New take on Hellcat V

[NightBall06]

[...]I would ... round some corners and make the intakes more conformal to the fuselage.

Hey. Thanks for your feedback, much appreciated. But could you help me out here? „round some corners“ - Check, I know what you mean, especially when thinking about the „Panther“... BUT
What do you mean with „make the intakes more conformal to the fuselage“? - Where the hell is the fuselage? 🤷🏼‍♂️ And which intakes did you mean? The upper ones or those beneath the Wings?

 

[ChrisReid]

The fuselage is the central structure where the pilot and engines are - the part that's not the wings. The intakes are on the upper surface. I think the lower openings you're referring to are missile launchers.

When something is more conformal to the fuselage, that means it's angles to shape smoothly with the body as opposed to jutting out of the main structure.

 

[NightBall06]

Hey folks 😉
Well since Corona has it’s deadly clasp all over the world - I hope you’re all well.
And with all those Lock-downs, the one good thing that disease gave me, is time to work on my design again...
(As I mentioned before - it’s also some kind of stress relief for me)

So here’s my latest attempt:
I went back to my first drawing (the perspective one) because that’s where all my ideas came from. I took it as a guideline and then reworked all the other angles accordingly. I wanted them to fit - should anyone ever feel inclined to overlay them.
What I came up with - is a much tighter main-body; a more narrow wing span than that of the original HC-V, and pushed that a little further back to make it look more dynamic; I added a weapons design that is inspired by the Excalibur; and a cockpit-design inspired by the F-14 Tomcat ... and new more powerful engines that are not completely inserted into the wings.

AND THAT’s where I got stuck 😓 - I really like the top-view and rear-view of those new engines ... but then? As of this moment I have no idea how the main body’s rear part could look like? I was thinking about a jump-drive maybe?

If you have any comments or ideas - let me know.
Thanks in advance.
NightBall

 

[YCDTD]

@Pedro These beauties' would be great as the Black Lance Hellcats in the WC4 remake! 😉

 

[Pedro]

@Pedro These beauties' would be great as the Black Lance Hellcats in the WC4 remake! 😉

I love it but we are matching the FMV as closely as possible.
The initial release I hope to keep faithful and non controversial. A mod which replaced some fighters with novel variants would be great; I definitely plan to open source to make that kind of thing possible. That said personally I'd just give Defiance's Hellcat a black paint-job, we are aesthetically trying to match the FMV whereas this strikes me as a more modern interpretation.

 

[NightBall06]

@Pedro These beauties' would be great as the Black Lance Hellcats in the WC4 remake! 😉

Mille Gracie 🤗

 

[NightBall06]

I love it [...] whereas this strikes me as a more modern interpretation.

First off: Thank you very much 🤗
And yes, indeed - in my imagination, with these new engines and the Jump-Drive, it was meant to be some sort of „modern reinterpretation“ set during or shortly after WC Prophecy...

 

[NightBall06]

All that is now missing is another pair of guns... and that little Trapez notch below the canopy seems to me like the right place. Don’t know if I will also do the underside or not 🤷🏼‍♂️ Not much going on there...

@Klavs81: I really would like to know what you think - since it all started with your “Wildcat”...

 

[DefianceIndustries]

Lookin' good!

 

[YCDTD]

All that is now missing is another pair of guns... and that little Trapez notch below the canopy seems to me like the right place. Don’t know if I will also do the underside or not 🤷🏼‍♂️ Not much going on there...

Do it! And yes, some of the FMV shows the Hellcat also has guns on the sides of the main fuselage, in addition to the 4 mounted in the belly.

As an aside, the belly weapons bay looks to be modular in nature - easy to swap out different weapons configurations.

 

[NightBall06]

[...] As an aside, the belly weapons bay looks to be modular in nature - easy to swap out different weapons configurations.

Now THAT is one good idea 👍🏻 Didn’t have it originally in mind, but I do like it
That way the ship could be mission specifically outfitted 👍🏻

 

[NightBall06]

I love it but we are matching the FMV as closely as possible.
The initial release I hope to keep faithful and non controversial. A mod which replaced some fighters with novel variants would be great; I definitely plan to open source to make that kind of thing possible. That said personally I'd just give Defiance's Hellcat a black paint-job, we are aesthetically trying to match the FMV whereas this strikes me as a more modern interpretation.

Ok... uh... would you please help me out: „FMV“??? 🤔

 

[DefianceIndustries]

Do it! And yes, some of the FMV shows the Hellcat also has guns on the sides of the main fuselage, in addition to the 4 mounted in the belly.

