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Mr March

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  1. Mr March
    Very cool. Although shame on you for using the Master File schematic and not the older TIA one
  2. Mr March
    Hmmm, not bad. That plane stunt looks fun. I've long been eager to see the bowing-out of most of these aging action stars because their movies are utter diarrhea (the Expendables can eat choad). But I have to admit, Tom Cruise has produced a few action vehicles in these last few years that - despite all they have going against them - have beaten the odds. Both Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and Edge of Tomorrow/Live.Die.Repeat were surprisingly good and shockingly funny pieces of epic action entertainment. Maybe he can pull off a mid-50s hat trick with this one. Despite being an intellectual basket case, I gotta respect the guy for showing up nearly all his action contemporaries.
  3. Mr March
    Nice, it looks like the Destroid Monster MK IP colors. So pretty
  4. Mr March
    LOL! Nicholas Cage films make me cry, writhing in pain and wailing like I've been raped and left to die in a gutter. But that's just me
  5. Mr March
    GuardianGrey Just a bit of notekeeping, it is my theory that the VF-11 Thunderbolt may be THE most mass produced variable fighter, much more than the VF-1 Valkyrie. So VF-11 Thunderbolt mass production wouldn't be second to the VF-1 Valkyrie; in my theory the VF-11 Thunderbolt IS the number one mass produced variable fighter. Actually, based on the best published information we have, the VF-4 Lightning III mass production already surpassed the VF-1 Valkyrie. Official trivia states VF-4 Lightning III manufacturing produced a total of 8,245 variable fighters. There are no official figures for the VF-1 Valkyrie production, but according to Variable Fighter Master File VF-1 Valkyrie Vol. 1, pg. 52 (2009) there were 5,459 VF-1 variable fighters produced. It's my theory the VF-11 Thunderbolt production is far beyond that, mostly due to vast numbers found in colony fleets like Macross 7 (they had 1,800 VF-11 Thunderbolts). If nearly 2,000 VF-11s are in just one fleet, it's my guess total production including colony worlds, colony fleets and deep space bases would number in the tens of thousands. Perhaps somewhere around 20,000 to 40,000 total built. That's a lot of cannon fodder A side note about images for my website... Thanks to Yahoo, Google and other search engines, the internet is already filled with poor quality, low-res scans of Macross artwork. At this point in the history of the internet, the only reason to have a website devoted to Macross mecha is to present the best quality scans and colored art possible. The M3 isn't quite there yet, but it's getting close. The next update is a massive upgrade to hundreds of images. Sadly the images from the Macross New Horizon wiki are far too small to be of any use, but I appreciate your effort. For reference, all my work these last few years has been in 2,400 DPI scans or better. That creates individual line art images ranging from 5,000 to 10,000 pixels in their largest dimension (width or height). Once I complete a colored image, I build a scaled-down .gif for presentation on the M3 website (currently designed for standard 1080p). Most M3 images appear about 900 to 1,400 pixels in their largest dimension. The main reasons I use such high resolution is because it makes for easier work, the level of detail is very high, and my images are prepared for the future when display resolutions go up to 4K, 8K or higher.
  6. Mr March
    Not bad. It's a good design.
  7. Mr March
    Adam Sandler is the Nicholas Cage of comedy movies I would give a years pay for a YouTube video of the Sony Pictures executive meeting where "this" was pitched
  8. Mr March
    Yeah, Chappie is getting trounced in the podcasts and blogs, particularly being called very stupid. By contrast, the reviews and advanced word-of-mouth for Ex Machina is glowing and praise the film for dynamite performances, innovative ideas implemented well and incredibly smart storytelling. I'm VERY excited for this.
  9. Mr March
    The spice must flow... Well, this is certainly something interesting. A space whale movie is the last thing I would have expected anyone to make and the effects are amazing. I'd pay to see more.
  10. Mr March
    In order to present the best possible quality artwork, I insist upon using only very high resolution artwork scans, which are then down-scaled for presenation on my website. Sadly, very little on the internet can meet that high standard and so I am forced to purchase a Macross art book collection to scan everything myself. I can only scan Macross art that I own personally, which until recently has been very limited. I lack the source material to create 2,400+ DPI scans of the SW-XA1 Schneeblume. I also lack source art for the SW-XAII Schneegans, but years ago I had found some high-ish resolution scans of the SW-XAII to initially include on the M3. But those scans are much too small for my current scan/quality standards, so I won't be improving those profiles until I obtain the art book/magazine that has that line art so I can scan it personally. And yes, I know the Macross Chroncile 2nd Edition has SOME of the SW-XA1 and SW-XAII line art, so I may scan those in 4,800 DPI to make it work (since they are so f'ing small on the page). Needless to say, if anyone has the source books that have obscure art, feel free to volunteer high-res scans or mail me photocopied pages as a donation to my website
  11. Mr March
    I think the VF-25F Messiah firing missiles sans-Super Packs was just a dramatic conceit to make the scene work. If the animators had a little more forethought, they could have simply mounted underwing missiles on the VF-25F in the previous scenes to be prepared for Vajra sequence, but that's anime (and really, that's filmmakiing, period).
