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Rather than clutter up the News & Rumors section with model pics I'm starting a seperate thread here for people to leave their comments on the models.

Because it's my favorite out of the group so far I started off with the NorAm Quad Mech. This is the rough block out of the parts to toy around with the proportions. Once I'm happy with the fit and sizes I can start adding connecting elements and detailing.

What program are you using for the 3D mockups?

I use Maya, but it's overkill for what I need and really expensive. I'd recommend Blender because it's freeware or Rhino which runs about $400. Both are great for making printable models.

I never got along with Maya tbh.
Blenders a bit meh, and Rhino is... alright.

Personally, I prefer to use Solidworks, but then that's from the engineer in me.
But not bad for Maya, maybe it's improved since I last ued it! xD

I do look forward to the completion of this project, I've always liked your work. and I'm a sucker for giant robots... so either I'll end up purchasing one for myself for my shelf, or assuming we pull it off and open, I'll stock it in my shop and have some for display bits.

Here's some of the ones I previously did in Maya so you can get awesome results with it, but it's not as user friendly as other programs.

And before anyone asks no they are not the models being used for the Robotech game.

I personally like Maya, but haven't used it much in the last few years so i'm very rusty..




The walker is looking good, can't wait to see more

The turret-on-legs look of the quad mech is blowing my mind. I'm so used to giant robots looking more like giant humans in cosplay-armor rather than walking gun platforms. I am watching this project with great interest.

Yeah, some functional angled armour helps offset the greatest weakness of most mech designs out there, offering up a big flat chest plate. Tank designers figured out that was a bad idea 70 years ago, but so few mecha designs we see pick up on that.

Personally the round ammo hoppers don't quite look like the fit the design at this point. Depending on how you progress that may change as you get more done but unless more arcs are used it feels like they will still stand out.

A bit more refining.

Yup, going to be following this with definite interest. I like the look of the concepts and eagerly await to see them go from concept to physical model.

Jefffar wrote:
Yeah, some functional angled armour helps offset the greatest weakness of most mech designs out there, offering up a big flat chest plate. Tank designers figured out that was a bad idea 70 years ago, but so few mecha designs we see pick up on that.

I suspect this is because humanoid shaped mecha are more 'rule of cool' than they are practical weapons platforms.

There is a notable increase in mobility (provided it's 'legs' are at least as functional than human legs are anyway, no easy engineering feat in and of itself), but this is more than offset by the huge additional number of moving parts one must allow for a range of movement on and still maintain armor for. It's the same problem we've run into designing effective body armor actually, just scaled up into a mecha-sized problem.

Progress has been a bit slow as I was bogged down the last two weeks with getting the rules and graphics put together. Now that the draft is wrapped up modelling has returned to full steam ahead.

Loving the progress so far!

Very impressive. I presume that these are for the upcoming Kickstarter, and not just shared as a personal project then? Should we offer feedback based on what we would like to see in terms of us being your potential future customers?

Oh, and keep up the good work!

-C6

yes it'll be one of the kickstarter mechs. Please feel free to comment away, I try to take feedback into consideration as it can help the design come out better.

I always loved the mechwarrior games (at least the earlyer ones). And the concept of your quad walker looks really nice. But i prefer the spread leg setup. The only thing that buggs me a little are the feet. They look "humanlike" with toes and heel. This look a little bit strange for me on spiderlike limbs. Maybe you could add some toes to the side of the feets to create more sqaure looking ones.

And i'm either blind or you didn't say what scale those are supposed to be. 54mm scale like your other mecha parts? Then those would be massive.

They are scaled for use with 15mm infantry. The quad mech is shown on a 120mm base (4.75 inches) so it's quite massive. It essentially on the same base as the collosals from warmachine.
My current range of weapon should fit on the heavier mechs fairly well.

Legs will be angled back to 45 degree posistions like the earlier renders. They were just closed so I can work on the details easier.

These are looking great. I can't wait for he kickstarter. Thanks for he previews.

Glad to see some more work, any word on the kickstarter as I tend to stay away from news and rumors now.

Neo-Bloc Light Mech WIP