Finally, something I can truly help out on.
Contact Lego customer service (www.lego.com , the 800 number is listed there)
The nice thing is that they will replace the parts for you for free. I have had to do this several times through my lego career. They are very friendly and very helpful. I have found that lego is one of the only companies where the president all the way down to the janitor has a say in what goes on, and they are in direct contact via email with there consumers and collectors.
As far as a discussion group, try www.lugnet.com. It is a group, 5,000+ strong, mostly adults, that collect lego. It would surprise you what is out there, and what has been built.
If you want to see personal creations by people from all over the world, go to www.brickshelf.com.
....and finally, while I am at it, I might as well throw in my own website. I build custom fire apparatus, so it has a few of my own creations. This has both my regular site and my brickshelf site.
http://members.aol.com/whstlpig05/Woodchuckmain.html
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?m=Whistlepig
Out of curiousity, is it the regular xwing, or the UCS version. The regular was around 200pcs or so, and the UCS (its a monster and 5x the price) is 1300. I have both.
Its the only "toy" that I know of more adults that collect them than kids.
Ohhhh to be a kid again :o)
The Whistlepig [USA]
Edited to say if I had read the post completely, I would have seen that it was the regular Xwing. If you do have any problems aquiring the parts you need, feel free to contact me. I can more than likely hook you up!