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 Building / Mecha / 14140
14139  |  14141
Subject: 
Re: IRON MECHA Results!
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.build.mecha
Date: 
Thu, 9 Feb 2006 18:47:10 GMT
Viewed: 
2820 times
  
This is like the difference between Fantasy and Science Fiction, which I
often
like to explain. :-) Science Fiction requires some intellectual rigor and
logic.
You can certainly make up weird new science, but it has to be self
consistent.
Similarly, you can come up with a totally bizarre mecha, unlike anything
that
has ever existed, but every single detail has to conform to some sort of
rationale or it's just a form of junk art - interesting to look at, even
beautiful, but not in any sense realistic (conforming to any possible
reality).

Hmmm, good explanation. If we're equating 'self-consistency' with 'realism'
then I agree with you. A good mecha design is not going to have any
'out-of-place' details. I guess I misunderstood your initial argument.

but on the other hand:

ps - If a rocket motor isn't positioned to give thrust behind a ship's
center of
mass, it isn't going to fly very well,

yeah, but if the ship is lego, it's never going to fly anyway!

and a top heavy mecha with tiny legs also
isn't going to walk very well. Realistic considerations. ;-)

Well, this is more true. Perhaps the realism thing is more applicable to
mecha; an unstable mecha is just going to look silly. Spaceships get to
operate in a vacuum where things like gravity and aerodynamics don't really
apply. And as this discussion is supposed to be about mecha, it was probably
amiss of me to bring up the space thing in the first place!


I've though a bit about why I like Thundersnatch and Little Fist. I reckon
it's because they're nice and clean. Now that's a word that's been used more
than once to describe my Iron Mecha, which is fine, of course I'm likely to
build models that end up fitting my idea of a good mecha. In my mind, clean
isn't opposed to detailed; but it's the 'intensity' of detailing on mecha
like Eric Sophies QWelder that turns me off I think - although I can still
appreciate the brilliance of the design! (This may be just a feature of
larger models, I'm not sure). Also, I think they're very well proportioned,
is this where 'realism' comes in?

mo.



Message is in Reply To:
  Re: IRON MECHA Results!
 
(...) This is like the difference between Fantasy and Science Fiction, which I often like to explain. :-) Science Fiction requires some intellectual rigor and logic. You can certainly make up weird new science, but it has to be self consistent. (...) (18 years ago, 9-Feb-06, to lugnet.build.mecha, FTX)

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