Chronocidal

Heheh I'm gonna have to get this YF-19 I'm flying textured... I finally got the final version of the exterior model (I think ) done, and into the game. I spent most of today figuring out how to make various parts of the plane reflective.

Actually, I've got all the tools, plugins, etc for exporting the planes to FS2002/4, so if you can get me a mesh with all the control surfaces, landing gear, moving parts, etc. modeled and movable, and the various textures needed, I could probably have a roughly working FS model for you inside a week. I can't guarantee it will fly well, but I can at least get the model into the game so you can sit on the runway and test out the controls.

Heheh.. oh well, that just means we have to make them ourselves...

I'll get a 1/48th YF-19 if it kills me... even if I have to manufacture each part myself. K.. all I need is a completely transformable computer model.. and one of those hugely fancy rapid prototyping machines. Heck, I'll be happy if I can get a SOLID 1/48th YF-19.

Btw, how many 1/48th's do you think you'd have to cannibalize to get the parts to make the Mac+ Valks?

Hehe.. now, if only a sim existed that could put these things to good use. Unless LOMAC is moddable, I don't know of any modern computer game that would do these planes justice. And even then how would you make them transform?? We need a Macross Sim... hmmm....

It looks like a slightly edited photo (if it's edited at all.. maybe blurred shadow a bit), that's the Hasegawa model kit, albeit a superdetailed one. I'd recognize those proportions and landing gear anywhere. I've spent the better part of 3 months replicating that in the computer. I've seen this kind of effect before, people use special lenses to get these effects without any editing done at all. That's simply amazing.. looks like they cut the control surfaces loose to angle them. O_O That would be insane on a kit that small....and I've got a new background

I don't know if there are any nice full 3 views of the VF-11.. I'm hoping Hasegawa will release a kit. But I too would appreciate some drawings.. I'm hoping to work on a full Macross fleet for MS Flight Sim. I've got plans for a VF-1, YF-21/VF-22, and maybe VF-4. I'd love to be able to do a complete Mac+ series.

Hmmm.....absolute favorite toy? As a kid, Legos... as an adult? Still Legos. I'll probably be building with them my whole life. (It may take me that long to finish my 1/18th VF-1S ). Apart from that, I took such good care of things as a kid, I still have most of the stuff worth keeping. I still have the old G.I. Joe Space Shuttle, and Cobra Hurricane, in near perfect condition. I used to have the F-14, but it wasn't mine to begin with, and was missing lots of parts. Those old G.I. Joe toys were incredible.. where else could you get something that big, that detailed, and with that many features?

The newer stuff I have can't really compare to my old toys, just because of sentimental value. My 1/48th Super VF-1J is the greatest thing I've gotten in a long time (and definitely the most expensive), but I think it would have been a lot more fun as a little kid. It'll never have the same play value that my Milia Joke Machine, or my old Ramjet Transformer did when I first got them. I didn't want to risk bringing my 1/48th to college with me (no way to get it here safely, and no room for the box), so I have my JM perched on my monitor instead.

Hehe.. I haven't even seen the OAV, but I have heard that it can't compare to the more intense version in the movie version of Mac+... youch...that really looked painful.

I think it's called L-Draw, basically a Lego-based CAD program. I never could get it working quite right, and the process of building stuff seemed a little annoying.. you had to select the parts by a part number, which would be a pain.. I probably had an older version though.

The only really bad thing about lego CAD is that you don't really know how well something will work, or if it will even stay together. Some things I've seen built in L-Draw would never stand up under their own weight.

Actually, that was my main resource for building the joints on this. I used the same types of gear construction, but unfortunately, most of his joint designs, while VERY strong, are too bulky to be practical for what I need. I was able to use the same basic worm gear joint setup, but to make it transform, the joints had to be much more compact, and I wasn't able to add as much support to each joint. They do hold up on their own pretty well, but there is some play in the worm gears that I'm not able to fix, and it makes the arms a little loose.

My dream is to build something as complex as those Gundam models, but as of yet, I don't have enough parts. I've got plenty of pieces, but I never got into Technic sets enough to collect enough pieces to do that sort of inner construction framework. There may yet be an answer for the legs, but it will require me collecting a lot of very rare pieces that only come in the more expensive sets. The new leg joints developed for the AT-AT set may be strong enough, but it'll likely take 3+ per leg joint (times 4 leg joints, not counting feet, etc.) before I'll have enough tension to hold the thing up.

