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tekering

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  1. tekering
    No, I've decided not to use it at all. It's too big for the model. Instead, I've made up a smaller eyepiece that scales better, and drilled tiny holes to suggest the camera positions: This is more consistent with the anime depiction, I think.
  2. tekering
    Merchandising rights are granted for a period of years, not in perpetuity. When their contract elapses, toy manufacturers can choose to extend said contracts (provided they haven't gone bankrupt in the meantime!), or another company can purchase the rights instead. Thus we get a new round of merchandise from a new group of companies once the previous contracts have elapsed. We see the same drought-to-deluge pattern with Patlabor goods, Ghostbusters merchandise, and especially Star Trek figures...
  3. tekering
    As my Pinky Space Crab nears completion, I look forward to tackling a King Crab... or two, actually (if the order window stays open a few more weeks)!
  4. tekering
    The Invid sensor eye. Those microscopic metal tubes were cannibalized from ballpoint pen nibs.
  5. tekering
    The proportions don't look cartoony at all; looks like a real guy wearing a costume to me. If anything, the proportions are too realistic... It's way off the animation model sheets. Apart from the considerable discrepancy in proportion, there's also the color, the markings, and a myriad of surface detailing that differ significantly from the source material. Obviously, this is not intended for Mospeada purists like us. [ . . . ] So who do they expect to buy this? The casual Robotech fan who happens to have an extra thousand dollars to spend? Specialty retail store owners looking for an expensive display item for their shops? Rich landscapers tired of decorating the lawn with garden gnomes? I fear manufacturers will blame poor sales on a lack of demand for Mospeada product, instead of considering the product itself may be the problem.
  6. tekering
    Epic scale fail!
  7. tekering
    Tamiya TS-24 Purple Tamiya AS-19 Intermediate Blue (US Navy) Mr.Hobby Gundam Color Spray SG08 MS Purple I spray thin coats over a black surfacer base coat, so the colors appear darker than they would over a typical grey primer.
  8. tekering
    You should be very proud, Cap'n. First parts to be completed: I'm satisfied with the colors, but I'm not sure if I want to pursue a glossy finish, or a flat matte...
  9. tekering
    With less than two weeks to release, you'd think Evolution Toys would have a proper paint master to display, at least... regardless, we already know the final product will be better than any previous Legioss toy. I mean, it couldn't be worse, right? I only wish one thing for this figure: - for it to sell well enough to encourage the production of further Mospeada toys, rather than bankrupting the company (like what happened to Beagle or CMs).
  10. tekering
    Poor Pinky's only a few days old, but he's already going grey... Sorry, I'm not (just) posting to make dumb jokes. I have another idea to share with those of you wishing to articulate your Gurab as I have: I've figured out a simple way to adjust the angle of the claws. By drilling two holes in the recessed mounting point for each claw -- at opposing angles -- you can choose to place them facing inward (neutral posture) or jutting outward (aggressive posture). Just choose which hole you want to plug them into, and you can articulate Pinky's emotional state!
  11. tekering
    My Pinky Space Crab's ready for painting, but -- as it's pouring rain outside -- conditions are not ideal for ventilation, so I'm watching Mospeada instead. Here are some choice images from episode 10. The ruins of Point K provide some poignant imagery: Stig sits under the shade of a crashed Garfish, isolating himself from the others. Stig's POV. I love the aspect ratio of this image. This episode is full of beautiful background paintings.
  12. tekering
    I figured out a more anime-accurate way of mounting Pinky's cannons: I drilled holes in the top of the head to connect them directly, rather than mounting them on rods behind the head. This way, they're adjustable, removable, and the connection points are invisible from every angle (just as they are in the show). No disrespect to the good Cap'n intended, but his solution (practical as it is) broke the first rule of alien design in '80s anime: "No straight lines!" From an unscrupulous Chinese factory worker, presumably. eBay is lousy with 'em, guys.
  13. tekering
    So, Pinky arrived this morning... and immediately, I set to work assembling him. A pin vice and a Dremel made it easy to drill holes to accommodate Revoltech joints: These parts provided a secure means of connecting the various joints together, so the figure could stand unassisted. They also provide a great deal of articulation! Pinky can even be posed in flight, provided an appropriate stand is available. I've still got to attach the guns, before I go about disassembling and painting him... Pinky should keep me busy for the next week at least. Bring on the King Crab, Cap'n!
  14. tekering
    I always do my own color research before painting (in this case, using the Mospeada Blu-rays). From there, I make my own color guides: And yes, Imai's 1:72 Armo-Fighter takes significant liberties with the underside proportions... but the official animation model sheets are so funky in that area, it's hard to blame 'em! If I had your confidence and skill, Cap'n, I'd have scratch built my own chest module instead. A blue and green one? Yuck. Why?
