dialNforNinja

Could you render a video of this sexy beast spinning around in each mode and transforming? I'd love to see some of those mechanisms in action, but three digits before the decimal point is basically "nope forever" for me as far as being able to buy one is concerned. re-edit: on second thought, this is a better example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhfsUCDXasQ

Very nice. Do you have images in G/B mode for those last ones?

Thanks! It's not actually that hard to do as long as you have fighter and battroid modes in approximately the right orientation, but neither is it a perfect result and I suppose someone who hadn't picked up all the same PS/GIMP tricks wouldn't think it was so easy. Fortunately I got my hands on my first copy of Photoshop something like twenty years ago, so I've had a little while to let it sink in, so to speak. I've done a couple of the things from Macross Design Works too, one of the Air Cavarly Chronicles units and the alpha from the alpha/beta pair (nothing to do with MOSPEADA, aside from the name scheme and the two-unit gattai) though I think they might have been on the drive of the tablet that died and didn't get recovered. I like the design because it brings heavy energy weaponry to a variable fighter much sooner than the VF-27, and for the way you can interpret that head/turret to look like a derpy, almost Charlie Brown style face aside from having a narrow "jaw" instead of being completely round. Or, you could take it the other direction, go full on chuuni edgelord, and paint the thing up like a skull Still, if it's not actual Kawamori art, someone put a heck of a lot of effort into reproducing his style accurately. It would be cool to trace it in some vector art program so it could be scaled to arbitrary size as desired, and/or make some more views from existing VF-0 images.

So, some years ago I found just a few images, supposedly official art, of a Phoenix variant that has a big ol' antimissile laser on its back with the turret ball replacing the head. For some reason it didn't include hands, so I shooped on some from... I think the VF-11B art? Not sure, it was a while back, like I said. Looks like there's some missile and/or chaff tubes at the tail end, as well, and what are probably FAST-style verniers and fuel tanks on the legs, or maybe more missiles behind the little hatches? Anyway, today I dug them out again and finally got around to making a semi-decent approximation of GERWALK mode by combining B and F. Sorry, there's no higher resolution available. I kind of want to give it the VF-0D's delta wings too... Imgur gallery for those who don't have an MWF account and can't see attatched images: https://imgur.com/a/DLfPyTG

This isn't a game, it's a long demo. I wouldn't buy it even if I already owned a Vita. OTOH, maybe they're using it as a revenue stream/to maintain interest in the game market to support making something worthwhile, like the Trial Frontier demos leading up to M30? EVen if that's the case, I'm still not interested in it as presented, though.

Well back in the M7 days there was an entire Zentreadi-aesthetics version of both the Northampton and New Macross classes, though it's been long enough that I'm not sure if we actually saw them on screen (in the fleet that settled the Varauta system?) or if they only appeared in art books. Of course, with the digitally rendered series' being able to copy and paste instead of having someone draw and paint them all whether the same or different, it's not economical to spend production funds on more ship variants to appear in the background of fleet scenes when the ones they already have will fill the screen just fine.

I noticed that it looked very much like the jet form of the LV-7 from a tiny illustration in the interviews section of Macross Design Works, assuming that was the jet briefly shown in a Knight flashback. Both modes of that one are similar enough to the SV-262 aside from wing shape, where the intakes end up, and leg bulk that a connection seems rather likely. And dammit, I was sure I'd edited this to fix that gremlin a few minutes ago.

Well, it would be nice, but I wouldn't hold out much hope for more than 3-4 designs per series, discounting color and wing/head variations. There might be some cameos from craft that appeared in F, at least. As ever I hold out hope for a VF-4 on the screen and the reissue MIGHT hint at something in that direction even, but I'm not holding my breath on that one. I do wonder if there'll be another game to go with the new series... hopefully with more of the lineup from the PSP games that were omitted from M30 and at least instrumentals of the original music with the option to replace it en mass, again like the PSP games.

