VF-19

One purpose that might be useful is to aid in fooling IR missiles. But I really don't know that much about these things. All in all, a very cool manuver for a very cool plane.

In one of the later episodes (I'll try to find it later) I be;ieve its the only one in the series in which we see Hiriku with FAST packs, he closes the heatshield as he enters the atmosphere to save Misa. Besides you don't leave the heat shield closed, you only close it as you enter and exit the atmopshere and the heat builds up, you fly by instruments for those few minutes, once in space or in the atmosphere you open it back up. Don't worry too much about finding the ep. I've seen it too. It just doesn't make any sense. Now, if the canopy is directly exposed to the heat, then yes, the heat shield should be lowered to stop the heat from damaging the canopy. But the canopy is on the top of the airframe, and (YF-19 notwithstanding), thus would be automatically shielded from the heat because the nose of the VF-1 is directly under it. Also, when leaving the atmosphere, I don't think fighters get supremely hot. Sure the SR-71 gets hot, but it's going at mach 3 for extended periods. The Space Shuttle is out of the atmosphere within 10-20 minutes after launch. And even then, it's not going "fast". It heats up on re-entry because of it's high mach number (well above mach 10, perhaps 20, I honestly don't know). In addition, the SR-71 doesn't cover it's canopy to protect it from the heat of the flight, so I honestly don't see why the VF-1 must cover it's canopy during re-entry. The real problem of re-entry would be to dissapate that heat on the underside of the fighter, and underneath the pilot.

Er... But your reasoning is slightly flawed. The heat sheild covers the cockpit, which is on top of the fighter. In proper re-entery mode, the cockpit would be the "least" (but still damn hot) exposed to the re-entry heat. Furthermore, why would you close the heat sheild over the cockpit if you were planning to exit the Earth's atmosphere? I think heat sheild more refers to how the shield comes down to cover the cockpit in battroid mode, thereby taking the "heat" (ie bullets, beams etc) off of the pilot. Now granted, cannon fodders blow up very well, heat sheild extended or retracted...

The VF-0 engines, would probably operate underwater something akin to a propeller to a ship. The turbine blades would rotate, and push the water out the back. I don't know how efficient it would be though. As for the VF-21/22, I think the engines are still connected to the intakes in Battroid mode. If you pay attention to the transformation sequence, the engines move upwards to condense the length of the fighter. The intakes are still somewhat closeby to the engines, and it's conceivable that the ducts are flexible to allow for the engines to operate in battroid mode.

Right. To brush paint, the first step is to first make sure all your seams are filled. There are a few ways of finding out if your seams are filled. 1) Run a fingernail perpendicular to the seam, and if your fingernail catches, the seam is still visible. 2) Spray a primer coat on the model, and then inspect very carefully to see if seams show up. Once that's done, clean off the model of any dust fingerprints etc. Most like to wash their kits before painting. Now when it comes to painting, get good brushes. Not the cheap ones that come with Testors paint kits, but good brushes. And since you'll be doing large areas, use a large brush for large areas. For smaller bits, go with a small brush. Oh and be prepared for brush strokes. Some paints hide them very well (and there are others that can help you with that), but some don't. To minimize your brush strokes, paint in one direction, let dry, and then paint perpendicular to that direction. When done painting, clean off your brushes with the proper cleaners (ie rubbing alcohol for Tamiya paints), rinse the brushes in running water, and reform the point WITH YOUR FINGERS, NOT YOUR MOUTH. Stand the brushes on their ends to let them dry. As for sanding in between coats, I don't, but you may wish to experiment with that.

One problem. When a VF-21/22 looses its arms, it also looses it's ruddervators (or whatever they're called) that are attached to the arms. While a plane of tratitional design (ie a Spitfire) doesn't "need" a rudder to fly (but you will need one to get out of a flat spin), it must have it's horizontal stabilizers in order to keep the plane from spiralling out of control. Although, I think the VF-21/22 can probably fly without the stablizers on the arms due to the position of the wing on the body, I still think it's a heavy consiquence to loose the arms on a VF-21/22. As for the gaping holes on Hikaru's VF. I think the designers planned for VFs to re-enter Earth's atmosphere minus the arms, so the surface directly above the arms (back plate and backpack) probably have some sort of cooling system built in them.

