[Starwing]

From the creator of the award winning Autarch comes now:
 
 

Designation:      SA-110 Thunderbolt VI heavy strike fighter

Armament:      06* Warhammer Mk.1 Muon cannon
         08* wing pylons

Armoring:      reinforced Titanium, depleted Uranium, Duraflex

Shielding:      class III barrier shield

Max. velocity:      Sol 470 Hyperspace- Equivalent- Speed

Description:      A rather slow but heavy armed and armoured attack craft that can carry every Terran fighter based secondary weapon. Its main roles are planetary assaults, light bombing and close support duties.

------------------------------------------------------------------
Statistics (without missiles):

Faces:         2149

Texture maps:      36

Bump maps:      13

Transparency maps:    1

And here are some weapons it can carry:
 
Front (left to right):
Spear - short range, heat seeking missile
Raptor - anti- capship missile
Hercules - medium range anti fighter missile

Rear (left to right):
Pandora's Box - 4 armor piecing cluster missiles
Safecracker - a single shot mass driver cannon, that can pierce even the most heavy armor.
Inferno - unguided rockets

[edit: changed the ship model slightly, new images]
------------------
You guys are still strange...

[This message has been edited by Starwing (edited 12-27-2001).]

[an0n]

Razor thin. Heavy armourments. Pretty cool.

[Night Hammer]

Very nice

[Nico]

well, I'm not convinced... the whole shape seems rather unbalanced

[Starwing]

Could you explain that?

[Nico]

well, for me, a good design is one that looks cool from all viewpoints
from side and top, it's good, but the front view is terrible if you ask me.
I think the wings are too wide, the model itself is too short. adding some fins could also make it look better.
try to make the hull more elaborate (sp?), for now it's just three box put the one next to the other.
There's definitively a good start here, i think it just deserves more work  

[Starwing]

Yes, the front view is really not great. But IMO the wings are the major issue there. I changed them slightly, made the wingtips thinner and placed them lower. I think that makes it look much better. The boxy look of the engines was more or less intended, cause I wanted it to look sturdy, probably a little bit heavy, just like a ship that's designed to survive heavy fire and not to do acrobatic maneuvers.

I'm goint to upload updated shots soon.

[Setekh]

Steak likes.  

[mikhael]

 

Originally posted by Starwing:
.... But IMO the wings are the major issue there...I wanted it to look sturdy, probably a little bit heavy, just like a ship that's designed to survive heavy fire and not to do acrobatic maneuvers...

I agree with you that the wings are the major issue. They make the whole thing look fragile, almost like a U2 spyplane. If I were going to make this thing look 'heavy', I'd bunch things up more, maybe make the wings stubby and mount the weapons above and below, or even do away with the wings altogether (wasn't it the Herc that did this?). You might also want to move some weaponry to the dorsal surface, aft of the cockpit. This would help give the craft more 'shoulders', make it look more blocky. That might help convey the sense of 'heavy' better than the long wingspan.

------------------
--Mik http://www.404error.com
ruhkferret on ICQ/AIM

[This message has been edited by mikhael (edited 12-27-2001).]

[Alikchi]

The Herc is the epitome of that kind of fighter. A box with guns with engines strapped on is what you're looking for here.

[Starwing]

Hmmm... I'm a little bit conservative on this issue... I like it when starfighters look like modern jets. The wings are there for two reasons: for atmospheric flight and as missile carriers (It's not Freespace, in my universe there are no pocket- missiles, and the designers didn't want to waste power by lifting the ship with anti-g devices only)
The Herc was never really my favourite fighter design. I think it looks to compact for a heavy fighter.
You have to put this into the same line of craft as the A-10, almost unuseable in dogfight, but deadly against armored targets and ground based installations. That would probably make it rather comparable with FS light bombers than the Herc.

[NeoHunter]

I kind of like this design. Much like modern day fighters like Starwing says he likes.

------------------
GTD Excellence Webmaster
<                                       [b][email protected][/b]                                                     >
"Be flakked or be square!"

[Nico]

 

Originally posted by Starwing:
Hmmm... I'm a little bit conservative on this issue... I like it when starfighters look like modern jets. The wings are there for two reasons: for atmospheric flight and as missile carriers (It's not Freespace, in my universe there are no pocket- missiles, and the designers didn't want to waste power by lifting the ship with anti-g devices only)
The Herc was never really my favourite fighter design. I think it looks to compact for a heavy fighter.
You have to put this into the same line of craft as the A-10, almost unuseable in dogfight, but deadly against armored targets and ground based installations. That would probably make it rather comparable with FS light bombers than the Herc.

such wings won't make your ship atmosphere flyable  

[Starwing]

That's why I rebuilt it again. I'll just upload the new pics...

[Starwing]

Here they are:
 
 


[This message has been edited by Starwing (edited 12-28-2001).]

[mikhael]

I would still make those wings stubbier and put some of the weapons up top.

Also, take a look at your side profile. You might want to include a vertical fin of some sort, or give the engines a little more vertical rise (hey, they have to push it up out of atmosphere, right?).

Other than that, it looks pretty good.


------------------
--Mik http://www.404error.com
ruhkferret on ICQ/AIM

[This message has been edited by mikhael (edited 12-28-2001).]

[Starwing]

Naahh, not on top... I've seen that only once on a jetfighter (BAC Lightning, IIRC), and it looked just plain UGLY. Besides that would the hanger crew really be pleased if they had to lift those nice warheads through the air to mount them on the ship.
And it's a starfighter, it has maneuvring trusters   I don't even know why I included those landing flaps into the wing textures...
As for the wings, I think large wings give a ship a special kind of elegance, like an eagle floating high above the land, and this is a slow craft, it's engines may look big and powerful, but those are fusion turbines, which are usually used on capships, not the boosters that are normally mounted on fighters.

[aldo_14]

 

Originally posted by Starwing:
Naahh, not on top... I've seen that only once on a jetfighter (BAC Lightning, IIRC), and it looked just plain UGLY. Besides that would the hanger crew really be pleased if they had to lift those nice warheads through the air to mount them on the ship.
And it's a starfighter, it has maneuvring trusters   I don't even know why I included those landing flaps into the wing textures...

Maybe have missile racks mounted on a 'thing' that can raise them to vertical for in flight.

[Nico]

 

Originally posted by Starwing:
Naahh, not on top... I've seen that only once on a jetfighter (BAC Lightning, IIRC), and it looked just plain UGLY.  

it's like everything: if it's done right, it will look cool

[Thorn]

Hmm, it looks alright..
Kinda blocky..
Isnt the SA prefix usually used for SAMs though?
ie. SA-6, SA-4