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  2. captain america
    Captain's log: Thursday, May 8th, 2025. Have a look at pic 37: those are all the cutting and shaping tools I use on the lathe, with the exception of the face-end mill, which you saw in part 1. While they are few, they all serve a purpose, depending on the part needing to be created. The grinding stones on the left are used for shaping more than cutting, so these usually come in when I'm making curved shapes of a particular diameter. You'll see what I mean in the next few steps. 37.HEIC If you go back to plate 32 from last week's update, the missile pod interface joint, we see that same part again in pic 38, only now it's on the mill. I need to make a very wide, cylindrical channel across this piece, so I begin by removing material with the regular steel milling shanks. After that, I use the larger bull-nose shank to round-down those large stair-steps, then go in with the 'lollipop' grinding stone, to refine the curve even further. Then on the last step, I use 80 grit sandpaper wrapped over a cylindrical shape to refine the curve until it looks like what you see in pic 39. This part is now almost ready to hold the large missile container!--more on that in just a bit. 39.HEIC38.HEIC Pic 40 shows the back side of the main body/hull structure. Here I'm test-fitting many of the other parts that will attach to this component. You can still see some of the pencil marks on the blocks which were used as reference point for detail machining. 40.HEIC Because the shoulder missile pods are just too large for me to machine safely on my equipment, I broke-down the component parts and created files on the computer (pic 41) which will be used to make STL files for 3D printing. I enlisted Carlos from MEPTOYS to create those files, which he popped-out in just a few days (THANK YOU!!!), and you can see those shapes in pics 42-44. I didn't need any details to be added on the surfaces; I will do all that by hand to make sure the aesthetics match the rest of the model. Pics 45-48 finally show what I've been working toward. While still lacking refinement, the proportions look great and the parts will be designed to fit with alignment pegs in critical areas to make the model as sturdy as can be. From this point onward, things will be moving a bit faster, as most of the major components are now shaped, so stay tuned for next week's update! 48.HEIC47.HEIC46.HEIC45.HEIC
  3. Roy Focker
    I tried watching that episode of Rebel for the first time. I just couldn't. The animation is ugly. Character designs are atrocious and nothing moves like it should. Dialog and story is too juvenile. I refuse to believe Andor is in the same universe as the cartoons or even the other Disney plus shows. Their tones are completely different. Their rules are completely different.
  4. Papa Rat
    @MechTech Thanks for the pointers. I finally have a monster kit on the way and I hear it eats up the putty.
  5. pengbuzz
    You've been to New Haven? O.o
  6. electric indigo
    Senbai-san delivers another masterpiece
  7. jammaker
    New Figure "Major Booker" https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/11194288
  8. Duke Togo
    Who cares?
  9. MechTech
    @Papa Rat Nice fixes to the rear. By the way, use Milliput when it is still wet. It smooths down great with water and your fingers saving sanding, and trim it with blades while still semi-cured. It is good stuff. It just needs practice like any tool. @Urashiman Cool! Getting all electronicy too! I looked through my dad's old Lionel train stuff. There was this glob of aluminum with fins about the size of a small matchbox. I asked him what it was. He said, "A diode"! Technology sure has changed! 😁- MT
  10. JB0
    And every last one of them was brought to Sol by Kamjin, making him the most annoying troll in Earth history! ... Or not.
  11. electric indigo
    Stephen King wrote "The Long Walk" even before "Running Man" in '79 IMO it's the most brutal of the "Battle Royale" type storys.
  12. BroTaku79
    All of my stuff are made in South Korea by Project Blue aka Minoltian. I generally try to restock every month but it is really challenging sometimes. I will be restocking towards end of the month of May though. Thanks.
  13. tekering
    Even worse, they claim that the plaza (where the monument to the Tarkin Massacre stands) is where 500 protestors were killed when Tarkin landed his ship on top of them... Where and how could you land a ship that big in a space that small? 🤔 We know that the circular terrace that surrounds the plaza was erected before the event, since it's clearly visible in the promotional video the ISB officers watch in episode 7. The monument is conspicuously absent from the plaza in the video, dating it prior to the Tarkin Massacre. The geography makes no damn sense. 🤨
  14. mikeszekely
    I upgraded from the original Ally to the Ally X during a black friday sale. The slight performance bump due to more RAM and the being clocked slightly higher at each power level was nice, but the bigger battery and second USB port were what made all the difference. The battery on the Ally X is big enough that I can play on the 25w profile for a solid hour and a half while my daughter's in her Monday dance classes, and the second USB port means I can use my Viture glasses while the Ally X is plugged in. I see that the black Ally 2 has two USB ports, which is great, but if the battery life is worse than the Ally X that could be a non-starter for me.
