David Hingtgen

I just bought a cheap F-14 solely to paint red, and test panel-line techniques, before I try anything on my $200 Milia. Being pure red brings its own problems---black or dark grey panel lining on red tends to give a "purple" effect. But light grey or white gives pink of course. Maybe rust or brown. Going to try pencils (both grey and silver--chipped/worn paint effect), washes, dry-brushing silver, thinned gundam markers, and maybe even my "airbrush-only metalizer with a brush" technique---works great for ceramic-lined exhaust nozzles. And of course wm cheng's oil wash style--but I have to try out other techniques just to find what colors will work best though---oil paint gets expensive pretty quick if you don't know exactly what colors you need. Thankfully I won't need any cadmium yellow...

SXRD's have 2 component and 2 HDMI? I was starting to think no TV had 2 of both. (They're all either 2 comp and 1 HDMI, or 2 HDMI and 1 comp) Still, SXRD is way out of my price range. (my HDTV will be a 26in LCD, maybe 30in---if there's still a 27in out there by the time I buy, I'll want that) If 26-30in plasmas existed, that's what I'd really like.

Kind of ironic---removing the tailhook fairing is not only more accurate, but allows better posability for the feet. "Hack away in seconds with a saw what Takara so carefully molded and designed"

I'm still trying to figure out "who'll get it first--and can ship it to me first". Saw one person say Neova I think, for being close to Yamato's factory. Price isn't much of a concern--it'll be around 200 bucks regardless, +/- 10 bucks isn't worth a week or two of waiting for an ultra-fan of the YF-19 like myself.

Found all of the Classics at Target and Walmart yesterday.

Very true, I had Aelia (still best non-plot VP character ever) go like 6 "deaths prevented from survival" in a row alone once. Actually my biggest disappointment in VP2 is rather minor: Jobs are gender specific. I wanted a female heavy fighter (like Aelia) and mage (like Yumei or Mystina). Plus the lack of spears/halberds. (again, Aelia--she just rocked) (there is one character with a halberd, spoiler, but obvious) Also, there's really only 2 options for "the character who'll go third" in a special attack chain: Rufus, or someone with a 68pt great magic. Sure there's "heat up" but that sucks up 4 skill points--usually means you have to omit psychosoma. (which just ROCKS for Alicia and Rufus, they're about the only fighters with high magic) There should be a bit more people who can do 60pt specials---there's so many "58pt" ones at the end it's annoying--there should be a LITTLE variation in there, especially considering who/what the attacks are. (trying to avoid spoilers)

R_deckard---don't know if you planned it, but where you snipped the tailhook fairing halves off the ankles is the exact place where they should be snipped if you're going for the F-15E look. Looking at the pics you posted, I think removing the conformal tanks would be impossible, due to the screws in the wings etc---they'd interfere majorly, and would likely stick out above the surface of the wingroot/fuselage blend. I've been trying to see how the original mold did that area, and it almost looks like the wingroot underside isn't present--just a gap hidden behind the cannons in fighter mode. That or it folds away somewhere differently than the production mold does it. However, permanently removing the intake kibble and putting it back on the wings should be possible. That plus the "hip kibble on legs" mod would be enough for me to buy one (in good colors, of course). (Though I want to try to mod the exhausts' ball joint so there's not that big gap around them in fighter mode--that gap really bugs me--plus the fact that Takara did a really bad job replicating the look of a featherless exhaust--should have stuck with a feathered exhaust, like the G1 toy had--simpler and looks better)

Have a few, but not enough to make the entire party nigh-invincible. Though I am definitely going to go for defense next attempt--I was doing enough damage. Might try the "splitting the party up" trick, though I've never really done it before. Also, I just kinda feel it to be cheating to use "amazing" combos of certain skills+accessories. Though it seems some bosses NEED that---the two magicians in chapter 4---no amount of magic defense was enough, I had to use toughness and first aid and all that---then had it easy. When I beat it (hopefully tomorrow) I plan to finish Okami, and then try to finish my "started like a half-year ago" half-done playthrough of VP1 before FF12. Don't know why I never finished it, I never "quit" a replay of a game--and was planning on beating it to be "ready" for VP2.

Sound test is apparently unlocked when you beat the game. Kinda like FFX, you have to buy the songs individually. They're cheap though. I stopped Okami to play VP2. I'm at the final boss, but stopped for the night--lost to the first form 2 times before beating it, and lost to the second(and final) form once, but didn't feel like trying again. First form isn't hard, just long and annoying. I actually found it quicker to do it the "wrong" way. PS--for anyone playing, you will want the mage-slayer skill by the end of the game. Lots more magic enemies at the end, and final boss is very magic-based. (But being a boss, also has high physical attack and defense--but mage-slayer is about the only skill that'll help). I only had like 1 person with it, and they are annoyingly not available for the final fight. First aid is also the most useful skill, period, especially combined with the Lifeforce Blessing sealstone. Toughness is so useful it's almost cheating, but if you're really getting beat on, equip it.

