Tage

Awesome stuff. Have a look at 'Vallejo Mecha paint' saw a couple reviews a while ago that look super scratch resistant, been meaning to check some of it out myself. Keep up the good work man, it's really coming along!

yooooo - that looks great! Can't wait to see the dome too. Do you know what paints you are gonna use yet?

Hey Guys, Been pretty busy again, but hoping to get this guy sorted by Xmas hopefully. Thor - that's super cool! What were you making it in? Decided to print the gunpod next. This gun was waaaay too long to print on the max height my printer can go to, so had to slice a bit of the barrel off so the barrel alone is now 4 pieces, then glue them together after. There's still a seam line but i'll clean that up before i paint the parts. REALLY happy with how the gun has turned out. The only print for this toy that has come out perfect first try! One think i will need to fix though actually is the grip. The back part/stock of the gun is currently touching his arm, so i'll have to increase the height of the grip to allow for the extra 2mm or so thickness of the armour on his arm will be. Also for those wondering what the 'bipod' is, this is actually one of Fext Hobbies new stand for a range of things, but actually, fits this gun pretty well! Love the scale an intimidation of this gunpod though. Lots of fun. All together this is 8 pieces. Next thing i'm going to do is redo the arms as i'm finding it hard to A. Get enough clearance for the pegs that are around his wrists, and B. printing in resin really isn't MM accurate. It gets squished and warped for a few different reasons, so i'm having to figure out how to make that happen less, but also kind of account for it in my 3D design. So yeah, gonna ramp up this project as i get more and more excited with every print! Chat soon guys!

Awesome work Valhary! Can't wait to see more

Yo guys, Printed a bit more this weekend, and learning just how to get the best out of it. Need to re-align some things and shift some walls to fit better, so slowly getting there. 2 things i'm finding with the printer is if I set the part up to be printed, some of the parts end up being a bit squished, so actually makes the part smaller on its Z axis than how high i've made it in 3D. It's most noticeable on the arm section below where you see 2 round pegs - they're meant to be a circle, not an oval! And the other thing i'm working out is how to reduce the bumpiness on parts that i add support arms on. For instance the back side of the shield, which is actually the best print i've done, as there have been some shockers that are meant have a perfectly flat surface, but once i add supports for printing, it prints out very wavy looking. So yeah, the more curved the part, the better the print it seems too. the more flatter/right angled the part, its struggles with slightly (at the moment). Also re-did the chest piece as i wasn't happy with how it came out, so have made it a little more blocky, think it looks tougher this way too, and is actually closer to the original ref. Also tried printing the handle for the gun, which is fine apart from the little hole where his hand peg is meant to go, sadly made it too small. All easy fixes though, and glad i've got the printer for testing refinements, just need to change a few settings to get the best out of it basically. Anyway, have a good week all, chat soon

Ah amaaaaaaazing. I'm in the love camp for the Stampede, and you're doing a great job man. Keep it up!

Hey guys. Thanks! Super happy with it. Been working pretty late with work again this week, so haven't had too much time to work on it. Really only worked on refining the chest missile piece and how much room I need for the hinge to work. While doing so and actually paying closer attention to reference, I think I've made my chest pieces sadly too wide... And that actually impacts the look and position of the chest missile pieces, and then impacts the shoulder pieces too. They end up over hanging a bit too much, as in, overhanging waay too much hah. For instance if you guys look up some line art and compare it to my armour, there is a lot more nose cone on the side of the yellow canopy shield section showing in the reference then how I've printed it. Anyway, while I fix that, I've been printing a Christmas present for my brother who's a big blade runner fan. There's a replica of the main character's gun that I downloaded that looks super cool. And reason I'm doing it so far out from Christmas is that some of these parts take 8hours to print! So if I mess up a couple, that's a weekend gone! I'll post the progress of that stuff in the workbench thread later this week. For now though, with no really fun images to post update wise, here is my cat helping me by pointing out the errors I had made. Chat soon dudes.

