Zaktan

[J6Crash]

So this Zaktan Revamp is a few weeks old at this point. He was built for a contest but then I found out that due to my vacation coming up I would be unable to participate so here he is as a one day, rather minimalist build. The torso only looks good from the front, you can't see it in the back picture because the spine covers it up but his back is a complete mess. I'm very limited in dark green as I discovered and it probably would have been smarter to do Reidak or Vezok, but I don't like those color schemes as much.Here's a picture for you to admire:And here are some more:FrontBackSideGallery (of four pictures)Should you choose to express your thoughts on this MOC, please make your post worth reading.Edit: Image thumbnailed due to file size; please keep posted images in BBC to 100 kB.-Wind-Thanks, it's been a long time since I posted pictures and I forgot about that rule.

Edited June 25, 2012 by ~Legoman~

[BBBBalta]

I like the torso, though the head's position looks far too low. The double-jointed legs are...interesting. Not what I would've chosen, but not necessarily a bad thing. The feet connections are simple yet effective in reducing the length of the ankles usually associated with using that foot piece. Unfortunately, they also restrict natural foot movement. In terms of color scheme, it looks pretty consistent, though the gold is a bit dense on the torso.Overall, though, this is a great revamp.

[BrickPharaoh]

This is quite interesting, though I feel it is somehow lacking in terms of a revamp. The contrast between the dark green and gold is too much, maybe using a third color would benefit the look greatly.

[otter]

I don't quite recall Zaktan as being digitigrade, but this actually works for him. Nice change.

[FrozenFlash]

It's a nice revamp. The extra armoring on the torso is great. However, the head is too low and it should be a bit higher up. Other than that, great job on this!

[The Swimming Beard]

It's a really good revamp. The armour on the torso looks good, and I like the leg design. However, I do agree with others that the head is a bit too low.

[~garnira returns~]

Looks great, however, the inverted legs dont appeal to me.

[Darknut]

Ok it's review time. I haven't built or reviewed a moc in a while so it may not be very good but I'm gonna give it my best shot. I'm gonna start from the top down I guess.For starters, as a previous poster mentioned, the lack of a third color kind of hurts the overall end product a lot more than one would expect. You seem to have some black littered about the design as seen on the leg joints, which would is a possible candidate for your third underlying color, yet at the same time Zaktan's shoulders have a mix of Metru Gray and Black, which is kind of confusing to say the least. If I where you I would try to use either black or Metru Gray and not both, although which of these colors you wish to use is solely up to you, because to be honest I don't know which would look more appealing, although I'm leaning towards the black personally since it would blend very nicely with the vast amount of pegs in the moc. Know for the head and upper body, I personally think it looks good. The matching of the eye color with Zamor Sphere was a nice little touch and the overall hunched back is wonderful looking on a Skakdi in my opinion. The layering of Green and Gold is incredibly done along with fact that you added some depth to the original set, as in the three dimensionality of his torso in general. You did a good job in covering most gaps in the upper body minus the gray (++) pieces on the back, which would be fine if they were just black as that alone would help them blend in a lot more effectively. As for the random black pegs sticking out of the green Metru feet, if they aren't holding anything up or together you may want to flip them or swap them with a tri-peg so they are facing the inside, and then simply build off of them like that to fix your gaps on his back. There's not much to say about the arms really, they fit him well considering he is a revamp, although again a third color would of helped make it look a bit better in my opinion. Also, maybe simply using a three length peg on the upper shoulders instead of the two length one so that you could stick a Metru Knee or Inika Knee piece behind the shoulder spines would help the overall back of the model in general. I would recommend using one in Metru green, as to not clash with the spine. The rest of the arms are fine as is minus coloring issues, and the weapons are good too although I feel like if you colored the Zamor launcher or simply added some sort of custom aiming device onto it it might make it look a bit better.Now on to the Torso as a whole. First off wow, you did an excellent overall job on the upper body, front and back. You've filled in most of the gaps and done an excellent job in color layering with the green and gold to the point were it truly looks like the gold is armor plating and not just part of his body. The depth of the model is also incredibly done, totally loving the lower back and the fact that you used a Piraka foot as the base for the front of the body. The connection joint to the Vahki waist is nicely done, and again I love the lower back underneath the spine. Does he have waist articulation? I can't really tell but if he does then that's definitely very nicely done as it seems you used that joint on the back of the Vahki waist to it's full potential. Onto the legs, and in my opinion the most lackluster part of the work as a whole. The upper legs are nicely done on the sides with the Visorak feet, but the front of them is, well yeah just unimpressive as a whole. Try using two of the (+oo+) pieces instead on the top of it in order to connect that knee pad, as that will get rid of the jutting peg which is honestly one of the only real bad parts of the legs. However that may also make it jut out too much overall, which wouldn't help much. Know the Triple jointed legs are absolutely splendid, I'm thrilled that your revamp has them as I've always thought Skakdi would look great with them, and you've definitely proven me right in my opinion. I've got no gripes about them at all. The rest of the legs and the feet are good, although some thing about the Inikia Knee pads on the lower legs irks me out, but whatever I bet it's just me.Overall, it's a really solid revamp with only a few minor flaws which all seem to be easily fixable. Again like I said I haven't moced or reviewed in a while so my advice may not be that helpful. Also, sorry if I was harsh with this review, again its been a while since I did one of these. Hope this helps you out some.

