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tekering

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  1. tekering
    Sweeney Todd is the only horror musical worthy of the name, but its Gothic sensibility wouldn't work as a Joker sequel. 🤨 Come to think of it, if Joaquin Phoenix could capture the tone of this scene from Gamer, it would be perfect:
  2. tekering
    That brought some much-needed levity to the series for me. It's been entirely too serious in tone for such a cartoonish aesthetic (and plot!), so when young Anakin was revealed I literally laughed out loud. I laughed even louder when they cut to Obi-Wan in that wig. 🤣 This material would've been a lot more fun if they'd presented it as a comedy.
  3. tekering
    Get Out, man! You're not one of Us.
  4. tekering
    I was hoping to have made improvements to the Prometheus this week, but I had trouble finding consistent reference to work from... 'cause it doesn't seem to exist. 😑 At the top you see the cleanest and most detailed orthographic view, as provided by Hasegawa (from their 1:4000 SDF-1 decal placement guide). Their model (right) reproduces the shape of the deck precisely as their instructions depict... However, the drawing directly below it shows significant variations in deck width and conning tower placement, thus the proportions are a little different. This is how official animation model sheets depicted the Prometheus when attached to the SDF-1. The Takatoku/Bandai/Matchbox deck (right) seems based on this image... ...except official animation model sheets depicting the Prometheus by itself show considerable differences in shape and proportions again, as the third image illustrates. This design tapers towards the bow, and is thinner even than Hasegawa's modern interpretation. Given the extremely thin deck of the 2016 MegaHouse toy (right), I assume they were working from this image in particular. Line art of the ship in profile is a little more consistent, but the merchandise is far less accurate from this angle; the proportions are way off, and the hulls are substantially different from each other. Hasegawa's is clearly the best representation, but that's not saying much... At this stage, I'm about ready to toss the old Prometheus toy in the trash and start from scratch. 😒 It's way too small, to begin with. Hasegawa's line art confirms the proper size of the Prometheus deck, but their design is somewhat suspect; their TV model was reverse-engineered from the movie design, as you can see in this side-by-side comparison I made. Notice how the movie-style legs have a completely different shape to them, forcing the support craft further away from the central hull. The legs also end up too short, leaving the Prometheus prow jutting out past the SDF-1 itself! 🤨 This image further illustrates the danger of relying on secondary reference sources, like Hasegawa's. See how their hybrid design ends up placing the bridge conning tower in a totally different location than the original animation model sheets depicted? Oh, and speaking of the conning tower location: The original toy tried to reproduce the way the conning tower changed position during transformation (ridiculous and nonsensical, but canon nonetheless), and -- while the attempt at anime-accuracy is appreciated -- the results were half-assed at best, requiring a huge L-shaped support that stuck out of the central fuselage. I have endeavoured to correct this problem, and reposition the conning tower more accurately as well: Mind you, I'm not much of an engineer, and failed to come up with a more practical solution than what the Japanese designed 40 years ago. My approach was simply to mount the two parts of the conning tower on metal rods: I've drilled two corresponding holes into the base of the conning tower, so that the pieces can be mounted differently depending on which mode the toy is displayed in. It's not a very toyetic solution, but I'm more concerned with aesthetics than playability.
  5. tekering
    I had no idea what you were referencing, so I dug up some online images for context: I own this one: Would you consider a Korean knock-off a "custom?"
  6. tekering
    Inner Demon looks like an even better body for generic customs. 👍
  7. tekering
    Really inspiring work, dude. You never fail to impress.
  8. tekering
    No, you've got it backwards. The natives aren't helping the Predator fight the colonizers; the Predator is protecting the natives from the colonizers. All sorts of message points there. 😅
  9. tekering
    Wow, that was fast. 😮 I look forward to seeing pics! 😉
  10. tekering
    Are you planning to print the whole street in one go? 😶
  11. tekering
    I was just happy to see an onscreen vehicle I already have a toy of, rather than an onscreen vehicle I know we'll never see a toy of... 😔 Star Wars: Resistance was nothing but a 40-episode toy commercial for cool Star Wars vehicles that will never see the light of day. 😢
  12. tekering
    That's wonderfully clean paint work, and a real unique piece to be proud of. The squat line-art proportions don't really correspond to the VF-1 Valkyrie body, but you did the best with the available model parts. I love the primary color you chose for the body. What does Tamiya call that color?
  13. tekering
    The fourth episode was a distinct improvement; still a whole lot of inane stupidity on display, but at least it's the bad guys being dumb and not the good guys this time. 😑
  14. tekering
    Thanks for all the kind words, gentlemen. I appreciate the encouragement. 😊 This week, I've focused on the conning tower sensor package and communication relay equipment -- you know, those two iconic circles inset on the starboard side of the bridge, and the antennae on top -- very little of which was represented on the vintage toy. Like, they didn't even try. 🙄 So, I drilled, cut, and filed out most of the area where the detail was missing, and mounted a styrene plate behind it. Wave has a set with multiple sizes of verniers intended for this kind of customizing, and I figured a couple of the tiny ones would suit my needs well enough: They're the right size, but too thick to suggest the massive scale I'm after. I used my dental files to drill out the center of each, giving a greater sense of depth and considerably thinning down the sidewalls. After painting, they started to look as I'd envisioned. I then used parts from Tamiya's "Waterline Series" of 1:700 battleships to kitbash the communications array on top of the conning tower: The large antennae behind the conning tower (which were properly represented on the original toy, until they inevitably broke off) were reproduced using two different gauges of paper clips. With tiny holes drilled into the plastic to securely mount the metal parts, I can be assured these antennae will never break off! That's the basic aesthetic I'm working towards, which is why I've decided to eschew photo-etched parts, hyper-detailing or realistic weathering for this project. I'm trying to maintain the look of a mass-produced toy, rather than a model kit. The most difficult part of this process, for me, is deciding where to draw the line.
