The Stingray

[ted @ndes]

The fellows over at FBTB are holding yet another Star Wars themed starfighter contest, this one for "hybridfighters" . Although not necessarily "classic space", I thought I'd post my entrant here. More views can be seen by clicking on the image below.

[Sir Michael Le Fanu]

Very nice work on the wings, and I like the rear has a 'bee' like look. I also love that you used R2-D2's head, it adds a little bit more of a Star Wars look to it.

[Borgador]

Nice mashup. I wouldn't have thought a naboo N-1 and a TIE fighter would look that good.

[Admiral Netsooj]

Took me a while to figure out which ships you mashed up, but I discovered it in the end. The paint job kind of threw me off. I say you did a great job of mashing up two ships.

[ted @ndes]

Thanks everyone. I wish I did have more yellow. I defiitely would have used it. My current color pallette for curves and slopes is generally limited to black/white/grey.

The TIE and N-1 are fairly dissimilar, but I thought that "bee" theme was the one thing they had in common style-wise... with the TIE's hexagon wings, like honeycombs, and the long stinger like tail of the N-1. Figured I'd accentuate that with the bee stripes.

[nitrobenz]

decent mashup, instantly recognizable, but I've gatta crit a couple things.
Fist, the yellow slopes ahead of the cockpit, I wouldn't have done that (maybe just me). although I like the yellow stripes on the nacelles, the single band on the mid section seems out of place. Perhaps if the red stripe behind had been yellow to tie that stripe in, instead of separating from, the tail stripes.
Second, the N-1 wings: I feel like they're either too thick (lead edge to trail edge) or too short (body to engine) relative to the fuselage (Which looks fine). The N-1 is one of my favorites, so sorry if I'm being hard on you.
Third, not a crit, just an idea: What if you had used reverse mounted TIE Interceptor wings?

[ted @ndes]

decent mashup, instantly recognizable, but I've gatta crit a couple things.
Fist, the yellow slopes ahead of the cockpit, I wouldn't have done that (maybe just me). although I like the yellow stripes on the nacelles, the single band on the mid section seems out of place. Perhaps if the red stripe behind had been yellow to tie that stripe in, instead of separating from, the tail stripes.
Second, the N-1 wings: I feel like they're either too thick (lead edge to trail edge) or too short (body to engine) relative to the fuselage (Which looks fine). The N-1 is one of my favorites, so sorry if I'm being hard on you.
Third, not a crit, just an idea: What if you had used reverse mounted TIE Interceptor wings?

Thanks for your thoughts on the MOC. Fair critique, and appreciate the candor. Here are some explanations behind my choices:

- Originally those yellow slopes were black, as was the rest of the cockpit body. Too much black didn't look right, and needed to break-it-up with some color. That's when I put the stripes on the tail, the "nacelles", and the yellow slopes on the cockpit. Unfortunately, those were the only yellow slopes I had on hand, and I did hunt for some to replace the red ones.

- My idea on the wings were that the original N-1 engines were chopped off while flying through some narrow opening (... I didn't explain that in the description, as I didn't want to go crazy with a lengthy back-story). I did intend the wings to be shorter in width due to this, and for the "new engines" to be placed closer to the body, inside the TIE wings. I didn't want it to look like the TIE wings were just tacked onto the outside of existing N-1 engines, I wanted the engines to look reminicent of the N-1 engines, but clearly modified and integrated into something new.

- I absolutely was thinking the same thing about reversed TIE interceptor wings... unfortulately I was a few angled plates short to pull it off. Also thought about the TIE advanced wings too... In the end, I grabed onto the "bee" theme and stuck with the hexagon... another idea I had was to have the TIE wings articulate at and angle (so not perpendicular to the body-wing)

[nitrobenz]

...Too much black didn't look right, and needed to break-it-up with some color...

agreed! all black would have been worse, all black is really hard to work with -not to mention photograph!

... I didn't explain that in the description, as I didn't want to go crazy with a lengthy back-story...

Please don't worry about overdoing backstory (I did it with every moc I submitted on the old CS forums), it helps put some things in perspective, and it's usually entertaining to at least a few people. You did put the backstory in the flickr link though (which I neglected the first time around )

- I absolutely was thinking the same thing about reversed TIE interceptor wings... unfortulately I was a few angled plates short to pull it off. Also thought about the TIE advanced wings too... In the end, I grabed onto the "bee" theme and stuck with the hexagon... another idea I had was to have the TIE wings articulate at and angle (so not perpendicular to the body-wing)

hmm... angled tie wings, and not enough angled plates... how about TIE/d wings then? Nah, I do like the bee motif. Although I never thought of the N-1 tails as "stingers" I can see it between the stinger stripes and honeycomb wings.
Good luck with the judges!

[ted @ndes]

Thanks again...
... actually, the one critique of my own is that the TIE wings probably aren't large enough (i.e. to scale) or detailed enough.

This recent entrant from Sydag below puts that into clear perspective. At this point, that ship is the likely front-runner.


Odd Manka Cat 1 by Sydag, on Flickr