Here's the background text for the missiles. I also updated the picture in the previous post.
Air-to-Air Missiles of the Colonial Fleet
Before the Cylon War, each of the warring colonies utilized their own missile systems, ranging from small short-range missiles, to larger medium and heavy missiles. After Colonial unification, it was decided to create a new joint set of missiles to fulfill combat needs. The first, and longest-lasting of the wartime missiles, was the MD-60 Long Spear medium range air-to-air missile. The missile design itself was fairly simple and proved relatively successful in service, although the DRADIS guidance system proved cumbersome, complicated, and not the most reliable. It served throughout the later parts of the war,
equipping most Viper squadrons in the fleet. A few years after the war, a complete redesign of the missile from the ground up resulted in the creation of the MD-60/b Long Spear II missile. This featured a much more lightweight and reliable seeker, and consequently a larger warhead and rocket all in the same body dimensions, allowing greater lethal range. The control vanes were changed with smaller triangular shapes, later production Long Spear IIs featured a thrust vectoring nozzle allowing the deletion of the forward vanes. Updated variants of the missile serve the fleet to this day with no replacement likely in the near future.
A few decades after the war, a need for a larger and heavier missile was seen by fleet planners. The new design featured a larger tapering body, and cropped delta fins. The design featured many subsystems from the Long Spear II, as well as a larger warhead and DRADIS seeker. The design was quickly accepted into service as the HD-75 Lightning Javelin heavy missile. The Javelin formed the core missile armament for many squadrons in the fleet. Unusually, the fleet command decided to develop a version of the Lightning Javelin for ground attack and anti-ship duties. The major difference, beyond the different software attack profiles, was a different warhead, a shaped charge warhead replacing the normal high explosive blast/fragmentation aerial warhead. The missile could be used with either warhead in either role, but the blast/frag warhead was much more effective against lightly armored craft and structures, the shaped charge much more adept at penetrating heavy armor. The Lightning Javelin was the main missile armament of the newer Viper Mk VIIs and a clipped-wing version was in development for easier carriage, especially in internal weapons bays. This version of the HD-75, along with the MD-60, was used in to shipboard launchers, acting as an anti-fighter missile.
During the Cylon War, a variant of the MD-60/a was developed for long range intercepts. The new missile, the MID-64 Lance, featured a larger warhead, longer-range DRADIS seeker, and a booster section that allowed greater speed and range. The missile served well in shooting down Cylon Raiders and support craft, up to and including, tankers and other small cargo craft. It was carried by specially-modified Viper Mk Is, with one slung under each wing.
A more recent development was the SD-79 Glaive short-range air-to-air missile. The Glaive was a smaller missile, narrower and shorter. It was very maneuverable and served well as a dogfighting missile. It was easy to carry, including wingtip mounted, a normal loadout for the Viper Mk VII including one on both wingtips, as well as the tail. These were accompanied with four Long Spear IIs or two Lightning Javelins slung under the wings and fuselage. A version of the Glaive was designed for launch from a box launcher, in particular, a three-pack box capable of mounting on conventional pylons, as well as mounting on specially modified tactical trucks for short range air defense. The Trident Glaive, as it was called, lacked forward control vanes, and cut-down rear ones. The mounting lugs and electrical connectors were also removed. The Trident was fairly rare in service with most going to militia squadrons and equipping the new Scorpion Mk IVs, capable of mounting four of the three-round boxes under the swing wings. The fleet preferred the larger Long Spear II and Lightning Javelin missiles for it's Viper squadrons and ships.
Thanks VA, it shouldn't be that long, the biggest hurdle left is the engines. I'll do side views for all the Mk VII versions I've done, prototype, pre-production, trainer, EW, and the advanced ATFD Viper I'm working on.
I have to say, IMHO, yours and BJ's versions are the best I've seen so far for this bird. Too many end up looking 'squished", not tall enough kinda thing.
Thanks S@S. Yeah, it should be okay, I'm going to hopefully get some work on it done later, after I write a short college paper. The engines won't be that bad, just annoying mostly, I'll double-check the engines with BJ's pic after I do them.
I see we have similar interested. Here is my site with MY drawings of the Buck Roger Thunderfight, Hawk's WarHawk, the "Happy Birthday" Thunderfighter and the TOS Enterprise.
