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@wm cheng that chrome looks great! Giving it some extra attention and love makes a huge difference no question. 👍

So excited to see these! Hope you are safe during this storm. Heard it’s going to be brutal. I’m in the PNW and we are just getting the wind portion of the storm. No precipitation.

Another new one (to me ) on Pinterest. I had originally been assuming it's hasegawa. But it doesn't have the picatinny rails on the guns.. Love the underslung gear.

Not sure if this has been posted. Already up for pre order at HLJ.

... actually, now that I think on it, there's more wrong with it than that. You see, a Service Academy and a War College are NOT two different names for the same thing and the War College in Starfleet Academy isn't a war college. 🤔 A Service Academy is an educational institution that takes in new recruits as officer cadets and provides them with the necessary education and training for future commissioning into the academy's branch of service as a junior officer. Many also provide students with a university-level education ending in a bachelor's degree. A War College is a higher educational institution that trains experienced senior officers (like Major/Lt. Commander and up)for promotion to senior command and flag officer ranks. It offers Master's degree level qualifications. The War College in Starfleet Academy is presented as a rival service academy to Starfleet Academy, training classes of officer cadets... so it's not actually a war college at all. If it were, its students would be people like Lura Thok or Commander Kelrec. Lt. Commanders and up with a decade or so of service in the officer corps being trained for further promotion to Commander, Captain, and the Admiralty. The implication behind the War College appears to be that the Federation decided to change the curriculum for future Starfleet officers after the Burn led to the Federation's collapse and forced Starfleet to switch from focusing on exploration to focusing on defense. Why they felt the need to create a whole separate institution for that is a mystery. You'd think it would be simplest to change the curriculum at the already well-established Starfleet Academy with its dozens of campuses and call it a day. The implication behind that implication seems to be that the showrunners would like us to think of Starfleet Academy as a gentle rebuke of Discovery-era Star Trek's overly militant mindset with Starfleet and Star Trek once again shifting back towards space exploration and diplomacy. I'd guess the intended arc is that the War College is going to continue to be this wrongheaded, paranoid, aggressive antagonist until it's ultimately dissolved in favor of the Starfleet Academy training program.

I'm surprised the latest episode did end before it even began with charges of assault being placed on the war colleges cadets. I assume that it is illegal to transport someone against their consent. What if besides being transported to an embarrassing location one of the freshly showered cadets slipped and impaled themselves after transport? The show is just stupid and annoying. I thought strange new worlds was pushing it with the comedy. Academy follows many of the tropes about school comedies. Where there's some misfits trying to make it with some stuffy squares trying to stop them. But this show doesn't have any stuff squares to act as a comedic foil. Every character is the quirky misfit. This is Seinfeld if every character written as if they are all Kramer. Imagine if Holly Hunter's character wasn't the school's dean, but an unconventional substitute teacher assigned to a class of misfits all on the verge of failure. All the other teachers, coaches and students are played serious. You've seen this countless of times because it works. Instead, everyone is a misfit. Even the characters from the rival school are misfits. The show needs some serious characters to react to the quirky antics of these misfits.

I don’t know, seemed more like she semi abandoned him till she could slightly sober up after a party trip

What temperature was the water you tried? I don't have any experience with Florry's, but if the water you added was room temp, I would try the hottest tap water you get at home and see if that helps break down the clumps.

The chrome on that Zero is looking nice @wm cheng!

Well, she did leave him with her cousin, which was a responsible thing to do.

My family still has the original changeables toys in a bucket somewhere, my brother and sister and I essentially filled an old 5 gallon laundry detergent bucket with them as kids.

I just don’t like drunken mopey animal neglecting Supergirl.

I was expecting total cringe, and even though there’s definitely some odd moments in the trailer, it’s definitely not as bad as I thought it would be. And surprisingly it seems they got more stuff right than wrong here so far. Looks like a major step above the old movie at the very least. Throw on the dc movies as well. Just not excited for any of those projects yet. Maybe if good reviews pop up I might check em out, but as is I’m definitely more interested for He Man at this point.

