SV-51's Guns Revisited

[Graham]

I noticed in episode # 3, when D.D. Ivanov forces his way into the Asuka II, he uses two guns mounted on the hips of his SV-51 Battroid to shoot the crew inside the hanger.

Prior to watching episode # 3, I'd thought that the SV-51's internal gun(s) were mounted in the battroid's chest and that the parts on the hip were only the flash hider/muzzle break assembly for fighter mode, not the actual gun itself.

However, unless it is an animation error, episode # 3 has clearly shown us that the whole gun is actually mounted on the hips and due to the small size they are obviously designed for anti-personnel use against ground troops rather than against enemy VFs.

Also, today after studying the line art of the SV-51 battroid and fighter more carefully I noticed that the two large bore muzzles in the SV-51 Battroid's chest do not line up exactly with the hip guns when transformed into fighter mode, so they are obviously independant of each other. Of course, the large bore muzzles in the chest might not be guns, they could be verniers for reverse thrust in battroid mode.

Anyway, the evidence of two hip guns clearly shows that the stats given on the Macross Compendium are incorrect as they only list one internal gun, a 12.7mm minigun. Although to be fair to Egan Loo, he is only translating from Japanese source material, which is probably incorrect. Anyway, the compendium says: -

ARMAMENT: One fixed Gsh-231 12.7 mm mini-gun. One standard Gsh-371 55 mm gun pod with 120 rounds and one standard spare magazine stowed in unit's special aft gun pod rack. Six underwing hard points with two micro-missile launcher/auxillary tank composite pods (with 18 Turopov SA-19M I/IR-guided micro-missiles) mounted on wingtip hard points. Capable of mounting most former Warsaw Pact military standard aviation weaponry.

Graham

[Hurricane29]

I noticed that too. Also, Ivanov stored the gun pod on the leg of the 51 a la VF-2ss stlye.

[ArchVile]

I think that it's more like the wing root weapons of the VF-19

[Aurel Tristen]

I would agree that they are x 2 and not x 1... it must be a mistake in the spec data.

I doubt that it is an animation mistake as Kawamori did the battle scene storyboards and is very involved in this project.

[VF-19]

I noticed that too. Also, Ivanov stored the gun pod on the leg of the 51 a la VF-2ss stlye.

I noticed that too... However, if you look closely, it's not the gunpod that's firing. It's these two pods that were mounted on the hips of the SV-51 in battroid mode, that were shooting up the deck. If he fired the gunpod, then he might have hit his own plane...

[Graham]

I would agree that they are x 2 and not x 1... it must be a mistake in the spec data.

I doubt that it is an animation mistake as Kawamori did the battle scene storyboards and is very involved in this project.

So WJ, any theories as to what the two large holes (muzzles) on the SV-51's chest are, as they are clearly not related to the hip guns?

As I mentioned above, if you study the fighter mode line art of the SV-51 and look carefully at the position of the hip guns in fighter mode and the placement of the large bore chest muzzles, they are clearly offset from each other (although the chest muzzles are hidden from view in fighter mode).

Graham

[Yohsho]

Perhaps those are where the flares come out. It seems that Macross Zero seems to use alot of those.

[Graham]

Perhaps those are where the flares come out. It seems that Macross Zero seems to use alot of those.

Could be, but that would mean that flares can only be launched in battroid mode, as the chest holes are covered up in fighter and gerwalk modes.

Graham

[David Hingtgen]

And totally atypical for flare launchers. M0 is specifically trying to be "compatible" with current military stuff.

Chaff/flare launchers are very, very standardized. And they're grids, usually 20 (older) or 40 (since Bosnia) round holes in square-shaped area. Pack them with whatever you want--1 flare and 39 chaff, 20/20, all flares, etc.

[Zentrandude]

could be just holes to make room for something during transformation or if flare/chaff guess its possible like in mac plus but wont make sence to be on the chest (quick a bull is comming let me take off my red shirt and throw it directly infront of me).

the chaf/flare launchers are very old system it can also be in our great froating head's mind of a ot version would be.