Last one... hehe.. and you thought the 1/48th's backpack hinge had stress on it.

(No faceplate seam here, either. )

Anyway, yeah, I'm through showing off now. Only really bad thing about this is the weight. If legos were strong enough to make more of the fuselage hollow, it'd have a much better chance of standing on it's own feet. As it is, the legs may have to be solid bricks, and the feet interchangable, unless lego can come up with a hinge that'll hold 5+ lbs of pressure.

The hands are completely bendable, since every finger segment is made with one of those new clicky joints. The arms also rotate in four ways, thanks to a complex gearing mechanism. The arms basically have the same posability as the 1/48th, except they're too heavy to pose much.

Here's one in battroid. Like I said, no legs yet.

1/18th!! LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL...It's been too long since I read PA...

I'm gonna see if I can get a decent shot of this thing with my web cam.. the resolution's tiny, but you should be able to make out the yard stick next to it for comparison.

Boy how I wish I had a digicam.. I have a project that's been in the making for close to three years now.. if my guesstimates are correct, it's about 1/18th scale. Barely fits in my closet. It's a fully transformable DYRL VF-1S in the making, and it's nearly three feet long. Weighs a ton though, and if it ever gets finished, it'll probably never be able to stand on it's feet. Shoot, the arms are so heavy, it's a struggle just to keep them supporting their OWN weight, let alone a gunpod. The whole thing is rigged up though, based on the 1/60th transformation,arms are fully articulated (down to the last knuckle ) and you have to mount the legs on the nose.. .if there were legs that is. I ran out of decent parts right after finishing the arms, and now I'm waiting for Lego to invent a hinge piece that can support about 10 lbs of weight. I gave up on retractable landing gear long ago... the axles would snap in half.

I only really became interested in anime at all from a couple of key series... or, rather, friends who tended to obsess about anime in everything they talked about.. I couldn't help but pick up a few things

My absolute favorite is Macross Plus, the movie version. I would like to see the OVA though. Isamu's love of flying just struck a chord with me, and my favorite impossible dream is secretly building a functional YF-19 in a hangar under my backyard (Dexter's Lab style) to joyride in while blasting the Top Gun soundtrack. Closest I'll probably get is flying my version for MS Flight Sim 2002.

Trigun's pretty amusing to watch, and I've only seen a few key episodes that got me intrigued.

My friends all swear by Excel Saga as one of the funniest things on earth, but I haven't seen any as of yet. As far as hilarious insanity goes, FLCL has the record in my book, particularly episode 5, the one with all the Matrix perodies. Cowboy Bebop, again, haven't seen much of it, but what I have seen has been good.

I've seen bits and pieces of various series, usually on Adult Swim, or at the random friend get-together. I'd like to see Evangelion, all of Trigun, Excel Saga, and especially Macross, of ANY type.. The only time I've ever been able to get a hold of anything even remotely related to the original SDF Macross was when I recorded the first episode of Robotech when it aired on Cartoon Network. I did manage to watch most of Blue Gender, but I missed the last episode. It was really depressing at first, but rather engrossing. I just wish that they had finished the storyline. Apparently the American version is missing the second half of the story that took place after what was supposedly the last episode.

Hmm... maybe I can oblige you when I start working up YF-19 and VF-19A textures.

I too bought one of the Sundowners Tomcats.. I got the unassembled one though..and discovered something very interesting. Certain parts of the cockpit, mainly the pilots and instrument panels, look like exact duplicates of parts from the Monogram 1/48th Tomcat kit. I'm planning on opening that thing up one day and actually painting the entire cockpit up nice. There's more than just the tail decals that are strange though... I never knew the ship was named USS Independance... And what kind of missile is an "ATM-54?" The decals aren't a biggie for me though, I plan on repainting and re-decaling this thing later on when the markings start to flake off. The only thing that really bugged me about it was the fact that the bottom half of the fuselage is plastic.

I looked at the other planes though, and I wouldn't buy the F-18, mainly for one reason: the sidewinders. Unlike the F-14, which had all the pylons and weapons correctly mounted (strange tanks aside), the F-18's wingtip sidewinders were cast in one piece with the wing. So, in other words, no pylon. The missiles are mounted in a hideously wrong position, hanging back way too far so the fins could be molded. You'd have to cut those things off, add pylons, and then mount a decent set of missiles on there before I'd buy one.

