BBCC 64 Entry: Kit Martello

[Aanchir]

Kit MartelloDon't let her cute face and perky attitude mislead you — Kit is a skilled rabbit warrior, as adept at fighting unarmed as she is brandishing her giant hammer.Front - Side - Back - 3/4Battle-ready - Rabbit kick - Sitting pretty - Kicking back - Hammer detailFlickr gallery

My entry for BBCC64. 93 pieces total. She was originally a MOC I made shortly after arriving at college this semester, as an experiment in making a female Hero Factory figure that is well-armored on all sides. Furno's helmet was used due to its unique look and cute, feminine expression when used in reverse.After the contest was announced I added the tail to reinforce the animal motifs of the helmet. I considered a squirrel tail (since bunny girls are unbelievably cliché), but I had a hard enough time creating a connection point that could support a tail this small.Feel free to share any thoughts, comments, or criticisms. Edited February 6, 2013 by Aanchir: Rachira of Time

[Guest X-G.12]

cool MOC! I have to say, this is one of the few female MOCs that i've seen that's been executed like this, not nimble and fast, but rather built like a wrecking ball. one question though. what animal is this based on? you said lupine, and I believe that is a wolf, but then you mentioned a squirrel tail and I'm getting confused.

[Aanchir]

cool MOC! I have to say, this is one of the few female MOCs that i've seen that's been executed like this, not nimble and fast, but rather built like a wrecking ball. one question though. what animal is this based on? you said lupine, and I believe that is a wolf, but then you mentioned a squirrel tail and I'm getting confused.

No, lapine, which comes from the French word for rabbit. It's the name of the rabbit language used in the book Watership Down, but I used it not in direct reference to that but rather because I liked the derivation (Googling it, it seems it's also a popular term for rabbit characters within the furry fandom as well). I might edit the post to make this clearer since I suppose it is more confusing than it is descriptive.... Edited February 6, 2013 by Aanchir: Rachira of Time

[Chro]

Well, this doesn't remind me much of a rabbit... just the tail, I guess. Neat little HF build, though.

[Meiko]

Nice body design. The front looks great, but the back doesn't look like something that would work on a human or a robot. It's too small compared to the front. There also seems to be a gap between the shoulders and the head, that doesn't look very feminine. Fix those two things and it'll be a very nice MOC.

[Guest X-G.12]

cool MOC! I have to say, this is one of the few female MOCs that i've seen that's been executed like this, not nimble and fast, but rather built like a wrecking ball. one question though. what animal is this based on? you said lupine, and I believe that is a wolf, but then you mentioned a squirrel tail and I'm getting confused.

No, lapine, which comes from the French word for rabbit. It's the name of the rabbit language used in the book Watership Down, but I used it not in direct reference to that but rather because I liked the derivation (Googling it, it seems it's also a popular term for rabbit characters within the furry fandom as well). I might edit the post to make this clearer since I suppose it is more confusing than it is descriptive....

ah. post was cleared up. lapine and lupine. latin people were crazy but anyways, as stated, nice moc. rabbit warrior....

[InnerRayg]

Nothing about it screams rabbit. It really could use like, some big ears, or just a better color scheme that's all white or brown or something. Frankly I clicked the topic because I was utterly bamboozled as to what kind of animal it could be.I don't know enough about the new hero factory construction to say whether it's technically well built or not, but it certainly looks pretty solid. I like the little robo finger bits used on the chest, they seem unique.

[Aanchir]

Nothing about it screams rabbit. It really could use like, some big ears, or just a better color scheme that's all white or brown or something. Frankly I clicked the topic because I was utterly bamboozled as to what kind of animal it could be.I don't know enough about the new hero factory construction to say whether it's technically well built or not, but it certainly looks pretty solid. I like the little robo finger bits used on the chest, they seem unique.

Furno's mask as I used it already suggested long pointy ears, a rabbity nose, and long whiskers, at least to me. I'm kind of surprised that other people don't see it that way, but it wouldn't be the first time my creative vision has been blurry and/or distorted. Gotta get rid of those creative glasses with the two-inch-thick lenses.Perhaps the confusion is because my photos aren't that good. I used my iPhone, which has the best camera I own. But let's present the face a bit more clearly using a digital aid, shall we? How does this not look rabbit-like?A better color scheme would not have been easy. I have very few brown pieces with me at college besides the ones that came in Ogrum and a handful of basic System pieces (few of which are the sort of small detail pieces I'd need to make a custom head). White pieces would be slightly easier, but overall I should reiterate that this was largely an attempt at adapting a MOC I had already made into a contest entry. I would be more likely to just choose a different animal than to arbitrarily set my sights on making a particular animal that would take extraordinary effort. The only reason this MOC became a rabbit was because I had already decided to use Furno's mask prior to the contest, and it inherently suggested a rabbit's face to me. Edited February 7, 2013 by Aanchir: Rachira of Time

[Xaeraz]

I barely see rabbit in this at all, really. The armoring is nice, and the hammer is very well constructed, but this says neither Effeminate nor Lapine to me.

 

For example, her shoulders look to be using the wide Hero Factory base skeleton, so about nine studs wide, right? Yet her hips use the same base, at around five studs wide. Now, from a strictly human anatomical perspective, the hips of the female tend to be wider than the male, and the shoulders narrower. The decision to use the large half round shells on the shoulders and the snug ventilated boxes on the thighs doesn't much help with this, either, as the round shells give her shoulders the illusion of greater width, and contrast the close fit of the boxes that much more.

