Aztek

Thanks Woz, I gotta texture up that fold out chest filler panel thingy it looks like a boxy insert instead of a functional piece of valk machinery.

Here's what I got ... I know the gun looks a lil weird, but the render caught part of the vernier recess on the cannons booster. The grip is actually seated in the pocket of the hand and I have the finger off the trigger since he's not ready to cap anyone just yet ...

Been tweaking some textures and object parent/child hierarchy to get better xform functionality ... Did a quick pose, here's what I wanted ...

agentex, Macross Design Works Awesome refs, pimp xform sequences. Not alot of vf-1 color and panel lining though. Do screen caps of DYRL for that. Also get scans of Hase battroid and fighter models for some really great photorealistic detailing. Woz, Nice pylons, do you have a background in aviation? Some modeled mount studs (going thru those tabs you got there) would be a nice touch.

Looks sweet Woz, but that seat looks like a hemmorroid (sp?) magnet. Any way to soften it up?

Some yammies explain where they go for the most part. The -19 and -22 have always been the worse off for sticker placement. My advice is get a Hasegawa -19 instruction sheet scan and use it for reference.

Considering they've been outta print since Cindi Lauper was cool, I think we can wait a few ...

That would be sweet, I know he was looking for some high quality scans to get them going.

I've been looking for decals for a Bandai JM recast. Are these available anywhere? I poked around in the a few months ago but didn't get anywhere.

Dat, sure brotha, gimme a few days. I ahd about as hard as a time doing the leh armor as the legs themselves. It's such a compound shape ... The best ref I had was a piece of Hasegawa leg armor.

Here's a detail shot, the booster tex was 3k x 3k now 1k by 1k. A lil detail was lost, mainly on the rivit/fastener details.

WIP of textures for boosters. All that's left is arm armor and "calf" armor. The cannon side of the booster seems a lil darker, it's the same base texture, I think the lighting is off.

Kawamori knew his s**t. A weapons delivery container that large is aerodynamically as inefficient as the valk itself. And since swept wings in space aren't an issue I can see why they would only use that configuration for special mission purposes (Buldoza sp?) Looking back now, it was a nice touch that even in battroid the wings were still un swept with the UUM-7 pods attached.

I know all the refs show the notches and circles for pivoting weapons stations. They might just be access panels for the harnesses used to connect the pylons to the wing. Or be part ov the pivoting system, if the pivot is actuated in the pylon itself. Also maybe only non pivoting munitions can be stored on these ststions that have the notches fwd of the pivot, and the wings can't sweep until after they are jettisoned.

Best refs ever

Wip of booster texture ...

Here's my new home for the next four years (at least) Misawa-shi, Japan. Lat-Long: 40° 40' 47" , 141° 21' 54" || 40.68 , 141.365

I used the design works and DYRL? for all the hand refs. The design works was a good view of a single "digit", so I used it for the middle, ring and index finger. I rotated the thumb 90 degrees, dropped a knuckle and fastened it to the opposable joint coming off the side of the valk. The pinkie is semi-opposable, and most references point to that from what I've seen. having the pinkie and thumb "fold" in as the hand retracts into the arm gives at ALOT better proportion when deployed. I made the finger pads, back hand, wrist, and fingers out of a rigid mesh and skinned the joints and pads of the hand. the design works was by far the best "orthographic" ref, with DYRL? a more artistic reference for functionality and movement ranges.

Rod, I have more scans from design works, they are awesome for the xform sequence. Do you have a copy? If not let me know and I can email you some. They go into alot more detail than whats seen in the anime.

I thought you could build custom aircraft for Janes USAF? I know it's not supported like FS2002/4 ... but I believe the ability is there.

This pic and the other pic shows SK's reliance on actuators for large mechanical movements. I just used these types of refs and adjusted the pivots and swings to make it semi-functional. You and I both know it wouldn't be feasable the way it is right now. That's why I want to engineer some linkage between the shoulder pivot and mount, so the arangement and use of actuators would be more realistic. The knee assymbly is mainly enclosed and shrouded, so it was easier to cheat there mechanically than on the shoulder.

I didn't want to go the toyish looking route, so I went through some ref pics showing diff cutaways of diff joints. Since there is no consistency on "how" things move, I went with the actautors and sliding mount. The mount is in this pic but is more boxy, and even though it looks tight in 2d, I can't figure out how it would be functional in 3d for all the modes.

Battroid w/ chest plate ...

Here's the shoulder socket and sliding mount. The mid position under the back is used for fighter mode. The aft stop is for gerwalk when you need the extra room to get out and around the back of the knee joints. The fwd most position gives the valk the beefy look in batt mode. As the arm pivots out from it's stowed position, the "mount" swivels 180 degrees and the joint extends/pulls out from it's cavity in the shoulder object. It's a 80 - 90 degree rotation that takes it from stowed to gerwalk, and an even 90 to batt. I put the actuators in there for filler, and would like to design some linkage, when I get more time. The tex's suck on this model, but I threw it together for reference.

The first collage is of the fold out "ribcage" thats stowed underneath the chest intakes. For as simple as it was to model, it has one of the larger visual "touch ups" of any other thing on the valk in batt mode.