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Return of the YF-19 Saber
About Truespace Archives
These pages are a copy of the official truespace forums prior to their removal somewhere around 2011.
They are retained here for archive purposes only.
Return of the YF-19 Saber // Work in Progress
Post by Michael Billard // Nov 22, 2007, 7:39pm
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Michael Billard
Total Posts: 125
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I took a break from the Saber back in August to do the Arilyn Flynn, and then life got in the way, but I remembered the comments about varying the texture on the space fighter. So, I learned a little more about texturing and based this latest update on the quilted thermal blankets on the Space Shuttle. The YF-19's thermal protection system is supposed to be more advanced and more durable than the shuttle, so I haven't figured out what I'll do for the TPS that takes greater heat.
Here's the shot:
http://www.spellflight.com/images/YF-19Wip8.jpg |
Post by Michael Billard // Nov 23, 2007, 3:06pm
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Michael Billard
Total Posts: 125
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More updates. The hexagonal tiles are metallic and similar to ARMOR so they're way more durable than the Shuttle tiles. The thermal blankets have cermet meshes in them to make them more durable as well.
http://www.spellflight.com/images/YF-19Wip9a.jpg
http://www.spellflight.com/images/YF-19Wip9b.jpg |
Post by rjeff // Nov 23, 2007, 5:04pm
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rjeff
Total Posts: 1260
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I have been watchin' this one from the start..man it has come along way..lookin' good. |
Post by Michael Billard // Nov 24, 2007, 7:27pm
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Michael Billard
Total Posts: 125
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Did some updates including reworking the heat tiles and added some "nose art" in a spot that won't be affected by the heat streaks from re-entry. |
Post by Michael Billard // Dec 7, 2007, 4:56pm
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Michael Billard
Total Posts: 125
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More updates: cleaned up the nose and worked on the backend:
http://www.spellflight.com/images/YF-19Wip10.jpg
http://www.spellflight.com/images/YF-19Wip10b.jpg
http://www.spellflight.com/images/YF-19Wip10c.jpg |
Post by Michael Billard // Dec 11, 2007, 6:09pm
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Michael Billard
Total Posts: 125
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Insulation padding in the payload bay and docking port bay completed, just need to add decals. Started working on the payload bay crew hatch too.
http://www.spellflight.com/images/YF-19Wip11.jpg |
Post by Michael Billard // Dec 17, 2007, 6:35pm
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Michael Billard
Total Posts: 125
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Not much of an update. Just getting the payload bay texturing to look more like padding and less like bathroom tile. I have much to do in the payload bay including adding in the payload connectors, door latches, and fuel & data ports (the YF-19 will have a fuel tank and missile rack in the bay)
http://www.spellflight.com/images/YF-19Wip11b.jpg |
Post by Michael Billard // Dec 20, 2007, 7:47am
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Michael Billard
Total Posts: 125
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I'll get more time to work on the fighter over the holidays but for now I've started working on the aft end of the payload bay. The YF-19 started out as a model for a computer game I wanted to make with XNA but I've no idea if I'll ever be able to do that. In the meantime, I get to learn more about Photoshop and how to use it to make textures for game models. Anyway, I think in retrospect I think should've broken the model down into more sections than the doors, body, aft RCS pods, docking port, and wings. My body texture alone is 2048 x 2048, as is the bump map, which translates to 8 megs total. Of course with video cards having upwards of 768 megs of memory it might not be that bad a problem. Still, I did some number crunching and found I could have 16 512 x 512 textures for the same memory as one 2048 x 2048 texture, or 4 1024 x 1024 textures in the same memory space. Ah well, that's why it's called a learning experience...
http://www.spellflight.com/images/YF-19Wip11c.jpg |
Post by 3dfrog // Dec 20, 2007, 10:21am
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3dfrog
Total Posts: 1225
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Nice model michael. Looks a little flat yet. But guess its a wip so thats expected at this point :) keep up the good work. |
Post by Michael Billard // Dec 23, 2007, 10:09am
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Michael Billard
Total Posts: 125
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Thanks for the suggestion on the roughness of the payload bay insulation. I've done some work on that and it looks better now.
http://www.spellflight.com/images/YF-19Wip12a.jpg
http://www.spellflight.com/images/YF-19Wip12b.jpg
One of the fun things about making the signage for the model is knowing you really won't be able to read the sign once it is reduced down. So here is a closeup of the caution sign on the back:
http://www.spellflight.com/images/CautionSign.jpg |
Post by Michael Billard // Dec 25, 2007, 11:01am
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Michael Billard
Total Posts: 125
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Sign for the door. Once again you won't be able to read the verbage once the sign is reduced down:
http://www.spellflight.com/images/DoorSign.png |
Post by Michael Billard // Jan 6, 2008, 8:16pm
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Michael Billard
Total Posts: 125
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Happy New Year! I'm making progress, it's taking awhile but slow and steady wins the race.