Asuka appears to be holding Pen Pen. I agree with the rest of the comments. They're cute. Almost illegally cute.

David, try Tamiya's extra thin cement. It's consistency is like water, but it sets up very quickly. Just apply a tiny amount and then attach the part to where you need it to be. Just one warning. Because there's so little glue holding the pieces together, you may want to follow up with a small extra dab of Tamiya Extra Thin Cement, just to re-enfoce it once the original application of glue has dried.

To me, a starfighter is: 1) A small spaceship with a 1-2 man crew 2) Fast 3) Manuverable 4) Varying degrees of firepower (from little, to overkill) 5) May or may not have some sort of sheilds 6) May or may not be quasi-independent (great range) Tie Fighter is a close range fighter. While an independent unit in terns of the first 4 notes above, it isn't independent, as it requires a base close by. Besides, the way the Imperials are thinking, is that lots of Tie Fighters make up for their shortcomings

Actually, the nose of an X-wing slopes downward, so you have great forward visiblity. The pilot sits high enough that the control panel doesn't really get in the way. As for the TIE fighter, it also has upwards visiblity. But then again, looking straight up doesn't help when there's somebody on your six... My Fav fighters! Most of the Freespace designs (can't remember all the names) X-Wing B-Wing Tie Interceptor Missile Boat Some Starlancer designs (again, memory flunks on me) I think that's about it...

Me too, but the reason for making movies 1.5-2.5 hours long is money. Theaters can show a movie more times per day if it's about 2 hours long. In India, films are regularly 3-4 hours long. Their reasoning is to give the people their money's worth. Going to see a film in India cost about 8 month's salary, and that's just for one person. But! I think it wasn't a bad idea to split Kill Bill up into two parts. The film still worked.

While it is censorship (sort of), I kinda feel that it works as an homage to the old BW samurai movies. But as censorship, I think it's redundant. I can see the action, and I can figure it out that the Crazy 88 are being chopped to bits, and it isn't chocolate sauce that's spewing out of the wounds. Then again, I wouldn't mind seeing the fight sequence in full bloody gory colour.

Had mine since late December. I got very lucky with SAL. Love it, and I play with it frequently.

Yep. Yellowing can still occur even if the toys have never left their package. As you know, store them in a cool dark place to slow down and/or prevent yellowing.

Neat! Right out of the pages of the Energon comic. Pity there aren't more photos to get some more detailed info out of them.

One problem with going along with the "D" designation for trainer. The F-14D is not a trainer. It's one of the latest/later model of F-14s. As for the role of the VF-1D, I'd say it's both a trainer and a 2 seater. The two camera system that was mentioned on the head, does work both ways. While the RIO does not always have the best visibility, he/she still is able to see outside the aircraft.

I seem to recall Luke wipping out total pwnage on an AT-AT in Empire..... Actually it was an AT-ST. Much bigger than an AT-AT.

?? The summary is a bit unclear. Does this mean no FAST pack VF-1 or (with the exception of Kakizaki, that I understood) outright cancelled?

One problem: If you turn out ships at the factory sattelite's maximum output, then you're going to end up with more ships than you do crews. It's kinda wasteful to do it that way. The UN Spacy probably builds less ships, but at a faster rate.

I think the +1 at the end of the first number indicates the number of extra screws that Bandai has provided. I don't have a MG Nu Gundam (yet! ), so I can't go through the instructions and count how many screws of each type are used in construction.

Now that could work. However, to my knowledge, large sized, and powerful lasers aren't the most durable thing in the world. I'd rather make the round trip around the world with a durable jet engine. If all else fails, that's what flapping your arms are for.

That sounds like the plan to have a plane fly around the world on a single jet engine. While it can be done, you'd have to be out of your mind to use nuclear powered jet engine... Way too much radiation would be pumped out of the back of that thing along with the thrust.

Great trailer! However, like others have said, the CG does need some work. Perhaps we're watching unfinished CG? I'll hold final judgement for the movie on the issue of the CG. Must watch it again!!!

Basically, superglue and epoxy glues will work for that type of plastic. Just make sure the two mating surfaces do not have a significant gap, and rough up the plastic where the glue will join the two with some sandpaper.

I wouldn't mind seeing how much smaller they are compaired to the regular MSiAs. Although I think they'd only be at most 1 cm shorter. Still, they look very very cool.