(WIP) Federal aircraft

Turboprops of the year 198X: outmoded, but defiant.

These boxes are the same size as those used for infantry. I wanted a way to depict fixed-wing aircraft that would keep to the semi-diegetic nature of the army books- that is, something that felt like a page out of a recognition manual. In the middle is an abortive attempt at a more dynamic shot, like what I do with infantry. I quickly dropped it- it felt pretty unfitting and the aircraft didn't fit very well in the box to begin with.

The overhead shots that I settled on felt like the most natural way of going about it- like aircraft ID playing cards (see below).

Front and side views were dispensed with so that I could fully fill the box with the aircraft, in the same way as vehicles. This might pose a problem with certain features in the future (e.g. gull wings), but that's something I think I can get around with judicious lighting and line placement.

As with infantry and helicopters, scale isn't consistent between aircraft- it's just whatever fills the box. (Vehicles are consistently scaled, but then they get the most generous box size. I didn't want to give their box to aircraft, because side-on shots mean you lose out on most of the wing shape and thus the silhouette as a whole.)

This is the first time I've really tacked fixed-wing aircraft in a long time- not since late 2022's quartet on faction fighters. This was an exploratory series; I wanted to figure out the basics of each four factions' air support and posters seemed like a fun way of going about it. In retrospect the quality is pretty low- freehanded perspective being what it is- but I'm still fond of these.

The Rufe is a dinosaur with a rocket booster up its tail. It's a better-armored tub than most, but in the jet age it can only rely on its ubiquity and missile payload. Naturally, the Federal weakness is their air assets- they lean pretty heavily on ground air defense to even the odds.

I wanted Federal aviation to have a last-gen sentimentalism around it; they could easily replace their turboprops, but they refuse to do it. An aircraft must have a windmill; anything else is unacceptable. They strike me as a culture that still uses (massively-upgraded) steam locomotives for the same aesthetic reasons. Simultaneously it had to be at least a little practical; they're not flying P-51 analogues around anymore. As usual: an odd or silly premise, then a serious execution.

The two-engined turboprop you saw above is a Hardnose. It's a light bomber- once meant for low-altitude nuclear work- that represents the cheapest "bomb truck" available to the Federals. Both it and the Rufe draw heavily from parts of the Tu-95: its massive engines felt appropriately Federal- strategic bomber parts cut down into lighter craft, but retaining their heft.

The Mist: ground-controlled, high-speed, rocket-assisted launch. I wanted it to serve as an example of advanced lupar tech: something they couldn't produce in great numbers. As an expensive counterbalance to the Federal swarms it had to be a superior platform, but not too advanced. I settled on a swing-wing design since it reminded me of 70s frames like the F-14.

The Rocinante: a hyper-tuned, flash custom nag. When I take another crack at Santagrine aircraft I'll probably redesign it from the ground up; I feel like the game has enough antiquated units already, and air units (both rotorcraft and fixed-wing) are supposed to be this faction's strong point.

In either case, it'll be a fighter able to outrun air-to-air missiles in a dead sprint.

The Blindsight: an F-15 analogue and one of the few genuinely modern fighters relative to the game's real-life decades of inspiration. Headless and deadly. When I redo it it probably won't look as much like a xenomorph, but I want to retain the avian sleekness of modern fighter jets. Needless to say this thing will be the best fighter in the game.