  12. Mr March
    That's a pretty good price. Game looks good and your artwork, as always, is excellent.
  13. Mr March
    The editing clearly wanted to give the impression it was the VF-25 that fired the missiles.
  14. Mr March
    Don't get me wrong, I agree most of the M7 mecha colors are lousy. I just wanted to promote the good stuff The process for coloring Macross line art is two-parts: I scan art from various books using XnView in very high resolutions (typically 2,400 - 3,200 DPI) Once art is scanned, I load it into Photoshop CS 5 where I clean the scan, build a color .PSD file and work until finished I use the "multiply" feature on the top layer (the actual line art). I then build color layers underneath that top line art layer. The "multiply" feature allows all the color layers to be seen underneath without disturbing the drawn artwork. SInce all the colors are on separate layers, it's easy to change one color layer without disturbing other color layers. In the next update to my website, there's going to be a lot of improved artwork in a style similar to the following picture of the VF-19F Battroid:
  15. Mr March
    No, it's been mentioned many times before. While it's true the Macross 7 mecha are the most "clown-colored" of the Macross shows, the M7 series did feature more realistic schemes like the black-colored VF-17 Nightmare. I actually like the blue and silver VF-19F Excalibur. If nothing else, the ridiculously garish colors suited the silly subject matter of the M7 series. And on a personal note, they are fun to color
  16. Mr March
    Love the cover of that limited edition. Nice set. I've seen this documentary. An excellent film. Jodorowsky is an incredible personality and it's easy to see why he infected those around him with his contagious enthusiasm. He also has a way of looking at art that is humbling, always daring the viewer to question one's motive for what one does in life. I'm not convinced Jodorowsky's "Dune" would have been a good film, but it would have been something very fearless and creative. At worst it would have been a very interesting failure, certainly no more or less than Lynch's own film. This documentary is definitely worth a watch.
  17. Mr March
    For a franchise that places so much emphasis on missiles, very little proper trivia is written about them. For most of the valkyries we know little about the FAST/Super pack missile payloads. The Armored configurations have some details, but even some of those are missing full details (like the VF-11 Thunderbolt APS-11 Protect Armor). So you'll find a lot of contradictory information. The Armored Valkyrie configurations serve different roles than FAST/Super Pack Valkyries, so it's not about missile count. The Armored Valkyries are basically high-mobility heavy weapons platforms, featuring rockets, grenades, beam weapons and heavy armor in addition to a large number of missiles. The Super Valkyries are basically space-optimization configurations, designed for extended operational time and maneuverability in space with some additional missile ordnance. The VF-1 Super Valkyrie is never provided with an official missile count. Yes, even still to this day, after all that's been published about the damned thing. There is the unofficial analysis that many of us fans have discovered, in that the Super Valkyrie's first appearance in SDFM seems to indicate it has a payload of 30 missiles indirectly confirmed through dialog. The 30-missile theory is also supported by the internal diagrams for the VF-1 FAST Packs in the DYRL Gold Book poster. That's the best that we've been able to come up with.
  18. Mr March
    GreyGuardian A very interesting breakdown. I would definitely recommend watching Macross 7 and Macross Frontier, as both shows feature more instances of the Pin-Point Barrier, both upon spaceships and valkyries. I should have clarified what I said about the Pin-Point Barrier. I do understand the basic official definition of a PPB and how it works in the context of the Macross universe. I’m just unclear how WELL it works. I don’t know how much energy it uses, how much firepower it can repel, how long it can be deployed, et cetera. I just thought that given its very nature, it could have been a plausible deterrent to melee attacks that would jive with the world building of the Macross fiction. Firepower in Macross just seems so much greater than conventional arms, I figure even a giant metal fist wouldn’t cause nearly as much damage as a gun pod shot or a micro-missile. In Macross, the Valkyries fly around with armor as strong as tank. A Hellfire, AMRAMM or typical 20 mm vulcan lacks the firepower to barely scratch that, if it could even fly/shoot fast enough to strike something as fast and maneuverable as a Variable Fighter. So Macross mecha weapons need to be much faster and more powerful to be effective. If we are to believe the translated figures provided in books like “M.A.T. Sky Angels Volume #3: Extra Journal: VF-1 Valkyrie” and the “Variable Fighter Master File” series, Macross missiles have more explosive firepower than strategic bombs and Macross gun pods are many times more powerful than the deadliest tank cannon. Calculations using those published figures place a one-second burst of the GU-11 Gun Pod at 97 MJ of energy and an AMM-1 Missile at 840 MJ of energy. For a real world comparison, the tank cannon on a M1A1 Abrams can unleash 12 MJ per shot.
