Noyhauser

So I've got a couple of new things to add to the list.

I recently got a senco PC1010 and an Iwata revolution, and I love it. So I've been eager to use it as much as possible.

The first on the list was a Hasegawa 1/72 A-10... the type with raised panel lines and non-existent cockpit. It took about two weeks of rescribing and detailing, including transforming a WWII RAF pilot into something passing for a USAF one. I also recovered a ME-262 PE set from a failed model and modified it for the cockpit. Painting went well initially, until I decaled, then glosscoat, instead of vice versa. So there is a bit of silvering, but I learned a valuable lesson from it. Overall though I learned how effective the capillary method is for panel lining, so I'm happy overall.

Second is a Kotobukiya 1/72 Hellhound from Patlabor II. Given how easy the company's previous Jigabachi was to build, I didn't expect this one to be that difficult, but I was wrong. The Cockpit is basically devoid of detail, the canopy doesn't fit in addition to a whole slew of nagging fit problems. Nothing as bad as the A-10 had, but its proving not to be a fun build. Building a nice cockpit for it took four nights, while the canopy problems took three extra days, and I'm pretty sure once I remove the masks the light gray putty will be glaringly apparent in the cockpit. At least now I'm nearly done (A glosscoat, decals, glosscoat, panel-lining, flatcoat, done.)

Last one is a Academy 1/72 BF-109 G-14 I'm doing for a group build at FSM. given the problems I've had with difficult models I'm trying to get this done in less than a week with a minimum of fuss. For now all I've done is the cockpit, with a few extra pipes, as well as a harness I made from strips of paper painted tan. Finishing the tub in one night was refreshing after the Hellhound. After this I'm going to continue work on my Club M 1/72 VF-11... already have some of the main assemblies done for it.

Sorry about the poor picture quality... my camera is back next week so I'll have better photos then.

Does this sort of incident even happen often enough to justify such a stir among the membership? I mean really, the board manages itself and only once in a long while is anyone actually involved in some sort of row that get's them banned.

No and that's my point. I don't see why this is a big stir that requires all this discussion. From what I can tell, some people met him at the CON and feel some sort of obligation. Yet we already had similar precedents on here. A-One was well known to alot of members personally and he was banned for flaunting the rules. However he served his time without trouble and came back recently. So why would the moderators make an exception for ryno who has continually flaunted the rules and keeps breaking them? It doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

Its clear to me that the moderators acted judiciously in this case, and ryno was given an appropriate punishment. Why there is any discussion is beyond me. I can see why moderating on this forum is a thankless job.

He broke the rules, was warned and then continued to do so, even in this thread. Why do we need his side of the story? He already acted contrite before, just to throw it back into the moderator's faces. So trying it a second time is a good idea?

And to be completely blunt, I think the forums are better off without him. He was a blatant and annoying post whore, which proved to be a distraction. Sure people can be serious about macross, so long as it is done within the forum rules established. He went outside of that and continues to revel in it. You don't deal with that by trying to "understand his point of view."

Seriously, calm down. Nobody is going to want to help you if you scream at them when they are trying to help and your post is in model kits.

I think it really depends. Modern fighter aircraft have a matte or dullcoat finish; having a shiny exterior defeats the purpose of camoflauge. However many valks don't have any camouflage so I'd assume they might have a smoother finish, as this would aid in performance and ease of maintenance.

Hi there Red,

Just another quick note on the oil wash technique. I think I got bored and decided to dive into this last night. Turns out my previous attempt was a bit flawed. I mixed the thinner and oils but was way heavy on the oils. If you have the proper proportion of thinner to artist oils right, it's actually not bad. Anyway, the "proper" proportion is probably the consistency of milk and the idea is to get the liquid to flow into the panel lines. If I understand correctly, the effect after applying is a lot of blotches where you've applied and connecting lines (the panel lines) between your blotches.

Here's some early results on my 1A:

Not sure if you can tell but the effect is a bit spotty in some places. I think I didn't thoroughly mix the wash before applying. Oh, and I got rid of the excess using a Qtip dampened with thinner (low odor turpentine). Despite what I mentioned about the porous nature of the plastic, if the wash is thin enough, it comes off just fine.

I'm Noy and I approve of this message

I'll consider acrylics, noyhauser. Last time I checked my hobby shop, I wasn't impressed with the selection of metallic colors compared to the lacquers. Right now, my upcoming VF-25S Super Messiah project will use lacquers only. Perhaps when I actually get into my YF-19 or YF-21 kits, I'll go acrylic on them.

On second thought, I have an assembled RahXephon kit that hasn't been painted yet. Maybe I'll start on that.

