Some time ago,
Fantastic Plastic came out with a 1/72 version of the "Caprica" air
force Viper - both a Prop and Jet version.
This kit intrigued me. I liked
the look and the implied history, as well as the mesh of the classic lines of
the Viper into a real-world-ish kind of fighter design. I had thought about picking it up, but it's a
scale I rarely work in, and it got my engineering brain going. I've done plenty of kit-bashing in the past,
most notably on my Serenity "Valkyrie" using Games Workshop
parts. So, as I think on it more and
more, this kind of a project is one I think I want to take on. There is a group build for a Faceytwittyspace
group of which I am a member and this is a great opportunity to just go all in
and go for it.
The original
Fantastic Plastic model, if I understand properly, came from designs from
Pierre Drolet. I'm linking to his Sci Fi museum page here below since I will be
referencing it.
Another take on the
design is from Dave Eaves, Daveiant's
Model Madness. This one is a
different style but it still has the same lines of the Vipers. This one was a straight-up kitbash like I’m
going to attempt. Dave's is a larger
beast, not small and tight like Pierre's.
I like that look and it has me chewing on the possibilities.
Pierre's design was
my first inspiration, and the design is very cool but I really do not have the
intent to directly reproduce it. I
intend to use that as an inspiration to do a kit-bash of my own with a similar feel,
and then I saw what Dave did, and that really opened up the possibilities.
Since I'll be
referencing the above inspirations, for convenience I'll be calling them the
"P" and "D" models, just so I can not type out all that
verbiage.
There are basic
designs to the BSG Vipers that are consistent:
A long nose, an engine cluster about the same length, if not a touch
shorter, than the nose section, twin down-sloping wings off the back of the
craft, and wing-mounted weapons. Both
of the P and D models have more modern-day equivalent wing surfaces, larger
than the wings of the space-capable Vipers.
They also have twin-engine clusters rather than triple-clusters. The D model is a two-seat, heavy fighter,
clearly larger in similar scale to P or the single-seat fighters of the BSG
series. I like the direction that went
too, and it has me chewing on what I can do here.
The intakes and
nozzle area on the P-model bear a strong resemblance, to me, of the F-4 and I
can't get that concept out of my head.
The nose area has a look that resembles either the P40 Warhawk, P51
Mustang or the Supermarine Spitfire. I
really happen to like that look, and the F-4
has always had this "beastly" aesthetic to my eye. I see similar design elements in the
dropship from "Aliens."
Given that, what I have in my head is a combination of the Spitfire and
the F-4.
With that as a base,
the engineer brain kicks in and starts designing. What I really need to do is some mathing of
the fuselages, and getting the overall look to be about right. After that comes the figuring out the layout
of the wings, etc..etc.. This shall be
quite fun, I think.
To start, I look at
the overall components of what I have to begin with:
Overall length of
the Spitfire: 29'11" =
30*12=360" general overall.
360/32=11.25
360/24=15
The next measurement
I need to fiddle with is the nose to canopy distance, which looks to be
approximately .4 the overall length = 30*.4 = 12' 12' = 144" Yes, it's approximate, but it'll work for
what I need to do.
144/32=4.5
144/24=6
Overall length of
the Phantom: 63" , of which most is the engine and body. It's a beast.
63*12=756
756/32=23.625
756/48=15.75
Below is an overlay picture of the Spitfire and F-4 and we can see that in the same scale, we have some things to think about.
To bring the
Relative lengths into the right design aesthetic, I need to think about the
scales of the initial kitbash pieces. However, there's also some changes that
need to happen to the base body of the F4 to begin with. First, the tail assembly needs to shorten,
to bring the exhaust nozzles closer to the trailing edge of the wings, and
also, the upper tail assembly can be cropped off, moving the upper stabilizer
forward. This also opens up a space for
me to add a third exhaust nozzle in that section. It'll be a smaller one as compared to the
twin main engines, however it also ties back to the BSG Viper designs with
three, and the MkII has different sizes as well.
So I need to play with those modifications, and then take a look at the relative scales again. However, I am currently leaning toward meshing a 1/24 Spitfire with a 1/48 or 1/32 Phantom. That size will make the aircraft larger, similar to the fighters of today as compared to the BSG fighters and their extremely small size relative to people. With that said, I think that's appropriate, as I'm going for a more modern-based concept for the build.
So I need to play with those modifications, and then take a look at the relative scales again. However, I am currently leaning toward meshing a 1/24 Spitfire with a 1/48 or 1/32 Phantom. That size will make the aircraft larger, similar to the fighters of today as compared to the BSG fighters and their extremely small size relative to people. With that said, I think that's appropriate, as I'm going for a more modern-based concept for the build.
