Gears Mospeada Project

[Tachyon]

I just looked through the "Imai Files" PDF I've got and there's more than 100 pages of Mospeada production art! I can't include all that. I guess I'll have to pick out what I think is interesting.

The more I read about Mospeada the more bummed I get. The guys behind the project had a lot of great ideas and great drawings. Their material got cut way down to create what we know as Mospeada. Also, their budget and public support weren't that great. I totally agree with Kakinuma's plea in the pages of Hobby Japan in 2007. Mospeada is ripe for a remake! Although, when I simmer down and think realistically I have to admit that there probably isn't a production house in Japan today that would be willing to take any sort of financial risk on a mecha show. There aren't even many mecha shows being made anymore.

Well, we have the mecha designs - both finished and rough. Let's enjoy them and imagine the Mospeada that might have been.

[Tachyon]

I've identified my sources for this project. 2 Mospeada art books (one old and one new), 2 Entertainment Bibles focusing on Artmic Studio, a B Club Special on Artmic Studio, the Imai Files (PDF) and a few pages taken from a 2007 issue of Hobby Japan.

I've marked 59 pages of the Imai Files that I think have interesting production art. I'm going to offer it at decent resolution but not high resolution.

I have Mospeada on DVD (subtitled) and I just recently watched Love, Live, Alive OAV (also subtitled). I think I'm ready for this project.

[Tachyon]

I settled out character names. There's some disagreement among fans on the proper way to render the katakana for characters like Fu-ke, Mint and a few others. Also, I scanned some color images that I haven't yet had a chance to fully clean up. Color images for Mospeada are awfully difficult to come by. After putting together 4 books (one of them quite rare) I now have... not much. But it's a good enough collection of images to build a Mospeada section.

It's going to take me some time to clean up 2 fold-out posters. They're awfully nice images so I think it's worth the effort. I just wish they weren't such difficult images to work with. The 2 "remake" or "re-imagining" images for the Mospeada ride armor came out beautifully. After I clean away the backgrounds I think they'll be marvelous additions to the section.

[Tachyon]

I've been caught up in family matters lately but I haven't let Mospeada work slide completely. I've cleaned up one of the two "remake" images for the mospeada cycle. I've also cleaned up one of the 2 fold-out posters. It's a poster showing Yellow and Refless. I've got some more work to do to get over this hump. From there, the rest of the color images won't be that hard to work with.

[Tachyon]

I've cleaned up both Mospeada remake cycle images. They're pretty cool. I'm working on removing the fold lines from a ride armor fold-out poster. It's really hard! The image is a painting rather than cell art. Every time I try to rub out the lines I get a smear that looks awful. I'll keep trying.

I've also finished my Mospeada logo image. It started from a scanned image so it took a lot of clean up.

[Tachyon]

Yay! I finished the most difficult images. I'm doing clean up now on color images of invid troops. The Color Graphiti book has some decent invid images in color but they need their neon backgrounds removed or they'll look weird. Next I'm going to scan 5 original Amano color images of characters. I haven't seen them online before.

[Tachyon]

I've got the Amano character images cleaned up. I'm still working on clean up for the invid color images. I lost some time trying to "save" a color image of the garmo. The blue and white invid mech was rendered as black and white and I thought I could pull a shade of blue out of the black. No luck. I deleted my scans because they make it look all wrong.

[Tachyon]

My 5 color inbit scans are all cleaned up now. The character and human mecha color images that need to be scanned now will need a lot less clean up. I should be able to move quickly through the remaining color images. I'm looking forward to working with the black and white line art. I can turn on some good music and enter a zen-like state as I clean up line art scans.

[Tachyon]

I have all the color character images cleaned up. It's a shame I can't find any color images for Sorji or Battra. I made good progress last night and now I only have to scan color images for the legioss and ride armors.

[Tachyon]

All color images for Mospeada scanned and cleaned up. I don't know how much time I'll have this weekend but I'd like to start in on the black and white images. I'd also like to try starting the pages of the section with just the color images. That might make for a nice "preview". Again, I'll have to see what I can put together. I have two little boys who are wanting a trip to the park.

[Tachyon]

I had a number of hours to devote to Mospeada this weekend but I spent them researching and typing up the intro, story and Inbit pages. It brought me closer to finishing the section preview that I'd like to show you all before the project is done. The Inbit page has information on the Inbit as a whole and will feature images showing the Inbit home world and Inbit hives on Earth.

Can you believe that not one Mospeada book has any images of the Synchro Cannon!? Screen captures are all that can be had.

[Tachyon]

I've typed up the character descriptions. Next I'll scan images of Inbit hives and start resizing the color images for the section preview. It will take me some time to translate the "data" sections that give specs on human mecha. I'm going to leave that for last.

[Tachyon]

I haven't stopped working on the Mospeada section. I translated notes last night for the Legioss armo-fighter schematic. I'm almost done resizing the color images for display. I still need to puzzle through some Japanese text and see if I can get any hints for the big space ships. I know so little about them. Also, the best way to display the 2007 Hobby Japan images while keeping them properly linked to their text is a challenge I must meet.

I'd like to have the preview of the section up by the end of the weekend. We'll see how things shake out.

[Tachyon]

Still working away on Mospeada material. I'm getting bogged down now on the Inbit page. I'm attempting some minor translations just so I'll know what to call some things. I'm finding lots of great stuff to scan but I've got to stay on task.

[Tachyon]

http://www.gearsonline.net/series/mospeada/

That's the link to the preview of the Mospeada section on Gears Online. The section isn't done. I still have to put up specs for mecha (like height and weight), production art and black and white images. What's there is probably enough to give you a sense of what the section will be like. If you would like to provide any sort of feedback just let me know. You can make a post under Other Series here on the message board or send me a private message.