Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hello boys, long time no see

I finally sat down and got to some of my wave 4 stuff, with a particularly long tackle of the E-Wing... I just find the thing in it's original design (the one ffg used) looks like a flying.... female self-pleasuring implement. Boxy and inelegant, especially with the derpy gun on top of the canopy, I saw this redesign while researching paint schemes and decided I simply couldn't tolerate the original design... it had to be this or as close to it as I could reasonably get in a sane amount of time -



Now I have seen a few shapeways models, but that stuff is too grainy for me by miles... so it had to be a conversion. So, the chopping begins -









Then start building back up...



Add an extra couple of guns and a lick of paint and voila, sexified E-Wing -












Sooooooooo much happier with these....



Phantoms were a far simpler prospect... just paint...













Thanks for looking!

Very nice! You may have just convinced me to actually but add-an E-wing. I haven't bought one yet specifically because I don't like the mini.

Nice work as usual! May need to try this for when I find some E-wings.

That improves the look of the E-Wing immensely.

So.....What are the actual changes?
Re-shaped nose, removed the dorsal cannon, shaved the rear of the body to a slope, shaped the wings, mounted the wings more horizontally and added a strut to the wing?

What are the pieces between the wings and the body?

Awesome Phantoms!

Why no re-sculpted top cannon on the e-wing? The render has one, just placed farther back, so just wondering.

Honestly? I just find the cannon on the hood really terrible design... it obstructs a huge amount of the available viewing area, offers not tangible benefit over wing or underslung mounting for firing.... just makes no sense to me. I get the feeling shoving that cannon up there was some relatively desperate attempt by the dark-empire guys to make the shape of an 'e' somewhere on there lol (via the placement of 3 cannons).

So, I think it would be far more advantageous to put the sun-roof there and transplant the one big cannon to two smaller additional wing mounted cannons personally, better field of view, no compromise on firepower...

That being said, if you wanted to do a similar conversion but leave the cannon on top because it is an iconic part of the ship for you, you could do it super, super easily. The cannon part is a glued in bit that pops out with a little knife pressure, (the slot it was in conveniently matched the 'sunroof' I wanted) so moving it back completely as is is completely feasible.

For me, I wanted a ship that looked as fast as an A-wing, with as much firepower as an x-wing, and I am happy with the result on those goals for my personal taste, but as with everything, ymmv!

@Steelmage -

Re-shaped nose,

removed the dorsal cannon,

shaved the rear of the body to a slope *** also dug in a
recess on top, which was probably the trickiest bit

shaped the wings *** yes both outer and inner plates

*** GS's the bumpout sections that widen the body and give the intake looking area and extra engines their place to live, and also make the main body not just one long shaft.

mounted the wings more horizontally and added a strut to the wing *** various details were added with plastirod and card to fill spaces and add detail in addition to just the strut.

*** added plasti-rod enhanment to the intake area to beef it out and add more relief to the model

*** added extra, smaller guns on each wing -

 MajorTom11 wrote:
Honestly? I just find the cannon on the hood really terrible design... it obstructs a huge amount of the available viewing area, offers not tangible benefit over wing or underslung mounting for firing.... just makes no sense to me. I get the feeling shoving that cannon up there was some relatively desperate attempt by the dark-empire guys to make the shape of an 'e' somewhere on there lol (via the placement of 3 cannons).

Was just curious, I much prefer your alterations and would do the same to mine if I were confident in my abilities to make clean cuts and sculpt.

You're an absolute wizard! I can't wait for Armada to hit, as I like the larger scale ships, but with the way you paint up these X-wing models they're just incredible.

Love the conversion, and particularly love the middle phantom paint job (is it existing hyperspace, or does that represent something else?).

Stop doing cools things! It makes me feel bad about my efforts!

Great conversion work on those E-Wings. The look slick as.

Phantoms look top notch as well.

Platuan4th wrote:
Was just curious, I much prefer your alterations and would do the same to mine if I were confident in my abilities to make clean cuts and sculpt.

