I have a problem. I love flying E-Wings, but I detest the official FFG model for the ship. I've found several awesome alternate third party variants or decent substitution stand-ins, but I'm sure I haven't found them all. Please feel free to share your favorites!

I'm with you there, never bought one cause I hate the ship looks... in the other hand I bought ships I don't fly just cause of the looks.

Alien luxury has different versions with different amount of cannons, the proportions are not great but the model is inspired in the other E-Wing version wich I like much better... I wish FFG reprinted the 2nd edition version with that version.

33 minutes ago, Andreu said:

I'm with you there, never bought one cause I hate the ship looks... in the other hand I bought ships I don't fly just cause of the looks.

Alien luxury has different versions with different amount of cannons, the proportions are not great but the model is inspired in the other E-Wing version wich I like much better... I wish FFG reprinted the 2nd edition version with that version.

Thanks, this is a rather slick version!

Here is my two E-wings from Alien's luxury miniatures. Still a work in progress but they are turning out quite nicely.

I just took the FFG model and sliced off the gun that covers the cockpit, then glued it underneath the ship. It looks 10x better now.

59 minutes ago, william1134 said:

Here is my two E-wings from Alien's luxury miniatures. Still a work in progress but they are turning out quite nicely.

That's a really nice take on the design, actually.

Clearly inspired by that Fate of the Galaxy mod version, but I like that it doesn't quite so far. Everyone seems to really love that FotG version, but for me it changes the design too much and makes it almost too sleek to be a Star Wars ship. It looks more like a Mk VII Viper from BSG, and it loses too much of the Incom identity.

This version at least retains the Incom looking canopy and the greebles on the aft.

I still prefer my E-Wings to have a bit more of an X-Wing inspired nose, more of a separation between wings and fuselage and less obvious intakes, but this is closer to that. If they cut those intake sections, I think it would be almost perfect. It would be less wide and flat, and there'd be more of a height change between the wings and fuselage.

EDIT: I think this custom from our very own forums might be my favourite take.

I have the Alien Luxury and a Mels Minatures' one. The Mel's on is probably my favorite. I need to order another one...

I like FFG's E-Wing sculpt, I don't know why I don't have the disdain for them as seemingly everyone else. These alternate sculpts from Alien and Mel look pretty cool. They look like pretty high definition too. Also, I found a place to pick up some Alpha Class Star Wings on the cheap! ($16, lol. So, $1 more than MSRP of 1.0 ships) Now I can supply the tokens and dials of my second empire conversion kit with gunboats!

1 hour ago, Herowannabe said:

I just took the FFG model and sliced off the gun that covers the cockpit, then glued it underneath the ship. It looks 10x better now.

Same here.

Although, I still find it pretty hilarious how many people are constantly ridiculing the E-wing for the cannon above the cockpit, and totally accept it on the Starwing.

3 hours ago, Herowannabe said:

I just took the FFG model and sliced off the gun that covers the cockpit, then glued it underneath the ship. It looks 10x better now.

I've done the exact same thing, and I've even put a little astromech dome and a raised "experimental sensor" on the top of the fighter where the gun used to be. While it looks a lot better, I still just can't visualize the ship as the quick and nimble fighter it is intended to be. For me, it's the darn wings. I find them to be far too boxy and square and also to be far too long and wide. If they were shorter, thinner, or more tapered I think they'd look worlds better (basically, I just find them to have far too much surface area). Makes the thing look like some sort of paper airplane:

1 hour ago, Managarmr said:

Although, I still find it pretty hilarious how many people are constantly ridiculing the E-wing for the cannon above the cockpit, and totally accept it on the Starwing.

For me, the gun above the canopy bothers me far less than the very high surface area of the wings on the E-Wing. Though, that said, I've also always found the Starwing to be a pretty lacking design that didn't really appear to fit into the Star Wars aesthetic as much as I'd like. No shade to folks who love either design, of course.

I'm trying to get this configuration printed, but keep running into problems with the parts passing checks. No matter how I pare down the smaller details it keeps failing. 😕

FFG model is my favorite. Although I have seen some good looking alts on thingiverse.

A while back, I saw an E-Wing model modification on here that I really liked the look of. I don’t remember who posted it, but hopefully they’re still around to give a better look at how it’s done.

