New Tiger's Claw Design Incorporates It All (January 13, 2006)

ChrisReid

ChrisReid

Super Soaker Collector / Administrator
There's a new Bengal in the works. Lars is attempting to merge elements from different Tiger's Claw resources to create a unified interpretation of the famous strike carrier.
He began with the Wing Commander 1 version of the Claw and is now modifying it to reflect information gathered from the Wing Commander Movie and Academy. Since the initial rendering, the armor plating has been improved and windows have been added to the sides. Fighter launch ports and torpedo tubes have also been recently implemented.







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I am mostly searching for some kind of examples for the armor plating and other details. I have made a simple render and done some rough sketches with Photoshop for some of the ideas I had... still very basic.
Click to expand...
I like how from the perspective from the far side of the flight deck seems to be from WC1, but standing on the inside runway reminds me of a scene from the movie.


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Original update published on January 13, 2006
 
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Thanks for bringing this up.

I could still need some brainstorming about some aspects of the project.
For example the fightertubes. While it would be better placed under the hangar, we see in Acadamy that the entire hangar is placed into the down pointing wingthings.
I am torn between the two positions. Under the fighterbays it would be a logistical better spot instead of transfering the fighters through the ship to the other tube placement.
Other thing is the torpedo placement. The movie-claw has 40 toptubes in the front. (According to the diagram of the movie claw the sidelunchers are missiles and not torpedos).
I could without big problems house 6-8 tubes but for 40 I would propably have to change the shape more then I like. I am quite focused upon the Claw Marks version.
The armorplating you see in one of the pics was an early try...I didn't realy liked it so I am also open for suggestions.

What I would also be interested in is some pics from the HDTV version...maybe I can get some inspiration or details that would help me.
I am special interested in the movie hangar since it was the only part of the ship that I realy liked a lot ^_^
 
Yeah, HD pictures of the ships would be pretty useful for this sort of thing. I addressed the missiles/torpedo tubes in the other thread. I think you're safe combining them in this case. I don't think you have a problem with the fighter launcher placement along the side middle of the hull there. Academy seems to have two types: a series of several trapezoid bay doors and also a wider rectangular launch port. We see side-facing ports in a similar location to where you put them there.
 
Good then I will keep the sidefacing bays and shape them like we have seen in the WC1 starting sequenz and add some blastdoors to them for better protection.
 
I don't think so, though I could be wrong - as far as I can recall, the only reference to Hellcats in that timeframe is the WCA Hellcat, which (ignoring the fact that it's not necessarily a Hellcat) only ever appears in the simulator, never in reality.
 
A Hellcat appears in the last episode of the show, too --in the last scene as part of the debris field of fighters destroyed during the attack on the dreadnaught.

As for the 'not a Hellcat' theory... it's a fun *idea*, b ut it's really not supported by anything -- they were clearly meant to be Hellcats (and, of course, even if the theory were eventually retconned into continuity... you could just apply the same argument to whatever ships are rendered in these pictures).
 
The Hellcat seen in WCA could also be an earlier variant of the Hellcat V used in WC3. (similar looking design, but has some other significant differences that warrant a different variant number)

Is the date known for the first Hellcat V to come out of production?
 
If the date was known, we wouldn't be discussing the "it might not be a Hellcat" theory, since we'd know for sure.
 
The Hellcat wasn't in their for any big meaning. It was the first fighter I rendomly selected when looking for a fighter for size comparsion and to have anything at all in the hangar/runway.

So don't think to hard about the Hellcats in that pic. Its just a placeholder to have something to look at.
 
Uh... and Chris is telling you that both Hellcats and Bengal-class carriers, including the Tiger's Claw, were around during the WC1 time period.
 
Iceblade said:
The Hellcat seen in WCA could also be an earlier variant of the Hellcat V used in WC3. (similar looking design, but has some other significant differences that warrant a different variant number)

Is the date known for the first Hellcat V to come out of production?
Click to expand...

In short, why not a Hellcat II, (or III)?
and what about the Wildcat Idea?
 
Let's look at how crazy the Wildcat idea is: the producers meant to put a Wildcat in WCATV... so they put a ship that looks exactly like a Hellcat in it and expect people to figure out that it's actually not a Hellcat... huh?

As for why not a Hellcat II or III, well... If you looked at the movie Rapier, but you didn't know its name... would you guess that it is in fact the Rapier I? In other words, there's no reason we should expect the Hellcat IV to look anything like the Hellcat V.

Variants of the same design in the WCU are designated with letters (F-44A and F-44G are the same design, but different variants, for example), while roman numbers designate totally different designs (Thunderbolt I is presumably the P-47, Thunderbolt II is presumably the A-10, Thunderbolt VII or whatever is the WC3 space fighter).
 
Let's look at how crazy the Wildcat idea is: the producers meant to put a Wildcat in WCATV... so they put a ship that looks exactly like a Hellcat in it and expect people to figure out that it's actually not a Hellcat... huh?
Click to expand...

There's an even more fundamental problem: Academy premiered two years before Action Stations was published... so the concept of the Wildcat didn't exist for anyone to base a ship on.
 
So suddenly the brand new BuShips multi-role medium starfighter is just as old as the fighter it was destined to replace (Rapier II).
 
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