The more I look at them, the more the SV-262 steals my enthusiasm for the VF-31. Then again, that seems to happen a lot with the enemy variable devices - the SV-51 was exciting and new versus yet another humdrum VF-1 variant (even if IC it's the other way around with the Phoenix and the Valkyrie) in Zero, basically the same in M7 with the Varauta designs versus the again-too-much-like-a-VF-1 VF-11s combined with Basara being as annoying as if they gave whatsisname Minmei's preachy cousin his own show, again with the VF-27 versus 25s in F, even though they were actually just trim variations of each other... M+ was the only main line Macross property where I can say I liked the protagonist mecha more since SDFM-TV, where there were no enemy variable fighters. The Pheyos and Variable Glaug from the video games hold spots right after the VF-4, for that matter. Ah well, it's a good bet there'll be plenty of mecha porn for everyone in Delta with both sides having their own, much like Zero, so I'm sure I'll get by. One of the green/silver 262s is my most likely purchase out of this line, though... and still not the first things on my big-ticket buy list. (That pretty much goes "PS3 - HDMI TV - VF-4 reissue" at the moment )

How'd you finally manage it, Vepariga? I'm finally going to get the game, and my strategy is pretty much looking like "do mission to get the VF-1S Fokker version after finishing 3-4, grind it up to a decent level before continuing to 3-5, then Reaction Missile the hell out of it" from reading the thread & watching LP videos. Then I'll probably immediately go back to the islands area from the desert, to pick up level 2 blueprints... On a tangentially related note, can anyone tell me if the SV-51y Nora retains its massive FAE/nuke SP attack from the PSP games? It's hard to find so much as a glimpse of the game's version of the SV's, probably because all the LPs are either on a NG+ (which is fail for a Let's Play to begin with, since the point is a video walkthrough) who set the difficulty to Ultimate and therefore pretty much required to use late-game units to keep the videos moving, or VF-1 nostalgia freaks who fly it exclusively.

... if I could afford it, I would buy a full squadron of 12 of these and paint my dining room table as the deck of an ARMD to display them; the VF-4 is only below the VF-14 (M7 version, not M3)/FZ-109 family in my opinion - and good luck ever seeing an enemy unit get a toy unless they did a face turn or it's a recolor of something a protagonist flew.

Hardly a scoop, just a WAG based on character designs. I'm more apt to be the last to know than the first. Looking at the pictures some more, the VF-31 has some resemblance to the Motodyne Type-26 original VF I sketched up a while back, and posted some crappy scans of in this thread: http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=37412 Obviously not the snake-head cockpit or VF-27-ish secondary engine nacelles, but the wide delta central wing section and the FSW outboard panels are a lot like the 26 in oversweep configuration. I should get back to this design, I never did make a 3d model of it.

Hmmm... so, idol group ala AKB48 in robots, versus ... a boy band? They do all have that bishonen look, and the little fold quartz-y hair ornaments... And single barrel cannons as the integrated weapons on the idol group's units says "speaker pod cannon" to me, but then the only thing I didn't like about Macross 7 was Basara upstaging Mylene so I'm half looking for more in that vein. Heck, I did an SES equipped VF-27 fanart a while back ("VF-27kai SES Sandalphon") which I'm pretty sure I posted here at MWF. Still, no chance of me buying any VF-31 but the yellow or black ones, and not much chance of those really since I strongly dislike the backpack-angel-wings style. I considered modding my VF-25G model kit to have VF-19 style hip-wings instead of the little hip danglies separating from the leading edge, but the joints aren't up to supporting that kind of weight. Getting an SV-262 is a bit more likely (I really like the Draken) but it depends greatly on the other two modes. Edit to fix the unit name of the Sandalphon, but having found the thread the images have fallen to web rot, having once been hosted on Imageshack.

That's incorrect, actually - foreward swept wings are comparable to straight and rear swept wings in most flight regimes and actually have better stability as they near a stall, because they do so from the root out rather than the tip in like conventional swept wings, and therefore do not suddenly make the aircraft try to roll toward the one that stalls first to nearly the same degree. The Grumman X-29 was notoriously unstable in flight because it was designed to be, with short-coupled control surfaces and a center of balance well off from its center of lift. I myself flew a 6ft wingspan RC glider with a similar design to the Rutan Long-EZ but a FSW for several years, which I would horrify the other club members with by tossing it in a flat spin from one wingtip off the top of the hill, and then take control of after it corrected itself to stable flight. (It wouldn't ALWAYS do this, but as a foamie it was too durable to actually break on those occasions it crashed, until it piled in from a couple hundred feet due to radio failure on a gusty day.) I should reconstruct that plane, it was awesome and I have a car big enough to transport it again.

Anyone know where I can find one? Sure, I could make one myself, but all I'm really after is getting a certain custom paint scheme out of my head, so the 20hrs or so it typically takes me to do a variable fighter is a lot of effort to expend for such a relatively small result. Must be in a format Blender 2.5 will open.