The remodeling does two things. First, it moves the top gun to the nose, like @Herowannabe and @Managarmr said. Nice little change that I think helps the aesthetics. Second is relocation the engines to up next to body of the ship, on top of the wings. This can be difficult, and my remodeling is a bit messy. I still like how it looks though.

I did find a picture online of someone who did it cleaner. There are some extra details added, but the basic engine placement is the same.

19 hours ago, Managarmr said:

Same here.

Although, I still find it pretty hilarious how many people are constantly ridiculing the E-wing for the cannon above the cockpit, and totally accept it on the Starwing.

Like, dude, no kidding right? Or the Clone Wars Y-Wing, that's not innocent either! God forbid you look to your sides when your X-Wing's guns are going off for any reason either!

13 hours ago, SabineKey said:

This is much better!

21 hours ago, william1134 said:

Here is my two E-wings from Alien's luxury miniatures. Still a work in progress but they are turning out quite nicely.

I was going to look up the Model art to point this version out, as quite frankly, is the main version when i think E-Wing.

Though, while i am at it,

This one isnt bad either :3

20 hours ago, Managarmr said:

Although, I still find it pretty hilarious how many people are constantly ridiculing the E-wing for the cannon above the cockpit, and totally accept it on the Starwing.

So for me, and maybe a few others who read the Starwars X-Wing Novels, I think it might be due to the fact that Blaster Fire, especially that close to the cockpit, would create blinding flashes. There was a moment in I think it was the first Novel, where Corran Horn is going up against Tycho Celchu in a X-Wing VS Tie fighter respectably, and while the reference mainly refers to the blaster fire impacting harmlessly off the shield at range, it affected his targeting because of the light flashes and what not, not to mention his visibility into space to see the fighter.

This can easily become a similar situation as that, with bright flashes of energy constantly blinding pilots and forcing them to wear blast shields. But as we all know, "With the blast shield down i cant see anything, How am I supposed to fight?"

1 hour ago, Zeoinx said:

So for me, and maybe a few others who read the Starwars X-Wing Novels, I think it might be due to the fact that Blaster Fire, especially that close to the cockpit, would create blinding flashes. There was a moment in I think it was the first Novel, where Corran Horn is going up against Tycho Celchu in a X-Wing VS Tie fighter respectably, and while the reference mainly refers to the blaster fire impacting harmlessly off the shield at range, it affected his targeting because of the light flashes and what not, not to mention his visibility into space to see the fighter.

This can easily become a similar situation as that, with bright flashes of energy constantly blinding pilots and forcing them to wear blast shields. But as we all know, "With the blast shield down i cant see anything, How am I supposed to fight?"

You have to be careful with stuff like that, though, because sometimes what the books describe doesn't match what we actually see on the films (ESPECIALLY in the Bantam era, where things were much less consistent). Blaster and laser fire in the films has never been shown to adversely affect human vision, nor did the firing of the X-wing or TIE fighters' cannon create any sort of significant or blinding muzzle flash. You've got the bolt, and that's pretty much it. It's like the whole thing with lightsabers being used as flashlights in the books, even though it's VERY clearly shown in the films that the emissions of a lightsaber blade don't extend much further than the surface of the blade itself (****, lightsaber blades CAST SHADOWS in the films!).

Additionally, the tip of the E-wing's cannon is also positioned in such a way that even if there WERE a muzzle flash, it would be largely obscured by the cannon itself. And considering we have polarizing lenses TODAY that can protect the eye from that really big ball of plasma we call the "Sun" and allow you to see clearly even when it's low on the horizon and right in your face, it's laughable that no one thinks they couldn't just make the E-wing's entire canopy out of that stuff.

And if the E-wing's top gun has a flash problem, I pity WWI pilots, who had machine guns firing virtually right in their faces.

On 3/1/2019 at 7:39 AM, AllWingsStandyingBy said:

I have a problem. I love flying E-Wings, but I detest the official FFG model for the ship. I've found several awesome alternate third party variants or decent substitution stand-ins, but I'm sure I haven't found them all. Please feel free to share your favorites!

