HARDCORE MODELING!: 80's Cartoon: Cyclone [ROBOTECH]

#1

First post placeholder for WIP image.

#2

I always wanted to model the Cyclone fron ‘ROBOTECH’ so now’s my chance as part of a HCM challenge. :slight_smile:

The Cyclone was the variable transforming motorcycle from ‘The Next Generation’ chapter of ROBOTECH. There were 4 primary variations seen throughout the series and a few others periodically. I would like to do all 4 but I doubt I will have the time so I will start out with Lancer’s VR-041 Saber Cyclone.

Here are some reference videos:

GENESIS CLIMBER MOSPEADA Opening
ROBOTECH Cyclone Sequence
MOSPEADA Cyclone Conceptual Trade Promo

Here are some reference composites:

The first set shows the VR-041 Saber Cyclone from various websites. The Megahouse toy pics are from the toysdaily.com site.
The second set shows the Beagle Ride Armour toy on the first row and the Megahouse toy on the second row. These are the two model toys I will be primarily using to create the model from. These pics are from the anymoon.com toy review site.
The third set shows the character Lancer from the series ROBOTECH from Harmony Gold.

The ROBOTECH ‘The Next Generation’ installment was adapted from the Japanese series ‘Genesis Climber MOSPEADA’.

From ‘The Ultimate GENESIS CLIMBER MOSPEADA Home Page’:

Yellow is quite easily the most different of all the characters in Mospeada. An elite Mars Base fighter pilot with an interest in Japanese culture (particularly it’s theatre and the art of Musume), Yellow flew in the First Earth Recapture Mission. Shot down in South America, he was rescued by a young woman named Clara, who nursed him back to health. The two quickly fell in love, only to have Inbit sympathizers arrive searching for those who fought against their Inbit masters.

When they kicked in the door, they found only two frightened women, Yellow wearing make up and acting like a woman, using his musume skills to their fullest. Clara and Yellow proceed to escape and head towards safety. They both prepared to leave the area by train, only to have Yellow leap off at the last second, leave Clara to go to safety so he could fight the aliens. Yellow made use of his female persona, calling her merely Yellow and becoming a female singing star. Yellow raised the hopes of many with her songs, while at the same time sabotaging those who helped the Inbit as Yellow Belmont.

Singing in one of the many wasteland towns, Yellow was at the center of a bar room brawl which drew the attention of Stick, Rey, Mint and Houquet. After they helped a local named Jim and defeated a Inbit patrol, Yellow realized that while he could damage the Inbit alone, he could do far more in a group. After revealing his secret, Yellow joined the group, using both his female persona’s singing and fame equally as much as his elite piloting and combat skills. He is the first to see a stage five Inbit, the princess Sorji. They feel an attraction to each other, which later causes Sorji to save Yellow and successfully reason with the Refles.

Yellow is an interesting character, with many people uncomfortable with his female persona believing it means he’s homosexual. This could not be further from the truth, with many people not realizing the cultural differences with the Japanese original and traditional Japanese theatre. Yellow Belmont is easily the Japanese fan favorite, with Yellow playing a central role in the sequel OAV Mospeada: Love, Live, Alive.

#3

I loved those bikes! I used to draw them when I was a kid :slight_smile:
Good luck!

#4

Thanks SNoWs. Hope I can pull this off. I used to draw mechs during class too. :arteest:

Spent last night blocking in the body and started on the ear. I wanted to get the ear out of the way as I’ve never liked modelling them. It turned out okay although it took allot longer than I would have liked.

#5

Spent the last week refining the shape of the head and creating the hair. It seems that every time I do an anime character there is a stage where they look like the ‘grey’ aliens fron X-Files :argh:

I don’t really like the eyes, I want to get a result that looks like Advent Children so I will probably create more realistic eyes and mouth rather than the more anime accurate proportions I have now. Might simplify the hair too, it’s a bit too 80s poodle metal now.

As usual - working with paint effects for the hair was horrific… :banghead:

I’m open to other crits and opinions too… :wavey:

#6

Edited the neck area to include a clavicle and created detail for the arm.

Added geometry to the hand.

Moved some verts around and subdivided the body section. This will be mostly covered up by clothing so I’m not as concerned with detail here.

Went back and edited the face to include more realistically proportioned features- eyes are still about 25% larger than normal tho. Re-did the hair as well. It looks alot less like cartoon Lancer tho, but alot more effeminate… alot more…

#7

And (finally) onto the helmet and blocking in the armour.

#8

Created the basic shape for the armour clothing - I’ll come back to it and add detailing when I think of what sort of material it should be… leather or polymer maybe. Took a previous blocking version of the hand model and extruded it and added seams to make the gloves.

Extruding and bevellling of the armour pieces. Will convert all of these to subdivs later.

#9

Finished the soldier armour pieces.

Blocked in the bike.

#10

Created the tyre tread pattern and duplicated it to make the tyre.

Hubcap and internal jet.

Swingbar.

Saber arm guard.

Assembled wheel elements.

#11

Hand guards with side indicator lights.

Cowling with mini-misslie pods and expanding targeting scope.

Scope door and windshield.

Handlebars and assembled cowling parts. Filler parts were also added for detail as there is no specific detail in any of the line art I have for it, so I’m just ad-libbing on toy pieces.

Fuel tank, seat and exhaust. Chasis that forms the front of the ride armour plating.

#12

dude your bike looks sick :applause:… can’t wait until u finish your character

#13

Coolest bike ever. Fantastic modeling so far Kid. Keep going.

#14

Yes that bike has great design, and yourmodeling is very nice.

Good luck with this.

#15

Thanks theKid123, WyattHarris and JMART. Still a fair bit to do but I should have something finalised by deadline. I also appreciate the replies. :smiley:

Created the chainguard and added a kickstand and footrest that will attach to it.

The engine block is tricky - it has to have a volume that can compress to fit into the ‘gas tank’ section above it. There wasn’t alot of reference for this section either so I just made part of it up as I went along again.

Fitting and alignment of the various pieces.

There’s no way I can actually fully texture map this thing by Wednesday so in the name of the 80’s toon theme I try to make use of a toon shader and basic texture mapping.

This is a test of a toon shader with a vector line render composite.

#16

Very nice TOBER, it brings back memories of Genesis Climber Mospeada. Can’t wait to see it completed.

#17

Awesome work mate, keep it up!

#18

Thanks tunaboy :).

Thanks MarioGuillermo, Genesis Climber Mospeada was awesome at the time, it hasn’t aged that badly either. Bit of a favourite ofcorse :smiley:

So I’m trying to get something interesting happening for the beauty shot… still plsying with ideas but I’m thinking of doing a comp with Lancer in the background and the bike in both modes in the foreground and midground… not sure. :wip:

Not liking his legs in the jumping image… looks more like he’s falling down… Forgot to retract the leg armour in the bike image too… :blush:

#19

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