There are many Lego Star Wars Microfighters that "look their part". However, there are also Lego Microfighters that seem to be missing something; Their dimensions don't look right. Don't understand me wrong: I like that these fighters have cartoon-like engines, and contain a seat for a figure to sit. What I want to improve upon them is the fact that some of them look pudgy.
The Eloquence of Lego Microfighters
My Modified X-Wing Microfighter. The nose has been lengthened, and the wings have been extended to be wider. Note the crack in the bottom wing blaster, near the mount (it is wear from finger oils).
For me, I personally enjoy Lego Microfighters because I can get an iconic fighter for the cost of a very small Lego set. This additionally works, because all of the Lego Star Wars Capital Ships are almost always less than two feet (or around 0.6 meters) long. When one tries to have a space battle with these ships being this size, they quickly realize that this battle needs to be at a smaller scale than what a realistic scale would appear to be. However, this space battle gets the closest to being realistic when Lego Microfighters are included. These fighters can zip around larger ships, and their engines also give the appearance of being correctly sized for a fighter of their size, such that the Microfighters are the "normal size" of starfighters to me. Capital ships are now comparatively large, like they should be. Space battles are now realistic.
Microfighters also fit in with Full-size starfighters
Now what happens if I want to include my full-size fighters in this space battle? It's simple to me, as I call these full-size ships "Super Fighters." They have noticeably larger engines and look much more maneuverable than a capital ship of their size. Thus we can assume that they are faster accelerating ships, with much more maneuverability than a capital ship. Their weaponry is also advanced. However, these ships, in real life, are almost as expensive as capital ships. Accordingly, in the space battle, these real ships are also very expensive. They are also a very big target, which makes them mostly use high speed as their evasion tool. If this isn't clicking in your mind, you can consider them to be similar in function to large war bomber airplanes; They can't easily evade or attack small Microfighters.
My Full-Scale Lego Starfighters. They are large, and require a certified pilot to fly them, but they are effective.
Notice this interesting dynamic between Microfighters, which are practically a large, armed, flying, space pants (They kind of feel like mounting a dune buggy or a motorcycle. As a matter of fact, I would assume that the pilots of them use all kinds of leaning tactics to steer) and the comparing super fighters, which are large, armored, and fast. This adds another level of tactics to a space fleet, and this is why I choose to combine them into the same space battles as each other.
Microfighters have their own set of advantages now, namely that they can be carried inside capital ships, and can access small areas and additionally land there. In case it escaped your attention, they also have no fully-enclosing cockpit. There would be no air for the pilot to breathe. Additionally, the pilot would be a large target. Now, as one who uses Microfighters often, I had to come up with some reasoning or a solution to this.
Microfighter Cockpits
What does one do to protect the pilot in a Microfighter that lacks a full-enclosure cockpit? To answer, I looked at many of my Microfighters. I noticed that many have a representative cockpit on them somewhere. I decided that in a space-faring universe such as the Star Wars Universe, deflector screens and open-door, air-filled hangars were proof of the technology capable of maintaining a habitable pocket of air that a pilot could sit in. I also reasoned that the pilot's "pocket of air" could also be placed underneath the shield systems of a Microfighter. I thus decided that the cockpit-representative pieces on a Microfighter, as their first job of being an enclosing cockpit obviously failed, could serve as these vital pilot-safety systems. Noticing that a Microfighter is probably too small to hold much more than e-web sized blasters, wings, fuel tanks, and an engine, I decided that my Microfighters would probably not have full-fighter-sized shields. I thus decided that the cockpit pieces actually provided personal-sized complimentary shielding to the pilot.
This solution having been found, I then resolved to make my Microfighters look like what I described. Some of the pudginess of Microfighters had to go away.
Expanding the realism of Microfighters
My First concern in making the Microfighters look more space-worthy was the need for the proportions of the spaceships to suggest a vehicle more than suggest a cartoon sketch. I looked at my Microfighter x-wings, namely the one based off of the Original Trilogy, and the Resistance x-wing Microfighter. The nose of both seemed stubby and short. The rebel x-wing Microfighter needed wider wings to accompany the nose extension, as well. The resistance x-wing was already wide enough to accompany the nose extension, so I made no change there.
Please notice that multiple 2x2 plates were stacked to keep the color scheme consistent. No pieces were taken away from the set. Thus, this qualifies as a Modified Alternate Build.
I then decided to expand this modification to my y-wing Microfighter (this is the rebel y-wing, but this extension works for both rebel and resistance y-wings if you think they need adjusting). I lengthened the engines on both sides of the Microfighter by inserting a 2x2 Round brick in front of the rear engine exhaust struts.
I don't currently own the Resistance Y-Wing Microfighter, but I own the full-scale one, and Zori Bliss decided to represent the big one by being in this picture. It works well.
This did, as a result, make the engine sections a little longer than the rear strut-like section, but the Lego bricks used to make the struts couldn't easily be lengthened without changing the look of the engine section area. Regardless though, I think the Microfighter looks a lot better with the extra engine added. Piloting one of these Microfighters probably feels like riding a bike or a quad, and lengthening proportions makes the ship feel more real.
Realistically Modified Microfighters
These models together make up the most notable modifications of the Microfighters that I have, and they enhance the play and look of the Microfighter fleet.
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