Alpha,

I'm already refining them (Frenchy now has brass fittings around his bakelite mouthpiece)! The "German" robot was actually a total redesign from a much cruder version I did last year. I agree with you on scratches, material variety, &c, and right now that's limited by my mapping, rendering, and lighting skills! I actually have a decent method for projecting scratches as a bump map, but I have to find that "perfect" bump level.

As for the designs themselves, I took my initial cue from "Boilerplate" (a fictional Victorian-era "mechanical man"; check out the website) and ran from there. I did some design sketches and tried to give everything a WWI era feel while keeping it simple and cartoony (with animation in mind, as that is what I do). In the era before industrial grade plastics, you had steel (enameled), copper, brass (and lots of it), bakelite, black rubber, and wood. Those are the materials I am trying to perfect. I've been playing with straight Blinn materials, adjusting the specularity, diffuse, roll-off, and reflectivity until it looked reasonably convincing. I haven't done layered shaders yet, that's the next step! I too like the "matte" look, and I'm trying to limit the "factory fresh" look.

Rigging was a big issue, and I spent more time rigging than modelling, but so far the rig works much better than I thought it would!

I totally appreciate your comments and will continue to refine these. Who ever has a model that's really "complete"?! :-)

Thanks again!