totm june 2018 Work-in-Progress [WIP] Design Thread

[Fox Arcana]

Minmus Rex (name pending) has around 3000 Delta V in LKO, more than enough for Minmus, and carries up to 42 kerbals. She still has roughly 600-800 m/s worth of oxidizer even when you use both RAPIERs and NERVs to circularize, so maybe she can also tackle the Mun?

[Shadow dream]

I am working on my newest SSTO which is supposed to get me anywhere (orbit at least) and also be functional. I still have to sort out some issues, especialy TWR in space and other details, but so far it's nice to travel with her.

She is well built for atmospheric flight so far and has all means necessary to do a successful ISRU drilling. Her CoM is well balanced at all stages into the rear cargo bay. So if you want you can turn that bay into a  rover-bay or something.

I am especialy proud of the rudder design, because it is compact and has great surface control!

Current version link: https://kerbalx.com/Shadow_dream/Retaliator-ISRU

Spoiler

 

As Mods she needs " Mk2 Stockalike Expansion " and " Orbit Portal Technology [OPT] Spaceplane Parts (Legacy) ". I know, OPT is quite OP when it comes to engines, but her design needed slick engines to not overcrowd her rear. I limited myself to using two SCRAMJET engines for atmospheric flight to help her accieve orbit, from there on it's NERVs only.

As mentioned earlier her TWR in space is pretty bad yet, so landing on Ike was a challenge, but doable.

In her Cargo Bays she carries a converter unit, two small ore tanks, drills and a Survey Scanner. The drills and the Survey Scanner are two independent crafts, that way she is quite compact to handle. The drills can be docked on the docking port, which faces downwards (as seen on picture). It gives just enough ground clearence - but do NOT attempt do do atmospheric landings that way! ;-)

Survey Scanner can remain in Orbit, if needed. There is no benedit in doing so though.

Action Groups are listet at KerbalX.

 

Edit:

As Mod I also reccomend Interstellar Fuel Switch in order to alter LFO tanks into LF tanks. Gives you extra dV.

Edited March 24, 2019 by Shadow dream

[Servo]

For those of us building 1:1 replicas, structural panels are exactly 1x1m, meaning that you can grid out a .5 x .5 m grid (counting the cross in the middle as the .5) very easily in-game.

This can be combined with a simple image-edited grid on top of a scale drawing to make getting profiles right as easy as connecting the dots.

I've been working on a F/A-18 using this technique, and it makes getting silhouettes dead on rather easy. Filling them in is another story, so I've had to invent a novel technique or two to make it. This use of ramp intakes is new as far as I know (if not, it was originally developed). This gets the color nicer than the previous technique I had considered, which was using the undersides of the intakes as a flat surface. Additionally, if you line up the textures right, you get these cool stripes.

Other tricks here: atmo-spectric variometers make for a nice cockpit shape, and you can see how I'm getting the taper on the leading edge slats by having two different bases for the ailerons.

[Fox Arcana]

I went back and did some more tweaking. Unfortunately doesn't have as much oxidizer after circularizing with RAPIERs and NERVs, now, but it should still be fully Minmus capable, as long as you can bring low-TWR spacecraft to Minmus. As for Mun landings, I'm not so sure.

Nonetheless, Minmus Rex, now renamed Iris, will most likely be seeing distribution by AAAE shortly.

[Triop]

I need more power for my mount Kraken climb.

Upgrading to 6 batteries, 4 fuelcells and 2 assist rockets.

Wish me luck . . .

[Triop]

It's a tuner.

[Kronus_Aerospace]

How to make an Ultra Detailed replica more detailed? Add lettering!

[Phantomic]

@Triop I've Come to Bargain!

and i'v brought a drop tank lakester.

for the uninformed, drop tank racers were made from surplus drop tanks and were/are a favorite for hot rodders looking for a speed record, which for these, is currently 193 mph, about 78 m/s

[sturmhauke]

2 hours ago, Phantomic said:

@Triop I've Come to Bargain!

and i'v brought a drop tank lakester.

for the uninformed, drop tank racers were made from surplus drop tanks and were/are a favorite for hot rodders looking for a speed record, which for these, is currently 193 mph, about 78 m/s

Really, what could be more kerbal than turning an airplane fuel tank into a racer?

[Triop]

6 hours ago, Phantomic said:

@Triop I've Come to Bargain!

and i'v brought a drop tank lakester.

for the uninformed, drop tank racers were made from surplus drop tanks and were/are a favorite for hot rodders looking for a speed record, which for these, is currently 193 mph, about 78 m/s

That is awesome, I know about the droptank history. American racing has a great and rich history, from bootleggers to modern street racing.

Is it driveable or does it tip over easily ?

[Phantomic]

1 hour ago, Triop said:

That is awesome, I know about the droptank history. American racing has a great and rich history, from bootleggers to modern street racing.

Is it driveable or does it tip over easily ?

not really, it's got a quite low CG and a lot of camber but when it does it flips the heck out because you're going above 30 at that point

[Triop]

10 hours ago, Phantomic said:

for the uninformed, drop tank racers were made from surplus drop tanks and were/are a favorite for hot rodders looking for a speed record, which for these, is currently 193 mph, about 78 m/s

Sorry for going off topic, I'll let myself out . . .

Edited March 28, 2019 by Triop

[Mignear]

Studied the designs of some great creators and decided to apply what I learned from it.

[Triop]

Working on a new Rat Rod, ready for a first test drive.

[Triop]

This thing is great, smooth steering, a bit loose in the back in high speed corners, but that can be solved by learning the car better.

Really happy with it, why did you change the roof ? Aerodynamics ?

EDIT: This post was for @NBDesigns , who tuned my design, somehow I've posted it here by accident . . .

Edited March 28, 2019 by Triop

[Phantomic]

i'v wanted to build a jug for months, but i wanted to do it justice so i'v held off due to needing a more powerful engine.

[Kronus_Aerospace]

Building an MD-11, yeah... that thing. Full stock as always.

Edited March 30, 2019 by Kronus_Aerospace

[Mignear]

The usual load test. Too low for the standard Mk1 sized drop tank. Shame, the undercarriage was wide.

Pretty ugly on the bottom side as well, always room for improvements.

[Phantomic]

4 hours ago, Mignear said:

The usual load test. Too low for the standard Mk1 sized drop tank. Shame, the undercarriage was wide.

Pretty ugly on the bottom side as well, always room for improvements.

that's a very nice looking plane, some people say the mauser C.96 is ugly but it's the ugly that looks awesome.

 

on an unrelated note i finished the razorback

the transition from radiator to air brake was quite difficult, especially factoring in the razorback so that suffers a bit graphically

[Triop]

Stripped down Rat Rod "Black Mail" and converting it into a monstertruck:

EDIT: Making progress, some adjustments and paint.

Still needs work.

 

Edited March 31, 2019 by Triop

[SVS]

What turret looks better?

 

Edited April 3, 2019 by SVS

[Castille7]

1 hour ago, SVS said:

What turret looks better?

The Tan one on the right I think!

[Phantomic]

WHY HAS NOBODY TOLD ME FAIRINGS DO THIS

[Mignear]

Slight adjustment of the landing wheels followed by another attempt to see if it would take a Mk 1 based belly tank. Sadly, no. The tank shifts the CoM lower than the CoT.

And its done. Time to move on to the next plane.

[Triop]

 

21 hours ago, SVS said:

What turret looks better?

I like the brown one.

 

 

This looks promising:

EDIT: TEST FLIGHT VIDEO:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqGL6D8SvTo&t

 

Edited April 3, 2019 by Triop