  15. tekering
    Looks like my Pinky Space Crab will be arriving any day now... Glad I finished my Legioss Zeta model before I got distracted by the Gurab. Here are some pics of the finished Armo-Fighter: I inscribed some additional panel lines where parts would separate for transformation -- the arms, for instance -- and outlined them in black to make them the most visible. I also hollowed out the feet to match the look of the engines in the line art. Some of the decals are a little dated, but they adhere beautifully to the surface and really complete the look of the model. The landing gear isn't particularly accurate, and looks a little large... ...but that could simply be because I'm used to the toys, with their retractable gear that doesn't even reach the ground. The stock kit was missing some Armo-Soldier detail -- the thighs, for example -- and didn't give the impression of a transformable robot, so I hollowed out some sections of the underside: I then made thighs to install between the intakes and the legs. Now, at least, it looks like it could transform. With the right lighting, you can make out the turbines behind the jet intakes, too. Some of the Imai decals were a little large, so I opted to use Wave's instead: Here's a Photoshop-enhanced Hidetaka Tenjin-style shot. The pilot's visible in the cockpit, but I'm not sure it reads as Houquet... I did my best to re-sculpt and paint her to look more feminine, since Imai's figure was just a generic male pilot. Hopefully, I'll get a proper control panel made for her cockpit dashboard before that pesky Space Crab arrives!
  16. tekering
    Spectacular! Incidentally, is your properly-scaled 1:48 Legioss to scale with your 1:48 Invid kits? In other words, did you significantly upscale the Crabs as well, or is their scale based on the official anime stats?
  17. tekering
    That is the saddest thing I've ever seen. The poor guy looks mortified to be on that Exo-Squad/Robotech card.
  18. tekering
    So, we know scale can be somewhat questionable when it comes to anime, and Mospeada is no exception. Both Imai and Wave followed the official stats to the letter, so the Legioss models are exactly the height they're supposed to be for 1:72 scale... ...which frankly, doesn't look nearly large enough compared to other 1:72 figures and accessories. Assuming Imai's human figure is exactly six feet tall in armor, he's precisely 1:72 scale... but there's no way he's gonna fit in that cockpit! Conversely, the pilot figure from the kit (that does fit in the cockpit) is the size of a small child. Wave's Mospeada ride armor accessory is smaller still -- nowhere near 1:72 scale, obviously -- but they had to scale it down so it would fit in the Armo-Soldier chest cavity... So the official stats are bullshit, and should be thrown out the window. Almost exactly the same height, actually: Again, assuming the included pilot figure is six feet tall, he's exactly 1:35 scale; and again, the robot looks a little small by comparison (but that could be just the awkward Gakken proportions). Captain America did a 1:32 and a 1:48 Legioss, but his measurements weren't based on the official stats; he also concluded they were bullshit, and threw them out the window. For a fully scratch-built garage kit, you did an incredible job! Incidentally, Cap'n, what did you decide the adjusted Legioss height should actually be?
  19. tekering
    So now we come to the real reason I bought that vintage Imai 3-in-1 kit, and that's for the 1:72 fighter: Every other toy or model kit representation of the Legioss has favored the Armo-Soldier mode, which means fighter mode (if it's even capable of transformation) is plagued by a short, round nosecone, large arms overwhelming the fuselage, and legs that dominate the back half of the jet (usually amounting to nearly 50% of the volume). The tail fins are never canted at the right angle, the fuselage is never straight along the horizontal axis, and the feet always stick out much too far. This vintage kit is the most (if not the only) accurate Armo-Fighter ever produced. Here you can see the engines in proper proportion to the rest of the fighter, as depicted in the original designs and in animation. The engine nacelles have realistic depth to them, and the tail fins sit at the proper angle. The underside cleans up nicely, and the legs appear to be folded up in a way that no engineer has ever managed to achieve in a transformable toy. Also, we see why the gunpod appeared so ridiculously small on the vintage Armo-Soldier kit; it was clearly scaled for fighter mode instead, and under the wing it looks pretty close to the size it was drawn in the animation model sheets. You can see where guide holes have been placed to install landing gear, or panels to conceal it (if you want to pose it in flight), and I intend to keep both display options viable. It's not perfect, of course -- the cockpit is severely lacking in detail, and the pilot seat is much further forward than it should be -- but compared to the 1:72 Armo-Diver or Armo-Soldier kits (or the 1:48 transformable models), this one's far more accurate, easier to construct and paint, and ultimately much more satisfying. Of all the Mospeada kits I've bought and put together over the years, this one gets my highest recommendation. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some painting to do...!
  20. tekering
    OMG, here they are! I'd completely forgotten about their existence. They're all so profoundly different from each other, it's hard to believe they were even produced by the same company... let alone within a year of each other. Anyway, I figure I can kitbash an accurate 1:72 Armo-Diver without needing to replace the existing Wave hands: They don't look so disproportionately large in this mode, do they...?
  21. tekering
    That's a funky-looking Rey... Is he a custom? Well, there's always -- [ . . . ] Never mind.
  22. tekering
    While I'm doing comparisons, I thought my fellow Mospeada fans would be interested in seeing how Wave's 1:72 Legioss model compares with the old Imai release. While Imai produced kits of all three modes in this scale, Wave's Legioss is "Armo-Soldier" only. None of these kits are currently in production, and aftermarket prices are always in flux; the most readily available to me was Aoshima's release of the Imai kit from a decade ago (specifically, Houquet's "Zeta"). Wave's "Iota" was the cheapest of theirs I could find, so we're comparing a vintage red kit with a modern green one. While the Wave's only slightly taller than the Imai, individual parts and proportions vary wildly from each other. The Wave has larger shoulders, wider legs, a much larger nosecone on the back, and absurdly large hands, required to carry that massive gunpod of his: The Imai has a wider chest, very small hands, and a ridiculously tiny gunpod that can't be held properly unless it's glued into the hand... Other than a little black wash to bring out some of the sculpted detail, I haven't applied any paint to these kits yet. What you see is the color of the plastic the parts were cast in -- green, white and blue for the Wave kit, and red for the Imai -- and clearly, both will require substantial painting. There are white parts of the Wave kit that need to be painted green, and green parts that need to be painted white, so it matters little what colors the parts were cast in; everything's gonna need paint anyway. As is typical of '80s kits, the Imai is rife with unsightly seam lines and misaligned panel details, and will definitely require a lot of cleanup work before painting; the Wave does a better job of hiding most of the seams, making it easier to build and requiring less glue to assemble. Also typical of modern Japanese kits, the Wave uses plenty of PVC poly-capped joints to aid in articulation. The Imai is well-articulated for its time, but can't compare with the poseability of a modern robot kit. However, fans will notice a lot more deviation from the animation line art when it comes to sculpted detail on the Wave -- the shoulders, legs and feet in particular -- and there are a lot of recessed panel lines that don't exist in any other depiction of the Legioss. If you want your model to be anime-accurate, you'll probably want to sand off or fill in some of those egregious details with putty and paint over them. I haven't decided exactly how I want to proceed with my build from here, but I'll probably do some mixing-and-matching of parts to come up with the most accurate Armo-Soldier I can. The chest intakes and shoulder-mounted sensor array are more accurate on the Imai, but I prefer the overall proportions and the articulation of the Wave kit. Neither kit comes with adequate hands, so I'll likely use 1:144 scale Gunpla aftermarket hands instead. The feet on the Imai kit are closer to the animation model, but I prefer the aesthetics of the boots on the Wave... but those "treads" have got to go!
  23. tekering
    What we've been watching on DVD for the past decade or so (be it Mospeada or Robotech: Remastered) turns out to be quite poor in the color department. Here's a side-by-side from the end of the aforementioned episode 8: Can you guess which image comes from the Blu-ray? (Hint: the Invid "Gurab" are supposed to be purple.) Incidentally, Ghost in the Shell 2.0 is also worth the Blu-ray upgrade.
  24. tekering
    Great! I've been meaning to reproduce this shot: I'll take 'em all.
  25. tekering
    Sure. Episode 8 opens with this striking image, a slow pan across the desert: I like the composition of this shot, which pans away from the helmet in the extreme foreground and into the deep desert beyond, eventually revealing the jeep entering frame from the opposite direction. The juxtaposition of static foreground elements and moving background elements is awesome. Here's another composite image, our first and only look at Mars Base in the series: I love the angles in this shot, the harsh vertical lines of the buildings contrasting with the sharp curve of the elevated train tracks, those huge underground structures obliquely lit with bold splashes of color, and that massive, impossibly high screen the camera tilts up to reveal. It's a spectacular setting, completely at odds with anything else seen in Mospeada, and it helps us to understand the difficultly Stig Bernard must face trying to adjust to life on an unfamiliar world. The environment where he grew up is totally different from the post-war Earth he finds himself in, and this single image expresses that concept far better than any dialogue could hope to. Oh, this episode also features Stig's first look at an Invid hive. More HD goodness to come! OMG, "extended play?" You're bringing back traumatic memories from childhood... Imma sue you for PTSD!
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