16 replies to this topic

[CaveMan]

This is a quick sketch I did in preparation for a more thorough illustration of a custom design. Any thoughts or suggestions? I'm not really happy with the pelvis region (it's really hard to design a 'Mech that doesn't look like it's wearing a speedo).

The 'Mech in question is the BDG-1H Black Dog* heavy infantry support BattleMech. Somewhat slow for a heavy 'Mech, the Black Dog has a top speed of just 53 km/h; but its 75-ton chassis is massively armored with almost 15 tons of plating, giving it protection to rival many assault 'Mechs. With an AC/20 in the left torso, LRM-15 in the left arm, and large laser in the right arm, the Black Dog forms the centerpiece of a combined arms strike force, providing heavy firepower and short-range artillery support for allied infantry. A flamethrower and machine gun are positioned in the right torso to assist in wiping out enemy troops laying in ambush.

*I wanted to name it Barghest, but that name was already taken by a really lame quadmech from TRO3060, so I settled for a different name for the same creature.

[Karl Streiger]

Cool mech - the Dog image wor - with its low speed it is a good guard mech - but only normal foot infantry isn't able to keep the speed.

CaveMan, on 20 June 2012 - 02:38 AM, said:

*I wanted to name it Barghest, but that name was already taken by a really lame quadmech from TRO3060, so I settled for a different name for the same creature.

However i demand that you have to apologize for the last part. The Barghest when used spread fear and terror uppon my enemys.

[Hayden]

The first thing that comes to mind when I see it is "Feline". That's not a bad thing or a knock, but the lines around the cockpit are strongly suggestive of a large predatory cat like a mountain lion. Frankly, it turned out quite nicely. Especially the torso region, My main critique as far as style would be the LRM launcher on the left hand, which looks like a large oil drum that was thrown on. Otherwise, pretty damn sweet.

[CaveMan]

Hayden, on 20 June 2012 - 02:46 AM, said:

The first thing that comes to mind when I see it is "Feline". That's not a bad thing or a knock, but the lines around the cockpit are strongly suggestive of a large predatory cat like a mountain lion. Frankly, it turned out quite nicely. Especially the torso region, My main critique as far as style would be the LRM launcher on the left hand, which looks like a large oil drum that was thrown on. Otherwise, pretty damn sweet.

I was actually going for a look suggestive of a Rottweiler. Maybe I'll take another look at the head.

As for the missile launcher, yeah, it does look a little dumb. At first I was going to go for a Zeus kind of thing, and then realized that it had a hand on that arm, so I had to change it.

[Hayden]

CaveMan, on 20 June 2012 - 02:52 AM, said:

I was actually going for a look suggestive of a Rottweiler. Maybe I'll take another look at the head.

As for the missile launcher, yeah, it does look a little dumb. At first I was going to go for a Zeus kind of thing, and then realized that it had a hand on that arm, so I had to change it.

Not gonna call it "Mountain Lion" then? I think you might get a "two-fer" out of this project, in all seriousness. I am quite enamored with the design, it just dosn't look like a dog

ED: By that, I mean "don't throw this drawing away. 'cause it's really good."

Edited by Hayden, 20 June 2012 - 02:58 AM.

[Adridos]

When I saw this, Smoke Jaguar came to my mind, not a dog... something you should work on.

As for the concept, well, I don't like animal designed mechs, since they represent the opposite side of what a battlemech is. One preffers function over look and the other is the same opposite. Having a mech that i balanced between the two (like real world trains) scores better, but whatever.

As for teh critique of the look itself.

The torso is nice, everything is good, you should tell use where you inted to place the cockpit.

The arms are too much of an Awesome copy and could use a different look.

And the legs, well, try something else, they're fitting for a protomech, but you're not drawing one. Especially the fact they look like feet of a cheetah, while you stated this thing is pretty slow.

Lastly, you should work a bit on the representation of armor as this is really armored mech and yours looks like a custom remake of a light mech.


Please note that my critique is highly suggestive, so you donp have to do everything as I say (not like anyone would do, anyway), because I'm no artist, but your mech needs a lot of changes.

Good luck with it and I can' wait to see how it turns out.

[CaveMan]

Adridos, on 20 June 2012 - 03:19 AM, said:

When I saw this, Smoke Jaguar came to my mind, not a dog... something you should work on.

