off for me it is rather then solar panals on the end of the pylons. Maybe it is based on the rake of the wings. I am going off of this schematic:

Once again, these are very minor. Overall I think the model is fantastic.

Yep, that's the schematic I used. At least we're on the same page.

I think I see where your coming from. I'll take a good hard look at the wing dimensions when I redesign them. I know for a fact that I didn't include the locking portion of the locking hinges when I computed the stud width of the wing center. Perhaps that's what is throwing things off.

Edited May 7, 200816 yr by Walter Kovacs

Nothin as I said I like it, this is why I don't really post mocs, mostly because I am so nitpicky (perfectionist) about them.

Alrighty then. I've added some WIP images to the original post in this thread. The pylons need some more work to accomodate the changes to the wings, so for now you'll just have to imagine what three of these look like on the complete model.

I narrowed the middle section of the wing by two studs, and the bent sections are slimmer as well (by three studs, maybe. I didn't count.) The wings overall are much slimmer, and should be considerably lighter.

The Laser Cannons got a nice upgrade, too. Take a look and tell me what you think. There's always room for improvement!

They look good so far. Although it is hard to give useful feedback untill the wings are on the pylons.