Knight26

Jeans

THose are down the line, right now the only heavy arms I am getting ready to do is the redesign of "Big Red" which one of my characters uses. Basically it is the plasma excited off a destroyed fighters Plaser cannon adapted to be carried by a single man. In more modern terms he would be walking around with a 30mm Defa or similar single barrel aircraft gun without the barrel and only the breach with loading mechanism.

The Beer cannon missile was explained at last years anime expo macross panel. One of the animators commented that the missile looked like a big beer can, so as joke during the drawing process they sketched a budweiser label onto the can and thought htat would be the end of it. Well the inker then saw that and inked it in and so when the colorist got it he painted it in so what started as just a quick joke amongst the animators became animation easteregg gold.

The man is quite good at what he does, I wish I had that much artistic talent, heck everytime I draw my craft they end up looking fairly amateurish, or undetailed, unless I am working on designs of them. I like that Kawamori and I have similar backgrounds, going into writing/entertaining from an engineering school perspective.

Very nice looking design, has a nice intimidating shpae, though it does look a little fragile as well. I like to cockpit design as well, can't wait to see more.

yeah they were diecast with rubber heads

I had the whole Eagle Force collection as a kid, they were so cool, especially the vehciles, plus they were great army builders, just swap heads.

Actually A7 all those characters were in the original manga. They were just introduced later, the Viz run ended somewhere around 1/5-1/4 of the way into the series. I liked how they tried to incorporate those two characters stories in, they had some interesting ones in the manga, which I have. Overall I found it fun, not as good as the original but if they continue it and follow the rest of the manga storyline to the eventual conclusion no one will be dissapointed. Though they have made many storyline changes thus far from the manga they can still get back to the manga's main storyline farily easily, man I hope they do that, it would be so awesome.

Oh yeah that does look a lot better, thanks Datterboy.

From reading the posts I think I need to explain a thing or to, don't get me wrong I appreciate the comments. That is why they are on the list to be redone, they just aren't distinct enough in my opinion and some were a rush job. The textures were just used because they seemed to fit at the time, but looking back now I realize that they need to be canned as well. I tend to approach the designs differently then movie artists, I approach them as an engineer and a designer. I look to see what will work, what is the most realistic and plausible. I also try to give each design it own unique look, except when they are off a similar line, like the Solaar MK1-3 fighter line. At the same time each company/race has its own unique style, will point that out later. Ship design has nothing at all to do with appearance, it has to do with the mission, and fulfilling the mission requirements. I do not make my ships to necessarily be astetically pleasing, or neat looking. I design them to look like they can really do the job. As interesting as the "guts on the outside" look is, it really is very impractical in terms of warship design. The only components that need to be outside are the required ones, weapons, sensors, thermal radiators, engine exhausts, manuevering thrsuters, etc... ANything else just creates weak points and vulnerable areas, places the enemy can exploit. As I stated I adjust the ship designs according to who built them. On my GF capital ships for instance: Luna-3 is one of the oldest shipyards and its designs show that, they have a look more like those of traditional naval vessels. They tend to be blocky, very little finesse with few seconday systems, except for those required for the mission. None of their designs are featured here, but I have shown them off before, the Bethesda class cruiser and Fairchild Carrier. Jupiter-IO is the big carrier builder, they build the Carpenter and Barker class heavy carriers, the dual bow, high command bridge siege carriers capable of making planetfall. The Mitchell is a Jupiter-IO design, but it does not fit the overall design scheme of the other craft, that needs to be corrected and I intend to address that in the redesign, but still maintain its unique fly through flight deck. Centauri Drive Yards is the destroyer company, they built the Brekhov and its sister ship the Sachsen. They are knwon for strong, tough ships, the large Razer cannon arms are their trademark, as are the external engine nacelles, they are one of the few GF builders to use that design feature. Multiple redudant systems are key to their designs as are multiple hulls. Centauri Shipping Consortium is another old company, one of the first break offs from Luna-3. They make the cheap mass produced ships, saucers and large, really large engines are key to their designs, the engines are so large though because they still use older technologies and the engines are not as efficient as those of newer craft. They are still used though due to their robustness and ease of maintenance, by the time of the main storyline anything that can go wrong in the engines has, and any fixes that can be implimented have as well. Yamato Staryards is one of the latest players, and their designs are entirely earth tech based, no alien technology that they have not reverse engineered to the absolute most basic level. Their ships tend to be narrower with large engines, and numerous gunmounts, they are the battleship builders, so big guns are their trademark as well. The Neo-Syrian staryards predate the GF formation and all their ships feature main saucers, anti-matter collider rings and thermal radiators externally. None of these are featured here either, other than minor tweaks I am satisfied with all of those designs. That is all for the major designers of the GF. The UCSB ship designers tend to vary more by species. The Drashig's ships tend to be scarab shaped, very organic, with external nacelles and large turreted guns. The Lodran's ships tend to look like angular sea creatures, hard edges abound on their ships, they know from over 1000 years of space flight that aerodynamics mean nothing in the vacuum of space. They also tend to feature internal engines, a rarity in most confed designs. The Rimdook tend to go with blocky ships as well, but also more intimidating designs. The Anulians also tend to lean towards blocky designs, but with external nacelles, again this is due to nearly 1000 years of space flight. So overall most confed ships tend to be blocky in nature but even then each race and company has its own design philosphy. Well I hope that clears up any confusion.

