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Mechwarrior Art?

B

BellaCroix

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Mar 25, 2004
Messages
1,054
I'm sketching my next case build and am considering changing it's initial theme a little, does anyone have any pictures of Mechwarror mechs, Robotech/Anime mecha, Doom-esque architecture, WW2 aircraft, etc. that shows plates of metal being fitted together?

I've searched online and have tried to do screen caps from DVDs and games but just am not finding what I'm looking for.

Trying to find inspiration of how to simulate armor plating, access panels, etc on parts of this case.

PM the pics to me if you don't want to post them and lose bandwidth from your image host.

Also, as a side note, anyone have any suggestions on how to simulate "weathering" on aluminum?

Thanks VERY much in advance.
 
I don't know if it's exactly what you are looking for.. but I have about 6 of the original Macross RPG books.. most of them have schematics, or at least line drawings, of the mecha used in all 3 parts of the saga. If you want some of them I can scan and send them to you.

SpZ

ps I think there are some repair scenes in Gundam X: After War, but I don't have that series anymore so I can't help with it a lot. ;( I did have some live action Mecha somewhere, but I don't know where that is either..Could prolly redownload it if you wanted a CG model mech from the Gundam series. In my experience, most anime repairs is lots of sparks but no moving metal. Let me know if I can help tho
 
You can try searching for WW2 airplanes on google or wikipedia. You may also want to take a look at the Doom 3 mod by CrimsonSky in the workogs forum. He did some panel lines and such on his case there.

You may also want to look at model kit sites for models like Gundam and Macross. Child of Mecha, for example, may be a good place to look. Kit Bash is another good modeling site.
 
Hinokagutsuchi said:
You may also want to take a look at the Doom 3 mod by CrimsonSky in the workogs forum. He did some panel lines and such on his case there.
Click to expand...

Yes, I know, a lot of the pics there have now been saved to c:\inspiration on this machine. :D A combination of the plan I was originally sketching and ^that case^ is what moved me to consider the alterations I'm planning to my original design. I was planning a tribute to (Macross / Bubblegum Crisis / Patlabor) and after seeing that case I realized what was missing from the design.
 
When i used to make scenery for games i found a nice armor plate method is to use plasticard, and then you can get these little thin plastic rods, for which there exists a little tool to cut thin slices off of, which can then be used as quite convincing rivets, a little blob of glue applied with the end of a cocktail stick has a similar, if slightly less uniform effect.
Leave slight gaps between the two plates with rivets down each side, and then give it all a nice dark inkwash and progressive drybrushing and it comes out real nice.
 
I'd considered scoring the plate edges into the aluminum directly then, after sanding off any anodize/clearcoat, masking off each "panel" individually and leaving the panel (with part exposed) outside for a few weeks, bringing it back inside to mask a different area, ad nauseum, until each "panel" was naturally weathered with different conditions. Then re-clearcoating the entire panel.

The final build is not going to be started until August or September so I actually do have time to do that.

Sound like a plan?
 
Yes and know, i dont know how much aluminum would wear for a start. Hit up your local modelling shop they will have alsorts of stuff for doing things like that, im thinking mainly a randeg of chalks you can get that go into a special solvent that you can daub on to get particularly pleasing looking rust streaks, but it depends what kind of look youre after.
 
Herulach said:
im thinking mainly a randeg of chalks you can get that go into a special solvent that you can daub on to get particularly pleasing looking rust streaks, but it depends what kind of look youre after.
Click to expand...

Not really looking for the streaky rust, poor maintenace, falling apart, salvage yard, streaked oil and exhaust look. If you've seen pictures of (particularly) WW2 era aircraft that saw combat (especially things like the B-29 which had an aluminum body) parts were constantly salvaged from other, more heavily damaged aircraft to repair others and keep them in service.

Similar effects can be seen on the Enterprise D where the panels (presumably) came from different yards with different finishes or production runs.

The effect was some level of "patchy-ness" where older parts, more weathered parts, etc had slightly different discoloration. Some minor level of streaks, in panel patches, etc would be acceptable but I'm really just looking to have each "panel" on the panel a slightly different patina.

It's always been the thing I've noticed most when people display scale models. One of the worst things is when they spray paint the body of an aircraft a single color. It's good for museum display but not if you're trying to make it look like an in-service aircraft.
 
BellaCroix said:
Not really looking for the streaky rust, poor maintenace, falling apart, salvage yard, streaked oil and exhaust look. If you've seen pictures of (particularly) WW2 era aircraft that saw combat (especially things like the B-29 which had an aluminum body) parts were constantly salvaged from other, more heavily damaged aircraft to repair others and keep them in service.

