Height Proportions

This tip was brought on courtesy of a question Krescenhaze asked regarding height proportions of Gundams (or any MS design for that matter. I used to teach a little comic book art back in the 90s, so I'm quite familiar with the subject in human anatomical terms.

My reply:

Regular human proportions is 7.5 heads tall (1/0.5/2.5/3.5) for the head/neck/torso/legs respectively, or 3.5 from head to groin and 4 from groin to feet. Ideal "heroic" proportions is 8 heads (1/0.5/3/4) This proportion is used to balance the bulk of heroic or muscled characters. Most Gundams and other MS designs do not follow any standard proportions but follow mostly the flow of the design of the MS, so some are like 4/5, with the head too small and looking as if it's hammered down the shoulders, with the neck not visible in most cases. So far, only two are "almost" human in proportions; The Strike, and the Exia.

I know you're asking this mainly for the Unicorn, because so far that kit has the WORST proportion, around 3/5.

Check this link out for reference

Try this yourself though; you can gauge proper proportions when you do this; sit down, then prop your knee toward towards your shoulder. You'll see that the tip of your knee should just be about the same level as the base of your neck.

The link above provides images I am too lazy to reproduce, so let me just credit the author for having it done, before allowing my lazy @$$ hotlink his post. It was quite coincidental I found it having relative images for both human and Gundam proportions.

The Chimera Borne Part II

Misplacement mishap. I spent the better half of my evening yesterday when I discovered the top chest armor (collar armor) was missing from the rubble of plaplates on my workstation. I was pretty sure I didn't remove it since I was making test fits for the head and the waist, so I turned my parts containers upside down, literally, looking for the part, as well as underneath my couch which I spend a lot of my time whittling away on plastic, and my cutting table. I had a mild panic because it was a semi-critical part that I might have swept at one point when I was tidying up, but I wasn't too worried because I had another unbuilt kit stashed under my bed. I was also considering rebuilding the thing, since I was basically going to make modifications anyways.

I had a sudden burst of realization that it might be somewhere near my computer, so I did a rough search. I breathed a sigh of relief when I found it lying innocently amidst dust and dirt just a few inches outside the lower shelf of my computer stand.

Moral of the story: always keep note of what you are working on.

Anyways, Another "cascade" flaw I discovered and fixed is the front skirt not having enough allowance to flip upwards when the Chimera is in kneeling position. I made modifications on the connections themselves by extending the ball joint and shaving a little from the top of the socket. I also cut about 2mm from the top part of the skirt and rebuilt it with 0.5mm plaplate to maximize the angle it can flip upwards.

More Itchy and Scratchy...

Like I mentioned previously, I cut the top part of the hind leg armor fins and reattached them "flayed out" to allow the free movement of the knee joint.






The Unicorn now kneels more naturally, with the addition of the waist articulation and extension.






With the waist comes the neck. I was trying to avoid having to extend the Unicorn's neck (to no avail), mainly because it's significantly smaller than the Sinanju's, and as i discovered later, had not much leeway for cement hold with a core extension even after a full day's curing (letting it cure for longer than that wouldn't have made any difference because the PS core simply had too little to hold onto the ABS base).

The solution: I shaved a V-shaped cut that tapers towards the plaplate sandwich extension (a total of 2mm thick). I then cemented a piece of plaplate of the same shape as the tapered cut. The taper helps hold the PS extension to the ABS along with that of the core. I also extended the neck casing with small pieces of shaped 0.5mm plaplates.




I used the single Unicorn horn as the base for a smaller, simpler, custom Vfin (which I may or may not detail later).




I've also lengthened the part that locks the back of the Unicorn in Destroy mode. It now serves as an articulation lock. Along with that, I've shortened the middle part of the waist that hampers waist rotation. The waist can actually rotate more than 90 degrees, similar to the improved OVA/HD version.




Strike a pose...

The Itch is now a RASH!

(And this tutorial is ALMOST becoming a WIP).  I thought once I've done the knee mods I'll be done and over with this thing, but modifying the knees and putting it in kneeling position exposed the rather obvious proportionality flaws of the Unicorn (the main reason I didn't like it back then, just looking at the box art). Even at Unicorn mode, the lower legs are too long and the thighs are too short. Even putting the thighs in Destroy mode didn't compensate for the difference.

The Itch. Par Deux...

As I contemplated the "simple" modifications I've made on the Unicorn's knees, what I told myself bugged me to no end. I HAD TO extend the leg/knee joint to further increase the angle.

I thought of two things I can do; modify the already modified knee case by extending it downwards and giving it a new swivel point. It seemed easy enough, but the gears in my head somewhat got stuck on an obvious drawback to the solution; the extension will be unstable.

So, I have no recourse but to perform more plastic surgery on the leg connection itself. The solution is simple, but the process on how to do it wasn't because I would have to cut through enough material for the pla plate rebuilding to hold on to the ring that the knee case attaches to, and maintain enough area at the base. Simply cutting it laterally won't do it considering the section where the knee psychoframe slides, and I pondered for an hour what to do because I would have to "cut deep." I also hope my measurements are enough to give me at least 20 degrees more.

I cut through the base laterally with a thin saw (transparent white) so I can get the ring intact with enough material underneath (red). I then sawed off the rest of the part along the base line (blue), but this can only be fully removed by drilling the base of the cut (yellow).

When I Have an Itch...

...I Modify.  In this case, that wretched Unicorn vKa knee that had so limited an articulation they might as well have kept the darned thing in a fixed position.  This thing has been bugging me ever since I got that second half-built Unicorn.  After the ZeroGunz Unicorn/Astray Group Build officially started, I asked Rayloke if he planned to do any articulation modifications to the Uni's knees.  He can, and it is indeed possible, even from my perspective, but, he hadn't any plans to pose his build in a kneeling position, so, he didn't do any.

Even the OVA/HD version, which sported a darker ABS frame, was a disappointment, as if the "150%" increased articulation angle (from 60-75 to a full 90 degrees) was a big deal.

Armored Hindrance.  Assessing the knees (I have been doing this on an off for quite some time now), I've identified the obvious problem spots with the armor attached.  Those "calf fins" would definitely have to me modified.  But, instead of cutting it short, I decided to cut the upper section and make the fins "flay" out, like the twin rudders of the F22 raptor.  The protruding central knee will also have to be modified for it to move inside the flayed fins and so I won't have to flay the fins so much.