Well as penguin pointed out, it isn't a zero sum game. I too use Alcad lacquers for metalics and acrylics for everything else.

I've used tamiya acrylics for the better part of ten years and I probably won't ever switch. I've recently moved back to airbrush and its so clear how good the paints are for that system.

For your interests areaseven, It might be better to reconsider acrylics. Cleanup with acrylics is so much simpler than any other medium. Its easier to correct errors with acrylics, particularly since you can use alcohol to remove paint and redo a job.

Its really a matter of preference of course, but Acrylics have a LOT of things going for it.

That looks awesome Talos, Be great if you had a VF-4 to apply it too!!

Kinda like this?

http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?...st&p=666040

(it looks alot darker in real life)

You know, this whole spamming thing wouldn't be a problem if they just removed the stupid post counts from the display. It's nothing but a pissing contest. I may not have that high of a post count, but that's because I only post where I want to, when I feel I have some solid input to the topic, or questions. I mean, make the post count display only in the profile page. I've been here for 3+ years, but I visit this site EVERY day. Just because I don't have something to say all the time doesn't mean I'm not a "regular" member.

I don't think it has much to do with post counts. Some of the most prolific posters on here make really worthwhile contributions with every post. However In the past two years there has been a noticeable drop in overall forum behaviour, partly due to the influx of new people with Macross Frontier. I don't go into the Macross series discussion forum because its full of inane crap. Maybe thats just the growing pains of a forum, but thats life.

I'm not even gonna keep bothering with this.

As a general note, apparently you shouldn't listen to anything I say. It's always wrong.

In anycase didn't someone confirm the CG model was basically a rip of Hasagawa's 1/72 kit?

Don't forget the threat they pose to the purity and essence of our bodily fluids.

In anycase I think I made my comments on this clear. Anymore news on the A400M?

Agreed. You just never know what might happen in the future.

A change in regime or a bad incident or two can quickly spiral into animosity. No matter how good or important the relationship today, tomorrow it could be a different story. And once a side believes it can win a "quick victory" because the opposition is seen to be weak, use of military force becomes likely.

That said, the cancellation of the F-22 does make sense in the current realm of fiscal matters.

What's troubling to me is that the future of the US airforces are now all in the basket of the F-35 - an aircraft whose capabilities are increasingly becoming suspect. If the F-35 is as advertised, then everything is fine. But if the F-35 turns out to be a turkey, it could mean bad things.

Well "regime change" in China is a really remote possibility, which you wouldn't make a strategy around. Second I think alot of people don't realize how interlinked our economies are. The Chinese own 800 billion dollars of the U.S.'s debt, which is critical for its strategy to keep the Yuan propped up. China's growth heavily dependent on exports, and its the driver of the middle classes' wealth. To keep them happy it needs to maintain its export industries and foreign investment and it can't do that by starting wars. Its really unlikely to change dramatically in the next decade, as the Chinese response to the recent economic depression seems to indicate.

And even so, the US military's air dominance won't be challenged in the next 10 to 15 years anyway given its present size and capabilities. The US still has 200 F-22s and 10 carrier groups, and thousands of other fighters as well as the best C4ISR capabilities in the world bar none. Finally, I don't think the Airforce thinks the F-35 is the future, and it certainly doesn't think the F-22 is either. They're gaming on the UAV revolution.

I think it might be helpful to realize the situation Gates is in right now. Coota is right, basically he's prioritizing fighting the current wars in Afghanistan and Iraq over a possible threat in 10, 15 years. Right now China is not a threat, and it will take them a decade to delink themselves from the American economy based on its currency holdings alone. They are tied in heavily to the international system and don't want to upset the international system because that is its path to prosperity. For any other threat, the projected numbers of F-22s/F-35s will be sufficient.

Second it is not clear if the F-22 is the right fighter for the future and neither is the F-35. The implications of the UAV revolution is unclear; we don't know what the nature of Airforces will look like in 10 years. In the last 10 years we've seen a complete revolution in the use of UAVs and its quite likely that its going to grow. Why would they invest in 100 million Dollar F-22 when in maybe 10 years a 20 million dollar UAV will appear to do its job? So I believe there is significant hesitance to commit to manned aircraft. Notice this line:

"We will not pursue a development program for a follow-on Air Force bomber until we have a better understanding of the need, the requirement, and the technology."

Yet funding for the Predator was increased as well as for new "ISR" capabilities, which are seen as a stepping stone towards UCAVs. And the F-35 increase can always be rolled back if need be in the future. So they are hedging their bets right now, and aren't going to invest heavily in capabilities until there is a clear need for the fighters and the right technology for it.

