Hi all,

After recently entering the world of Epic with a Gozanti, I'm going to take the plunge and buy a Raider (and dust off my CR-90 and transport and get them on the table finally). However, I want to replace the TIE wings - I'm not particularly fond of that look.

What I really want, in their place, is something like this (credit to TheRealStarkiller):

I'm a relatively experienced painter and modeler but this will be a pretty big test of my abilities. I've done my fair share of conversions and kit-bashes and would be comfortable doing something similar here, but I haven't been able to find suitable materials for the dorsal turret mounts shown above. I figure I can remove the wings and build up some sort of platform on the wing mounts, and put a turret on top. But I'm not sure how to go about it. I think I may have to go the plasticard route, but I've never worked with it before.

So, here's where you all come in:

• Does anyone know of an existing piece from X-wing, Shapeways, or some other kit that might be able to achieve the above look without scratchbuilding?
• If not, does anyone have any tips on how to achieve the above look with plasticard or some other material?

Thanks in advance! I am really looking forward to this project.

My first thought was to look at some 1/700 scale warships. The larger cruisers and battleships have extensive secondary weapons. A single battleship kit would provide all the turrets you'd need with some spares. Checkout the Squadron Shop. They provide an online catalog with thumbnails. (Www.squadron.com)

Add a few bits of styrene to hide the turrets humble origins and you're good to go.

Awesome. The original raider looks like it was super duper inspired by elite dangerous's Anaconda, from the retracting turrets to the cockpit design/placing. I'd kill to get some better turrets for both the raider and the decimator.

My first thought was to look at some 1/700 scale warships. The larger cruisers and battleships have extensive secondary weapons. A single battleship kit would provide all the turrets you'd need with some spares. Checkout the Squadron Shop. They provide an online catalog with thumbnails. (Www.squadron.com)

Add a few bits of styrene to hide the turrets humble origins and you're good to go.

Great tip, thanks! Any suggestions as to which ship might provide the best component parts? At first glance IJN Mogami might be a good choice - it has dual turrets in gun tubs protruding out that might be able to be fitted on top of the Raider's wing stubs without too much trouble (see bottom right):

On the other hand, while the mount is pretty much exactly what I'm looking for, the turret and guns aren't quite Star Warsy enough for my liking. Thoughts?

Changing the outline of the turrets is pretty easy. I would sketch out different shaped "armor panels" on plain paper, cut them out and saturate them with super glue. That would seal the paper covering the texture and be like very thin plastic. Plastruct makes very small structural parts that can be used to dress up the front and back of the turrets. I believe 20 lb bond paper is about 0.003" thick. Once coated in glue you can sand them thinner.

The guns are a little tougher because of the small size. You can try thin strips of paper wrapped around the barrels at different points to bulk up the diameter. For the wing guns you could use the CIWS mounts from modern naval vessels.

If you don't mind losing the normal shape of the gun tubes, you could fill in the space between them and fudge an elongated oval like the guns on Babylon 5. You could also use the main gun, gun tubes and cut them shorter giving you a shorter length but larger diameter. Or use some Plastruct to form square or rectangular gun tubes.

If you're insane with good eyesight, you could wrap the tubes with 2 lb fishing line to give the impression of dust covers like on a 40mm Bofors mount.

There's a lot of possible mods you can make like using sequins as radar dishes. Use ths kind with the hole in the middle to mount the horn.

Let me know what you use and how it turns out.

Wow, lots of great advice there. I'll probably order my Raider today, so I'll be getting started soon.

I am super happy to see this happening. Would love to see the progress on it.

Alright, I've got a Raider and a bunch of plasticard on the way. I'll pop the wings off as soon as I get the model, and once I have it in hand hopefully I'll be able to have a better sense of what will work and what won't.

First step will be figuring out the wing turrets. I want something close to the picture in the original post. Basically, a casemate/turret set out from the main hull. If I get really ambitious, I might set it inside an armored ring matching the fire arcs on the Raider - otherwise, it wouldn't make much sense for a turret mounted off the hull to have such a limited firing arc. Although I suppose I could always use my aft hardpoint for the dual laser turret... (edit: except it's Gozanti only. Derp.)

If you get really ambitious, rebuild the turrets in their present position but include a shallow recess. Use small magnets to attach/detach the turrets so you could swap out gun tubes for missile launchers. Include blank covers for those times when you're not running a fully decked out gunship.

The possibilities are endless. You might want to checkout some of the modelling sites like IPMS and AMPS. These sites should give you some ideas for kitbashing. IPMS is probably the better site for space themed models.

Those main turrets are basically Bismarck's heavy AA twin turrets: 105-mm-Zwillingsflak C/31

No photos yet (I'll try to take some tonight or tomorrow), but I have an update!

My Raider arrived over the weekend. Within minutes of its arrival it was wingless. The side wings came off pretty easily with just a little pulling here and there, and the bottom wing came off too with just a tad more work. Interestingly, the main strut attaching the wing to the underside popped right out after I pried the wing off, leaving a small hole in the underbelly. I might try to cover it with some sort of reactor core, similar to an ISD. Depends on how ambitious I get!

I thought the solar panels were kind of cool.....

I thought the solar panels were kind of cool.....

Opinions vary! I personally did not care for them and I have zero regrets so far about popping them off. Now I just need to convert something I'm happy with.

I thought the solar panels were kind of cool.....

Opinions vary! I personally did not care for them and I have zero regrets so far about popping them off. Now I just need to convert something I'm happy with.

of course, I think you should put somthing a little bigger on the sides, it looks a little plain in my opinon. again, just preferences, I'm sure it will turn out great!

I honestly like the wings on the standard Raider, even if I'm not entirely sure they make sense on a capital ship. They look good to me. But the fact that it has all dorsal turrets and no ventral ones bothered me from the moment I saw the design. It's a spaceship, after all. Even if the tabletop game is for obvious reasons not played in three dimensions, the ships should still look like they'd be viable in real space warfare. Especially the Raider, since it's a pure warship whereas the Corellian Corvette is as much a transport as a warship. So if your version of the Raider has some way of actually shooting enemies that fly underneath it, that's a major improvement.