Mammoth Strider

Another model from the workshop. I actually did most of the painting on this one a few years ago, and I only recently got around to completing it. The base is also a new addition.

Model: Mammoth Strider (Heavy Gear)
Technique: Flat Colors, Edging

For the Mammoth, I tried a different approach than the other Heavy Gear models I did recently. The model was kept very clean, with solid colors. I put in a little bit of camouflage on the lower surfaces, but I left the top half clean.

I then painted in the various panel lines and recesses with a darker version of the base color. The edges are individually highlighted with ivory; it works well in this case, since the Mammoth is very angular. I was a little more messy with the dust covers and the metallic parts, but the idea is the same.

The base is a plastic disk with more plastic sheet glued on top to support the groundworks. I originally wanted to use a Games Workshop 60mm round base, but I don’t have a spare one. Ground cover is wall plaster with sand embedded in it.

Back view after the fold, as usual.

Forest Fire Prevention Robot

Now that is an awesome scratchbuilt model of a futuristic mecha-sized robot. Be sure to check all seventeen pictures!

M.O.R.A.V.

I came across this page while reading Io9 the other day. M.O.R.A.V. is the Web site of a mecha movie project that a guy is trying to put together. It contains plenty of background and some concept art, as well as some video reels to give an idea of what the action could look like. Interestingly enough, the reels are not CGI, they’re made with models and radio-controlled robots.

It’s rough around the edges but pretty neat. Reminds me of Patlabor a bit, too.

Artificial Muscles

Here’s another cool tech that could be useful to make giant robots, cyborgs and killer machines: self-healing artificial muscles.

(Though strictly speaking, they’re not self-healing, just damage mitigating.)

Mind-Reading Computers

When reading articles like this one, I can’t help but think that if mecha are to happen at all, they will be thought-controlled — and indeed, that might be where the humanoid form comes in.

The mecha of Project 7, my “hard science mecha” world, are indeed equipped with brain scanners. Those of Project 8, though, have a “traditional” cockpit with joysticks and foot pedals, being a more classic anime mecha story.

Giant Robot Sculptures

These are made of common household stuff. Neat! I especially like the styrofoam one.

Gundam 00, Episode 16-18

Brutal. I think it’s an accurate summary of the latest episodes, especially #18. It’s not something we would see on North American TV, that’s for sure!

Nice way to do a cheap “recap” episode in #16. Though we all wonder who these “Observers” are, and why they seem to enjoy defacing priceless works of art with tiny cameras and LED lights.

Episode 17 finally showed some background to the whole plot. And it also hint at what a Jovian Chronicles anime could have been… [sigh]

I wonder if the attack on the wedding in #18 is a commentary on the bombings of various “weddings” in the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts. I use quotes because if I have to decide who’s telling the truth, Al Quaeda or the Air Force, I tend to side with the latter.

Graham Acre is now officially my favorite character in the new series (the Flag was already a favorite MS design to start with). The move with the twin sabers is the kind of thing that makes you go “whoooo” and “badaaasss!” when you pull them off in a video game. More please!

Another Mecha Model Pic

It’s the upper body of an old 1/144 Gallus-J kit that I got from a friend around 1992. He never got around to finishing it, so I used the model to see if I could coax a more interesting posture out of the stiff original arrangement. Keep in mind this is a late-80s kit — a lot of work went into it.

For those who wonder, the round thing on the upper torso is something we added. It’s a hardpoint for a shoulder gun. Also, I never installed flexible hoses to replace the kit’s.

Gundam 00, Episode 15

I just watched episode 15, and boy, did Celestial Being bit off more than they could chew this time. 250-to-1 odds are not good, no matter what kind of wonder machine you’re sitting in.

High points: use of drones and networked communication by the combined forces. As usual, they spot the Gundams by the disruption in detection/communication signals, which is smart. Lots of teamwork by the enemy aces (and a neat showcase of what happens when you don’t wait for your wingmen). Intense combat action taking place over several hours.

Low points: teenager sideplot that has no connection with the main story (and seriously, dude, dump the material girl already). Gundam Virtue again generating more energy than a nuclear bomb — repeatedly. A ridiculous mobile armor that by all rights should not fly (it lacks either visible thrusters or GN particles) and looks completely out of place in what has been a fairly realistic* story so far. Deus Ex Machina (literally) at the end of the episode; got more kits to sell, eh Bandai?

—-
*Keeping in mind that we’re talking about mecha, here.

