Hasegawa 1/72 VF Elint

[Mintox]

Slowly gluing parts on. Here I am just fitting the boost pack and sensor/arms.

Edited May 25, 2016 by Mintox

[slide]

Looks great Mintox!

[kuman]

Very nice.. and looking good..a a good reference

1 question, what is the length of the Elint when its done?

Thanks

[NZEOD]

its a VT-1 body with extra bits so its the same length

[VF-1A Grunt]

This is a fantastic model of a really cool aircraft. Whenever I look at the kit on my shelf, I kind of move past it because I have a hard time imagining how I would display it and keep all those bits that stick out from breaking off. It always struck me as a model that needs to hang from the ceiling or something to do it justice.

Do the line art, Master Files, or any other books explain what the bulges are on the wing tips? I recall someone mentioning that they are sensors, but I've wondered what might be needed on a trainer and ELINT bird that wasn't desirable on a standard Valkyrie.

[Mintox]

Very nice.. and looking good..a a good reference

1 question, what is the length of the Elint when its done?

Thanks

Yeah no worries. Its 210 mm or about 8-1/4" old scale.

This is a fantastic model of a really cool aircraft. Whenever I look at the kit on my shelf, I kind of move past it because I have a hard time imagining how I would display it and keep all those bits that stick out from breaking off. It always struck me as a model that needs to hang from the ceiling or something to do it justice.

Do the line art, Master Files, or any other books explain what the bulges are on the wing tips? I recall someone mentioning that they are sensors, but I've wondered what might be needed on a trainer and ELINT bird that wasn't desirable on a standard Valkyrie.

Yeah it has to be my favourite then again any of the Valks with booster packs are my favourites. If you go by real world aircraft, those wingtip bulges are passive sensors. Probably used as a warning system for active sensors scanning them. As to why the VT has them is questionable but it does have similar bulges on the booster packs and the head has a sensor to the side so to me this is also some sort of jamming version although I know its supposed to be a trainer or civi version I did read somewhere it is a proper production machine so I would like to think it was like an ELINT version even though the VE is called ElintSeeker it has that huge radar on top which is more AWACS than Elint.

Hey a grey low vis version of the VT. Now that floats my boat!

[Mintox]

Im liking this more and more now that I can see the potential for it.

[NZEOD]

I've got a VF-1D running the wings and head unit off the VT-1 and some E/A-18G jamming pods and HARM missles. Its my Alternative Valk to the Prowler/Growler role.

[pengbuzz]

Wow, that model is just SMOKING!!!! I love the paint and weathering on it!

A true class act, mintox!

[Jefuemon]

Im liking this more and more now that I can see the potential for it.

Do you really want a low-viz trainer, though? Remember, these are student fliers, they should be seen!

[kuman]

Yeah no worries. Its 210 mm or about 8-1/4" old scale.

Thanks for the info...

now i need to get me one of this... (maybe ebay is the only way to go now)

[slide]

Thanks for the info...

now i need to get me one of this... (maybe ebay is the only way to go now)

don't forget Amazon.

I'm in Canada and Amazon is consistently cheaper [for me] when it comes to the limited-run kits.

[Mintox]

Do you really want a low-viz trainer, though? Remember, these are student fliers, they should be seen!

Well I have a suspicion that the VT was in fact meant to be the VE originally but they dropped that design and went with what we now call the VE Elint. My reasoning is that although the VT has been called a trainer, all the extra comms equipment and sensors simply doesn't make sense and it isn't armed, which if it was a combat trainer it would at least carry a GU11 gun. I could be wrong but it seems out of place when it has all the booster packs on it. Anyway with modern sensors I think be bright orange is academic in terms of visibility.

[VF-1A Grunt]

I figured that the sensors on the VT-1 would make sense from a standpoint of recording telemetry and other performance data while pilots were in training so they could provide feedback after each flight. If they were participating in mock dogfights or other exercises with multiple VTs, the additional equipment could track their relative positions, simulated attacks, etc, without the need for external monitoring systems (like when they were training in space away from a base or mothership.

While I thought it was strange at first that the aircraft is totally unarmed, in comparison to the VF-1D, our U.S. training aircraft are similarly unarmed, and when pilots graduate to the point that they begin using real weapons, they can just train on standard aircraft. The VT would allow them to train using onboard simulated weapons (built into the aircraft's computers) and then move on to a VF-1A to begin using real weapons.

What never made sense to me though is that Hikaru would take out an unarmed aircraft (he would know full well that the VT is unarmed, even if he forgot in the heat of the moment and just reacted as portrayed in the movie) into space, alone, when they have been in conflict for months with a hostile alien force. It made for good drama, but didn't make any sense from a practical standpoint.

On a side note reference gray training aircraft, I really like the VF-1 variations included in the Master Files SDF-1 Squadrons book starting on page 88. I hope to eventually model the SVF-37 VF-1D shown on page 89. It appears to be in a light gray / medium gray version of the training color scheme, which I figured I would do using the gray colors from the Hasegawa low viz VF-1A kit. The caption essentially says that some VF-1Ds were assigned in a recon role after the Mars battle, an this particular aircraft was lost during the final battle against the Zentradi main fleet (if I remember correctly). Of course, the VF-1D was armed, so it would be easier to repurpose it as a combat aircraft.

