captain america Posted May 2 Author Share Posted May 2 Certain smartphones are now using .heic format for photos, which I understand offers higher resolution in a compressable format which takes up less storage space. Works perfectly on FB and IG, but I guess Invision is still playing catch-up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tekering Posted May 4 Share Posted May 4 On 5/3/2024 at 12:52 AM, captain america said: A fellow MWer is currently working on the modeling of the pilot figure, and what he's doing so far looks excellent! Will the pilot figure be a 1st/2nd Lieutenant, Sergeant/NCO or Corporal/Private? ☺️ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big s Posted May 4 Share Posted May 4 1 hour ago, tekering said: Will the pilot figure be a 1st/2nd Lieutenant, Sergeant/NCO or Corporal/Private? ☺️ Male or female also. There’s quite a few combinations Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoryHolmes Posted May 5 Share Posted May 5 On 5/2/2024 at 8:52 AM, captain america said: My apologies for the slow progress: this mecha, by virtue of its variable geometry, is made up of many, many small parts and they require lots of time to shape properly. I've been waiting my entire life for a good representation of the Spartas Hover Tank. Take your time, there's no rushing perfection. We can wait a little bit longer for another masterpiece. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
captain america Posted May 6 Author Share Posted May 6 (edited) On 5/4/2024 at 5:59 PM, tekering said: Will the pilot figure be a 1st/2nd Lieutenant, Sergeant/NCO or Corporal/Private? ☺️ Whatever a 1/48 Jeanne Francaix is, that's what the pilot will be! Seems the 3D Dana Sterling pilot figure you linked to earlier is a real clusterscrew of a file. So bad in fact, that Carlos abandoned fixing it and is starting completely from scratch. Edited May 6 by captain america Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tekering Posted May 8 Share Posted May 8 (edited) On 5/7/2024 at 5:44 AM, captain america said: Seems the 3D Dana Sterling pilot figure you linked to earlier is a real clusterscrew of a file. That's a shock, given what an amazing job he did with his TASC Marie figure... Edited May 9 by tekering Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
captain america Posted May 9 Author Share Posted May 9 Captain's log: Thursday, May 9th, 2024. I'll start this week's update with a quick image of the pilot figure (pic 27A), currently undergoing a serious 3D overhaul, courtesy of Carlos P. While Ted had pointed us to a pre-existing file, the file was probably intended to be much larger, owing to the fact that the creator had made the figure hollow—presumably to save on material when printing—the end result being a figure which is paper-thin in 1/48 scale, and as such requires a complete redo! The main mecha itself is coming along quite nicely! Pics 27 and 28 show the leg, and all the complex engineering which is going into it. The shin-guard holder is made collapsible, which will allow Transport mode to sit flatter without sacrificing the look in robot mode. What may not be immediately evident is how painstaking it is to create all these sharp angles on the lower leg armor. The parts are small, and one wrong swipe with the sanding block would mean at least an hour of puttying and refinishing. I will wait to show you all the range of motion when the parts are further along. Pics 29-31 (inclusive) show the arm, which is another wonderful clusterscrew. I'm talking specifically about the elbow. The good: I was able to retain a swivel at the shoulder, and reasonably good range of motion so it'll be able to hold its rifle up, though the joint itself may end up being rather fragile. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
captain america Posted May 9 Author Share Posted May 9 (edited) Pic 32: in order to allow the mecha to have a smaller waist as well as have clearance for the arms inside the mid-torso in Transport mode, the abdomen panels are also collapsible. They were a veritable bear to make, but the end result was worth it! In fact, you can see in pics 33 and 34 how nicely the sides transition to accommodate the arms and still offer relatively flat sides. Pic 36: the front hood along with the lower part of the backpack and the two square openings at the bottom, which I assume are thrusters of some sort. Edited May 9 by captain america Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
captain america Posted May 9 Author Share Posted May 9 Pic 35: another critical joint on the figure is the hinge at the solar plexus. I made the parts here from styrene for the sake of simplicity. What's interesting is that this can also serve as an ab-crunch joint, and I added a swivel at the waist, so robot mode will have an unusually decent range of motion. Pic 37: this is what I have after about 3 weeks of work. Once the feet and the extra armor parts are added, it will make much more visual sense. That's it for this week, and stay tuned for the next update Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoryHolmes Posted May 10 Share Posted May 10 This is the part that feels like Black Magic to me. Watching all these individual parts come together to form a cohesive assembly that you already had in your head just wows me. Your work is, as always, a masterpiece. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tekering Posted May 10 Share Posted May 10 Man, I love these updates. Ingenious work on the elbows, Cap'; reminiscent of the approach you took with the Biopsycher. 11 hours ago, captain america said: the two square openings at the bottom, which I assume are thrusters of some sort Yes, there are large verniers mounted in there, visible in several episodes. Presumably, they allow the Spartas to hop around in "Walker Cannon" mode, and launch into the air when transforming to "Battle Sniper." 11 hours ago, captain america said: Looking really good! My only concern is the sharp corners on the chest block, an all-too-common mistake seen in VHT toy designs. I'm sure you'll be rounding down those edges just as you have the abdomen panels. ☺️ Thanks for taking the time to keep us drooling! 🤤 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
