Mechwarrior Style Mech (WIP)

[jim_bow]

Although I could never master the controls and I'm repeatedly blown up I've always found the idea of the machines on Mechwarriors fascinating. Lately I've been itching to make a new, relatively complex model completely from scratch and I thought that since this subject fires up my imagination so much it would be ideal as a first try.

So far I have got the model made in Blender and I'm in the long, slow process of UV mapping the thing.

I wouldn't say it's canon to the Mechwarrior game but I guess it would be classed as a light mech. Those things on it's shoulders will be missile pods and it has a modest nose mounted machine gun.
It's been an interesting learning experience thinking about the way the individual parts go together and I think my experience with plastic wargames kits came in handy there.

Any comments and suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks for reading!

 

[Zathros]

Welcome to the forum Jim, that looks like the beginning to a pretty awesome Mech you have there! Keep pluggin' away at it!

 

[blaar]

Looks good, I get the impression of a love child between a Herc and a Mech.

 

[jim_bow]

Hey guys, bit of progress.
Finally got the UV mapping done and I've started working to create the textures. I made a few small changes to the model itself like adding veneers here and there and changing the gun barrel to a tube but I'm still not completely satisfied with the cockpit area. I might just slap a few arbitrary shapes as sensor arrays on there to bulk it up a bit:mrgreen:. What do you guys think?

Couldn't resist doing a little render of what it might look like when assembled.

Thanks for reading!

 

[sidewinder81777]

Keep it up, that's a nice little mech you've got coming along there

 

[jim_bow]

OK got it all textured in the GIMP and unwrapped on Pepakura (managed to get all 70 parts onto 3 pages when 150mm tall). My texturing skills are not all that great at the moment but I can only improve with further projects surely. This time I learned the basics of bump mapping to add a bit of interest to flat areas.

My printer let me down big style though. It can't print on card stock and the images it produces are poor quality even after changing it to high quality photo mode. It makes me feel like I've wasted my time with some of the details as they look nothing like the original. Time for an upgrade I think!train97

I'm going to build a test model out of paper to see how good my unwrap is and then if the completed model is any good I might get it printed onto card. maybe I can even upload the PDO to the site.

Thanks for reading!

 

[Millenniumfalsehood]

You need a beta builder. I'll get the eXacto . . .


(sorry, Ekuth's avatar and sigline have stuck in my head. ops: )


But if you need a beta builder, I think I'd like to build this one.

 

[jim_bow]

Thanks for the kind offer Milleniumfalsehood!

I've been having a go at the paper version and I've declared it not fit for human consumption just yet. This is my first model and I think it shows, some of the parts are just too small to be built (in the previous image you can see a part linking the toes to the foot) and some of the unwraps are a bit mental. I'll do a bit more work on it, perhaps even remodel some of the bits and bobs and then inflict it upon you if you'd still like to test it out.:twisted:

 

[Kjev]

As a mechwarrior junkie, father to another mechwarrior junkie (I had to corrupt him just right!), and someone who would drive a mech if he could find one big enough, I have to say that your mech looks totally awesome!

As for canon/non-canon, in the Battletech Universe they come out with new mechs all the time. And players can even design their own (within certain rules, which I generally bend into all sorts of moibius strips)

 

[Millenniumfalsehood]

Thanks for the kind offer Milleniumfalsehood!

I've been having a go at the paper version and I've declared it not fit for human consumption just yet. This is my first model and I think it shows, some of the parts are just too small to be built.

Um . . .

:twisted:

 

[jim_bow]

Haha point taken I will leave those little bits in for you Millenium! You are either very skilled at making small models or you have massive hands! I'm ready to upload this for you guys to try out if you like. Should I just put it in the downloads section and label it as untested?

 

[Vortex_4200]

Nice work keep it up.

 

[Millenniumfalsehood]

Haha point taken I will leave those little bits in for you Millenium! You are either very skilled at making small models or you have massive hands! I'm ready to upload this for you guys to try out if you like. Should I just put it in the downloads section and label it as untested?

A better option would be to email it to people who are willing to beta test. PM me and I'll send you my email. I will give you an objective analysis of the kit as-is and make suggestions for improvement.

There's actually a whole sub-community devoted to down-sizing available kits and building them as tiny as possible.