fulcy

The search engine is an amazing thing...

For those of us who can't do what the Cap' does - and, yes, I am included in this - here's a simple trick. Use a simple sketching program on the PC, and sketch some curves - it doesn't matter if they are the exact shape of the part or not. Now, print the curve out, mount it on some card board stock (like an old shoebox), and cut out the appropriate side of the curve (if you are making round shapes, cut out the space under the curve, if you are making something with a curved inner surface, cut out the the space above the curve). Viola - you have a template! Now, you take this template, and put it against the part you are working on, and it gives you a point of reference, to see how smooth your curve is, versus a curve generated on the computer. Adjust your curve, so that it's smooth with respect to the template (you could even fool around some more on the computer, and try to get curves that are the exact shape of what you are making - takes a little more time, but once you have a series of them to go down the side of the part, it makes checking your parts that much easier). I've found it very helpful when I am doing larger curved surfaces, that require a little extra care to get just right. Oh, and captain - beautiful work! I am very very jealous of the speed of your prototyping, and only wish I could make my parts half as fast as you...

My killer robot skull fu**ed your honor student?

Don't you mean last?

Yup, it's a 1S - and it was one that I parted out to members here, and the legs were left over, so they are being sacrificed for the cause...

Alright, it's that time of the year again - time to update you guys on the progress of the AG. I haven't had much time until recently to work on it - and I seemed to kick some butt on it this weekend. So, onto the pics! There's a nice overall shot - you can see the shoulder armor, and the arm armors from last time. Lets check out the shoulder armor up close. You can see that the shoulder armor is actually a cast - I went about as far as I could with the bondo/ren/styrene originals, so I made some quick molds, and made casts to continue the work. The ones on the right shoulder were the first pulls from the mold - you can see the huge air bubble in it. The ones on the left shoulder are the much nicer second pulls from the mold, and are what I am detailing up before the next set of molds. You can see the added X's on the bottom, to mimick structure (I originally thought they should be cut into the surface, but after some brainstorming with the GF, figured that they should be raised from the surface). Next up on these guys will be more details, and figuring out the hinge mechanism for the door. You can also see the arm armor has been tweaked a little - sanded the end so that it tapers towards the hand. Now for some detailed pics of the arm armor. Alright, you can see the taper again, and the missile conveyor - modeled roughly after the ones in the booster tip for the 1/48 fast packs. Actually, I chopped up one of those boosters, to use for that grey block at the one end. I have to start on the actual structure now, not too sure how much internal detail I'll be adding to these guys, since they are so small. Last, and certainly least the leg armor. Alright, this is the first go with the leg armor. You can see first off, that I did cut the fin off the lower leg to accomplish this. For now, that's what I'll be working with, since it'll produce a much sleeker leg armor than trying to fit the fin inside the armor (that, and Chris said he's prefer a sleek leg armor, and would sacrifice the fin). The armor pretty much form fits to the outer surface of the outer leg, and there will be a front, back, and inner piece, that will basically enclose the entire leg. The curve of the armor will be the same for the inner half as the outer half, and armor bulges will be added to beef up the armor. Phew - enough talk, now just drool all over your keyboards

Uhm, they are all available - the site was down last night, but they are up right now - they are just older than 30 days, so you have to show all posts from the beginning...

Nope - it'd be huge, but not that huge. The Neue Ziel is 76 meters tall (and 74 meters wide), so in 1/144 scale, to go with the HGUC Dendrobium, it would stand about half a meter tall - just about 21 inches tall. That would be SO sweet!!!

But I NEED the Tacos, I need them or I will explode! That happens to me sometimes...

Don't forget, I believe it was myersjessee who was laid up for a while, because he became sick from over exposure to just modeling resins and mold rubbers... You should always either work in a well ventilated area (at the least) and wear a protective mask (or use a respirator with changeable filters)...