As an aside, the belly weapons bay looks to be modular in nature - easy to swap out different weapons configurations.

There are two different Hellcat models, the wc3 version has all four guns in the chin mount, in wc4 two of them were moved to the side of the fuselage.

Also FMV = Full Motion Video. The live action cut scenes.

 

[YCDTD]

There are two different Hellcat models, the wc3 version has all four guns in the chin mount, in wc4 two of them were moved to the side of the fuselage.

Also FMV = Full Motion Video. The live action cut scenes.

I notice the engines are different in the WC4 gameplay as well. There are 4 smaller ones around the central one. Interesting!

 

[NightBall06]

So - that's it... I'm done.
Finally!!! And this time it feels right 😊
Next Stop: 3D ... 😜
It's funny - I only wanted to add a Bottom View but ended up reworking almost the whole Frame … 🤷🏼‍♂️ because I felt the overall height to be to high and the Wing/main body proportions to be somewhat off …
But now it's finished, and quite honestly I'm pretty satisfied with it. - It looks sharp and fast (at least to me).
What do you think?

About the Hellcat VI - Excerpt from the official Douglas Aerospace database:
"[...] Well to be honest, technically, the Hellcat VI is nothing more than an updated Bearcat. ... During the Kilrathi-war the Hellcat was the one ship next to the Excalibur, that gave you a good feeling and a hint, that you might actually make it back. Then, after the war, we developed the Bearcat - a good ship and a better dogfighter - but somehow the design didn't click.
So with this new war against these Insects heating up, and a necessary update to the Bearcat imminent - we thougt it to be a good idea to rework "the outfit" with a design that brings back good memories and the feeling of reliability while also accepting more armor..."
[Nick Tremonti, chief-designer Douglas Aerospace]

 

[NightBall06]

I think it works as a prototype for the Hellcat in it's current form, if it were a "new" iteration for the Nephilim war, I would make it less of a literal interpretation and round some corners and make the intakes more conformal to the fuselage. WCP sort of trended back to the anime-inspired style of 1&2, especially the concept art. Just my two cents. Good work!

Looking back now from the Final Version - that one really was just a Prototype... #3 of 6 to be precise 🤪

 

[ChrisReid]

Hey, it's looking good, but a bit on nomenclature: it looks like a good Hellcat V. Confed ships don't really iterate with a Roman numeral in this way. For example, the movie Rapier is the Rapier and the Rapier we see in the games is the Rapier II. They're two totally distinct ships. Better versions of the Rapier are the F-44C (Novels), F-44G (WC2) or F-44X (Arena), which came later than the (Y)F-44A (WC1). It's similar to the US Air Force where you have fighters like the P-47 Thunderbolt and A-10 Thunderbolt II (the real name of the Warthog).

I know we see a counter example in the Dralthi II introduced shortly after WC1, but that's a rare exception. And when we see other Dralthi variants in later years, they're similar batwing designs, but otherwise new space frames.

 

[NightBall06]

Hey, it's looking good, but a bit on nomenclature: it looks like a good Hellcat V. Confed ships don't really iterate with a Roman numeral in this way. For example, the movie Rapier is the Rapier and the Rapier we see in the games is the Rapier II. They're two totally distinct ships. Better versions of the Rapier are the F-44C (Novels), F-44G (WC2) or F-44X (Arena), which came later than the (Y)F-44A (WC1). It's similar to the US Air Force where you have fighters like the P-47 Thunderbolt and A-10 Thunderbolt II (the real name of the Warthog).

I know we see a counter example in the Dralthi II introduced shortly after WC1, but that's a rare exception. And when we see other Dralthi variants in later years, they're similar batwing designs, but otherwise new space frames.

Hey Chris,

thanks and thank you for your advice. But following this, what would be the right nomenclature?
The „Hellcat V-e“? Or the „Hellcat V-II?“
Any suggestions?

 

[DefianceIndustries]

It'd probably be a new version like the F-45 F or G model. So F-45 G Hellct V for example

 

[NightBall06]

It'd probably be a new version like the F-45 F or G model. So F-45 G Hellct V for example

Thank you 😊
In this case is this the „F-86E Hellcat V“!
(Given the fact, that Saga‘s Hellcat is the C-Model)
And yes - this is finally the end of my drawing time!
I already made contact with a friend who‘s a 3D artist from Volkswagen... He‘ll help me visualize this baby 🤗