I posted this in the Art forum last winter, and now I finally got a little time to try and learn modelling. Here's relevant part of the original message:
This craft was designed shortly after the second Shivan incursion and is, unlike other terran fighter designs, not a result of corporational design but rather a design patched together by GTVA's own engineers and just built by mentioned corporations (Nankam and other corporations mentioned in FS2). Therfore it combines prominent and tested features of the former, noticed-to-be-good terran fighters. Mainly it is influenced by GTF Perseus, GTF Hercules 2, GTF Erinyes and GTB Artemis, but it also bears some resemblance to GVF Tauret. It is best at maintaining space superiority or assault role, having a reasonable payload capacity while being much more maneuverable and faster than GTF Hercules and being as fast as the GTF Myrmidon while slightly faster than it. The fighter is intermediately shielded, while hull plating is where it exels.
The fighter manages to be as strong as the GTF Ares while achieving much higher maneuverability and speed than "The Potatoe". This is due to advanced (read: Shivan) reactor technology, thrust vectoring systems and optimized angular momentum hull configuration.
The design is two-seater by default, but most of the missions can be, and often are carried out with just one pilot. Additional pair of eyes is always a good thing to watch the six, and the back-seater can also serve as a battle leader, sending commands to the wing while not forced to concentrate on dogfighting himself. In simulations, having one such co-pilot in a wing increases performance by 15%, but this is yet to be confirmed in real combat.
The fighter measures 19.00 metres in length, 12.80 in width and in total it is 5 metres high. It has six primary weapon hardpoints, two near the center of aim below the cockpit and four on the extended side pods for heavy bombardment for large targets. Next to these primary weapons is a pair of secondary weapon launchers that can be fitted to launch anything up to Harpoon missiles, while the upper secondary banks fitted further back on the side pods can carry missiles of size of Piranhas, Infyrnos and, most importantly, Trebuchets. It can also carry most Great War era bombs (like Tsunamis) if they are available and it's absolutely necessary, and in forced conditions it can be used to carry two Cyclops missiles, but that's not feasible for obvious reasons - let the bombers do their job.
As a bonus, the fighters side pods can be replaced with wings and a tail section. Also, the side pods can be ejected if they are heavily damaged. They are relatively cheap to manufacture, consisting basically of just thrusters and weapon bays. Dropping these behing allows the central section to achieve much greater speed while still having ability to fight back with the nose guns.
Name of the fighter is still subject to dispute... as not many people approved my initial choice. However "Percules" remains as a project name.
Anyway, this is my first model ever... well, not the first one really, but the first one was the Monolith from
2001: Space Odyssey so it doesn't count. It's still under work, obviously, but these pictures should give an overall impression of the craft.
Exported to Blender and edited some fubared pieces into better condition:
This is obviously the atmospheric capable version of the fighter, without the side pods. Some additional description:
At this configuration, the fighter is supposed to work in the roles of light interceptor, patrol craft and reconnaissance fighter. It has the obvious advantage compared to many other space fighters that they can be operated from anywhere - installation, capital space ships and planetary bases can all offer berth to these fast craft.
For capital ship usage, the fighter's wings clip upwards to make the ship fit into smaller space. The fighter can also be used in heavy assault and space superiority roles with the side pods taking place of the wings.
This modular structure gives the chance to make some pretty fancy solutions. The pods themselves are relatively cheap to manufacture, as all avionics and interface needed to use them is ready at all center units. Remove the wings, install the pods and you have converted light interceptor with limited offensive capability into a heavy assault craft with triple the primary banks of the interceptor and more than three times the secondary capacity.
Naturally, the central fighter itself has very limited offensive capability. Secondary payload capacity is scarce to say the least; it can carry up to ten Harpoons in wingtips and attached to underwing pylons (2 per pylon). That is the suggested payload configuration; if you really need more actual firepower, grab the pods.
Primary weapon banks include two weapon points in the nose of the fighter. These weapons, close to targeting axis center, offer the pilot pinpoint accuracy, and they can be equipped with most modern terran weapons in GTVA arsenal. Because there is no more than two weapons, the reactor of the fighter can easily handle even Maxim or Kayser equpment.
The pods offer superb secondary capacity, as well as four more primary hardpoints. The pods have their own reactor to power the weapons in them, and they are well armored. Both the podded and atmospheric version have the same intermediate shield capacity, but the central part is quite well armored in itself, and the pods add to protection from certain angles. Shooting the pods just destroys the pods weapon systems and doesn't render the fighter unable to fight.
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So, watcha think? Untextured, uncockpitted, unlodded, un-debrised, as of yet. I'll model the pods when I get some time.
