David Hingtgen

Rudder problem is supposed to be utterly fixed for the NG 737's. (-6/7/8/900) AA191 flipped due to asymmetrical slats/single-wing stall, when it all comes down to it. I was just thinking today (well I've thought about it before but anyways) there really should be a system to allow pilots to retract specific sections of flaps/slats etc to restore balance. Way too many airliners have crashed from what is relatively minor damage/loss of lift due to the IMBALANCE between the wings. AA191 is the best example (had plenty of thrust, plenty of lift--but it was so unbalanced it could't take it---if the pilots could have retracted the outboard starboard slats independently, the plane would have been quite balanced lift-wise, and would have been controllable--though it would have had a higher stall speed, which was a big factor in the port wing stalling in the first place--it was a combination of too slow and too unbalanced---ironically going faster alone would have saved it, but the flight manual specified a lower speed, so they reduced it and that stalled the port wing). The PSA 727 that hit a Cessna was similar. It only lost like 1.5 slat segments on the starboard wing, and the aft-most section of one flap section, but it was enough at the configuration it was in that it started rolling and couldn't recover. And there's been several incidents of 727's having slat asymmetry causing problems, including the rather famous TWA supersonic 727 incident. From reading many airline crash books, one of the biggest things I get out of it is that lift imbalances have doomed many otherwise flyable planes. It's not a loss of lift or a loss of thrust or even a loss of large chunks of the flight controls, it's a loss of balance.

Have you seen their 1/32 F-100? OMG. That thing is insane. Now if they could only do an F-8 like that. (They really should---the F-8 is the F-100's counterpart, same engine, same intake style, same style of "remove the whole back end for engine service", etc)

I'll say I politely and completely disagree with all of your points. I think the earlier version of the mold had much better stomach, wing position, etc. I find it visually superior in EVERY way. I actually find the new version of the mold very top-heavy, and frankly almost feminine in appearance. As for leg movement: just angle the wings a bit. They're effectively ball-jointed. Sure there could be interference it you basically intentionally matched the wings to the legs, but it'd only happen if you had the wing "points" (technically the wingroot fairings) right behind the calves and bent the legs right at the kneees. Just angle the wings in or out like 5 degrees and rotating them the same will give clearance either inside or outside the leg. The G1 mold has that ability, even though it doesn't need it of course. And the original mold was a better F-15, too. Adding "junk" to help hide some robot bits doesn't help, if lots of it is inaccurate. It'd be like adding ground effects to an Alternator to hide robot bits on the underside----if they're the wrong style, the car guys will notice and not be happy. The conformal tanks on MP SS are wrong in so many ways, from front to back, top to bottom. Plus other changes completely unrelated to the conformal tanks, that were apparently either "Kawamori thinks the F-15 would look cooler if it was like THIS" or "sculptor tried too hard to make it symmetrical, when the real thing (and the original mold) are asymmetrical in those areas."

Should the VF-1's gear angle out? Looking at the Design Works, I think it simply has the wheel set quite far out from the strut, such that when unfolded, the gear is outside of the dimensions of the gear bay. In other words, from head on, the gear is an "L". And the wheel rotates to the front to retract. Yet another instance of rotating gear in valks. PS---are there any good pics out there for reference for painting the missiles? I'd like to detail both my 1/48 and 1/60 missiles, but have almost nothing to go by.

A bit OT for this thread, but really bugging me: Though it's getting surprisingly little coverage on the news (here at least) a Brazillian 737-800 collided with a corporate version of the ERJ-135 and crashed in the Amazon. We've got pics of the ERJ: It's missing most of the left winglet, and the very tip of the port elevator. How the hell does that happen? A 737 collides with a regional jetliner, yet the RJ only loses the winglet, but causes enough damage to bring down a 737? Gotta wonder if it's a perverse version of the "golden BB" theory. Also, pics of the crash site appear to show the 737 impacted utterly vertically, yet inverted, with the gear down. That's unprecedented AFAIK.

The Energon combiner individual figures were nice, but it was pretty stupid to just have 2 types of limbs. If there were 4 distinct molds, they'd have been GREAT. It also would have helped the hands and feet a lot---it was pretty clear there was a "preferred" mode for each hand/foot part, for both the robot itself and the clear "energon" piece. It was pretty hard to get a decent pair of hands. I actually made a sorta-Bruticus using Barricade, 2 Combaticons, a Constructicon, and an Aerialbot. Looked better than any "official" combination.

