Mid-Sized Mecha Frame Help

[Phoxtane]

I'd like to have another go at building a Gundam - the more I look at my previous attempt, the more I grow dissatisfied with the proportions and poseability, especially since now I have the actual official model kit that looks like this:

The biggest issue with my model (apart from looks) was the joints. I relied mostly on ball joints and the classic click hinges which meant that the ankles were prone to letting it fall over and the knees couldn't bend more than one click before they locked up, and the arms were mostly totally unposeable. Therefore, the issue relied mostly on the frame - except I never had a unified frame to begin with. If you'd like to see the mess I made of the design, you can find the LDD file on this page.

For this build I've been looking for a mech frame that's similar in scale but is an actual proper frame rather than some weird unibody thing. The appropriate scale for this sort of build, I'm told, is anywhere between 9-12 minifigures tall (depending on if your minifigures are 5 or 6 feet tall, respectively). In LDD my Gundam is almost exactly 9 figures tall, so I am okay with another build in that scale.

For joints, I would like to make use of ball joints again but replace the knee and elbow joints with the 44224 and 44225 pieces, and do something about the hip joints. To this end, I've been searching for a frame that I can build but haven't been able to dig much of anything up.

To summarize: I need help in finding a mid-scale mech frame that uses the strong Technic Rotation Disc Joints and ball joints for maximum strength and poseability, but haven't had much luck in finding anything reproducible (picture quality from 2006 isn't nearly good enough for me to make out much of anything). Does anyone have any sort of resources or frames that they use regularly to help them with their mecha builds, and if so, would you be willing to share them here?

Thanks in advance - I'm pretty sure this sort of thing is the Holy Grail of mech builders!

[matt_one]

check out this one :

http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/410532

there's a lxf file available to download.

[Naijel]

One problem with 44224/44225 joints is that they don't bend far enough. If you squat down on your heels and put your hands on your ears, check out how far you've bent your elbows and knees. It's way past 90 degrees almost to 180 degrees from straight. That may not be a huge problem for the type of poses you want from your mech. But even having the mech kneel down might be hard to do since you usually want the knee on the ground to be forward of the hips a bit and the rear foot lifts the ankle off the ground. That puts the knee joint on the ground at almost 120 degree from straight.

Some people get around this by having double joints, one joint for the thigh to join to the knee and one joint for the knee to join to the calf. Those two joints are then connected. Tricky.

Your last Gundam was nice. The main problem I see with the scale was the legs appearing too short. If you keep the same height overall you may need to scale down the body a bit so the hips are slightly higher off the ground. Looked pretty cool though.

check out this one :

http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/410532

there's a lxf file available to download.

That looks pretty nice.

Edited August 7, 2015 by Naijel

[Spirit]

That's just an idea, but I've seen *very* big exoforce MOCs using the method used on bionicle titans, which is a mixture of ball/cup and axle/cylinder.

Maybe you could adapt that to build a stronger skeleton for your gundam.

[Phoxtane]

Some people get around this by having double joints, one joint for the thigh to join to the knee and one joint for the knee to join to the calf. Those two joints are then connected. Tricky.

That's actually what they use in the official models, as you can see here:

Obviously this is an extreme articulation case, but it goes to show how the joints work.

That's just an idea, but I've seen *very* big exoforce MOCs using the method used on bionicle titans, which is a mixture of ball/cup and axle/cylinder.

Maybe you could adapt that to build a stronger skeleton for your gundam.

On my most recent model (MS-06S Char's Custom Zaku II) the ankle joints make use of the typical ball-and-socket joint, plus some sliding cylinders front and back of the ball joint. They don't really add much in the way of friction but they do help stabilize the joint and keep the foot from rotating in ways it wouldn't be able to on the real thing. I could do the same thing with a Lego ball joint and cylinder, and remove the need for a click hinge there if it worked out properly.

[Naijel]

Nice.