guyxxed

Don't know that I'm going to be all that creative in my project, but it's funny because my mind went in two similar directions. I was also thinking of AX style super packs (really don't know why the Seigfried doesn't do that as well instead of the over wing, off centerline arrangement that makes my physics nerves twitch) for the 24 as a way of keeping the general profile of the 25 but still making this it's own thing. Building a hard point into the joint for it shouldn't be a problem. I was also thinking of double joints as well, though in my case it was to make the wings fold flat onto the back in battroid. Or, at least, tuck closer in to not have quite so much of a cape effect (though that works against the super packs, still working on that aspect). I don't hate the idea of flipping or sliding the wing tips to match up with the tail fins, so may look at that as well. Mission creep? Why no, whatever do you mean? Just a simple project to make a 24, how hard could it be? 😉

Nice! Yeah, pretty sure that's their take on the 24. I also found this online, which is essentially identical (they did make the new shield) but was labeled as a 24.

Makes sense since those are missing on the YF-24 image. I'm sold! 😉 Another minor update. Wings and wing roots completed, with cuts in place for transformation. Threw a temporary texture on based on one of the M30 25A skins to be able to see if anything is warped. Nose and canopy will be the next areas of focus.

Given the resources and manufacturing capabilities available to humanity in the 2050's, I can see quite a lot of "because we can" monkeying around with variants, knock offs, and limited run prototypes. Kind of like what I'm doing with these game models, once you have the base specs tweaking and messing around is as easy as printing out another panel from your Overtechnology makebot. Makes me a bit less aprehensive about putting my own spin on some things. 😉 Somewhat back to subject, I was looking back at the actual screenshots and turns out the line art isn't quite representative. Canopy actually does conform a bit at the front and the nose in the screenshot looks like a direct copy of the 25 with just that bulb feature on the side. I'm thinking to still change it a bit because otherwise the 24 is just the 25 with different wings, and that's a bit boring. Might be close to the intent, though.

This is helpful, thank you. I've not read the Chronicle or Master Files (though I've looked at untranslated scans from time to time) and wasn't sure if there was an official date for when the 24 entered service in the NUNS. If it was contemporary to the 25, that helps give a window to the aesthetic of the head sculpt. I was going to ask about variants, but you just answered that as well. I can guess that it would be reasonable to expect similar load outs to the Frontier era 25s and 171s, with an RVF version and such. I expect details are pretty sparse, but anything else the setting materials tell us about it? I'm getting way ahead of myself here, but already thinking about super packs and such for it.

All of the line art was grabbed from Macross Mecha Manual, and definitely isn't perfect, but is good enough to draw distinctions from. I did a quick comparison back to what's shown on screen and it's a good representation. Good catch on the 25F missing the sensor pod, didn't even notice that. I'm with you on the head and using the 31A as a guide, that seems like a good fit. I don't think the YF-25 is too useful in this case, the shape doesn't lend itself to a top mount laser and the big dome on the front would be at least partially visible in that line art if that were the design. I half remember the YF-25 being designed the way it is for ECM purposes as well, though whether that has anything to do with the head shape, I have no idea. I've always had it in my head (based on nothing 'official', mind you) that the VF-24 was a seriously military, heavy combat oriented craft and so have always had a no nonsense design like the typical A shapes for its head turret. I almost wonder if something like the helm of a suit of armor would work, with a ridge or brow to protect the cyclops eye and give it a 'I mean business' vibe in battroid? I also think I have some lattitude to mess with the shoulders a bit to give it less of a 'football player' look like the 25s and maybe something a little more dangerous like the 27 (though obviously not that wide). Don't know. In the end, how much or little I do will mostly depend on how hard it turns out to be and how lazy I get. 😉

