captain america

Week 3 progress update. The hardest and most elaborate part of the sculpt is done: the hollowing-out of the cockpit pod. This will without a doubt be the most complex model kit pattern I've built to date, but all the effort has been worth it. From this point on, I'll have a week of mostly detail work to do; particularly in the cockpit to try to make it as "cluttered" as it appears in the anime style sheets. Long story short, the kit patterns should be ready by April 15th, so get your wallets ready!

thats a common speculation. that he intentionaly made it toylike so it could be mass produced at 1/10 the price by Yamato. Never gonna happen. Yamato already have a transformable YF-19 1/72 sku that's been out for a few years, and the market for it has probably waned by now. Why on EARTH would they invest a small fortune in all-new tooling for something that they already have? They haven't even seen fit to re-issue their EXISTING YF-19 (with or without FAST packs, I might add) so he's kidding himself if he thinks that Yamato will renew the MAC + liscence and dish-out 100 grand + to market/re-tool/repackage a so-so-selling toy in an orphan scale, just because he made a few "improvements."

It doesn't look nearly so bad to me, I actually thing that the chunky proportions serve it very well. Like all Bandai kits from the early-mid 90s (pre-useful GRADE), the kit's easy to assemble, but lacks in refinement, so to get it looking its best, you'd have to roll-up your sleeves and tinker with it. To be perfectly blunt, I'd rather hack-up one of these little Bandai buggers into a YF-19 that would actually look decent, than sink a G-note onto that Liquid Stone aberration of complete fugliness.

Meh. Call me a spoil-sport, but he engineered that thing to look too much like a toy. A toy that you can still easily obtain in larger scale and sturdier for 1/10th the price, mind you.

Superheroes don't need CPR Rest assured, the VF-1D conversion is next right after the Regult. Capn's word of honor.

Detail looks surprisingly sloppy for a kit of that scale... The arms look rather iffy as well.

Hi Sithlord. Judging by the preorders for just the pod itself, I think that a combo standing and seated Zentradi soldier would be a natural addendum kit.... Not to mention the missile carrier variations and tactical scout later on.

If you have all the proper paperwork, and if the gun type isn't restricted, you can get a gun purchased in the US and bring it into Kanada. You probably won't be allowed to bring it over personally though. This is possible for the time being. Once the UN neo-nazi law comes into effect next year, if the firearm doesn't have the UN serial number, it will probably be confiscated by Kanada customs.

Hi Chrono. I'd hardly call that a sharp ridge... The main pod has to go from a flat area onto which the side thruster mates, to another circular flat surface where the ring-plate for the cannon goes. 2 different flat planes very close to each other at different angles, so you will have a bit more of a pinch in that area, but it's definitely not sharp. You could smooth that area out, so long as you'd be willing to warp the cannon's ring plate to mate to the rounder surface, which I felt would look far more awkward to the eye.

Hi Chrono. I'm not quite sure what you're refering to in terms of the "sharp ridge" on the body near the side thruster. As for the toe, it actually appears a tad shorter than it will because the gasket is not in place. Thickness-wise, I kept it just a bit smaller than the fairing on the lower leg so as to allow for proper mobility and poseability. The lower leg does have an organic taper to it though; you can see it in the front & side view (on the SM site.)

Direct translation from the article: From Akiyama supervision "we would like to build up the battle action which is charm of the original in the picture whose quality is high. In addition, from we would like to do the dark part, to that you can sympathize ", that the enthusiasm talked. Sounds like we're in for lots of dark battle action and talking enthusiasm

Family pic. More views will be available on the SM webstie: http://www.samurai-monkey.com

Size comparison with the ARII 1/100 kit box.

Capn's log stardate: March 31st Sculpting is going well, but slowly. Most of the major structural components are done, but there are still quite a few bits that need machining and detailing; most noteably the cannons, rear hatch handles and hatch cover. I'll save the cockpit for last. The parts I'm showing are by no means finished: they still require detailing and filling, but I needed to prime them to give myself proper reference points to make further refinements. All this took almost 2 weeks of work. Ugh...

I'm really at a loss to understand why there would be 2 different versions of act II floating around. I have bootleg copies of the original japanese laser disc, the US Renditions version, and have even seen the japanese version subbed in chinese, and they're all the same. I doubt VERY seriously that US Renditions would've had any sequences redrawn; that would've cost an absolute fortune and wouldn't have changed anything either way. Murakami-kun has the same Miami Vice wannabe white outfit in all 3 versions, his zoalord battleform is always light green/violet, and Enzyme II was always off-white/light tan with dark skin and red eyes.