Fuel port. I applied some things I learned to do in Photoshop over the weekend. These go in the payload bay and the docking bay to allow the YF-19 to carry a combat fuel tank in the payload bay and transfer fuel from the tank into the fighter's buil-in fuel stores. Plus it can be refueled in orbit via external ports in the docking bay.
http://www.spellflight.com/images/FuelPort.jpg
The crew hatch is coming along. It's all done with a texture map and a bump map.
http://www.spellflight.com/images/YF-19Wip13.jpg
New Air Force logo. This one is fictional because I'm not allowed to use the real one. It's the gray hawk looking thing.
http://www.spellflight.com/images/YF-19Wip14.jpg
NAXA logo. Not allowed to use the NASA logo so I created a fictional space agency (National Aerospace Exploration Agency, a.k.a. NAXA) and a logo for them. This will go on the civilian variant of the YF-19.
http://www.spellflight.com/images/NAXALogo.jpg |
Post by kena // Jan 6, 2008, 9:12pm
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kena
Total Posts: 2321
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Coming along nicely. I'm a member of the USA myself, but how about putting your logo a bit further in the future and make a world exploration Orginization? Just a thought. The whole thing would then appeal to more people. |
Post by Michael Billard // Jan 8, 2008, 8:39pm
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Michael Billard
Total Posts: 125
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I'll have to think about that. The basic idea though is that the YF-19 is a cold-war era fighter developed in the early 80s, first flown in 1989, and then eventually turned into the civillian Orbital Space Plane after NAXA had a string of failed Space Shuttle replacement programs (HL-20, X-30, X-33, X-38). Congress basically got fed up and said, "Here, demilitarize a few of these and use them for crew transport." It is a "what if" space plane set in an alternate Earth universe.
I fixed the payload bay textures tonight, the UV maps were all wrong and things just didn't look right:
http://www.spellflight.com/images/YF-19Wip16.jpg |
Post by Michael Billard // Jan 20, 2008, 4:42pm
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Michael Billard
Total Posts: 125
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I've learned a bit more about Photoshop this weekend and worked on the payload bay. At this point The Payload Bay Detail Texturing Madness is complete. I still have to weather the texture but I'll do that after finishing up the detail work. The control boxes and service panels are based upon real-world Shuttle payload bay pictures I found on the Internet. The dark tooth-looking things on the "window sills" are based upon real-world Payload Attachment Points found in the shuttle's cargo bay. The little panels on the window sills are removed when you have robot arms installed in the payload bay. Now to finish up the Docking Bay texture, and then the body's detail work will be done!
http://www.spellflight.com/images/YF-19Wip18.jpg |
Post by Michael Billard // Jan 20, 2008, 6:01pm
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Michael Billard
Total Posts: 125
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Here is a sense of scale. Tank Girl is 6' tall. The fighter is 50 feet long and has a wingspan of about 30 feet. For comparison, the F-16 Fighting Falcon is 49 feet 5 inches long and has a 32 ft 8 in wingspan.
http://www.spellflight.com/images/YF-19Wip19.jpg |
Post by Michael Billard // Jan 22, 2008, 8:38pm
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Michael Billard
Total Posts: 125
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I finally had a chance to rework the docking port. This is the Air Force variant of my fictional International Low Impact Docking System (ILIDS, pronounced "eyelids"). The Air Force version lets you transfer rocket fuel in addition to the standard hookups for liquid air, water, and electricity through the docking ring.
Fictional trivia: When astronauts checked out the docking port, one of them climbed through the hatch and sang Happy Birthday. Ever since then, the fighter's ILIDS port has been known as the Birthday Cake.
http://www.spellflight.com/images/YF-19Wip20.jpg
http://www.spellflight.com/images/YF-19Wip21.jpg |
Post by Michael Billard // Feb 18, 2008, 8:17am
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Michael Billard
Total Posts: 125
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Life and health conspired against me so I didn't do any updates until this weekend. After watching the Space Shuttle dock with the ISS, I finally understood why the docking system has three petals. So I reverted back to three alignment petals on the ILIDS and added an inner ring to let them rotate. That way, spacecraft can dock in any of the four cardinal directions (NSEW). I also decided to add insulation and rework the texture (mostly so I didn't have to texture in the docking port machinery). Ultimate Unwrap is great but I'm also finding that figuring out how to unwrap a model to make texturing easy is proving a bit frustrating. I'm wondering what resources exist that could help.
