infosys_ms

Whatever the case may be in story is cool. I just said it sounds dumb. My GF is spacey.

Correction: The newer Yamato toys look more like the drawn Valkyrie from the show. JK ;-) I know what you mean tho. I can agree with that. I started 13 years ago, so not sure what other VF toys were available at the time. I cleaned up all the toy details off the final model. That made it look more like the show and more realistic. He smells what I'm cookin'

Hey, if the 1/55 doesnt work for you thats cool. It looks like the thing on the cartoon to me. I've run the numbers on enough VF-1 toys to know that the ones with cockpits/pilot figures are not 14 meter planes when in scale to the pilot. I never said my design was the official anything. I referenced the "official" specifications. Line art and cartoons have zero measurements behind them. I mean it literally works, its an object that is jet shaped that transforms into a man shape. What's bogus is what's going on onscreen. As much as I love SDFM (Robotech) sometimes the transformations are pretty laughable. Stick around, you don't have to agree, you may still like.

Wow, you've been in all those jets? Coooooooool!!!!!!!!! Are you in the service?

I am a big fan of Mr Bickell's work. I hope he chimes in on the subject. We need to wait to see a few things tho, A: We need to see a finished model for a final length and B: We don't know if he has placed a scale pilot in the seat. He is taking a very different approach then I. He does seem to be referencing the line art heavily so we will see how it goes for him if he ever finishes. My guess is when his model is complete and scales it to 14m the pilot will comically not fit and will have to scale up to get it to fit. Yes, we know its just a cartoon about but he and I are going for some form of realism and the space that a pilot occupies has to be grounded in reality. He has also expressed concern about where the pilot will fit during battleiod mode. I have seen the line art in the Master File about the gear and pilot seating in battleiod mode but they are just that line art and not to scale. I really hope he posts again. FYI: Mr Bickell is referencing the DYRL VF-1 which differs slightly from the SDFM version. example: his ejector seat will look like this; Mine will look like this;

Thanks, the F5 and AV-8 help illustrate my point. They are 14m long fighters but the landing gear is clear of the cockpit. On the F5 it telescopes in/out in front of the cockpit. The AV-8 has its front gear dehind the cockpit. I tested these models and there is only room for the ejector seat underneath the pilot. Not saying there are no 14m jet fighters or that your average G.I. Joe can't fit in them. What I'm saying is If you are going to take the Ban Dai 1/55 model, scale it up to 14m you are not going to be able to have the landing gear folding underneath the pilots. They can't occupy the same space, it just dosn't jive. Unless you make it look something like this. Alien tech aside if you are going to make a 14m non-transforming Ban Dia 1/55 VF-1 the landing gear would have to be the telescoping in-front config like the F5 and look like this. The F-15 is 63 ft 9 in (19.43 m) and one inch shorter then my reviesed length for the VF-1. It gives you a good sence of what 14m jet looks like next to my revised specs. Why not start with the 1/55? It is the original toy from the original show. It is the purest tangable form of the fictional cartoon plane. It really works and it transforms beautifuly. There are no original drafted drawings of the VF-1 with a scale pilot, so how did they arrive at that length? If you like your mecha to make sence and look like it works (which is part of what is so cool about macross) and you are trying to translate the 1/55 to real life (like for a live action movie), a length of 14m might need to be reconsidered.

Ha, ha, he is a bit ridgid up there. The seat itself is reclined. I did a test with the pilot reclined and his legs tucked in a bit. I did not save that test. I found that he still needed to occupy the same space. He still took up most of the space in the nose cone. I will have a render soon of Max in the seat where he will be reclinded. Stand by for more. :-)

From the blog maxharddrive.blogspot.com I set out to make a 3D model of the 1/55 Ban Dai Valkyrie. I succeeded. I had a perfect toy size replica that needed to be scaled up to human size. Before I added the cock pit I mocked up a 6' pilot in the seated position (back then he looked like the Minecraft guy) and scaled up the VF model until he looked like he fit. The size I settled on was 63 ft 10 in long. This was years ago, it did not occur to me to look for the official specifications. I did look up the specs for the F-14 and at 62'9" my VF has 13" on it. That made sense to me. Bigger. Badder. Now. Look at a model of the star of the movie "Top Gun" the F-14 Tomcat. That pilot is not tom cruise, this guy is 6 ft tall. You see how it looks like the cockpit works? It looks like a pilot will fit and a RIO too. There is room for the landing gear and everything. Look at the VF model at the specified "official" length of 46 ft 7 in (14.23 meters) compared to the F-14. At first glance I would buy that there is a guy in there and that this thing can transform into a giant robot. But look at the pilot in this scale. It doesn't look like it works. He barely fits. The pilots feet and legs end up in the wheel well. We still need room for a seat (maybe two), instruments, landing gear and robotics. I am all for advanced miniaturized technology but this doesn't work for me. In my tests it just looked ridiculous and unrealistic. Take a look at the VF at F-14 size 62 ft 9 in (19.1 m). It starts to look better. The cone sizes start to match up. The pilots feet aren't on the floor. There is even room for my super awesome cockpit! In my measurements and test many, many years ago I arrived at the length of 63 ft 10 in. Have a look. The cockpit and ejector seat details are in the picture and it looks like it works. Compared to the F-14 in this scale the VF-1 looks more imposing , more bad ass. It looks like it can kill some aliens. Interestingly the wingspans also matched up at this length. Has this been an issue with anyone else making a 3D model? I can't imagine any of the other Valkyrie toys would do much better scaled up to 47 ft. Other specifications need to be reexamined, Weight and Thrust to weight ratio. There will definitely be new measurements when the model transforms to ger-walk and battle-oid mode. Well there you go. I put it out there for discussion. Should I petition congress to make it official? No. They can't get anything done. Internet gets stuff done. Revised measurement; 63 ft 10 in length 63 ft wingspan 24 ft hieght

I has a blerb about the logo in my topic. http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=37817

Variable Geometry Surface Tests http://maxharddrive.blogspot.com/ In these shots the redesigned elevators are tested.