Actually, that's how most of these processes work - you need to do a final finish sanding, to achieve any sort of smooth surface on these parts. Though you may not be able to reproduce panel line detail, since the resolution of their machine may not be good enough, this is a great starting point for customs. Instead of fooling around for days with a block of bondo, you can try modeling your parts in a 3-d app, till you have it how you like, and send it to them, so you have a good base to work off of. I am seriously considering this process for some of my customs, where it might be too difficult for me to carve a symmetric 3-d shape from a large chunk of something...

Wow, just found your post Tank - there will be another update hopefully this weekend, if all goes well - it won't be a big one, unless I kick ass and take names for the next couple of days. Keep an eye out!

Color pic of Grimlock... http://tformers.com/article.php?sid=3272&mode=flat

Of the two BP8's that I have that are broken, they have both broken one of the tabs that hold the pin for the tailfin pack. That small section of plastic seems incapable of holding the entire weight of the tailfin pack, especially if the valkyrie is dropped onto the tailfin pack in battroid mode...

Come on MG Zeta Suits!!! We need, off the top of my head, the: MSA-005 Methuss RMS-117 Galbaldy B NRX-044 Asshimar ORX-005 Gaplant PMX-000 Messala PMX-001 Pallas Athene (I would so give up my first born for this one) RMS-108 Marasai RX-110 Gabthley RX-139 Hamrabi Those are the ones they need to make - come on Bandai, stop piddling with this SEED crap, and give us some REAL Mobile Suits and Armors!!!

I'm putting my vote for this one, with your reworked desert shot as the spine... Unfortunately, TLW has disappeared, and those beautiful cockpit scans are all that we have - though those images may make better desktop images than images for this dvd case...

That's unfortunate he's missing chapter 13...

Uh, why is Jessica Biel piloting it?? Nick, there was a topic about this about a month ago... Stupid looking stealth plane...

ROFL!!! A gestalt Binaltech!!!

Mmm... I like it...

figure about 12' per story, so that works out to about 7 stories - close...

This is from Amazon.com Inspiration - by William Hung 1. William Hung Words of Gratitude 2. She Bangs 3. Bailamos 4. William Hung's Inspirational Thoughts (Passion) 5. I Believe I Can Fly 6. Hotel California 7. Can You Feel The Love Tonight 8. Two Worlds 9. William Hung Inspirational Thoughts (Perseverance) 10. Rocket Man 11. Free 12. Circle of Life 13. William Hung Inspirational Thought (Be Yourself) 14. Y.M.C.A. - featuring the Gonnabees 15. Shake Your Bon-Bon

ROFL!!! I don't know what I did to deserve this...

It didn't get dragged under by the barges, it got dragged under by the current after letting the barges float under the bridge ahead of it. It then crashed into the barges on the other side, while the captain who was still on the boat, tried to regain control. Oh, did it? They mentioned that one of the barge ropes hadn't been untied when the boat went under. Seems to be conflicting reports - that's what's said in the official article, but Captain Michael L. Smith writes in, and makes no mention of this, just that 'he made a small mistake and his stern was caught in the current, twisted sideways and the river smashed him into the bridge sideways'. Mr. Smith was on the boat that made it through right before the Cahaba did it's underwater trick, and he apparently was friends with the captain of the Cahaba - Captain Jimmie Wilkerson... Also, just from a technical standpoint, if a cable was stuck, more damage would have been done to the tug - she would have been dragged under the bridge bow first, and the front of the ship that hit the bridge would have been crushed - looks like the tug just wasn't powerful enough to overcome the current, started twisting a little, and lost it. Hit the bridge, then went sideways and under because of the current (that's the only way for the ship to actually go sideways, was for the current to actually push it sideways. If there was a cable that pulled it under, it would have went under bow first, and probably just sheared the top decks off). I'm not trying to say you're wrong or anything - I'm more criticizing the first article, because the way the barge crashes into the bridge doesn't seem to fit how it should if it was getting dragged under by a cable that wasn't unhooked (and once the barge hit the bridge, the cable would have probably snapped - at which point if she was able to overcome the current, she would have been able to - but she apparently wasn't... ).