Thanks Alan, I'm a big fan of your work, your Thunderfighter, Warhawk and Constitution schematics have proven invaluable in detailing the drawing I had already done previously based on many different blueprints. For the Connie, for example, I based a large amount of it on the Casimiro schematics and later accurized them to your rev.D Connie blueprints. One thing I think I might go back to is the Casimiro shuttlebay from the dorsal view. It just doesn't look right to me in your completely awesome works.
Seeing your site with the Studio scale Thunderfighter actually inspired me to go back and detail the one I had done last summer, and the Warhawk schematics inspired me to do a serious BSG version of the design. Looking over your drawings of the HBB Thunderfighter reminds me that I hadn't yet added in the dorsal fins, I knew I forgot something.
I was wondering if you had other letters and numbers down in the registry and marking font for the Connie, I'm using the Airborne font right now since my attempts to draw the characters failed.
I worked on another Constitution version today. It's a minor refit of the Bonhomme Richard-style ship with TMP-era bridge module and an extended fantail and shuttlebay to help it operate the newer shuttlecraft.
The second pic is the same ship a few years later painted with the movie-era signage soon before being going into refit to bring it up to the full refit configuration. The last pic is the TOS liveried Temeraire put into the Connie Early Versions picture.
Thanks man. It took awhile, a lot of adding in details and correcting angles and such. I based it mostly on the pics in the Star Trek Phase II book, which of course lacks a lot of detail, so stuff like the markings and saucer grid lines were all added in. I'm happy with it though.
Oh, I already updated the pic, it had a small mistake with the panel line going over the red stripe.
One WiP before I sack out for the night. I almost finished the Federation class dreadnaught; all that is needed is mostly finishing up the saucer panelling, adding a few windows, and minor clean ups and the like.
Okay, I finished the Federation class dreadnaught, as well as two variants already.
The variants are the Star League which was upgraded and modified into a battlecarrier, and the Star Empire, a heavily upgraded dreadnaught featured in the book "Dreadnaught!" where it is stolen and used in an attempt to provoke a war with the Klingons. I'm going to write a history for these as well as the Constitutions.
Great job on the Federation Class, I love the Phase II refits they look great. Are you going to do them with the 1701-A LN-64 engines and torpedo launchers? If you need any referces for that one, let me know. :cool:
Thanks VA. I'm always on the look out for reference material, so I'd love to see stuff for the LN-64 and torp launchers.
What I'm envisioning with the Federation class is that they were extremely controversial and were all supposed to recieve the Star Empire-style refits, with 2116 being the first one finished. After it was stolen by VADM Rittenhouse in the high profile incident that really tested public faith in the starfleet (and helped Kirk get promoted during the shake up of the admiralty) the rest were given less extensive refits, mostly upgrading the warp engines, impulse engines, torpedo launchers, phasers, shuttlebays, nav deflectors, sensor arrays, etc.
Posts
Air-to-Air Missiles of the Colonial Fleet
Before the Cylon War, each of the warring colonies utilized their own missile systems, ranging from small short-range missiles, to larger medium and heavy missiles. After Colonial unification, it was decided to create a new joint set of missiles to fulfill combat needs. The first, and longest-lasting of the wartime missiles, was the MD-60 Long Spear medium range air-to-air missile. The missile design itself was fairly simple and proved relatively successful in service, although the DRADIS guidance system proved cumbersome, complicated, and not the most reliable. It served throughout the later parts of the war,
equipping most Viper squadrons in the fleet. A few years after the war, a complete redesign of the missile from the ground up resulted in the creation of the MD-60/b Long Spear II missile. This featured a much more lightweight and reliable seeker, and consequently a larger warhead and rocket all in the same body dimensions, allowing greater lethal range. The control vanes were changed with smaller triangular shapes, later production Long Spear IIs featured a thrust vectoring nozzle allowing the deletion of the forward vanes. Updated variants of the missile serve the fleet to this day with no replacement likely in the near future.