Everything Comes to Those Who Wait

If you’re wondering why the blog wasn’t updated often, it’s because I was playing around with my new photo setup. Here’s one of the first decent pictures:

It’s the upper body of my old 1/144 ReGZ kit. As you can see, it’s not exactly the anime colors — I also did a few modifications here and there. I built this kit around 1991-92, if memory serves. It losts its antennas somewhere along the way.

More to come (much more) as I refine the process. Stay tuned.

$725M

Apparently, that’s the cost of a Gundam Mobile Suit if it was built today. Naturally, don’t expect anime-level performances — they could make it look like a Gundam, that’s all.

Gundam 00, Episodes 9-10

I just watched episodes 9 and 10 of Gundam 00, and the series continues to improve. The Gundam team commits the ultimate sin on the battlefield — overconfidence — and dearly pays for it over this two-part story. While they don’t lose anyone, they are forced to prematurely reveal many of the cards in their hands, which is sure to wreck their carefully set planning. The League forces also commit a few blunders (hint: make sure you neutralize the enemy pilot before you haul the captured suit away) but overall give a very good performance with strong team work.

The series continues to impress from a realism standpoint. There are tiny but neat details like maneuver thrusters flaring in the right sequences and Sumeragi’s frustrated hit on the bulkhead sending her flying off. On the downside, they keep giving powerful war machines to obviously unstable people, but that’s on par with the rest of the Gundam franchise.

Oh yes, and we get some foreshadowing for future episodes. The plot appears to have many layers.

Friday Mecha Doodle

Gundam 00, Continued

It took some time but I finally saw Episode 7. Yet more mecha carnage, including a somewhat cliché “more anger/angst from pilot = more power for the mecha” scene.

Story-wise, there’s also some new stuff, including character development for the pilots, hints that a greater plan is in the work (thankfully – the one they have so far isn’t that bright), and something about the mysterious “Veda” that seems to be the mastermind behind the group. There are more “ripped from the headlines” elements: child soldiers, media attention/manipulation, a side view at the collateral damage that all the stylish mechanical warfare is causing, and some street bombings.

The latter leads into an issue that I was hoping they’d tackle from the start, and I’m happy to see that they won’t shy from: how the heck do you fight amoral madmen who fight dirty?

More to the point, how do you fight an insurgency-style war… with a 20-meter tall giant robot?

Gundam Kyrios

I mentioned that someone made the machines from Gundam 00 in LEGO. He just added the Kyrios as well. And yes, it transforms.

Hopefully, we’ll get the Flag and Tieren as well at some point!

Gundam 00, Continued

I watched the fifth episode of Gundam 00 yesterday, and it was pretty good. Nice to see that they’re making basic efforts to get the physics somewhat right. Suits don’t thrust all the time, maneuver jets are used, the solar array ring is not in orbit (it’s suspended from the elevators and thus is in a gravity field) and the civilians went to a micro-gravity environment the moment the habitat broke loose from the rest of the centrifuge. And I much prefer nanotech-based Newtypes than the mystical, “spaceborn” kind.

The pink Mobile Suit piloted by a 14-years-old “supersoldier” was a bit much, but it’s on par for a Gundam series. At least the suit, beyond the color, makes some amount of sense. The extra thrusters are mounted on the shoulders and legs, and the thrust seems somewhat distributed correctly, but why they insist on making their MS fly flat on their back I’ll never understand. You need to engineer for structural strength in two perpendicular directions, and you present a larger physical target to boot! (See Ender’s Game for more discussion of humanoid zero-gee combat.)

That said, it’s a 20-minute model kit advertisement, not a deep sci-fi epic. There are strange inconsistencies in timing, such as Halleluja going from the station’s passenger receiving area to flight in his Kyrios MS in less than ten minutes, or Sergei saying that they will run out of energy when they would run out of reaction mass, more properly. And, it’s funny how fast the civilians got into space suits, but maybe these are “quick fit” emergency suits? Nanotech memory plastic, perhaps?

P.S. Speaking of solar power arrays, Popular Mechanics has a short article on them today.

Gundam Exia

Well, that didn’t take long — here’s a neat Gundam Exia done in LEGO.

UPDATE: the guy just added the Dynames and the Virtue as well.

Gundam 00, Continued

I just watched episode 4. Some mecha action, and we’re starting to see interesting geopolitics. Obviously it’s not LeCarre or Clancy-level plotting, but for a half-hour toy commercial, it ain’t bad!