[Mintox]

I figured that the sensors on the VT-1 would make sense from a standpoint of recording telemetry and other performance data while pilots were in training so they could provide feedback after each flight. If they were participating in mock dogfights or other exercises with multiple VTs, the additional equipment could track their relative positions, simulated attacks, etc, without the need for external monitoring systems (like when they were training in space away from a base or mothership.

While I thought it was strange at first that the aircraft is totally unarmed, in comparison to the VF-1D, our U.S. training aircraft are similarly unarmed, and when pilots graduate to the point that they begin using real weapons, they can just train on standard aircraft. The VT would allow them to train using onboard simulated weapons (built into the aircraft's computers) and then move on to a VF-1A to begin using real weapons.

What never made sense to me though is that Hikaru would take out an unarmed aircraft (he would know full well that the VT is unarmed, even if he forgot in the heat of the moment and just reacted as portrayed in the movie) into space, alone, when they have been in conflict for months with a hostile alien force. It made for good drama, but didn't make any sense from a practical standpoint.

On a side note reference gray training aircraft, I really like the VF-1 variations included in the Master Files SDF-1 Squadrons book starting on page 88. I hope to eventually model the SVF-37 VF-1D shown on page 89. It appears to be in a light gray / medium gray version of the training color scheme, which I figured I would do using the gray colors from the Hasegawa low viz VF-1A kit. The caption essentially says that some VF-1Ds were assigned in a recon role after the Mars battle, an this particular aircraft was lost during the final battle against the Zentradi main fleet (if I remember correctly). Of course, the VF-1D was armed, so it would be easier to repurpose it as a combat aircraft.

I agree with you to a point but the amount of sensors on it to me kind of doesn't jell with the training role. I say this because the back pack boosters and leg boosters depart from the standard design which every VF1 can use. It kind of just looks out of place design wise. And as you mentioned the VF-1D is a dual control so to me that made more sense as a trainer, it even has a proper head with twin lasers whereas the VT has a head that is very much "electronic warfare" in style.

I could understand wanting to get data for analysis for later for review of pilot performance but these sorts of sensor on modern aircraft trainers fitted internally so the extra bulges etc on the leg boosters for instance look to me like the bulges on the US RC-35 or Aussie B737-700 surveillance aircraft.

Anyway i DO love the design. I like the more rounded boosters on the VT than the more angular standard boosters on the VE and VF's strikes.

Edited May 28, 2016 by Mintox

[Mintox]

99.9% complete. I'm just waiting for the pilots to dry and I'll fit them (the canopy is simply sitting in place and not glued down) and its done.

[Mintox]

Last photo of it completed with pilots insitu. I'll post photo's in the model section later this week.

[freebug]

Beautiful. Lots of time invested and it shows.

[Goodman Models]

Awesome build! One of my favs! I always thought elintseeker was a portmanteau of electronic intelligence seeker, so not so much a trainer, but an AWACS. Nice work!

[NZEOD]

Awesome build! One of my favs! I always thought elintseeker was a portmanteau of electronic intelligence seeker, so not so much a trainer, but an AWACS. Nice work!

You got in one, its neither a trainer nor a Prowler/Growler/Grizzly Airborne Electronic Attack craft. Its a Watcher. In theory is shouldnt really ever be in harms way its more like the Superslyph off Yukikaze, sitting back and above out of harms way recording and watching and perhaps coordinating. Maybe a CO rides in the back seat coordinating the squadron battles. For it to be armed would invite it to take risks which would be counter to its role. Its a smaller version of the ES Catseye

Took me awhile to get my head round that fact as I was always looking at it as an Electronic Attack craft or front line recon and thinking it was bizarre to have no defensive weaponry at the minimum.

[slide]

You got in one, its neither a trainer nor a Prowler/Growler/Grizzly Airborne Electronic Attack craft. Its a Watcher. In theory is shouldnt really ever be in harms way its more like the Superslyph off Yukikaze, sitting back and above out of harms way recording and watching and perhaps coordinating. Maybe a CO rides in the back seat coordinating the squadron battles. For it to be armed would invite it to take risks which would be counter to its role. Its a smaller version of the ES Catseye

Took me awhile to get my head round that fact as I was always looking at it as an Electronic Attack craft or front line recon and thinking it was bizarre to have no defensive weaponry at the minimum.

the only way you can be hidden in space combat is to be at 100% EM emissions control... I always wondered about the wisdom of sending an AWACS anywhere near a space battle when it couldn't defend itself...

now that I've read your post the ELINTSEEKER nomenclature makes A LOT of sense... it passively monitors it's assigned area, intercepting comms/radar and other EM emissions from EVERYONE ELSE to build an image from a more front-line position than the SDF-1 wants to get...

Kind of analogous to a passive SONAR picket, only listening for EM instead of sound... neat idea... Sub-Surface warfare tactics applied to space...

