[MOC] Brickvault Tie Fleet Re-Engineered (24 ships)

[cdavidc29]

Hello.

I made a post a while ago where I showcased quite a few changes I made to the Brickvault Tie Fighter model. Now I'm back to showcase the same thing with additional Tie Fighter variants from their store, alongside a few I made using other models as a base. I'm not talking about one or two, I'm talking about 24 distinct models. Some ships are heavily altered, while others are unchanged minus one or two tweaks. On top of that, I've probed the depths of Canon and Legends lore for additional color schemes I could apply to some of the models. I've amassed enough pictures to drown a forum post in, so I'm going to do just that.

*Because I went into much more detail in my previous topic, I won't talk much about the parts of ships that share the basic Tie Fighter's cockpit or wing designs. I recommend you check it out before continuing, but you don't have to.

 

Tie Interceptor

This ship was the obvious first choice for improvement following the Tie Fighter due to the two models sharing the same design for the central pod and wing pylons. As for improvements unique to the Interceptor, I slightly modified the wingtip cannons and added their power conduits using hose pieces. I changed the construction of the wide armor detailing where the wing pylon meets the wing hub for better screen accuracy. I also moved the ribbed detailing where the power conduits meet the wing hubs and rebuilt the sensors between the two wings for the same reason. Finally, I got rid of the grilled bricks on the rear solar panels and made the backside of the wing completely flat.

This design also has the most additional color variants with the first being a version belonging to Inferno Squadron. The construction is taken from the Inferno Squadron Tie Fighter I modified in my first post. While not shown in-lore, its existence can be inferred; why would one of the best group of Tie aces still be flying regular Ties in a time when the Interceptor exists?

While this isn't a color variant, it's minor enough to be counted alongside them. It's a version using the 6x6 Tie hatch piece that Lego used before downscaling to the newer 4x4. Even though it is less accurate, I prefer to keep the smaller piece because it's much more available and affordable.

This is a version belonging to the 181^st Fighter Wing, adorned with a brick-built red stripe on each wing. Some of the support for the stripes bleeds through to the other side of the wing, but I tried to keep it unobtrusive.

This is a version modeled after Vult Skerris's ship from Star Wars: Rebels, with its sparse red highlights and hemispherical gray cockpit stripe.

This is a primarily red version based off the Emperor's Guard paint job from Star Wars: Squadrons. Its construction is nearly identical to the base model, illustrating just how much difference some color blocking can make.

 

Royal Guard Tie Interceptor

Despite being listed as a unique model on Brickvault's website, the Royal Guard Interceptor is the same as the regular Tie Interceptor save for the four extra winglets. The biggest change I made is the addition of the mounting brackets for said winglets, something present in the ship's original appearance.

 

 

Tie Bomber

The main feature I wanted to change with this model is the construction of the missile-hole on the front of the ordinance pod. The original is sort of a vaguely defined square and is too large, mostly because of the unique construction of the face. I was able to modify the design to make a 2x2 hexagonal hole using slopes, but I had to use clear tiles to support the shutter arms. Other things I've modified for increased accuracy include remaking the front detailing between the pods, shrinking the thrusters, filling a gap in the bracers that run the length of the pods, and making the front and back of the wings one continuous surface.

Here is another variant inspired by the Emperor's Guard paint job.

 

Tie Advanced

Another model that's mostly unchanged is the Tie Advanced. I adapted this design to utilize the newer 4x4 hatch piece for consistency with the rest of Brickvault's Tie lineup. I think it does the job well enough, but I don't think it could be any better without completely changing how the central pod is built. I also gave this Tie the updated “bowtie” details on the central pod and the blasters from the regular Tie Fighter. Finally, I beefed up the rear wing pylon construction and flipped the brackets covering some gaps on the rear of the ship to hide their studs.

 

Tie Brute

This is the first design I tweaked not made by @Jerac. Despite having its own style of wing construction, I replaced them with my modified version from the regular Tie Fighter because I think they look more accurate. I recessed the wing pylon details by one plate on the front and back of the model and created a gentler armor slope from the central pod using jumper plates and ingots for better screen accuracy. Next, I rounded out the central pod by making the top and bottom out of 6x6 hinged dome pieces. This means I got rid of the newer Tie hatch and replaced it with the old. The ratio of the larger hatch to the central pod is about the same as the smaller hatch to the normal Tie Fighter. I also gave the central pod upscaled “bowtie” detailing and remade the engines for screen accuracy.

