F/a-31 Snakebat, Super Estol Fighter

[Rafael]

THE GULF:

Several months have passed since this war began. The Gulf no longer belonged to International traffic. Anyone venturing into this waters without permission from its current masters would be sunk. Batteries of Anti-Ship Missiles roamed the coastal towns, cities and roads. After dettection of a ship, it was only a matter of minutes until one Battery stopped, erected and launched its deadly arrows.

As of last week, the Allies started their campaign against the extremist government that claimed this waters and every resource in its vicinity as its own. A number of military Installations had been hit, along with several C4I sites. Fixed Anti-Aircraft batteries had been destroyed and the Allied long-range shipborne artillery had been making life miserable to the enemy. His forces were now forced to be on constant movement so as not to be caught standing still.

Good results so far. But an ominous development was underway. Apparently, in the middle of the desert, between two cities, and under a small mountain, a storage bunker, almost perfectly camouflaged, held two nuclear weapons, the only ones the extremists were capable of building in the pre-war haste, and now earmarked for launch against the fleet, in case it amassed its forces for an all-out invasion.

The quiet dawn air was suddenly disrupted by the whine and roar of jet engines. The Flight Deck of the Caribbean Wind, a small escort aircraft carrier, and Sea-Control ship, was movilizing its small wing of 6 Mv-22 Ospreys and 12 F/A-31 SnakeBat Fighters. The SnakeBat was a development of the ancient X-31 VECTOR and NASA's SNAKE(Super Normal Attitude Kinetic Enhancement), wich had a fenomenal short Take-off and Landing capability thanks to its flexible, adaptive wings, and 3D square exhaust, wich made this aircraft an option for operation from small carriers.

The SnakeBats were configured this morning for a standoff attack. Armed with HARM-LR antiradiation missiles, Paveway Enhanced Bombs, and Hypersonic SURFBOARD Missiles. One by one, the fighters took to the skies and headed toward its target. 8 for the attack, and 4 to provide air cover to the Caribbean Wind.

On course, the fighters dispersed to be hard to find, and to provide a different angle of approach to the weapons. At the selected IPs, all of them released their SURFBOARDS, and returned to base. Some of them engaged targets of opportunity with their remaining munitions, and the missiles stored in their small bomb bays.

Scant Five minutes, and 700 Nautical miles away, a hail of hypersonic missiles struck the storage bunker, and the nuclear weapons and facility were completely destroyed.

By sunrise, all aircraft recovered aboard the Caribbean Wind, enroute to rendezvous with the rest of the Allied Fleet.


THE F/A-31 SNAKEBAT:
It was a series development of the Rockwell/DASA X-31 VECTOR and NASA's SNAKE (Super Normal Attitude Kinetic Enhancement).

The SnakeBat was an upscaled version, with more powerful engines, mission adaptive wings and a 3D Exhaust system wich provided the fighter with extreme ESTOL capabilities and exceptional manoeuverability.

This characteristics were paramount for its deployment aboard several types of cariers and served with many allied forces during various conflicts with excellence.

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I hope you like it.
Enjoy.
Rafa

[B777LR]

     

[Scooterman]

AIR PLANE PORN!!!

That's my new fav, Rafa!
Good job!

[John Howling Mouse]

Totally envious over here at both your vision and your abilities to carry out your ideas.          

Are those "Surfboard" missiles the coolest thing since Arthur Fonzarelli, or what?  B)

Bleh, I'll always have knitting and mudpies!!!  

Fantastico, Rafa!!!        

[Brian da Basher]

Yowsa Rafa another awesome masterpiece!!! I love you riveting backstory as well. That bird looks like it could take out any opposition with the blink of an eye. I really like the menacing load-out and the very cool camo scheme it wears!

Looks like mudpies for me as well, Mr Howling Mouse.

Great stuff, Rafa! Bravo Zulu and a hand salute!

Brian da Basher

[Rafael]

Thank you very much, amigos!!!!
This build was about 2 weeks into investigation, cutting and pasting 3-views and designing the general config. I started on thursday, and it went totally smooth (the building process, not the surface of the plane   )

It was real fun.

Oh! those SURFBOARD missiles are the handles of one clothespin sanded to shape, with an air intake and rear exhaust perforated and two small pieces of plasticard as wings      

The rest is resin, balsa and plastic card

Gracias.
Rafa



It all started like this:

I cast a few 1/72 F-16 Forward fuselages



Then "Drew" the model in my trusty Powerpoint, and started cutting plastic



Added the forward resin fuselage



The rear top fuselage and the booms on the wings are Balsa



I put a big balsa plug as a huge splitter above the intake and added the vertical fins


Varnished the balsa with heavy Marine Varnish to harden the wood and ready it for sanding, put the underwing weapons stations and it was ready for paint (Note the sanded shapes for the SURFBOARD Missiles at the bottom)

[Maverick]

Hola Rafa,

Jesus Christos!!

Seeing your in progress work is absolutely amazing, the resin casting & photoshop especially!!

Nifty fighter, always loved the X-31.

Muy bien, Amigo

Mav

[anthonyp]

Whoa, very nice job there, Rafa!

That reminds me more of the old HiMAT than the X-31, though.



But, I can see the X-31 in the fuselage of your's.

In any case, excellent!

[PanzerWulff]

All I can say my friend is         "SWEETNESS!!!!"        That one is Soooooooooooooo sweet I'm going to need to see my dentist  

[Rafael]

Whoa, very nice job there, Rafa!

That reminds me more of the old HiMAT than the X-31, though.
[Image]
But, I can see the X-31 in the fuselage of your's.

In any case, excellent!

Thanks Mav, AnthonyP and PanzerWulff !!!!

Yeah, AnthonyP, if you look closely at the plans, you'll discover the canards from the very same graphic you depicted, Glad you noticed, Thanks!!!

And John, this is a little adventure learning how to cast with limited resources. I'm still learning. A lot to do before obtaining my first flawless resin copy, but I'm on the way there!!!!

You can also see the modified wing. It is lenghtened in chord. It has the SNAKE's dogtooth, and I twisted the leading edge downwards a little, like the wings of a Kfir.

Chris, This is so sweet, my blood sugar levels soared dangerously high!!!

All in all, fun at its max!!!

Un abrazo,
Rafa

[Eddie M.]

Rafa,
 I am absolutely impressed with your vision, execution and presentation of this piece of art. I love your paint work. Outstanding work! B)
  Eddie  

[matrixone]

Not much else to say that has not already been said by the others, good job!

Hope you don't mind that I enhanced one of your pictures but I wanted to see what your model looked like in-flight.

Matrixone

[Rafael]

Thanks Eddie, I appreciate your comments!!!!

And, Matrixone, I really thank you. Only an artist can do this for me. Pic Stored!!!

Happy happy Rafa

[BlackOps]

Rafa, another great vision brought to life! Very cool idea, thanks for sharing the progress pics, I love the fact you use so many different materials and make them work together.

[matrixone]

Rafa,
Glad you liked the pic, it was fun to do.

Lately I have been in a modelling slump, working on your picture was a nice diversion.

Matrixone