Knight26

Perspective shot.

Anyway onto the current redesign, i am stuck. I need to decide between two the two wing configurations I have narrowed myself down to. The Single wing FSW with four cannons, or the box-wing FSW with two cannons and some sort of new/failed supercannon in the wing tips. Both have advantages and disadvantages, so I would appreciate any comments to help. Here are two images of the latest box wing concept. And Pot Smoking Zentrandude, there really is little to no resemblance to the warbird.

Holy Shreg I just watched episode 13 from the british run and all I have to say is they better pick this thing up for at least the next six backup scripts. Too many cliffhangers, too much left unanswered and shreg just the last minute, oh man, someone who's watched this IM me I need to talk about it. Holy Croy.

Very very nice, now if it were only fully variable too, lol.

@lynx: Yeah this one is strictly carrier based, no built in undercarriage, so the ventral fin is a possibility. The Box wing looks common, where else have you seen it? I can only assume you are confusing the retro-exhaust thruster with an intake, which it is not, this model does not have any intakes, except maybe for cooling, so we will see. @opus: Yeah that is a consideration I will think about it at work today and play with it more tonight when I get home. As for filling the space, no that is not going to happen.

Ok i see what you mean Opus, and thanks for the idea I'm afraid it would just make it look like an upside down S-5000 wing and would really serve no purpose. The box wing is really growing on me, though I am debating adjusting the an/dihedral angles in order to add a different vertical joint. I did give the wing some shape to flesh out the idea some more, plus I stuck the guns in where they will likely go, any thoughts?

Very nice, if I were any good at building models I would consider it. BTW will you eventually make it able to fit 1:18 scale figures?

A better shot of the box wing config.

Next up is a box wing config, I'm kind of liking this one and right now it is up between this one and the straight mono-wing.

Ok I tried Opus' dihedral concept, I'm not loving it, maybe it's just that I have not cut in the leading and trailing edges yet.

Also you'll note I went back to the old view angle without perspective.

Interesting, I like the idea of the ventral fin but that is a pretty serious dihedral and I can forsee some problems, I will play with it though. Anyway I put these together this afternoon after all my running around, playing with the weapons config and giving it a mono-wing config. Let me know what you think.

Opus: HUh?

forward swept canted, funny thing happened when I was previewing them, if you run them all together at a good pace it look like its flapping its wings, lol.

Forward swept, uncanted.

Next, rear swept, uncanted.

Ok I was playing around with wing configurations this morning, and came up with the following four basic concepts. Thanks MSW for the basic idea. I am still leaning towards an overall FSW config and may go to a single wing planform in the end, but I am still tyring to figure that out.

Will work on this more today, have the day off, to answer some questions first: @graham: I don't know why the majority of sci-fi fighters don't have built in rear visibility. But, as I explained in an earlier thread the cockpit has a sensor imaging system installed, which allows the crew to "see" through the walls of the cockpit. It is similar to what is seen on the YF-19. Also direct rearward visibility is pretty overrated, what is needed is the over the should view which the design still give you a pretty good view of. @phyrox: No, these are not lego inspired, though haterist at one point noticed the same thing and was going to look into seeing how to build the 5000 out of lego. Heck I haven't even picked up a lego in years, though I appreciate many of the things people have been able to do with them, those brick designs are pretty versitile. @MSW: Interesting design, maybe I can work in some elements, with your permission, but those cruciform wings might get in the way of the docking fixture. We will see how it progresses.

Well the pilots do like to see, so the canopy isn't going to go away, as for the weapons, I have no clue what you are talking about.

What is the tachikoma fighting against?

The 4000 and 5000 are superiority fighters, designed to get in close and dogfight. They are the multirole workhorses of the confederation. THe 4000 was also the first digfighter to carry any kind of ordnance that could threaten a capship, that torpedo tube. Mind you all that can do is take out surface emplacements, turrets, sensors, observation domes, etc... These are the close in knife fighters, so the 4000 will end up covered in thrusters with a strong gun armament and secondary missiles, the tubes are already in, uses a magazine instead of the more typical single missile per tube on other fighters. This was done as a means of better protecting the missiles, but proved too weighty and prone to breakdown so on the 5000 they went back to the old style with added armor. Right now after the wings my biggest concern is the front of the engines and seeing how to blend that area better, try to get around the limitations of ACAD.

Just for reference, here is the original 4000 design. As you can see it was not a very well executed design. The redesign will probably not be as well but I will put more thought into it as the sidestory my friend Kevin is writing will feature it. I'm considering something of a box wing on this redesign, sort of a bi-plane config, but we will see.

Ok how about a redesign of a redesign, if that makes sense? Basically the Splicer 5000, the blue fighter in this thread is a direct development off an earlier aircraft, kind of like the F-20 is to the F-5, or more appropriately the Su-37 to the original model Su-27. In this case the Splicer 4000 was a highly advanced, marginally experimental plaene, and when it was first introduced was one of the best around. Unfortunately it couldn't be upgraded because of how the systems were all integrated together. The 5000 was borne as a result. Now this craft never recieved the advanced PDE/grav engine so no need for intakes. However since the 5k comes from the 4k I am trying to keep the engines cockpit as close as possible. The docking mounts that are on currently will be deleted after I figure out the new wings. Well here is the start, let me know what you think, and of course once it is done I will texture it. I think it needs a new color instead of blue though, maybe a gray shade, thoughts? Comments are appreciated.

Hmm, I could try to compose something like that this weekend, smaller angle lense on the camera, put it in front of the cockpit Barker Class if the background and other fighters zipping about, hmm.

How can you not see it? Anyway the wings will not be thinned out, they have a lot of structure in them, remember those are the engines on the end.