grebo guru

I'd fly a Scramble Valkyrie. It's obscure, overarmed, and canonically nonexistent (I think). Very much my kinda VF!

I'm happy to see that there are others here who, like me, still see value in Destroids!! And yeah, I scanned the art from the Macross II RPG books. It took me a long time to remove all of the extra surface patterning and shading, but I managed eventually. The guy who added them -- Newton Ewell -- is a nice guy and is extremely talented, as well as a big anime fan. I'm sure Kevin Simbieda told him to add all that extra stuff to the basic line art. That's the thing, though -- the base artwork is exactly the line art/model sheet imagery from japan. Like I said, I'm not actually all that fond of the Macross II Destroid's designs to start with. Indeed, I'm not fond of the mecha designer himself who drew them. I forget his name, but he did illustrations for the Gundam ZZ and Gundam 0080 model kit instructions, designed the mecha for "Under The Gundam: Double Fake" and Blue Gender, and generally gets around. He's contributed designs to SRW as well. In my opinion his best work can be seen in the Wares Blade roleplaying games. Damn, I wish I could remember his name off the top of my head, but I can't. Anyway! I'm getting kinda psyched at the idea of the tweaked Spartan and Defender. I'll get to cleaning up the MII RPG's Giant Monster art sometime soon, as well. Grebo!

Glad you guys are enjoying. I gotta admit, I don't think the Mac II destroids are very good designs... but, they're among the few new Destroid designs we've gotten, and I want there to be more. (I know Kawamori has explained that they're obsolete and no longer made, but I LIKE Destroids! Besides, I don't fully buy the idea of them becoming obsolte.) Anyway, the idea of a Defender with gatling guns -- that's sorta like the idea behind the Cheyenne, isn't it? I like that Destroid. But actually, a GU-11 equipped Defender IS a cool idea. Sounds like a fun Photoshop project. And a Spartan carrying a GU-11? Yes, makes sense to me... Sounds like I have more Photoshop projects ahead of me! :-) Grebo!

Hello all, Been a while. Been busy. Back now. Here, have some scans and colorizations. w00t! - Grebo

Okay, I've been doing some coloring. Attached are three versions of the Crusader: left, to right, the first is a close approximation of the color scheme for the original VF-3000 from the aborted "Advanced Valkyrie" project, as shown in Entertainment Bible #6; the other two are close approximations of Millia's & Max's color schemes (I believe) from Macross M3. There's another color scheme for the VF-3000 in EB#6 as well, but it's really really ugly and lame, so I didn't bother with it. Annnnyway, here y'all go. More later! Greebs

Nope. The Gold Book's all DYRL.

Don't go laughin' at people, man. You're too boring to get away with it.

Whoops -- quick correction. I scanned that image from the Perfect Memory, not the gold book. Silly me!

Yes, I do use Photoshop. However, I know it's not within everyone's reach... it's a damn expensive program. Worth it, though.

*cough*Aquarion*hack*Japanese Battletech*wheeze*Gunhed*koffkoff*

Wow, Kelsain, I'm liking your efforts here. There's a lot to consider. Both the arm and wing-root placements have their merits. Hmm! Must consider more. Much potential. Thanks for the pix!

Awesome. Aw-suh-hum. Looks like MAHQ's Macross section will soon start to really RAWK! Good job, MM.

I have lineart of the gunpod, its storage in the leg, and how it is deployed -- for the Fz-109, of course. But the Elgerzonrene (and thus the VA-14) has much fatter lower legs than the VF-14. Grebo

Macross & Megaroad, in scale with each other. From the gold book.

I'm fine with constructive criticism. I'm not OK with condescension. Which, whether you meant it or not, is how you came off, Sketch. I shouldn't be surprised, though, given the general atmosphere of these boards.