One thing I’m wondering, though. The Gundams are superb war machines — stealthy, fast, powerful and agile. The Flag-series MS don’t seem too bad either, and they can perform as aircraft fighters as well. But why is the Reform League using the Tieren? Or that other MS with the “snout”? Neither are fast or agile, nor do they seem to be really well armored (despite their appearance). Heck, I’m pretty sure you’d offer a Tieren to a modern commander in Iraq and he would turn you down.

Oh, and in other news, I know where they got the idea to mount a Haro robot in the cockpit of the Gundam Dynames.

Avalanche Exia

Something tells me that the hero of Gundam 00 is getting a new MS sooner than later. It might be just a non-canon variant, but I actually like it more than the basic Exia.

UPDATE: Frank is correct — the design is from Hobby Japan’s ongoing “side story” series, Gundam 00V. There are three official side stories, two in hobby magazines and one in a manga format.

Gundam 00

I just watched the first two episodes of the newest Gundam series, Mobile Suit Gundam 00. The premise — four Gundam pilots band together to end war by beating up everyone else — seemed dumb at first, but a friend insisted I give it a chance.

Well, whaddya know. It’s actually pretty good. Not only that, but it makes more sense when you actually watch it and realize that there’s a lot more here than meets the eye. The writers have put in links to a lot of current events (the main character is a Kurdish refugee), and this is also the first Gundam series to occur in “the real world” (it uses the A.D. calendar, not a made-up one).

Very nice production values, too. I’ll be keeping an eye out for that one when it officially comes to North America.

Saturday Mecha Doodle

Japan Secretly Training Future JSDF Mecha Pilots

Remember the Virtual Worlds centers, where you could play networked Red Mars and Battletech? We had one of the nicer ones here in Montreal, decked in a full steampunk atmosphere (it’s closed since).

Well, trust the Japanese to better the concept, especially if mecha are involved. You can now play in panoramic mecha simulators across Japan, using the Gundam designs.

Good thing we don’t have this over here, it would cost me a fortune.

G-System

Good thing I lack the time, space and disposable cash: G-System Models.

Sunday Mecha Doodle

Old Miniatures of Mine

I recently came across some pre-digital era miniature pictures that I did back in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Now that I have a scanner, I figured I would make them available here, if only to offset the fact that I haven’t built or painted a model or miniature in nearly two years.

(Strangely enough, that’s about how long we’ve had the dog. Do the math.)

The page is very much “thrown together” and will need some work to turn it into a more presentable gallery. But isn’t this true of the entire site?

UPDATE: I added some Mekton miniatures to the mix. Enjoy!

Robot Jox!

About time someone put excerpts of this 1990 B-Movie online! It was one of the first (if not the first) to show “real life” mecha. Of course, we’re not talking Transformers quality here — in 1990, it was all done with stop-motion and robotics. I guess that left no money for the script or actors, but hey, that’s life.

Here’s a fight scene (Achilles vs Alexander) and some highlights from the whole story.

(Oh, and if anyone finds blueprints or detailed pictures of the F/X models anywhere online, me wants. Bad. Thanks in advance.)

A Gentleman's Duel

This short film is worth your time. No details — you have to see it to understand why I placed it in this category. Prepare to laugh your head off.

(Via BoingBoing)

Real Life Linear Seat

Here we go — not just for Gundam fans anymore!

(Short explanation: a linear seat is the cockpit design used in Gundam from Zeta Gundam and onward, and copied by multiple other series afterward. It’s the perfect cockpit for space combat: a control seat hung in the middle of a sphere covered by monitors for 360 degrees vision.)

Life-size RX-78 Gundam

So you thought that the Hunter Gear we build a few years ago was big?

The Japanese just made a life-size Gundam. Just because they could. (It’s a prop for a live action game!)

PatLabor Q&A

This is a neat “behind the scene” episode of the mecha anime series Patlabor, which explains all the technical decisions behind the technology of the series. Very funny to watch.

New Lego Mecha

Been a while since I talked about LEGO, so here’s a cool little mecha from one of the masters of the genre, Moko.

Sunday Mecha Doodle

Sometimes the doodles on the placemat from the usual Sunday’s morning’s brunch can be turned into something useful. Case in point:

VK-4 Main Battle Craft, a.k.a. “Bone Dancer”

The VK-4 is the Solar Block’s main battle unit. Light, versatile and easy to transport, the VK-4 is found in virtually all of the Block’s regiments and expeditionary forces. Onlookers are often fooled at first by its appearance; despite its skinny construction, the presence of a large field generator provides this battlerider with more than adequate protection for a line unit. Alliance intelligence has code-named this vehicle “Bone Dancer,” a reference to both its appearance and strange, bounding stride.