I fully agree that the planes are intended to have key visual differences between them, but the items you point out along with the fact that the legs/engines are truly identical, are what make me think the line art was a purely cosmetic quick rinse on a 25 design that didn't get a lot of thought put into it. For instance, VertexNebula's model on Cults3D does a good job of making that canopy look decent in 3D, but also makes it clear that the flat lower edge really works against the flow of the fuselage and was only ever considered in 2D. I have no doubt that if it were ever rendered on screen as an actual object, the differences would be revised to be much more distinct. I can buy that the nose is intended to have a different shape and thickness to it, and may straighten it up to be a bit more 31-ish. That bulb feature on the side of the nosecone is certainly meant to be something more than markings. What I'm really wondering is what the head should look like. The line art is basically a 25A, but there's no way that's what's intended to be under the hood. Again, I don't think anyone has actually thought that deep into this design to have something in mind, but that would definitely be an area the two planes would be distinct from each other. Oh well, plenty to do before I hit that point, but will have an eye out for suitable candidates in the meanwhile.

Line art comparison for the nose. Cockpit is bigger on the 24 as well, though how much of that was 'intended' vs just 'how they drew it for the 5 seconds it was on a monitor in the background', I'm not sure.

Not a lot to show yet, but work has begun! I'm trying to be lazy and see if I can convert one of the Macross 30 VF-25A's into a YF-24. Tail fins and leg fins updated, basic wings blocked out, but still a lot to do. Didn't realize until I started deleting things that the wing roots of the 25 aren't level, so need to move them around a bit, also need to cut the aeilerons into the wings and figure out what I did wrong to screw up the tail fin normals, but all just part of my usual kitbash work. It's a bit difficult to tell from the line art, but the 24 and 25 appear to have the same elongated nose, though the 24 has a very different canopy: flat across the bottom edge and doesn't have the front cowl that the 25 has. I may take some artistic liberties there since I think it's a bit boring, but we'll see. Anyway, posting the minor progress here to keep some pressure on myself to keep working on it. 😉

Yeah, they do a lot with textures to hide the seams. Maybe a few smoothing cycles in Blender or another modeling software could clean it up? No shortcuts here, I guess, but let me know if there's something else that could be useful.

Here is a link to the 31A head from MDS. As mentioned, it's straight from the game without any alterations. I saved the whole head as an STL, but also made separate files of the head by itself and the eye pieces by themselves in case you would want to print them out of different materials. I also included and FBX version just in case that's easier to work with. At a minimum, I would think you have to model a ball joint into the base to adapt it into the DX, but hopefully this gives you a good starting point. Let me know if you have any questions. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1hJxO8ozaP97cWCX36qCHfz3M7c5ZLI3_?usp=sharing

If I have any choice in the matter, I'll be off world somewhere, either in the solar system or on one of the early colonies. In fact, I'd have probably been off world already even before the war. I've been staring at the sky and longing for the stars my whole life. As soon as it became possible in the setting, I'd like to think I would have jumped at the opportunity.

I can provide what is available from the Macross Delta Scramble game models, but I'm not sure how printer friendly they'll be. I'll try to extract the head tomorrow and save it to STL format. Scaling it as needed and making it compatible with the DX toy will be some work that one of you would need to do.

The panel lines are definitely overemphasized on the 31A, which isn't helping its looks at all. I think all of Delta Scramble has this kind of exaggeration in the textures, maybe to help it look better on mobile screens. That said, the white nose cone also gives it a bit of a cartoonish vibe, so the overall effect is less "real". I get what you're saying on the wings, and it's one of the things that makes the AX unappealing to me in that they made the outer wings even bigger on that, which took it in the wrong direction (IMHO). I kind of want to try building a VF-24 as the profile for that is a bit more realistic, but I'm overall not crazy about delta wing craft in general and prefer the swing wing designs on principle. 😉 We'll see where my whims take me next, but hopefully won't be too long before the next updates. Thanks for the feedback and ideas!

Done and done. This is the 31A straight out of Delta Scramble with the official textures, I haven't touched anything up on it. It's a bit lighter than the Navy colors, which makes the panel lines stand out and hides the decals a bit. Also interesting is that the shadow on the backside of the tail fin is textured on, not cast by the lights in the model space.