Ive flown a custom alt E-wing for 4 years, to the point I forgot it wasnt the actual model until you mentioned it.

mine is a kitbashed X-wing and E-wing which is cool, but a friend has one of the E variants from shapeways by Mels Miniatures, which looks great while being the cannon style. also saw a guy using the swordfish 2 from Cowboy Bebop as an Ewing which was cool

5 minutes ago, Vontoothskie said:

Mels  M  in  iat  ures, which looks great while being the cannon style   . 

Looks like he based his on the Fate of the Galaxy model. I drew some influence from that version for mine, as well.

3 hours ago, Ambaryerno said:

You have to be careful with stuff like that, though, because sometimes what the books describe doesn't match what we actually see on the films (ESPECIALLY in the Bantam era, where things were much less consistent). Blaster and laser fire in the films has never been shown to adversely affect human vision, nor did the firing of the X-wing or TIE fighters' cannon create any sort of significant or blinding muzzle flash. You've got the bolt, and that's pretty much it. It's like the whole thing with lightsabers being used as flashlights in the books, even though it's VERY clearly shown in the films that the emissions of a lightsaber blade don't extend much further than the surface of the blade itself (****, lightsaber blades CAST SHADOWS in the films!).

Additionally, the tip of the E-wing's cannon is also positioned in such a way that even if there WERE a muzzle flash, it would be largely obscured by the cannon itself. And considering we have polarizing lenses TODAY that can protect the eye from that really big ball of plasma we call the "Sun" and allow you to see clearly even when it's low on the horizon and right in your face, it's laughable that no one thinks they couldn't just make the E-wing's entire canopy out of that stuff.

And if the E-wing's top gun has a flash  problem, I pity WWI pilots, who had machine guns firing virtually right in their faces.

all good points, but putting a gun on the windshield is still dumb, as the barrel itself blocks vision and can cause depth perception issues. also the bolts themselves would cause problems. your eye needs to lock onto motion in dogfights, and giant red lines blocking your upper field of vision is not helpful.

just think of a badly designed H.U.D. in a video game. if it screws up your field of vision it can ruin the whole experience

1 hour ago, Vontoothskie said:

all good points, but putting a gun on the windshield is still dumb, as the barrel itself blocks vision and can cause depth perception issues. also the bolts themselves would cause problems. your eye needs to lock onto motion in dogfights, and giant red lines blocking your upper field of vision is not helpful.

just think of a badly designed H.U.D. in a video game. if it screws up your field of vision it can ruin the whole experience

Take this as you will, but after flying the E-wing in mods for X-Wing: Alliance I found the overhead gun offered very little obstruction (especially that an advanced HUD couldn’t compensate for) and the laser blasts weren’t much of a distraction.

Yeah, it’s a 20 year-old sim, but it still works as a model.

6 hours ago, Ambaryerno said:

Take this as you will, but after flying the E-wing in mods for X-Wing: Alliance I found the overhead gun offered very little obstruction (especially that an advanced HUD couldn’t compensate for) and the laser blasts weren’t much of a distraction.

Yeah, it’s a 20 year-old sim, but it still works as a model.

The real question is how realistic is the game portraying the laser blasts. and actual "Cockpit" scale vs everything.

1 hour ago, Zeoinx said:

The real question is how realistic is the game portraying the laser blasts. and actual "Cockpit" scale vs everything.

The laser blasts are more or less presented as they are in the films, although XWA goes a bit too heavy on the lighting effects (we never see laser cannon significantly lighting the cockpit of firing craft in the films, whereas in XWA laser blasts provide quite a significant light source).

Also, it's not scale, but the field of view, and how the game handles perspective and depth of field that's the question. Here's a rough test render I did with the E-wing model I ran:

The camera is set about where the pilot's viewpoint would be. You'll want to right-click > view image to see the full resolution that makes it a bit easier to estimate the FOV. This is the actual FOV I get with my display:

Having played a lot of flight sims, I'm more concerned by the visibility over the nose, because for anything other than a low-deflection shot you have to aim at a target that's well below your line of sight (the X-wing is similarly bad about this; the pilot's seat is much too low in the cockpit for good forward visibility). The cannon barrel doesn't occupy a significant enough arc of the field of view to really interfere with me, and I pretty much look PAST it. I honestly find the canopy frame to be a bigger obstruction.