Hey Guys, I managed to get a last min ticket i think from someone that cancelled, i just tried my luck on the day, the 'sold out' sign on the website turned to 'select seat' and i got one. It was properly amazing. Didn't realise he's actually quite a funny guy. It was in a small cinema, less than 150 people easy. But first! On the weekend before this talk, they were doing a screening of Macross Plus! In one of their larger cinemas, about 280 people capacity. It was all part of the anime season currently on at the Barbican here in London. The version used was some odd version where the subtitles were a bit off... quite a lot of grammar mistakes and Yang referring to Isamu and Guld's relationship after they have their massive dogfight as a 'bromance'.... I don't really remember that from the late 90's Manga UK version i had on VHS haha. Was a great night though to see Macross plus on the big screen (never seen a movie in a 4:3 format at the cinema before) Oh! and this was in surround sound too. Really made Sharon Apple's hypnotic songs towards the end even more creepy! Feeling like she really is all around you. Then after the show met some great people for a drink after too to talk Macross, and general anime too. There was a fella who does the Retro Mecha Podcast that i'm now turning in for every episode. Think some of you guys would like it too. Back to the talk, it honestly was so inspiring. He talked about his recent Expo, his work on Demon Ex Machina on the switch... Then he went through what i think some of his other talks have been about (that i've read about) as far as where he grew up in the sticks, having a bit of a culture shock moving to a busier town. He showed his love for Thunderbirds growing up and said obviously we (from Britain) knew all about the show, then showed his work on Thunderbirds Are Go, think that was a super proud moment for him personally. Went into a bit of his philosophy for storytelling which was great and how that applied to Macross, and particularly DYRL, showing some concept art and storyboards i hadn't seen before, sure it's out there though. He had this slide up about how he was thinking about evolving macross and his thoughts on 'A pilot who doesn't fight but sing' as a slide came up, the next slide Basara was on screen and someone yelled 'Basara!!!' really loud from the very small crowd, Shoji Kawamori loved it haha. He also joked about working with Itano (of circus fame) and how they became mates from their love of fireworks and firing them at one another! The whole theme of this anime season at the Barbican was basically Ai vs humanity. So he talked about what that meant through Macross Plus. Then he mentioned he had worked with the Barbican before on some art piece ages ago where someone could control a robot in VR (we're talking 90's VR though, this was back in the day) Then he hinted at some of the newer thoughts he's been having. Particularly around how VR hasn't evolved yet to really let us smell or feel things and had a picture up of some flowers on screen the whole time, then talked about that even the picture of flowers was fake. Will be interesting to see what he thinks this thought around false imagery can turn into as a concept for an anime. Then after a few more bits of stuff he mentioned how he's working all the time and inspired by a lot. He said he was even working on the storyboards for a Macross Delta movie coming out next year. So hopefully he chucks a bit of London in there! haha. Then it basically ended. He stuck around in the main hall after we all got kicked out before the next film was meant to start. There was a bit of a crowd around him so didn't know what sort of questions they were asking him, but i think they were mainly 'storytelling' questions. As in, what else to him makes a good story etc. so quite good ones. I didn't know what i'd ask him to be honest, plus i had to dash home as it was my girlfriend's last night in the country before she went away for work for a week. But i couldn't miss this! haha. Then on the next night (girlfriend out of the way ;-p ), he also did an intro to a screening of Ghost in the shell in the cinema i saw Macross Plus in. He mainly talked about his work with Oshii through the years and that he's never actually met Masamune Shirow. Then he talked a bit about his design for the helicopters in GitS but mainly the sniper attack helicopter and the idea that it should look like a normal helicopter when in it's normal flight mode. But then thought about when it goes into attack mode it should look like something intimidating, and that eagles have the best eyesight so are basically 'snipers of the sky' (the translator was quite good i think) and that the helicopter should get bigger and more menacing. Anyway then he was like 'Right, time to stop and watch the movie!' But yeah, the main talk was just great, and amazing that he came all this way too. Other films they are showing are Patlabor (just gone, and sadly couldn't go to that one, would have really liked to) Metropolis.... Paprika.... all sorts, it's a really good mix of movies being shown over the next couple of weeks. Hopefully more to come!

Hey Team! Had a couple test prints on the Saturday - a little SD Laputa bot and a low poly fox. The fox being so high (13cm-ish) took 8hrs! and the Laputa bot took just under 4 in 2 parts. So i was basically printing from when i got up haha. I over sanded the Laputa bot so it got cracked a little bit sadly... hoping to turn it into an advantage though and painting him to look mega old with moss growing on him and everything haha. Exciting update this Sunday though that's for sure! Finessed and printed the whole front chest and hip sections. It worked first go! and slots on to the VF-11 nicely. Things i do have to fix are the connections between each part - they are too tight at the moment, nothing a knife whittling away won't fix, but still. Also i majorly didn't have enough peg space for the hip missiles to join on as well as even the missile section themselves (again, could whittle, but would like to get it right) Also going to print the heads of the missiles in some red resin eventually, just so the heads of the missiles can be a different colour. Again, need to sort out the pegs and holes. The 4 chest pieces took about 3 hours to print, and the hip and missiles only 2. Main issue i've had is pretty major warping on the underside (where those little support legs come up to the part) not too sure why this has happened, need to research it. But just means that the back part of his crotch cover and and that smaller part that i made to plug into it don't properly. Worst case i could reprint with reorientation the largest flat face to where the print bed is, that way no need for legs. Otherwise, major success i think. Will fix those parts but i'll move on to the shoulder parts next before printing any more. Xigfrid - i'd defo check this printer out - doesn't take up too much space. And yeah i'd defo check blender out - easy mirroring and smoothing and 'duplicate linked' is what you're after for a similar component style thing. They are the main things i'm using currently. Until i know the software better. Oh! and super easy bevels too! But yeah, super happy. He's going to be a chunky boy!