Yeah, they are variable. Notice in the early render they are angled. Check out the video in the original post. All of the control surfaces are variable geometry. In character; during flight and combat maneuvers all the surfaces will adjust geometry dynamically.

Check out the trailer to Pacific Rim. It is very anime and all kinds of giant robot awesome! The review mentions Macross. Enjoy. http://www.toplessrobot.com/2012/12/lets_talk_about_that_pacific_rim_trailer.php#more

Some lighting tests with the final model and textures. http://maxharddrive.blogspot.com/2012/09/a-quick-shot.html

Updated with hi res images. Enjoy. Tell me what you think internet.

Update on my progress http://maxharddrive....irgin-road.html Original post The Virgin Road In 1985 I saw Robotech one day after school. It was a cartoon that didn't seem like it was made for kids. It quickly became one of my favorites. It was epic in scale and complex in story and wonderfully animated. The Variable Technology Valkyrie was instantly the coolest thing I had ever seen. A F-14 that turned into a giant frakking robot! The toy was one of my favorite toys of all time. Still is. In the 90's I learned to make 3D Models and CGI animation. First thing I did? a Valkyrie. How cool would it be to have a fully functioning 3D model to play with? I did a free hand model in fighter mode first, good practice. It transformed alright ... into a mess. In order for the model to transform properly I disassembled, measured and scanned a spare toy had and it did. My goal was to make as realistic a plane as I could based on the toy, the cartoon and a F-14, still is. First the model was cleaned up of toy details and some engineering corrections where made. Apparently there is a big debate on the interwebs about the legs transformation sequence. I made a hip transformation method that made sense to me. The landing gear and the gun pod had to be redisigned because the gun pod doesn't fit under the toy landing gear. Also a redesign of the head, that flips back and forth during transformation not spins a around. Mine's is a A type head with S type quad lasers, hence the M. That made for a nice affect with the turret in fighter mode. Other ideas I had, I added LANTIRN like pods for eyes and a FLIR cam for the face. Anyways life happened and I only worked on it a few moments a year ... sometimes less. -earliest rendering- Fast forward (years) and I have cleaned up the model quite a bit. I got a lot of surfacing practice and have all the parts covered. I have made a very detailed cockpit and a weapons rack, missiles and rocket pods. I scaled up from 1/55 until I could fit the cockpit under the canopy. The length I settled on was 64ft to the official 46ft ... not quite sure how that works ... but its got about 2ft on a F-22 so that OK. The weapons package attaches the body not the wings so the wings can fold back in battloid mode. The racks and weapons fold back in this mode for a more logical function. The design was a 1980s toy based on a 70s jet but in the story the design came about in the 1990s, well in to stealth territory. I can't really change much with out messing up the transformation but I did what I could. To make it stealthy I added serrated edges, faceted and smoothed surfaces where I could. My surfacing is based on a F-22 plus the toy and cartoon detail. The color scheme was always going to be Max Sterling's Virgin Road. -In this render the nose was elongated. BAD IDEA! In battloid mode it looked ricockulous. I forgot, the toy transforms perfectly no need for changes - Am I the only one who thinks Spacey sounds dumb? Sure it's Army, Navy but not Airy, Right? It is Air Force, it should be Space Force. The UN can have a Spacey, the US will have a Space Force. I figured the U.S. Space Force was going to need a new logo, cuz the Macross logo sucks bad. I made a shooting star design based on the classic Air Force logo, that had a sense of motion. The sense of motion was also applied the US flags on the stabilizers with the star fields facing forward. This is as close to finished as I am going to get. I would say 95% finished, I will get to 99% but my work is never finished. There are a few details I'd like to get to but I need to move on to transforming this bad boy. This "final build" has the nose returned to toy dimensions. Details have been tightened up, even more toy elements where removed. The vernier thrusters have been redesigned after studying DYRML details. Vernier thrusters have also been added to the wing tips. The cockpit has also received much attention. It is based on the M:SDF1 design and my own ideas. I will have close ups of the cock pit after is add some effects; glowing buttons, display UI and textures.. The next step is gerwalk mode! Stand by for more.

Yeah so, I'm working on my robot. My 8yr old nephew is watching. We start talking on the topic of how long I have been working on it. I tell him its older then he is since I've been working on it for 13 years. He pretty much told me to stop and get a job because nothing takes 13 years. I said "Wii time is over." In Macross time I would have started work around the time the Macross crashed in the Earth. It is 2012 and I'm still not finished, the space war will have been over the earth destroyed and I am still moving points -10mil. Man the words of a child can punch you in the face some times. Quit? HELLS NO, work will continue, more updates soon.

Hi there, Great work! Love the engineering detail. I must say I'm jealous of your vernier thrusters. check out mine. http://maxharddrive.blogspot.com/ I have been working on it for 12 years and finally got around to finishing. Or close to finishing now that I see your work. I am going back to reference pics to add detail now I'll never finish. Mine is based on the 1/55 toy, the cartoon, and a f-14. It does transform and every thing. I'll post that soon. keep up the good work!!

Thanx, It is based on the 1:55 bandai toy (my fav toy). In fact the toy was scanned and measured for this model. I made some engineering corrections for the head and the hip transformations. It even transforms like the toy. I'll have that posted soon. Check out an early video and other pics on my blog!

Tell me what you think internet http://maxharddrive.blogspot.com/