  15. jenius
    Anyone know a shop still selling the next reissue of the Eta? The only place I could find was Nin Nin and I don't really trust them.
  16. Seto Kaiba
    My group just finished watching Andor's latest batch of episodes about 30min or so ago... That was INCREDIBLE. I am blown away. Just absolutely jaw-on-the-floor blown away. Having now watched it myself, I have to ask... "Just one?" Andor has, in my opinion, firmly cemented its position as the single best Star Wars series ever made and combined with Rogue One the best Star Wars story ever told. To hell with the moral absolutes of the glowstick enthusiast society... this is where Star Wars should focus its efforts. Not on high-and-mighty space monks fighting battles over destiny and prophecy, but on the regular people of the galaxy struggling against tyranny and oppression. This series stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the very best of Star Trek in terms of socially aware and relevant allegory and commentary. This hit like a sledgehammer. I do love that they took the time to, very quietly and subtly, tie Mon Mothma's escape into the Rebels episode by mentioning Gold Squadron had been dispatched to escort her to Yavin IV. They didn't make a meal out of it or use it for cameos, but the connection is there.
  17. Leorus5
    Leorus5 joined the community
  18. Seto Kaiba
    Oh, I am very familiar with it... it took a very long time and a lot of judicious importing of hobby magazines to get much of any information on the game (and its TRPG nominal sequel Eternal Love Song), since almost all the coverage of it is in hobby magazines for the PC Engine game system. It was my second-ever big foray into researching and translating Macross publications, kickstarted by my initial project for Macross II: Lovers Again based on oh-so-many inaccuracies in the Palladium Books RPG. How time flies. That was more than twenty years ago now. Incidentally, to answer your question about the designation... the VF-1AR/JR/SR designation comes to us primarily, but not entirely, through Bandai Entertainment Bible No.51. It is most commonly referred to as the "Attack Valkyrie", but sometimes/rarely as the Refined Valkyrie... which is where the R comes from. It is a late 2010s/early 2020s-era major upgrade to the VF-1 Valkyrie. Its boosters are a semi-permanent attachment called the Super Pack II that combines the functions of the Super Pack and Strike Pack. There are 3 primary variants, same as the base model VF-1. Komilia's VF-1SR, Lott's VF-1JR, and the grunt model VF-1AR. Same as in Macross II. The UN Spacy had a LOT of Zentradi and Meltrandi defectors on its hands after the First Space War, and so in the Macross II timeline they make use of a great many Zentradi ships that are retrofitted to accommodate Variable Fighters and miclone crews alongside giant Zentradi. By this point in the timeline, Humanity has started incorporating both Zentran and Meltran overtechnology into their own ships and weapons. A slow process that will culminate in the post-2054 major revamping of the UN Spacy fleet and the creation of the Macross II designs. The Daedalus II-class is an Advanced ARMD that's one of the post-war developments. There are at least 18 of the things kicking around in 2036-2037 including the Daedalus II and the Prometheus II. They were developed to support extrasolar exploration fleets led by Macross and Megaroad-class ships. Yep... they're not meant to be as big as the game represents them, with the exception of Quamzin's personal machine which is a mobile suit that's practically Sazabi-scaled for a Zentradi. In the main, this game and its TRPG sequel Macross: Eternal Love Song, really cemented the idea that there were a BUNCH more Zentradi designs out there that various fleets had that Earth simply hadn't encountered yet. The sequel as also the first time any official media depicted the VF-4 transforming or gave it a name (VF-4 Siren). That original name remains a canonical in-universe nickname of the VF-4's. The backstory implies that Quamzin survived the events of DYRL? and went on to lead an insurgency in a similar manner to what he did in the TV series, but instead of making his suicide run he legged it into space once he got his hands on a ship. He comes back to Earth twice... the first time looking to Get Revenge for the defeat of the Boddole Zer fleet by bringing the Neld Main Fleet to Earth. When THAT doesn't work, he tries to weaponize Earth's culture against a Meltrandi fleet and that backfires too. Both games help set up/corroborate a plot point in the Macross II: Lovers Again about how Earth comes under semi-regular attack by Zentradi (and Meltrandi) fleets and that the task of fighting them off has become routine enough for the military to become complacent. By 2092 in that timeline, Earth had successfully fended off at least five Main Fleets from the Zentran and Meltran forces (Moruk Laplamiz's doesn't count, IMO, since Boddole Zer did that) and was being attacked every couple years by smaller straggler forces of rogue Zentran and/or Meltran ships left over from the defeated main fleets.