Anyway, here is the latest:
http://www.spellflight.com/images/YF-19Wip23.jpg |
Post by Michael Billard // Feb 19, 2008, 8:33pm
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Michael Billard
Total Posts: 125
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Fit test for the YF-19:
http://www.spellflight.com/images/YF-19Wip26a.jpg
http://www.spellflight.com/images/YF-19Wip26.jpg
http://www.spellflight.com/images/YF-19Wip25.jpg |
Post by kena // Feb 19, 2008, 8:52pm
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kena
Total Posts: 2321
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looking good - I prefer my docking ports to be on the side, but this is good too! |
Post by Michael Billard // May 26, 2008, 9:42am
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Michael Billard
Total Posts: 125
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I'm continuing to work on the Saber. I've textured the docking bay doors, here are the views. The dark stripes on the payload bay doors are the backup heat radiators. They're made of high temperature ceramic metal (cermet) and located in an area that doesn't take much heat during re-entry. Liquid coolant circulates through the radiators but they can do one better: the radiators can "sweat" coolant to cool down the fighter even faster. There's enough coolant aboard to "sweat" during re-entry so the radiators don't melt.
One thing I'm finding is that UV mapping is difficult. If you look at the closed doors down towards the body, you'll see that the texture is distorted. What I don't understand is how to avoid that. If any of the experts have some advice, I'd appreciate it. Thanks!
http://www.spellflight.com/images/YF-19Wip29.jpg
http://www.spellflight.com/images/YF-19Wip30.jpg
http://www.spellflight.com/images/YF-19Wip31.jpg
Background:
Technically it should’ve been the FS-1A, but to hide it from adversaries (including NAXA), designers dubbed it the F-19A Saber and vehemently denied its existence until forced to reveal it in 1997. The USAF had high hopes for the top secret space fighter when development first began in 1983: counter the MiG-105 Spiral, carry an internal 20mm Vulcan Gatling Gun and a load of SIM-1A Striker missiles in its payload bay, ferry crews to the revived Manned Orbiting Laboratory, carry up to 15,000 pounds of payload, and take flight no later than 1990. Unfortunately, plans didn’t work out that way.
Technological issues resulting from making the F-19’s International Low Impact Docking System retractable and building a robust heat shield seriously cut into the fighter’s payload capacity. As a result, planners deleted the internal gun and reduced the space plane’s payload to just 9,000 pounds- adequate for a rotary launcher filled with eight SIM-1A Striker missiles and an internal gun, a passenger module with four astronauts, or small satellites. Worse, development problems delayed the fighter’s first flight to early 1996. And to top it all off, each F-19A Saber cost $500 million- twice its projected cost. The Saber became a technological white elephant but the Air Force’s backup plan- development of the Mark II Apollo spacecraft known as Blue Apollo- saved their Manned Orbiting Laboratory. Still, experiences gained from the F-19 Saber proved invaluable for future spacecraft.
A year after the F-19A’s first flight, photos circulating on the Internet forced the Air Force to reveal its existence. Congress immediately questioned its usefulness and cited potential conflict with the Space Shuttle’s intended role. But despite launching on a $450 million dollar expendable Titan IV-B, Sabers could deliver crews to the Freedom International Space Station cheaper than the shuttle. And with Russia abruptly withdrawing from the ISS in 1997, Sabers took the place of Soyuz vehicles for crew transfer. The USAF won Congress over and kept their dozen Sabers flying. It certainly helped that they also offered to launch the backup MOL, known as Freedom, to replace the Russian section of the station.
From 2003 to 2006, after Columbia broke up upon reentry, Sabers became the sole means of transport to and from Freedom International. Congress ordered the USAF to hand over four of its Sabers to NAXA, who then disarmed, repainted and renamed them the Ranger Orbital Space Plane and launched them on brand new Hercules Heavy launch vehicles crafted by Spartan Aerospace.
At $75 million apiece, Hercules Heavy rockets cost less than a quarter of the retired Titan IV while offering higher lifting capacity. But with the shuttle’s planned retirement in 2010, NAXA only intends to continue flying Rangers until the Apollo Mark III spacecraft, which will carry astronauts back to the moon and beyond, is ready to fly in 2012. The Air Force plans to retire its F-19 fleet by 2010 in favor of new top secret spacecraft in development. |
Post by ghost--scout // May 26, 2008, 10:25am
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ghost--scout
Total Posts: 85
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Very, very nice, I can't wait to see pictures of the armament and various payload in place and the mechanisms that expose them to vacuum to be operated. |
Post by W!ZARD // May 26, 2008, 8:09pm
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W!ZARD
Total Posts: 2603
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Cool! I like the alternative history idea to provide background for your vessel.
