Chronocidal

Here's one underside shot... So far, the model's stuck in fighter mode, and it's probably going to stay that way. It's based off the Hasegawa kit, so the battroid proportions wouldn't be quite right, and I don't know enough about the YF-21's transformation sequence to model it anyway. It's only 5400 polygons at the moment, and I'm hoping to keep it low. This'll be my second Flight Sim model, I just need to build the control surfaces and landing gear in, as well as the cockpit... oh, and the head laser, didn't even notice that until now. I'll probably do a few versions of this model, there are only a few differences between the YF-21 and VF-22, so it'll be really easy to do both.

#2....

K, thought I'd bring a little new material into the thread. Started this last thursday, and it's going surprisingly fast. Enjoy.

Looking fantastic. Wish I could get stuff that detailed into MS Flight Sim.. One thing though, the tires you've made look really thin... most aircraft tires are pretty thick. It might help if you keep the tires the same radius, but decrease the radius of the hubs a bit. The reference pics above show the tires making up much more of the wheels.

Hmm... Going with continuity, the second version of the fighter makes more sense, since that's what the Varuta fighters looked like. But personally, I really prefer the SR-71-like nose, and that's what's shown in the screenshots. That other thing just looks strange.. especially the nose. It just looks like a shovel to me.

Hmmm... 8 missiles seems a little awkward... Maybe 6 on a single center rack would make more sense? F-105s and A-4s carried bombs that way... of course, again, those are bombs.. might not work for missiles. But the single rack of six would allow it to be attached to one arm, with a mount like the gunpod... and maybe give the battroid a heavier punch.. if it was rigged to fire the same way as the gunpod, with a self contained launching system, you could use it like a bazooka to launch missiles in battroid mode, instead of being limited to the gunpod. Would be pretty useless in close quarters combat though, unless the pylon itself was a weapon of some sort.

Looking good, I haven't been around much to see the progress on this one. Can't wait to see the finished product. Cobywan, I'm working on modeling duplicates of the individual parts of the Hasegawa YF-19, so once it's done, you'll have all the parts already divided up for tooling. I'll probably do a YF-21 next, then either a VF-11, or VF-1. Btw, I'm glad you found a use for those craptacular X-Wing engines.. I've got about 20 of those myself that need reworking. Although, I think I'd leave the nozzle part out, and just use the inside turbine thing.. The nozzle looks kinda weird in there.

Eh, mach 1 nothing.. this thing'll do mach 3 at least... I've buzzed LAX sooooo many times in this thing testing it.

Heheh.. Thanks, you saved me the trouble of looking for this topic again. Well, the good news is I'm back home again, and all set to finish this thing finally.. I'm backing up files on cds today, tomorrow I'll be all set to make a permanent cockpit for the YF-19. Dunno how long it will take me, but it shouldn't be too long.

Hmm... I guess you may be able to reduce the yellowing by lightly sanding the surface with VERY fine grade sandpaper... but I've never tried it myself, so I don't know if it would work or not. I'm not sure if the yellowing would continue into the plastic, or stop under the surface.

Hmm... no results, no change at all.. Do you have to restart, or reconfigure the codecs?

Actually, there's a lot more leeway in how high the polycounts can go... my YF-19 is up around 20,000, and runs beautifully. It's just because of the nature of FS.. you only have one plane really visible at a time. Thing is, the model will have to be changed quite a bit for FS, practically rebuilt in many ways, since all the control surfaces, etc. need to be modeled separate (not just cut out, but actually shaped separately so they move realistically), and a lot of things have to be added. If you'd be willing to let me borrow your model though, I think I could probably bang out an FS version in a couple of weeks after classes let out.

Don't worry, I think a VF-11 is going to be my next project after I do a YF-21/VF-22.

Actually, I've never really put up anything online of legos. Btw, if you ever see another RBR for that low, PLEASE pick it up.. I'll gladly buy it from you. I've never seen it in ANY store near me. I may have to resort to Ebay eventually. Really though, those curved pieces are all that helpful.. I've got loads, and have yet to use them on the Valk. The pieces that really help are the wings, cause they allowed me to make the intakes on the chest plate out of nearly one piece, instead of piecing smaller wings together to make them.