  19. azrael
    My only complaint about the Ghorman scenes were, in particular, the city plaza felt too small to be a city square. I know they made a 500 sq ft set at Pinewood Studios but was there no other location in the world that would have made a more grander city square? For a city that dominates an entire entrance to a valley, that city square felt more like a town square. It felt more the size of the Cour Carrée outside of the Lourve Museum in Paris and less like a Millennium Park in Chicago or New Have Green in Connecticut. I felt it should have been bigger.
  20. MKT

    Strike A Pose! revisted...

    MKT replied to dapro's topic in Toys

    An old test shot. Just wanting to highlight the fuselage and intake curves.
  21. MKT
    Just checked both ETAs on display and not noticing any cracks too. Others red & green still in their boxes, hopefully are ok.
  22. davidwhangchoi
    i hope the battery life is serviceable with all that power. looks interesting.
  23. Gabe Q
    Killer paint job! I agree, worth it!
  24. Papa Rat
    More brush painted goodness vie HJWEB
  25. PixelatedShinobi
    I just finished "The Super Dimension Fortress Macross 2036", a shoot-em-up set in the DYRL-Lovers Again timeline starring a grown-up Komilia, and I'd like to shine a spotlight on some of the excellent mechanical design present in it. The "Attack Valkyrie" or "VF-1KAI", a modified VF-1 with new head units, new inbuilt Super Packs, and a really nice proportional facelift from Koichi Ohata, is a standout (and naturally should be, being the lead machine). Komilia's unit (in red) isn't designated as anything in particular by the manual from what I can tell, but the Macross Wiki gives it the designation of VF-1JR (despite having a head more reminiscent of the 1S!). Conversely, her partner Lott's machine (in yellow) has a head more reminiscent of the 1J (and the wiki gives it the designation 1SR, for some reason. I assume this is some fan conjecture, because it's a wiki and they get things wrong all the time.) A grunt variant also exists, appearing in 2036's sequel, Eternal Love Song. (The wiki calls it the 1AR, for obvious reasons. Still don't know where the "R" came from!) While the U.N. Spacy fleet is primarily comprised of Zentradi ships (since the surviving human population in DYRL's version of Space War I was... small, to say the least), that doesn't mean they have zero presence. The Daedalus II type debuts in 2036 and returns in Eternal Love Song, a ship designed with the express purpose of accelerating to ramming speed and performing a solo Daedalus Attack on enemy ships, in one of the most metal things I've seen this year. On the opposing side of the Zentradi, spearheaded by a miraculously alive but very beat-up Kamujin/Quamzin/whatever, is a slew of elaborate and very oversized machines to serve as the game's bosses. While the stage minibosses don't tend to feel like they're from Macross (I love that they feel like Thunder Force rejects myself), the bosses are a wild and diverse bunch of Glaug, Queadlunn, and Nousjadeul-Ger evolutions with all sorts of wacky gimmicks. Kamujin's personal machine is a REAL bruiser. Unfortunately, he's one of the easiest bosses in the game to beat if you know good positioning. OUAREHRAHGH GH HPROOOOTOOCULLTAAAAA (dies) 2036 was a fun game! It ranks high in the list of Macross games for me. It's a very solid shmup in addition to having all this great mechanical design, has a fun story that while a bit basic, does have the standout personalities of Komilia, Britai, and Kamujin keeping it engaging. I'd definitely recommend to any fans looking for some new DYRL/II style content.
  26. Seto Kaiba
    I fear I may have caused a misunderstanding. It doesn't happen in the TV anime itself... it happens in a side story set during the series that was published in Macross Ace. In that side story, Akira Kamishima (the actor Alto stood in for) gets some help with reshoots of his cockpit scenes from SMS. Alto takes him up in a VF-1C so he can experience being in a real Valkyrie instead of a cockpit set.
  27. Graham
    Anybody heard any news about when the Macross II game will be released?
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