There's also the variant that uses 4x4 quarter dome pieces for the central pod.

 

Tie Defender

The Tie Defender's central pod now has the same updated features as the Tie Advanced. Additionally, the rest of the pod is rounder and free of inaccurate surface greebling. The triangular armor on the wing pylons is more substantial and the rest of the armor has been slimmed down. The biggest changes are the wings. The original ones are based off of older appearances, where the wings are smaller and shorter compared to the pod. I wanted to modify the ones that came with the model, but they're constrained by their use of ball joints for support. I didn't know how to make new ones until I saw a post by @Sylyphics showcasing his own Tie Defender MOC. I bought the instructions and started tweaking those wings too. The new wings have been majorly reworked for added length and build simplicity, while the wing hubs are unchanged. The result is more of an experiment representing my ideal Tie Defender model, uniting components from two great designs.

This variant is based off the Elite Tie Defender from Rebels. It adds 6 missiles in between the wings and uses brackets that conceal highlight connections to get the little areas of color at the rear of the wings.

This is based off Vult Skerris' personal Tie Defender Elite, basically the same as the above variant, but in yellow.

This is another variant based off the Emperor's Guard paint job. Since the wing pylon rings run through the wedge plate detailing, I replicated the latter using jumper plates.

 

Tie Striker

This model also received the standard central pod enhancements, though the rear details required some interesting connections to get everything to line up correctly. The wings now come to more of a point and the laser cannons have their long, long power conduits running all the way to the cockpit. The biggest changes are to the top hatches; the 6x6 dome pieces have been replaced with an ovular, brick-built roof piece. It is removable for access to the interior, held in by a few studs while resting on smooth tiles.

While not explicitly shown, this Emperor's Guard inspired variant follows the same design rules as the other ships with this coloration.

 

First Order Tie Fighter

Thanks to the Tie Series' inherent design similarities, improvements made to one model can be applied to many others. Case in point, the First Order's Tie fleet. This model is envisioned as a “V2” update to the First Order Tie Fighter, similar to the one its Imperial counterpart received. The new model is mostly built off of my tweaked Tie Fighter, but there are a few unique details that make it more a simple color swap; firstly, there are holes near the wing pylon armor, as there are on all First Order Ties. The thruster orientation rotated 90 degrees and there is an antenna on the right side of the central pod. The “headlight” details near the cannons are depicted with small segments of hose. The printed hatch piece has been replaced with a regular 4x4 dish for consistency with the other models. Finally, the interior wing hubs and bracing struts have their bulkier, armored appearance from the movies.

This is a custom color variant that can be applied to all First Order Ties. Based on the appearance of the Final Order fleet's livery (and initially an excuse to see new Ties in the classic color scheme), this color scheme asks “What if all the forces of the galaxy-conquering First Order Navy didn't stop existing as soon as Kylo Ren found some shiny, new toys?”.

 

First Order Special Forces Tie Fighter

Despite its unique construction, the Special Forces Tie still benefits from some of the standard Tie upgrades, such as rounder pylons, more accurate pylon armor, updated wings, and a more circular central pod. The larger cannons are made using slightly altered construction from the regular Tie. The thrusters are now their correct size and shape, at least as close as it can be for the latter. Finally, the power cell banks on the wing pylons are fuller, more circular, and feature all of the segments in-line with each other

This is as variant of the design that replaces the printed 6x6 dish on the rear of the central pod with a brick-built assembly. While it costs 2 dollars in comparison to the dish's 1 and eschews the detail of the printed element, it features a correctly colored rear window and can be built in whatever color pattern the design requires.

Here is the requisite Final Order color variant of the Tie/sf. Thanks to the color change, it now features the 4x4 printed Tie hatch for added detail. This variant can only use the brick built rear windshield due to the new coloration.

 

Tie Baron

The changes here are mostly minor tweaks made to bring this model in line with the other edited Ties. The central pod received the standard Tie upgrades, including chin cannons, “bowtie” detailing, thicker pod dimensions, and an interior matching the standard First Order Tie Fighter. The wingtip cannons have been remade to fit their correct size and the power conduits have been simplified. The missile launchers have been edited so that the ordinance inside is visible. The wings are free of inaccurate detailing, the front wing pylon armor has been slightly modified, and the internal support “spine” behind the central pod has been made more sturdy.

The Standard Tie Baron created by the designer features all the same improvements, but in black.

The Special Forces variant now has the turret, chin cannons, and antennae of the Special Forces Tie Fighter.