It's not as bad as you think, most of the time, the blade of exact zero is longer than all the cuts, so keeping straight is fairly difficult to avoid... it's just that initial placement that can be minorly tricky but it wasn't so bad once I tried it on the first one, the next ones were easy.

RiTides wrote:You're an absolute wizard! I can't wait for Armada to hit, as I like the larger scale ships, but with the way you paint up these X-wing models they're just incredible.

Love the conversion, and particularly love the middle phantom paint job (is it existing hyperspace, or does that represent something else?).

Thank you Esteban - the effect is the energy discharge that moves over the ship as the cloak activates/deactivates. It kind swipes on and off from what I gather as opposed to the uniform fadeout of star trek cloaking. If you look close, you will see the same starfield and faint blue edge glow as the fully cloaked version... shoot me a pm, let me know how you are! How is the full modship feeling??

MoD, thanks very much man... I am sure you could manage a few tricks too though!

 MajorTom11 wrote:

Platuan4th wrote:
Was just curious, I much prefer your alterations and would do the same to mine if I were confident in my abilities to make clean cuts and sculpt.

It's not as bad as you think, most of the time, the blade of exact zero is longer than all the cuts, so keeping straight is fairly difficult to avoid... it's just that initial placement that can be minorly tricky but it wasn't so bad once I tried it on the first one, the next ones were easy.

It's more that I'm terrible at it. With an anchored straight edge, cutting across a grain(so as not to get caught in following a curved one or somat), and despite personally having a very steady pair of hands, I always seem to still not be able to cut in a straight line, though perhaps with such a small model it may be better.

I hear ya... I feel the same generally about non-organic stuff, but it ended up going ok. For me anyways, it's a confidence thing, hacking into a model and imagining making a mess of it and wasting both time and cash. But, the more I do it, the more I try, and generally I get round-about the results I was wanting, though I am no master like Machinator or Boda Fett, those guys are hard surface ninjas...

Those are all fantastic man, great work.

Nice conversion of the E-Wing.

I always thought that the placement of the dorsal cannon was the stupidest possible position you could put it in. Cockpits have to open, you know..........

 AegisGrimm wrote:
Nice conversion of the E-Wing.

I always thought that the placement of the dorsal cannon was the stupidest possible position you could put it in. Cockpits have to open, you know..........

IIRC, it's mentioned in a couple books that it slides forward rather than hinges like the rest.

I noticed this in my research, a bit of a combination by the look of it, not sure if this is in any way canonical, but it makes sense -

I was actually talking up this conversion in the gaming shop this evening unfortunately, I couldn't think of how to tell them to check here other than "the X-wing section on Dakka". But you really have redeemed what was quite an ugly ship! (Everyone in the shop agreed the stock one was ugly, and it was why most of them hadn't gotten it)

To your earlier question, I've been well, just busy with work, life, and a bit of hobbying! As I am sure we all are you most of all!

Both sets of fighters look great! I'd be too scared though to take a knife to mine personally though.

Excellent work on the conversion man, they look great.

Inspired me to try a really quick and dirty version where all I did was pop the top gun off and mount it underneath



Turned out really well. For you guys that are nervous about trying his method, mine literally took maybe 30 seconds. It takes very little effort to pop the top laser off then all I did was shave off the nub and glue it underneath. Super easy and goes a long way towards making the ship look better.

I am suddenly worried that E-wings are about to become much harder to get...

Here's the Micromachines Action Fleet version:

Thank you for inspiring.

Now I have seen a few shapeways models, but that stuff is too grainy for me by miles... so it had to be a conversion. So, the chopping begins -









Then start building back up...



Add an extra couple of guns and a lick of paint and voila, sexified E-Wing -












Sooooooooo much happier with these....



Phantoms were a far simpler prospect... just paint...













Thanks for looking!

they look great much better than FF

Nice work. Loving the paint jobs on the Phantoms. That takes me back to Rebel Assault 2!

I think that's the best e-wing remake that I've seen. Well done. If I get time, I'll give it a go too.

Thanks for all the inspiration.

I really didn't like the look of the E-wing as well. The gun above the cockpit and those flimsy 'buttresses' on the wings look terrible.

So this is where I came up with: