Began working on the head last week. I made a mistake when I cut out a large portion of the side vents, so it had to be rebuilt again. A few more mods includes a slight rebuild of the face by pulling it out by about 2mm and lowering the position of the chin. The cylindrical bands that hold the head vulcans(?) need to be made rounder at the back.

I've began work on shortening the torso. Took out about 5mm by cutting out the lower portion of the connecting frame, then cut out some of the upper portion of the abdomen.

The model currently stands at 18cm with it's feet straight. It might go down 17.??cm if I reduce the thighs but I'd rather keep the height where it is now. I should just widen it a bit to keep the proportions looking right. 

There is still some hope for a transforming core fighter  if I make room in the abdomen and making the armored canopy wider by a few millimeters. By doing that I can avoid making too many mods on the fighter itself since its a heavily jointed part.

   

One last look at my dearly departed GP01 version ka

 

Prepare to DieD

                

(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 could be is a valid reason why the MG model looks nothing like itself(e.g. it's the fucking 90's/ redesigned). But what really motivates me is the near-zero attempts by other modelers to convert this kit into the anime version. In fact, I have yet to see someone attempt this.

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.

My efforts so far only reduced the FUD price by $2.61. I still might be able to chip off a few dollars, but I highly doubt this piece can go $10 or lower without ending up with a weaker structure.

Reality Hits

From day 1 I've been dying to find out how much this model would cost once it gets printed. I had to resize the scale and convert the pieces in .stl format before uploading them to get some pricing estimates. And here's what I got.....

This part measures 4cm wide and costs $12-$16 with the FD/FUD material. The price will go down once I hollow out the area circled in red. I will also reduce the wall thickness down to 1mm because at the moment they average from 1.5mm to 2mm.

A couple more parts and it's nearly reaching the $40 mark. I'm considering using other materials like the WSF-polished for less detailed parts to lower the cost.

LT01-BOAR Upper hull

The tank will be divided in two sections(upper and lower hull) with the upper hull getting printed first. I'm trying to avoid printing large pieces to avoid any warping or breaking that might occur.

Here's the upper hull with the pieces in different colors It is broken down to 12 pieces:

This piece which looks like a heat sink/ air intake/ exhahaust will act as a brace to hold the upper and lower hull.

And here's a further breakdown of the other parts. They all need to be interlocking, hollowed out, and be suitable for casting. Things will get messy.