Knight26

My experiences with dells have been mixed. MY first PC was a DELL 486 DX-33, loved that beast to death had it for years, mind you I upgraded it continually until the case could no longer support the newer motherboards. The computer had no issues except when my Dad accidentally deleted the command.com the second week we had it trying to delete some pirated software. THe guys from Dell tech support were on the phone with us for about two-three hours helping us fix it since my Dad and I were not the most PC savy at the time, having moved up from Commadore 128. Now at work we have DELL laptops, in the two years I've had mine the tech support folks have had to replace the hard drive four or five times, and the motherboard three times. I don't necerily blame dell for this, more the NMCI that manages the computers and is constantly pushing and pulling software on and off the machine. THe biggest gripe I have with the design is the P!$$ Poor cooling design, especially when in the docking station. It got so bad at one point that I started spraying it down with canned air when running intense applications, or rendering. We are now starting to get new laptops which from what I have seen have much more efficent cooling setups and better docking ports, we will see how that goes though. I am tempted to go for this deal, so that I can have a better laptop to take on travel, but if anyone can recommend something better let me know, especially if the price is right.

yah plus all my small craft designs usualy have 1 primary and 1 secondary like those games. in this case 2 guns and 6 missiles. Yeah but then look at the size of yours compared to mine, yours is a very small single seater. I have an older (universewise) design that is a single seater with only four guns and six missiles, it may or may not get a redesign treatment.

Well I said before it is suppossed to be "ugly sister" of the group, plus the assymetric design kind of makes sense in its case. Yeah that is a bad habit of mine sometimes, though I am getting better about it, and the rear end will change somewhat before the design is finished. Damn man, three torps on the stubs, that would definitely take it beyond the light classification, besides it would not be able to mount full scale torps there. And those are not gatling guns, they are flex mounted energy cannon, primary usage is to disable other craft. I actually was considering the over and under canard mounting option but decided against it, not enough room to do it. I am however thinking of moving Plaser cannons into a chin mount, recessing them under the nose. If I do that I may move the energy cannons back under the canards, I will redesigning the sub wings no matter what though possibly adding some cruciform winglets as well. I should hopefully have these in by tomorrow.

me too

Its just some CF pilot, so the color scheme is similar to kakizaki's TV scheme with the movie markings, so what, you know there are only so many color combinations out there.

Uh the only externally mounted weaponary are the guns, in this case, two of which are on flex mounts so that is required for their use. Also the A/M cannon is for the most part internal to itself, openning the forward mandibles only to fire. The Plasers are just external for ease of maintenance/replacement since in space you don't have to worry about drag. Also the missiles are internal they just fire out of the front of the craft, but the missiles themselves are not explosed, and are infact inside the armored skin of the craft.

And the five view registry

Ok, update time, I nixed the wings replacing them with a set of stubbies that I stole off the S-5000 and lengthened, may change that and give it unique stub wings, probably the best idea, but this is for figuring what to to do right now. Anyway with the stub wings on I moved around the cannons, I wanted to keep the fixed guns close to centerline to allow for better aiming, and put the manuering cannons out on the stubs. I'm not sure about the locations I moved the PLASERs to, i may pit them back where they were or go to a different mounting point entirely, thoughts?

It really comes down to a question of operational doctrines and speeds. Modern combat doctrine calls for engaging at range for the most part, using the missiles as the primary weapon and the gun as secondary. In my books space combat is realitively low speed, similar to B-5, you have to fight off any momentum you build up while accelerating. So dogfighters typically have great manueverability and acceleration with a heavy emphasis on guns for use close in. Interceptors or slash attackers rely more on missile armament, engaging targets while they are still in the attack phase, before they decelerate and engage close in, this is when missiles are most effective. I hope th at make sense will explain more later but I have to run to a doctor's appointment. Also I did showcase the enemy fighters a while back and after this one is done I'll do a couple line up shots of all the different fighters together.

I'm really not seeing what you mean with the overarmament, the last four redesigns had the following loadouts: Feral-F: 3-forward MDCS, 4-defensive turrets, 60 standard missiles, and 12 large scale torpedoes Untamed: design has been nixed as being impractical Splicer 5000: six forward guns, ten standard missiles, two light torpedoes Splicer 2000: four forward guns, 18 standard missiles, six long range missiles, two light torpedoes Splicer 3000: four forward guns, light Antimatter Cannon, 34 standard missiles, six light torpedoes. The weapon's loads do not seem that unrealistic true the feral and 3000 might be a little overboard on the missiles but when you figure that a standard hornet can carry a mix of up to 12 AMRAAMs or sidewinders what I am calling for doesn't really seem that far out there. Now looking at the current design, the whole right side of the craft is the A/M cannon, that is a huge weapon, the missles are all in that launcher off to the left side and are fairly tightly packed. When you look at some ship based launchers though that tight packing is not so out of the question either, the current model RAM launcher carries up to 21 rounds in a launcher guide assemebly maybe half the size of the old NATO Sea-Sparrow launcher, which only carries up to eight rounds. Yes miniaturization goes a long way towards allowing these craft to carry the ordnance loads I have them carry and maybe I did go a little overboard on the 3000's weapons load, but that is compensated by its comparitively lower thrust and manueverability. Also the original had internal bomb bays that will likely not make it into the redesign, unless they are a module that I swap out with the missile pod, missiles or bombs in that case. Edit: And for good measure since this is a macross board the VF-1S goes out with with a weapons load of: one gunpod, four lasers, and up to 40 missiles and thats without the FAST Packs.

Well currently the wings will go either one of two directions: 1) go to a narrower chord design (shorten the distance between the leading and trailing edges) or 2) be replaced by much smaller, but longer in chord stub designs, which be used only for mounting weapons and for thruster emplacements. Hmm, I'm seeing a possible part reuse there off another design now, just have to modify it accordingly. I'm also considering adding a couple small turrets to the craft, something like pop out chin guns for use in defending it while on an attack run, or for strafing attacks against large capital ships/installations or ground targets. Thoughts?

very nicely done

A quick shot of the registry, shows all the views, hope it helps give comments.

Ok, major update this time, all the major components are added including the wings. Thing is I am not feeling the wings and think I may drop them entirely, maybe just put on a small set of stub wings for weapon's mounting and additional external weapons hardpoints. Any thoughts? This is probably the most critical time to get in comments becuase after this the detailing work begins. If I keep the wings they will ahve to fold two ways, up for landing on a flight deck and down for using the docking points. I look forward to your comments.

small update, the docking mounts and engines have been added, still need to hollow out the engines and give them exhaust nozzle but that will come later, now I am going to start experimenting with the wings, decide if I will even have them.

Second shot, with the A/M Cannon opened, still need to build up the interior and I may make the arms smaller so that it can open up more, still working on that.

Quick update, I've added on the basic hull and major weapon's packs, still need to add the lighter fighter scale guns, engines, docking mounts, wings etc... I am actually going to put on the docking mounts next before the engines so that I can better position them, thought I am considering leaving the docking mounts off if I have to. I may shorten the overall length, but am definitely considering an internal weapons bay forward of the ventral torpedo pack, there is more then enough room. Right now the left hand weapon's pack is the missile launcher, carries 34 missiles, the right pack is the antimatter cannon, it opens before it fires. I look forward to your comments. This first shot shows the craft with the cannon closed.

Man I can't find the pics, am I just blind or did they take them down?

Guys don't egg on agentone, just let him go off oil up and perform unspeakable acts with himself.

Damn Exo that is sweet, oh yeah and airwolgf sucked, blue thunder owned it.

Mmmm, Mig-29 and F-20 tigershark fighting side by side, man that would be sweet. of course it also makes you wonder about the prototype that "disappeared." Look it up, one of the F-20 prototypes is currently unaccounted for, no one knows what happened to it, been a mystery at Northrop for years.

Oh yeah I heard about that right before it happened, well heard about the aircraft purchases, my friends and I called it the ultimate fly off between the Mig-29 and the Su-27. I just wish there was more information on the actual engagement, gun camera footage would be so sweet.

and a quick shot of the cockpit will need to add more detail later.

Well I didn't get much progress done this week, will get back to it tommorrow, the onyl thing I did get done was a couple development sketches I did on the plane rides to and from Norfolk, and some work on the new cockpit. I went with something look much more like the initial redesign concept, mixed a little more with a bit of the original. Right now it will be a two seater, but I am looking at making a four seat varient for EW and shuttle duties. The other concept I came up with I may develop into some kind of small shuttlecraft, but that is up in the air right now. Hopefully I will have some more progress for you tomorrow, at least a basic layout design up. Well first here is the sketch.

that's a lot kinder then waht I was thinking of saying