I continued straight on from modeling the FW-190 and roughing out a possible Toggel (Zzard command mecha) to the alien mook suit, the Klogg, but found the thing a real fight to figure out all the mechanisms for, and kept switching back and forth between two basic designs as one of the parts cleared up... then I discovered that I had two workable designs, intended for the same unit but related only in that they have two main engines and three omnidirectional vector fins, and use the same super parts. Which one is better, do you think? The Klogg Naro is based directly on my original paper sketches, though the torso and shoulder transformation ends up completely different. It'll have to have a narrower head than planned, but not too badly so, (and that doesn't make the origin of the subtype name obvious AT ALL.) bare - red patches are for texture mapped missile racks with the space version super parts, that are mostly engine and fuel/remass the Klogg Jau, based on "a flying saucer would be cool, but I have to keep the cockpit ball in one piece this time." the Jau with atmosphere type super parts, which include a smaller engine and about the same amount of fuel as the space type, but have more mass due to the wings and swing hardware. Having aerodynamic lift and control surfaces more than makes up for the mass, as long as you are in fact inside an atmosphere, though the mecha can operate fairly well in its base configuration. The Jau is 2-3 components ahead of the Naro, able to transform the torso and shoulders. The barely-opened flap on the side of the shoulder is to let the arms hang down in its hybrid mode, or lift them up to the sides in full humanoid form. The super parts also include a part that straps onto the outer surface of each leg vector fin with chaff/flare launchers and another micro-missile rack on the top, each also including a fuel tank, though the top one is small and only meant to feed the vector fin microturbine, since they usually just run off small tanks built into the center part of the fin. The robot toes provide some vectoring for the main engines and there are small reaction thrusters distributed across the unit as well for fine adjustments, but most attitude control is intended to be done with the fins, which can swing 180 degrees forward for reverse thrust and have butterfly paddles in the exhaust ports on their tips to control yaw, pitch, and roll inputs. They also provide atmospheric stabilization like the feathers on a badminton shuttlecock if it's flying in base configuration. All of which is true for both of them. The main difference, aside from outline, is that the Naro's cockpit section has to tip down at the nose, how far I've not yet determined but hopefully only 15-20 degrees, during transformation, requiring an internal gimbaled pilot seat, while the Jau keeps the cockpit pod level, like all of the variable WW2 planes I've made. That alone is tipping me in favor of the saucer design, but I like the other one too... So I'm asking for opinions to help decide. Yes, again. Despite hardly getting any responses the other times. The replies I did get were useful, so I'm running a new one up the flagpole to see if anyone will salute.

Very nice JT! Worthy of Kawamori-sensei himself. I love LEGO, but don't have the funds for them these days. That's what got me started on the 3d models originally, and look at where that led! Nowif I could just finish one before the next starts knocking on the inside of my skull trying to get out...

Revised option parts: Boosted Equipment The black square at the center front is once again standing in for weapon ports to be texture mapped, in this case 3-2-3 row missile tubes, each stacked two deep. When the plane carries gunpods or bombs with these mounted, they go on the upper arm, close to the centerline in fighter mode and sort of Decepticon Seeker Jet-ish if left there (but needing to be spun around to face down the length of the arm) when transformed. Max Boost equipment Any bastard crazy enough to ride a beginning-of-the-game mook suit into the orbital and lunar battles of the last chapter will do it with a pair of these - same armament as standard, but more thrust and more fuel to feed it. Edit to avoid replying to myself AGAIN: Meet the Zzard! Or, well, a rough version of the Zzard Command Mecha, but it has the same body style as the master race/overlords that the Bluo are slave soldiers for. To be honest this "transformation" is somewhere between a joke and a crime in a game where they're the whole point, but it's kind of grown on me just because it looks as alien as the critter itself, and as a space-based species the Zzard have no spits to give about aerodynamics, they just strap on a few more engines and turn up the force fields.

Transformation video: The "second" gerwalk form with the wings fully folded is for use when walking on the ground or with equipment on the hardpoint just outboard of the diagonal hinge, where the RL versions had a second gun inside the wing (most models, anyway, some removed them to save weight.) I do have a basic "slope sided box plus two rocket bells" booster in the .blend file but didn't render it as it's visually uninteresting, and will therefore probably be modified or outright replaced for a final version.

