Grand Duchy F-1A Yellowjacket and Federal Republic F/A-210 Thunderbird

[Laura Beinbrech]

Well, I realize that it has been a while since I last posted anything here, and I promise that it's not another one of my lame ships this time.

I've got two fighter jets that I made, after getting inspiration from looking at experimental WWII aircraft and artwork from Crimson Skies and Sky Captain and the world of tomorrow.... But anyways, more about the planes:

Excerpt from Airplanes of Post-Final War North America, by Richard Goering, published 2112 by the Lone Star Republic Press, San Antonio, Texas

Not long after the disastrous antimatter missile exchange known as the "Final War", two major powers soon began to rise from the ashes in what used to be the northeastern region of the United States portion of the North American Union. One, the Federal Republic of America, was organized around the core of surviving North American Union government and military as well as industrial and agricultural assets in Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia and Ohio, and is considered by many to be the last remnant of and succsessor to the old North American Union and its dedication to freedom, democracy and justice.

The other, the Grand Duchy of New York, was founded when Doctor Regis Blackgaard, nefarious Mad Scientist, megalomaniac and all-around villain, seized control of New York City and proclaimed himself as the Duke of New York. Blackgaard, who was the main antagonist of the global conflict known as the Final War, as well as the man responsible for the ultimate antimatter-missile exchange, then proceeded to take over most of the rest of New York State (only the Six Nations and the semi-autonomous Barony of Buffalo were able to keep him out of Western New York) as well as the rest of New England and all Canadian territories south of the St. Lawrence River.

Needless to say, these two factions quickly came into conflict with each other. Initially, both sides used whatever air and space craft that they had left over that survived the Final War, but it soon became apparent that they needed to begin new construction of modern aircraft as the war dragged out.

The result was the Grand Ducal Army Air Corps F-1A Yellowjacket and the Federal Republic Air Force F/A-210 Thunderbird

Yellowjacket & Thunderbird Top by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr

The Grand Duchy's F-1A Yellowjacket got its name from the distinctive yellow and black paint scheme used by the Grand Ducal Army Air Corps and its speed and maneuverability.

Yellowjacket Side by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr

While Grand Duke Dr. Regis Blackgaard wanted to jump straight to building orbital space fighters and bombers, he was forced to bow to the post-Final War reality and its greatly reduced infrastructure and tech base (which ticked him off pretty good, since Grand Duke Blackgaard hates bowing to ANYTHING, much less something as petty as "reality"). The resulting design was something that borrowed elements from the MiG-15, Gloster Meteor and the Gee Bee flying engine.

Yellowjacket Front by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr

The aircraft was almost entirely designed around a massive 20,000lb thrust high-bypass turbofan, the aircraft is practically all engine and wings, with a fairly short fuselage. It sports four 50-caliber machineguns as its primary air-to-air combat weaponry and has hardpoints on the wings that can hold up to two 500lb bombs or 50-gallon drop-tank fuel pods, as well as and additional 6 to 8 missiles (this particular plane is woefully under armed).

Yellowjacket bottom by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr

Pic of the undercarriage, showing the landing gear fully retracted as well as better views of the bombs and Multipurpose Merculite Missiles (MMM's)

The Federal Republic of America's answer to the Yellowjacket was the F/A-201 Thunderbird.

Thunderbird Side by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr

This two-seat multi-role attack fighter has often been described as what you'd get if an A-10 Thunderbolt II mated with an ME-262 Swallow, and this aircraft bears advantages from both its predecessors.... Greater speed and simpler construction from the ME-262, and the armored cockpit, massive 10,000lb thrust high-bypass turbofans and high survivability of the A-10.

Thunderbird Interior by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr

Carrying a heavy loadout of Guided MMM's and Laser-Guided Bombs, the Thunderbird oftentimes has a Weapons Officer/Copilot on board so the pilot can concentrate of flying/shooting at enemy planes.

Thunderbird Front by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr

Speaking of which, the plane's primary air-to-air combat, as well as tank/mech-busting armament is its four 25mm "Bushmaster" autocannons, making this particular fighter the airborne equivalent of four M2 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles.

Thunderbird Bottom by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr

And and undercarriage view of the Thunderbird, showing the bomb mounts and the landing gear in its retracted position.

Finally, and obligatory pic of the pilots/crew of the two planes:

Fighter Crews by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr

The Grand Ducal Army Air Corps pilot is on the left with his trusty AK-47 variant backup weapon (in case he gets shot down behind enemy lines), and the Federal Republic Air Force Weapons Officer and Pilot are on the right. The Weapons officer is holding his AMP-45 "Bolter" submachine gun and the pilot has his trusty C-96/45 semiautomatic pistol.

...

Anyways, some background info on the builds themselves: As you no doubt can tell, the Yellowjacket started out as the yellow Creator Airplane (set #6745), and initially I only modified it enough to fit a minifig in the cockpit (and rather poorly at that) and add the Grand Duchy's symbol (the Kingdoms Dragon Knight shields) to the fuselage. Recently, however, I decided to make it into a jet, as well as remove all white from the design... I'd decided at this point to have black and yellow as the primary colors of the Grand Duchy's aircraft (which is fitting, since their space ships, when I ever get to making one, will use the classic Blacktron colors). trying to get all the colors right was kind of a pain, especially since I had to raid the Vampyre Hearse to get enough black 1x2x1 wall panel sections to finish the cockpit, and the tail section was an equally huge pain in the buttocks, until I remembered I still had that Bi-wing Baron set lying around, and just got the black tail fin off that. The cockpit design was also a real pain, but after many tries and lots of frustration, I finally came up with what I have now, and it seems to work fairly well.

The Thunderbird is essentially a mash-up of the Freeco Speeder and the red & white biplane from the Indiana Jones Airplane Chase set. I had previously modified the biplane into a monoplane, and left it at that. Again, I got inspired recently to take it further, and began work on this, which ended up turning into a completely different aircraft. While I'm not normally a fan of SNOT, and try to avoid it at all costs (mainly because it tends to be extremely flimsy), I'm rather proud of how I made use of SNOT in both this plane and the Yellowjacket for accommodating some of the odd shapes between the sloped top and cockpit pieces as well as attaching the jet engines to the sides of the Thunderbird.

As usual, comments and suggestions are welcome....

Finally:

Uh, Guys?! by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr

...Uh, guys? Couldn't you at least wait until your AIRBORNE before slugging it out?!

[soccerkid6]

Cool planes, the retractable landing gears are excellent details

[DraikNova]

I really like the colorscheme on the yellow one.

[Wedge09]

Very good fighter, the landing gear are fantastic :thumbup:

[Laura Beinbrech]

I'm glad you guys like the planes! I cannot take any credit for the landing gear setup on the Yellowjacket, though... It is almost completely unmodified from the original Creator set's setup.