Very nice, but a little too fast to make out clearly what all is happening.

The Animeigo MAcross boxsets are black, the new robotech remastered boxsets are in a silver/gray. If it is not one of those it is likely a bootleg.

As most have you have probably seen I have been on a redesign kick of late. Well I have a two week underway coming up and so I figured I would work on some of the ships that seem to need more work to me. Some of the these are just very old designs that just need an update, others are ones I never put much time into. Others just need little tweaks in my opinion, those will be detailed here in. So onto the candidates: GF Brekhov Class Destroyer: One of my earlist designs, it has been repeatedly remodeled but may be up for a complete tear down and rebuild. The crescent shaped main cannon arms will be retained in the final design no matter what. I think the biggest problem the design faces is lack of hanger space and way too small engines. http://nocturnalknight.blogspot.com/banshee-4.jpg GF Mitchell Class Light Carrier: Another old design up for a complete tear down and rebuild. I still like it and the overall concept but the design no longer stacks up with the later ships I've come up with, some of which are suppossed to be older. These ships are intended to be light, cheap and turned out in large numbers. http://nocturnalknight.blogspot.com/mitchell-4.jpg GF Star Stallion Tactical Dropship: Ok, this one well it just sucks, I can say that honestly. I never put much time into it, just wanted a smaller version of the Galaxy-3 strategic dropship. Nothing on this design is safe. http://nocturnalknight.blogspot.com/gftactdrop-4.jpg GF ex-Tenrack now Vakyrie-II Bomber: This design I actually like, but it needs some tweaks and a detailing job. I'm looking at redoing the engines to be more like those of the recent mosquito redesign and to put weapons hatches over the torpedo tubes, etc... http://nocturnalknight.blogspot.com/tenrack-4.jpg UCSB Feral-F Bomber: Like the Valkyrie I really like this overall design, but it need some tweaks, engine vanes, torpedo covers, new turrets (hate the current ones), new wings, reposition of the engines (maybe). http://nocturnalknight.blogspot.com/ferlf-4.jpg UCSB Medium Tank and Derivates: This one, well it was a quick thrown together job, tanks have never been my specialty and I think it shows in these designs. These are hover tank designs, I think the textures more than anything kill it, but the design still needs something. The AAA version is also very top heavy, a definite cmplete tear down. http://nocturnalknight.blogspot.com/medtank.jpg http://nocturnalknight.blogspot.com/ucsbaaa.jpg UCSB Heavy Tank: This was my first hovertank design, once again it shows. I've also been told that it bares a striking resemblance to the tanks from Tron. Once again this is a complete tear down and rebuild. http://nocturnalknight.blogspot.com/tank3.jpg IF you vote please explain why you chose what you did, if you think several need it please comment on that but vote on the one you think needs it most. I appreciate all comments and suggestions on what needs work and will take comments into consideration. I leave tuesday so the voting as of monday night will determine how the redesign order will progress. I will post the redesigns when I get back.

lol, I forgot that was the texture on it, lol.

