veritech dragon

[rapierdragon]

In essense, it was a kind of hybrid veritech jet/dragon/robot.

I forget now whether it featured a "western dragon like" form in place of the gerwalk (complete with tail) or if it was altogether more of a "robot dragon" which had the ability to compress/expand the neck and tail so that it had a fighter-like mode and a battloid-like mode.

Fighter mode:

Instead of the traditional veritech where the nose/cockpit area becomes the central body, the forward nose ended in a dragon's head with horns and mouth (which I think opened to shoot lasers or something) and the cockpit was further back (either in the neck or main body).

Gerwalk/dragon mode:

Arms and legs featured extra joints (so when in gerwalk mode it resembled a 4-legged dragon with 2 wings, something like Draco from Dragonheart or Sephera from Eragon).

Battloid mode:

Completing the transformation the neck shortened into the body, making the jets nose aka "Dragon's Head" into the battloid's head, the forward legs becoming arms, the rear legs becoming legs. I think the wings folded back (something akin to Wing Zero from Gundam Wing) and long dragon-tail remained a tail (which like in Dragonheart 2 had blades at its end, which meant it could be used as a whipping melee type weapon)

Either way, it was some really cool art and a very great concept, which somehow managed to bring a bit of a "zoids" or "anthropomorth/furry" feel to Macross/Robotech.

I forget if the artist did a few other animalized veritechs... possibly a griffen-form version in place of the dragon-shape gerwalk as a sort of "work up" explaining how the dragon-form came to be.

I think the explanation the artist used went along the lines of "the addition of foward legs in gerwalk mode allows the form to stake more stable footing for ground-tactics and landing on uneven surfaces. This did necessitate the moving of the main weapon onto the back of the gerwalk (as the battloid's "arms" served as the two foward legs) in place of having the gun on the underside or carried in a hand, but also provided additional stability and control when targeting/sniping enemies at long range while planted firmly on the ground."

Matt Shokoff

aka

Rapier Stardragon

matsho@sympatico.ca

rapierdragon@hotmail.com

[Master Dex]

I have never heard of that but it sounds interesting, I'd like to see this fan art.

[Star Dragon]

I have never heard of this but would like to know more...

It would help if you listed the artist or the art site he was on (was it deviantart?)

IF you have forgotten then it might be a case of Google to the rescue...

The only Dragon Valk I know if is mine from Getter Dragon working in stages from a 1991 altered VF-1AS pic to my only in game mesh to horrible to show (an alpha).

Edited July 28, 2008 by Star Dragon

[ruskiiVFaussie]

OoooOo... sounds VERy interesting. I had this in mind for my custom Valk (not just colour) .... please anyone get some info!

[rapierdragon]

oddly I seem to recall it being on furnation.com .... though maybe someone had something like it on Deviantart or FurAffinity... feels like it was years ago that I last saw it (so it was probably done back before 1999)

[ruskiiVFaussie]

no pics?

[rapierdragon]

soon there will be some

I've been trying to build one out of lego... using these sets

Mega Bloks (old set) of red dragon + black ninja (ninja can tf into helicopter/chopper)

-got it 2nd hand for bout $3.00 Canadian ($1 Cdn = $1 US)

-mainly using the dragon-head, feet, small red wing pieces, and 3-claw hands

----bought the box 2nd hand and it had 2 sets of the 3-claw hands so I'm adapting one set to serve as feet

-and the main spine/waist joiners

-and lots of black blocks and lots of red blocks

----they don't hold together 1/10th as well as lego

----so in a few places I had to put a drop or two of dollar-store super-glue so the parts don't fall apart

Lego (new mars-mission set: ETX Alien Infultrator)

-lots and lots of black blocks

-curved wings for the main part of the jet/dragon wings

Lego Creator 3-in-1 (green locomotive aka train engine : appx $6)

-using some small parts for jointers and details

Lego Exoforce : Deep Jungle (appx $10)

-black parts, orange detail parts, small joints/hinges

PROGRESS:

-Figure just needs legs/feet joints to be done and then overall armor/appearance (inner TF spline done)

-figure will be capable of Fighter mode, a 4-legged Gerwalk mode, and upright Battloid mode

-looks pretty good so far (maybe it'll inspire some more realistic designs here)

PICTURES:

-coming in a day or two

[ruskiiVFaussie]

Cool man, can't wait, i wanna see this.

