13 December, 2012

Astray Red Frame -- sans Flight Pack

I still like the Astray after all of these years -- 4 since I started this model.
I think I'm getting the bug again...
mobile suit perfect grade astray gundam seed 3d mesh cg sandrum

Labels: , , ,

30 August, 2011

Astray: Flight Unit 4

Ok, at this point I'm thinking [something is better than nothing] so I fired up lightwave and started on the surfacing for the flight pack. That's about all I've started lately. I'd be great to get back into this with my whole arse soon. I think I'll totally resurface the Astray(s) as well now that we're on that subject.

mobile suit gundam seed destiny infinite justice strike EVOLVE Perfect Grade PG freedom astray red frame MG 3d mesh cg sandrum

Labels: , , ,

06 February, 2010

Astray: Flight Unit 3

Well... I'm pretty sure it's a little too large. Nothing like a look-see to know if you're going in the right direction. Anywho, I've been busy these last few weeks with some coding issues so I had to put some of this on the old back burner, but hopefully I can get back to this asap.

mobile suit gundam seed destiny infinite justice strike EVOLVE Perfect Grade PG freedom astray red frame MG 3d mesh cg sandrum

Labels: , , ,

01 February, 2010

Astray: Flight Unit 2

I think most everything is there, at least as placeholders while I detail some of the bits and bobs. Some parts need to be shaped properly, but I'm fairly certain that it's usable thusly -- that is, after jiggling some parts around. Oh, sure, I have to drop some parts downward a bit and gussy up some other parts. I don't want it to be too poly heavy as the Astray is already memory demanding as it is. Hopefully I can start texturing within the next few days.

mobile suit gundam seed destiny infinite justice strike EVOLVE Perfect Grade PG freedom astray red frame MG 3d mesh cg sandrum

Labels: , , ,

31 January, 2010

Astray: Flight Unit

mobile suit gundam seed destiny infinite justice strike EVOLVE Perfect Grade PG freedom astray red frame MG 3d mesh cg sandrum

I confess that I'm more than a little disappointed with Bandai's move to include a rehashed version of the tactical arms for the MG Astray Red Frame. I had hoped they would instead have included the flight unit.
I went ahead and started dabbling on the flight pack based on what Bee-Craft illustrated in the Perfect Grade instruction manual. Kind of ho-hum but I think that in the end it will nice to have.
mobile suit gundam seed destiny infinite justice strike EVOLVE Perfect Grade PG freedom astray red frame MG 3d mesh cg sandrum

Labels: , , ,

25 November, 2009

Astray Blue Frame: Short Rifle

The short rifle seems to have also been designed by bee-craft for the PG Astray, though not created. It was featured as well in several magazines in its time. It appears to be specifically for the Blue Frame, though which version of the blue frame I have yet to determine. The design of this mesh was based on bee-crafts 'unrealized' idea. Need to remove some junk, but it's pretty close here.

Edit == at the very least, the FULL ARMOR PHASE SHIFT version of the Blue Frame does indeed use this set of rifles.

mobile suit gundam seed destiny infinite justice strike EVOLVE Perfect Grade PG freedom astray red blue frame second 2nd revise MG 3d mesh cg sandrum

Labels: , , , ,

09 July, 2009

Astray: Texture 1

After almost a month I've gotten down this far in the textures. I haven't even added the "decals" yet nor have I finished the weathering portion. Still seems on track though as it is. Dropped the lower legs down a little and got rid of some un-needed polys but it's still kicking my workstation's keister. Like the plastic model, I decided on texturing the "shared frame" a little darker than the actual red armor. Wanted to weather that a bit too but haven't gotten to it yet. Might be a go this weekend. Again the style was supposed to be a throw-back to Bee-Crafts original idea for the PG Astray.