Almost the whole confed line up together, just need the slugg throwers now, and then the custom weapons. FRom front to back we have the Heavy Repeating Plaser (HRP), Sniper Varient, Assault Rifle, and the Light Attack Rifle (LAR), basically and SMG, plus the sidearm. SO, any comments?

The Sniper Rifle Variant of the maina assault rifle. Once again the mass driver has bene removed, but this time the foward reciever acts as another heat sink and emergency gas vent. A secondary plasma injector is also featured on the external barrel, which also has two barrel heat sinks, and a magnetic accelerator. This beast uses more power per shot then the standard rifle to propel the round up to four times faster and much further down range. The new scope is larger with better optics and digital zoom capabilities. The foregrip now contains a mini-de-grav generator/inertia damper to steady the rifle and cancel the recoil, this is not on the standard rifle, but is on the heavy repeatin Plaser. The design is almost finished, just needs the bi-pod.

There is another board I lurk on occasionally where people actually prefered the movie to the book, and like the second SST movie as well. They all have some serious issues. I would love to find the SSt anime though.

Freaking Sweet Gonzo.

Nice I;m assuming a space only fighter?

*trumpets and fanfare plays* Ladies and gentlemen except for the details and textures the dropship is completed. All the major structures are in place including the docking mounts. I actually like the temporary texture, will probably just tweak it. I will also be making seperate models for the cargo packs. Right now it has the standard large cargo pack installed. The Next will be the personnel cargo pack, it will be shallower, cutting off at the bottom of the engines, it will be short for many races except the human sized ones. Also, I have come up with the name, meet the new Ferine Class Strategic Dropship.

The space configuration, the wings are now retracted, the atmospheric engine intakes closed, and the retro thrusters extended. While the retraction mechanisms may seem overly complex there are back up systems to extend or retract them pirotechnically just in case, and in case those fail, manually. As always comment are appreciated. I am still leaning towards Abominable or Ferine for the new name, any other suggestions? (and brick, rock, and mule have already been rejected folks)

You could see it in the last picture but this one shows better that the retro thrusters are now covered during atmospheric flight, and the main wings have a longer chord. They will recieve a slight reshape and I am looking into how to lengthen them, have to make them retract into themselves for that otherwise they won't fit in the fuselage.

This picture shows the under side. To the front of the bay you will see 24 iris hatches and 12 "glop" guns. These are used to fire troops into a hot LZ without the dropship coming to range of hostile fire. Basically the drop troops are fired out of the ship while encased in anti-inertial impact gel. The guns fire a blob of the sister component onto the ground that the main tube launches the soldier into, similar to what was seen in Final Fantasy Spirits Within. The second gel is a rapidly expanding type so even just a little dab will do you, lol.

Just a quick update, other then the detail work only one major structure needs to be added, the upper docking mounts. I also need to add a small emergency hatch behind the cockpit, but that really is more of a detail thing. Anyway first picture shows the interior of the main bay. There are now structural/cargo mounting girders on the side and foward walls as well as the ceiling. The mechanisms for lowering the lower ramp are also present. As well as the twenty four iris hatches in the deck for the drop tubes.

Holy Mother Loving Shreg, that thing is gorgeous, and you have just elevated yourselves to super fans. Will you be making molds to recast it? Now if you want to be promoted to godhood you'll have to find a way to make that beauty transformable.