I think this could be a very cool variant. 
Has anyone started a conversion of the YT-2400 to the Rebels variant?
I would be surprised if no one is entertaining that thought right now, but to me it seems that it would be quite a lot of work. The Rebels version has several notable differences compared to the original model.
A friend at my local club is in the middle of doing this. Or at least, the cockpit mod to start off with anyway.
I guess you can pinch the cockpit and the docking collar from the 1300, shorten the outrigger arms [or fill in the space], but not sure how easy it will be to 'slim down' the centre disc section, and then rearrange the engine exhaust vents 
It might be easier to build a new body from scratch...I'm hoping someone [far more skilled than I] will put a 3d model up on Thingiverse! 
Well, I found a fairly good YT-2400 on Thingiverse, and have had a go at changing it in Tinkercad, but I think trying to do anything with existing models will take as long as starting from scratch, both in 3d and with FFG's physical ones...
...here's the top after 1/2hrs mucking about - the source cockpit and docking tunnel are good for the Rebels version, and I've removed the exhaust vents & tried to 'smooth out' the top profile, but the engine block is much wider and still needs slimming down/replacing - not sure if I'm up to that !
I wonder why they took such a departure from the standard frame work of the YT 2400.
It does look almost a completely new ship.....or perhaps its an early version of what is yet to come.
Im sure there might be some head scratching at the FFG X Wing Design centre as to if they should bring this version out 
It`s not that it looks different.....it just looks...inaccurate.
these cartoon guys need better reference material or something.
I wonder why they took such a departure from the standard frame work of the YT 2400.
It does look almost a completely new ship.....or perhaps its an early version of what is yet to come.
It`s not that it looks different.....it just looks...inaccurate.
these cartoon guys need better reference material or something.
I'd go with Barry's comment about 'early version', perhaps - you could argue that the cartoon version shows the original cockpit style [like the earlier YT's], a 'flatter' center to the disc before Dash upgraded the Outriders weapons mount, and smaller engine exhaust/vent positions [before chopping about the rear of the disc to fit upgraded engines in]...
...the only bit I can't work out an explanation for is the changing of the 'standard' docking tunnel arrangement [again, from the older YT's], to the weird angled-back one on the Outrider 
...unless it's just to give a better internal layout 
I wonder why they took such a departure from the standard frame work of the YT 2400.
Would be my explanation xD
Don't know how closely people follow the Rebels show here, but in the Rebels Recon episode (or maybe it was in the episode guide at starwars.com) they mention that the idea was that this YT-2400 was analogous to some kids in a pick-up truck riding around causing trouble for the Empire, ala the kids from the 80's movie Red Dawn.
So the way I see it, the kids flying in this ship have a light duty pick up truck and Dash has the heavy duty, extended cab, et cetera, et cetera, and customized out the wing-wang of course. I definitely wouldn't expect a new YT-2400 model from FFG.
I wonder if it's "artistic interpretation," like the giraffe star destroyers.
I wonder if it's "artistic interpretation," like the giraffe star destroyers.
Or every single TIE fighter...
I wonder if it's "artistic interpretation," like the giraffe star destroyers.
Or every single TIE fighter...
I think it's exactly this.
If we're cool with the Ralph McQuarrie flavored Vader in Rebels, I think we can allow some design license here and there
Bleh its one ugly 2400....
Im sure there might be some head scratching at the FFG X Wing Design centre as to if they should bring this version out
It has a very Star Trek looking saucer (as opposed to the "current" 2400 with its big box engine and turrent cones). It's be more of a total re-sculpt than a modification. Has a nice sleek look to it, too. I'd buy one if they put it out along with the new Phantom as a boxed set.
Sounds like a good idea to me!
The original YT-2400 (the Outrider) has such an iconic design. Seeing it get reduced to a flying saucer with a cockpit hanging off the side depresses me.
My one problem Ive always had with the Outrider, is that there doesnt seem to be much headspace getting from the cockpit to the main body of the ship.
With the Falcon, there's a large, circular passage leading right to the main living area. With the Outrider, it looks like you'd have to army-crawl through a ventilation system to get there...
I guess they turn off the gravity in that section of the ship, so you can float through to the cockpit? OR it's totally out of scale, and you can actually fit a person standing in that part of the ship.
Either way, we're both thinking too hard about it. There's A LOT about Star Wars that doesn't make sense.
It's probably just due to having a maximum poly count for the episode and the original outrider would have used up a good chunk of it. That's probably why the Star Destroyers have their side trenches mostly covered up too, and why you only ever see a handful of TIES and nobody can shoot more than once every 10 seconds.
My one problem Ive always had with the Outrider, is that there doesnt seem to be much headspace getting from the cockpit to the main body of the ship.
With the Falcon, there's a large, circular passage leading right to the main living area. With the Outrider, it looks like you'd have to army-crawl through a ventilation system to get there...
Perhaps there is some sort of TARDIS technology, and it's somehow bigger on the inside?
It's probably just due to having a maximum poly count for the episode and the original outrider would have used up a good chunk of it. That's probably why the Star Destroyers have their side trenches mostly covered up too, and why you only ever see a handful of TIES and nobody can shoot more than once every 10 seconds.
It likely has nothing at all to do with polycounts. That's a game thing. Render times on modern computers that only cost a few grand are more than sufficient to render out more detailed models than this. The actual reason is that Rebels started out from the beginning as an homage to Ralph McQuarrie's work in style, so I think this is probably the reason the YT-2400 looks the way it does.
Of course, if you look at it from an in-universe perspective, it's easy to see this as a factory-variant of the YT-2400. YT-1300s are all different shapes and sizes, because CEC decided to make them highly modular. I can see this as being the case in future ships, too. Why not? It was a highly profitable move for them. There's enough of the original YT-2400 parts in there to see where they replaced things with new modules and such.
I could swear that one reason they mentioned for not doing more with Vader in the show was that his cape alone used up a lot of their rendering budget. You're probably right about poly count specifically, but I wouldn't be surprised if their rendering pipeline could only handle so many non-planar surfaces.
I definitely understand the homage to McQarrie, but the YT-2400 in Rebels looks really basic and doesn't really evoke his style imo. So many right angles and flat surfaces where there could be detail and curves.
Well, that's less to do with the number of non-planar surfaces and more to do with the fact that his cape was moving and billowing. When you have a large curved surface which is expected to stay the same shape, the computer can easily cheat with things like putting all the data points through the same simple algorithm for rendering the shape. But when you're talking about something like cloth, where all the data points move independently of each other, suddenly the amount of computations shoot through the roof, since now for each frame the computer needs to render hundreds of thousands, if not millions of vertices.
Yeah, I hear you on that, though if you compare the original YT-2400 and Rebels YT-2400 side by side, it's not that much different in terms of its core shape:
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/EvFf89ct3GI/maxresdefault.jpg
The Outrider appears to me to be modified from the Rebels' YT-2400 in the following areas:
Removed extension of the saucer on the starboard side of the engine
Enlarged cockpit module for increased visibility
Added turret "towers" for better gun coverage from the sides when operated remotely
Bigger docking module to handle larger cargo
Moved boarding ramp vestibule to enlarge forward hold
Newer engines with bigger heat dissipation vents
I'm aware that the ships are still dissimilar even when you take into account the modifications I listed, but if you chalk up those differences to the style of the animators, it's clear that the Rebels' version is not so different from the Outrider.