[Solatar]

I love the model, it regresses (I feel like this might not be the right word, but you'll probably get my meaning) the Herc design quite well.

The only thing I'm not keen on is the cockpit/nose section.  Overall the ship looks a tad bit too long IMO, but that's probably just a taste thing.  The cockpit, however, looks VERY long.  Perhaps make it look a tad bit more like the Herc I?  I wouldn't copy it or anything - the Herc II changed the cockpit a bunch - just seems a tad long as is.  Some sort of meld between Athena/Herc I/this would look great, IMO.

I don't normally post model critiques (I'm not great in the artistic department normally), but this issue just particularly stood out to me.  Looking forward to seeing the finished version.  I'm looking forward to Frontlines. 

[CommanderDJ]

I actually like this. It's nice to see people not focus exclusively on "oh, it's pretty" and work more with a trend, as you have done. I, for one, think of it as "not all that nice looking but extremely compact and functional". I really like this. Keep it up, BW!

[Droid803]

Its ugly, but ugly in a good way.

[ION3]

I think it's refreshing. We have so many "unblocky" ships already.

[Titan]

Personally, I would make the engines smaller and put stubby wings on it, so then it would look like a fighter rather then a bomber. Or a crate.

Don't get me wrong, the model itself is really good. I just don't like the design.

[Mobius]

That fighter would fit in TVWP, IMHO.

[-Sara-]

Could even make a nice support ship or such. I like it.

[Snail]

On that front, I am a tad concerned that people look at it and think "Athena". Snail and Nohiki - is there anything specific about the ship other than the colour scheme that gives you Athena vibes? For the record, the colours (specifically the red tips) are there as a sort of subtle homage to Lt. Ash' Apollo from the FS1 opening cutscene rather than trying to reference the white and brown of the Athena

It's not really a visual thing, just the Athena's role in the fleet. The Athena always seemed to be more of a heavy assault fighter than an actual bomber (seeing as it can't actually carry bombs), this thing just seems to fit in that niche.

[Trivial Psychic]

The Athena is almost as a missile carrier, akin to some of the non-dogfighting fighters that the Americans made during the early era of guided missiles.

[Titan]

Yeah, for a time it was thought that, since planes flew so fast and so high, fighters would basically become manned dumbfire missles that shoot up to fire more missiles.

[Snail]

I kind of thought of the Herakles as a TVWar era version of the Herc 2. Mainly missiles. But I guess not, reading over again.

[Black Wolf]

Took Solatar's advise, shrank the nose and completely redid it. Looks much better now, IMO, although it does seem a little bit... tacked on. I think the old nose actually suited the flow of the ship more, despite the length, but I'm pretty happy with how this one turned out, so it'll live on.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Snail]

Nice. Captures that FS1 ship design feel perfectly.

[Col. Fishguts]

New cockpit looks great
But now the engine pods look too large.... maybe try shrinking them vertically down to about 75% current size just to see how it looks?

[Commander Zane]

I agree, the nose looks outstanding.

[Solatar]

Nice! Fits in perfectly with the blocky early Terran aesthetic. 

[peterv]

Nice! Fits in perfectly with the blocky early Terran aesthetic. 

This 

[Mobius]

I agree with Snail here. Are the maps going to match those used on the original Hercules?

[Black Wolf]

Well, this is more positive response than I'm used to. Cheers guys.

Mobius - My texturing skills aren't supremely good - the original herc had a style I'm not sure I'm capable of replicating. I'm playing with some variants on that first post at the moment - it'll most likely retain the dark red highlights at the front and back of the engine pods, which I guess are kinda simiar to the pink highlights on the Herc, and a lot of the same badging and decals. Otherwise, I'm not sure - I'll have to wait and see myself I suspect.

[Mobius]

About the name: how about naming it the Antaeus? Hercules defeated Antaeus, so it'd be sense.

I know there's an INF ship with that name, but this one deserves the name Antaeus too (or one of its variants).