After Xenogears, I consider Valkyrie Profile to be the greatest game ever. Coincidently, I also rank XG and VP as having the two best soundtracks ever. And in probably the "longest wait for a sequel" ever, we have Valk Profile 2. And it's really good. VP2: Silmeria takes a little while to really get into the plot (much like the first--chapters 2 and 3 were almost filler in the first) but gets really cool, at an ever-increasing pace. And it does something I haven't really seen since FF IV: Major characters come and go. Some good twists and surprises, and never "just for shock value"---always good and thought out. Music---starts out rather generic RPGish (still very very good), but becomes more and more 'VPish' as you go---and you start finding remixes of VP1 music--but they're so remixed you have to REALLY listen and think, it'll never be an obvious "copy". But you'll remember a bit here and think and wonder where you heard it before. Lots of boss battle music--probably 5 or 6 different ones, many for specific bosses. However, none are the hard and fast style of VP1's battle themes. Most lean more towards the "ominous/foreboding/strings/choir" category of boss music. Anyways---links to VP1 aren't that many at first. You'll certainly get more out of it if you played Lenneth, but certainly not necessary. Oh, and it certainly considers the "good/alternate" ending of VP1 to be canon. But the later you go, the more it refers to VP1, especially its ending. The game certainly stands alone, but could have used just another paragraph or two to explain a certain someone's motivation if you hadn't played the first one.

While that is among the most accurate paint charts I've ever seen on a computer monitor (most are so off they're utterly worthless) it's still not dead-on. I've bought most of those paints, and in real life they're all a bit brighter. If I had a Hikaru, I'd give a suggestion. Italian red is "Ferrari red" though. Guards red is "Porsche red". I like Chrysler engine red myself for a bright red---no other "hue" in it. And while we're on the subject--I asked before but no one answered: Is the white plastic used on Max and Milia the same as a Hikaru? (1J for all)

KingNor--but if it were, make sure to use the totally wrong shades. Replace the deep blue with a lavender-cobalt blue, and the yellow with orange, or maybe lime-chartreuse.

Lots of programs are back-ups, alternatives, or "replacements for the ones currently being developed". Basically---when a plane enters service, its newer, better replacement should already be on the drawing board. The F-14 was an 'emergency replacement' for the failure of the F-111B. It was basically a hasty redesign of the F-111B that had been started once Grumman saw that the F-111B was going to suck. It used as many A-6 design features and parts as possible to save development time/costs--including the wings and landing gear. The F-111B parts are the engines, weapons, radar, and swing-wing feature. So when the F-111B was formally cancelled due to sucking (if only other planes had that happen), and the Navy issued an urgent request for a new design--Grumman had already done a lot of work, and it'd be cheaper and sooner than expected due to re-use of a lot of the money/development put into the F-111 and A-6.

R_deckard--your plan sounds like what I plan to do at some point--basically remove the conformal tanks to make a normal F-15, and put all the kibble back where it is on the G1. (hip kibble on legs, and intake kibble back on the wings). But I plan to wait quite a while and see what future releases of this mold are like---either Takara repaints or hopefully Hasbro or possibly even some remolding. But the exact separation lines etc of how Takara molded it makes a big difference in feasibility---can't have the entire fuselage side be "open spaces and ribs" or putty over a foot-long area. Damn, I was REALLY hoping the conformal tanks wouldn't be molded with the arms, that screws up a lot. If they were separate, all you'd really need to do is slice the CFT off the intake area, and slice off the bottom of the hip kibble. (Though that'll almost certainly be the biggest reshaping/puttying area). PS--if you need some reference for carving, frankly the best bet is the Revell-Monogram 1/48 F-15E kit. Usually 20 bucks, can often be found for 13. It's the most accurate F-15E out there, and has the most accurate conformal tank and fuselage shapes. And the tanks are separate from the fuselage--annoying for the 99% of buyers who'll build it with them attached, but very useful for holding a 3D conformal tank in your hand and seeing how it separates/intergrates with the fuselage itself. If you're serious about removing the conformal tanks, I think your time/effort would be best spent in acquiring a model kit than hunting down pics and drawings and books. Man, if SS was 1/48 he'd not only be as big as most people expected/wanted, but there'd be a ton of F-15 model kit parts to use on him for customizing.

