Horatio Positronic

Been workin' on the Valk some more, so I have more progress shots. I'm still focusing on getting all the panel lines in the right place and building those as a reference for the weathered detailed version. Think of this like a base coat. First is a 3/4ths view. Here's the pilot's control panel. Note the bits that don't line up correctly, and parts where the text is upside down and backwords. Still workin' on that. My blocky low detail Roy Focker. Ventral view where you can actually see into the intakes. Aft view. I'd love comments and suggestions. Remember that I haven't even started on what will be the final texture, or the bump map or any of that fancy stuff. Hopefully I should be starting on that soon.

Good progress so far! Here's the skull I'm using. Hopefully it'll help. I originally made it for my avatar and am using it on my VF-1S as well. (If the thumbnail is showing up as all black it's because the skull is black and the background is transparent)

So far I'm just sorting out where everything goes on the texture map. Once that's done I start adding the details that make it look realistic. I still have a lot to do before that. The model is about 40,000 faces. Edit: Thanks Lapis! Those images will be a big help!

Some more progress tonight. Still have a long way to go. I've been mostly making sure I have the panel lines and livery in the right place. Once that's done I'll start weathering and working on bump maps and whatnot.

I like the lighter white. It's tough to decide between it and a neutral grey since most real world fighter jets are closer to the grey we normally see on low-viz valks, but if you're going for Hikaru's VF-1A the white is pretty important. I agree with what you said in my VF-1S thread about the missiles. The designs in the show/movie were really kinda chunky. My main reference for missile scale has been the image below.

I could always use reference pictures. I don't really have any animation planned. The original goal I set was making myself a desktop background along the lines of something out of the Valkyries book.

Don't be too jealous of my pilot, it is very blocky and is mostly just there to give the impression of somebody in the cockpit. I've been doing my modeling in Maya Complete 6.0. I can't afford a more recent version. The circle things (which are supposed to be combination cold gas thrusters/cable attach points) are modeled. I decided pretty early in the modeling that I didn't want them to just be textures because of what they're supposed to do. Thanks for the encouragement! I'm still hard at work on the texturing and pretty far from the final renders.

I've been working on another 3D VF-1S. I'm pretty much done with the modeling and just starting on the texturing. The first image is about where I'm at now. I've divided my model up into a bunch of texture regions, but haven't really done anything but put colors on them so I can see which shader is which at a glance. The second image is just a quick render with a texture map I made in about 5 minutes to make sure I was doing it right. I still have a lot of work to do, but I'll keep you guys posted!

So this actually started out as a Jetfire with Transformers stickers and all that? Not a VF-1S with Macross markings?

Hey, nice job so far. I'm actually looking for the same reference scans for a VF-1S I'm working on. Hopefully somebody can help out both of our projects.

Perfect! It looks like most sizes won't be available until the end of October though.

Where do I find those 3 legged display stands that appear to work great with Valkyries? I already have 2 of the Yamato ones, but I'm not happy with the clips they use to attach the Valk to the stand. Unfortunately my searches have come up blank because I don't know what they're called, and there are a lot of other kinds of stands on sites like HLJ. Here's a quick and dirty image I made to better explain which ones I'm looking for.

On the first transform the joint just above the hip bar was far too tight to be able to do that, so it just got itself stuck. I had some trouble getting that joint in the right position to connect to the nose so I bent it back and forth a few times to loosen it, but that didn't seem to be enough. I did eventually get it out, but that was a struggle. Now it's sitting happily in Fighter mode with all the super/strike parts on its stand with my VF-1J Stealth and VF-0S with ghost. I love Battroid mode, but Fighter is my favorite.

I just unboxed my VF-1S, and it arrived in perfect condition. Nothing broke transforming it from fighter to battroid and back, but I had about 4 heart attacks and had to watch the transformation video on Yamato's site to get the pelvis joint out of the nose. This new one has the tightest fit of all of the Valks I have (which is only three now but still).

I've bought from him at least 3 times. By coincidence he always seems to have the stuff I want. The auctions have all gone really smoothly, and he helped out when I requested a non-USPS shipping option.

I really wish I had gotten the super/strike version when I got mine. I'm going to have to plead ignorance since it was my first Valk, AND it was before I had actually watched Macross.

I bought the only one I have seen on ebay so far. It's flesh colored.

My VF-1J Max is the sharpest paint job of my Revo Valks. The Regult is sharper, and my VF-1A Hikaru is the messiest, but even that's pretty sharp.

I have 4 of the 5 VF-1s (I don't have Milia ) and the paint jobs are at least up to par with all of my other Revoltech figures. Out of my 36 total figures the Regult probably has the best paint job, followed by the VF-1s and Pocco.

I took the liberty of modifying one of the images from the Valkyries book because I wanted it to be the same aspect ratio as my monitors at work. While I was at it replacing the background I monkeyed with the colors and levels and whatnot. It's 1280x1024 which is a kinda awkward resolution because the aspect ration is 4:3.2, but that's what I'm stuck with at work. Regardless, enjoy!