Has anyone made a Star Wars Galaxies VSD-I variant with the missile bays? Got any pics?

There's a set of pictures that date back to the start of Armada... I'll find them.

It is *insanely* difficult to actually pull off in any meaningful ways.

34 minutes ago, Drasnighta said:

It is *insanely* difficult to actually pull off in any meaningful ways.

But it's still possible right?

4 minutes ago, Atromix said:

But it's still possible right?

As demonstrated above, yes.

personally, I'd rather eat a TIE fighter than try. There's a lot of fiddly sawing and cutting... And you have to do it perfectly to be able to re-use the components, otherwise you're rebuilding the entire wing section, rather than just the internal components.

That's what I was afraid of. I'm still seriously considering it though. Bought a 4th VSD from a friend selling his small collection, so was thinking about tinkering with it. That's the most solid mod build I've seen of the actual FFG model. Thanks.

Not sure if this'll help, but I did see these on Shapeways in the Space Supply Depot

https://www.shapeways.com/product/VNAQRBF8M/3-times-vsd-parts?optionId=41186408

3 hours ago, Kraydon said:

Not sure if this'll help, but I did see these on Shapeways in the Space Supply Depot

https://www.shapeways.com/product/VNAQRBF8M/3-times-vsd-parts?optionId=41186408

Don't buy these, they're sized for one of the scale models and not the Armada VSD.

What are you guys talking about? Hold up here.

The split-wing Victory first appeared in Star Wars: TIE Fighter, when all they had to go on was one side-profile drawing from the West End Games RPG and they interpreted it differently. That's why their version has two engine bells as well instead of three, representing it effectively being slower, on top of the split wings.

Here's a textured version of that original model for I think the collector's version of TIE Fighter:

The one we have now/popular one is the result of someone not very inventive changing up some of the inaccurate line-art made for the Star Destroyer in the original Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels- which is why the craft looks very similar to the modern Imperial. I think Star Wars Empire at War sealed the deal, where Petroglyph re-used the Star Destroyer model, scaled it down, and changed some of the bits.

So much for originality.

Chrissr09, the image you linked is Fractalsponge's redesign of the VSD- taking into account other sources like the Clone-wars Venator SD and some other personal design change decisions. It is not a canonical VSD depiction of any degree, and it certainly didn't appear in Galaxies as it was created by Fractal in the past year.

Thank you for the background, Norse ?

I seriously enjoy being educated about where visual depictions come from, since for so long, outside of the movies, the vast majority we had were text descriptions only, so seriously, thank you.

Unfortunately, with the Armads VSD as it is, we’re still left with a chop job that is **** near impossible to do.

but.

If I am able to afford a place to live starting next week, I will take my second VSD and go to make it happen.

Also, I’m sure @melminiatures could whip up replacement sections for the open hangar/ordnance parts, but it boils down to the end that those pieces are **** difficult to remove cleanly... I’ll have to get a new razor jewellers saw.

6 hours ago, Norsehound said:

The one we have now/popular one is the result of someone not very inventive changing up some of the inaccurate line-art made for the Star Destroyer in the original Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels- which is why the craft looks very similar to the modern Imperial. I think Star Wars Empire at War sealed the deal, where Petroglyph re-used the Star Destroyer model, scaled it down, and changed some of the bits.

Not quite. The current incarnation of the VSD, the one we see in Armada, came directly from WEG Star Wars D6. It is important to remember that Star Wars D6 was used as a guide book by all the early EU authors. Especially Timothy Zann, in an effort to keep them all using the same ships and equipment, rather than adding new each book. Petroglyph lifted their VSD directly from WEG.

21 minutes ago, cynanbloodbane said:

Not quite. The current incarnation of the VSD, the one we see in Armada, came directly from WEG Star Wars D6. It is important to remember that Star Wars D6 was used as a guide book by all the early EU authors. Especially Timothy Zann, in an effort to keep them all using the same ships and equipment, rather than adding new each book. Petroglyph lifted their VSD directly from WEG.

Well, yes, but as I just clarified above WEG only offered a side-profile. When that's all you've got, the boxes along the sides of the VSD can open outward or inward depending on how you want to look at them. In the 3D version they decided for TIE Fighter to open them out and duplicate the antenna spire near the bridge on both sides, among some other detail changes.

The EGtVV needed schematic views, so they cleaned up the side drawing and made a rendition for the front view. I checked- while they don't have the flanking guns on the ISD depicted, those guns are added to the Empire at War version, which also gives us a view with three engine bells instead of the TIE Fighter sim's 2. This is almost definitely because the artists copied the ISD asset to shrink and modify some details.

I'm so keen on these details because, like the original TIE Defender model, I end up liking the earlier renditions than what is accepted now as the canonical depiction. There's nothing we can do about it now though.

As for chop-shop modding your VSDs into VSD-Is from TIE Fighter... good luck. In the very least you'll need to cut out the side panels and gut the engine deck That's a lot of major work in comparison to Mel's ISD-I modification which just asks to swap the bridge and glue on some extra parts.

6 hours ago, Drasnighta said:

I seriously enjoy being educated about where visual depictions come from, since for so long, outside of the movies, the vast majority we had were text descriptions only, so seriously, thank you.

I also couldn't let Fractal's work go unrecognized and out of context. The guy is amazing for the modeling he's done (and the greeble library he's amassed) and he takes care in the models he builds. I'm also not a fan of Star Wars Galaxies, and I didn't want his depiction to be confused with an item for that game. Fractal's VSD is too good compared to other SWG contributions to the Star Wars lore.

I think Fractalsponge's model would make an awesome VSD mk3... I wish Mel would get with him and see if he'd let him make it for us. I'd buy one for sure just to have it. Perhaps he could make two versions... one with the missile bays opened and the other with them closed. But, sadly, I suspect it's wishful thinking on our part.

It's not the first time Mel's made stuff from Fractal. Mel's got a few dreadnoughts in Fractal's sytle.

I'd say Fractal could throw a few things up on shapeays himself some of us would probably get, but his models are so high-poly and full of premade greebles that he'd basically have to build a new library. That's not what he does, and I imagine he gets more commissions for what he does now instead of trying to dumb down the models he has currently.

First saw that in the d6 RPG Star Wars books.

Exactly. And since this was the only drawing, there's no telling if that bit on the side angles out or in.

Different people have put their own spin on it ever since.