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I have worked on a few with basic Blender animations, however I'm not experienced in metarigs or bones enough to make the animations efficiently. I need someone like you who knows how to apply the poses and rigs. I've been working on other craft such as a full-size transforming SDF-1 as well as Zentradi/Meltrandi scenery objects/obstacles. I'd like to switch focus to the cockpit and internal switches. More to come.

Update Leg update efeca61d991818d2905a4de923bc440b.mp4

Well, that trailer certainly met expectations. That is to say, it's made the series look like a typical Filoni project... mindless fanservice wrapped around Filoni's masturbatory self-obsession and belief that The Clone Wars was the be-all, end-all of Star Wars. Original ideas need not apply. This is the third series where Maul has a story arc revolving around him attempting to groom an impressionable young padawan for his sinister ends. It's a good thing Kenobi put him in the ground permanently in Rebels, he was probably on some kind of list with a track record like that.

As promised, we're continuing our look at Dr. Wu's itty bitty Insecticons with a review of Claw Worm, their version of Shrapnel. And here he is next to his Legacy counterpart. Once again, he's roughly knee-high to a shorter Deluxe. Let's zoom in. In some ways, he's actually more cartoon accurate than the official figure. He's thighs are Sunbow smooth, he doesn't have any of the random black on his hands and biceps, and unlike Grasshooper there's no random silver on his chest. The big deviation is going to be his bug legs. The ones on the sides of his robot legs, which swivel and can be positioned differently but never moved out of the way. They simply aren't present on the animation model. Although they're arguably not as noticeable, the small legs on the backs of his shoulders are equally absent from the animation model. Shrapnel does have legs on his forearm, as does Claw Worm, but Shrapnel's should be straight behind his fists while Claw Worm's are molded to stick out to the side at an angle. But hey, bucking the Dr. Wu norms, Claw Worm does come with a gun! Basically everything I said about Grasshooper's applies here... the sculpt is a little mushy. In fact, the G1 toy and the Legacy toy both have gaps between the barrel and the fins on the sides that aren't present on Claw Worms. Once again, though, this thing is tiny, actually a bit smaller than Grasshooper's. I'd imagine that including those gaps would have structurally compromised the end result. Claw Worm's head swivels, no tilt. Getting at his head can be a chore at all, what with the big horns flanking it and the fact that it's smaller than an up-popped kernel of popcorn. Shoulders are ball joints that swivel and move a bit under 90 degrees (or, if he's arms are relaxed at his sides, only about 45 degrees before the bug legs on his shoulders collide with the horns). His ball-jointed elbows bend 90 degrees and pull double-duty as his bicep swivels. No articulation in his hands or wrists, but his waist does swivel. His ball-jointed hips can go 90 degrees forward, backward, and laterally. No thigh swivels. His knees bend 180 degrees, and he has no foot or ankle articulation. As with Grasshooper, Claw Worm's gun doesn't peg into his fist, it clips around it. Claw Worm's transformation is kind of simplified compared to the Legacy toy or even the G1 toy. His horns fold up and cover his face; unlike the Legacy toy, the covers do not move separately. His waist swivels, but then instead of collapsing his robot legs they fold over at the knees. His arms tab into his sides, and that's about it. No legs to fold out from his back. Which, you know, is kind of a shame. Shrapnel's animation model was rather faithful to the cartoon, so the legs on the back of his forearms should be the rear legs, and the front four legs should fold out from his back. Instead, we have the front four legs as fixed, molded protuberances from Claw Worm's robot arms, and the rear legs are the one's on the swivels on his robot legs. I wonder, though, if it's again kind of a structural thing? For the legs to unfold from his back they'd have to be hinged, which would likely require a pin to go through them. On a larger toy, no problem, but pins don't really get smaller with the rest of the toy. So, the smaller the toy, the proportionally larger the hinges have to be. Also, because his legs fold over instead of collapsing, he's got visible robot feet just behind the yellow instead of sticking off the back, and the rounded lumps on his knees are visible on a surface that's normally flat. Oh, and once again there's no storage for the weapon in alt mode. Now, I point out these discrepancies because it's my job (that I assigned myself and don't get paid for), but I do feel like we're nitpicking fairly minor details that can be overlooked on a reasonably inexpensive figure that's only about two inches tall. The fact is, Claw Worm, like basically all of these Dr. Wu figures, is a bite-sized delight. I continue to adore the fact that we are getting G1 characters in Micromaster scale. Yes, they make official Combiner and Titan-class characters look way huge even more effectively than Hasbro's (abandoned) Core-class figures, but even in absence of that it's just fun to have simple, tiny figures to fiddle with. I'm all in favorite of Dr. Wu doing the entire Sunbow cast. So yeah, I'd recommend checking out Claw Worm.

That could get expensive. Last time I looked into having a professional translation done, it was for Master File and the price was astronomical... around $25K/volume.

Macross's official timeline has been updated several times over the years since the original Super Dimension Fortress Macross series aired to reflect changes in real world history after the 80's... like the aforementioned replacement of references to West Germany and the Soviet Union with Germany and Russia or linking the VF-1's development to design proposals like the Super Tomcat 21 that didn't exist until the early 1990s. No such conflict occurred in the Macross timeline, though. That's a Robotech-ism. The conflict in the backstory of the original Super Dimension Fortress Macross series is a period called the Unification Wars. The Unification Wars was a period between 2000 and 2008 in which a large number of small, regional conflicts erupted around the world as reaction to the damage caused by the Alien Starship 1's crash and the nations of the world moving to establish a world government (the Earth Unification Government).

