Vinnie

Maybe this'll help ya out: US Army Aviator's wings. Just a few more months until I have my own...

Well being at Mother Rucker (Ft. Rucker, AL) and a VFR rated Army Helicopter pilot (currently in instrument phase of IERW) I feel the need to jump in on this thread. Just for clarification, I'll use Apache and Longbow interchangeably. I believe all Active Army 64s have converted to the delta or Longbow model, while guard fly the Alpha models. The attack helicopter is still an important part of the modern battlefield, and it's advantage over the Hornet is it's ability to stay on station for a far longer time period and be able to see things that the Hornet pilot would not. I know ground commanders appreciate having this set of eyes in the sky and the REALLY close air support they provide. While UAV technology hasn't matured enough yet, I do believe we will see larger models replacing the 64Ds as missile slingers. As for the Apaches, we call them tarmac ornaments. Those guys can beat their chests all they want, but it's the 58D's running guns in OIF. Some of it's doctrine some of it's airframe, but the 64Ds aren't getting the job done as well. Of course right now the Army is searching for a replacement to the 58Ds and the UH-1W and the AH-6 look like promising candidates. The Longbow drivers will tell you otherwise I'm sure. I do have to agree that the AH-1Z is a better aircraft for the job of scout and attack helicopter. But that just goes back to inter-service politics. I mean it's the same reason the Marines are blindly clinging to the MV-22. Sure the UH-60L or MH-47G could get the same job done for cheaper, but that's an Army thing. Now back to the original question of AH-64 vs the F-18. The F-18 will win hands down in a straight dogfight. However if you want to ask who's the better pilot, that will have to go to the Apache driver. Fixed wing flight is cake, carrier landings are just ILS approaches, flight at anything more than 100ft AGL is nothing. Flying NOE, in an aircraft that by nature wants to fall from the sky, exposed to small arms fire, with one eye closed, and having to hover every now and then: that's skill baby.

Ooops, forgot to set permissions. Go ahead and try it now. It's a 16MB zip file, so it might take a bit. My aircraft for the next few months is the TH-67 Creek. Basically a modified Bell 206B Jet Ranger that the Army modified for trainning purposes. After that though, I'll be a UH-60A Blackhawk pilot for the 86th Medical Company (Air Ambulance)(-) out of Burlington, VT.

There won't be any reference pics in the files, but the directory they're stored in: http://www.wpi.ed/~vfusca/VF4/ will have WIP pictures of the model. The best person to contact for VF4 schematics and techncial drawings is Nanashi. He gave me so much help along the way.

Well boys and girls, there hasn't been a VF-4 update from me in about a year. And probably won't in the future. The following picture should explain why I'm not as motivated (or as free) to work on my virtual aircraft. Yeah, so I'm a pilot now. Rotary wing, because it'll make me a better VF pilot. And I've got more than enough real parts to worry about these days without digital ones clouding my brain. Plus since I'm really flying, I don't have as much of a desire to do it vicariously through my creations. Anyway, because several people have complimented my VF-4 nicely and asked when I'd start up again. I figured that means the VF-4 is what the fanworks community really wants to see. Since I no longer wish to carry on the work, I'd like to turn it over to the talented artists at large. I hereby release the VF-4 Lightning III CG model as an open source 3d file. Anybody may use it for their own purposes or desires. It is a work in progess collection of 3DS Max 5 files stored in a zip file on my old college account. There's no documentation at the moment, and you'll have to play around with the files to really figure out how I arranged things. There's usually several versions of the same files, so you can see how parts evolved over time. Without Further Ado The VF-4 Lightning III in 3ds Max 5

My comments were impulsive and the negativity was influenced by factors beyond the post I was responding to. My apologies to the board and MW community, as that was an atypical outburst on my part. Daeudi, you may disregard my original post.

See, I think he should just have some form of advanced bitmap IP blocking, so that he can block his scans from being downloaded by unappreciative whiners like you. Ever once think about thanking Nanashi for letting you even glimpse at rare scans for free that I'm sure he's paid good money to obtain? And how about reading text that he has either spent money on to have translated, or time to translate himself. Seriously. What's your problem with any form of protection? What would you like to do with these scans if he didn't protect them? I can look at them just fine, and put a bookmark on them so I always know where to look. Do you want to put them on your own website? Do you want to make RPG stats for them or something? Maybe you want to turn them into a Robotech creation? Please, tell us why Nanashi should remove any sort of protection. Nanashi, thanks for your tireless efforts to show the fan community all this wonderful Macross stuff.

