1/48 SOUTHERN CROSS BIOROID

[enphily]

21 hours ago, tekering said:

For those of you curious about how Lloyd scales with his fellow 1:48th mecha:

I'm REALLY pleased with the size, Cap'n.

Wait! There is 1/48 scale (or something like that) Tachikoma? Can you tell me who made it?

[vladykins]

12 minutes ago, enphily said:

Wait! There is 1/48 scale (or something like that) Tachikoma? Can you tell me who made it?

I have some that aren't super far from 1/48. I forget the set, though.

[tekering]

1 hour ago, enphily said:

There is 1/48 scale (or something like that) Tachikoma? Can you tell me who made it?

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/press-release/2007-10-15/organic-hobby-usa-ghost-in-the-shell-s.a.c-tachikoma-collection-set-2.5-pvc-figure

[CoryHolmes]

12 hours ago, captain america said:

Surprisingly, it also works-out for the Rowboat-Tech fans in that each generation of mecha is progressively smaller than the previous. 

This is one of my favourite RT facts.  I don't know why, but it just tickles my fancy

[enphily]

thanks @tekering and @vladykins

[tekering]

I'm just amazed by the mobility you were able to coax from this design, Cap'...

I'm having great fun just engineering poses.

Edited June 14, 2021 by tekering

[vladykins]

I'm loving seeing your poses!

[StarshipTrooper]

I really look forward to seeing it painted!

[Tober]

5 hours ago, tekering said:

I'm just amazed by the mobility you were able to coax from this design, Cap'...

I'm having great fun just engineering poses.

Nice pose! Although I don't think it could turn it's head in the anime. 

[tekering]

18 hours ago, Tober said:

I don't think it could turn it's head in the anime. 

Only very slightly, if that... Too many greeblies in the way.

22 hours ago, StarshipTrooper said:

I really look forward to seeing it painted!

Oh, that's weeks away.  I'm still testing colors at this stage.

Edited June 15, 2021 by tekering

[Ignacio Ocamica]

You're off to a great start!!!

[captain america]

32 minutes ago, tekering said:

Only very slightly, if that... Too many greeblies in the way.

Oh, that's weeks away.  I'm still testing colors at this stage.

The head/neck issue was a perplexing one. It clearly hinges back for cockpit access, and the way it's drawn doesn't give much leeway for side-to-side motion (shoulder blobs obstruct motion!), so I reckoned that the visor is just one big dome covering sensors that can pivot to compensate for the lack of a neck.

...And I'm just giddy at how zealous you are with the building of your kits!! I can't help but wonder if the blue shouldn't be a tad darker and more gray, and the green just a hint more pure, but that's just me being picky. Carry on, my good man!

Edited June 15, 2021 by captain america

[CoryHolmes]

10 hours ago, tekering said:

Only very slightly, if that... Too many greeblies in the way.

Oh, that's weeks away.  I'm still testing colors at this stage.

I love the shade of red you chose!  But I love the texture of the green!  The blue... um... the blue looks shiny?  Not as good as the other two

[Podtastic]

15 hours ago, tekering said:

Only very slightly, if that... Too many greeblies in the way.

Oh, that's weeks away.  I'm still testing colors at this stage.

That looks great!.

[Convectuoso]

Here's my attempt at a color version of @tekering's pic. I just needed to see what it was going to look like in red 

[tekering]

You guys just can't wait for me to paint these Bioroids, can you?

On 6/15/2021 at 5:43 AM, Tober said:

I don't think it could turn it's head in the anime. 

Actually, "Satan Claws" frequently turned his head...

Even a full 90 degrees, a couple of times.

On 6/16/2021 at 12:36 AM, captain america said:

I'm just giddy at how zealous you are with the building of your kits!!

Dude, you've satisfied a craving I've had for 35 years!  It's a joy to be building Bioroids.

That said, there are a few little things that bug me about the kit...

As you can see, I've decided to remove the ball-joints from the toes, and sand them down thin like the anime (and the model sheets) depict them:

Also, thanks to your feedback, I've tweaked the blue mix just a little.

Edited June 17, 2021 by tekering

[Podtastic]

1 hour ago, tekering said:

You guys just can't wait for me to paint these Bioroids, can you?

Actually, "Satan Claws" frequently turned his head...

Even a full 90 degrees, a couple of times.

Dude, you've satisfied a craving I've had for 35 years!  It's a joy to be building Bioroids.

