A printable Macross RC-4E Rabbit

[Jasonc]

It's been awhile since I did another project, but I decided to work on a Macross RC-4E Rabbit. Since their have been only a couple designs of this, and the only one really available for a file and print on your own is a solid body, I wanted to put one together that wasn't overly complicated with parts (16), has some parts that allow more intricate detail than a solid body but don't have too many gimmicks. The other reason why I wanted to do this, is simply because from the line art design, there always seemed to be a few things that bothered me. The biggest thing was the size of the door on the outside, as well as the design of the inside cabin. They are simply too small, especially when considering the need for space suits. The other issues were just the drawings of the interior. In any case, the visual aspects were areas I wanted to focus on, mainly the exterior and the cockpit area.

Normally, I post progress pics, but as I went through this so fast, by the time I would take a screen shot, I was already further along than I had hoped. The design isn't too complicated, and more time was spent on the details more than the general shape. Overall, I'm quite happy with how it turned out. The entrance door is larger, and while it's not a door to easily just walk into, if it were full size, one would just need to dip their head in that helmet, rather than crawl in. I will eventually put the file into cults3D, but I'll be leaving for Japan tomorrow, so it will not go up until I have a chance to print it and test out all the fits for pegs, alignment, etc.

There is an antenna that was made as well, but the pegs for them can actually fit 2mm aluminum rods for a sturdier piece if wanted, so I did not include them in. With those, total is 18 pieces.

Edit: I also forgot to mention that I did not inscribe the UN Spacy logo on this, and it's simply better to apply a decal. The decal printing should be easy, as the decal area is literally 20mm in diameter. The center line is .5mm, and will work perfectly for aligning the decal to ensure it is placed properly.

Edited February 7, 2023 by Jasonc
Added info

[Jasonc]

Here it is with the antenna, just for kicks. If these are printed, I'd suggest putting the together in warm water to bend them to one's preference, as that is optional...

[Jasonc]

I've also been debating if I should add attachments for this... If I add an attachment piece for fast packs, I'm obviously not going to make the legs for it, although....

[Bolt]

That looks great ! Nice job ! I'm about getting ready to build the 1/72 RC-4E put out by Plastic Cretins , about 7 years ago.That would be fantastic if you did some attachments, to customize with. Also looking forward to seeing yours printed and built 👍🏼

[CHAVAKAISER]

a friend printed it in 1/100 scale

[derex3592]

That looks great! 

[Jasonc]

13 hours ago, Bolt said:

That looks great ! Nice job ! I'm about getting ready to build the 1/72 RC-4E put out by Plastic Cretins , about 7 years ago.That would be fantastic if you did some attachments, to customize with. Also looking forward to seeing yours printed and built 👍🏼

Cool. These are fairly easy work ups, so it probably won't take you too long. I'll post pics of my build. I hope you do as well.

11 hours ago, CHAVAKAISER said:

a friend printed it in 1/100 scale

I have that file as well. Nice paint job.

2 hours ago, derex3592 said:

That looks great! 

Thanks. I'm hoping to put out a few more projects this year, so stay tuned.  

[Bolt]

I'd love to see the breakdown on parts for this kit !  I'm considering kit bashing the legs myself, the hardest part would be finding another set of bunny feet, or sacrifice the only set i have. Firstly, I've got to see just how the legs look on this , in real life. Could be silly. About the booster attachments, i wonder the same thing, as they have to mount above the radar..

[Jasonc]

4 hours ago, Bolt said:

I'd love to see the breakdown on parts for this kit !  I'm considering kit bashing the legs myself, the hardest part would be finding another set of bunny feet, or sacrifice the only set i have. Firstly, I've got to see just how the legs look on this , in real life. Could be silly. About the booster attachments, i wonder the same thing, as they have to mount above the radar..

I'll get pictures of the parts in question, mostly the back part and the legs? If so, I'll get those up tonight.

