WIP MS-18e Kampfer I can haz help plox :)

Josh Mount

Hi Everyone,
This is where I'm going to track my progress on my current project, the MS-18E Kampfer.

Modeling in Maya
Reference



I don't have any orthographic images of this model to model from so I'm having issues with proportions. I tried measuring the head in Photoshop and trying to get an idea of how tall this guy is by copying the shape down the height of the character.
9 1/2 heads tall? That just doesn't seem right to me. Do you guys have any tricks on approaching a model without "blueprint" type references? Thanks for looking and I would appreciate your insight!
Cheers!

DWalker

I've often had great luck with plastic models. Happily for my bank account, the instructions are often available online, and include both completed images and assembly steps (which can often show fiddly bits that are otherwise confusing). This is the best one I could find for your project:

Josh Mount

DWalker, I could kiss you right now! Thank you so much! You have given me exactly what I need to get my proportions correct. Thank you so much for your help.

C86G

Wow, where did you get that last "concept sheet" and are there more like this?

DWalker

That particular image came from a Japanese online hobby store, but many of the stores out there have similar collections for their products. Some manufacturers also have instructions available for download on their site (Revell, for instance, has theirs at http://www.revell.com/support/instructions.html). Searching for "<product name> instructions" should give you some decent hits.

Lazerus Reborn

Looks great keep it coming,

Also for more references check this site out;

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/gundam/

Has a ton of additional data and reference images of all the models.

Chaser

This page also has some scans from the model instructions http://www.dalong.net/review/mg/m35/m35_i.htm
If you click on 'Review' you get some good close-ups of details on the actual model, which might be useful as well.

Josh Mount

Aww. Thanks guys! I'll have an update by this weekend if not sooner. My day job keeps me locked down through out the week. Thanks so much for the support. You guys have really made me feel welcomed.:) thanks again.

Josh Mount

This weekend wasn't as productive as I would have hoped but I was able to put a little time into this project. Thanks again for all the reference material guys. You're all scholars and gentlemen in my book.

Josh Mount

Working on the foot

Quack!

Will be cool to see this progress. Your support edges are way too tight if you are going to be baking this down. Loosen those up or your edges won't be shown in your normal map.

With mechs, the parts that connect each plate is as important as each plate itself for selling believeability. So make sure to have those make sense.

Watching!

Josh Mount

Thanks for dropping by Nick and for the advice. I softened the edges a good bit, hopefully not too much?
Slowly progressing. I'm ready to button this foot up and move on.

Josh Mount

Dusting off this project.