Under the Hood Pt.2

The second installment of "Under the Hood" has a few more frames to have some fun with.

Mini-Frame by Sqeuieu

This is my favorite frame at the moment. Nearly every piece on the thing can be expanded, changed out, or used for some detailing. It's poseable, looks sweet, and is sturdy to boot.

Sqeuieu has some cool variations in his brickshelf gallery, and (please excuse the self-promotion) I've got a few designs as well. The only real downside to this frame that I can see is that it requires 7 of those four stud 1x1 bricks, which are some of the pricier pieces to buy in large amounts. There is an LDraw file of this guy available on Divnull as well.

Hi-Leg by Joshua AC Newman

These guys are pretty sweet. A very well built and unique frame compared to most of the other guys around. I love the reverse legs and all the potential the torso has. Here's a variation by Jed September that I absolutely love, and here's a company of hi-leg badboys with a commisar by Soren. Aaaaaaand here's the breakdown shot of the torso for all you would be Hi-leggers.

WRH-102 Warhorse by triple_ought

While this one is quite new, I really love how it has the feel of a commisar on steroids. Triple-ought has a few variants as well as a breakdown shot of his build. I can't wait to see what the rest of the community does with this guy.

Under the Hood pt.1

Much like how car companies take someone else's parts and slap a new body over it, a lot of the custom builds that have shown up have someone else's core designs under the hood. Here's a quick rundown of some of those core designs.

The Chub - By Soren

The Chub is by far one of the most popular and most mod-able frames out there at the moment. If you were to strip it down to it's bare essentials it's got lots of space to build off of, looks great, and is pretty damn pose-able too.

Ironsnpier has a wonderful variant here.

Joshua Newman has a killer reskin here as well.

The Conscript/Commisar - By Soren (again)

Both the Conscript and Commisar are very similar builds and you probably wouldn't even notice the difference between the two at first (I know I didn't). It's another sleek looking frame from Soren with a lot of modding potential. Those arm or leg pieces can easily be swapped out with studded bricks and the backpack potential is near unlimited. You can get the LDraw file over at Dinvull.

Dr Watsman has done quite a bit with this design as seen here, here, here, and here.

MgN-302/303 Series - By Malcom Craig

An older, but very versatile frame originally designed for Mechaton. It may not be as pretty as some of Soren's stuff, but oh man this guy is a modder's dream.

Jed September has countless variations of this guy as well as a few breakdown shots, this one is by far my favorite.

You can also get the LDraw file for this one over at Dinvull.

More still to come!

To win a war, you're gonna need some frames...

First thing's first, if you're going to play a mecha tabletop game you're going to need some mechs right? While there are some "default" builds that will be available in the rulebook when it releases, most people will be (and already have been) creating something of their own. I wanted to take a moment and go over some of the more prominent people who have been putting up their designs over at Flickr.

Jed September (responsible for that lovely machine to the right):

Jed has some wonderfully solid builds and very clean composition.

[Soren]:

Soren is the official designer for MFZ, and for good reason. Everything he puts together blows my mind in one way or another.

Dr. Watsman:

Some very nice Commisar based frames and very clean color shcemes. This one is my personal favorite.

Magus:

A really cool style, and how can you turn down a mech with a chair for a chest?

Ironsniper:

Not much MFZ related yet, but everything there is awesome!

There's plenty more around, and this list is by no means complete. There are a ton of other great builders and I encourage you to take some time and look through them!