[Toa Turing]

This is great. I love the legs.Edit: While technically this isn't a generic post, it cuts it close. Please try to be a bit more elaborate next time.-Wind-

Edited June 25, 2012 by -Windrider-

[Nuparu1995]

Nice work on the gold torso detail!!

[J6Crash]

Alright, much more of a response than I was expecting. Thanks guys.Before I reply to individual quotes, I'm going to go ahead and say the head is deliberately low to create the hunchback. That, along with digitrade legs, is something I've always thought Skakdi needed so you can't convince me to raise it. Not to mention I think it would look worse as a whole, not just as an image of a Skakdi in my mind.

The feet connections are simple yet effective in reducing the length of the ankles usually associated with using that foot piece. Unfortunately, they also restrict natural foot movement. In terms of color scheme, it looks pretty consistent, though the gold is a bit dense on the torso.Overall, though, this is a great revamp.

Yeah, the ankles are a bit restricted, but I figured it was better than the normal connection and there was no way I'd be able make custom feet at this size in dark green

This is quite interesting, though I feel it is somehow lacking in terms of a revamp. The contrast between the dark green and gold is too much, maybe using a third color would benefit the look greatly.

The third color would probably be a good idea, I didn't really think about it at the time, but apparently I do have a pair of black short double joints that I could use on the upper arms and it would take only a few more color changes after that to make it work. I originally had sand green as the tertiary color, but having only one Zaktan I didn't have enough of it to use evenly in all the joints.Ok, Darknut, I'm going to split your review into bite size chunks.

Ok it's review time. I haven't built or reviewed a moc in a while so it may not be very good but I'm gonna give it my best shot. I'm gonna start from the top down I guess.

Good to see you back in the game, welcome back.

For starters, as a previous poster mentioned, the lack of a third color kind of hurts the overall end product a lot more than one would expect. You seem to have some black littered about the design as seen on the leg joints, which would is a possible candidate for your third underlying color, yet at the same time Zaktan's shoulders have a mix of Metru Gray and Black, which is kind of confusing to say the least. If I where you I would try to use either black or Metru Gray and not both, although which of these colors you wish to use is solely up to you, because to be honest I don't know which would look more appealing, although I'm leaning towards the black personally since it would blend very nicely with the vast amount of pegs in the moc.

See above about the third color thing.As for the combination of black/gray, that was mostly me being impatient and not wanting to rip apart some MOCs or WIPs that I've been trying to keep together. Ideally all of the gray would be black. I was hoping I'd managed to hide most of the gray (not including the back) but it looks like you caught me.