Funny thing is, we really don't know what the creator beings look like... The assumption seems to be that they're humanoid, but they've never been shown in the manga. The ships (the ark, relic) are just that: ships. Biological in nature, but they don't seem to be sentient beings. Archanfel himself may be an original creator being, but his origins are still very ambiguous. **POSSIBLE SPOILER** There's a very prominent parallel between the Guyver story and Christian theology as well...This may help determine Archanfel (Archangel?)'s role in the story and the destiny of mankind Right now, it appears that Archangel is one of two things: either a creator being left behind left on earth to create a vast army for the rest of the creators to be used in some massive war, or... An outcast diety who defied the gods/creators and was subsequently banished/outcast from "heaven" and is seeking to create an army of man to storm the gods in "heaven" and conquer it. Archangel was originally discovered by Valkus back in the 1400s, when Valkus' ship (a spanish/portuguese gallion) was sunk in a massive storm at sea. Valkus was washed up on the shore of a mysterious island on which he discovered the ruins of an ancient civilisation. Inside one of the main temples lay Archangel, asleep in some sort of transparent coccoon and was awakened. Long story short, Archangel makes Valkus his first "General", and gives him a zoacrystal from his body to turn him into a Zoalord as well. All the other Zoalords were then hand-picked by Valkus and recieved 1 zoacrystal from Archangel's body.

Doh-dough: I'm not sure what you're referring to, the animation seen in the Manga/US Renditions of act II is the same as the japanese version; I still have bootleg copies of the original japanese version (which I occasionally watch), and there are no edited bits or different colors. You're right about one thing though: the absolutely horrible US dubbing detracts tremendously from the story. The biggest problem with the OVA series is that they introduced the Hyper Zoanoids far too prematurely, and you end up with an animated act II that consists of little more than Sho & the gang hiding-out from Chronos in the woods. The drop in animation quality also doesn't help.

Sadly, I think that if it's either a new OVA or TV series, they're going to start from the beginning all over again. Don't forget that the last Guyver OVAs were done some 12-13 years ago, and no investor/sponsor would want to just continue a failed project where it left off. Especially not to follow act II, which was absolutely shitty in my opinion, and had a somewhat "warped" chronology compared to the Manga. **POSSIBLE SPOILERS--read at your own risk** Actually, the Guyver armor units weren't a mistake, they are technology found on board the creator's ships; it's battle armor meant to be used by the aliens as a multi-purpose battle weapon. They're like space suits on a space ship of sorts, and every alien vessel has a set of three. In the early days of man, the aliens/creators experimented with a human by allowing one of the Guyver units to interface with him. The power increase was staggering, and allowed the human/zoanoid to escape the mind control of the creators...And go on a rampage of destruction. This is why the Remover unit exists. What I find really shitty is that the Guyver story starts to get really interesting only after where Viz stopped translating. We also find out only much later on that Archanfel (Archangel?) is not just A zoalord, but THE original Zoalord from which all the others were created; 11 zoacrystals in his body being removed individually and implanted into hand-picked humans to create the 11 other Zoalords... 12 generals whose sole purpose is to turn all of mankind into a warrior-army that will be used to storm the gates of "heaven".

Look what the easter bunny brought!

They did. If anything, Toynami improved greatly on the fighter mode of the Legioss, and it's immensely nicer and more accurate than the Imai model... They also "borrowed" the kinked-LEX and extended wing planform from my 1/32 model, but that's another story alltogether. For what it's worth, the fighter mode will always be arthritic at best; it's just a byproduct of that design, and to over-emphasize the fighter mode would just result in an Armo-Soldier that looks retarded and unflattering.

Quick update: I've commenced sulpting the Regult. Will post initial progress pics next week.

Ok kids, play nice, now! The kit-builders will get their goodie with this 1/72 Regult kit, but the toy crowd won't be left out by any means; all I ask is patience Besides, the toy group will be getting the 1/48 VF-1D conversion right after I'm done with the Regult kit... And god knows what other goodies I've got up my sleeve mwahahahaha!!!!!

Unfortunately, the Hydrospan only works to enlarge. Also, I think that 90% of people who signed up for the kit did so thinking that it would be about the size of the 1/72 Imai kit; hence my preference for sticking to that. I was contemplating vacuum-forming the pod for weight-savings, but that would make it a lot tougher to assemble, and require lots more pieces to complete the cockpit with. Vac-form is a great medium, but I'd only consider it if there's no cockpit detail. But since this is supposed to be a high-detail model kit ( not a toy), I think that detail is the key to its success. As I mentioned before, a 1/48 "blow up" could still be done later on: simpler, large, and with external detail only. Simply because I think these would be 2 different skus with different needs to fill.

Yes, I think a scale compromise might be the lesser of two evils in this case. My biggest concern was more a matter of the joints not being able to support the base structure of the model from the added weight of the masive size. Here's what I propose: -I sculpt the Regult closer to the recognized 1/72 scale based on the 15.2m height, but just enlarge it slightly... Say 18m. In 1/72, that's still 25cm, bigger than the Imai model, but will retain full poseability and will just be generally easier for me to mold/cast. -FOR THE TOY BUFFS: I can, later on, take the sculpt for the model kit and simply hydrospan it up to 1/48 scale. I can roto-cast the main pod hollow (no cockpit or opening hatch) to save on weight and I'd make the legs fixed-pose to cope with the sturdiness issue and voila! A 1/48 regult that you can put next to your Yammie.

Hi Azrhino. Yes, ther's also the issue of the ball-joints in the legs, which will have to be of the large Yellow Sub variety... They may even have to be tacked with CA glue because of all the added weight; hence my misgivings about making it THAT large. This is all kawamori's fault