Aztek

I have the ball in the socket of the shoulder function like a real socket would, it is at the top of the hierarch for the arms. The cup they sit in is on a mount that swings over and onder the fuselage like most Bandai toys do. They rest on the tracks shown on the under-detail of the back plate. In gerwalk mode, the shoulder "mounts" rest on the outer fairing just under the backplate. As you know, in battroid, it just folds 90 degrees with the backplate to seat against the chest plate. I have folding coverpanels under my chestplate to fill the void from the "armpit" to the nose section. (rib cage?) I'll post some cutaways if you need em for reference or if I lost you anywhere.

You can tell the lower side of the legs are jacked up, half not textured right and half mesh issues trying to get the gear swing and gear door sequence right.

Was there a gerwalk party?

I think the only armor on an AC-130, besides the pilots backside, is on the skid plate on the cargo ramp.

Sweet Dat! I like the rework of the thigh and hip joints, it looks more "realistic" and less "1/60" than ever. Definately the most improved valk posted here. And please don't misunderstand the "improved", it was awesome to begin with.

Hey Chrono, do you have that new paint available for download? If it is a big file, PM me for my email. It's awesome bro .... frikkin beautiful.

Here's a front shot of mine. It has the cockpit shaded to accent the shell itself and the legs and head are shown in their strike fighter configuration because I'm texturing my booster packs right now. The canopy is a mix between the 1/48 (for transformation purposes) and the Hasegawa/DYRL style "bubble" canopy for looks. The hardest time I had with mine was making the heatshield fit snug with the canopy in Batt mode and still be able to rotate and stow in fighter mode w/out clipping. It also has the DYRL style canopy with the "notch" at the fwd most section, not the TV style where the glass flows into the nose fairings.

Hey Dat, Try and find some good head on shots of an F-16, -14 or -18 to use as a ref for the cockpit canopy. I've found the -16 to be the best because it's more "exaggerated" than the others for lack of a better term. I'll try and find my ref to give you. Even though the side profile is diff between the -16 and the valk, the front shot is one I'm sure will look familiar when you see it.

Nose geer steering, from what I've seen, is usually just a pair of opposing hydraulic actuators linked both to the main upper section of the NLG strut (stationary) and the pivoting lower section. Based on pilot input and the amount applied, either by stick, yolk, or seperate control wheel, hydraulic pressure is applied to ONE of the cylinders to steer in a given direction. When a correction is made, such as over steer, the pilot input for the opposite direction depressurizes the unnecessary actuator and pressurizes the correct one. This is not a universal system, some NLG systems use a single, "push-pull" actuator for the steering, while the one above is more of an opposing "push-push" system. BTW, at a given ground speed, the NLG system is locked out and the only way the pilot is able to steer the aircraft is through rudder inputs. I guess overcorrecting at 110 knots in a 500k pound aircraft is bad. Probably just as bad on a 40k pound fighter w/10 k in munitions loaded. Hopefully David can expand and provide some visual references.

Jesus David, I got a chub just reading that. I'm going to go tweak my CG ventrals now.

David, What spins the tire the 90 degrees of rotation? Is it mechanical linkage or hydraulic actuator? I thought the video would show it but it's just not there, or I'm blind ... one of the two.

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DG, Sparse landing gear refs. Two screen grabs and some f-14 main gears. The f-14 gear mechanics have to be reversed since the gear retracts towards the aft on a valk.

I got my money on gear doors staying down. If not for the fact alone that the -14 and -18 have doors staying down. I DO think that the panel forward of the main gear doors ( with the colored lenses on them) is capapble of retracting seperate from the main gear doors. I have some refs for the main gears DG. I'll dig em up.

:: bump ::

Back to topic ... I've been working on A-10's At Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson AZ for about 3 years now. It's an awesome airframe and from what I've seen first hand - irreplaceable. Here's my contribution to the topic ... I drew this up a few years ago during a runway closure here, and use it around the shop to dress it up a lil'.I work in Fuel Cell (Aircraft Fuel Systems Repair) hence the "Open Fuel Tanks" sign in the foreground. The A-10 is a beautiful airframe and pretty easy to maintain overall. I think right now, Sheet Metal and Metals Tech are the 2 most strapped workcenters mainly because of the structural issues previously talked about.

Can you import .max or .3ds files?

Looks sweet. I like Dats hands and Gonzos nose ... I hope that didn't sound gay ....

I think that has to do more with the chestplate sliding down and forward (up?) on the battroid during xform. On my valk, the nosecone has a rigid link to a piece under the chest-->to the shoulder caps-->to the back. Nosecone and lower chest assembly rotates 90 degrees down (from fighter mode), the shoulder caps stay stationary, the back rotates 90 degrees down with back pack attached (rotating itself 130 or so degrees "up" to lay flush against the back.) This leaves a portion of the chestplate protruding above the shoulder caps, which slide down and a wee bit forward to lay just above (or on) the heat shield. I chose to model my heatshield flush with the fairing on the chestplate fwd of the spoiler. It looks cleaner and less toyish (IMHO). This entire process has no nosecone movement seperate from its rotation while attached to it's lower chest piece, and almost near identical to the 1/48 xformation. Having a 1/48 will definately get you on track to modeling a non-morph valk. Looking at screen caps and old ARII models will have you dying for "anime accuracy" and meshing a seperate "morphed valk". Others correct me if I'm wrong, I may be missing the intent of the question if I'm wrong.

Skatata, I think that would be artistic interpretation. Some of us use non-scaling models and others may. The 1/48 toy is inherently non-scaling, and the proportions are a mix of letting some proportions slide for the better of others. I wouldn't begin to imagine "when" the nose cone would begin a slide towards the chest, but if I was scaling I'd do it during the arc the legs make when attaching to the nose cone. That swing is near instantaneous (like the whole xform isn't, right?) and I'm assuming wouldn't be caught by the eye, it might only see 5 or so frames of animation. I dunno, that's my take ....

Funny you should say that Chrono, I just started a "South Ataria" custom scenery and runway(S) for FS2004. I'm hoping I can eventually import my valk for flying around the SDF-1 on the island ...

No exhaust fx? Is it just gliding? I absolutely cannot find anything wrong with your renders bro, they look awesome.

I'm "assyoume-ng" that they would have a seperate serial number (serno) for the aircraft themselves as well as an identifier for the unit the bird is assigned to. Most aircraft in the Air Force inventory are assigned a given serno like 62-1583 for a -130 aircraft. 62 being the year manufactured and -1583 as the sequence built that year. -16s and -15s follow suit. Sometimes the last number of the built year and the last 3 of the built sequence are combined for a 4 digit serno as in 2583 for the above example. This happens more on fighters since there is more of them, and a shorter number is more easily passed on in dialogue. On the Thunderbirds, in addition to their own specific serno a formation identifier is also given. As in 1 for the lead bird and usually unit commander, and 2, 3, 4, 5 etc. So you will see a big "2" painted on the number 2 bird. Any modified -16 with any serno can have the number 2 assigned when assigned to the T-birds squadron. I'm explaining all this because it's probably what happens with the dedicated flying squadrons in Macross. As aircraft are destroyed new ones adopt the paint scheme and number sequence of the aircraft they are replacing. I'm sure it wouldn't be uncommon for a Vermillion -011 to be retrofitted to replace a skull 001 if the need arises. I'm sure they had spares lined up to fill the gaps as the destroyed aircraft.