[imode]

Those cylindrical things on the chest are probably the same thing that the 19 has in the same area.

[David Hingtgen]

Could of course, be protoculture storage cylinders. ::ducks::

[Graham]

Could of course, be protoculture storage cylinders. ::ducks::

Ya' mean like dey stuff the leaves up the tubes or sumtink like dat?

Dons bullet proof vest and ducks for cover.

Graham

[justvinnie]

Could of course, be protoculture storage cylinders.    ::ducks::

Ya' mean like dey stuff the leaves up the tubes or sumtink like dat?

Dons bullet proof vest and ducks for cover.

Graham

Get it right! Everyone knows its the seeds and not the leaves!

vinnie

[Legioss]

You gotta give props to Zor for all these cool new mecha. He's really outdone himself this time.

[Graham]

Zor, heck, don't you mean Macek. I never new HG had so many talented mecha designers.

Graham

[Legioss]

Carl Macek's SV-51 is nice, but nobody could ever top Tommy Yune's creative work of genius, YF-1R.

Don't you wish they could take out the music? That's always been a major flaw in the plot of Macross.

Edited December 4, 2003 by Legioss

[NeoverseOmega]

As much as I love Macross, every time that raven haired pop singer opens her mouth I can't help but see the end of "Mars Attacks". Of course at least in Macross it made some sense - in HG's universe it just made mincemeat of my brain and my pride.

"Hey, guys I saw this really cool cartoon today . . . um, just let me fast forward through this part".

Of course HG's universe is a little traumatizing.

Zor's next discovery: Hybridizing the Flower of Life with WEEEEEEEEEED!!!!!!! Funky dancing disco Veritechs here we come (cue BeeGee's music here). We can't keep track of the tie-dyed Shadow fighters mighty Regis, the color scheme is blinding us and all our sensors appear to be, well, stoned. . . .

Neoverse Omega dives for cover and finds several other MWer's hunkered down behind the same rock . . .

[Graham]

It's a long time since I read them, but didn't the Robotech novels have Kyhron (Kamjin) adicted to Protoculture and smoking or chewing the leaves? Or am I just remembering wrongly?

Graham

[Legioss]

Yep, in the books he chewed the leaves. FoL is apparently a hallucinogen. In the last Robotech Masters episode, Dana touches the terminals of a protoculture matrix full of spores and has a trip about the aliens and having a little sister. In the New Generation episode Sandstorms, Rand falls into some FoL spores and has a trip about a dragon that lasts the whole episode.

Robotech is about an intergalactic drug war.

Edited December 8, 2003 by Legioss

[NeoverseOmega]

Yep, the flower of life is just maceked marijuana.

Hmmm, that would explain protocultures tendency to make things transformable. Even the components are stoned.

Enter staggering robot: Ummm, dude, form is meaningless and like, matter and space and crap . . . I hover in the air like a funky feather in the wind and wonder: duuuude, am I a bot, or a birdie . . . . guardian mode - wheeeee.

Cue: Fly like an eagle . . .

That would make Zor the ultimate drug-dealer. Fascinating. It also explains why the Invid and the Masters were both so pissed. Major withdrawal.

Suddenly the whole series seems so much more, more, meaningful.

I'd still rather think of Zor as responsible for the mecha of Robotech than Macek.

At least Zor is capable of remorse.

[Zentrandude]

so invid/inbit= columbia cartel?

[NeoverseOmega]

Just think of that the next time you guzzle Columbian coffee. The workers at the farm next to Juan Valdez are part of something far more insidious . . . Oh yes, Robotech is just a signal to HG's true masters.

The Columbians are coming.

Be afraid.

(The really frightening thing is I think we MWers could virtually keep this up forever).

[dna]

so invid/inbit= columbia cartel?

I'd think that the Invid were more like the natives that had grown the weed for their own religious ceremonies before the white man came an took it away. the masters would be like the Columbian Cartels which would make the Zentradi like the street thugs pushing.

[NeoverseOmega]

And ultimately that would make HG the peddler of bad hash.