The Final Order variant swaps the gray and black from the Standard version.

 

Modified Tie Whisper

The central pod has been replaced with one based off the pod from the Special Forces Tie Fighter in order to correctly depict the two-seater cockpit. It uses some a unique connection to the handlebar element to both represent the red windshield ring and to support the windshield “spikes”. The red protrusions on the central pod have been rebuilt to be 1 stud wide and feature custom vent detailing stickers that can be applied for a more accurate look. The rear solar panels are made using a specific type of wedge plate because it is the exact shape they're supposed to be, though this leaves them covered in studs. The wingtip cannons have been redesigned and the indentations along the rearmost part of the wings has been made smaller.

Here is the Final Order version.

 

Those are all the official models I've modified, but I've also used those models as a base to create designs for ships that don't have as high-quality representation as Lego MOCs.

 

Tie Experimental M1 “Bizarro”

The first of the new models, and the first of the unmanned Tie Experimental series, is the Tie Bizarro. It was designed as an inverse to the standard Tie Fighter, with 2 pods straddling a single, central wing. Just as the model makers rearranged and recombined parts from a standard Tie to create this design, I've done the same with the Lego model of the Tie Fighter. The pods had to be modified to create a smooth outer curve thanks to their new positioning showcasing what once flowed into a wing pylon. The wing pylon itself is now a singular construction that runs from pod to pod. It's made using the longest 2-wide plates Lego produces for stability's sake. The pylon armor had to be modified as well to fit on the pylon, though this just means it is a plate thicker on each side compared to the standard Tie. The internal of the pod housing the turbolaser has been completely stripped and replaced with a scaffold to support the dish piece that replaces the windshield.

This is a variant that more closely follows the “rules” of Tie design, with the vertical pylon armor next to the pods and the horizontal armor by the wing. It maintains the slimmer pylon armor of the Tie Fighter due to its unaltered construction.

 

Tie Experimental M2 “Big Gun”

This is a standard Tie Fighter with two large cannons attached to its outer wing hubs. I made the cannons 7x7 studs to depict their relative size to the central pod, but this led to some issues with how to mount them to the wings. I had to redesign the outer wing hubs with jumper plates to connect to the holes on the underside of the plates supporting the cannons. This accounted for the half stud offset required to center the cannons on the hub.

 

Tie Experimental M3 “Warhead”

This is a Tie Interceptor with missile pods mounted on the outside of its wings, so I took the modified Tie Interceptor model and did just that. The launch tube detailing on the front of the pods is too fine to be represented using Lego bricks, so I created custom stickers that could be applied over a flat, circular 4x4 area.

 

Tie Experimental M4 “Bomb”

This is a ship designed to act as a large missile. Fittingly, it is based off a Tie Bomber with a single pod and is fitted with a massive booster engine. The modification to the base Tie Bomber model was easy enough to make, as I just mirrored the construction already present for one side of the ship. The engine proved more challenging, thanks to its length. I made the smaller shaft out of cylinder pieces, while the larger part is a novel assembly made to display curved slopes on all 4 sides and to recess the exhaust. I've reinforced the engine and its connection to the main ship using Technic axles, but as I've only made a digital model, I can't tell if this engineering would be enough to support the engine in real life. Thusly, I created a stand to act as support for the engine.

 

Tie Experimental M5 “Booster”

This is a standard Tie Fighter with an engine based off the Tie Bomb's added to it. However, the Tie Booster's engine is even longer and larger than the one on the Tie Bomb, and is supported by a much smaller central pod. The construction of the engine is similar to the Tie Bomb, but magnified where necessary. The bracers running from the wings to the engine are attached to the rear solar panel strut by a clip-and-bar connection to achieve the correct angle. I also created a stand to support the engine regardless of the design strength, because it would definitely throw the model off balance in real life.

 

Tie Droid

This model is based off the droid-controlled fighters that were produced in swarms by the factories of the World Devastators. I based the model off the ship's appearance in the first Rogue Squadron game, because details like the wing size, wing detailing, and windshield color vary wildly across its initial appearance in comics and later illustrations. The central pod and wing pylons are almost entirely unchanged from the base Tie Fighter, save for the two protrusions a the top and bottom of the windshield. The opaque windshield is supposed to feature a horizontal line bisecting it, which would be represented with a thin, rectangular sticker, but the Stud.IO part designer program doesn't apply textures to domed surfaces too well. The standout feature of this design is the blocky wings. They're attached to the wing pylons by two clip-and-bar connections each, which should be enough to support the weight of the wings. The wings themselves are built around an oddly designed core, which supports the tiles of the large, smooth wing hubs. The solar panel detailing and outer edge leave the core mostly untouched, only connecting together in a few places for structural support. The outer edges themselves have been designed in a way to keep the two-plate thick sizing consistent across all sides of the wing.