If you leave the "shoulder thingies" off in fighter mode, you've lost a chunk of the wings. If they were molded slightly different (separate the fairing and conformal tank), you could do it and be just fine. The "shoulder kibble" is the "bottom point" of the wing on the original version and G1 mold.

Wait a minute--he does have a new sig, he just made it hidden... Cryptic as always though.

Hey, Graham has no sig...

Back OT: Regarding load speeds. Is it really so much the speed, or how it's arranged on the disc? Because loading speeds for "comparable" stuff seems to vary greatly, and I see quite a few comments about how a big factor is at the very very end of production, where they actually "arrange" where data is located on the disc. Valk Profile 2 (which keeps getting better) is amazingly fast in loads. For the most detailed and gorgeous textures I've ever seen on a PS2. "Simple" graphics in other games can take far longer. Or compare Xenosaga 2 and 3. Completely opposite in loading times for very similar engines. And then there's always streaming loading. And then caching, used to great effect in Oblivion.

If you do, let me know how. A hinge/rail/channel to allow it it slide upwards isn't hard, but getting it to lock to stay up is the trick. (And it'd probably look better if some of the upper hip kibble was moved to the wings, especially since being moved upwards would really make it project above the knees) Basically the area right around the ball joint--take it off the hip kibble and attach to the wings. (I believe that the opposite was done from the original mold to the new one---they took bits from the wing roots and attached it to the hip kibble, so that they'd have somewhere for the "ball" to attach to) Or the easy way is to just reposition the pegs/holes, so you just take off the hip kibble and attach it whereever you want. Not "perfect transformation" but that'd be hard to achieve when modifying a toy. PS--since you seem to be the only one I've seen actually mod the toy by cutting off the ball joints---are the conformal tank bits on the arms removable at all? They sure look like separately molded pieces. I'd really appreciate some info about if they could be taken off. (As well as more photos in jet mode showing exactly how much of the wingroot they incorporate) Basically I really want close up pics of the underside in jet mode, where the wing meets the fuselage. PPS--the skinny silver bits next to each foot (in between the nozzles in jet mode)---you can just slice them off if you want. It'd actually be more accurate for any USAF F-15.

I did! Mazinger, thought I'm not familiar enough with the series to know exactly which one.

No. Mach .95 and Mach 3 are quite different. And the XB-70's a lot bigger. The XB-70 pax version was proposed when it was still flying. It was little more than a few windows and seats in the forward fuselage.

How do you think submarines get air, when they stay submerged for months at a time? The CO2 you breathe out has O2 in it---take out the carbon, you get O2. Air recyclers. Same as plants, just mechanical. Space Shuttle flat-out makes air. Carries tanks of liquid nitrogen and liquid oxygen onboard----spews out what's needed. Makes water too, and actually makes so much they have to dump it overboard.

Ironically, the opposite was seriously proposed for the XB-70----ultra-high speed airliner.

Well I was wrong about one thing: The extra machine gun is intentional from Kawamori, not the mold-maker "trying to make it symmetrical" or something.

Eh, 739ER is nothing more than a higher-weight 739. Physically identical to a base 739, but different door arrangement. Anyways--yup, the SR-71 is a special case in that it is actually most efficient in afterburner, and does so for hours on end. So it's not supercruise. It's burnercruise. Basically, when over Mach 3, almost all the fuel goes to the afterburner, almost none to the turbojet. The turbojet basically ceases to function, most of the air is bypassed around it and goes straight to the burner. (in a totally different way than a turbofan) SR-71 design speed is Mach 3.2---any lower speed is less efficient. If it goes Mach 3.1, it won't have the range to complete its missions. Interestingly, it actually becomes even more efficient when it goes faster--but the airframe can't take it. The SR-71's "high cruise" speed is 3.3, with an emergency dash speed of 3.35. On the few times these were authorized---they landed with extra fuel. (The SR-71's absolute limit is Mach 3.4---that will destroy the aircraft--don't give even a moment's thought to all the Mach 4+ rumors---a simple calculation of the Mach angle will show that the bow wave will intersect the wing leading edge around Mach 3.4, so that's the limit---and Blackbirds have been destroyed proving it) Concorde normal cruise is officially 2.04, but typically holds right around 2.00. Highest in-service cruise was 2.23. The Tu-144 is all-around faster, but its supercruise limit is 1.6 It can only do 2+ in burner. Well, the basic Tu-144D was. The LL is almost certainly faster, but nobody knows how fast. Estimated the thing could hit 2.5. (Certainly 2.4)