This might be the single oldest creation I've posted here, originally being made some time around 2002.
I posted it to MOCpages in February 2006, but it didn't really get high praise, and I can see why.
So, let's discuss the elephants in the room: the wings and the landing gear.
There are no wings.
Never were, atleast not on this first version with red trim.
It looked better without them when I built it way back then, and I'm not going to argue with an aesthetic choice superseding logic (AKA Rule of Cool).
The sensibilities of my pre-teen self were at play, and I have to be forgiving for that, what else can I do?
The landing gear are in some of the shots, but not others -- where do they go?
I don't know, or care, and ultimately I got rid of them entirely as there simply wasn't anywhere for them to be hidden away.
I figured it was just overcomplicating what should be a simple deisgn, aerodynamics be damned.
The inspiration for the base fighter comes directly from
6544, one of my favorite childhood sets.
Later on, I would draw parallels to fighters like the F-104 (particularly the NF-104A with the rocket engine for training pilots for X-15 flights), and the SR.177.
However, when I built it, I wasn't really aware of either yet.
I liked this fighter enough to keep it around, still assembled for 20 years.
It's been modified more than a few times to improve angles, color matching, structure, details, etc, but it's still using many of the same original pieces.
First, the
Wolverine CR and later a
revised version using most of the same parts.
Ultimately, I've learned to stand by my less realistic design choices if they're fun.