Code Name: “Bone Dancer”
Official Code: VK-4 Main Battle Craft
Use: frontline battlerider
Height: 13 meters
Empty Mass: 17 tons
Full Combat Mass: varies with loadout
Generator: fusion
Thrusters: 4 x 10,000 kg
Apogee Motors: 14
Usual Armament: 1 x railgun rifle, 2 x missile pod, field generator

(Specs originally written as part of the design notes for Project 1.)

Mecha Prototype

Actually it’s a proof of concept for a walking chair, but come on – tell me you can’t mentally wrap a Gear around that thing. There’s a video, too.

The motions are pretty fluid, but they are still closer to the plodding walking tanks usually seen in American productions than to anime’s agile mecha. Next model, maybe.

Sunday Mecha Doodle

Another quick sketch on a placemat. Could be something from Front Mission or Steel Battalion, I guess.

Saturday Mecha Doodle

A quick sketch to tide you over the light blogging. This started out as a 1” high doodle on a placemat, which I scanned and reworked in a graphic program. Not too bad for half an hour of work.

Yet Another Mecha Doodle

Not much to say about this one, except that my first (very) rough draft looked somewhat better before inking, in my opinion. I need to practice a lot more before I can get a polished render.

As for the design itself, nothing fancy, it’s very traditional. I don’t know why, but I seem stuck in the same general humanoid proportions. I need to break out of this rut if I’m to do truly original stuff.

Not Quite a Gear

Okay, so it’s not quite a Gear yet, but hey, it does walk on its own, and the pilot is sitting in the chest…

(I talked about this before, but it’s the first time I see it in movement.)

Mecha Image of the Day

The name of the Web site says it all: Mecha Image Of The Day.

(Okay, so it’s not as plentiful as Ninjascience’s Flickr stream, but it’s not bad either.)

Mind Scanner

I said it before, but here’s more water for the mill: future mecha will be thought-controlled.

Another Mecha Doodle

Another slow night for me (tired… so tired…), so here’s another mecha doodle for you.

Nothing much to say about this. Not very tall, cockpit in chest, autocannon in hands. About the only interesting bits are the articulated neck for the sensor head (to look above walls) and the snowshoe-like articulated plates on the feet.

Sunday Morning Doodle

A quick sketch I drew while at breakfast this morning. Scanning the picture in, rather than taking a photo with the digital camera, is a lot faster and easier.

That’s It

All my future mecha designs will have though-controlled cockpits.

Gundam Galore

1) I’m all for large scale, hyper-detailed models, but this is a little much. Even though I want one.

2) I’m sure that the rapid motion, combined with the shaking, is enough to ensure a stomach-churning experience, but I’d definitely go on Gundam: the Ride. I got in the right part of the world last year, but sadly we were on a tight timeline. Oh well.

Almost There

Fine-tune the controls and add armor, and you’ve got a powered combat suit.

Obviously we’ll need sensors, jump jets and a power supply that lasts more than twenty minutes between charges, but hey, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Robotic Exoskeleton to Fight Paralysis

The Japanese (of course) are bringing to market a robotic exoskeleton to help patients suffering from paralysis.

Random Mecha Sketch

A quick sketch that I did at breakfast this morning while waiting for our friends. No idea what I’d use it for.

HAL Exoskeleton

A Japanese researcher has perfected an exoskeleton that multiply force by 5 (according to the video). The demonstrations are quite neat to see.

Not quite ready for prime time, but it’s getting there.

WWII Superscience

More alternate reality gaming. Their WWII mecha aren’t bad, but I prefer the designs we (the DP9 folks) came up with for Gear Krieg.

No offense, just personal taste.

A Quick Sketch

I did this sketch at breakfast the other day, so it’s not really detailed or clean.

It has the usual engines on the shoulders, plus additional units in the hips (right next to the center of gravity). The long booms on the thrust pods are the housings for the deployable heat sinks. The latter can be retracted because you really don’t want such fragile yet vital structures to fall prey to collisions or enemy fire. The circle in the middle chest is the universal docking adapter. The boom behind the head is to give a better field of vision to the comm laser (the thing on top of the boom — I should have put a sort of lens there).

Problem I have with this design: still too needlessly humanoid. There’s no sensible reason why you would need a single head unit instead of distributed sensor pods. Also, I just realized that I haven’t thought about the hardpoints for the fuel tanks, tools or seekers.

Back to the drawing board.

Ridable robots

Or, as I like to call them, “personal mecha.” They still need work, but it’s getting there.