captain america Posted May 10 Author Share Posted May 10 7 hours ago, tekering said: Man, I love these updates. Ingenious work on the elbows, Cap'; reminiscent of the approach you took with the Biopsycher. Yes, there are large verniers mounted in there, visible in several episodes. Presumably, they allow the Spartas to hop around in "Walker Cannon" mode, and launch into the air when transforming to "Battle Sniper." Looking really good! My only concern is the sharp corners on the chest block, an all-too-common mistake seen in VHT toy designs. I'm sure you'll be rounding down those edges just as you have the abdomen panels. ☺️ Thanks for taking the time to keep us drooling! 🤤 Thanks, Ted! I was certain they were thrusters, though the temptation to call them tank headlights was indeed strong! The chest is still in a crude stage of development, and will indeed have chamfered edges, but I only make those refinements once all the necessary geometry is verified. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
captain america Posted Friday at 01:15 PM Author Share Posted Friday at 01:15 PM Captain's Log: Friday, May 17th, 2024 Things are going well. VERY well! Considering I'm only a month into a variable-geometry model project, I have to say I'm quite surprised at the progress I've made in such a short time. Pics 38-42 show the hovercraft mode looking very nice indeed. I put in a lot of hours fiddling with the geometry: sanding a little here, removing a bit of material there, constantly going back and forth with some details to get everything nice and flat. This is something which takes up a stupid amount of man hours, but the proof is in the pudding: this thing looks like $$ and I'm far from done! Now comes robot mode, which is equally impressive! I received my order of aftermarket hands, and they fit perfectly in the forearms. Frankly, everything just looks... Wonderful! The only drawback is the parts count continues to rise, as I make improvements to the geometry in order to enhance posability and harmonize the two main modes. Frankly, it's worth it: no one has ever done justice to these mecha, so I'm going all the way. When I stop and consider how far I've come since the days of the 1/32 Legioss, which took me about a year, and here I am doing something almost as complex, but much smaller, in about a month. I can only give glory to God!! I may skip next week's update as I have some other commitments, but rest assured that I'll be back with a vengeance in 2 weeks! 38.HEIC 39.HEIC 40.HEIC 41.HEIC 42.HEIC 43.HEIC 44.HEIC 45.HEIC 46.HEIC 47.HEIC 48.HEIC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ignacio Ocamica Posted Friday at 10:20 PM Share Posted Friday at 10:20 PM A work of art!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tekering Posted Saturday at 04:19 PM Share Posted Saturday at 04:19 PM On 5/17/2024 at 10:15 PM, captain america said: Frankly, everything just looks... Wonderful! Almost everything, but at the risk of once again criticizing a work-in-progress, I have to ask... Why is your backpack so small, thin and insubstantial? Furthermore, it looks like you've tried to reproduce the head of the Matchbox Hover Tank toy, rather than the Southern Cross Spartas design... Perhaps some official promotional artwork can inspire you further...? Please take my comments in the spirit of constructive feedback, and remember I'm your biggest fan... ...so I know you're capable of reproducing the look of the heads from the anime, once you've scrapped your first attempt and started over from scratch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
captain america Posted Saturday at 07:48 PM Author Share Posted Saturday at 07:48 PM Hi Ted! The slightly smaller backpack is born out of a necessity to appease two different modes. To be fair, the thruster module is separate, and what you see in the robot pics has those thrusters flattened for Transport mode. As such, they can be made to flare-out when not collapsed, so the backpack will be more faithful to the line-art when completed. Your assessment of the head being partially inspired by the Matchbox toy is correct. I was also trying to harmonize what I saw in the various views of the line-art and other publicity renderings, none of which are consistent. The eye piece looks almost domed in some images, flat in other views, and recessed in other views (see image below). Also, the way the geometry is established in drawings does not line-up so well IRL, but I do agree that it can be improved, and it will be. It's good to have an extra set of eyeballs on the project! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big s Posted Saturday at 11:01 PM Share Posted Saturday at 11:01 PM Most of the colored pictures make it appear as if the main lense is a flat piece that lines up with the white outer face armor but is kinda slightly recessed where the red part is at an angle so the bottom of the red stitcks more forward ahead of the bottom of the lense and the top of the redlines up to the white armor. The lense is appears more straight in these pictures But those black and white pictures are more rounded at the edges and the lense is at a different angle where the bottom of the lense touches the bottom of the red armor at the face. It kinda gives it an odd upward tilted lense Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tekering Posted yesterday at 11:55 AM Share Posted yesterday at 11:55 AM Thanks for keeping the lines of communication open, Cap'! My financial investment in this project is negligible compared to my emotional investment in the Spartas, so I really appreciate having your ear (and given the number of likes my previous comment received, I'm clearly not the only one). ☺️ 14 hours ago, captain america said: The slightly smaller backpack is born out of a necessity to appease two different modes. Perhaps I misinterpreted your intentions for this figure. Will this be transformable after all? I was expecting a model with specific parts to accurately represent each mode, not one that makes aesthetic compromises for the sake of transformation. 🤨 14 hours ago, captain america said: Your assessment of the head being partially inspired by the Matchbox toy is correct. Now I'm certain I misinterpreted your intentions for this figure. 😒 If I may assume the form of King Hamlet's ghost: "This visitation / Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose" (Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 4). You're obviously enjoying the engineering challenge this mecha represents, but I fear you may be heading in the wrong direction. We're not asking you to redesign the Spartas, much less the vintage toy. If the backpack depicted in "Battle Sniper" mode is too large to fit in "Sniping Clapper" mode, then give us a smaller piece to take its place if we want to build that mode. I do realize there's a limited amount of resin allotted to the production of each kit (and silicon molds aren't cheap, either), so you want to keep the parts count down... but parts-swapping is unavoidable when adapting hand-drawn mecha. Even the most sophisticated Valkyrie toy requires swapping out the hands to look decent; and since looking decent is the primary purpose of any garage kit, the compromises you're making may be inappropriate. 12 hours ago, Big s said: the main lens is a flat piece that lines up with the white outer face armor but is kinda slightly recessed This is precisely how the animators interpreted the line art, for the entire production run of the series. Erroneous American toys are an irrelevant distraction at best, a ruinous disaster at worst. 😬 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoryHolmes Posted 18 hours ago Share Posted 18 hours ago I'm always amazed and just how much fudging happens in the artwork, and how much just can't be carried over into a 3D form. The artwork has the Battloid's chest as big and beefy, like a tank should, but in order to accommodate the other modes you've had to slim it down somewhat. Kinda like the wings on a VF-1, always changing size between modes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tekering Posted 12 hours ago Share Posted 12 hours ago (edited) 7 hours ago, CoryHolmes said: I'm always amazed and just how much fudging happens in the artwork, and how much just can't be carried over into a 3D form. On the contrary, Max Factory's new 1:72 Battroid is proof that accurate anime proportions can be perfectly carried over into a 3D form. You're simply constrained by the same mindset that our erstwhile Cap'n seems to be labouring under, in that you're considering the need to accommodate the other modes. We've all seen the CAD models and the 3D-printed prototypes MAAS and MEP failed to produce, and many of us had that Matchbox toy back in the day. We all know the compromises necessary to produce figures that transform, and it's easy to get stuck in that paradigm. But this isn't a transformable toy. The advantage to a model kit (especially a fan-produced garage kit) is the freedom to incorporate that fudging in the artwork, resulting in a more anime-style figure that properly reflects what we grew up watching on TV. That's what I was expecting when this project was announced. I'm just trying to get us back on track. Edited 10 hours ago by tekering Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenius Posted 11 hours ago Share Posted 11 hours ago Tekering, are you saying you want separate battroid and tank kits? You acknowledge that compromises are needed if the same parts will be used for all modes which is what I thought the goal was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big s Posted 11 hours ago Share Posted 11 hours ago 7 hours ago, CoryHolmes said: Kinda like the wings on a VF-1, always changing size between modes. Technically the wings are supposed to retract into the backpack. The legs on the other hand magically fatten up for battroid and slim down for fighter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tekering Posted 10 hours ago Share Posted 10 hours ago 42 minutes ago, jenius said: Tekering, are you saying you want separate battroid and tank kits? That's neither necessary nor viable, but I do expect a certain degree of parts-swapping. I thought we'd be getting a model that shares most of the core components between modes, but would have specific parts for specific display options, like so many other Moscato kits have included. I certainly wouldn't expect either of the heads or hands to be used in transport or cannon mode, for example; instead, there will be separate parts that look like retracted hands for those modes (parts that will not be required if you're building the robot). Is it unreasonable of me to expect a properly-scaled, dedicated backpack piece for robot mode, along with the dedicated hands and head parts? I just don't see why we need to be compromising accuracy for transformation, when the model won't actually be transformable. 🤨 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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