Could try a softer solution of alcohol. The 70 something percent usually doesn’t do much to set paints. I usually don’t see a reaction until almost 90 percent mixtures

Thanks @Big s, I have tried just adding water to it and it doesn't do much. When you first get it, the particles of clay are so fine that its like super thin paint, but over time (like several years) those particles seem to clump into bigger particles that don't flow as nicely as it was brand new. The best thing about it is that its water, totally non-reactive to anything beneath it. If I add alcohol to it, it would make the solution reactive to some things beneath it, losing its best quality. I always knew the surface prep was key, the better the prep, the better the paint job - but like a child who doesn't like to brush his teeth (even though you know better) 😛 I always skimp on surface prep because it's part of sanding which I hate and never have enough time for. Now that the Entertainment Industry is in the dumpster, I have a bit more time, and having a nice well engineered kit that just falls together means I can spend the time I usually take fixing and detailing to spending some time on the black undercoat for a Alclad Metallic finish. I've always interpreted the Cosmo Zero greys in the anime as a chromed silver and wanted to try to replicate that. I actually sanded down the gloss Mr. Color black with 6000-8000-10000 sanding sponge which I hardly ever do unless I'm trying to remove a canopy seam. Boy was that worth it! I haven't ever gotten such a chromed effect from all my years using Alclad Metalizers before, I could almost see myself in it! I broke down the parts to get some different shades like Stainless, Magnesium and Steel as well. Now I just have to have enough patience to not touch it for a while to let everything cure.

I don’t know if that’s a positive review or negative, but sorta trying to be nice. It’s hilarious either way

Not 100% but I think that since it’s supposed to be water soluble, maybe just add some water and mix. Could also try a glob and some alcohol outside the bottle to see what happens. I wouldn’t just experiment with adding straight to the bottle until you experiment a little. Honestly, I’ve never used the stuff since no one seems to carry it or it just gets sold out fast.

I like transforming toys, but these and Hasbro's Bot-Bots do little for me. I dig the idea, but the execution is underwhelming. These got me to thinking, though, I remember getting a transforming locket sort of toy for my sister when we were kids. I couldn't remember the name of the line by rote, but some Google-Fu did the trick. They were called Sweet Secrets by Hasbro. I got the bird for her, likely b/c it was unique amongst the rest and had more of a Transformers quality to it. Not sure what she ever did with it or if she even remembers it now. These came out in '84, so I'm thinking Hasbro was trying to apply the popularity of one transforming theme for boys to a girls' line.

What bothers me here is that Starfleet has a "war college". I thought they were peaceful explorers? Seriously though: they could have named it "strategic college", or "planning" something or another. "War"? Erm, not something the Federations starts...

Ah… that is bad. Cancer sucks. Wishing you all the best and a fast and successful recovery. 😢

