FINAL Red Ranger 3D Model Designs!

Today is a good day!  Today, we get to share with you the FINAL designs for the 3D model of the Red Ranger!  If you've been following along, you know that this has not been a simple or fast process.  In the spirit of "do it right or don't do it at all", we have gone over every detail of Red's design with a fine toothed comb in order to build the most badass, mind blowing character design you could ever dream of while still staying true to the original design we all know and love.

What we wanted was to find a balance between the increasingly popular look of plated armor as shown in Iron Man and the Dark Knight movies and the original spandex costume.  The solution we came up with was a leather material mixed with a sort of motor cycle body armor look.  Our graphic artist, Kevin DeLucia spent painstaking days upon days carving out each and every detail, utilizing his incredible talent to add details never before seen on a Power Ranger.  Check out the detail in the armor plating seen below.

 We kept all the same color elements and were sure to keep the original diamond pattern on the front.

 The helmet has the original "eyes" and "teeth" around the visor and we updated the mouth piece to mimic more of a mechanical breathing apparatus as opposed to the literal lips used in the original.

And finally, we added four LED lights to the costume suggesting a high tech mechanical element to the suit and providing some nice aesthetics.  The image below is the final design of the Red Ranger for Mighty Morphin Power Ranger: First Wave.  Enjoy!

Up next: we bring Red to life!  We'll give him a skeleton and teach him how to move!

The Putty Patrol: Re-Inventing a Soldier

Ah, the Putty Patrol.  While there is certainly a lot to be said about these energetic members of Rita Repulsa's team, one thing cannot be denied; there were memorable.  Spandex aside, the Patrol themselves are actually a rather terrifying character collectively.  I say this not just because of their grotesque appearance but the simple concept that they come from a seemingly unlimited supply of reinforcements. In First Wave, this will be a concept we intend to expand on.

The ease through which Rita is able to create her army presents the daunting idea that she could very easily launch an offensive against in a true one woman war.  This type of force deserved an upgrade, we felt.  So, the Putty Patrol has been re-designed while, of course, respecting the original material.  The Patrol featured in First Wave will be nearly 8 feet tall and tower over the Rangers making them a truly formidable foe.  Power and brut force will be the Putty Patrol's most powerful weapons against our heroes.

Designs and artwork by Ben Rosa

The Red Ranger helmet design

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When deciding the best way to design our version of the Red Ranger's helmet, it was important to respect the source material. The original mythology of each character's link to a specific species of dinosaur was always one of my favorite parts of the show. The Red Ranger's helmet was creatively designed to mimic the head and features of a T-Rex; probably one of the reasons he was such a popular character. This is an important design element that we didn't want to lose, which left us trying to decide what did need to change. 

The size of the helmets has always been the one feature I wished I could change. We decided to go with a slimmer look, one that would conform to the Ranger's head a little better and pull a some inspiration from characters like Iron Man. 

Design by Ben Rosa

Artwork by Kevin Delucia

We considered a variety of other options to help make the design unique and give it a more modern look. 

Artwork by Kevin Delucia

The mouth piece was one of our biggest challenges. The classic "lips" that appear on the original helmets were not quite what we wanted, but they are a significant part of the original design and we didn't want to ignore them. We considered a few options and ultimately landed on a type of breathing apparatus or vent. We can't wait to reveal the final design soon!