Knight26

Some more thinking out loud on the non-sol, the single and twin engined versions. The single engine looks like it will have too many issues to go though so I will likely go with the single engined verison, the cockpit is still temporary at this point, thoughts?

OK it hit me today at work as I pulled up an older version of the redesign, since that is all I have access to, thank you microsoft, while my main computer is in the shop. Anyway I was playing around with a few ideas on how to redo the fuselage when I came up with something that might just work really well. So I decided to basically scrap what I had done so far and start work on the "non-sol" as I am calling it now. Originally I was going to go for a completely contemporary type design, no disk wing, with a high mounted cockpit. The disk wing crept back in but a high mounted cockpit and somwhat F-16 like fuselage emerged. It will still need a lot of fine tuning and tweaking, but I am think I may go this route the rest of the way through. I might even make it a single engine design, doubtful but could happen at this point. It is still rough at this stage and reusing a lot of components but let me know what you think.

So a more realistic depiction of decompression would be what happened to Tim Robbins in Mission to Mars, as opposed to Arnold's eyes popping out of his head like a fiddler crab. I had to admit that scene in Mission to Mars was pretty damn graphic and looked fairly believable with his head freezing instantly. Actually that scene was complete Garbage, he wouldn't flash freeze like that, not even Martian orbit. All the fluid in his body would rapidly evaporate/boil though due to the pressure drop leaving a quickly desicating corpse. And, the ddeath would be far from instananeous, in fact from decompression studies he would probably live for up to a minute, in extreme agony. Personnally, I would have rather burned up.

I wonder what the clone pilot is flying there.

Very Nice, BTW whatever happened to that game mod you were building all these for originally?

Thanks for the suggestion Zentran Dude, but I am at wits end on this one, heck I may just scrap the fuselage and restart fresh.

AARGGHH!!!! Well after two days of redoing the fuselage to make it rounded instead of segmented, two days to get it as close to perfect as I like I have run into a brick wall, hard. Now I have to make the decision on how to detail this thing. The problem is with the fuselage rounded like this I can't cut in proper panel lines, AUTOCAD for some reason does not like to chamfer any surface that is not circular, any kind of ellipse and it throws a fit. So then I have to fillet it instead, which never looks right, and when i try to put it back together, aarggh, another fit. So now I am at decision time on how to proceed. I may just say the heck with it and do all the details in as part of the texture, or go back to the segmented version, any ideas?

under the nose, you can see the lip a little better here.

Small/large update. Look closely you will see a major change to the design. Give up? Basically I redid the fuselage with elliptical cylinders, getting rid of the segementation. It looks much better I think. However some problems have now cropped up that I need to try and fix. 1) the rear engine section no longer wants to attach. and 2) the nose under the cockpit pod as a distinct side chin. I am trying to decide how and what to do about that. I may leave it as is, try to null it out, or take one step further and give intake/exhaust ports there, make it look like and A-6. I have not decide, will play with it this weekend. thoughts?

@ZD: I actually shortened the barrel length to prevent the pilot from getting blinded, the barrel ends about a foot behind the pilot's seat, so the only way he could get blinded is if he was stupid enough to look at the barrel instead of his target. Linked in Canopy polarization is a wonderful thing.

Ok, small update, but I was working for a while to figure out the docking claw arrangement. I finally decided to have them enclosed, with doors that slide open for docking. Every other arrangement made them too large and or complex, this proved to be the best arrangement I could devise. The old claw would not have worked either as the new weapons arrangement would not let it fit. As it is now the claw will have limited room to work, but still has enough working area to allow the claw to function. Tomorrow I will start in on the detailing work, once that is done I will start on the Mark-2 which will feature a new wing and weapons config.

First go at a registry view, with two small bonus'.

Pic 2: @ZD: I know what mean I got the same impression when I looked at it the first time.

Update time: Sorry for the lack there of, been a busy few days. I cranked this update out this evening, can't at work right now since I am in a stupid class. Anyway here are the changes: 1) I redid the vernier thrusters, I'll post a close up later, but they are now circle-bar verniers, similar to on the VF-1, just another Macross nod, lol. 2) I shortened the end barrel segment on the Heavy Plaser by 1 ft, now it is well behind the pilot and still plenty long enough so the blinding problem is all but solved. No other updates as yet but I may shorten the underslung guns pods, they are a bit long, need to check them against a few others I have first before I make that call to be sure though. I still need to add a few more features before I proceed with the detailing, I can't decide right now if I should go with the old docking ports or adapt the Phantom-4 type to Solaar. The adapting makes more sense, adding commonality, but then I will have to redo the docking claws, no biggie though. So any thoughts on how to proceed?

I thought it was a fun game, but too short, I would have prefered a few more missions/levels besides the three main "campaigns" you are sent on. I thought the squad AI was pretty good, but there is limited replay value, and I thought the ending was interesting, hope to see more of Delta Squad in Ep3.

ANd this shot I thought just came out interesting, I like how I got an unintentional glow in the Plaser barrels.

Ok, no work on the landing gear today, will eventually get back to them though. However, today brought about the redevelopment of the Heavy PLASER cannon, look familiar anyone? ANyway after I mounted it I realized it still will blind the pilot, doh! I have a couple fixes in mind for this: 1) shorten the barrel, it's longer then it needs to be, quite a bit so. 2) Add a flash guard onto the inboard side of the barrel, this will however impinge upon pilot visibility, any comments?

highly motivating is it now, hoowah!

Interesting idea Opus, probably won't impliment on the Mk1 though, and it looks like it might interfere too much with pilot visibility., besides that the only way to do that now would be to either 1) redo the whole fuselage, or 2) redo the wing, neither of which i want to do right now. I'll play with it when I start on the Mk2 though. We have achieved design lock all the major components except for the heavy Plasers, which will redone and the detailing effort which will commence after the heavy cannons are redone and the missile packs detailed.

Ok, the undercarriage is in, it's basically a simplified version of the F-16's undercarriage without the locking arms. I may or may not add those at a later date, any thoughts? ENjoy the montage.

And mounted, you can kind of make out the nose gear down there, look familiar to anyone?

Back from the dead, sorry for the lack of updates, real life got in the way, again and again and again, and that doesn't count the hottie that has me all buggered up right now. Anyway not much to report right now, I made the nose gear, and rebuilt the MDCs, their resemblance to a certain anime mech's gunpod is purely intentional, lol. Next on the block I will finish up the main landing gears, recut the cockpit tub, redo and detail the heavy Plasers, probably move them around a little too. I will also redo the ventrals since right now they are just a scaled down dorsal tail. COmments always appreciated.

Here is the pod, as for a "ghost" or AI version, there will be some backstory on the AI wars that explains why neither side uses AI controlled weapons platforms, be they fighters, tanks, or capital ships. Some rogue AI craft will show up though from time to time, and they will be seriously mofos.

Update: I redid the ventral fins, scaling them down 25% and then adding a second fin canted out, I may reshape them and change the angle on them. I also formed the initial cockpit pod and cut out the port for it. I will detail it up with control interefaces, explosive bolts, rocket motors, etc... Thoughts?

Ok, when kit comes out who wants to build one for me, lol.