Knight26

Ok, unless specific questions come up this will be my final post in this thread. Here are the three Solaar Variants together, the Tharsher Cannons on the MK-3 have been redesigned, they kind of look like shotguns now, cool IMHO. I recolored the MK-2 to give it a more distinct appearance, as well as colored the glass of the canopies the same as the squadron markings. That may or may not change, but it actually looks ok from inside the cockpits. After rendering I realized I should have altered which fighter has which color scheme, but decided to stay with the ones here. I guess you could say these are Skull Squadron Solaars, but then Mk2 and Mk3 should have their colors flipped, or the Mk2 should have a green scheme. Hmm, maybe when I do the Merlin I will put it in skull leader colors and the Mk-2 in green or brown Kakazaki. Anyway here are the pics.

Yeah I was the first to notice the flapping wings back in episode 1, we had a long discussion abouyt it on the old boards. You can probably find it in the archived forums.

Graham, in reference to your comments, well I think Egan may have hosed this one. When referring russian aircraft fixed armament, i.e. guns, the first two letters are the caliber. So the GsH-231 should be a 23mm and the GsH-371 should be a 37mm. The 23 is a common russian aircraft cannon size, the 37 as well, though they have not used it for a long time. Currently all modern russian birds use either a 23 or 30 mm cannon, though a few still use 27mm, but they are older planes. The number of guns it probably suspect too then, and if the lineart says two weapons that is waht I would put my money on. Hope that answered your question. BTW I love the Sv-51s design, so cool and unique.

OH Bugger, I just realized I forgot to add an AMMO hatch for the Thrashers, ok, will work that into the redesign then.

Damn man that thing is a work of absolute beauty, wish I had that kind of talent. And looking at that thing the actual plane would be freakiing huge, both of them. Great work man, really, makes me wish that model kits of my design existed so that I could see you work your magic on them. Man that thing almost looks real.

Next shot, here you can kind of see the ventral missile packs, only missile armament, no rocket packs this time. Remember htis one is a pure fighter, not an anti-bomber intereceptor. Still getting that buggering sticking problem on the leading and trailing edges though, dang.

Time for the major upgrade. The Solaar Mk-3 more of a fighter killer this time, I am still hedging whether or not I should replace the textures on the Thrasher Cannons (the two flanking the cockpit) and the engines. Anyway here a couple pics of her. Bonus points to whoever can ID the markings, as I actually put a squadron sigil on this one.

Wait for the Mark-3, six PLASER cannons on flex mounts, eight missile tubes, for long range or clusters, and dual thrasher cannons, basically a giant shotgun. Plus four engines spaced away from centerline for increased manueverabilty. I won't even go into details on the merlin yet, but she's even more viscous.

Bugger forgot th picture. That's all for the MK1/2 except for squadron sigils to be added and more color schemes. Next up the Mark3 which is a major redesign retaining only the cockpit and fuselage, everything else is new, wings, engines, weapons, etc...

A lightened close up of the galtings under the wing.

Ok, now for your typical Mk2 configured Solaar. The primary alteration to the Mk2 is the replacement of the lower triple 120mm MDC pack with a three barrelled 60mm gatling MDC. The gatlings were added to give the Solaar an anti-fighter capability, the slower refire rate of the big guns made them hard to bring to bear against fighters.

Guess what more updates. First the secondary weapons packs on the upper surface. The larger weapons packs each hold three of the triple cluster missles. These smaller ones are for the longer range missiles, which are larger then the smaller cluster type, but still smaller than the three stacked type. Mk1 Solaars typically carry the cluster missiles, while MK2s usually carry the more standard missiles. The packs are interchangable though, so that can change.

Do you ladies have pics of your Millia Cosplay, just out of curiousity, like to know what outifits you used and see how well they were made.

Maybe the TF-Armada StarScream is a VF-11MAXL, lets face it there are a great number of desing similarity there. I'm sure a clever customizer could make it work,

And a close up on those big guns. Twelve 120mm MDCs, and two 240mm Heavy PLASER Cannons. These Weapons are designed to be used in conjunction to bring down a bomber's shields and tear it's hull to pieces in a single pass. In fact they are all fire linked firing in a cyclic pattern. If I weren't so burnt out from my games easrlier I would explian more, but later. Anyway here are those big guns.

Actually I am actively writing it, the first book is currently under review for pulbication. Thanks for the comments. Here are the two latest additions, or really 18, the six heavy Mass Drivers and 2 Heavy Plasers plus their mounts. I will work on several color schemes for this fighter, including a low vis. But first I have to do the other set of upper weapons packs. They use differenet missiles and are smaller. Well here she is in all her glory the SOLAAR MK1 anti-bomber interceptor.

Crab fighter? Hmm will have to look at that. Actually the original inspiration was the Dralthi from Wing Commander 1, just turned around with a super big engine and huge guns. Anyway here is teh new lower weapons packs. Those white parts are the rocket packs, Hive Pack, High Explosive Rockets, 70 per pack. Perfect weapon for ripping bombers to shreds. As always comments appreciated. Once the guns have been redesigned I will post more pics.

Second version with the darker weapons packs, but still a little lighter in shade then the rest. Comments welcome, let me know what you think. Edit- I am likely going to remove the bolts from the texture map, they stand out way too much, easy fix.

Ok, first two drafts of the upper weapons packs, except the guns, redesigning those. Would like constructive comments. The colors on the striping came out a little different, can't figure how I did the originals now, so did it like I did the bottom, which was a little different. Even then I couldn't remember the exact sequence of events and messed it up a little. I may change the spacing between the stripes but I like the thickness of them overall. The first pic is has the much lighter weapons packs, came out a little too light really.

Th weapons packs will likely have something similar to the old striping as well. The striping changes on the main wings were made to coincide with the new panelling, may chagne that in the future.

What kind of sicko would by one of those things, they are just disturbing, and many JR that is a really sick thought, *cold shiver*

Ok just reread Tekkamans comments, misread it this morning, oops. There are a number of things that will be added to the design. First and foremost the weapons packs. I am planning to do those in a light shade of grey, except for the guns, which I will redesign and darken considerably. I will also be adding visible thrusters to the wings, but these will be modeled on. I am debating whether or not they should have a Macross nod and be the circle-bar verniers. Any comments on the overall textures though, I tried to keep them from being too busy, I see a lot of sci-fi fighter textures that are just way too busy and plan to avoid that. As you can tell I've done a lot of maintenance work on fighter, planes and ships, which explains all the access panels, these bird is very maintenance friendly. I should have the weapons packs finished this weekend or next week provided nothing major comes up. Not bad I think overall. Learning how to use layers properly helped a great deal in making these textures.

Details, like what? This is a fighter it shouldn't be too busy. I may make it a little dirtier.

In this pic you can clearly see the problems AUTOCAD is having with the textures, mostly around the edges of the saucer and the bottom of the cockpit. A reshape of the wing might fix that, but damn that would be a pain to fix. Hopefully the next version of ACAD will correct that problem, otherwise I may have to finally migrate over to 3DS.

Next the new verion, no weapons right now since I have yet to start the retexture on those. Also no squadron markings as yet, but they are on the way. Comments welcome and appreciated.