[MOC] A-Wing & B-Wing

[Tom_Brick]

I've designed two rebel ships so far and as it happens, they're the first ones i the Rebellion alphabet, the A-Wing and the B-Wing. 
Instructions & part-lists are both available on my Rebrickable page.

 

 

Some more pictures of the A-Wing:

      

Some more pictures of the B-Wing:

     

Edited March 11, 2021 by Tom_Brick

[Stuartn]

They look good. The B wing patterns remind me of a WWII allied D-Day plane. The B wing itself uses very different techniques to most of MOCs, yet still looks very accurate, the A wing is great too.

[Tom_Brick]

21 minutes ago, Stuartn said:

They look good. The B wing patterns remind me of a WWII allied D-Day plane. The B wing itself uses very different techniques to most of MOCs, yet still looks very accurate, the A wing is great too.

Thank you. Regarding the stripes, I actually didn't think of the D-Day connection when I first designed it, it was probably a subconscious influence. But it's also a fitting connection since the Star Wars fighters were inspired by old warbirds. My thinking was mainly to break up the long fin on the B-Wing to make it look a bit more interesting and I wasn't really a big fan of the orange dot that most versions have.

[caiman0637]

Another great build!

[MAVERICK26]

Very nice!

[karmajay]

Both look great but I really like that B-wing build!

[Stuartn]

7 hours ago, Tom_Brick said:

My thinking was mainly to break up the long fin on the B-Wing to make it look a bit more interesting and I wasn't really a big fan of the orange dot that most versions have

I agree it works really well. I just noticed the piece used for the missile on the A wing, its great NPU.

Edited March 12, 2021 by Stuartn

[sandtrooper]

Both of these are excellent!  The details on the A-wing are terrific.  The B-wing is a lot more striking with the added color and stripes (which also reminded me of D-Day).

[Lfm55]

Nices builds!

I really enjoy the way you achieved the front of your A-wing with the half stud separation , its very very clean !

[Tom_Brick]

Thanks everyone. I do appreciate all the kind words. I love designing Lego models (though making instructions...not so much  )  so it does mean a lot to me to hear that you guys also appreciate my work.

[macaron35]

Nice

what is the small piece (stick) used for the inside of the cannons on the A-wing ?

[Hold0511]

3 minutes ago, macaron35 said:

Nice

what is the small piece (stick) used for the inside of the cannons on the A-wing ?

Looks like a Sword/Foil - 93550.

[MKJoshA]

These look amazing! Great job getting all the angles right.

[Tom_Brick]

On 3/13/2021 at 2:42 PM, Hold0511 said:

Looks like a Sword/Foil - 93550.

Exactly right. That's the part.

[TheAbsoluteSt81]

These are fantastic! Very distinct from other MOCs of these ships

Edited March 15, 2021 by TheAbsoluteSt81

[Bob De Quatre]

I like your A-Wing, but the B-Wing is completely off in so many places...

[Tom_Brick]

When I design MOCs, I usually don't look at other implementations in detail, I rather just approach it in a completely unbiased manner. And I only approach models where I think I can contribute something new or where I personally find there's room for improvement. E.g. so far I didn't think of touching an X-Wing as Jerac's MOC pretty much hits the mark for me, so there's really no point for me to work on it if the best I could do was something that in all likelihood would be worse than his X-Wing...if I ever approach an X-Wing, then only because I'd have something new to offer, like a different scale or something along those lines. Similarly, the official UCS Y-Wing is so good that I didn't attempt to touch that particular ship either.

As for the B-Wing, I took some creative license, though I wouldn't say it's "completely off". Rather, you always have to make compromises when designing something out of Lego. It's not the most exact way of building a perfect model. I guess the biggest stumbling block for many is the slightly roundish shape of the air-intake (vacuum-intake?). That was the best compromise I could find while simultaneously integrating the two tubular shapes into the body of the ship. While it makes the sides a bit too roundish, the overall appearance is actually more accurate in my eyes. But that's subjective I suppose. Which is exactly why I did do the B-Wing. I wasn't happy with the existing sets / MOCs and thought that I could contribute something new and original. There are great MOCs already out there, but for people like myself, there's something new and different now.
Though I guess I should have looked at the particular solutions for the rotating cockpit that others came up with. Implementing that was really tough. I did manage to do it eventually, but it did cause me more distress than I thought.

[that_lego_builder]

this looks nice

[Jerac]

I like how they are more like interpretations of original designs, instead of faithful reproductions. New sleeker a-wing looks legitimately better than the original one, longer, narrower, looking more like it is split by golden ratio. B-Wing is interesting too, though in its case I like the upright stance, but not the landing one - the wings almost touching the central wing are a big design point of the B-wing to me and not including that is a bit of a sin. What makes it great though are the colors. You can't get wrong with grey + yellow with a sprinkle of white, and you executed it perfectly. 

Good job!

[Eaglefan344]

We would have been screwed if the German's had B-wings.

[that_lego_builder]

That B-Wing though......

[Tom_Brick]

5 hours ago, Jerac said:

I like how they are more like interpretations of original designs, instead of faithful reproductions. New sleeker a-wing looks legitimately better than the original one, longer, narrower, looking more like it is split by golden ratio. B-Wing is interesting too, though in its case I like the upright stance, but not the landing one - the wings almost touching the central wing are a big design point of the B-wing to me and not including that is a bit of a sin. What makes it great though are the colors. You can't get wrong with grey + yellow with a sprinkle of white, and you executed it perfectly. 

Good job!

Thanks, it means a lot to me hearing this from you. As for my general approach, it's obvious that Legos are not ideal for creating 100% accurate models. You always have to make compromises. So I try not to get too hung up on being perfectly accurate (though I do of course strive to be) but rather try to capture the essence using the bricks that are out there. For example I used the long slopes for the nose of the A-Wing. Looking at images, it's only the top part that is sloped while going further down the nose it gets straight. There are no Lego pieces to get that effect. Most people approximate it by going full straight, but that comes with other compromises, usually making it look a lot busier. So I went the slightly convex route which may be slightly less accurate, but overall gives it a cleaner look and at least for me feels more accurate even though it may not be.

The same is true with many decisions I made on the B-Wing. As for the landing position, you are of course right, though it's partially also due to my sloppy rendering. You can fold in the wings a bit more than on the picture. But again some compromises I made led to a slightly thicker belly which means that the pivot is a bit further out. But I definitely designed it to be in attack position, that's also how the stand is set up.