Another AAC update

[proditor]

Yup, got something done today!  Puttied the flight deck in place, finished the trapeze, filled in the extra gear bays and glued the outer wing panels together.  I also have a shot of the bridge in test fit mode, looks cool IMHO.

[proditor]

So I didn't like the wing tips as they were.  I wanted some lift device setup at the tips, and possibly some funky looking joint that might be for retanking or something.  Well, they ended up being auxillary engines, specifically "turning control" so that you can shift the orientation of the AAC without having to make a sharp bank that would send planes, munitions, and men flying all over the inside.  I just cut the tips off with a saw, then used a slightly altered Tomahawk as the engine assembly.  Putty and sand till done.

I also entered the 5th level of hell known as "Unending sanding".  The good news is that I think most of the modifications are done and I just need to make a new canopy and then glue this sucker together!

Anyway, 4 pics, all showing the wing with turning engines modification.

[cthulhu77]

I see days of wet sanding in your future !!!!

         This is going to be a great looking jet...

           greg

[proditor]

Thanks kindly.  The feedback has been keeping me inspired to move this sucker along.  

And for today...

Principal manufacturing: Done
Canopy Manufacture: Done
Wing Modification: Done
Dry Sanding: Done
Wet Sanding: Done

Test fit?



Done.

I think I better start working on the air wing again as the carrier is going to be mighty bare without some wingy things on it.  

EDIT: I'm still kinda stunned by how clear the new canopy turned out.  It's in place in that shot, and at least to me, it looks like there is nothing there.  You can see the ship's badge on the right side of the cockpit if you look very closely.

[John Howling Mouse]

Holy KeeeeRAP, where'd this baby come from, again?  Another thread?  Seems familiar but is this a new thread or ...  ?

Tell me more!  Tell me more!

BTW, is the B-2 Bomber subsonic or Mach 1?

Your AAC looks transonic to me.

[proditor]

Yeah, I was really sloppy before with my posting, but I finally caught on to just update the one thread.  

It is not Transonic.  With a Mack Maloney-esque 2000 foot wingspan, I didn't want to push the envelope too much.    The scale is 1/700, and somewhere here are the original scanner pics of the airwing in their initial planning stages and my hastily altered instruction sheet.  Ah, here it is: http://www.whatifmodelers.com/forum//index...296&hl=airborne

The current profile has a general cruise speed of 110 knots during flight operations that utilize the catapults or landing deck.  Anything up to 400 knots when using the trapezes, and a dash speed of 500 knots.  Power is Nuke, four main engine assemblies and two wingtip assist "turning engines" to limit the need to bank.

I'm still fairly stunned by how much scale room there is in this sucker for aircraft storage, so the airwing is looking to be about 120+2.  The +2 is the really out there idea.  A two ship formation of B-1D "Bone" Bombers used to give a strategic striking power at massively extended range.  Since two AAC's are always in operation, they can usually muster a four ship strategic bomber formation in addition to all of the smaller F/A craft.

Ship defense is 10 turreted chemical lasers similar to the ABL, but a generation more advanced.  Also, it houses 24 land attack ICBM's in the those twin grey wing fairings.  I figure that 2 are "special" missiles, 12 standard high explosive missiles and then 10 tomahawk carriers.  Redesigned to boost for range and then open a rotary launcher assembly in the primary stage that houses 6 TLAMs.  That gives them like half the planet as range.  Heh.

The full write-up is still rattling around in my noggin, but it keeps growing as more bits get added.  Hopefully I can get the AAC finished in the next few weeks before the holidays set in hardcore.

The kit is the 1/72nd Revell ATB with modified wings, redesigned cockpit, grafted on flight deck and the trapeze assembly.

Oh, and contrary to my original thoughts, I might do this sucker in two tone grey.  I can see it in my head and it looks pretty slick in two greys with a black and white flight deck down the middle.  The only issue would be the airwing disappearing amidst that vast field of grey.

EDIT: IIRC, the real B-2 is subsonic, though it looks like it should be faster.

[Eddie M.]

Now that is using your imagination! I love it. B)
   Eddie

[proditor]

I believe I mentioned something about doing more work on the airwing...

Well, you all saw the F/A-26 in their more or less final but unpainted form, so I'll add the F/A-27 and RF-118 to the mix!  Look closely since the only truly thin material I had for the tail on the F/A-27 was clear.  Yeah, I know, I should have taken a picture after painting it, but I figured what the heck.

I'm rabidly in love with the RF-118 btw, and I know it's gonna look fierce once I clean it up a little bit.  Navy has Hawkeyes for AWACS eh?  Ours look like sex with wings squidboy.  



EDIT: Scale of course is 1/700.  I'd put in a penny for scale but it's so much bigger then the planes, it would increase the pic size too much.  Plus, you can get a rough idea from looking at my earlier linked thread in my 4th post on this thread.  The F/A-27's haven't changed in size, they just grew tails.  

[proditor]

Small update, no pictures warranted yet IMHO.  Got a base coat on the (2) F/A-26, the (2) F/A-27 and the lone B-1D Bomber.  Still deciding on a pattern for the RF-118, and I need a name for it as well.

Last bit, anyone have any thoughts to the carrier itself being grey/grey with a black flightdeck?

[cthulhu77]

Hmmm...I would go with a more vibrant camo of some sort...how about grey,white, and black  Sounds cool, looking forward to seeing more.

          greg

[proditor]

Minor update again, sanded down the RF-118 to get the dings out of the intake and the radome.  I noticed something interesting on it as well.  The donor is a Revell A-5 from an old USS Enterprise kit.  But for some reason, they made the canopy one long contiguous construct.  You can sort of make it out in the pic.  I think I'm going to make it a big 2-3 seat bubble canopy, cuz like, that would rule and stuff.   B)

Also, got the painting physically sorted out with the purchase of a metric ton of painter's tape and some new acrylics.  If it warms up a bit around here, I might even get something done this weekend.

Still to go:

Airwing completion
Gluing the wings to the fuselage
Mounting the Trapeze (Oh man that sounds dirty...)
Scribing the Catapults
Scribing the "Barn Doors"
Scribing 2 lowered blast deflectors, making 2 raised ones.

Paint and Decals.

Question: So I've decided these are the Curtis LeMay class AAC's.  Should this be the class leader?  Perhaps the Hap Arnold or the Billy Mitchell?

Side question: Anyone got an ALPS Printer that might be willing to make me an AAC shield/sigil and "USS Curtis LeMay" decals in exchange for some cold hard currency?

[proditor]

Some new pics, mostly testing the layout.  The last pic is the top mounted flight control tower.  Glad I had a spare submarine conning tower laying around.

[Brian da Basher]

Proditor that is so cool it hurts! Very menacing looking and I love the addition of the conning tower! It'll be great to see this one completed.

Brian da Basher

[proditor]

Okay, I might have gotten a little too ambitious...

I did the scribing today, got in the "Garage doors" and the catapults/blast deflectors.  I also dremeled out the space of two deflectors to have them in the raised position later.  The overly ambitious part is that one of the doors is now partially raised, so now I have to fit something behind it!  ARGH!  What was I thinking?!?!?





EDIT: All scribing done freehand with an X-Acto.  I really need a scribing tool.  

[proditor]

Since scribing was driving me nuts, I figured it was time to do a little more work on the airwing.  So, 4 fighters, one recee, and one of the "Project Ghostrider" B-1Ds.  What is Project Ghostrider?  Just wait, all will be revealed in the treatsie I'm making as a backstory.