Actually, I was serious about the instructions thing. I'm not talking a full step by step, but I might manage an exploded view of the major parts. I've drawn instructions for several things I've made, including an X-Wing, and an A-wing, both of which turned out beautifully. I use a special pseudo-isometric graph paper I designed, and hand draw the instructions. It goes faster than you'd think, but it's still tedious. I'd just use exploded diagrams for big parts, and it might work. Btw, I had planned to buy the Blockade Runner, never got to it.. I may yet. Did get the Discovery though, that's a sweet set. I just need about 10 of em..

Hmm... am I the only person who's getting a corrupted file?

Right now, it gets close to 3 feet long in fighter mode, I'm guessing about 1/18th scale... that would make it around two and a half feet tall in battroid. You're right about one main thing though, I seriously need to lighten up the construction. The main fuselage is mostly solid bricks for strength, since I've rebuilt it about 4 times now. I've run out of big pieces to hold it together, so I've had to resort to smaller bricks. As for the technics pieces, I've used them to death in most places. The arms are fully articulated with a combination of 4 worm gear joints each (1 each for shoulder rotation and elevation, then two more for elbow rotation and angle). The clicking hinges work very well though for the backpack, since it needs to have a very compact joint. The linkage to mount the shoulders in battroid is a pain though.. it's really heavy, and not too sturdy. It definitely needs to be redone. I hope to work on this some this summer.... I'll probably rebuild it again from the ground up to lighten it, and rework a lot of stuff. I might make it smaller, but I like the size right now.. the pieces I've used work well for this scale, and things would get complicated making it just a little smaller. I'd probably have better luck making it lighter. Plus, I built this based on the transformation of a Joke Machine VF-1. Now that I've got my 1/48th -1J, I can follow that instead, and the construction will probably be much better. Btw, sorry, no instructions for this thing.. yet.. I may try it, but I'm using an INSANE amount of pieces. I'm nearly out of everything that matches the color scheme, and am going to have to start ordering specific parts online.

I've bought several sets just for the clicking-type joints to build this thing. The backpack has about 16 of those hinges holding it up.

That's really great stuff there.. that Monster's incredible. I think the main issue with Legos is the weight of larger models.. you make something big enough to be detailed, and it gets too heavy for Lego joints to hold up, and the limbs sag, or won't hold up the weight they need to. I've been stumped for about a year on how to make legs strong enough to hold this thing up. It must weigh about 5 lbs. That's what happens when you make something this big.

Heheh.. Neither can I. I've got the reference pics all ready, I just haven't had time to start the model yet. It's gonna be a summer project.

emm... not really, no unfortunately. I've had to put pretty much all my hobbies on hold while I finish up my last two weeks of classes. But things should lighten up over the summer, and I'll be able to finish the cockpit, and release the final version of this thing.

Hehe.. I tried to use that same picture.. Maybe this will help though. This is based off of the Hasegawa fighter kit, so it may not make a good battroid, but it makes a beautiful fighter. I've got a full 5 view set in MUCH larger resolution if you want them.. the top view is 2000*3000 pixels.. too big to put up here, but I can probably zip them and put up the download.

Ooh, sorry I haven't checked in here in a while, but you're welcome to use my Flight Sim YF-19 model for reference if you want. It's not cg quality, and it won't transform properly, but it'll serve for an outline I think.

What kind of textures do you need? I may be able to help if with drawing them if the process isn't too complex. But I don't have Homeworld, so I wouldn't be able to do much else.

I don't really know how far off the nose is, it's very hard to tell from the few pictures I've seen of the kit. But from the one forward shot I found, the nose looked too flat, and the black front part of the canopy was almost half the length of the nose cone.. just looked kinda weird. I could be wrong though, I've probably been spoiled by the Hasegawa kit. It's probably not a terrible problem, but it didn't look very accurate to the lineart for the YF-19. But you're right, it wouldn't be hard to fix myself if I buy one. (and I REALLY hope I have the funds to do it ) Edit: Here's the picture, the nose just looks really duck-bill like, and that canopy extension is really long.. not at all like the rounded nose in the Anime. Now, I haven't seen the actual kit, it's possible that the modeler fouled this one up, and tried to cover it up. The bottom of the nose looks fine, the top just doesn't look like it matches any of the YF-19 side profiles I've ever seen. 1/48 YF-19 (I kind of wonder if the modeler ever realized he put the feet in upside down... )