 

From an anthropomorphic perspective, proportions do tend to be a tad more fluid in that circle, but not to this extent. In addition, the lengthened neck feels strange straight up like that, and the ears feel very small for a rabbit. Common real rabbits tend to have ears about 75 to 110 percent the size of the length of their head. (Roughly. I'm not a biologist.) These are maybe ten, twenty percent the length of hers? I realize you're working with the constraint of the helmet here, and I can, on further examination, see slight hints of a rabbit there, but they are very slim hints. And, in all honesty, the High Quality digital version of the helmet does not help my recognition of these features.

 

Color-wise, it's a bit hectic. Red, Trans Neon Green, Gunmetal, Silver, Bley, and Black are all vying for attention here and it just comes out muddled, unfortunately.

 

Now, that having been said, the construction of this MoC is very nice! You did a good job presenting a cohesive armoring on Kit, something the HF plates don't always lend themselves to. I must especially complement the sides, and the unbroken appearance you gave them with the small plate, combined with the wide claw base piece.

 

Apologies if I worded this somewhat harshly.

[Meiko]

I don't see how people are missing the rabbit in this. It's got the ears, whiskers, and chubby face.

 

Maybe it needs more and

 

Just cover it in bunnies.

Edited February 7, 2013 by Meiko

[Aanchir]

I barely see rabbit in this at all, really. The armoring is nice, and the hammer is very well constructed, but this says neither Effeminate nor Lapine to me. For example, her shoulders look to be using the wide Hero Factory base skeleton, so about nine studs wide, right? Yet her hips use the same base, at around five studs wide. Now, from a strictly human anatomical perspective, the hips of the female tend to be wider than the male, and the shoulders narrower. The decision to use the large half round shells on the shoulders and the snug ventilated boxes on the thighs doesn't much help with this, either, as the round shells give her shoulders the illusion of greater width, and contrast the close fit of the boxes that much more.

For the record, the 9x11 torso beam is pretty accurate for a female figure. If the overall width of the hips were much wider they'd be as wide as the shoulders, which might work for excessively sexualized depictions of females but isn't especially realistic for the typical real-life woman. Also, as for bulky shoulderpads giving the impression of wider shoulders, I personally get the opposite impression. Bulky shoulder pads like this to me suggest armor, especially when the color layering is specifically geared towards giving that impression (I did, after all, have red spherical shells; it was a deliberate design choice not to use them.

From an anthropomorphic perspective, proportions do tend to be a tad more fluid in that circle, but not to this extent. In addition, the lengthened neck feels strange straight up like that, and the ears feel very small for a rabbit. Common real rabbits tend to have ears about 75 to 110 percent the size of the length of their head. (Roughly. I'm not a biologist.) These are maybe ten, twenty percent the length of hers? I realize you're working with the constraint of the helmet here, and I can, on further examination, see slight hints of a rabbit there, but they are very slim hints. And, in all honesty, the High Quality digital version of the helmet does not help my recognition of these features.

Well, I guess the photo wasn't as bad as I thought then. The hints are there; how meaningful they are to people is entirely out of my control.

Color-wise, it's a bit hectic. Red, Trans Neon Green, Gunmetal, Silver, Bley, and Black are all vying for attention here and it just comes out muddled, unfortunately.

I was quite proud to use very logical color layering on this model. Realistically I couldn't have made the color scheme any simpler with the parts I have with me at college; at least, not without it being very drab and boring.Originally (before I settled on Furno's mask) I planned on using titanium metallic and silver metallic for all the solid-colored armor (getting a Breez set for its very feminine-looking helmet) and using Transparent Bright Green instead of Transparent Fluorescent Green. However, this color scheme was very drab, and my inability to find a Breez set anywhere in my area led me to experiment with other heads. After discovering the usefulness of Furno's mask I considered Bricklinking the parts to replace all the titanium metallic parts with bright red, and truly at one point I had this model with all-black beams and red armor everywhere but the hips, chest, and shoulders. Still, the color scheme seemed bland. Once I decided to do some more sophisticated layering, rendering her boots in titanium metallic, everything clicked. I used red beams everywhere there was a red shell to suggest that red was the lowest layer of armor, with transparent fluorescent green as a "skin" layer.Really, I've rendered a couple alternate color schemes on LDD using existing parts (including one which is entirely black except for the friction joints), but overall I think this color scheme has the most visual interest by far. The only change I might make if I had the parts would be to switch all the transparent fluorescent green parts except the head with bright red ones, but otherwise this model is about as orderly as I think I could make it without it becoming terribly bland.

Now, that having been said, the construction of this MoC is very nice! You did a good job presenting a cohesive armoring on Kit, something the HF plates don't always lend themselves to. I must especially complement the sides, and the unbroken appearance you gave them with the small plate, combined with the wide claw base piece. Apologies if I worded this somewhat harshly.

I appreciate your compliment on this set's construction. And eh, I guess sometimes I need a reminder that I really do not have much design talent. Hero Factory parts are fun and easy to build with but frankly being able to MOC with such a user-friendly building system doesn't really say a lot for me when other builders are able to make Technic and System speak to people on a similar level. Really, though, I am typically happy if I can make a model look as good and have as much personality as an official set.

[Mare Tranquillitatis]

I can see the rabbit-ish part in this, apart from that tail: I suppose it's the "mustache".

 

Anyways, I think you gave her a very good feminine look and "Martello" is totally matching with her weapon.

However, the neck is too long IMO.

 

Apart from that, I can't see any other flaws. The color scheme isn't even bad: I always thought that yellow would have clashed with black, brwon and grey, but it seems great here.

 

Good luck for the BBCC!

[Guest Takua the Chronicler7]

It doesn't really look like a rabbit apart from the face. However I really like the hammer and how it has all these spikes on it.

[Zacian]

I made a MOC with the backwards Furno head. But mine was a scorpion. I thought the head looked more like a Makuta.

[AdaptingChaos]

I always thought that someone should make a moc using furnos head but on a female character and it looks like it happened! Great work!