Well... sort of. Everything physically fits together and COULD work, but it would have to be a much higher detail model to actually build in mechanical connections and have the smooth parts actually be smooth. It would be a whole new level of cool to have a physical model of one of my designs, but I have plenty on my hands with making the game-worthy models, and for that matter have yet to finish making texture maps for even one of them because I keep getting ideas for how to do the next model, rather than fiddle with finicky UV mapping etc. Plus, you know, the programming aspect. That's waiting on getting a fully textured model, and then setting up transforming versions and playable rigged characters in all three modes, so I have something to work with while modifying one of the game engine demos as a base. If I had a few million dollars to drop on the project, I might be able to pitch making toys for it to Takara or Hasbro, who have people that know the tricks and troubles and couldprobably knock a design out as fast as I make one of these low-fi ones. Otherwise... sigh. Worse yet, as cool as the idea is and these models are, I'd have to get licenses to use them from Lockheed, Messershitt, and whoever owns the Focke-Wulf and K-mumble-Japanese-company properties by now, unless being historical military hardware gives it an out. I don't think you could sell an action game about an alien invasion during WW2 as "for educational purposes!"

That's original-location, functioning retractable landing gear (including the tailwheel) and gear bay doors. You can also see some of the tightly packed innards through the open gear bays. Gerwalk! Jet-propulsion type 「LT」also available Next comes what's always my favorite part - animating the transformations, and adjusting the timing of what moves when so no parts are sliding through each other. Woo hoo!

Well, modeling is complete, and as it turns out the head doesn't look a thing like an aviator's cap and goggles. It does definitely look like a dude you'd step to the other side of the street to avoid, though, so I'll call it a win. Polycount is a little heavy at 1849, but I'd only expect to have this detail model used whe it's either the player unit or right in your face, with simpler models or just a HUD target ring sprite standing in most of the time. Here's a couple more type B images: You'll notice that nearly the entire "bubble" part of the canopy (the part that opens) is exposed - this is an intentional design desision, as with the placement of the engine and head the pilot would otherwise be blind to anything behind him. It also allows bailing out at any time (this from an era before explosive bolts and ejection seats, don't forget) or board/exit from a gantry in robot mode. Next, here's fighter form, showing off the scale fw190 shape and the huge number of parts I cut that poor plane into to rearrange it into a haumanoid: That's not shatter camo, it's just one color per part!

Hmm, that could actually work, with this much space to play with and the shape of the top, that's governed by the part of the aircraft it's made from. Given the lack of other ideas, it's at least a direction to start in.

That's right campers, I'm back, again, on yet another different computer, and I have a new half-finished 3d model I'm looking for an opinion on. This go round, it's the transforming FW-190, the first human-designed variable mecha to go into combat in this alt history. It's kind of hunchbacked and possibly vaguely Krogan-looking, but that's just how it works out having a single, front engine to deal with. Unlike the previous planes, the propeller does not retract on this one - and while it wouldn't be powerful enough and thearms stow whwre the fuel tanks went in aircraft form, it could in fact mount the original double-stack 14 cylinder radial. The question I have for you all, is what do do with the head? Usually I have to cram on into whatever little space I have left over, to the point of needing to transform the head from some non-head-like shape that was all the space I had. This time, I've got ALL THIS VOLUME! (The big white block) with the only constraint being that the black "eyebrows" are the polygons where a gun port texture will go on for the muzzles of the twin guns rught in front of the cockpit, and I have no ideas at all! I feel like a wholesaler, shouting VOLUME, VOLUME, VOLUME! Up to the bottom third could also be split off and hinged separately to fill out the torso a little, which honestly speaking it could use. Still, anyone have any good ideas for what to put under those laser eyebrows? (It's also the first human designed energy weapons, BTW. They're big, draw obscene amounts of power, and generate enough heat to need their own radiator, but they never run out of ammo and that's a treasure beyond price.)

Given that the pilot seat needs to be able to pivot 90 degrees backward and accommodate some pretty extensive mobility when it's in Battroid mode and the arms and legs act more like waldo controls, the cockpit really couldn't be as tight as most modern strap-on-my-zoom-suit jets. I do think you should keep the original helmet design, even if it's just the closed form rather than using anime magic to make the mouth-covering lower frame appear and disappear. That may have just been a DYRL thing, but I think they did it in SDFM TV as well... As for call signs, I only remember them using "Max" or "Skull (whichever)" over the radio. I've seen fanfic where he gets called "Expert," but that's about it.