Guardians of the Galaxy Nova Corps Starblaster

[MortalDanger]

Nova Corps Starblaster

From Guardians of the Galaxy

Greetings!

I really enjoyed Guardians of the Galaxy and I really fell in love with the Nova Corps' Starblaster. Its the yellow one with 8 wings. So I set out to recreate it in KSP. After many, many attempts and styles, this is what I came up with.

It has collapsible wings via Infernal Robotics and flies really well with SAS on. The wings were wobbly at first so I had to download Quantum Struts to lock them in place - can't use regular struts because then the wings won't move. The first version handled better than the final (see below). It has problems, I think, because the center of thrust is so close to the CoM and CoL. Additionally, the mass is not distributed well and the CoL is infront of the CoM (to compensate for the CoT being so close). I tinkered and tinkered, and eventually settled for a small control surface on the nose which helped stability. It does fly well as long as SAS is on and always rights itself after losing control. I'm no good in the SPH, maybe someone else can figure it out.

Ugly - no!

But it was too big, I really didn't like the body of it. The Nova from the movie is very...concise, this was too bulky. Additionally, the engine stuck out too far. The Nova in the movie has the engine right next to where the wings fold. It handles better, though, because the center of thrust is further back.

So this is what I ended up settling with. Smaller, body looks better, the engine is strong and set back properly. I added the circular intake for aesthetics to block the view of some of the innards.

Caveat:

-Cheats required. There was really no way to make this craft without infinite fuel. So you'll have to turn that on. (shift+f12)

Download

>>> Craft File <<<

Special Instructions:

-SAS is pretty much required.

With SAS on the Nova is very maneuverable. I had trouble making it less wonky, but maybe you can figure it out. The center of thrust is way too close to the CoM and CoL, so I had to move the CoL to infront of the CoM. It's not that big of a deal because of all the control surfaces and wings. Even if you do lose control it naturally rights itself.

-Atmospheric flight requires the wings to be centered (open).

-Takeoff/Landing must be vertical (obviously). In SPH rotate the Nova vertically, the wings will hold it upright. Turn on SAS, liftoff, rotate. To land, close the wings otherwise the control surfaces will break off.

-RCS is in the body.

Controlling the Wings

The wings are locked in place with quantum struts, otherwise they wobble too much. You must unlock the struts, move the wings, then relock the struts.

Action groups

[1] Toggle quantum struts

[2] Collapse wings - Press again to stop motor.

[3] Center (open) wings - Press again to stop motor.

ie: Close: 1-2-2-1. Open: 1-3-3-1.

Mods Required:

Infernal Robotics

KW Rocketry

Quantum Struts

Space Planes Plus

Unofficial B9 Repack

TweakScale

Parts:

KW - The Engine. Couldn't find a good one. Settled on a KW one. At first, the Poodle was great, but as I stated above, it was too short and I need something longer.

SP+ - The wings. Not really any other good ones.

B9 - The body, ie: the little white circular thing after the cockpit (can't remember what it's called).

Tweakscale - Moving parts around, not sure if you actually need it or not.

Edited August 6, 2014 by MortalDanger