Legend: Legs 1

I like the way Bee-Craft designed the legs to the Legend in the larger model kit, but I also liked how the Cosmic Era figure has its legs designed. So I'm kind of mixing between in what I find. Hope I can get something good out of it once the detail sets in.

Legend: Arms

Not too bad. I started with the Freedom's arms as they aren't too far different looking. Pretty much shaped the arms from that previous mesh. A little expanding here and there as these ones look heavyset compared to Freedoms.

Strike Noir: Check

Went through a bunch of "black" schema's before settling on this slightly colored black. The the previous blacks made the machine difficult to distinguish some parts from others. So, the base looks like this... -ish.

Legend: Body 2

Still working on the body. I think that the waist flaps are somewhat thin compared to the Destiny's which probably can't be helped without making the machine look like it's wearing an apron. But too many notches looks annoying so I'll try to alleviate that.

Legend: Body 1

Trying out some of the body here. I'm using the Destiny as the base and as a result I'm having a bit of trouble shifting Destiny's frame around to fit the Legend's more robust build. Anyway, this is an early test as much of Destiny still remains. Still have to straighten a bunch of things out but it's going in the right direction.

Legend Gundam

I wasn't planning on this one originally either, but Destiny alone doesn't seem to work for what I had in mind. So I'm reluctantly starting this one. I don't think it's quite right to consider Destiny and Legend "brother" machines, but in this case I'll end up constructing Legend on top of the Destiny rig. The above illustration is by "Bee-Craft" as usual, but from the pictures I've seen the plastic model seems to differ a bit -- not quite as detailed in a few places. But finally that the backpack is too small in relation to the size change that the destiny's backpack got for the MG (compared to its previous incarnations), so really I'll end up picking and choosing what I want to for this model from various ideas, especially the Cosmic Era figure. The head start.... fiddle-dee-deee.... based heavily on the Strike Noir head as Bee-Craft usually elongates the heads but didn't do so on the Legend design.

BuCUE Hound: Cerebus Pack 3

Toiling through the tedious parts. At this point it still needs more detail to coincide with the detail in the main body. Also need to rig the Cerebus' neck (it merely sits there now).

BuCUE Hound: Cerebus Pack 2

Getting the base of the dual Cerebus heads together. Still needs a bit of work to bring out the detail. The neck I'll probably just copy as it looks quite similar to the main neck portion from the BuCUE.

BuCUE Hound: Cerebus Pack 1

Probably one of the most interesting Wizard packs I've ever seen, but strange in execution. Ah, well... Anywho, started the base of the pack based off of the Blaze wizard pack (Blaze Zaku/Phantom).

BuCUE Hound: Head 2

Not that bad as it is. It was a little strange though. I still seem to have a bit of work to do getting the parts to angle correctly on the head. The "horn" just stands a bit too high, I think.

BuCUE Hound: Head 1

The head looks like it'll be a chore. But gotta start it sometime. The good news is that at least this head is very similar to the Cerebus Wizard pack heads (with some fiddlin')

BuCUE Hound: Adapter 2

And gave it a shot with Rei's blaze wizard pack. Kind of worried about how to get through the Cerebus back as it looks quite complex.

BuCUE Hound: Adapter 1

Getting the wizard pack adapter for the Hound. Just to make sure I was kind of close, I used the Blaze Wizard pack I made (jeepers, 2years ago) for the Zaku Warrior to get the scale as close as I could.

BuCUE: RailGun

Alternately, of course, the BuCUE can be fitted with the trusty double railgun pack. I guess about now is the time to go for the HOUND version since this mech is basically done.

BuCUE: Missile Pod

Yeah, getting the hang of this one. Probably could use a few more details and a bit of a stretch in length just for the hell of it and while I'm at it, should probably push the missiles back into the pack.

BuCUE: Wings

I'm thinking about increasing the size of the intakes on the wings, but it might end up interfering with the "articularity" of the rest of the model. Still twiddling the thumbs on that. Otherwise, also elongated the upper portion of the rear legs.

BuCUE: Legs

Going through the legs, but trying something different. I went with using the Strike-Noir's arms as a starting point for the BuCUE as far as shape and proportion. The upper portion of the rear legs need to be elongated a bit more though.

BuCUE: Body 2

Yikes, I've apparently welded the vent covers to the body by accident. Looks bad so I'll have to separate them again. Still, things are coming together. I'll probably try to deepen the body a bit so the neck can go further inside the body. Have to raise the rear turret section a little more off of the body too.

BuCUE: Body 1

Giving the body the old college try. I was thinking of something more along the lines of an actual canine for positioning, but I may just make that part of the rigging process instead of the model. I'll see about that, I guess.

Nemo: Head 2

I figured I'd spiff up the Nemo's head a bit and add some fake detail just to make it a little different from the GM series that I've already been through.

BuCue: Head 2

And a quick look at the head to see where I'm at. I'll try to jam a bit more detail in there. I actually wanted the head to disengage at the mid section so that it could rotate a bit more, but trying it out made it kind of strange. Need to stylize the vents a bit more than what I have too, just to make it stand out a bit.

BuCUE

Generally I need more suits that aren't "Gundam". I guess then it would be good to venture out a bit so in that frame of mind I started the BuCUE (series) of quadruped suits. Someone asked me about a LaGOWE but I'll probably leave that until much later. For now I'm content to hit the mass produced BuCUE and probably go on to the Kerberos BuCUE Hound a bit later. Anyway, at least it's a deviation from the same old hero suits... for now. So, the good old head kickstart, eh.