Okie-dokie, we got a new episode... "Vitus Reflex". Also in Academy relevant news, apparently Kurtzman is personally directing the season two finale (since this series got renewed before it ever aired in Paramount's usual "set huge piles of money on fire and hope it finds an audience" approach. The episode opens on Cadet Reymi recording a personal message for his parents after about three weeks of classes at the Starfleet Academy San Francisco campus. It seems that his parents hold him to absurdly high standards? Apparently they made him promise to be last to sleep and first to wake up? Seems like he's being set up to be Well Done Son guy. I am, I must admit, obscurely pleased that the old tradition persists... light-up props that absolutely DO NOT need to light up in order to be "futuristic". Cadet Reymi's workout earbuds and jump rope have bright green LED illumination. Kinda gross that he's cracking raw quail eggs into his post-workout creatine tho. It is bizarrely disappointing in retrospect that they didn't make the Academy's actual gymnasium look more futuristic. It looks like a completely ordinary school gymnasium right out of the 1990s. The banners are fun though... the War College sports teams are the fighting Mugatos. Apparently the Starfleet Academy mascot is the Lapling, an endangered species known for being harmless. OK, so apparently all of this is in favor of doing a sports episode centered around the rivalry between Starfleet Academy and the Federation War College? Not gonna lie that does not feel like a great starting point for an episode given how forced the whole thing feels. It's less actual "rival schools" and more Dodgeball: a True Underdog Story level banter. It's trying really hard to be funny and it's not really sticking the landing. Colbert as the computer voice Dean of Students really was not a wise decision since he seems to exist solely to dispense mildly cringeworthy dad jokes... and even the characters in-series are starting to notice. Captain Ake asks if the voiceover for what's apparently a Starfleet Academy promotional video (that looks like it was cut together in 20 minutes) is "too stupid". (Colbert's only role seems to be to interject with what's supposed to be funny dialog anytime the writers think the series has gone too long without someone saying some funny line... it's pretty insipid.) OK, real talk time for a second. Did Quentin Tarantino script this? Because the amount of time spent getting Holly Hunter's bare feet into frame is beyond the point where I can write it off as accidental. We're into "probably someone's fetish" territory. (A point I feel is supported by the fact that the conversation veers into a literal discussion of fetishes shortly thereafter.) There's a shot where the cadets are discussing the prank war in what I guess is supposed to be a botany lab, but the room has an obviously green-screened background that looks less like a botany lab and more like a video game subway tunnel from about 15 years ago? Finally Caleb says something that makes me like him. He doesn't want to engage with the tribalist attitude surrounding the prank war or team sports. Sadly, the series undermines that and some earlier respect shown to Kraag when his decision to abstain was respected by depicting the rest of the cadet class as braindead idiots who are too clumsy, too busy flirting, or so dumb they're literally attempting to eat the potting soil. I really feel badly for Kerrice Brooks because the character she's playing WILL draw a lot of criticism for being a very unkind depiction of autism that's closer to a cognitive deficit. Apparently Calica is a game-ified combat simulation "sport" that is essentially a Serious Business version of laser tag. Enough so that a direct comparison is drawn by SAM. Apparently the War College has actual working security with restricted access. Kelrec even takes a shot at Ake for the swiss cheese security at the Academy. (Thok was not kidding about Kelrec's obsession with tea bordering on a fetish.) As soon as I wrote that, the showrunner started channeling the spirit of Quentin Tarantino again with Holly Hunter needing to get her bare feet in frame. Someone on this show has a foot fetish. It's really REALLY blatant. Apparently they didn't have enough of a budget to redress the gymnasium or construct a proper set for the Calica field, so the Calica match is taking place inside the Academy's atrium which has been relit in red and blue. So Lura and Reno are a thing? Weird relationship dynamic, but whatever. It honestly makes more sense than the Dax/Worf one with the free spirit and stick in the mud. This is two extremely cantankerous women with sharp tongues. Talk about a pairing with Statler and Waldorf energy. The Unspoken Plan Guarantee isn't being invoked here, so something will go off the rails. The first actual laugh the series got out of me was how exaggeratedly casual the cadets look watching the absolute havoc unfold at the War College across the quad. Captain Ake's office has a bunch of model starships scattered about including a refit Excelsior-class (Enterprise-B-type), Oberth-class, NX-class, Defiant-class, Intrepid-class, Galaxy-class, and one or two others too small to identify properly. AND AGAIN WITH THE FEET. I need an old priest and a young priest. We need to cast the ghost of Tarantino out of this series! Creepy and intrusive foot fetish aside, this series appears to be slowly improving. Holly Hunter's character is still an eyesore and the writers are still treating the academy more like a Buffy the Vampire Slayer-era high school than the incredibly exclusive university or post-graduate education it's supposed to be, and its humor is way too contemporary to not feel immediately dated, but graduating from offensively bad to indifference-inducingly mediocre is a hell of an improvement. If they ditch the dad jokes and maybe start treating these 20-something year old cadets like adults instead of braindead children who need to be told not to eat dirt it could actually be... dare I say... good.

That FR-13S one looks like a transforming happy meal toy I had as a kid. Fry Force or something.

It's totally stable to stand on its own. Maybe not in super one-legged dynamic kicking poses, but the static standing and reverse kneeling for entry its totally stable. My main complaint is all the separate little switches to turn all the lights on and off are a pain, but otherwise a great toy.

While I'm not a model building expert-far from it-, I think it'd be cool if Moderoid would or could get the Macross license and go hog wild on all of Kawamori's pantheon of transforming mecha, even the variable police craft from M7 or the Octos from M0.