What I'm really amazed by are these new "toys" that are in the same size range as some radio control models, or at least control line models. Recently at Wal-Mart I've seen 1/18th scale BF-109s and P-47 Thunderbolts. They're huge.. and everything works, landing gear, various control surfaces, wing folding, etc.... If I saw the Corsair in a store, I'd pick it up instantly, as that thing is beautiful. What's amazing is that from the box ads, they've made a 1/18th P-38 Lightning... I've never seen it in stores. I've seen the P-51D and Corsair at Toys-R-Us once, but that's it, aside from the Wal Mart stuff. But a 1/18 scale P-38 would be absolutely gigantic... sheesh, what would that be, something like a 3 foot wingspan?

I'm actually kind of doing both simultaneously. I've got the plane working pretty well in both, but in CFS3 the speed is limited to about 600 mph. Both games use the same type of aircraft aerodynamic configuration files, so I'm hoping that tuning it to work in one will transwer well to the other. I've been adjusting the various details of the plane, like flap drag and lift multipliers, and adjusting how it performs... it still has a nasty tendency to stall at high speeds though.. I dunno what causes it, but at high subsonic speeds, if you pull all the way back on the stick, the plane gives you a stall warning.. then, for some reason, the wing starts working in reverse, and as you let off the stick, the plane starts diving... it did it at a high enough altitude to survive once, and after pulling a complete loop, once I let off the stick, the plane did a complete outside loop on it's own... very odd, and I don't know how to fix it. It's almost as if the plane has too much inertia, and pulling up at high speeds only changes the AOA, and has no effect on the flight path of the plane. But that doesn't explain why the plane forcibly dives after pulling a tight loop. I'm beginning to understand why the YF-19 went through so many test pilots.

Aside from that, the plane is handling quite well. You just can't leave the throttle on full and expect to do any kind of aerobatics. Also, it's a good idea not to pull all the way back on the stick above about 700 knots. The low speed handling is good, and landings aren't too hard to accomplish. I've got the flaps-down landing speed down to between 100-150 knots right now. I've also managed to add a few nice effects, like nav lights, etc. Also, thanks to the air traffic control system in FS2002, and a tweaking of the default aircraft ID, the control tower now addresses you verbally as "Alpha One."

Odds are I'm going to completely rework the model later on, since I never textured it. It needs a cockpit still as well, so that'll take time. What I want to really do is somehow duplicate the full canopy hud setup seen in the movie, with the surround screens. There are tricks to the animation parameters for some things.. I may link the exhausts to the throttle animation so they open as the throttle increases.. I may even be able to make bottom screens in the cockpit change from opaque blank screens to transparent windows by linking the texture opacity change to one of the cockpit power switches. I don't really know everything that's possible yet.

After this one, I think I'll probably either do a VF-1 series, or a YF-21/VF-22.. but it won't be for a while yet. I've still got to make the cockpit, texture everything, get rid of the last few bugs, and make a few variations (maybe VF-19A textures ).

Hehe.. that's a big question I'm trying to find the answer to myself... it doesn't look like they will be able to. There's just too much mobility in those feet for the game to accurately simulate all the ways they move. They are linked to nearly every axis of control (roll, pitch and yaw) as well as actually functioning as a focusing mechanism for the engine... I'd probably be limited to one axis of movement, and even then, I have no idea how to make an engine's thrust change direction with control inputs.. I know it's possible, from all the harrier mods out there, but I'm at a loss for finding any decent guide for making that stuff work. Heck, I'm at a loss as to how to even make the plane fly decently. The game scales thrust incorrectly, and anything over 25000 lbs of thrust per engine results in an out of control straight up acceleration. Right now, the plane is bouncing around on the ground like a balloon before takeoff, something to do with the landing gear mechanisms. I've re-started from scratch MANY times over now.

I have got a few things working finally though. I went ahead and added leading edge slats like you see on some older fighters.. I'll probably replace them later with simple flaps, but the sliding animation just looks so cool. I've also experimented with the feet, trying to make them close up, and slide into the legs when the engines shut down, like they did in Mac+, but I don't know the part name that will let them animate. I have got the compressor blades spinning in the engines, and the cockpit canopy is fully animated now though.