Maul died in Episode I. Everything your eyes saw indicated death. The retcon excuse of his hate for Obi-Wan kept him alive is the dumbest thing. Barely knew eachother. During the entire duel Obi-Wan wasn't a threat to Maul. He got cut in half because he underestimated Obi-Wan. Somehow During the time he was falling down that shaft he realized Obi-Wan was his most hated enemy and managed to think straight enough to magnify all of his hated? I

Omigosh! He's almost small enough to ride in the original Insecticon's cockpit!

The collapse of the Soviet Union is a good marker for divergence.I know they've gone back and revised "Soviet Union" into "Russian Federation", but it is a huge change in the world they couldn't predict or account for.

If you’re looking at the vent on the side of the leg, it’s like that in the show. The battroid picture you posted is from the series and the other modes in the same picture are from the movie, you can tell from the skull markings on the boosters I figured that since there’s already the battroid pic with the vents here’s some from the other modes with the same vent. Figured it would be easier to see in this color. As far as the actual details inside the area, it’s tough to find any pictures that show the tv versions with much detail in there, the movie one puts three circular thrusters in there, while the tv one kinda looks just flat. Not sure if the vent kinda details were added or not because it’s tough to see in screen pauses, but the tv version doesn’t have the circular thrusters

i guess i have to get the next greatest gpu from nvidia /s

Looks bad ass but we know how it ends, lol.

I'm so there! Say what you haters will say, but this is SW fun! I Just realized, this is more than likely the making of Darth Talon..! Legacy

Yeh....I'm there!

Very Very Slow Progress in verifying each blocks and transformation (Contact, Collision, Rotation points)

Hey, everyone! I'm coming to you all with a request for assistance, because I'm at the start of a huge new project, and need help to make it the best it can be. Specifically, I'm working with (paying) TrafalgarLog, a prolific Gundam translator, for a full translation of Macross the Ride, serialized from 2010-2011 in Dengeki Hobby Magazine. Log has the print bound versions of both 1 and 2, but we'd like to include the specific Chapter Illustrations (of which one is pictured below). However, these are only in black and white in the print versions, and to our understanding were only in Dengeki magazine and possibly their webpage. We only have 1 and 3. Does anyone here have old Dengeki issues with these illustrations and would be willing to scan them, or has scans already, or knows where scans or digital uploads could be found? https://bsky.app/profile/trafalgarlog.bsky.social (The translator's bsky, to provide some indication I'm not just bullshitting. I'm very committed and serious about this.)

Totally missed the mark.

I’ve been checking every night for a couple days at the usual spots and haven’t seen the preorders open yet, but this morning I saw it at BBTS and got a couple since it seemed like a decent price for them since they upcharge. I was kinda expecting closer to, if not more than a hundred bucks at U.S. stores, but was happy that it’s much lower than I expected and oddly enough seems sooner than most of the Japanese sites

Oh wow, that was quite a masking endeavor! Did you build that figure? It looks fantastic! So just mixing flat white with the flesh color, huh? I'm thinking... Perhaps I'm wrong, but I kinda like Rei being pinkish and Asuka being orangeish like in that photo, but I'm the last person to make a solid judgment on colors. So Papa Rat, fleshtones can be obtained with either fluorescent orange or fluorescent pink. It sounds weird, but that's what does it. Add in flat white with a bit of tan color to the shade you want. Different variations can be obtained too. In the picture below of the Eggplane Girl, to obtain that Chinese skintone with Mr. Color paints, I added Fluorescent Orange and Flat White to a base of Sandy Yellow. For the Nadia I'm working on that Tekering printed for me, I'm using Tamiya colors; Light Brown, Flat White, and Orange.

The VF-25 is such a good design. It was so unfair to the VF-31 to have to follow up on that. That said, I already have tons of the 1/72, from both Bandai and Hasegawa. I don't know if I need another, in a smaller scale, that's likely less nicely molded. (The YF-29 was a bit of a disappointment and soured me on this line's take on the newer designs.)

Update Alternative Arm Design, Superficial details, Decimated Pilot figure (not sure if it will actually fit, not much leg room)

IMO it's pretty great if you mix it with white.

@SteveTheFish Hey Thanks!

Mr. Color 111 and 112 are the easiest fleshtones to go with. Use 112 as the base and 111 on top. Tamiya's flesh color is not good for anime figures at all, so stay away from that. Mr. Color makes other fleshtone paints as well as Gaia Notes. I suppose Vallejo does too, but I am not familiar with that brand of paint. I have that same kit as well, but I haven't really looked at it yet. Go with a dark green first and then highlight it with the lighter green. I'm colorblind, so you'd be better following your own instincts with that. Or you can use dark green artist chalk to go over the recesses in the hair sculpt.

@SteveTheFish Thanks so much for the advice. I have some simple green degreaser I plan on using on the resin giving it a nice soak and a tooth brush scrub when the time comes for me to start the painting process. I’m excited for it. I’ll have to look up some tips on painting anime figures skin tones and hair shading. It did come with eye decals which is nice and convenient. 👁️‍🗨️👁️‍🗨️ @Big s 🤘horns up