If you want a historical parallel, think about British warship building at the turn of the last century. Between 1890 and 1905 The british invested heavily in conventional battleships, having more of them than more than the two and third powers combined (the two power standards.) Yet it in 1906 it introduced the Dreadnought, which was so revolutionary that it made all the battleships before it completely obsolete. The United States is in a position right now where its can predict that the aerial dreadnought of its time is coming and its not facing a serious threat to its pre-eminent position right now. In Gates' calculation it doesn't make much sense in blowing a tens of billions on capabilities that are likely to become obsolete in the near future.

Any way I can just download #9? I've watched the others before and I don't want to download the whole batch again.

http://www.amazon.com/Gunbuster-Noriko-Hidaka/dp/B000KGH03Y

There is no Gunbuster sequel.

Uh...

Diebuster?

The Vajra if handled better had the potential to be good, if not great antagonists. By the halfway point of the series though it was clear that all that humanity needed to do was give the bugs a psychic space hug and everything would be all right.

I agree with almost all of your post, but this line must be Quoted for truth.

I'm surprised this thread is six pages long. I love Frontier. I can see the faults in it - but not enough to raise my hands and say that it's somehow bad or not perfect.

Perfection has faults too.

Pete

Given you think Gurren Laggan is the greatest anime of all time and your rabid fanboyism, its not surprising why you don't have the perspective to see why alot of people are fairly meh about Frontier. It recycles themes from prior shows while dumbing it down, while having some serious execution issues. It was well animated and had some good parts, but it doesn't live up to the hype. All in all it was an okay series, but not deserving of any great praise in my mind.

TV series: Legend of the Galactic Heroes

Movie: Nausicaa, Laputa or Porco (I can't decide but I enjoy all three more than most)

Macross is up there and is my childhood favorite, but LOGH brings so much beauty and forethought, that its the best TV series in my mind. The three Miyazaki movies speak for themselves.

I have two of Valk009's that I have not built yet. I'm too afraid that I jack it up. I was going to commission a guy to build one for me but wife won't let me pay him the $350.00 he wanted to build it. So I bought the second one. This way if I jack it up building it myself I'll still have one I can have built for me.

Sad isn't it?

I've built one and I have a second which I intend to mod or straight build; with the exception of aligning the vertical stabs correctly, its about the easiest resin kit you can build. Thats particularly if you have the last generation of the kit without the brasswork. Take a leap of faith and put enough effort into it, you;ll be fine.

I can't disagree more, I think the Coda episodes are what elevated Macross from a great anime series, into an all time classic. Macross would have not been anywhere near as satisfying without them. Love Drifts Away leaves us with a surviving Macross, but the rest of the world completely destroyed, a still unresolved triangle, and a lot of questions.

The final nine episodes not only allowed for a change of pace from the more or less frentic first 27, they gave the characters time to breathe, allowed THEM to take the spotlight over the action. Yeah, the animation wasn't the best, but maybe we've been watching different series because let's be honest, the animation quality in SDF could be amazing, but most of the time it struggled to be passable, and was never consistent.

You are right in not seeing codas in a series today, hell, most time's we're lucky if we even get a good ending for crying out loud, or an ending at all. That doesn't mean that many of these show's don't suffer for the lack of them. Frontier suffered from it's lack of resolution, it's still one of the things that sticks in my craw about the show. I loved it a lot of the time. But the ending wasn't what it could have been, or rather should have been.

I couldn't agree with you more. To me the Vajira were basically dumbed down versions of the Zentredi, playing almost the same role with none of its gravitas. Really Grace was a stand-in for Boldoza as the evil behind the curtain controlling the Vajira/Zentredi. The latter aren't evil themselves, just misunderstood and need to be reached by the power of culture or music. Yet what made SDF a great series was to show the aftermath of the final battle and the struggle of the zentredi (and humans) to pick up the pieces of their lives. Yeah its great that culture can save people and be a force for good, but war destroys lives and causes pain which must be healed. Transition is never easy, which SDF emphasizes at the end with the city ablaze, the Macross destroyed and Misa and Hikaru holding each other looking with hope for the future despite the huge challenges ahead of them. The ending of Frontier had this implausible fairy tale ending where the Vajira leave and people quickly rebuild their lives happily on this new planet. With the exception of the pro-forma acknowledgment of Mikhail's death and Klans loss, its a happy ending with green fields, blue skies and puffy white clouds.

In my mind it illustrates just how shallow Frontier was compared to SDF and why the series has started to stagnate over the years. I don't see it as others as a "refined macross" because it contains none of the depth of the original series. Its a simplistic macross which relies on a lot of amazing visuals to keep people interested.

