MAD DOG (VULTURE) OMNIMECH

model media used: 3D Studio Max 9 (December 2008, January 2009)

[phase 1] - [phase 2] - [phase 3] - [phase 4] - [phase 5] - [phase 6]

I was working on a BattleTech model (no, not a resin model or an existing 3D file) while I realized it didn't really felt alright...and I just needed to complete the 'Mech legs. I liked how it was going and how it looked like in its Technical Readout, but I looked at it for 10 or so minutes and decided to go for something else.
Then I've found an other model on the same Technical Readout and started to model...after redoing the center torso five times I gave up and looked around on what could I have done.
With the Mad Dog resin model on my table the choice was set and the modeling was incredibly smooth, more or less a week were I worked about two/three hours every evening, putting a dent in my Valkyria Chronicles advancement table (no, I don't really have one).

Having a resin model at my disposal and front a side bluprints from the first edition of Technical Readout 3050 there weren't any real problems, except for my computer barely being able to cope with the polygonal mass the model was built with (250.713 polys, to be exact) and to decide on what to do with some incosistencies on both blueprints and resin model. For example, I used three rows of 6 missile each for the lateral torso sections, adding two other at the top and filling the blank space with a plate normally found on the TimberWolf's shoulder launchers.

An other reason I've started with a Mad Dog is that its legs and lower torso are the same of the TimberWolf, and after having set up the IK skeleton and mapping coordinates for them, modeling a Timberwolf would be incredibly simple.

click to enlarge

The right and left torso sections are the one that have been changed the most. I didn't really liked the detail on both original drawings and resin model, so I did my own while following the general look of the original. On the upper part I've modeled air vents while the rear and bottom part have just a very simple extruded part. The "button" near the side vents is something linked to the missile guidance system...not a proper Artemis IV transciever but something more basic.

click to enlarge

The detailing on the side torso sections is simple, just some armor plates arranged to recall the external shape of the torso and the original blueprint; the armor plates are completely blank as I thought that adding access panels and junction lines would have made the 'Mech look more fragile it should be. The armor plates are arranged in a way that they wouldn't stop the shoulder to rotate 360° should the need arise.

click to enlarge

Some sections still need detailing, over it's something I'll do later, if I'll ever do; the cockpit and the frontal cube (some sort of sensor pod) could use some internal detailing, especially when all materials will be in place.
Right no only the feet fingers have the correct mapping coordinates and can be animated, everything else is a simple poly with nothing else so, yes, the most boring part of modeling is unpon me, and I hope I won't curse too much the polygonal detail I've used.

click to enlarge

This image should be clear enough to show the various sub-assemblies the model is broken down to.
Parts like the upper legs have are the union of multiple sub-assemblies that were later attached together to for a single part. In the upper legs' case, the esagonal "hip", the outer circular joint shield and the remaining structure.

click to enlarge

So, what's left? Mapping coordinates, IK rigging and modeling every official version of the Mad Dog. This one if the prime version, with twin LRM 20s, Large and Medium Pulse Lasers. I'm still waiting for the new BattleTech Manuals to arrive so that I can have a vague idea of what a HAG looks like and how the new version if armed, but every other version (A, B, C, Heavy Laser and ATM boats) is covered by manuals I already have and currently exists in sketch form...and I should really thank the 3050 record sheets to exist, or I would have never really thought that the B version carried hand actuators; Fasa/Wizkid/Fan Pro/Catalyst Games should really start to write down these things in their Technical Readouts.

[phase 1] - [phase 2] - [phase 3] - [phase 4] - [phase 5] - [phase 6]