Ground Attack Heavy Fighter (Original Design)

[Richard Baker]

OK, this one is a strange one but the odd design has a reason behind it.

Lots of space fighters out there, I wanted to make something different- a fighter created to attack ground targets in any planetary atmosphere. I got to thinking and decided that multiple drive systems would be in order since what would work in an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere may not be the best to use in methane.  I also like asymmetrical designs and wanted to have some fun. This ship is in 1:72  scale and about 14 inches long from the nose to that end of the port engine.

I gave it two control sections- one for flight in the front and one for weapons which I put in a large pod on an off set pylon. This is to give the weapons pod an unobstructed view around and below the ship. It is accessed through he main pylon and can detach in an emergency. The weapon control pod had a long range gun and a rotating top gun for defense. The top gun can be swapped out for several types of weapons or an advanced sensor suite. the main weaponry is mounted underneath the main body- a rotating turret with three heavy beam weapons. on the port side of the main body there are several missile launch rails with a variety of options, the red tactical nukes are shown. Forward on the underside are three landing pods which can be used for escape or recon.

There are three multiple drive units  with a scattering of boosters. The main port engine and the two smaller starboard ones can, in a last resort effort, detach and act as fire forward as missiles going critical on impact. The third drive (aft slotted one) can be used to return if it is in the proper atmosphere.

About the build-

This one is all sheet styrene with a number of recognizable donor kits- I didn't spend too much time trying to disguise them on this model. It does have an exit hatch on the starboard main hull outlined in red (starting with this model I build most of my designs with red hatches so you can spot them easily in an emergency). When I was taking these pictures I discovered that this is a hard model to photograph. It has a number of perspective tricks built into it and when seen from the forward starboard three-quarter angle had a wrap round effect when seen with the eye that does not work well with my current camera.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Plan Views

 

 

 

 

 

[Pete in Lincs]

Richard,

It's rather nice, lots to look at, but in the wrong section. It needs moving to Ready for Inspection.

Add Mods please move this to the title & it should be done.

[Richard Baker]

Sorry about the wrong placement- I just got in a hurry trying to get it posted while at work and went to the wrong area.

[Richard Baker]

One more photo- this is a close up shot of the starboard hull area with the hatch. Another detail of the greebly shown- the three connected disks shown to the top right are generators with the power feed lined with radiator fins traveling back and up the angled pylon to the weapons pod. In the design of this 'family' of ships power generators can become unstable so they are surface mounted so any blow off is outwards from the hull. On the underside there are several disk shaped generators on the starboard side- these are the generators for the main weapons, these can be dropped and set to go critical also...

[spruecutter96]

I like this a lot! It's got something of an "Alien" feel to it, from where I'm sitting. You can tell it was made to perform a certain task and that beauty was not a major consideration in the design.

 

Thanks for sharing with us.

 

Chris.  

[Richard Baker]

Thanks!

I have a fondness for functional/industrial designs- 'Alien' does excel in that category!