(Dark Soul's inspired amor. Blender, Mudbox & Maya, done in AIE)
And so I'm back studying and doing an internshit, barely enough time to do some personal work. Aside from 3D printing, I'll be also working on my entry for Bakuc 2012(australia). What I have in mind is a Kawamori/ Anime conversion of the Master Grade GP01, and anyone familiar with the GP01 knows how different the MG model looks compared to the anime and Kawamori's sketches. Forgive my ignorance, but as much as I would like to say it is "Highly Inaccurate" there
A mod like this is not going to be just a mere V-fin-conversion-type-of-mod. Basically this model needs to be modified from head to foot and there's a huge chance I won't even meet the deadline.
Proper GP01 build? Nice. I've been meaning to do one since forever, but every time I look at those MG or HGUC parts and think about what I'd need to do for a conversion, I just start to despair a little... I've given serious thought to buying the old 1:144 kit... It's a dog but it's still closer to the target than the HGUC version is.
ReplyDeleteWhenever dealing with such an extensive conversion I'm always tempted to say that it's not worth it, that the source kit brings nothing of value to the equation... That it may as well just be a scratch-build since you'd be rebuilding everything anyway. Though it would give me great personal satisfaction to hack up Katoki's stupid GP03-style GP01 head with a razor saw...
I don't know, though - lately I'm starting to adopt a slightly less bleak outlook on the cost and yield of extensive kit conversions. Right now I'm working on Rick Dom -> Rick Dom II. So maybe with the right kind of attention the MG could be redeemed after all.
When is your deadline?
The deadline should be around july. So it seems Katoki was responsible for the redesign. I don't know how much creative freedom Bandai gave him but his GP01 looks generic at best. He must be hating Kawamori that much to ruin the design >_< He should've at least kept the style of the head.
ReplyDeleteThe kit should should be a good enough foundation for the project but I still have to get my hands on the kit so I don't know how much work it actually needs. At some point I was even considering to mod my HGUC kits instead because it's taking HLJ forever to stock up some of the MGs. I'm thinking of picking up the old 1:144 kit in one of the local shops if it's good enough as a 360° reference. At the very least the head (including the collar) and the lower legs should resemble the anime version.
Well, as you say, that period in the MG line was often about redefining these designs as opposed to merely kitting them up nicely... And after the initial wave of Okawara MGs (Just the Zaku, Gundam, and Gelgoog, I think) Katoki did a lot of them, and kind of Katoki'd the hell out of 'em.
ReplyDeleteWhen working with a source design with a lot of exaggerated flare like the GP01 has, I think it can be a bit of a challenge to retain that and still come up with a design that looks good in 3-D. That, I figure, is part of why Bandai likes to homogenize everything. They can get by on name recognition even with a bland redesign, and a lot of their audience cares more about poseability, inner frame, and other gimmicks than looks anyway... Which means monkeying with the proportions and avoiding features that draw too much attention to the design is advantageous to them. It's kind of a drag.
I did a little comparison showing the proportional differences:
http://scope-eye.net/misc/MG_GP01_comparison.jpeg
The chest is a big sticking point for me, it's got to be a lot squatter than in the kit versions.
The old kit is a dog like I said, but a quick search for "旧キットGP01" shows what a good paint job can do for it. While the kit has its issues I think it actually does a pretty good job of capturing the look of the design. It is very close to the proportions of the lineart, too.
I though I can get away with a unmodified chest but after those comparisons it looks like it's gonna play a much bigger role to get it looking Kawamori style. It's a bit worrying since there's a core fighter sandwiched between the upper and lower halves. I'm not sure if there's enough room for it once the chest becomes shorter. I can try and modify the fighter or just have a non detaching core, since the goal is only to get the right look for the GP01. Also I wonder how much of the existing head can actually be used without it becoming out of proportion with the rest of the body. Katoki's head design is already big to start with and it could end up ballooning like the head of the modified GP02 from Gundam Weapons.
DeleteYeah, it's one of the things that's given me pause when I've thought about modding the MG - dealing with the core fighter complicates things... The whole project would be a lot easier if I did it without retaining the transforming core block - but in all of Gundam the GP01 has the one core block I actually want to retain. (Kawamori knows how to design cool-looking transforming fighter jets, as it turns out.)
ReplyDeleteMy comparison image would suggest that around 6-8mm would need to be removed from the height of the chest to get lineart proportions... Though matching against the proportions of the old kit would be a bit easier, requiring only about 2-3mm change in chest height. The old kit's proportions may be a good compromise - with the basic look of the lineart but with proportions that might be feasible for an altered MG...
If you did go for the big change in chest height and wanted to retain the transforming core fighter, there might be a few tricks that could help - for starters, even if the cockpit hatch is placed higher than the canopy, the canopy can still swing open 'cause it's situated so far back.
(The instructions have a good diagram of the placement of the core fighter - see here:
http://www.dalong.net/review/mg/m10/p/m10_m0015.JPG
Referrer blocking is enabled, so copy/paste the URL or just go to Dalong's MG GP01 page...)
And the bottom of the cockpit could extend down into the MS's hips, like on the MG Gundam v2.0. Though that would require some rework of the hip block... Care would have to be taken, I guess, to arrange that in a way that still allows the canopy to open (if desired).
As for the head, I think it's workable. Proportionally (in the line art) the head's about the same size as the MG. It's just the shape that's wrong, MG's got one of Katoki's "little kid" heads, GP01's got more like a bell-shaped helmet. I figure the top half of the head has to be pinched inward, while the bottom half needs to be flared outward a bit. I think that would do the trick.
I just finished snap building the old 1/144 kit. Model kits have come a long way. Just noticing it now that Katoki's design is too slim in some areas. I did a quick photoshop of the image that you showed me. http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj242/janinje/MG_GP01_comparison02.jpg
ReplyDeleteI tried widening the chest(again affecting the core fighter)and now the legs look out of proportion. I may have to shorten the upper legs to get Kawamori-like proportions(see the hands almost reaching the knee joints) but it is losing some height in the process.
Not bad, the broader chest looks good but I think the helmet may have gotten flared out too much.
ReplyDeleteThe legs are going to need work - bulking up, extension, shortening the upper legs as you noted (the Kawamori upper legs are -very- short)
I think another problem that's turning up at this stage is the side skirts. In the Katoki design, there's a narrow chest block and wide hips (with the skirts) - with the Kawamori original it seems more the opposite. (I'd say the Kawamori hip section is about as wide as the chest block...) Having those bulky side skirts there also makes the upper legs look skinny in context. If you cut off most of the front- and back-facing panels of the side skirts and dropped what's left right up against the side of the leg, then widened the front skirts a bit, I think that would help normalize the look of the legs relative to the chest a bit.