Robotech was what first drew me into the world of big giant robots, from there I transistioned to Battletech and onto various minis games. I used to watch the show back in the 80's when I was a kid and even Transformers and stuff like Gundam couldn't come close to touching the awesomeness of Robotech.

Now as an adult I cringe when I rewatch the show as there's a distinct god-awfulness to much of the story and the animation but compared to the stuff that was on at the time it was pure gold and the mech designs are still at the top of my list for all time favorites. (despite the horridness of the show)

I've gotten hooked on wanting to build larger N-Scale mech models, something that worked it's way into my brain as a result of cruising the battletech forums. While I was googling for info on various models I saw a pair of posts on the The Miniatures Page forum .

http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=132819

http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=147276

http://boyntonartstudio.weebly.com/index.html

Somebody had rounded up a bunch of the 1/200 scale Robotech Models and run some games with them. That was like a huge explosion going off in my head and launched my current crazy modelling crusade.

I already had a few of the models and figured it'd make an awesome table project to use at next years Adepticon. I've spent the last three months scrounging around on ebay and looking for the remaining models I need, finding a few but more often and cursing a lot at the lack of their avilability.

With hours and hours of searching and hunting somewhere along the way I learned a heck of a lot about the history of some of the older Robotech and Battletech models which I posted up here: http://www.mechdudesblog.blogspot.com/

Be forewarned it's really long and wanders all over the place.

All of these kits were originally mastered in 1983 so they are old as dirt, there's been a re-release of most of the kits in 2001 and again in 2007 but they are all out of print which has made finding them difficult. For as old as they are the quality is not bad and they look decidely better when painted. Some of the kits I had to do a double take on when I saw the pics on the game reports, the bare models can look decidely ugly at times but when painted they are infinately more appealing especially since it all pre-dates even 1st edition rouge trader 40k.

These are all going to need some work, they are a combination of snap together kits that also are held in place with small screws in the back of the torso. Later on I'll disassemble them and glue them so the gaps aren't so horrid.

The models are about 65-70mm tall so a crisis suit comes up to about arm pit level on them. I've mounted them all on 50mm bases.


Original model next to a CBT stinger for scale, the stock model has rather boring static pose:




I started cutting and reposing the models to give them a more dynamic look (still in progress)

These two will be for Max Sterling and Ben Dixon. A lot of the toys & models feature Max's veritech as the 1J version (2 head lasers), but for the majority of the series he flies a 1A model (1 head laser), although tweaked internally with the blue custom paint job it still has the 1A head so that what I decided to go with.





This is the skull squadron so far, it's missing VF-1J mechs for Rick Hunter and Miriya Sterling which are on the to do list after I finished the newest pair. It'll be used as a 5 man wing but I'll be doing a couple extra 1A bownie grunts for lower level games as skull squadron is jammed full of ace pilots which gets a bit unbalancing.




Skull Squadron Fighters:



Skull Squadron Gerwalk/Guardians:


All of the various fighters and gerwalks have the apropriate heads which required some swaps between differant models as all of the fighters originally had 1J heads and the Gerwalks only had 1A heads. The battroid versions are lacking 1J heads which I'm grabbing from the armored valkyrie model and casting so that I'll have enough for the final two mechs. I suppose it's a bit more effort than I need but I want everything to look in line with the series.


Armored Valkryies:




I have each version of the super Valkyrie fighter/gerwalk/battroid but it's currently unbuilt and I will be casting two extra copies of it so that I can run a squad of three for a high points game. Not a high priority at the moment as I'm planning on mostly basic level game play for the time being.


Destroids:




The Monster: (he's frickin huge!)







Here's the assorted Zentraedi so far. I have an extra scout pod and officers pod that aren't pictured. Unfortunately this is only about 1/3rd of the required force size for a larger game and I've already spent months tracking down this handful of mechs, so I'll be having to cast a bunch of them.




For the most part I am finished with the model collecting, I have about a half dozen unassembled veritechs in case i want to do a second squad. I may still pick up another couple destroids if they pop up but i should have enough to cover most games.