That said, there are a few little things that bug me about the kit...

As you can see, I've decided to remove the ball-joints from the toes, and sand them down thin like the anime (and the model sheets) depict them:

Also, thanks to your feedback, I've tweaked the blue mix just a little.

I'm curious as to how the Bioroid scales with Cap's other humanoid alien soldiers and mecha (not the 1/12 Malar of course). 

Are the toes still articulated with change?

[captain america]

1 hour ago, tekering said:

You guys just can't wait for me to paint these Bioroids, can you?

Actually, "Satan Claws" frequently turned his head...

Even a full 90 degrees, a couple of times.

Dude, you've satisfied a craving I've had for 35 years!  It's a joy to be building Bioroids.

That said, there are a few little things that bug me about the kit...

As you can see, I've decided to remove the ball-joints from the toes, and sand them down thin like the anime (and the model sheets) depict them:

Also, thanks to your feedback, I've tweaked the blue mix just a little.

I just chalk the head-swivel in the animation up to anime-magic, because their own reference art makes that a challenge, but point taken!

Toes: I totally understand how you feel. The added  balls helps push the toes out a bit further, allowing the modeler to either spread them a bit more, or achieve a better flexed toe stance if desired. It's one of those areas where I traded pure line-art accuracy for better realism/range of posing. Alternately, you could just paint the balls dark grey, but just know that by removing them, it may cause the foot assembly to lean forward, and thus hamper your ability to get the ankle pose/range of motion needed for it to lean properly when riding the sled.

FWIW, the foot design on most mecha, including this one, is a massive fail in the grasping of ergonomics. There's a reason why we humans have rounded heels. If you're not sure what I mean, just try donning a rigid shoe shaped like that and attempt to walk without falling over, to say nothing of running or manoeuvering under pressure.

[Big s]

Clogs?

[CoryHolmes]

50 minutes ago, Big s said:

Clogs?

Drain-o?

[captain america]

43 minutes ago, CoryHolmes said:

Drain-o?

He meant the shoes!

Take those clogs and make them completely rigid except at the toe, then make them 1.5-2 times the length of your foot and 2-3 times as wide. That's what a Bioroid's foot is like. In fact, that's what most mecha clown feet are like. They're like rackets: fine for treading across deep snow at slow speed, and utterly useless for everything else.

[Big s]

At least there’s a bit of a bend at the middle of the feet in most designs, but as much as I love the vf-1, walking on rigid high heels has gotta be tough. At least the bioroid and dunbine have toes that are jointed, but still awkward 

[captain america]

Just so that everyone is made aware, there are plans for the production of a 1/48 Biopsycher (hereafter Hemmoroid) in 2022, either late Winter/Spring or later in the year. You have at least 8 months to get your wallets ready.

Edited June 22, 2021 by captain america

[Convectuoso]

Pardon my ignorance. Which one is the Byopsycher?

[tekering]

5 hours ago, captain america said:

Just so that everyone is made aware, there are plans for the production of a 1/48 Biopsycher

Wow, I guess Lloyd's proven more popular than expected...!

5 hours ago, captain america said:

You have at least 8 months to get your wallets ready.

We're gonna need it...  They only ever appeared in groups of three, after all.

56 minutes ago, Convectuoso said:

Which one is the Byopsycher?

[vladykins]

5 hours ago, captain america said:

Just so that everyone is made aware, there are plans for the production of a 1/48 Biopsycher (hereafter Hemmoroid) in 2022, either late Winter/Spring or later in the year. You have at least 8 months to get your wallets ready.

Who doesn't want three Hemmoroids?

 

[Convectuoso]

36 minutes ago, tekering said:

 

Thanks!

I thought it was that one, but couldn't find it by that name.

[Biomaster]

Hey, this looks pretty dang good considering Southern Cross rarely gets any love! (BTW, how's the anime? Heard it had a ton of production issues but the concept of a girl trio is very interesting) Could we expect anything else after the Heme-o-roid? A fully transforming Spartas maybe? A Logan? Or maybe the space chopper? 

[tekering]

1 hour ago, Biomaster said:

Could we expect anything else after the Heme-o-roid? A fully transforming Spartas maybe? A Logan? Or maybe the space chopper? 

Any of those are possible... provided a generous benefactor gets the ball rolling.