Based on that odd image of it with the VT-1 fast packs, if you look at the VT-1 next to it, the spacing of the fast packs are equally distance, which to me, would indicate that there is a FP plate mounted on it in the center, and would probably need to be raised up a little. 

[Bolt]

51 minutes ago, Jasonc said:

I'll get pictures of the parts in question, mostly the back part and the legs? If so, I'll get those up tonight.

Based on that odd image of it with the VT-1 fast packs, if you look at the VT-1 next to it, the spacing of the fast packs are equally distance, which to me, would indicate that there is a FP plate mounted on it in the center, and would probably need to be raised up a little. 

I'm curious to see the components that make up your kit. Chances are beyond a shadow of a doubt that yours is easier to assemble. And with tighter tolerances than the resin beast I'm currently dabbling with. 
As far as the VT-1 conversion, I'm  assuming some parts from the Hasegawa kit (which I'd be borrowing from, based on what you do and don't 3d model) might help. I can't help but  wonder if the boosters are going to look too high ,perched over the radar. The legs could be bashed off a battroid or gerwalk Hase (sacrilege!) , but whatever 3d input you are inspired to do could really save hacking up other kits. This is mostly exploratory right now, as I'm spending my time just trying to make the main hull look right and still be able to open for viewing the interior..

[Jasonc]

In the pictures below are the connections and the top of the back half where the FPs would go. Here is the leg connection as well. You can see it's quite a simple connection. If I were to make the legs movable, I'd probably have to make the cabin go less into the back half, so that there's enough space if you wanted the fee to convert more to a standard Rabbit form. The 3rd picture shows the inside cavity that'd need to be a bit more shallow.

[Bolt]

Thanks.Computing..👍🏼

[Jasonc]

Definitely now done, and needs some more detail, but it's in the process. Because I'm not a fan of making it just a white color, I decided to customize an even lighter grey, using an 80/20 ratio of white to light grey of the Mr Color paint. I like the result. I left the space for the kite decal white for a better contrast. Some of the paint needs to be cleaned up, but otherwise, I'm pretty happy with the colors. I'm now trying to make the front glass parts as polished as possible, but I may need to just go and recast these to get the best quality possible. Nevertheless, here's the first pics of it in the works.

 

I may end up adding a few extra parts to it for ease of painting, like removing the back 4 boosters, and maybe make the entire cabin just one piece, but that would make adding the "glass" parts in the door a little more difficult. I could also separate the entire cabin at the black stripe across it, and that would hide the seem. OPTIONS, LOL

Edited April 26, 2023 by Jasonc

[Bolt]

That looks really awesome! Very clean and crisp lines. I'm of the same mind with the color not being pure white. The resin version i have does separate along the black lateral line, as you are considering. This has made it easy to access everything for the cockpit. As you would guess. 

[Jasonc]

11 hours ago, Bolt said:

That looks really awesome! Very clean and crisp lines. I'm of the same mind with the color not being pure white. The resin version i have does separate along the black lateral line, as you are considering. This has made it easy to access everything for the cockpit. As you would guess. 

Oh, I was not aware that one did. I knew it split, but wasn't sure where. I just want to make access for construction, so there are a few options I can consider. I did test fit the legs, and once the legs are on, this really has the look it was meant to have. I'm really happy at how it turned out. Truth be told, I'm always amazed that I was actually able to put my brain to work to make these things. I thought I'd never really use my engineering education for anything after my career change 15 years ago, but here I am. I gotta start working on the decal for the 20mm diameter (maybe 21 will cover the recessed parts, and make those as well. With the white backgound I left it, probably don't need sheets with white background, but I'll make some anyways, just to be safe. I also need to start on sealing up the gap as well.

[Jasonc]

Was a bit bored, so I decided to color it.

[Bolt]

Those are some big wabbit feet 

[Jasonc]

3 hours ago, Bolt said:

Those are some big wabbit feet 

They bring good luck