As for the concept, well, I don't like animal designed mechs, since they represent the opposite side of what a battlemech is. One preffers function over look and the other is the same opposite. Having a mech that i balanced between the two (like real world trains) scores better, but whatever.

No accounting for taste, I guess. I don't see anything wrong with style in design as long as it doesn't interfere with function. Walking bricks are boooring.

That said, I'm planning to remove some of the more obvious animal details. The fangs around the heat sink radiator are a little too cute, they can go. I'll probably also remove the "nose" and connect the windows together so they don't look quite so much like eyes.

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The arms are too much of an Awesome copy and could use a different look.

That's actually intentional; the arm joints are supposed to be derived from the Awesome (This is a 3020s 'Mech, so there's not a lot of clean-sheet design going on. They're going to crib as much development work from existing 'Mechs as they can ). The main torso is based on the Dragon, the leg structure is sort of based on the Warhammer, and the hands are inspired by FD's Hunchback revamp.

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And the legs, well, try something else, they're fitting for a protomech, but you're not drawing one. Especially the fact they look like feet of a cheetah, while you stated this thing is pretty slow.

Yeah, I actually agree with you on the feet. The toes don't mesh with the rest of the design. I just wanted to do something for the feet that didn't look like giant bricks.

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Lastly, you should work a bit on the representation of armor as this is really armored mech and yours looks like a custom remake of a light mech.

Noted. The look of the armor isn't meant to be representative of the final product; like I said it's a quick sketch. I'll probably bulk some parts out a bit more in the next iteration too.

Edited by CaveMan, 20 June 2012 - 04:22 AM.

[CaveMan]

Here's the second iteration. I changed the head to a more neutral shape, completely redesigned the left arm (still not sure if I'm happy with it, but it beats an oil drum), and adjusted the feet. Also moved the autocannon further from center to emphasize the width of the body.

I think when I do the actual drawing, I'm going to scale the torso up relative to the limbs.

EDIT: Yes, I know the perspective on the left leg is skewed pretty badly. I'm still thinking about how to reshape the legs.

Edited by CaveMan, 20 June 2012 - 04:27 PM.

[xR1pp3Rx]

looks like a redo on the wildcat. cool drwaring tho

[DerMaulwurf]

Yes, for a slow heavy scaling up the torso sounds like a good idea.

If you want to stick with the dog theme you might want to consider adding some sort of snout feature (basically just a step in the fron torso). It doesn't have to be all antropomorphic, just a hint usually works fine.

[CaveMan]

One more revision on the sketch. Got rid of the weird claw hand on the left arm, decided I didn't care for it. Also revised the legs a bit and padded out some of the armor plating to make it look tougher.

[GHQCommander]

Coool

[Vox Shepard]

the newest iteration looks beautiful! very cool looking with a mix of both grit and sleekness. i love the left-arm design btw. if you ask me though it almost reminds me of a bear rather than a dog with the shape of it's "face", but its your mech (and Black Dog is a cool name as well, nice ring to it).

well done, good sir.

[SgtPaladin]

i say it needs a little more story, it was made in 3049 and participated in a lot of battles envolving 12 mechs on either side

[TheWildOnion]

I would make the arm-mounted large laser a little smaller and the autocannon 20 in the left torso a little bigger, the scale between the two seems a bit out of whack. I would have guessed that the placement of the weapons was flipped with the current drawing! Otherwise I think it is a cool looking 'Mech with a good spread of weapons and a well though out battlefield role.

[CaveMan]

wildonion, on 21 June 2012 - 12:48 PM, said:

I would make the arm-mounted large laser a little smaller and the autocannon 20 in the left torso a little bigger, the scale between the two seems a bit out of whack. I would have guessed that the placement of the weapons was flipped with the current drawing! Otherwise I think it is a cool looking 'Mech with a good spread of weapons and a well though out battlefield role.

No, I think the AC/20 barrel is definitely big enough already. That's a 200mm gun. Maybe over 200mm, its bore is bigger than the faces of the infantrymen. If the laser is too big in comparison I'll look at scaling it down a bit. (This would be easier to determine if there were any canon info on how big laser apertures are supposed to be...)

[Seventy Four]

The "nose" looks way too cat like.

Edited by Seventy Four, 21 June 2012 - 06:46 PM.