I'm just about done modifying the rules set and once I get some art and graphics finished up I'll put everything into a nice PDF file for download.

The next major phase is more reposing and then tons and tons of gap filling :ugh:

Those look incredible! I wish I had the level of dedication to hunt down those. Great work!

I've always loved the Zentraedi Female Officers Battle Pod, and I wouldn't mind acquiring a couple some time.

Can certainly see some Mechwarrior styles in there, which way was the rip off? Robotech>Mech or reverse?

Either way, always liked the Zentraedi mecha.. particularly that green/white lad in the middle.

Have to track down a youtube vid and see just how bad it was, as opposed to my glorified childhood memory.

Look forward to any updates Paulson!
Tael.

Thanks guys

I have some incredibly fond memories of the show as a kid, reqatching it as an adult it doesn't hold up so great. Although IMO it fairs much better than GI Joe or Transformers. They do have it on Netflix which is far better than buying the series. The best route to go is to watch the movie for Super Dimesional Fortress Macross, Do you Remember the Love? That was released later and has vastly better animation and editing.

Robotech/Macross were the original designs, the designs were sub liscensed to Battletech by a company which latter got them into trouble as the company they paid for those rights didn't have the legal authority to sub them out. Really big legal mess that still going on 17 years later as the current ownership split between 3 seperate japanese companies.

It's sad because they are some of my all time favorite designs and I don't care who owns them I just want to see more shows/toys/models made.


As far as updates I have about 20 pods now, almost all of them are assembled. All of my human/macross mechs are built and on bases and are just awaiting cleaning so I can finally get on to painting. I'm going to try and see if I can get together a group shot of the stuff. I also put in an order for a couple 15mm N scale rubble buildings, they were cheap and if they look good in person I'm going to get a bunch more to use for the city terrain. It's finally starting to look like something beyond just a big pile of boxes

I do remember one story which has stuck in my mind all these years.

The 'heroes' encounter a guy who is leading attacks on a Zentraedi installation. He's hailed a hero because he survives amazing fights, time and time again. Everyone else perishing. When our heroes join in, they actually defeat the Zentraedi and realise the "heoric" leader was actually under the sway of the Zentraedi, delivering human pilots to their deaths in an 'impossible' mission. He then stays behind to enact one last demolition, posthumously victorious in the eyes of the human forces, thus ensuring morale, despite our band of heroes knowing the truth.

Dark stuff.

I'll check out those movies too. Also, I think Battleship Yamato just got remade as a big budget Japanese Sci Fi flick. Saw the trailer a couple of months back.

- Tael.

Hmmm... I vaguely remember something about that - wasn't in the third series, though, versus the Invid?

Tristan

I do believe that was against the Invid. The Zentradi were no where near that devious. With few exceptions they were rather blunt.

I think you're right. The Invid, I had forgotten that name until you mentioned it. They had the more rounded crab like mecha if I recall now?

Either way, always struck me as my first introduction into very dark story lines as a kid.

Thanks for the correction

EDIT : Just found this great mecha comparison image : http://www.merzo.net/robotech/mechasizes.htm

- Tael.

Battletech used images from Robotech for at least two mechs, the Maraurder and the Warhammer (which is why they are considered the "Unseen".)

And wow! I have never seen such a collection before, robotech looks pretty darn cool too! I only wish I could have been around for most of this when it was a lot more common.

The semi serious nature of Robotech and the continuing story arc was what sold me on the series as a kid. Every episode of GI Joe or Tansformers always was stand alone and the bad guys never seemed to be a credible threat. Main characters in robotech actually died (Roy Fokker and Ben Dixon) they go out as heroes but it gave the sense there was some actual danger. The nameless piolts and RDF forces die in droves in each episode so it's not like GI Joe where everyone runs in shooting lasers and nobody gets hurt, yet despite no losses cobra always surrenders after the last commercial break

I always thought a rather dark moment was when Roy dies I always liked him the best and despite being the all time top Ace and he gets downed by random shrapnel. He doesn't get a particuarly glorious end which helped push the gritty feel.