Edited June 2, 2016 by slide

[NZEOD]

I guess in space once you've boosted from your launch point you coast toward your target with systems set to low emissions and given the distances you'd be pretty invisible. The ELINTS would be the ones to sniff you out from inter unit comms and passive heat signatures etc.

Obviously once in closer or at obvious detection range, you forget all pretenses of stealth and light everything up for the final run to the target or engagement zone.

By then the ELINT should have done all it can to assist the defenders to align toward the attackers and prepare for contact.

Perhaps the same is true for an attacking force, using the ELINT to detect if and when THEY have been detected to enable the attackers to hold off lighting the fires until the last moments. At theat point the ELINT unit hands off to the Attackers own active sensors and burns for safety

Similar to how the Raptors behaved in BSG on recon missions.

So to be an Elint team would take skills and balls I reckon and the ships should be tagged to represent this.

I used to write some Battletech fiction, think I should step up and write an ELINT team short story.

Edited June 2, 2016 by NZEOD

[505thAirborne]

99.9% complete. I'm just waiting for the pilots to dry and I'll fit them (the canopy is simply sitting in place and not glued down) and its done.

A masterpiece!!

[NZEOD]

Really like the shading on the radome, makes it look like a really thin layer over the detection arrays

[Mintox]

the only way you can be hidden in space combat is to be at 100% EM emissions control... I always wondered about the wisdom of sending an AWACS anywhere near a space battle when it couldn't defend itself...

now that I've read your post the ELINTSEEKER nomenclature makes A LOT of sense... it passively monitors it's assigned area, intercepting comms/radar and other EM emissions from EVERYONE ELSE to build an image from a more front-line position than the SDF-1 wants to get...

Kind of analogous to a passive SONAR picket, only listening for EM instead of sound... neat idea... Sub-Surface warfare tactics applied to space...

Yep I agree see below.

I guess in space once you've boosted from your launch point you coast toward your target with systems set to low emissions and given the distances you'd be pretty invisible. The ELINTS would be the ones to sniff you out from inter unit comms and passive heat signatures etc.

Obviously once in closer or at obvious detection range, you forget all pretenses of stealth and light everything up for the final run to the target or engagement zone.

By then the ELINT should have done all it can to assist the defenders to align toward the attackers and prepare for contact.

Perhaps the same is true for an attacking force, using the ELINT to detect if and when THEY have been detected to enable the attackers to hold off lighting the fires until the last moments. At theat point the ELINT unit hands off to the Attackers own active sensors and burns for safety

Similar to how the Raptors behaved in BSG on recon missions.

So to be an Elint team would take skills and balls I reckon and the ships should be tagged to represent this.

I used to write some Battletech fiction, think I should step up and write an ELINT team short story.

I guess what I was trying to say is that the VT is a wasted design on a trainer. Without the booster packs I can live with it being a trainer but with the backpacks and leg boosters it just doesn't sit with me in a trainer role. I have seen it in a low vis scheme and it rocks.

As I say I love the VT and VE designs but I just think the VT is a waste when described as a trainer.

Anyway thanks everyone for looking and following this build. I hope everyone enjoys it as much as I did building it.

Edited June 2, 2016 by Mintox

[NZEOD]

I agree... its got the genes to be so much more

[Mintox]

.

Edited June 2, 2016 by Mintox

[slide]

I guess what I was trying to say is that the VT is a wasted design on a trainer. Without the booster packs I can live with it being a trainer but with the backpacks and leg boosters it just doesn't sit with me in a trainer role. I have seen it in a low vis scheme and it rocks.

As I say I love the VT and VE designs but I just think the VT is a waste when described as a trainer.

Perhaps it's a purpose-built VE training bird?

The Ostrich is the same air-frame [which is markedly different from the VF-1's] as the VE, same fastpacks/leg armour... they may only have had 1 or 2 Ostriches aboard just so crews could train-up/Qualify on the VE without potentially pranging a very valuable/expensive ELINTSEEKER in a training accident...

Or maybe they just built a block of VE/VT Airframes all to the same spec, and because they happened to be two-seaters, UNSpacy decided to use it since it was already there.

Regardless, you're correct; it is a pretty design, and the trainer designation is... unbecoming of it's lines.

I really like this low-er-vis scheme[not my work]

Edited June 2, 2016 by slide

[Mintox]

Perhaps it's a purpose-built VE training bird?

The Ostrich is the same air-frame [which is markedly different from the VF-1's] as the VE, same fastpacks/leg armour... they may only have had 1 or 2 Ostriches aboard just so crews could train-up/Qualify on the VE without potentially pranging a very valuable/expensive ELINTSEEKER in a training accident...

Or maybe they just built a block of VE/VT Airframes all to the same spec, and because they happened to be two-seaters, UNSpacy decided to use it since it was already there.

Regardless, you're correct; it is a pretty design, and the trainer designation is... unbecoming of it's lines.

I really like this low-er-vis scheme[not my work]

Yes I have seen that before and it looks sweet. I'm going to have to do one in standard colours and one in low vis.

[Mintox]

Ok one more photo. I decided the base was pretty ordinary so I spruced it up a bit. The plaque comes with the base.

[Mintox]

Its finished! Yay! I've put picts up in the model section.