  19. Mr March
    I thank material like Macross for developing in my young child self a taste for drama and narrative early. In my teens I was already understanding how drama could be far more explosive than even the best action films. So I watched and enoyed Trek, but the instense, overbearing Trek fandom wore the show thin. Actually, it's not much different than today. Back then many demanded Trek be the ONLY sci-fi show and you MUST enjoy it. Now, Trek is gone but that mentality has shifted to the internet, where cultish folks try enforcing consensus for everything from movies to video games to wikipedia. Metacritic is the new fundamentalist fandom The first season of Star Trek The Next Generation is downright awful. I found only one or two episodes even tolerable. The latter parts of second season is when the show hit it's stride and much of the dated storytelling was dropped in favor of far more sophisticated tales. I think it's important to remember, Star Trek was produced not only in a era where shows were allowed longer to find an audience but Trek also had cultural power behind it. Folks were really into space exploration and embraced the idea of life beyond our world, both our own and perhaps even alien. That's why it endured to reach it's potential. I certainly wouldn't worry about modern TV shows not having a chance; we're currently in a second golden age of TV. There are innumerable shows that would have NEVER seen production in the 1980s and 1990s eras of broadcast television. "Game of Thrones" would have been laughed out of every TV station in 1980s and 1990s America. "Breaking Bad" would have been a single X-Files episode at best. "Community" would have been remembered only as a dark joke in Dan Harmon's suicide note. Whatever slower shows may be lost in the faster digital landscape of today we've more than made up for with shows that never would have seen the light of day 20 years ago.
  20. Mr March
    JBO Sounds like a great additional weapon for the Stampede Valkyrie anime52k8 For sure, one theory is as good as another., Personally, I think given the crazy firepower levels of the Valkyrie weapons, I'd have a difficult time seeing a punch or kick from a Battroid even coming close. I was just trying to rationalize when melee is de-emphasized in the Macross universe. But who even knows how those PPB even works.
  21. Mr March
    I've recently gone through seasons 1-6 on blu-ray. It's been great to revisit the show, which was ground breaking for it's time. The acting holds up very well and many of the stories are just as engaging now as they were back then. In fact, some of the stories are sadly very prescient and folks would de well to learn from them. But I must say, I am very glad that TV has come a long way since this show. Some of the material really shows it's age.
  22. Mr March
    It could be unintentional, but it works rather well. EIther way, it's nice work.
  23. Mr March
    Nice artwork! It's notable how your son also gave the whole portrait an interesting cohesive style through the use of lines on the dress matching the lines of text and the lines of the portrait frame. That is clever presentation.
  24. Mr March
    I think the pin-point barrier systems might also serve to discourage melee combat in Macross. The PPB doesn't make mecha invulnerable, but it does make mecha more difficult to damage and significantly increase time to kill. It's much easier and more efficient to defeat a PPB with more destructive attacks like bullets, beams/lasers or missiles than it would be to punch or kick through it (excluding PPB enhanced knives or bayonets). One other aspect that impacts melee mecha weapons that we haven't considered is weight. Mounting something like a mecha-sized sword, spear or axe is going to add a lot of weight to any valkyrie. It's make more sense to simply lose the added weight of a mecha-sized melee weapon altogether to ensure optimal performance. Or if one has to keep the weight, it would be better spent on more munitions for the exisitng weapons (more bullets, more missiles or extra energy capacitors for beam guns or pin-point barrier power).
  25. Mr March
    Max was drawn with glasses for the same reason animators draw all kinds of quick visual cues; for the audience to distinguish two otherwise identically drawn characters from one another. It's an animators trick to draw characters as fast and as easily as possible, just give one blue hair or glasses. Or both! Are you kidding? The Meltrandi LOVE Zentradi ships
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