Nighthawk: a RU150 Project || VIDEO RELEASED

I like this teaser!

[mkingy]

Immediately make me think of stormrunner... not a bad thing!

Best with the rainbow lights up like Monster!

Nighthawk's Layout Revealed

Well, here it is folks, the final layout for my Roundup 150 Project. I'm going to spam this page with images, and then I'll leave some commentary down below. (Note the colors are not final, this is just a "leaked" version of the layout (i.e the Valravn leak lol)










Designer's Notes:

Nighthawk was primarily inspired by StormRunner, Xcelerator, and Stealth. This coaster was never intended to be a lengthy coaster; it was designed to be a short but high-speed ride that got progressively more intense as the ride went on. Its elements are a blend of many coasters styles, from Expedition GeForce to Nefeskesen, and so are the support styles, but I think as an overall package it works really well.

The climax or high point of Nighthawk is the second to last element, which I like to call... *cue Six Flags announcer voice* the World's First REVERSE Step-Under Flip!!!1!!1!. But seriously though, this ride was inspired by a recent trip to Six Flags Discover Kingdom, when I looked at the Joker's first element and said to myself, what would happen if Intamin had that idea first, and did it backwards? As a fun side note, I stole a little bit of the idea from Fury 325's turnaround, and the element actually looks like an ampersand (&) from certain angles, as seen in the third to last picture at the bottom.

Anyways, if you got this far in the post, you're awesome. Comments are always appreciated!

-JetstreamCoasters

[Turbo]

I really like this! Are there any "slow" parts to the layout or is it all consistent?

[TTD03]

Damn. This looks fantastic.

^Thanks man!

Turbo wrote:

I really like this! Are there any "slow" parts to the layout or is it all consistent?

Kinda... I'd consider the overbank over the station to be a slower moment of the coaster, because it rides almost identical to the overbanks on Xcelerator, which I didn't find to be very thrilling.

But I wasn't too worried about including a break in the layout because Stormrunner is only a little bit shorter and definitely does not have any kind of slow sections!

[Turbo]

Gotcha, that should be fine If you're going for realism the supports seem a little thick in certain areas.

^^ You're giving us this "funtastic" layout!

Decided to do one last teaser before I start with construction updates. Yes, those are the actual track colors, and yes, those are actual lights attached to the front of the train. The "hood" of the train was designed to resemble an F-117 Nighthawk (where this coaster got it's name), and I'm well underway with a full stealth/aviation theme for the coaster, which I will begin to show soon. As always, I'd love to hear your feedback!

[Turbo]

My jaw would have dropped if I wasn't so tired!

nice!

[mkingy]

Love the lighting arrangment - its going to look dead cool in the dark!

We're so proud of you!

[Coasterkidmwm]

Trains look neat. Are those lights or a reflection?

Yep, those are lights! 14 of them, to be exact, attached to the hood which is attached to the train. Took forever to line them up right haha, but I think it was worth it

I appreciate your inclusion of the banana roll.

^ Yeah, I agree with you, because Banana Roll seems to be a "powerful" Cobra Roll!

Construction Update!

This project isn't dead! Far from it, actually... Sorry for the lack of updates!



This is the most complex station I've ever made for a NL project, and I think it's worth it. It was surprisingly tricky to get realistic entrance and exit paths for a double station though.



I tackled the lighting options with this station, and made some pretty decent florescent-style lights. I also figured out the keyframe animation, so yes, those fans do spin.



Nighthawk's ride sign. Simple, but effective I think.



Part of Nighthawk's queue. More lights and ride storage lockers.



Across the way from Nighthawk is Vertigo (pardon the cliche name). It's the default Frisbee ride that's been recolored.



A shot of vertigo and Nighthawk as they are currently.



Speaking of flat rides, substantial progress has been made on Ripcord, my 200ft Intamin drop tower. (thanks to Joshua Velez for the amazing ride!)



But of course, Nighthawk couldn't be all by itself! Behind Vertigo, across from Nighthawk, I've included an Arrow suspended coaster named Ace. And that's all I'll say about it for now








Final Notes:
At this point, about 95% of the physical modeling is done. I'm going to work this weekend on texturing and adding smaller details, and should be on schedule to start filming early next week, which should give me at least two week to make a video. As always, I'm more than happy to hear your feedback! Let me know if you have an criticisms, suggestions or otherwise!

[mkingy]

Really looks well put together - I imagine this might already be part of your final 5% of modelling but don't forget the benches, bins and other park furniture

[herman116]

Wow, the whole area is already looking pretty great!

[Turbo]

I really like this!

Well, here it is guys, my final entry for Roundup 150, which ended up taking 6th place! I had a ton of fun making this project, and as soon as I do some optimizations I'll be releasing it here on the site.

Click the link below to watch the video!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szZsY_oW4oY&t=14s