X-9 Ghost length

[cool8or]

It seems like the length of the X-9 Ghost is unknown, but I want to ask you guys if you know something about it. Or, if somebody can ask it to Kawamori, great!

I'm curious because time ago I bought a X-9 resin kit, supposedly in 1/72, but its length is 25 cms (10"), too much for my taste. In addition, the X-9 is very similar to the QF-400 (from Macross Frontier), and as you know, this one is very small in comparison (13.68 cms, or 5.38" in 1/72... The half of the resin kit!)

What do you think?

[sketchley]

The QF-4000 is 9.85 m. There's no reason to suggest that the Ghost X-9 is larger or smaller than that.

[cool8or]

Exactly what I think.

[Graham]

The original Macross Chronicle shows the Ghost X-9 to be about the same length as a VF-1.

The Frontier era AIF-7S are shown to be significantly smaller in Macross Chronicle when compared to the VF-1.

I've always felt the X-9 was a bigger craft that the Frontier era Ghosts

Graham

[Kurisama]

I'm sure you could take a few measurements of the bomb bay doors and count how many HMMs it has, and gauge it from there. But I agree with the above statement - it'd be a larger version (prototype) of the frontier-era (production) ghosts.

[Mr March]

I have long ago tried scaling the X-9 Ghost based upon line art and it has always presented a very unique problem due in large part to it's sizable storage bay of 29 High-Maneuverability Missiles (HMM). The HMMs have never been designated with an official size, but they do appear mounted on the hull of the Drone FIghter from Macross Plus. As shown in the official line art, the Drone Fighter was sized by the original artist at 10-12 meters in length. With the HMM roughly 1/3 the length of the Drone Fighter itself, each HMM would range in length from roughly 2.5 to 3 meters long and about 0.25 meters in diameter. Now with an estimated size for the HMM, we can then scale the X-9 Ghost based on the proportional size of it's ventral missile bay.

To accommodate HMMs as sized in the first part of my analysis, the ventral missile bay of the X-9 Ghost must be at least 3 to 3.5 meters deep and at least 3 meters in length to accomodate 10 HMMs mounted in a row (as shown in the X-9 Ghost line art of the missile bay). Now we have two ways of scaling the X-9 Ghost using this information:

Method A: The 3 meter length of the ventral missile bay. If the bay is 3 meters long, then we simply scale the rest of the X-9 Ghost according to the length of the bay, ending with an overall X-9 Ghost of 13 meters in length.

Method B: The 2.5 - 3 meter length of a HMM. Unfortunately, if the ventral missile bay is 3-3.5 meters deep and 3 meters long, it's too "TALL" for a 13-meter long X-9 Ghost. Further, the line art of the ventral missile bay confirms the interior of the bay does not extend to the "ROOF" of the X-9 Ghost. There is the depiction of much more internal volume above the ventral missile bay. If we assume the ventral missle bay is roughly half the depth of the X-9 Ghost, then we're looking at an X-9 6-7 meters tall. This translates to a X-9 Ghost fighter of 25-30 meters in length.

So neither number works all that well. Because the results are rather unsatisfying, I just gave up. This may explain why the original creators never bothered to assign an official length to the X-9 Ghost

As an aside, the very similarly designed QF-4000 (AIF-7S) Ghost Fighter from Macross Frontier appears a direct design lineage from the X-9 Ghost. The two craft appear identical in almost every way. The QF-4000 is scaled at a mere 9.85 meters long. Official trivia describes the QF-4000 built with internal missile bays, but they are all micro-missiles. This would allow the craft to be much smaller than the X-9 Ghost.

[sketchley]

The original Macross Chronicle shows the Ghost X-9 to be about the same length as a VF-1.

The Frontier era AIF-7S are shown to be significantly smaller in Macross Chronicle when compared to the VF-1.

I've always felt the X-9 was a bigger craft that the Frontier era Ghosts

Graham

Indeed. And with the lack of any other official setting info, that's the length that we have to go with: slightly longer than the VF-1 (14.78 m).

[anime52k8]

Method B: The 2.5 - 3 meter length of a HMM. Unfortunately, if the ventral missile bay is 3-3.5 meters deep and 3 meters long, it's too "TALL" for a 13-meter long X-9 Ghost. Further, the line art of the ventral missile bay confirms the interior of the bay does not extend to the "ROOF" of the X-9 Ghost. There is the depiction of much more internal volume above the ventral missile bay. If we assume the ventral missle bay is roughly half the depth of the X-9 Ghost, then we're looking at an X-9 6-7 meters tall. This translates to a X-9 Ghost fighter of 25-30 meters in length.

I noticed that and made a super quick view of it a while ago:

yeah, kind of ridiculous.

[Mr March]

Sorry I missed this one a while back. Yeah, the size is pretty crazy isn't it? I suppose the scale could always be easily explained if there were small/short-range versions of the HMMs.

[cool8or]

So, the result of your method A seems to be more acceptable: 13 meters long.

[sketchley]

So, the result of your method A seems to be more acceptable: 13 meters long.

?

Not sure why the debate is continuing, when the official size was provided a few posts earlier: http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=39932&p=1074493

[Mr March]

So, the result of your method A seems to be more acceptable: 13 meters long.

It's hard to say. I agree 13 meters is more plausible for the size of the craft If we're just thinking of the vehicle in terms of what it is and other comparable craft. However, the 13 meter length doesn't make sense given the size of the High-Maneuverability Missiles themselves (based upon what we know of their official size). Sadly I've not found any books that list the size of the X-9 Ghost and the Macross Chronicle never gave any official size either, so its kinda up to each of us to guess what it would be. Like I said, I suspect the original artists realized the crazy discrepancy between what the Ghost should be and the length of the HMMs and cleverly decided to avoid giving the X-9 a length at all

[007-vf1]

 

Resuscitating  an old topic;

I am building 1/144 models and finally found one on Ebay several months ago but just starting to build it. I was taken aback at how big it is. Definitively incorrect proportions and scale.

I will have to modify one of Luka’s ghost from the Bandai kit to make it slightly accurate.

Here in a pic comparing both and a VF-4 if around 15m long.

Either way still the X-9 looks huge compared to the earlier VFs

 

 

Edited April 1, 2020 by 007-vf1
Pic attachment

[valhary]

If you want a physical reference the X9 1/60 made by Xigfrid vs the YF-19 and YF-21

[Knight26]

The 3D printed one is gorgeous, but again too small based on Mr March's figures.

[TehPW]

9 hours ago, Knight26 said:

The 3D printed one is gorgeous, but again too small based on Mr March's figures.

How much bigger does it need to be? It still has to be no bigger that a typical Fighter deployed from the platforms available to the UNS & Nescient NUNS in the 2040's...

[Knight26]

2 hours ago, TehPW said:

How much bigger does it need to be? It still has to be no bigger that a typical Fighter deployed from the platforms available to the UNS & Nescient NUNS in the 2040's...

Sorry, I meant Anime52k8, look above.  Basically, unless it was carrying much smaller versions of the high manuever missiles, it would have been huge, the size of a bomber huge.