Similar effects can be seen on the Enterprise D where the panels (presumably) came from different yards with different finishes or production runs.

The effect was some level of "patchy-ness" where older parts, more weathered parts, etc had slightly different discoloration. Some minor level of streaks, in panel patches, etc would be acceptable but I'm really just looking to have each "panel" on the panel a slightly different patina.

It's always been the thing I've noticed most when people display scale models. One of the worst things is when they spray paint the body of an aircraft a single color. It's good for museum display but not if you're trying to make it look like an in-service aircraft.
Click to expand...
In that case, and assuming you have a spare bit of brushed alu (assuming thats what youre working with) try polishing it, or sanding with a fine grit paper, youll get slightly diffent appearance where the various 'panels' are, without it being incredibly drastic.
 
But will it appear to be a different age? Like a patch? The effect I'm looking for it "future-tech" which has been back-engineered into modern technology and had then been field repaired.

Wouldn't polishing or sanding something make it look just more or less "finished" as opposed to more or less weathered?

I figured varried degrees of browns and gunmetals would achieve the goal I was after.
 
BellaCroix said:
But will it appear to be a different age? Like a patch? The effect I'm looking for it "future-tech" which has been back-engineered into modern technology and had then been field repaired.

Wouldn't polishing or sanding something make it look just more or less "finished" as opposed to more or less weathered?

I figured varried degrees of browns and gunmetals would achieve the goal I was after.
Click to expand...
POlishing it wasnt really want i meant, i meant try and get a different grain on it by sanding another way, you might also want to look into some kind of etchant if you can find one for Alu.
 
I hadn't seen Macross Zero yet... looks really nice... will have to see if the anime shop around here has it or can get it. Looks like it might beat my favorite (Bubblegun Crisis: Tokyo 2040), although there's just something about gratuitous panty shots every 2 minutes in Najica.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone... any others?
 
I'm not sure if this will help, but http://www.chaosmarch.com/ , Technical Readouts section on the left (Possibly along with Artwork/3D models section below it) has quite a few pictures of Battlemechs of varying quality.

You can also try http://www.sarna.net/btech/files/index.php?media/images/ ... I think there's quite a few pictures there. Not entirely sure about quality/types, though, and I'm too lazy to skim through 'em all. Probably low quality...

Ah! I just remembered.. probably yer best bet for truly well done artwork is http://www.mektek.net/ , forums (just add /forums to the addy), and/or artwork section. I don't check the place anymore, but a while back there were some ridiculously high poly models posted in the 3D artwork section that might inspire ya'.

Do the right thing and stick with Battletech ;)
 
Macross Zero is still unlicensed. So you can legally d/l it if you wish. Animesuki has the link to the torrent. It's visually stunning, but kinda odd cuz it's supposed to be before the original Macross saga, and the mecha look much better. Hard to get a prequel look I guess when going from drawings to CGI.

SpZ
 
BellaCroix said:
Not really looking for the streaky rust, poor maintenace, falling apart, salvage yard, streaked oil and exhaust look. If you've seen pictures of (particularly) WW2 era aircraft that saw combat (especially things like the B-29 which had an aluminum body) parts were constantly salvaged from other, more heavily damaged aircraft to repair others and keep them in service.

Similar effects can be seen on the Enterprise D where the panels (presumably) came from different yards with different finishes or production runs.

The effect was some level of "patchy-ness" where older parts, more weathered parts, etc had slightly different discoloration. Some minor level of streaks, in panel patches, etc would be acceptable but I'm really just looking to have each "panel" on the panel a slightly different patina.

It's always been the thing I've noticed most when people display scale models. One of the worst things is when they spray paint the body of an aircraft a single color. It's good for museum display but not if you're trying to make it look like an in-service aircraft.
Click to expand...

Are you maybe thinking of 'azteking'? That's the process that gives the Enterprise (the newer ones- not really the 'classic' Enterprise) the 'patchiness' you describe.

Maybe like this?
 
lamarth said:
Are you maybe thinking of 'azteking'? That's the process that gives the Enterprise (the newer ones- not really the 'classic' Enterprise) the 'patchiness' you describe.

Maybe like this?
Click to expand...

Sort of, except that "azteking" (never heard that term before) looks planned. The effect I'm trying to duplicate looks more like:

Notice the area of fuselage right over the wing.
Most of the fuselage and tail assemby of this one.
Wings on this one.
Barely noticable under the radio operator (or navigator)'s window on this one.
Entire rear of this one behind the bomb bay.

As frequent as the effect was on B-29's it was often even more frequent on fighters which saw more dogfighting. You'll also see it on Panzer, Merkava, Abrams, etc armor where the plating was removable.
 
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