  15. tekering
    ...and therein lies the punishment! 😑
  16. tekering
    Your lighting makes her look appropriately red! 😮
  17. tekering
    Given how gappy the waist and knee joints look in your pics, I'd say they need replacing as well... That sounds like an imminently practical solution. 👍 I haven't even received mine yet! You guys are lucky you don't live on the other side of the planet. 😑
  18. tekering
    Tell me if this sounds familiar: The original film series was the sci-fi merchandising giant of the seventies, with both live-action and animated TV series spin-offs. Decades later, a prequel trilogy of films was released. The TV series is set years before the original film (but acts as a sequel to the prequel films), featuring a principle actor from the movies interacting with a host of new characters. The story meanders from one rural village of oppressed farmers to another, as our hero and his allies are hunted by the authorities (represented by one recurring ineffectual bad guy). No, I'm not talking about Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi...
  19. tekering
    This Vader has a much larger head proportionally, as Hayden Christensen (183cm) is much shorter than Dave Prowse (198cm) was. The "Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi Darth Vader" (🙄) figure accurately reflects that difference in physique. Why the hell they thought it was necessary to put Hayden Christensen (183cm) back in the suit, rather than, say, Spencer Wilding (199cm) -- you know, the guy who played Vader in Rogue One -- is indicative of the creative direction of the Obi-Wan Kenobi series as a whole. 😒
  20. tekering
    I used to think of Obi-Wan Kenobi as an intelligent, even wise Jedi. This series depicts him as an idiot. 🤨 Remember the "Jedi mind-trick?" Poor Ben doesn't seem to. 😒
  21. tekering
    After a two-year hiatus, I'm finally back at it! From here on out, I'm going to post weekly updates to this build until it's finally completed. Despite the narrative significance of the Macross bridge, Takatoku made absolutely no attempt to reproduce it on the toy. All we got was a solid red inset in the conning tower, where the bridge should've been visible (had there at least been a clear plastic piece)... So the first thing I did was to hollow out the "head." I've got plenty of dental files for detailed work like this: Nevertheless, it's very difficult to be accurate at this scale. As you can see, the opening is very small -- less than a centimeter, in fact -- and I needed a special macro focus lens just to photograph it properly. Now, scratchbuilding a bridge at this scale would be impossible, of course (and I don't have access to a liquid-resin 3D printer), so kitbashing is the only viable solution here. ILM elevated kitbashing to an art form making Star Wars, creating incredibly detailed studio miniatures by adding little bits and pieces from unrelated model kits, so that will be both my inspiration and (thanks to Bandai) my source of parts: Bandai's insanely small "Vehicle Model" line of Star Wars kits includes a highly-detailed Star Destroyer I can cannibalize parts from, approximating the multi-level "face" of the SDF-1. Once the seam lines in the conning tower are removed and the "head" is painted, I can add a transparent plastic cover.
  22. tekering
    There is a brief flashback in the film that suggests this interpretation, when they're typing a script (!) and Dale offers a line of dialogue using his chipmunk voice... ...but then there's a moment during a heated argument when they slip into high-pitched squeaks, which paradoxically suggests the traditional chipmunk sound is their "real" voices. Either way, it's certainly never addressed in the film. It was never supposed to. This is a meta-film, establishing the original series as a work of fiction. It could be considered a sequel to Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, but it certainly isn't intended as a sequel to Chip 'n' Dale's Rescue Rangers (despite the misleading title). If this bizarre non-sequitur concerns Bobby Driscoll, you're factually incorrect. As accounted in Barbara Berch-Jamison's The Dangerous Years, "a severe case of acne accompanying the onset of puberty" required Driscoll to use heavy makeup for his performances on dozens of TV shows, which is cited as the reason why his contract with Disney wasn't extended an additional two years. Nonetheless, he continued to appear regularly on TV and radio until his drug arrest in 1956, and his conviction for heroin use is what ruined his career. His drug addiction (and a failed marriage) subsequently bankrupted him, and caused the heart failure that killed him.
  23. tekering
    Tony "Iron Man" Stark, but no Steve "Captain America" Rogers? Natasha "Black Widow" Romanoff, but no Clint "Hawkeye" Barton? Sam "Falcon" Wilson, but no Bucky "Winter Soldier" Barnes? Doctor Strange, but no Wanda "Scarlett Witch" Maximoff (or Wong, even)? Gamora, but no Nebula, Drax or Mantis? I get why there's no Hulk, Groot, or Rocket Raccoon, of course, but I'm surprised how many human characters have been omitted... especially considering they bothered to include Loki. 🤨
  24. tekering
    That figure based on the poster illustration is the dumbest Thing I've ever seen. 🙄
  25. tekering
    Well, at least Hunter is in the pipeline: Frankly, though, I think Hasbro should introduce a new sub-line for CGI-style figures, like the long-running Clone Wars line (or even the short-lived Resistance line). They could cover Rebels, Bad Batch, or even outstanding Clone Wars characters, as well as figures from the upcoming Tales of the Jedi series... and not have to super-articulate photo-realistic style figures to justify their inclusion in the (increasingly inappropriately-named) "Vintage Collection" line.
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