The traitor selling out other heroes is from the 3rd arc with the Invid invasion, great stuff in there as well. I'm not overly keen on the robotech master invasion of the second arc but the 1st and 3rd series are great.


The 1st-4th editions of Battletech (until 1993) used about 50 designs from Robotech, Crusher Joe, and Armored Soldier Dougram series. Around 25-30 of those were derived directly from Robotech/Macross.

The Valkyrie (variable fighter) is the base model for Battletech's Wasp, Stinger, Pheonix Hawk, Crusader, LAM mechs of each of those design, and some aerospace fighetrs, which is a total of about a dozen models.

The destroids phallanx, spartan, defender and tomahawk were used for battletechs long bow, archer, rifleman, and warhammer respectively.

The basic Zentraedi pod was used for the Ostroc and Ostol, and the officers pod is the Marauder. Most of the Macross /Robotech designs form the core of Battletech's imagry and at least with older players they really define a lot of the setting, losing the rights to those images really hurt the game & established setting. Battletech has maned to get the rights back to the Crusher Joe and Dougram mechs, but IMO there's still a gaping hole without being able to use the Robotech stuff.


Anyways here's some group shots, starting off with a scale shot with a crisis suit.




Here's the Zentraedi stuff next to the RDF Valkyrie, the pic Tael linked is a good aproximation, the heights are correct but the mechs look really fat and overly wide for some reason. Realistically the Zentraedi mechs shopuld be bigger as their pilots are the same height as the Valkyrie. Apparently they ride in some twisted up Zen Lotus posistion, seems kinda like how Tau magically fit in their undersized crisis suits




The growing Host of Zentraedi, they almost all had their molds lines scraped down all that's left is filling the screw holws and they are ready for paint. I have 2 more scouts and 3 officer pods that are unpictured as they still need to built. There's also a tactical missing as I'm building molds from it so I can cast the other 10-20 copies I'll need for mass battles. I will also probably end up copying the officer pod and female power armor as they are very tough to get and I need at least 5 more of the female armor to round out a squad of them.




Destroids I'm up to full 5 man squads of each type, I have 1 extra of the defender and tomahawk that are unbuilt. I am also up to two monsters now (which aren't in the pic)



The full squad of Armored Valkyries, these are just about my favorite version of the Valkyrie, but they won't be a high priority as they are very powerful and don't show up until 2/3rds of the way through the series so unlikely to be used with early games as I'll need to have plenty of the heavier Zentraedi stuff to balance them.




Asembled I have a full squad of 6 basic valkyries in each form Batteroid, Guardian and Fighter, so that's another 18 models not pictured.

Unassembled I still have a giant pile of other valkyries, I have a 6 man squad of super valkyries in all 3 forms (18 models) and
at least 2 more squads of basic valks in guardian and batteroid form, with only one squad worth of fighters as they are dang expensive compaired to the robot forms. The robot forms are quite common so they usually about $5 each, but the fighters go for around $20 each which stinks.

All total I probably have around 40 or so models still in the box, they aren't need right away so they will likely be on the back burner for a long time. I figured I should pick them up while they were still around as I don't know if I'd be able to find them down the road.

Are there going to be specific color schemes for the models? Like for the Zentraedi, with using the female power armor's color scheme for the rest, or is each unit type going to recieve a different scheme?

I can't wait to see the destroids painted though.

For the most part the colors are going to be the same as the series. Skull squadron is a bit odd as it is basicly non uniform, it's made up all of ace pilots who each have their own color pattern. Most normal squads have 4 identical valkyries with a brown paint scheme with white highlight (known in in the series as brownies) Only the squad leader has a differant white pattern.

Mean while skull squad has Fokker's skull one which is white with black highlights, Hunter's is white with red stripes, Max has blue with white highlights, Ben has a standard brownie, and Miria has red with white highlight.

These are some toys for skull squadron's colors (not my paint jobs)




The destroids are going to have military drab colors either a khaki tan or olive green depending on which squad it is. The spartans and the monsters will be green which is the most common in the series for them while the other mechs will probably be tan.There's no hard set rule for which color they are in, as each type appears in green, tan or even grey depending on which episode is being wtached.