[rapierdragon]

Mind you, the tail hasn't been started, and most of the "gray" bits (namely just below the knees and the hands) are going to probably be redone. The connection between the red knee-block and the bit below it is flimsy (was running short on good parts) but I think if I can get another "EXO-force Deep Jungle" (spider) lego set that I'll have the blocks I need to stablize it nicely (as is the lower-legs fall off if you pick the veritech up by the body)

I was originally going to have those three-fingered things for both hands and feet (with an 3-unit long angled block to form the "thumb" on the hands and the "heel-toe" on the feet, but I managed to find some nice little talon-like bits in the "EXO-force Deep Jungle (spider) set. I'll be looking for another set like it tomorrow (in-town place was all out) which means I'll have some really nice pointy talons (which I can open and close) for the hands too!

First set of pictures (sorry if they're a bit blurry... taken them at night in my room with lousy bedroom lights on... next set I'll try to take during the day when I've got better lighting)

[ruskiiVFaussie]

Looks pretty cool! great job!

[renkenjutsu]

I concur, it looks awesome. Maybe include a tail so it could be turned into a sword for the battroid mode?

[badboy00z]

It would be really cool if you can somehow make the head and neck transform like the YF-19. The head would make a cool looking chest in "battroid".

[rapierdragon]

Having the head turn into part of the chest would make it look too much like certain other VF's (not to mention a number of tranformers).

Don't forget, the four-legged gerwalk form is this thing's long-range sniping form, but being a dragon (with talons, fangs, horns, tail, etc) would also means this VF makes for some really cruel up-close-and-personal type action (for when the ammo runs low)

Plus, a dragon-style head in battloid offers extra abilities... like...

(1) sinking your fangs into an enemy...

(2) head-butting them (head is extra armored unlike typically weak VF heads ... so a move like this would probably damage if not destroy the typical VF's head)...

(3) course, if that top horn could tilt/angle forwards the head-butt would also be a physical goring move (as effective and

deadly as penetrating the enemy's chest/neck/head with a long-dagger or short-sword)...

(4) mouth could always double as a hiding compartment for a plasma-based flame-thrower or plasma fireball blaster or something (course, with the pilot up in the brain area behind the eyes, any kind of backfire or misfire would probably kill the pilot)

Gah... starting to sound like this thing was designed for fighting the Vajra (or possibly design-inspired by them)

I'd say I'd put a set of swords on this thing except ... "Macross VF + swords = gundam wing"

A dragon-veritech is partially designed for extended physical combat beyond its running out of ammo, but it's armor and weapon layout put it more into the role of the Beast-mk4's (cannon VF's)... it makes long-range sniping attacks as a 4-leg gerwalk then serves more as a defense destroid. It isn't loaded with the tons of missiles as most other fighters are.

It CAN go fully offensive, but with its long-range beam weapons low (or out of) ammo it would have to constantly switch from fighter (to get to an enemy) to gerwalk/battloid (to gore/rip apart the enemy) and back to fighter (to seek/reach its next enemy).

Its lifespan as a defensive unit is high, but while its still quite deadly as an offensive unit it's lifespan would shorten tremendously as other enemy units could simply try to stay back and attack it from a safe range (which once its out of ammo, would mean anything further than an arm-length away would keep you safe from it).

[badboy00z]

The way I see it, it's not really "variable" in a sense that "transforming" is just standing up on its legs. It's kind of like the red lobster Vajra. It just either stands on all fours or its hind legs.

[rapierdragon]

Actually I think I goofed in the reference... I meant to refer it to (roughly) the same class as the VB-6 Konig Monster (in terms of usage and rareity on the battlefield). I mean its not like you'd see an entire wing of these things around, especially in space combat.

So while it would have the semi-full fighter/gerwalk/battloid transformation, the transformation itself would be far more basic than most veritechs (almost jokingly so).

Size would be larger than the VF-25/VF-25-super/VF-27, but smaller than the Konig Monster (which has 4 rail cannons and 6 missile launchers). This would put its stats roughly between the two I think.

Quoting the sizes from new-un-spacey.com

Dimensions:

VF-25

Battroid Mode: height 15.59 meters (includes head lasers).

Fighter Mode: wingspan 15.5 (fully extended); height 4.03 meters; length 18.72 meters

VB-6 Konig Monster

Shuttle/Bomber Mode: wingspan 24.42 meters; height 6.77 meters; length 29.78 meters.

Notes on weapons:

I was thinking the long-range beam weapon capacity would be a pair of something like what the VF-27 carries: each being a cross between Michel's sniper-rifle (listed as VF-25G "rail-sniper with target assisting balancers" except without the balancers) and the large quantum beam gun pod (Brera Sterne's VF-27 weapon).

Not sure if they'd be fixed to the arms in battloid form, but certainly be fixed across the top/back when in fighter and gerwalk mode (maybe a bit like the super pack thrusters from VF-1 but much smoother and more integrated into the design, only popping up "above" the fighter/gerwalk when actually firing. (lol: firing them in their "parked" position would probably shred the upper half of the fighter off).

I will have to see if I have lego parts to make something akin to what I'm talking bout.