Extra Large Mumma: Thank you! I appreciate the encouragement. grapetang: Gundam, Dougram, Shirow, and about a zillion other series and artists are always my inspiration. I try not be a biter, but sometimes my designs can be a bit derivative. I strive for originality, as much as I can. As for where I work, well... I dunno. Maybe I shouldn't say? Eh. PM me if you really wanna talk about it. VF5SS: Heh. You know, it's funny. I actually really dislike the Layzner Mark-II. I think its an ugly, unimaginative, uninteresting design. However, I will concede that the head mecahnism of the Switchblade is very similar to that of the Layzner Mark-II. I don't think my design is the only one to do this, though. In fact, if I flipped back through a few books Im pretty sure I'd find that the Layzner Mark-II derived its head transformation method from some other source. Have I mentioned I think Kunio Okawara is washed up? F-ZeroOne: Yeah, I did all the mecha in Operation Rimfire. I'm quite proud of it -- the Gigakaiser is one of the designs Im most pleased with. Knight26: I've realized that the rotors must be spun by electromagnetism. With a ring of electromagnets in the base of the rotor assembly, high-speed rotation can be acheived with a minimum of moving parts. (Heck, that's how most Federation Mobile Suits in the Gundam universe move -- instead of using conventional hydraulics for their endoskeletons, they use electromagnetic assemblies. They call 'em "Field Motors"). Sketchley: "Do a bit of research" eh? Well, please understand I take a bit of offense at this. I own a massive (I mean MASSIVE) library of anime books, magazines, and manga, and I have over 100 books on Gundam alone. I know all about the Musai, and ships like it, thanks very much. I have no problem with it. Some of its incarnations are exceptionally cool, I'd say. Expressing concern over a ship design "being put into a slow vertical rotation because their engines are off of the centerline of mass in the ships - wasting fuel in the constantly required course corrections" is realism-based nitpicking at fantasy-based fiction. It's just a silly thing to do. If that's the kind of thing you worry when watching sci-fi, you must really have an agonizing time watching just about ANY of it. To further comment on the research thing: I have been paid (by several employers) to write about anime and mecha. I have been paid for mecha artwork and it has been published. I think I'm fairly well qualified as it is. I have not, admittedly, learned how all machines actually work -- to do so would requite *another* huge invenstment of time and money, and I have a 9-to-5. And a girlfriend. And pets. And, most importantly, no interest in becoming that engineering-savvy. As for "economy of line," that's all a matter of taste. If Economy Of Line is your preference, I guess you must hate the Macross from DYRL. And the Star Destroyer. And the Sulaco. And, oh, lots and lots of other sci-fi designs. And maybe you do; that's fine. But remember, wanting a ship to be so simple a 5-year old could draw it is a matter of personal preference. I see no reason to adhere to such principles. In fact, I rather abhor the idea. Finally, I actually have drawn more than one view of many of my mecha. Not all of them, but many. I haven't put all of them on my site, and I don't plan to. Its unnecessary, wasting space, time, and bandwidth. I commend you for having your own mecha designs to offer as a counterpoint -- that's a lot more than most critics would have. I further commend you for your design itself, as it looks feasible and original. However, I'd like to humbly suggest to you that when you do drawings of transforming jet-robots, you should not forget to make them actually look cool. Grebo

Zinjo and friends, thanks for being supportive. And to knight26, all I can do is quote Eric Cartman: "Whatever! I'll do what I want!" -Grebo "It's my hot body" Guru

I know what variations of the VF-19 (and 17, and others) there are -- they're just not the ones I want. Remember, I'm doing all this for the purposes of an RPG I'm gonna run. It'll be a hybridized continuity, so going against established designations and variations is not a problem for me. Aha, actually there IS a need to keep with the A/D/J/S designations -- because I want to do it. Greebz

I know. It's deliberate. I really really dislike the body design modifications of the Fire/Blazer Valkyrie; I prefer the YF-19/VF-19A. So, for my purposes, the VF-19S is simply the Blazer Valk's S-head on a YF-19 body. The same will be true for the VF-19D and VF-19J, when I get around to them. Hmmm. I'm coming to really like the modified positioning of the backpacks I did last night. I think I'm gonna go with it. Thanks for putting the idea in my head, Zinjo.

You know... you guys got me thinking. I rather like the imporabable, almost-retro looking design of the YF-19's Super packs, but it has bothered me too that they're arranged the way they are. After thinking about it for a few moments, I came up with this. It's not 100% right; the perspective on the pack isn't quite suited to the perspective on the Excaliber's body, but it's close enough to convey the general idea. What do youse guys think?

Well, in the Kawamori Macross design works book, that thing is identified as a "Shock Gunpod", and it's used by the spacewhale-hunters. I doubt it's the standard gunpod. And besides, it's just an uglied-up GU-11. Glad everyone's liking the images, though!

Yikes. I'll, uh... I'll get back to you on that.

I must admit I'm not that much of a fan of the Y/VF-19. It's transformation is very imaginative, to be sure, but some of its aesthetic points leave me kinda cold. I don't like that it doesn't have the classic VF-1 "hoof" style feet (of course, this is a trait shared with most latter VFs, and I understand the technical reasons behind it -- I just don't like it), and its got pretty fat legs, and its fighter mode is *almost* cool, but not quite. I think this VF coulda stood one more round of refinement before being approved. And I definitely don't mean the kinda refinements it got in Macross 7. Not overall, anyway. Buuuuut in any event, here's the VF-19A with its gunpod. And the VF-19S (my tweaked version). And here's both of them with Super parts (for which I used the shoulder parts from Mac7 and the leg fastpacks from Mac+). I'll get around to doing a VF-19A and probably a D-and/or-T in the future. Enjoy!

I'm glad youse guys are liking the VF-3000 images. And yesh, you can rest assured that I'll color this'un up too, at some point. I plan to do so with just about all these pics I've fiddled with. Greeby

*BARFS*