See Kena's Mushrooms WIP thread for some info on UV's. |
Post by Breech Block // May 28, 2008, 2:19pm
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Breech Block
Total Posts: 844
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Lovely model. Its been great to see this work progress from its humble beginnings. |
Post by Michael Billard // Jun 8, 2008, 3:47pm
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Michael Billard
Total Posts: 125
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My new PC finally arrived and I've been setting it up. It is working quite well for 3D art! It takes seconds to render my image, and unlike my old PC, when I'm trying to make a polygon selection in Photoshop, my screen doesn't blank!
I fixed the distorted texture problem on the payload doors by learning a new technique in Ultimate Unwrap 3D. In a nutshell, I learned to unwrap the texture like you would cut and unfold a cardboard box.
http://www.spellflight.com/images/YF-19Wip32.jpg
http://www.spellflight.com/images/YF-19Wip33.jpg
http://www.spellflight.com/images/YF-19Wip34.jpg |
Post by kena // Jun 8, 2008, 6:53pm
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kena
Total Posts: 2321
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Duck Dodgers? hehehe |
Post by Michael Billard // Jun 9, 2008, 6:11am
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Michael Billard
Total Posts: 125
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Yeah I figured that would be appropriate nose art. The side profile of the F-19's nose makes it look like a duck, so that's what pilots nicknamed it. |
Post by Michael Billard // Jul 1, 2008, 4:53pm
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Michael Billard
Total Posts: 125
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I'm in the process of designing the missiles that the YF-19 carries. I'm going on the principle that form follows function but with a bit of artistic license. To that end I've created the SIM-1A Python:
http://www.spellflight.com/images/YF-19Wip35.jpg
http://www.spellflight.com/images/YF-19Wip36.jpg
The Space-launched Interceptor Missile (SIM) 1A Python is one of the first space-to-space dogfight missiles ever created. It is based upon the Air-launched Interceptor Missile (AIM) 120C-7 Slammer but modified to operate in a space environment. Instead of guidance fins, the Python makes use of a vectored thrust solid rocket motor as well as a compressed CO2 fueled Terminal Guidance Reaction Control System (TGRCS). While the vectored thrust motor handles midcourse corrections, the TGRCS takes care of any sharp turns needed in the last few seconds before (hopefully) hitting the target.
Should the Python miss and run out of fuel, rather than exploding, onboard computers command the TGRCS to spin the missile like a baton to increase its atmospheric drag. While minuscule at orbital altitudes, atmospheric drag will ensure the missile eventually drops out of orbit and burns up upon re-entry. If the missile exploded when it missed as most air-to-air missiles do, it would needlessly send shrapnel into Earth orbit and pose a danger to all spacecraft.
While air-to-air missiles partly rely upon shockwaves generated in the atmosphere to damage aircraft when they explode, space-to-space missiles don’t have that luxury. To compensate, Pythons have an enhanced high-explosive blast-fragmentation warhead. A specially scored shrapnel jacket surrounds the explosive warhead that produces deadly projectiles while maximizing atmospheric drag. That way, the shrapnel’s orbits will rapidly decay if it misses the target.
Weight: 380 lb
Length: 11.5 ft
Diameter: 7 in
Span: 10 in
Warhead: 40 lb high explosive blast-fragmentation
Engine: High-performance vectored thrust rocket motor
Guidance System: Active radar, Inertial Guidance System
Delta V: Mach 4
Range: 600 miles
Game Stats: PL: 5; Dmg 4d12(26), Ballistic; Critical: 17-20; RoF: Single; Min Ship Size: Gargantuan; Purchase DC: 22 (launcher + 8 missiles), or 20 (8 missiles); Restriction: Mil (+3) |
Post by Michael Billard // Jul 6, 2008, 5:18pm
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Michael Billard
Total Posts: 125
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More images, just got the SIM-1A missile done. The Rotary Launcher is just a placeholder for now.
http://www.spellflight.com/images/YF-19Wip38.jpg
http://www.spellflight.com/images/YF-19Wip39.jpg
http://www.spellflight.com/images/YF-19Wip40.jpg
http://www.spellflight.com/images/YF-19Wip41.jpg |
Post by Jack Edwards // Jul 6, 2008, 7:31pm
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Jack Edwards
Total Posts: 4062
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I'm not really sure what tank-girl adds to the model. But, the rocket array is a good addition.
Also the textures and lighting may be a bit too bright. The textures could also use some grunging to break up their repetitiveness. |
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