TIE Light Bomber

My take on the TIE-series from Star Wars.

This is my own design, inspired and heavily based on the many different TIEs from Star Wars. None of this is in canon or official in any way.

The TIE Light Bomber is almost as agile as a regular TIE and just as fragile, but it is equipped with two torpedo-launchers in its wings.

"TIE Light Bomber-no pin” is the default version.

For a stand “TIE Light Bomber-pin” is compatible with a small pin and base (link).

Print Instructions

Printed at 0.15mm layer height. Requires supports on buildplate.

Design Process

I wanted to create an original TIE. That being said, there are so many TIE variants (especially if you include fan-made designs like this one) that I can't rule out that someone else has already created something similar to mine. I can only promise that I didn't knowingly copy any existing designs.

Wings

The most distinctive part of any TIE-variant are the wings, so I started there. I wanted to keep it simple. Pretty much every (plausible) type of flat polygonal wing has been done before. So instead I took the wings from the Interceptor, sliced out the middle and inverted the taper of the wings.

Cockpit

The next part was the cockpit. The design shouldn't be similar to the Interceptor, so I chose the cockpit of the Bomber, but made it a tiny bit shorter.

Weapons

At this point, I hadn't yet decided what this TIE was supposed to do and what its capabilities were. Since I combined parts from the Interceptor and Bomber, it made sense to have this reflected in its capabilities as well. This TIE became a fighter-bomber.

There are many TIEs with missles (Advanced, Defender) and even bombs (Striker), but I don't know any TIEs that focus on torpedoes. (The Bomber and its siblings don't count, because they also carry bombs and missiles.) This is why I equipped my TIE with torpedoes.

Name

I wanted to keep the name simple. Many TIEs carry their role in their name (TIE Fighter, Interceptor, Bomber, Strik(e fight)er). I didn't like the sound of TIE Fighter-Bomber, so I went with TIE Light Bomber instead.

Lore

Like most TIEs, the TIE Light Bomber has very light armor, no shields and no hyperdrive. It relies on its agility to stay alive and carriers to get where its needed.

The strengths of this TIE lie in its agility combined with its payload. The ability to evade attacks, then unleash devastating torpedo salvos made it quite effective against capital ships.

Despite this, it saw only minor use by the Empire. It didn't fit with imperial military doctrine, which saw little value in dancing around the enemy and precision strikes. Additionally, the Empire simply didn't need a fighter specialized in combat against capital ships. It had its Star Destroyers to deal with those.

The TIE Light Bomber was good at what it did. Unfortunately what it did didn't need doing.

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