Now for the head and upper body, I personally think it looks good. The matching of the eye color with Zamor Sphere was a nice little touch and the overall hunched back is wonderful looking on a Skakdi in my opinion. The layering of Green and Gold is incredibly done along with fact that you added some depth to the original set, as in the three dimensionality of his torso in general. You did a good job in covering most gaps in the upper body minus the gray (++) pieces on the back, which would be fine if they were just black as that alone would help them blend in a lot more effectively. As for the random black pegs sticking out of the green Metru feet, if they aren't holding anything up or together you may want to flip them or swap them with a tri-peg so they are facing the inside, and then simply build off of them like that to fix your gaps on his back.

I'm glad you agree about the hunch.The black pegs are actually very deliberately placed; they keep the Metru feet from sliding down the shoulder. The issue with building behind the Metru feet is that there is no space back there. If I used black it would probably be possible, but not with my green.

There's not much to say about the arms really, they fit him well considering he is a revamp, although again a third color would of helped make it look a bit better in my opinion. Also, maybe simply using a three length peg on the upper shoulders instead of the two length one so that you could stick a Metru Knee or Inika Knee piece behind the shoulder spines would help the overall back of the model in general. I would recommend using one in Metru green, as to not clash with the spine. The rest of the arms are fine as is minus coloring issues, and the weapons are good too although I feel like if you colored the Zamor launcher or simply added some sort of custom aiming device onto it it might make it look a bit better.

Fair enough. Those would be pretty simple things to fix.

Now on to the Torso as a whole. First off wow, you did an excellent overall job on the upper body, front and back. You've filled in most of the gaps and done an excellent job in color layering with the green and gold to the point were it truly looks like the gold is armor plating and not just part of his body. The depth of the model is also incredibly done, totally loving the lower back and the fact that you used a Piraka foot as the base for the front of the body. The connection joint to the Vahki waist is nicely done, and again I love the lower back underneath the spine. Does he have waist articulation? I can't really tell but if he does then that's definitely very nicely done as it seems you used that joint on the back of the Vahki waist to it's full potential.

Thanks. There is some waist articulation which is actually used a little in the main pic, but because of the positioning of the joint it looks pretty bad if it's anything but straight.

Onto the legs, and in my opinion the most lackluster part of the work as a whole. The upper legs are nicely done on the sides with the Visorak feet, but the front of them is, well yeah just unimpressive as a whole. Try using two of the (+oo+) pieces instead on the top of it in order to connect that knee pad, as that will get rid of the jutting peg which is honestly one of the only real bad parts of the legs. However that may also make it jut out too much overall, which wouldn't help much. Know the Triple jointed legs are absolutely splendid, I'm thrilled that your revamp has them as I've always thought Skakdi would look great with them, and you've definitely proven me right in my opinion. I've got no gripes about them at all. The rest of the legs and the feet are good, although some thing about the Inikia Knee pads on the lower legs irks me out, but whatever I bet it's just me.

I spent a surprisingly long time trying to get rid of that pig in the thigh, but all of my solutions (including yours) forced the thigh to be thicker which didn't look so goo with the armor.I actually agree with the Inika armor on the shins, the shape is somehow not quite right. I like the shape and texture of Piraka thighs better but I thought they were a bit too bulky and it was too close to how the thighs looks. Repeating patterns is good, but not pasting the same thing over and over onto something.

Overall, it's a really solid revamp with only a few minor flaws which all seem to be easily fixable. Again like I said I haven't moced or reviewed in a while so my advice may not be that helpful. Also, sorry if I was harsh with this review, again its been a while since I did one of these. Hope this helps you out some.

Thanks, it's goo to see you back online. Review was good as well, hit most of the points I disliked and a couple I didn't.Maybe I'll even give him his limbs back and try out some of your ideas. Maybe when I get bored (which won't take long).Thank you everyone for your feedback, it's appreciated.