F91: Legs 2

Not too bad at the moment. Need to get under the hood and fix the frame a bit as I went a bit half ass on it. The rig is a bit off on the legs/feet portion as well. It looked a bit different during the rigging portion. Not sure what happened there. Still, it's going in the right direction.

F91: Legs 1

I was never a big fan of working on the legs. Always gave me a bit of a tough time. These ones aren't coming out too badly at the moment. Still a bit rough around the edges though.

F91: VSBR

Variable Speed Beam Rifle(s) are mounted on the back rails of the F91 now, but as you can see they aren't quite finished. Needs to have handles added to the outer armor basically and a little extra detail on the inner mechanisms. Was out all day and just got to fiddlin with it.

F91: Bazooka

Kind of close to being through with this one too. Missing some doodads, some detail and the cone in the rear. Needs to be smoothed out a bit better in the front as well, but the vast majority of it is there. I might bump map some of the other detail. Pretty soon now...

F91: Beam Rifle

It's amazing how much detail I've seen on this gun. I've gotten this far and it's still not complete. Lots of small grooves, tubes, and what not under the white armor -- which appears to still be doing some weird things too.

F91: Arms

Always feels like I need to add "just a little more". Definitely here. Incidently, the master grade plastic model version has a rotator section in the middle part of the elbow. I really hate the way it looks so I went with a variation of katoki's "elbow" for the gff figure of the f91/wing zero.

F91: Waist 2

Still running through it....

F91: Waist 1

I was hoping that the F91's waist might be similar to the Crossbone's, but that doesn't seem to be the case, so started from scratch and got this far.

F91: Body 2

Thought I'd knock this out next. I'm still fiddling around with what else to do to the body to make it stand out a bit more... not that I don't like the original design.

Sword Strike: testin

I'm not thrilled at all with the color scheme of the sword pack. Anyway, starting up textures -- not pretty at all yet.

Destiny: Wings

And there they are... it's about time.

Destiny: Anti-Ship Sword

Jammed that baby in there. The wings are next I guess.

Nemo

Not exactly one of the more exciting machines in the Gundam multiverse, but needed none-the-less. Started because it looked easy and I had a little time to spare. I'm thinking of adding detail similar to what Kenki Fujioka did to the Nemo's in his illustrations for Advance of Zeta.

Destiny: Matter Shield

Destiny's expandable shield. Almost done with this one too. Took some stuff from the Strike's shield. Need to quit being lazy..

Destiny: Beam Rifle

Haven't been on this in a while, so jumping back on the Destiny saddle. The gun looks like this thus far. Needs a bit more smaller detail that I've passed up so far.

Freedom Gundam: Head Walkthrough

Holy cow, lately I've gotten a lot of email about FREEDOM GUNDAM and how I did the head. I'm not in the habit of posting tutorials because generally what I do doesn't agree with the vast majority of people I've tried to give advice to. So basically, instead of telling you how it should be done, I'll just write out how I did it. You may take something from it, you may not. Understand also that there is more than one way to get through it and that this is just one of those ways. Also, I use LIGHTWAVE3D (8.5) -- so I really have no idea how this translates to MAX/MAYA/C4D/etc. For those users (and they are many) I can't help you much more than this. Mkay, so by step (1) in the image below (you can click to expand it) I've laid out the super simple stuff that no-one generally has any problem making.. that is, the camera and face have been started and can be used as markers to continue. From here I make a spline cage of the rest of the helmet. This is done using the BEZIER tool in lightwave. By selecting it, the user is now able to use what is essentially the PEN tool in photoshop/freehand/illustrator, only now it's usable in 3d. Using the bezier tool, I create multiple bezier splines around what would be the edges of the helmet until half of the helmet as been basically outlined. This usually takes a bit of time, but for me is more useful than extruding edges and what-not. After a while you get used to it as well. Once the splines have been created and and welded together, I proceed to step (2) where I select adjacent splines and create a spline patch (Ctrl+F in lightwave then set your own values). I then proceed through the various steps, going around the helmet until I've created what it will generally be "shaped" like. The glaring problem in this is that there is now a concentrated point where the helmet will be pinched because this version of Lightwave has problems with points that have too many adjacent polygons (more than 4 to be exact). So after this it's up to me (or you) to fix. Afterward I lay down what will be the rest of the head in so far as vents and other things go. Following the basic shapes, I then re-examine what I've done and make changes to the mesh. Then do some microbeveling and adding details. In creating the helmet portion, I also tend to subpatch/freeze/multiply the polygons so that it appears smoother when rendered. Using the smoothing option in the surfaces section helps as well, but sometimes leaves strange artifacts during render time if used alone. Anyway, I'm sure you can figure out the rest of what's represented. I have to get back to work before I get fired for slacking.

Sword Striker: Midas Messer

The beam boomerang and shoulder assembly are kind of there as well. Figured I'd get it up and running and then tweak it all.

Sword Striker: Panzer Eisen

Rocket anchor/ mini shield device attached to the arm. In trying to go with BEE-Craft's version, I noticed that it bore similarities with the upper portion of the IWSP's upper portion of the shield. So I snipped that off of the IWSP and reworked it a little bit so that it resembled (somewhat) that of the design BEE-CRAFT made with his Panzer Eisen. Then I attached the shield rotation device that was designed for the Strike's shield. This is in contrast to the "L" bracket that is otherwise used. With the rotation device, the Panzer Eisen can be positioned and repositioned on either side or behind the forarm. Not perfect... but...

Sword Striker: Sword

Yeesh....still on it. I've compacted the backpack a bit so it sits farther in the range of the striker attachment area and so that the sword can be just behind the right arm..but it still needs correction as you can see. Still pounding out the kinks though.