What the heck? Us rotar heads get no lovin'? How 'bout an Army AH-64D Longbow vs a USMC AH-1 Super Cobra? What about the merits of the UH-60A (medevac config) vs the HH-60L? Or the current AirCav troop's OH-58D vs the proposed replacement with the AH-6? Oooh, or all joking aside. How bout we compare the MV-22 Osprey to the MH-60L or even the MH-47E and see if the Marines should really be sinking billions into their future beyond the horizon VTOL rather than jumping on with the Army and getting their proven and capable helicopters.

Hey Twich, Where you from? I live down in Windsor, and I'm with the Vermont Army National Guard with 86th Medical Company (AA) right there at the Burlington Airport. I didn't know there were any other MWers in these parts. And all I gotta say about the Green Mountain Boys is that those F-16s are deafeningly loud, even over by our hangar. They make our Blackhawks sound downright stealthy. -Vinnie

From the guy starting Aviation OBC at Ft. Rucker in one month, absolutley not. Under the act that established the Air Force in 1947? The United States Army does not operate Fixed Wing Aircraft. The current exceptions are the C-12 King Air, E-12, C-23 Shirpa, and the C-20 and C-37 "Executive Transport Jets." We are primarily a Rotary Wing Force currently fielding: UH-1 Huey (Iroquois) AH-6/MH-6 Little Bird (Cayuse) (160th SOAR) AH-64A Apache AH-64D Apache Longbow RAH-66 Comanche (Now Defunct) CH-47D/F/G Chinook MH-47E/G Chinook (160th SOAR) OH-58A/C Kiowa OH-58D Kiowa Warrior UH-60A Blackhawk -My Aircraft in 10 months UH-60K/L/M Blackhawk EH-60 Blackhawk (C3 and EW) HH-60L Blackhawk (Medevac) -Dustoff HOOAH! MH-60 Blackhawk (160th SOAR) TH-67 Creek -My aircraft in 1 month EDIT: I had posted as "from an Army Aviator," when I am not really an aviator until I pin on my wings.

Wow! That sounds kind of bitter. Some guy's says: "here I've paid lots of money to get these expensive and ultra-rare sources of Macross material. I've further taken the time to scan them, hire someone to translate, compile, edit, and post them on a website. Then announce to you that they are available free of charge." And all you can do is trash talk him? Man, if I got appreciation like that. I'd shut my site down and just sit in the corner saying "I know something you don't know."

If we're going to start discussing credibility of sites for official information, might I suggest one conducts a search on how many times a newbie has come to the board with a question or statement, has referenced a certain site, only to be told that that source is unreliable because it is an RPG site. Their creators having to take the liberty to fill in gaps themselves for their players. I think I'd look to the websites where the majority of the material is translated from rare sources, and probably go to the one with the best pictures.

The VF-4, contrary to the beliefs of many fan and RPG sites, has no FAST Packs. It was designed to integrate the components of a FAST Pack into the airframe. The HMM-1 verniers all over the fueslauge as well as the large sub-boosters just above the FF-2011 main engines indicate that it has all the additional thrust and maneuverability for space built in. It might not have the additional armaments associated with FAST Packs, but between the 12 Long Range Missiles, Large Bore Beam Cannons (Macross M3 intro,) shoulder mounted medium bore beam cannons (DM:VF-X,) possible wing hardpoints and possible gunpod on the starboard leg, it already goes into battle packing enough heat. Because of the apparent emphasis on space flight, another common myth perpetuated by Fan-sites is that the VF-4 is a Space Fighter and would have horrible performance characteristics in atmosphere. If this were true, such attention wouldn't be paid to the multiple control surfaces for atmospheric flight. It has vertical stabilizers, large stabilization fins: one below the cockpit and one to the side of each engine nacelle, canards, and wings optomized for the vortex effect during supersonic flight.

Scan from Nanashi's Information Group. For reference only. Please do not post on a personal website. That enough cockpit detail? The sketch is by Kawamori.

Is it the Mayans that are unique, or is it the family of the Guardians? And if it's the guardians, is it possible that they are the modern descendents of the Anima Spiritia? And if that's true, do Mao and Shin hook up later and have baby Basara?

And this is the sketch from the Design Works

And a couple of a the WIP Battroid mode. I kind of took from everything and used the official Nue top and side schematic shots for general proportions (the front one was worthless except to add perspective). It's not there yet, but I'm workin'.

No joke, the tail boom and the nosecone were the items that took me the longest. Here's a couple shots of my WIP action with focus on the tailboom to let you see the design route I took. For me the best reference was the rear angle shot of the Battroid mode in the SKDW.