I'm among those who are a bit skeptical of Macross Frontier. I think it was a glitzy well produced Macross animation, with a decent story; its love story was credible, pacing was good and storytelling was well done. If this was the first or second introduction into Macross, then yes it was a good production and deserves the audience it received. Yet its not for me. I was raised up on Macross in Japan and have been a constant fan since. I'm starting to get tired of the formula which the Macross stories are using, which is starting to remind me a bit of Gundam franchise. Obviously the stories aren't complete ripoffs (like alot of Gundam AU stuff), but it is recycling the similar themes and frankly its getting boring. Music matters, and there is a love triangle, I get it. Yet I find the themes not a very good vehicle for probing human experiences and I think its reached its limit with Macross Frontier. In reality I think its somewhat lazy and illustrates that the series is more concerned about being attractive and marketable than thought provoking and interesting.

If true, this is unfortunate. There are some great, successful japanese animations which probe deep issues surrounding war; Flag, Hotaru no Haka and Legend of Galactic Heroes to name three. There are now two Yoshiki Tanaka works animated, Legends and Tytania which have similar feels but very different settings and themes. Its broken the formulaic mold. I can't see why Kawamori & Co. can't use the Macross universe to tell somewhat different type of stories, without relying on similar formulas each time. I don't know how many of you have read the classic novel The Hunters by James Salter, but I see that as a perfect story adaptation for Macross. (and an absolutely fantastic novel too.)

I think it worries me that a series that once tried to make real effort to break the mold of animation has started to stagnate under its own flat inheritance. Macross Frontier was just an example of that.

Well I guess LM did a better job of nurturing the aerospace division that they bought over from GD then, seeing as to how they won both the ATF and the JSF competitions. Boeing, on the other hand, comes up with weird guppy fish fighters . And Northrop Grumman is more focused on their shipbuilding I think. Going to a single source fighter producer can't be good for the US!

Same issues plaguing the fighter engine business-- PW seems to win every time, even though GE manages to make up for it by coming up with higher thrust engines that secure the secondary contracts--see the F-15/F-16.

Actually its not like that at all. Both NG and Boeing have a significant stake in the F-35 (25% produced by NG alone), which ensures that all major manufacturers get some portion of the funding. Moreover since these are diversified companies, they aren't as reliant on one market type as other companies in the past.

In reality Northrop Grumman is actually better placed than Lockheed Martin for the future of US airpower. In 1999 they bought Teledyne Ryan, who possessed the most advanced UAV designs in the industry, and won the US Navy UCAV competition with the X-47 in 2007. Given Secretary Gates' enthusiasm for UCAVs, its quite likely the next major aerospace fighter contracts will go to NG or Boeing for a UCAV.

That was actually the only Southern Cross design I liked. Sure, it's not great, but way better than anything else in Souther Cross, in my opinion.

Maybe a collective ugliest award for the series?

Don't get me wrong, I actually don't mind the series... but I think they let their "creativity" run a little too wild with their designs.

Space Helicopter anyone?

I don't think Japan has fully rejected the F-15 yet. IIRC their need for the replacement of the Phantoms is immediate. They may indeed buy upgraded Eagles as a quick stop gap. Even if Japan buys the Typhoon it'll probably take time to enter service. In the meantime, they may have to insert Eagles to replace those Phantoms as it'll likely be easier and faster* to do so.

*due to familarity in operations, maintenance, training, piloting etc.

I don't really know about that. Given the current economic predicament the Japanese economy is in, where it posted a CA deficit for the first time in 13 years, as well as the almost certain victory of the DPJ in the next election. The japanese aren't likely to be making large offshore procurement decisions in the near future. Neither are most of the other regional competitors (I'll believe Russia's big defence plans when I actually see them.)

You also have to realize the F-4 replacement program sits at a interesting intersection of Japanese politics. Its clear given the fairly strident calls (by Japanese standards) rejecting the F-35 in favour of the F-22, this is an issue that has roots in Japan's powerful bureaucracy. So its not an issue that will change with a different government. They want a next-gen fighter, and this F-15 won't satisfy them, neither will the F-35.

Now the likely election of the DPJ (a left leaning party with pacifist roots, which has adopted a skeptic attitude towards the United States), will deform these choices by making a movement away from a strictly US centric approach to foreign policy. That makes the Eurofighter alot more palatable as a choice, as it fills the bureaucracy's desire for a new fighter and the political desire to move away from the U.S.

Obviously if the Japanese get the F-22, none of this matters, but I sincerely doubt they will be going for the F-15SE or anything other than a true next gen.