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So the Bloodlust is one of the long running fighter designs I've played with. The idea behind the type was to have something very small, short ranged, but extremely fast. Basically a pair of engines with a tiny cockpit between them. What I came up with looked like this :



I did a blender version of this which came out reasonably well... alas, whilst I still have the blender file the actual renders seem to have been lost along the way. Well I've gotten a little better at blender since then, so I set out to rework the blend from scratch. In the process I figured I would cut down the size of the central fighter element. Here's how it's looking :



And a comparison between new and old...



I'm going back and forth on this, to be honest. I keep thinking that the central fuselage is now too short, and it makes it look almost cartoony. The original fuselage was 7.6 m long, the new one is 4.8 m - both figures not including the various things sticking out of the nose. That's still quite a good hunk of ship, I suppose...

I'm also testing out the option of hanging a couple of fuel tanks under those engine nacelle struts, which looks kind of cool. Maybe a later version of the type could even carry a couple of bombs under there.

Another change I'm contemplating is that originally there were going to be gun fighters and missile fighters, with the Bloodlust being one of the former. But now I'm thinking that the guns could just be gun pods that you attach to hardpoints, and missiles could be hung there too. Again, this could be something that later versions of the type do. But maybe I'll drop the whole idea of having different types in the first place, I dunno.

Two new views. I'm warming up to the short fuselage...

So here's the Bloodlust as a missile-armed fighter. Basically a paid of AIM-9 Sidewinder equivalents. Stuck some buildings in the background for a little context, too.

Also modified the Astronaut suit I use into a pilot's suit and stuck some hangars and a control tower in the background. I didn't create the astronaut in the first place, nor the bee nose art.

I'd be tempted to make it longer and shorter in height, so that underneath the main cockpit it can carry either several smaller anti-fighter beam weapons (with lots of ammo), or a larger anti-small craft weapon with fewer shots but more punch to each. This would be in addition to the existing beam weapon.

This way it can either be fitted to deal with dogfighting craft similar to it in size, or operate in packs to deal with small craft that are larger than it in size.

You could even remove the under-body gun and replace it with a missile attachment, so it could carry a small antishipping missile to be launched at close range to its target. If it gets targeted by enemy small craft, it jettisons the antishipping missile and dogfights them.

Sneaky commanders will often mix a few fighter-trap packs into the antishipping strike. his is where instead of carrying an anti-shipping missile, the Bloodlust fighter carries several anti-fighter missiles instead, and fires them into an enemy fighter squadron trying to close.

In universe, there's a very limited amount you an do to make it shorter because of the way the internals are arranged.



The bottom of the cockpit module is only about four inches above the power systems - and there's stuff that needs to fit in there still.

So basically the only way to reduce the height any more is to recline the pilot's seat and bring the roof down lower. And even if you do that there's no way to bring the sensor package any lower.

However, I'm playing with the idea of hanging fuel tanks under the nacelle struts.



I hadn't planned for those hardpoints to be able to handle anything but fuel tanks, but I suppose you could package more cannon in pods and hang them there.

Anti ship missiles would be pushing it for these though; they're too small and short ranged for that kind of mission. They're designed strictly for short endurance interception of the other guy's attack craft.

There are other fighters with longer legs and more payload, including attack craft that make these things look like midgets...

Bloodlust in spaaaaaace!

Chatting to your ground crew before a mission.



No, the pilot is not a midget. He's actually six feet tall without his space suit. The women are Turgrans - white hair and very pale skin is characteristic, as is solid red eyes. And being over seven feet tall.