What's more impressive is that you're doing it with Lightwave. I could not figure out that program for the life of me. If you want some perspective shots of my 3D VF-4 to help out with detail, let me know.

yeah, thinking that way, a power suit or destroid would make more sense in that kind of application, to fight in cities. but i think UN Spacy would still use Valks as a type of Infantry fighting in open steppes or plains, or even mountainous terrain. why not? they could use their full compliment of weapons without fear of collateral damage. Well that's what contemporary armies do with tanks. On open terrain you lead with armor, dense or urban terrain you lead with infantry. The two still work hand-in-hand in both instances, but your primary arm changes with METT-TC (Mission, Enemy, Terrain, Troops, Time, Civillians) On a Zjentohlauedy colony or ship, the scale of the terrain would make it practically open terrain to human forces and thus the VFs and Destroids would be your primary arm. While there is an importance to having the 10m tall humanoid fighting machines because of the existence of full sized Zjentohlauedy and their colonies off earth. Many of the uprisings that occur in the M3 to Macross Plus timeline are on 2m tall humanoid planets. If a world like Zola or Eden was occupied, it would take human sized troops to recapture it. Zjentohlauedy would have had no way to really occupy Terra should they have chose to do so during the 1st Space War. Their only option was to glass the planet. Even post SW1, the use of human infantry will be critical unless the UN Spacy truly believes that it can break a nation's will to fight through strategic/precision bombing alone.

Lemmie just clarify some assumptions I'm making before responding the question. We are discussing ground warfare here correct? The objective of the ground combat is to sieze, defend, or claim territory? The majority of territories worth contesting will be semi-urbanized and populated? Of these, ones of interest will probably have a populace of humanoid creatures whose adults are up to 2m tall? If the answer to the above is yes than there is only one solution for ground combat: INFANTRY If we wish to fight wars for population centers or areas of dense terrain in a conventional manner (taking objectives by force no NBC or nanobot armies,) 10 years from now, 100 years from now, or even 1000 years from now, we will call upon the Queen of Battle, the Infantry. Soldiers on foot, be they AI, proxy alien, or powered armor mobile infantry (ref. Heinlin) are the only way to hold real estate. Artillery/Fire Support destroys enemy formations, Armor spearheads attacks, everything else is supplementary to the mission of the infantry: taking and holding ground. The Variable Fighters and destroids are some mix of the armor and artillery, and in a major population center, could do little to enforce the UN Spacy's will on the people. They would perhaps become a liability, as I'm sure man portable anti-...anti-...anti-giant-anime-robot weapons have developed in parallel to their mecha counterparts. Macross 7 displays a canonical example of why soldiers on foot will always be neccessary for these types of situations. The Varauta were able to evade the defenses of the Macross 7 fleet and wage an effective guerilla campaign against the UN from within City 7. They couldn't be dealt with or removed by sending hordes of VF-11s into the city. Nor were the police destroids the way to fight them. Rather, these destroids supported the actions of the police security forces trying to eliminate them. If the UN was trying to quell a rebellion (which seems to happen a lot for a nation with such Utopian origins) it couldn't do so by parking a Wing of VFs in the capital city. That'd be as effective as the United States trying to stabilize Iraq* by sending the 1st Armor Division to Bahgdad and parking an M1 at every interesection. It's intimidating, but the troops cannot remove guerilla forces or provide security to the people and would be at the mercy of man-portable anti-tank weapons, obstacles, and ambushes The future ground wars of the UN will be fought by the combined arms team. Fleet to establish space dominance and lend fire and logistical support, VFs to establish air dominance, conduct precision attacks, or fight battles against other "armored" forces. Finally, the infantry will be there, to take objectives, provide security, kick down doors, and do the dirty grunt work to hold the ground. *just assume for discussion sake that this is truly the military mission in Iraq so we can leave the political discussion out of the conversation. I only wanted to cite an example of how an occupation force despite a highly successful armored thrust and bombing campaign cannot hope to effect change and hold that territory without putting troops on the ground.

Don't forget the VF-4 Fighter and Battroid. Doubt I will have textures by then, but I've got a decent looking model to contribute that looks alright with a basic color scheme.

Just to let ya'll know I'm still alive and kickin' I thought I'd throw some of the Old WIP VF-4 pics into the thread. Nothing new yet, but stay tuned.

Milcomnet is a fan site that doesn't strive to produce accurate information, but rather a more comprehisive look at the Macross universe. I believe it even started out as a site to provide background infromation for RPG players. I mean they even have an entry for the VAG - 37 RAFAGA. Which came from where? Orguss, Gundam, Five Star Stories? Got anything like a model kit, Hobby Japan article or something that might indicate there's an A, B, and C variant? Nied, you seemed to know what he was talking about. Is there a new source? The commander version has no label in the SHE kit that had Kawamori overseeing the design. EDIT: The commander version head is my Avatar. Same one I used back on the old boards.

Vinnie's back! Dr. Gahnzo lit a fire under my but, so I'm firing up 3DS Max 5 again and both monitors. Stay tuned, Kiddos!