Edit: Still not there, but shovin along...
mobile suit gundam seed destiny infinite justice strike EVOLVE Perfect Grade PG freedom astray red frame MG 3d mesh cg sandrum

Labels:

30 May, 2009

Astray: Gerbera Straight 3

mobile suit gundam seed destiny infinite justice strike EVOLVE Perfect Grade PG freedom astray red frame MG 3d mesh cg sandrum


Still not done. Loads of readjusting to do and some detail missing in many parts of the machine that I didn't notice until now. Finally, Bee-craft, designed a very different looking weapons rack for the PG Astray that was either removed, deleted or lost in translation of the actual PG version. Thinking about trying my hand at it.

Labels:

29 May, 2009

Astray: Gerbera Straight 2

mobile suit gundam seed destiny infinite justice strike EVOLVE Perfect Grade PG freedom astray red frame MG 3d mesh cg sandrum


Watched the end of Macross Frontier and I say solidly that it's not a bad show at all. Went back to the sword here and tried to manually model all of the detail. Problem is that none of the detail is deep enough: looks too light. Kind of a prototype as well. I've still to clean up the edge of the blade, add detail to the hilt and possibly use bump maps if I can't pull off a good looking manual version.

Labels:

25 May, 2009

Astray: Gerbera Straight 1

mobile suit gundam seed destiny infinite justice strike EVOLVE Perfect Grade PG freedom astray red frame MG 3d mesh cg sandrum


Just starting on the easy bits while watching Macross Frontier. Nice to see a Macross after such a long time. Isn't bad either.

Anyhoo, I thought at first that I might be able to get away with just bump mapping detail on the sword, but the constructive side has kicked in and is forcing me to hard model detail everything instead. Harrr.... sandrum you bastard....

Labels:

24 May, 2009

Astray: Beam Rifle 2

mobile suit gundam seed destiny infinite justice strike EVOLVE Perfect Grade PG freedom astray red frame MG 3d mesh cg sandrum

Kind of rare but I had to work today so I came back and got to most of the stuff I hadn't finished on the astray beam rifle. Have to correct some of the handle stuff, but the image above is a comparison of the Evolve Strike's rifle (top 2) with the Astray beam rifle (bottom 2)

Labels:

23 May, 2009

Astray: Beam Rifle 1

mobile suit gundam seed destiny infinite justice strike EVOLVE Perfect Grade PG freedom astray red frame MG 3d mesh cg sandrum


Taking a break on the legs to just mod the strike rifle a little bit. Basically the front end looks almost identical (barring some small cosmetic changes), while the back end looks fairly different. Should be finished quickly then it's back to the legs.

Labels:

22 May, 2009

Astray: Legs 2

Wow! Been a while since I've posted anything. Was in Osaka/Sendai for 2 weeks starting in Golden Week. Came back and was swamped with work so I haven't done much until yesterday.

mobile suit gundam seed destiny infinite justice strike EVOLVE Perfect Grade PG freedom astray red frame MG 3d mesh cg sandrum


The prototype version of what I was thinking for the lower legs. They are based very much on the PG version as far as scale is concerned, but the detail I drew from the early Bee-Craft version (of course). Thus the detail is quite different in many places, the slopes and slants are more reminiscent of the strike and the leg is generally thinner than the PG version of the same leg -- much more like the early version illustrated some posts back. Work still needs to be done to iron out the inconsistencies and further detail is needed.

Labels:

29 April, 2009

Astray: Arms 3 Legs 1

Changed the upper arms a little and made the elbow the off of the original concept of the cylinder-in-a-block style while trying to retain the Strike's joint rotation appearance in the rear section. Started on the upper leg armor as well but ended up cleaning my house a little instead (had the whole day off, YAY). Don't know why they removed some of the detail and added other stuff. To save a buck? Laziness?

mobile suit gundam seed destiny infinite justice strike EVOLVE Perfect Grade PG freedom astray red frame MG 3d mesh cg sandrum

Labels:

27 April, 2009

Astray: Arms 2

Still messing around on the arms. Wanted to keep with Bee-crafts original PG design which keeps more of the strike look on the upper arms but leaving a little of what the PG has at the very top. Kind of giving the Astray some big old pop-eye arms there by doing that, but still thinking on whether I'll keep the look or return to the actual PG Astray design. As far as detail, it's a mix up. There seem to be some off points, like the disk-design in the forearm being too small and not raised enough, elbow joints don't look like the original PG version, etc. Could go on for quite a while on that.

mobile suit gundam seed destiny infinite justice strike EVOLVE Perfect Grade PG freedom astray red frame MG 3d mesh cg sandrum

Labels:

25 April, 2009

Astray: Arms 1

So apparently I didn't get a good look at the Astray instruction manual but it appears that Bee-Craft changed direction somewhat on the way the PG Astray would look, as illustrated below. The version present in the PG strike manual on the left and the newer PG Astray on the right.
mobile suit gundam seed destiny infinite justice strike EVOLVE Perfect Grade PG freedom astray red frame MG 3d mesh cg sandrum


Just why it was done this way is beyond me. I suppose most will be satisfied with this, but I feel rather cheated that the original interpretation was lost, as was most of the great detail he had. I wish I had noticed earlier. Just the same, I started on the upper arms favoring the original version over the newer.

mobile suit gundam seed destiny infinite justice strike EVOLVE Perfect Grade PG freedom astray red frame MG 3d mesh cg sandrum

Labels:

20 April, 2009

Astray: Body 3

Working on the rear parts of the body as well as some of the innards. Love the stuff they put in this thing.

At the behest of Knolly, I added a little bit of body where the V-fin meets the helmet, but that's the extent that I will alter it.

mobile suit gundam seed destiny infinite justice strike EVOLVE Perfect Grade PG freedom astray red frame MG 3d mesh cg sandrum

Labels:

18 April, 2009

Astray: Body 2

Took some time. I went back to the head and redid a few parts, especially the rear mounted "whateverthoseare" that look like vents. Bee-Crafts image seems to differ from the model kit so I went with the image over the kit.

The frame in the body is still being detailed but the light armor is about right. Again the kit differs from Bee-Crafts concept image and even lacks some of the detail that exists on the HG/100 versions of the kit. So after espousing some of those extra nooks and crannys into the body I moved on to the waist... (though some legacy mesh exists in the body that has to be removed -- visible from the rear shot).

..which is again different from the concept image. I again went with Bee-Crafts idea on the waist over the kit idea. I wonder if the kit guys missed this on purpose or if an MG with much better concept-realization will be thrown at us. Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I didn't do too bad on the waist frame from the Strike so I really just took the armor off and added the Astray armor right on top.

Started on the frame of the legs and the arms at the same time but haven't really gone far enough to see anything yet.

mobile suit gundam seed destiny infinite justice strike EVOLVE Perfect Grade PG freedom astray red frame MG 3d mesh cg sandrum

Labels:

15 April, 2009

Astray Red Frame: Body 1

Full to the brim with crap and it's not even close to being finished. The back end is so different from the strike it's not funny. I hope the harder parts are done. In the case of these two MS's, I of course used the Strike as the basis for sizing up the astray and built the astray armor around the strike frame mesh-- which is also being upgraded at the same time...

mobile suit gundam seed destiny infinite justice strike EVOLVE Perfect Grade PG freedom astray red frame MG 3d mesh cg sandrum

Labels:

09 April, 2009

Astray Red Frame: Head 3

Unnervingly, Bee-Crafts illustration of the Astray's head and the actual plastic model differ in some places... enough to make me wonder exactly why some of the changes were made. I didn't notice until after the below render was done that parts of the rear of the head exhaust were changed as well as the length of the head itself along with the mini fins under the cheek armor and the width of the v-fin. Some of it I corrected, but the back I have to get to later.

mobile suit gundam seed destiny infinite justice strike EVOLVE Perfect Grade PG freedom astray red frame MG 3d mesh cg sandrum

Labels: