mslz22

Quick update...not a lot done, i am finishing another pattern in the next couple of weeks and then i will be back on this, i am hoping to still get end of march but it may be april, I do plan on taking this V2 to Wonderfest in may, hopefully a built one..... thanks mike

thanks everyone, we are starting to settle in and i am starting to get a bit more sleep, i hope to get back to tinkering with this this weekend... mike

thanks everyone, we are starting to settle in and i am starting to get a bit more sleep, i hope to get back to tinkering with this this weekend... mike

Hey Guys, this is still on, my wife just had our 2nd baby over the holidays, we are back home and after a week break i will be back at work on this for a very early spring release, likely mid march. Once the molds are done i will take orders until those molds are toast, which will likely be a pretty short run since this is pretty big... thanks mike

Hey Guys, been busy buttoning up a couple of other projects but i am back on this some this weekend, i will get an update of what i get done on monday, my wife is having our 2nd kid any day now so if i don't show up for a while i am just busy changing diapers.....this should still be on track for March... thanks mike

Hey Guys, i will have some more to show by the end of next week, had to battle off the flu for a couple of days so things got sidelined.. mike

Ok, a couple of pics of the modded body, this is still very rough at this point, but i have the shape i want in regard to the nose, and the now shorter and rounder sidepanels, as well as an overall rounder appearance to the sides of the body, you can really see a difference if you check out the pics of the v1 in the first post. Now i can replicate this on the other side, fill all the scratches and panel lines, smooth everything out and then build up the details again so they will all be nice and sharp. You can also see the main engine compartment has been reduced in height by about 1/4 inch, and will be lengthened by 1/8-1/14 inch and get a fresh set of panel lines and detailing as well. thanks mike

Hey Guys, i know i promised a pic tonight but i am doing one last revision on the body and foot tonight....I feel like i am closing on on the changes i want on these parts and will post a pic when I get some primer on stuff tomorrow......that foot is a tough one to nail down, and it does not help that it appears a few different ways in both line art/box art and previous models. thanks mike

Ok, looks like this is a go, i have made some progress on the foot, which I have significantly reshaped, and as of now have completely hollowed out and removed the lower pad and toe, as well as the rear thingy. Looks like right now my plan is to rework the way the struts attach to the foot, to look significantly more realistic, and built to look more like the struts attach to "tubes" within the foot. The struts will still be fixed for strength and all the poseabilty will come from the hip joint and the upper foot to foot pad joint, which will now be on a ball joint, with the foot being cast into at least 4 parts, upper foot, toe, lowerpad and rear stabilizer pad. This will make more sense when i can get a pic up... I have been reworking the body some more, as well as the main engine compartment. I have reworked the engine compartment to be about 1/4 inch shorter, and 1/4 inch longer, so that it tucks up against the main body better, and gives the upper legs a bit more clearance. I am also going to rework detail on this part... I will put up some WIP pics tomorrow.. thanks mike

Not sure how big that Bandai kit is but depending on how it's posed the monster is about 55cm x 40cm x 41cm (wide)....that's just rough measure..

I have daydreamed about a bigger scale for this, the biggest limitation is how many people who collect 1/60 are model builders? It seems to be almost none, I've even considered 1/48, even just for myself at some point...again the issue is building one for myself and molding the thing are very different price tags... I did spend some time this weekend reworking the main body and started on the foot, I did one side of the body as a test and i am happy with the results, the biggest change was to the nose, it now has a much better curve to the underside, i also reworked the side panels to have a more distinctive curvature to them. I still need to rework some of the panel lines and get some primer on it, once i do that i will post up a pic. As for the foot, right now i am trying to come up with a good way to integrate a ball and socket into both the foot pad, which will now be a separate part, and the main junction where the leg strut intersects with the foot. I have some good ideas, just need to hash it out a bit. thanks mike

Thanks, i think he was going to do a redraw, just needed some where to start. If anyone else has some decal scans they can contribute it may also help. thanks mike

Just heard from JT, 600dpi is what he would prefer.. thanks mike

Thanks Martyn, i sent an email off to JT to see what DPI would be best. As for those feet, those are tricky, there seems to be a few different interpretations of them for sure, i always thought that mine looked most like the ones in this pic below, although the toe was not as big. In fact this pic also, at least to my eye, has the slightly shorter forward arm cannon like mine, I guess i must have looked at this pic a lot when i was making the pattern... thanks mike

Thanks guys, it looks like at least 7 so far......I spent a little time last night again looking over the parts again and formulating a plan of attack to tune them up, right now almost every part would get at least a small change. The monster really is my favorite mech and one of the reasons i got into modeling believe it or not, it's kind of fun to revisit this a bit. cool8or, thanks for the pics, I did take some elements from the yellow sub kit when i did the v1 including the top of the main body, and the "tall" feet, but did not quite achieve the level of detail seen there, at the time i did have some concerns about overdoing plating and throwing off the sense of scale, in retrospect i under did it. If anyone has a good scan of the decal sheet to either the 1/160 or 1/144 that would be a giant help, i would need to get something off to my decal guy if this goes forward. thanks mike

I do understand that people who have the first release may feel a bit slighted if i do this, and i hope they do not keeping in mind the improvement the first kit was over that WF kit (that i paid nearly $500.00 for and never made), and the fact that for a project that weighed in at 17lbs of resin I came in at half that. I do still love my build of my what now may be called a V1, and look at it all the time, for me i would do this V2 because i love the monster and would want to augment my collection. If lots of V1 owners have an objection to a V2, i would drop this idea, i really do understand that it may be frustrating and sensitive issue. I was hesitant to even bring this idea up, at first i was just going to rework the patterns to make my own 2nd build from.. thanks miek

Hey Guys, i know that i have not been around much in the last couple of years, and i know that i had promised to do another short run of the 1/72nd scale monster at one point......however...I was cleaning up today and came across a box with the monster patterns in it, and got to thinking...the monster was my first real ground up scratchbuild, and while it was a really big improvement over the WF one that proceeded it, there are some things that i would do different if I did a V2.0. Thinking it over i would 1. Resculpt the feet, better detail, closer to the correct shape, bigger toe, made to cast hollow, maybe add footpad. 2. Slight resculpt of the body, a bit more curvy, again more detail, over all i would like the body to be more "aggressive" 3. Lengthen the forward part of the arm cannon by about a half inch, again going more a more aggressive look. 4. Lighten up the entire body, I am much better at molding and casting at this point and have better techniques that i can get this done. 5. Improve the overall ability to pose the kit, especially the arms 6. Improve the overall detail detail on the kit, a humble attempt at getting it to match the level of detail in Captain Americas 1/72 line. 7. Rework the underside where the upper legs attach to the "belly" I am just in the beginning phase of thinking about this, if i were to do this i would likely need at least 20 people interested, and i know that everyone would want to know about price...I would guess in the $325.00 range, which is still cheaper than that WF offering all those years ago. My plan would be to include decals. If i took this on i would not take any orders until it was finished, and i would expect around Feb. before being done. I've attached a couple of pics for those not familiar with V1. thanks, and please let me know any input... mike s

Hey everyone, i am still alive, i have just been busy with a number of non Macross projects, too busy and time goes by to fast....A couple of projects that i have been working on, or will be working on has relight my love for this stuff, i have been lurking a bit again and wanted to pop back up a bit. I may have time soon to do a few of these before the cold weather sets in, i will keep people informed if they are interested. I do apologize if you PM'd me here and i did not respond, i had been away for quite a while and did not see some messages until they were months old. thanks guys... mike