"Fantasy Flight Games - E-Wing Preview " Topic

Fantasy Flight Games published a preview of the Star Wars E-Wing.

link

link

See here
fantasyflightgames.com

Hope you enjoy!.

Amicalement
Armand

Not sure I like the laser cannon on top :(

That is one butt-ugly fighter.

I'll take two.

Never liked the E Wing's looks (aesthetically it needs a tail fin, but presumably that would've left it looking too BSG for their tastes….) but they've done a nice job on that.

PS – Inari, you might not be sure about that dorsal laser cannon, but imagine how any pilot needing to eject feels about it…. ;-)

Yea how does the pilot get in that thing?

Seems to be a decidedly unfeasible arrangement where the back end of the laser slides back on the panel concealing the astromech, while the barrel hinges back on top of the cockpit. Totally impractical, to say the least….

Yes, one of my least favorite EU fighters in terms of looks, but the stats look interesting.

-Will

Nothing 10 seconds with an Xacto won't cure.

"Check your 6!!"

…fail…

Well, at least he can check his 3 and 9, unlike the various TIE pilots…

Why does everyone always ask how the pilot gets in? The idiotic in-universe explanation is that the barrel is removable. Realistically, it's on a flush swivel mount.

BrandX's version from Fate of the Galaxy is the only E-wing that's worthwhile (and the original Starslayer version, which it's based on). The "official" version is drawn half a dozen different ways and looks like hammered dog feke.

The idiotic in-universe explanation is that the barrel is removable. Realistically, it's on a flush swivel mount.

Yeah. but that doesn't solve the problem that it completely blocks the pilot's view toward "12 o'clock high" and of course back over his shoulder to the rear.
Sure, that can be explained away with sensor systems/cameras, but then why does the think have cockpit windows at all?

On the gripping hand, poking holes in Star Wars ship design is like playing darts at arm's length. The real standard remains "does it look cool?"
Alas, the E-wing doesn't.

But I'm still going to pick some up.

My first thought how would the pilot be able to see after firing the first burst. The flash would ruin your night vision.

It's a stupid design because it was designed by stupid video game designers, like most of the EU ships. Star Wars is chock full of stupid ship designs.

Parzival, there's a very obvious answer to that question as well. That's not glass on the "canopy." Not even transparisteel, or whatever they call it. It's fully armored. There are high resolution micro cameras placed strategically and redundantly across the whole craft, which output onto displays inside the canopy. And since it's all digital, they automatically filter out the laser flash.

Or, and this is more likely, they don't use cameras either. They simply reconstruct necessary imagery from all the already-in-place sensors and display that instead.

I'll print my own E-wings rather than buy any of official ones. And I don't tourney, so that aspect won't matter.

And it first appeared in Dark Empire, a comic, not a video game. But yes, SW is full of e designs.

That's the dumbest design I've ever seen. The gun should either be moved back behind the cockpit, or better yet, under the chin.

It amazes me how many people in decision making positions, making a lot of money, must have looked at that concept and saw nothing wrong with it.

It amazes me how many people in decision making positions, making a lot of money, must have looked at that concept and saw nothing wrong with it.

Probably because at the time and in the scheme of things it wasn't that important. It was just another ship for a comic book, and it needed to at least look like the other Rebel ships. So the artist took the front of an X-wing, gave it stubby wings and three cannons, because the X-wing has four and the A-wing has two, and drew away. I doubt anyone at the time thought it would ever be even in a video game, much less a model. So it was a quick one-off design, and probably it got only two looks from anyone— first the comic book editor, who was probably the one who said, "It's only got two guns. Draw another one on top," and then maybe by some flunky at Lucasfilm, who said, "okay by me," while thinking why the heck did I get stuck approving crappy comic book art? I went to USC Film School, for crying out loud!.

Although the designers for the films clearly didn't care much for realistic ship layout, they were motivated by a number of other considerations that influenced better design— ease of filming, ease of identification, ability to see the actors and droid characters "in flight," and so forth. Hence windows (yes, they're windows, because in the films we can see the pilots inside the cockpits through the glass) and other elements. A movie designer might have used the stubby wing approach, but the cannon on the top wouldn't be there, as it would interfere with one possible camera angle on the actor in the cockpit. Directors want to be able to do lots of different shot angles, so a good wide open view of the cockpit is a must. Heck, take a look at any space fighter intended for use by major characters in a film or TV show, and they'll all probably have nice, clean lines of sight on the cockpit from multiple angles.

X-wing, A-wing, B-wing, Y-wing, Snowspeeder, Starfury, Hammerhead, Viper (all Mks), Gunstar, etc., etc.. All nice big cockpits with big windows and lots of views. That this happens to be good for a real pilot is coincidental. (Like I observed with the TIEs, where the pilots aren't meant to viewed from outside, as they aren't major characters, these ships have more limited cockpit views.)

Oh, and the predominance of flat-sided cockpits is because it's a lot cheaper to just use flat planes of glass or plexiglass for the full-sized sound stage sets than spring for molded plexiglass curves.

There is a reason my version replaces the idiotic top gun with a Y Wing style turret. Especially since according to the fluff they had issues with the gun barrels exploding. great thing to have happen in front of your window *L*

link

By the standards of many EU ships it is not bad looking but is a bit of a daft ship, since despite the lesser armament and 2 fewer engines, it is supposed to be faster more manoueverable and better armed than the X Wing.
This tendency to make every new design better than the one that came before stat wise is one of the reasons im not too heartbroken about the dropping of much of the EU from canon

Great solution Gosric!

I also like what you did. It does look so much better. They ought to hire you to do design work for the ships.

Thank you. I dream of such a thing *L* But i had to do something the gun above the cockpit just annoyed me no end…Though when i made it available i did include the third gun for those who want it. Funnily enough no one who has sent me an image of the painted mini has opted for that version *L*

Actually, the cockpits are open to vacuum because the studio models didn't use canopies…

Or…

They're fully encased and armored, like I said. You're not looking thru a window at the pilots. That's a holoprojected image meant to give a good view of the pilotsrom every from angle (which is why the canopies are all flat planes, it's easier than projecting on a curved surface). Filmmakers need this ability. See, those "reconnaissance" X-wings are really filming the battles. Princess Leia, Minister of Propaganda for the "New Republic" wants to humanize the plight of her terrorist organization by putting a face on her "freedom fighters."

Not content with that, they also skew perception the other way. They try to portray the valiant imperial pilots as a faceless enemy. They even try to turn them into beasts, monsters, adding in screeching sound effects to the TIE fighters. We've recently discovered that they were using the screech of tires over wet asphalt to generate the sound. Everyone knows there's no sound in space…

:)

Also proving how little the 'rebels' care about their pilots since they do not even bother to give them full environment suits

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