(Via Gizmodo)

Yet Another sketch

This is another drawing, cleaned up in a graphic program, from the sketchbook.

I’m using just bare silhouettes right now to try and gauge the visual balance of the things. I don’t want opinions to be cluttered by details that may change later on. I’m more concerned, for example, whether I’m making them needlessly humanoid at this point.

As you can figure out by now, all three designs I’ve shown so far have engines on the shoulders. There’s a reason for that, and it’s based on what I had promised a blog entry about, which is center of gravity and thrust lines. I’ll get around to it, I just have to do a few funny sketches to get my point across.

Another sketch

I’m still working on stuff, just not, you know, fast.

This was a quick doodle for the sketch book that I cleaned up a bit. I’m starting to get a good idea of what I’m looking for, but while this configuration works I still find it a bit too classic, as mecha designs go. I’m still not happy with how the legs are shaped.

Remember, I’m trying to make sure that everything has a purpose and works logically. If all goes as planned, I should be able to name all surface features and even give you precise ranges of motion for all articulated segments.

More Mecha

There’s been comments that I don’t have enough mecha here lately.

How about this?

Or this?

Or this?

Or this?

(Okay, you need to have seen the original Macross opening sequence to get the joke on that last one. Kawaii!!!)

Yet More Brick Madness

More LEGO mecha:

Macross Plus VF-23
More LEGO mecha

(The last one has tons of links, be prepared to spend time.)

G.I. Bot vs. the Nazi

Some guys did a CGI animation of WWII robots. Very keen.

Artificial Muscles

Apparently, the writers of the Battletech game were ahead of their time when they gave their mecha artificial muscles called myomers.

Now, scientists are making ‘bionic’ muscles for use in prosthetics and augmentation devices (i.e., powered armor).

I still can’t believe I’m going to see the sci-fi of my youth for real. Happy happy happy…

Arming Spacecraft

Not with guns, with manipulator arms — see this blog entry on the possibility of fitting a mini-canadarm on SpaceX’s planned Dragon capsule.

Space-borne mecha make sense, I tell you…

Starting to Emerge

Just to prove that I’m indeed working on stuff, here’s a quick sketch.

Yes, that’s a mecha. Sorta. You’ll see later.

I’m not quite happy with it yet, because it’s still too “classic” in terms of proportions and functions. I’m trying to define my own look, and I ‘ll need to revise the proportions a lot. The upper sensor turret is way too large for what it is, for example.

I also need to figure out how the various parts fit together, not just what the final thing looks like. I’m trying to put some of my old (and buried) engineering knowledge into it, with (alas) not as much success as I hoped. (There’s a reason industrial designers exist, not just engineers.)

I’m also hampered by my lack of artistic skills — Ghislain Barbe, I’m not.

More later after the mobility sub-systems are worked out…

Patlabor was Off by Only a Few Years

I’ve linked to this before, or at least mentioned it somewhere online. The PlusTech Forestry Walker has been in the works for something like ten years, but they finally have a production model out.

And note how close the Patlabor designers were to the real thing.

The perfect VF-1?

I was surfing the Web when I came across this superb Macross toy. It’s probably pricy as all heck, but damn!

Mecha Design in Real Life

You know things are getting truly exciting when known anime mecha designers are being asked to do the chassis design for some of the humanoid robots coming out.

And scroll down to see another robot of the same type at work, operating a backhoe dressed in a work coverall. (Hey, we don’t work naked, why should robots?)

Mecha Sighting

I can’t believe it. I’m going to see mecha in my lifetime.

Toyota is putting together high-mobility devices for urban transport and the invalids. This is the result. Yes, apparently the one on the left can walk and climb stairs.

Add some armor, a couple of weapons, a turbine for added horsepower…

EDIT: fixed the link.

HyperRescue Robot is Go!!!

Those amazing Japanese have done it again. They’ve created a rescue mecha that is controlled by a pilot sitting in the chest cockpit. Yes, this is a commercial vehicle (albeit a prototype).

The only downside (to me, mr. mecha-lover) is that there are no legs, just threads. Next year’s model, maybe?

Rah-Xephon

Spent most of the weekend watching the entire run of the animated show Rah-Xephon. A friend had purchased all the available Rah-Xephon DVDs and got subtitled copies of the rest of the series off the Net (he’ll still buy the rest of the DVDs when they come out — respect copyright!), so the wife-to-be and I trooped down to his place to watch it.

It’s very, very good. It shares a lot, theme-wise, with Evangelion, but is not as dark (thankfully). I’d recommend it to everyone, even though the storyline is a little hard to follow.