 

Tie/rc

This obscure Tie variant was never given an actual name beyond its factory designation (the obvious Tie Reconnaissance Fighter referring to another ship entirely). It's little more than a standard Tie Fighter with a single cannon and some sensor greebling on the front of the ship, some of which is represented through custom stickers. I made it because it was an easy modification to do, though presumably somebody would be interested in displaying it.

 

Tie Ground Targeting

This unique model of Tie was designed to serve as he Empire's initial bomber for planetary bombardment. Given its in-universe existence before the dedicated Tie Bomber, it's built from a modified Tie Fighter frame. However, like a mullet, the front of the central pod is the same as a regular Tie (one cannon non-withstanding), but the rear is cylindrical like that of the Tie Bomber. This proved challenging to make because of its odd-numbered sizing, which needed to be mounted on, and centered to, an evenly-sized studded surface. The rear of the pod is made using a similar construction to the engines of the Tie Bomb and Tie Booster, and has a set of thrusters similar to that of the Tie Bomber. The top and bottom of the pod feature plates that are integrated with the top and bottom cockpit hatches, similarly to the design for my tweaked Tie Striker. The gaps from the regular Tie pod to the cylindrical back half are filled as best as possible, and are mostly hidden by the wings and hatch assemblies. Finally the triangular wing strut armor coming from the central pod has been redesigned to match the ship's reinforced appearance, complete with holes where they should be.

 

Tie Fire Control

This is the Tie/gt's other half, and another relatively easy build. This model of Tie was designed to house the sensors required for precise ground targeting, which was then relayed to the Tie/gt fighters it flew alongside. This ship shares its sticker detailing and single cannon with the Tie/rc. Its unique features are the chin mounted sensor arrays flanking the laser cannon. These boxy protuberances are meshed to the central pod as well as can be achieved without sacrificing the quarter dome pieces for something custom built to house the sensors. The sensors even extend into the area reserved for the bottom 4x4 dish, so a brick-built lookalike stands in for it.

 

Tie Heavy Bomber

This is a ship based on the Tie Bomber, but with two ordinance pods. I was inspired to recreate this design after I saw a Flickr post by Gingko19 Biloba showing a similar model. Unfortunately, he didn't alter the sides of the pods, which meant they clipped into the model in a manner impossible to build in reality. He told me he used a tile with a stud attached to a tile with a hole in the middle (a stud reversal method) to connect the pods to the central pylon. A plate ran from the core of one pod to the other for structural stability, covered by increasing the depth of the pylon by one plate. With that info, I set out to refine his model into something physically possible. The ordinance pods have been slightly altered in order to evenly meet up with the pylon. Additionally, I increased the height of the wings to extend past the bomb chute, a feature that is actually accurate to their portrayal.

Emperor's Guard variant.

 

Tie Interdictor / Punisher

The next logical model to make after the Heavy Bomber. This ship basically mirrors the double-pod side for 4 ordinance pods.

Emperor's Guard variant.

 

First Order Tie Brute

Seen exclusively in an immersive shooting gallery ride at Disney World, this Tie is largely the same as the Imperial Tie Brute. The First Order version has small, red headlights on its pylon armor, the requisite antenna array, and unique thrusters resembling those of the Millennium Falcon. I created the thrusters using custom stickers, including some applied to 1x2 grated slopes, meaning someone building this in real life would have to gently press the stickers on.

Also available with small corners.

And in the colors of the Final Order.

 

First Order Tie Whisper

To end this list of ships, we have the regular Tie Whisper. They are seen during the Lightspeed Skipping chase in TROS and have the wings of the standard First Order Tie Fighter. I reused the central pod and pylons from the Modified Tie Whisper and the wings from the Tie/fo. One detail unique to this ship is the curved, almost dented appearance of the wing hub's armor plating where it meets the wing pylon bracer. This altered construction means this ship can utilize the same wedge plate bracer design as most other Ties despite the extra plate's worth of armor usually blocking it.

Final Order Version.

 

Let me know what you think!

Edited March 28, 2024 by cdavidc29

[Feuer Zug]

Amazing collection of TIE variants. Tons of research and design must have gone into all of these.