1 hour ago, Biomaster said:

BTW, how's the anime? Heard it had a ton of production issues but the concept of a girl trio is very interesting

I'd say the "girl trio" is the least-interesting part of the anime...

I really like the concept of human colonists on a remote world, having to defend themselves against a superior alien* species trying to reclaim their homeworld.  It was certainly unique for the time, and I genuinely love the episodes set aboard the Zor motherships, where our heroes explore their surroundings and learn about Zor technology, society, and culture.  The production designs are interesting, and the mecha combat is very dynamic... at least, within the confines of the "real robot" genre.

* Had the series not been rushed to its apocalyptic conclusion, we would've learned that the so-called aliens were merely time-displaced human colonists, thousands of years removed from their human brethren... another fascinating subversion of the genre that unfortunately never got the chance to play out in the narrative.

[captain america]

4 minutes ago, tekering said:

Any of those are possible... provided a generous benefactor gets the ball rolling.

Or enough customer sales. No hovercraft required for the Spartas, so a bit less sculpting and more engineering tweaking. I'm also thinking that because it's a hero mecha, that it may be a bit more popular. Maybe.

[Biomaster]

9 minutes ago, captain america said:

Or enough customer sales. No hovercraft required for the Spartas, so a bit less sculpting and more engineering tweaking. I'm also thinking that because it's a hero mecha, that it may be a bit more popular. Maybe.

Hope the Bioroid succeeds Cap, you're literally the first one to do anything related to the mecha of Southern Cross. The Spartas kinda had a release as part of the R. toyline by Matchbox but damn did it suffer for the lack of a hovercraft mode. (And yes even though I didn't watch SDC I researched the mecha, I always do that before I watch a show) A full hovercraft -> cannon -> robot transforming Spartas would be an absolute blessing, I love that design. 

Edited June 23, 2021 by Biomaster

[tekering]

2 hours ago, Biomaster said:

A full hovercraft -> cannon -> robot transforming Spartas would be an absolute blessing, I love that design. 

To be clear, you're describing a TOY, not a resin kit.  Even mass-produced injection-molded model kits designed to be transformable rarely function as well as intended.

With a garage kit, the most you can hope for is a design that allows you to choose what mode you want to build your kit to represent.  Most paints don't adhere to resin any better than they adhere to die-cast metal, and (as most of us know) transformable toys with die-cast parts are notorious for paint chipping... so just imagine a transformer that was entirely made of die-cast, and you can imagine how problematic a transformable resin kit would be.

In fact, when it comes to hand-drawn designs like the Spartas, I don't even think it would be worth the effort to design a transformable model.  I expect it would be easier to produce a kit for each mode, with proportions and articulation appropriate for each design, and the resulting models would be simpler to build and paint as well... and undoubtedly would look more accurate than a transformable model that made the unavoidable design concessions required to realize a triple-changer.

I imagine our erstwhile Captain could design a Spartas kit that shared a lot of basic parts between all three modes, but would have a lot of specific parts for each mode as well... and a 3-in-1 kit that didn't actually transform would likely be able to match the line art much better than all the boxy 3D-rendered attempts we've seen generated over the past few years.

[Tober]

12 hours ago, captain america said:

Just so that everyone is made aware, there are plans for the production of a 1/48 Biopsycher (hereafter Hemmoroid) in 2022, either late Winter/Spring or later in the year. You have at least 8 months to get your wallets ready.

Great news, thanks!!

Would you consider developing the so-called light blue 'Bioroid Scout' concurrently? The two mostly share the same arms and legs (shoulders, knees and toes are different). I think that would round out all of the Bioroids seen in the anime. There were two other variants that were unseen. 

I'd obviously be down for one of each.

[CoryHolmes]

3 hours ago, captain america said:

Or enough customer sales. No hovercraft required for the Spartas, so a bit less sculpting and more engineering tweaking. I'm also thinking that because it's a hero mecha, that it may be a bit more popular. Maybe.

I've been saving this for a very special moment, and I think my time has come.  There is but one expression that could possibly convey my deepest wishes:

 

 

"Pweeeeeeeeeeave?"

[Podtastic]

1 hour ago, tekering said:

 ... and undoubtedly would look more accurate than a transformable model that made the unavoidable design concessions required to realize a triple-changer.

And also would be ready to instantly display in any mode you want without having to fiddle with it.

You've hit the nail on the head of why I dont care for transformation, not even with toys.