Macross VE-1 Elintseeker

[SebastianP]

Ah, the VE-1 Elintseeker. Imagine a variable-geometry aircraft about the same size as an F-5, and the same weight as the F-16 (later models). Widely separated engines, like the Tomcat; twin outward-canted fins, like the Hornet - and the ability to transform into a giant robot.

This particular model is supposedly a spacegoing AWACS - it's got ESM bulges on the wingtips, tandem twin seats, a large dorsally mounted rotating radome, sensor-laden conformal booster packs, and a ventral communications array. It looks fairly cool, despite being gull gray overall, with blue-gray boosters and a bright green nose.

Now, due to some creative interpretation of the word "fragile" by some postal worker somewhere, I am unable to completely build the dorsally mounted radome and boosters - and since the "real thing" either has the whole kit or none of it, and I don't want to wait another month for spares, I decided to build it without the add-on boosters. What's left is an interesting-looking sensor turret under the center of the plane (the head of the robot mode), and the ESM bulges in the wingtips (which are molded on).

Of course, neither the kit parts nor the decal sheet was designed for this, so I had to do some surgery - which ended up very slighly crooked, only visible if you know what to look for (I hope); and of course, in search of a new paint scheme.

And pretty much anything goes - so long as I can use black stencils on it. There is quite literally no limit to the garishness of schemes displayed on related aircraft in the source material (it's a little like WWI or WWII like that), so I could concievably paint it up in canary yellow if I wanted to (though the yellow I have is flat, and goes on rather thick, so I don't want to use that option) and still have an acceptable model... though I want something a little more circumspect than that.

Due to the twin seats and the visible airframe mods for improved ESM over the baseline, I've decided that since the Gripen I'm building doesn't appear to be ending up as a Weasel after all (it's looking more and more like the real company demonstrator, for some reason); I'll build *this* as just that - I'm swiping a pair of leftover F-16 pylons (the kit doesn't come with any), and adding a pair of HARMs. The question that remains is the paint scheme - do I do it as an F-15E, F-16C, F/A-18, Gripen, Tornado or Typhoon?

SP

[dexter059]

ahhhh Macross/Robotech, one of my favorite anime series ever   Had the same thaught once, I guess an F-15E could be the right choice for the size of the dish....

cheers

[The Rat]

Now, due to some creative interpretation of the word "fragile" by some postal worker somewhere, ...

Red flag to a bull my friend, red flag to a bull...  

But you're a whiffer, you can work through that!