Pretty neat to see a full sized Hornet made for this year's Star Citizen CitizenCon! (Pictures from Citizen Erased) It may not surprise you that this is not the first time Chris Roberts has built a full sized spaceship! Let's go back...
Wing Commander IV had a full sized version of the previously all-CG shuttle introduced in WC3! It's used for several big scenes. Some folks have criticized the shuttle set as a big waste of money but I would argue that those people aren't fun.
But that wasn't the only real ship they built for Wing Commander IV! They also constructed two cockpits, the first being the Dragon seen in the intro:
And the second was the Hellcat V! It was mostly shot without the canopy bubble which is too bad because it looks very cool on. Like the Hornet, this is a ship that was never designed to be constructed physically!
They also redressed the Dragon cockpit to use as a Banshee for one cutscene; Just had to change the light!
The Dragon cockpit survived Wing Commander IV's second unit shot and was reused for the 'proof of concept' video for the Wing Commander movie. This was shown at SXSW in 1998!
Chris wasn't happy with the technology available at the time and so wanted more than just the front of a ship for the movie's hero vehicle. As a result, eight surplus Saudi Lightning jets were turned into full Rapier fighters!
And a Canberra bomber's nose became the Confederation's Broadsword bomber!
Oh! And paperwork suggests they also constructed a Dralthi cockpit for the movie but it has never been seen.
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