Digitally Colored Version of the Kauth ATV

I finally finished my first version of the Kauth ATV tracked vehicle. Thanks to the image wizardry of Rubén Andrés Martínez A., I had a clean copy of the Dennis Kauth ATV to work from. I went with a basic olive color scheme and tried to keep it from looking overly militaristic since I see this as more of an exploration vehicle along the lines of the Star Frontiers Explorer vehicles.

There are no instructions for these models but Rubén's built versions should give you a good idea of how to build them.

Several of the symbols that I used are from Ron Cobb's Standard Semiotic Symbols from the film Alien. I used the Scotch and Soda icons from this post.

My coloring on this model is not perfect but I think it should go together fairly easily. If you find anything truly catastrophic please let me know but otherwise I'm considering this first version as done.

I'm also posting the cleaned up versions that Rubén sent me so that others can have a go at creating their own color schemes. I'd really like to see what you come up with so if you create a new color scheme, please leave a comment with a link to where I can see it.

Thanks to Steven Hildebrand and Rubén Andrés Martínez A. for the imaging help and as always, thanks to Dennis for designing such a cool set of vehicles. I hope he approves of our efforts.

NOTE: Be sure to right click and save the linked image and not just the thumbnail. These should be 8.5"x11" at 300dpi.

Built Version of the Kauth Card Models

Brilliant news! Ruben Andres Martinez on the Paper Modelers Forum has built all of the various vehicles contained in the booklet of models created by Dennis Kauth. There are several models included such as a small fighter-craft and a large tracked explorer. Go over to the Paper Modelers Forum and check out all of Ruben Andres's build notes and more pictures. (You might need to join to see all of the images. But it's a cool forum. :) )

You can find the original post about Dennis's models and scans HERE.

At some point I will be digitally coloring these and having fully built models makes it a much easier task.

Thank you Mr. Martinez!

The little robo-tankette fits into the tracked explorer.

The little additions like this full cockpit are a great touch. 

Kauth ATV Card Model

I was given a copy of this model that was designed by model-maker Dennis Kauth. Unfortunately Dennis died several years ago so I never got the chance to find out if this was designed for a particular game etc. The people who gave it to me were friends of Dennis's and wanted it to be scanned and distributed to other gamers who might enjoy it. I've never seen a finished version of it and would love to have someone take on the project of building it.

NOTE: There is a screen tone over the entire image that makes it appear gray. I've tried to remove this using Photoshop without success. At some point I'd like to color this but it will take a significant amount of time that I'm currently not willing to invest.

MORE NEWS! I heard from the friend of mine and Dennis's who first gave me the booklet and he confirmed that they were originally designed for TSR's Buck Rogers role playing game. They were never finalized and put into production, probably due to the shake-ups happening at TSR at the time.

And on the Star Frontiers: Alive and Well group on Facebook, Matthew Teets shared this Star Frontiers Skimmer that he purchased years ago. It's obviously designed by Dennis Kauth as well. (A couple of images have been added to the bottom of this post.)

Designing A Card Building for Robotech.

While I'm waiting for the Robotech Kickstarter stuff to start coming in I've been thinking about ways to make buildings for the inevitable city fight scenarios. There are several manufacturers that sell resin, laser-cut, or printable card models and some of them are outstanding. But while watching some of the first episodes of Macross/Robotech I decided that I wanted some buildings that look like those in Macross City. There's a sort of bizarre design aesthetic with these buildings that seems to combine sci-fi forward thinking with a basic Japanese neighborhood. 

Gerwalk down!

Sketches like this help to visualize basic shapes and proportions.

I took some screengrabs, did a few sketches and decided to start with this cool hex-topped building. Although I've done a good amount of card modeling I've never really designed my own model. Even with a building this simple there are difficulties that need to be overcome. 

I started by making a quick black and white mock-up in Illustrator and printing it out. This showed several problems and after correcting them I printed another copy, this time with windows and other details. Finally I took this into Photoshop and gave it some color. The windows were handled by Ronda Pattison, one of the perks of having one of the world's most talented comic colorists working at the next desk over.

I'm only taking baby steps with this one but I'd like to keep working on new designs. Please download the attached model, build it, and let me know of any construction problems you run across in the comments. Thanks in advance for your advice. 

Make sure to click this image and save the full resolution version. Print at 100%.