The zentraedi troops will primarily all be the standard white and navy blue color pattern of the series, the exception will be a squad or two meant to be part of the female sect of Zentraedi which will be a combination of either purple and green or white and green like the power armor that's pictured above.

Standard male Zentraedi soldier pod color:




According to the setting the males and females of the zentraedi are a segregated society (they are all clones) and neither side gets along well with the opposite sex and even wage war against each other internally if disapline isn't constantly enforced. While they use much of the same equipment and mechs they have differant color combinations to denote which side they belong to.


The females use a color pattern derived from some pretty clashing purple, red/pink, and green. (dominant color is purple for the females) There is an established set of color protocols for both the males and females based on if they are part of a ground army force or part of the space navy crew. Sort of like home and away colors for american football.




Male color patterns are a mix of green, purple, blue and grey depending on planetry or ship based crew. (dominant color for males is green) Officers are usually in red.

Those look really awesome, and they really take me back to my late days of high school! I gave up the only fistfight I was ever in so I could make it back home in time to catch robotech... (That's got to increase my nerd quotient somehow.)

Thanks, Paulson, for this blast from the past!

Tristan

I'm strating to get the rules together to put into a PDF, tinkering with a few layout ideas to try and get something slick put together graphically so it doesn't look so bland. (I've asked Seb for help on this as he's a graphic genius)

I'm not sure if I should do it in greyscale tones or go for full color. Any suggestions on the format are most welcome

I posted up a very breif explanation of the rules and stats in my blog here: http://mechdudesblog.blogspot.com/

I got my camera recharged so here's sample shots showing the filler work that has to be done to each model before it gets primed.

All the holes got patched with expoxy sculpt which has a ceramic like feel once cured and takes to scraping and sanding really well. With most situations it's quickly replacing greenstuff as the working properties are way better, it softens with water and also sets up faster.

There's a total of 6 screw holes on each model plus a number of the models feature a dent on top of the head and huge gaps along the laser dome.









This last pic shows the upgrade in base size, not quite as noticable head on but definitely noticeable from the side as the leg posistions can be spaced wider. (Old 50mm base on the right, new 60mm base on the right.) I've also put in an order to Privateer Press for a couple of their ginat 120mm bases so that I can put the MacII Monsters on them. Even at a whopping 4 inches across it barely fits on them.

Hi Paulson;

Assuming that you are looking at offering .pdf files as your completed product, I would suggest using full color in your layout. People will mostly be referencing them on a computer, so the color will look better in that format, and those that want to print them out will have the option of choosing between color and grayscale.

I like the look of the layouts that you have so far!

TristanHoag

Paint!!!!

With the exception of priming one of my large scale battletech models I realized that it's been over a year since I've painted anything. I picked up some new paints as the old ones were getting a bit dried out and gummy. This has a long way to go before it's finished but I started blocking out the color and it's starting to look like something other than a boring white piece of plastic.

I'm not the worlds best painter and I'm going to have to do about 30 of these so I'm simply aiming for a good tabletop standard rather than anything flashy. Once i get the lines tightened up it'llget a wash and maybe some basic highlights. I used a mix of GW and PP paints, the blue is GW enchanted blue, the P3 paints are frostbite which is an off white blue and thamar black.

I may lighten up the white a bit but I was aiming for an offwhite for a couple reasons, in the animations the white is almost always a milky off white color that reminds me of white out which is probably a result of how they paint the amination cells. It also has the benefit of seeing what areas I've already covered. The plastic is a pretty stark white color so skull white wasn't showing and I couldn't tell how thick the paint was going on and where I'd already covered.

Anyways not much to look at just yet, but a small personal milestone as it's been ages since I touched a brush.

Nice, quite nice! It's simple but elegent.

Later on, are you adding markings and such for squads?

A small update before I crash for the night.

There are a ton of decals for squad and other markings for these. The problem is due to age of the model kits the majority of them have yellowed up pretty bad and I don't think they will be useable. I can scan them in and clean them up on photoshop and see if I can make use some of the DIY decal programs, if that doesn't work I may try and free hand some of them but that's a last resort.