Now, to just get rid of that darn instability...

Heheh.. actually, I was able to find quite a bit of info, at least as far as weight, wing area, etc. goes... it's got a much bigger wing than the YF-19, though.

I've got to apologize for something, I misread the characteristics the program asks for.. it's not really wingloading. What I thought was weight loading is really just a way of determining how weapon payloads, fuel, etc will affect the aerodynamic model of the aircraft. The system for determining flight characteristics is brutally precise for a game, I must say.

As far as the control scheme goes, I think I have an answer that works, but here's the problem: They designed this as a WWII sim from the ground up. What does this mean? Well, mainly, no fancy hydraulic control systems, no high performance flight computers, and no way to make a plane fly well above about 600mph. Microsoft must not have taken creativity into account when they allowed people to put more aircraft in the game. The technology to make newer planes flyable just isn't there. As a rule, any aircraft that goes above about 550mph starts shaking and wobbling like nuts. On top of this, at that speed, the control surfaces become pretty useless from all the air buffeting. Also, in this program, there is no such thing as a flaperon, let alone leading edge controls, thrust vectoring, or any number of modern advances in flight control that something like the YF-19 depends on. I can make the plane as maneuverable as possible, but it's going to be very limited as far as engine performance. Also, the closest I can get to flaperons is to use elevons all along the back edge of the wing.

Thanks for all the input, I may still be able to get a decent plane out of this. There aren't many big differences between this game and the other flight sims, so I can probably get everything working in FS2002. I'm going to check out how I can export it to that program, and see how it handles.

Well, there is an in-game shot of it in the CG thread, but it's a rough, untextured model, and has no cockpit at all, and it's been using the stats from an Me-262 Fortunately, I found that I can get a good estimate of the wing area, etc in my modeling program. It'll tell you the surface area of something, or the volume, or whatever, and I can use that to find the various stats of the wings. I did use the RPG stats for it, and I've got most of them written down.. what I don't have, I'm filling in by estimation from modern aircraft of somewhat similar type, fuel stats from F-15, etc...The real trick will be to see if these stats actually result in a plane that will fly.

Dunno if this is quite the right forum for this, but since all the other CG stuff is here, figured I'd try here first.

Apart from a working cockpit, my YF-19 model for Microsoft's flight sims is done.. I'm attempting to put it in Combat Sim 3, but several things have got me stuck. CFS3 isn't as simple as some games, where you just put a model in the game, specify it's maneuverability rating, speed, and hull strength, and it works. This thing is asking for everything from wing load coefficients and engine rpm ratings, to the actual wing area and fuel load. Suffice to say it's complex, and would be much easier if I were doing a real plane, with real specs. Is there any website or reference that actually lists such statistics? My guess would be the Macross Design Works book, but I was under the impression that that was mostly artwork. I've got stats for the engine thrust, dimensions, top speeds, max/min takeoff weight, and service ceiling, but that's about it. In the end, I may just end up making stuff up, and hoping that it works. :S

Also, does anyone have any info on the actual workings of the YF-19's various control surfaces? Mainly I'm wondering about the wings. The rudders are easy enough to pick out, as are the workings of the canards in the front (just make the whole canard rotate)... but what kinds of control surfaces do the wings use? I'm guessing leading edge slats, from the "NO STEP" decals on the kit there. But the ailerons/flaps/elevons have got me stumped. How are they linked together? From the artwork I've seen, it looks like each of the four sections of the wing control surfaces can move independently...but should they? And does the plane have flaps, or some sort of elevon system?

Well, it's not exactly cg, but I have some news from the flight sim front:

Hey, if you like working on low-poly models, look into modeling for games... Those things would look great in some of the recent space combat games

Ditto... I'm working on a YF-19 right now, just very slowly. Hasegawa definitely slicked back the design a little more than the Yamato 1/72 version... a friend of mine commented that the Yamato looked like a a constipated goose compared to this kit. I can only hope that if Yamato ever releases a 1/48th YF-19 (pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease) they base it off of this version... course, the proportions might be tricky to get, but just as long as they don't make the back end as fat as the 1/72 transformable one, I'll be happy.