Update: 17st April Prototype build 100% complete!!

I finally got my MMS feature working properly on my new phone and managed to send a photo to my email address... & its finally finished!! [well almost, the hands aren't done]. There are a couple of design flaws which need to be ironed out, but most of it has to do with how I unfolded it in pepakura. The only major problem with the actual design of the robot is the knees. I don't know why I didn't see this before, but thats what a prototype is for right!? Anyway because its just made out of ordinary A4 paper the whole weight of the thing from the knees up is a wee heavy, and the paper has bent and now the body is leaning back slightly & is starting to do the splits. This might be fixed with the addition of the hands which might shift some of the weight forward thus making him stand straight again. But if this doesn't work [which I don't think it will] I'll need to redesign this joint, reinforcing it somehow. So all that needs doing now is to iron out the flaws then start work on colouring the thing in and packing up in a PDF for yall to share and enjoy. This is a long way off yet, but I hope to have this finished. Don't know if it will happen, I may just ship it as a black & white version... I hope not though. Oh and by the way if your wondering how big this thing is... its stands just over 40cm tall and its wing span is also just ove the 40cm mark.... a giant cube :)

The 2 images on the right is the final "skeleton" base that it has. As I print/build my models on plain-old office A4 paper, I have to take its strength into consideration. Relying on an empty shell alone might not be very wise. All the other bits attach onto the "skeleton".

A close up of the head and arm/hand. The hands look pretty stiff, but I'm guessing it mightunfold better being like this, but as you can see each joint in the finger has a V-shaped gap in which I left so that the hand can fold up and be a partial fist.

A close up of the waist area and one of its legs.

My main resource I have to base my scratch build on is a stack of pictures of the toy and in my toy section].

As you can see I've built it in a relaxed standing pose... legs slightly spreadout & feet pointing outwards, arms to its side with its palms facing frontwards. I'm considering creating extra parts that are interchangable to change its pose or maybe another model entirely with a different pose, but its just a thought at the momment. If this model works out, I will consider building its weapon.

I haven't got any links or anything at the momment, but I will...

Update: 17th October SCRATCH BUILD MOST PROBABLY ABORTED

I was both dreading and desperately waiting for this moment, and the day has come for me to put down my monster scratch building gloves and turn to another project. I said 'most probably', because at a later date I may try to convert the model I was working on into a Hako or SD style model. Its probably unlikely. It's more likely I'll set my sights a little to the left and consider building some of the other destroids, like the Spartan or Tomahawk.

Anyway, here's the link to get the professionally made Monster if you missed it.

Anyway if your wondering, I was stuck again in my scratch build of the Destroid Monster. I completed the arms, legs and body and am stuck trying to attach the 4 big turrets on top of the body. Mine keep going limp and it looks crap. The Monster from the convention looks like the turrents are held fast by the curved pieces of paper. I might have to make holes in the top of the body fo the turrets to sit in and reinforce them even further. Why? you ask. Well I'm not building this Monster for use with cardstock. Sure it can be used with cardstock, but I'm building it with normal A4 paper in mind, so my paper strength is weaker.

Other than that the majority of the bulky stuff is complete and perfect. It needs some work on maybe rebuilding some parts or adding smaller parts to give it more detail. After that its just a matter of colouring it in [which probably means building it in Maya and exporting to Pepakura and then going crazy in Photoshop], then creating instructions and packing it up in a pdf for yall to share!

I need to re-design the axel/hip area again because the legs don't sit there properly. The circular part should be completly in line with the circular part of the axle, but the chunky compartment on the back gets in the way. I'm thinking of incorporating an actual axle into the hip so you can tilt the Monster's body up or down.

I'm happy with the upper legs [although it was a dodgy attempt to recreate them in 3D: curves and polygons don't go hand in hand]. The arms are a great success as there will be articulation at the shoulders and elbow so you'll be able to point the arm turrets pretty much anywhere. I'm building the prototype out of grid paper from my old maths school book and the paper is pretty thin so the rotation joints didn't work very well and need to be made out of thicker card. I might consider making two versions: one with articulation and another without, depending on whether people have access to print on thicker card. Dunno its just a thought.

As my scanner is busted and in the bin, the images on this page are render shots of a 3D version of the model I made in Maya.

Thanks to some guy on the Smartgroups Papermodel group he provided a heap of reference material, i've forgotten most of the links now, but here are a few that fans of macross/robotech toys/models should check out:

http://www.me.umn.edu/~ngo/macross.html

direct link to monster

http://www.me.umn.edu/~ngo/monster.html

macross mecha design site

http://www.steelfalcon.com/macrossmecha.html