A few decades after the war, a need for a larger and heavier missile was seen by fleet planners. The new design featured a larger tapering body, and cropped delta fins. The design featured many subsystems from the Long Spear II, as well as a larger warhead and DRADIS seeker. The design was quickly accepted into service as the HD-75 Lightning Javelin heavy missile. The Javelin formed the core missile armament for many squadrons in the fleet. Unusually, the fleet command decided to develop a version of the Lightning Javelin for ground attack and anti-ship duties. The major difference, beyond the different software attack profiles, was a different warhead, a shaped charge warhead replacing the normal high explosive blast/fragmentation aerial warhead. The missile could be used with either warhead in either role, but the blast/frag warhead was much more effective against lightly armored craft and structures, the shaped charge much more adept at penetrating heavy armor. The Lightning Javelin was the main missile armament of the newer Viper Mk VIIs and a clipped-wing version was in development for easier carriage, especially in internal weapons bays. This version of the HD-75, along with the MD-60, was used in to shipboard launchers, acting as an anti-fighter missile.
During the Cylon War, a variant of the MD-60/a was developed for long range intercepts. The new missile, the MID-64 Lance, featured a larger warhead, longer-range DRADIS seeker, and a booster section that allowed greater speed and range. The missile served well in shooting down Cylon Raiders and support craft, up to and including, tankers and other small cargo craft. It was carried by specially-modified Viper Mk Is, with one slung under each wing.
A more recent development was the SD-79 Glaive short-range air-to-air missile. The Glaive was a smaller missile, narrower and shorter. It was very maneuverable and served well as a dogfighting missile. It was easy to carry, including wingtip mounted, a normal loadout for the Viper Mk VII including one on both wingtips, as well as the tail. These were accompanied with four Long Spear IIs or two Lightning Javelins slung under the wings and fuselage. A version of the Glaive was designed for launch from a box launcher, in particular, a three-pack box capable of mounting on conventional pylons, as well as mounting on specially modified tactical trucks for short range air defense. The Trident Glaive, as it was called, lacked forward control vanes, and cut-down rear ones. The mounting lugs and electrical connectors were also removed. The Trident was fairly rare in service with most going to militia squadrons and equipping the new Scorpion Mk IVs, capable of mounting four of the three-round boxes under the swing wings. The fleet preferred the larger Long Spear II and Lightning Javelin missiles for it's Viper squadrons and ships.
Sweet job on the Mk VII I cant wait to see it completed.
I'm sure you'll get over the engine hurdle.
I can't say for certain whether they're official or not, but they're the closest I've seen so far.
Most notably in the canopy, which is smaller, and the gun placement.
http://www.angelfire.com/scifi2/wizardofflight/
If I can be of any further help just let me know.
Alan
Seeing your site with the Studio scale Thunderfighter actually inspired me to go back and detail the one I had done last summer, and the Warhawk schematics inspired me to do a serious BSG version of the design. Looking over your drawings of the HBB Thunderfighter reminds me that I hadn't yet added in the dorsal fins, I knew I forgot something.
I was wondering if you had other letters and numbers down in the registry and marking font for the Connie, I'm using the Airborne font right now since my attempts to draw the characters failed.
Try this one, it's called Federation Hull. I have used it in the past to make decal sheets for many "Kirk and Pike era" starships.
The second pic is the same ship a few years later painted with the movie-era signage soon before being going into refit to bring it up to the full refit configuration. The last pic is the TOS liveried Temeraire put into the Connie Early Versions picture.
Oh, I already updated the pic, it had a small mistake with the panel line going over the red stripe.
Speaking of Refit Enterprises, here's the rough current WIP.
One WiP before I sack out for the night. I almost finished the Federation class dreadnaught; all that is needed is mostly finishing up the saucer panelling, adding a few windows, and minor clean ups and the like.
The variants are the Star League which was upgraded and modified into a battlecarrier, and the Star Empire, a heavily upgraded dreadnaught featured in the book "Dreadnaught!" where it is stolen and used in an attempt to provoke a war with the Klingons. I'm going to write a history for these as well as the Constitutions.
Great job on the Federation Class, I love the Phase II refits they look great. Are you going to do them with the 1701-A LN-64 engines and torpedo launchers? If you need any referces for that one, let me know. :cool:
What I'm envisioning with the Federation class is that they were extremely controversial and were all supposed to recieve the Star Empire-style refits, with 2116 being the first one finished. After it was stolen by VADM Rittenhouse in the high profile incident that really tested public faith in the starfleet (and helped Kirk get promoted during the shake up of the admiralty) the rest were given less extensive refits, mostly upgrading the warp engines, impulse engines, torpedo launchers, phasers, shuttlebays, nav deflectors, sensor arrays, etc.