Hah, thanks guys! Getting there.... had a bit of a crazy one at work again last couple weeks so could really only do a bit of work on this this weekend. In very exciting news though, i bought myself a resin 3D printer that's arriving tomorrow (Monday, UK). An Elegoo Mars for anyone that's interested, reviews look fantastic for the price. So what i'm hoping to do is basically work quite iteratively on each part that needs to fit on flush with the toy. If it's a bit off, adjust it and print/try again! This weekend I basically re-did the chest as i wasn't super happy with my first attempt and made to measure just how much space i need for it to fit the toy. Fingers crossed, but again, if i'm a bit off, nothing a bit of sanding/fixing in 3D won't do. I've split it out now (it was all one piece before) so thinking I can print the centre part in yellow, and everything else in grey. I do need to make more plugs to fit the yellow canopy cover to the top and bottom parts, and add a tiny bit more detail, otherwise, that's basically the first thing i'm going to try and print on my printer once i've set it up. I've also very very roughly blocked out the leg pieces. Like MEGA rough. So i'll work back in on getting the detail in after i've finished the chest parts. Quite keen to just get one section looking super nice, printed and fitting nicely at a time you know. One thing i'm quite conscious of is not scratching aaaaany paint on this rather expensive bot. So a lot of care is going to be taken each time i attempt to test an armour piece on him that's for sure! Hope you guys are all good your end, and sorry for my slowness again - just wish i had a holiday to do all this properly and knock this guy out! One last thing! I saw Macross Plus in an actual cinema on Saturday, was only bloody brilliant. The surround sound really made Sharon Apple's songs sound even creepier / amazing. Forgot it was in a 4:3 format too, kinda odd on a big screen. Enjoyed the whole thing none the less though! Anywho - cheers, chat soon

He's so cuuuuuuute. Love your work on this. Interesting on the distribution too... need USB stick that self-destructs after it's plugged into a printer and printed it's thing haha.

Love this! It's super cool.

Hey guys, So attached where i'm at in blender now. Have done the chest missile plate today, which i think i still need to play with the scale and add the proper opening mechanism, but he's really starting to take form now. Next thing i'll do will be the leg part, which has quite a few complex curves so may take me a while. Then after that it's refine, refine, refine. Software wise, finding while some things are easier in Blender, some things are easier in Sketch, so figuring out the kinks that's for sure. The menu's and submenus are a bit of a maze trying to learn it. Anyway, more next week!

Hey! Thanks dudes, so glad you like things so far! I've decided to continue my progress but using a different piece of software called Blender now, for a few reasons. Mainly, it's a lot more stable and easier for doing way more complex shapes. SketchUp isn't great for curves or filling mistakes in. On the VF-5000, honestly most of the time was spent just fixing gaps or fixing bad geometry from certain merging tasks needed to create complex shapes. Where Blender looks like it's got a few more tricks up it's sleeve to make things in a little less of destructive way and more workable. So I'm doing a few tutorials to school up as it is a bit of a different beast, but taking quite a few learnings from SketchUp over too. Plus for future projects i have in mind, figured i should move up in software essentially. So honestly, anyone out there that does 3D stuff (i'm looking at you Xigfrid) have a look and see if it's worth your while. So hopefully i'll have a couple more new parts to show next week, but exporting things from Blender! Cheers, chat soon.

Hey guys, long time no see! So been in hibernation a bit, fixing up the house etc. etc. BUT! Been slowly working away on this project. And like with the VF-5000, hoping to post my progress up here every week or so, just to give myself mini/constant goals until it's done. Here's my progress so far. Still in the first stage of making the basic shapes of things, and once i'm happy i'll add in all the panel lines and details. Main issues i see coming up is basically making everything fit the Yamato 1/60 VF-11 itself and locking everything in. Also i think finding the right balance of making it look close to the anime in Macross 7 while facing the hard reality of the dimensions of the toy itself will be a challenge, i do want him to look chuncky though. For reference on how big the gun is going to be, it's gonna be around 235mm long! I may have to make a little tripod or something as the VF-11's arms aren't doing to be able to aim that sucker at anything! Anyway, as you can see, next thing to do is the chest piece, and then the legs. Which i've really been loathing and not looking forward to do the legs, as they are the most complicated piece to make out of this whole thing. Cheers! Chat soon. P.S. Sorry to the Americans who spell it 'Armor' ;-)