David Hingtgen

It seems that the Tornado version is not only pure white, but has much darker joints and intake covers than the first version. IMHO it has the best coloring so far.

Beat it. Ending was much more "don't know what's going on" than most FF's.

Since I don't have a VF-27 yet, I still don't know exactly what people mean when they describe how to avoid scratching the nose cone. Could someone take pics of those areas and point out what parts should be where, to get that extra bit of clearance between parts? Some people say it's the nose, some say the chest, some say the neckpiece. As for Alto's decals--I did get another replacement decal for the one part I really needed, hopefully I won't need a THIRD one! I'll let you know if I do, thanks so much for remembering though.

Thanks much for the info. Hmmn, "not QUITE so glossy" Future is possible. It's trying to actually make it satin or matte that causes issues. If straight Future is close, it may be possible to mix up a perfect match to the bare plastic. PS--did you Future the nose paint before any damage occurred? Has it held up? With how poor the adhesion seems to be, I fear that the Future will just "hold the paint together, as all the paint comes off in one big perfect piece". Have you identified any other trouble spots? You seem to have identical goals/methods as I do for protecting a VF-27, so I'm interesting in anything you've discovered. I'd rather not clear-coat the whole thing, as that'd just be a lot of unnecessary work and with how tight the clearances on a transforming toy are, I'd like to avoid thickening anywhere--but excessive spot-apps would look bad.

Future is absolutely magic stuff---well-known to most all modelers. But darn useful to VF-27 owners too! It's the best, easiest clearcoat there is. It is ULTRA glossy, and can fairly easily be applied-streak-free and brush-stroke-free---by hand with a brush! I usually see it at Target or Wal-Mart. I actually plan to mask and apply only to the painted areas of the nosecone at first---as it is VERY glossy, and if applied to the whole nosecone would make the nosecone notably more shiny than the rest of the valk. Future can be made more matte, but I've never gotten it to do so evenly/consistently. I'll experiment more with flattening future before my Grace arrives (got plent of time 'till then). If clearcoating the entire valk is necessary I'll probably go with a more "traditional" model paint. Can someone who owns Brera's compare how shiny the plastic and paint is? I'm pretty sure it's shinier than most any Yamato valk. Or really, how smooth is it? Yamato valks often have a subtle nubbly texture to the plastic, while say most Bandai/Hasbro stuff tends to be glass-smooth. I'd like to know what level of shine I've got to match so I can experiment.

Pictorial history of the Admiral Gorshkov to Vikramaditya conversion: http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showt...l=1#post4821907 Not often you see an aircraft carrier on land surrounded by and covered with snow... (I'm sure that'll be in the next Ace Combat)

The B-1 was also originally designed strictly for nukes, both cruise missiles and dropped bombs. The B-1 was so "nuke-only" that there was no consideration in the design given to reloading it, as it was basically a suicide mission. Which caused big problems (and still do) when they adapted it to conventional bombing. Takes FOREVER to reload the thing. ('cuz they were never expected to come back).

They even have their own XB-70. There's not much they DON'T have a counterpart of.

When I get my Grace, I fully intend to open the box, apply Future to the nosecone, and let it sit for the rest of the day. Then probably apply a second coat. THEN take it out of the styrofoam and transform it for the first time.

We already have Agent ONE on this board. He provides all the M7 bashing we need.

The point of Light's special move is not to do direct damage, but to increase everyone else's damage. And once the stagger bar is up really high, then switch to commando. It's WELL worth it on any enemy with high HP. 999% stagger damage for the entire party is way better than 300+% you would normally achieve. It's worth sacrificing a round or two of Light as commando to get that--especially if you're hasted and you can do like 5 more full rounds of commando afterwards. Even better, do a summon at the end to take advantage of the pre-staggered pre-999% damage situation, and go straight to the summon's final attack.

I plan to beat the game with all weapons "original version, but lvl *". Weapons quickly become fairly pointless at the end--you are NOT going to be able to max out an ultimate weapon or anything, so don't even bother trying. Wait for post-game monster-hunting for all that. Also, Lightning becomes more and more rav-centric as the game goes on. Do not focus on pure STR for her, it's a waste, and Fang will just blow by her for raw power anyways. Light's super-duper rav special ability is amazing against a staggered enemy. (that's the trick with it---just do "normal" stuff when building the stagger bar as her special will be fairly pointless then---but once they're staggered, be sure to have Light be a ravager for at least 1 or 2 rounds using her uber-special--THEN switch Light to a commando--but I've often kept Light as a rav using her special until I hit 999.99%)

Summoning tip: If you're fighting an enemy with a zillion HP, and it's kinda close to being dead, but the stagger isn't going to last long enough for you to kill it, and you know it'll take another 5 mins of hard fighting to stagger it again---summon with like 5 secs of stagger left. Take advantage of the animations-start hammering square so it goes to gestalt mode the moment it arrives, then start hammering triangle as it transforms. Any summon's "final attack" on a staggered enemy will probably do far more damage than you could have in those last few secs. (plus, a summon's final attack always gives a big boost to the stagger bar right before it hits---sometimes even boosting it to 999.99% damage if it was already being assaulted by the party)

It might be quicker to just go here: http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Dream_Z...Dream_Zanarkand

PS---VF-19's with shoulder-mounted boosters look stupid. Always thought so.

24-hr lock until the politics go away.

You don't get like a 50% "boost" in size from being 5% closer to the camera.

I think that animation is just really off. The VF-17 is smaller than the -19.

First Gundam? Probably 1/144 Sandrock.

Meh. Getting that to 45,000ft, is kind of like when they dropped the shuttle Enterprise off of a 747 and glid down to a landing. It's a LONG way from an "actual test spaceflight".

3D sucks. Even if they were equal price at the theater, I'd pick the 2D version of the movie. Hmmn, crisp, bright, colorful image----or a blurry, dark, washed-out image that seems to be kinda "floating".

MP Grimlock is Toys R Us exclusive.

The big group of "frozen in time, neither dead nor living" Fayth who were eternally summoning/dreaming that you discover outside of Zanarkand (technically on Mt Gagazet). They are effectively summoning their entire nation from memory, from the past, to make it happen. It's a fairly major revelation/plot point. Technically, Tidus and Jecht's Zanarkand never existed at all, nor did they.

X and XIII are basically polar opposites to XII. People tend to either like X/XIII and dislike XII, or the opposite. Why Tidus exists in the real world? Because he's being dreamed into existence, more or less. When the dream ends, so does he. XIII sidequests---pretty standard fare. Ultimate weapons and monster hunts, many of which are so "extreme" they'll take 50 hours beyond the point where you could win the game. That's about it though.

Much better. I see what you mean about the "pink in shadow" vs red----but shouldn't at least part of the "hair" be lighter? Or is all of it in permanent shadow somehow?