Still waiting to see pics of the VF-1 stickers on it. Surely somebody has used them?

I think they're scrambling to get the 747 certified too. Anyone see the news (NBC) like 2 days ago? They're basically begging for the DC-10 to come back, but there's some red tape involving federal vs state firefighting regulations, so the DC-10 is barred from fighting the current fire and is grounded, just sitting there waiting for federal certification---I think partly because it involves national park lands. Pure bureacracy and red tape. Let the state burn rather than allow a DC-10 to do what it's been doing amazingly well... Who knew there were different levels for state vs federal firefighting aircraft conversion certification? A380--A380 flies fine, it's purely the aspects of making it a passenger-carrying plane with inflight entertainment. If I was UPS or FedEx I'd be ticked, because pure freighters could be being delivered NOW. (the certification is basically halted because they won't finish any more until the problems are fixed for pax ones--otherwise it'd already have the certification flights done, which cover both pax and cargo) 90% of the problems involve (indirectly) all those little TV's in the seats...

Yes, because before Kawamori's "tweaking" of the MP Starscream mold, it was like 99% identical to the animation model, and one heck of a nice (and accurate) F-15. I mean, it looked more like Starscream than MP Prime looks like Prime. It WAS Starscream, utterly. After HFH's revisions to that mold---it's Starscream-esque, with hip kibble and funky curved feet and intake kibble and giant Popeye forearms. I think a lot of the ire (mine included) is the result of seeing the "before" version of the mold. If we'd never seen how amazingly awesome it was BEFORE, we wouldn't complain so much about how it looked after all the changes.

I've never heard (nor would think they could) that Microsol etc could affect stickers. Anyways---we're not talking about heating it until the plastic starts to warp---heck, rubbing the sticker rapidly with your finger will generate enough heat to soften them. Nani---the problem with "mass production" panel lining is that it's always over-done. They don't seem to understand the concept of "subtle". Or it's simply too labor-intensive to do. If something is factory panel-lined, it comes with BLACK panel lines. Like this: Or just look at early Yamatos----WAY too stark and thick.

I have never done it, but some people use a hair dryer or something to heat up the stickers after you put them on----they'll become soft and then you can press on them and they will go into panel lines, and fit corners and curves better.

Hayao--how did you do the panel lines? Oil paint wash? And did you do anything extra for the stickers---did you heat them to make them softer to conform better?

I'm of the opinion most people see Kawamori as the guy who came in and "ruined" the original version of the mold that others had designed.

Which is another reason I prefer toy colors---the stripes on all 3 seekers are unique in both color and PATTERN. Though of course I do prefer an orange canopy, to match SW and TC. Checked Target here today, nothing new. I don't expect Classics here for probably 2 weeks at least.

The first paragraph was about Classic, but the second two (about the stripes and panel lines) were about MP. Masterpiece Starscream IS supposed to be "hyper accurate". There's really no excuse for such messed up wing stripes. It was also partially in response to the claim on the last page that the stripes followed the panel lines. (of course, it was actually more accurate with the first version of the mold--they introduced a LOT of errors when they added the CFT's, starting with the CFT's themselves being unlike any set ever built) PS---my guess for their "reference material" is the Hasegawa F-15E kit, because it's not really an F-15 and has all the errors the MP does. And it'd be readily available in Japan to TakaTomy. Using kits to make new model/toy planes happens so often it's not even funny. Anyone who models planes can easily recognize when a kit was used as reference instead of "real" reference materials (like accurate scale drawings or even better, photos of the real thing). There's rather few truly different molds out there of any plane, most are just copies of the few originals, or upscaled/downscaled versions of the company's own molds. The best clue for any F-15 is to see if there's a speed brake well. Why? Because every F-15 kit ever has one, but the real F-15 doesn't. So if a new toy/model has a speed brake well, then they based it off a kit and not photos of the real thing.

Um, Graham's scan shows all the names pretty clearly. Shin and Roy, and that's it.

I think I recall "Galdo" Bowman on the YF-21 stickers. And the canon name is debatable, but I know "Milia" has been seen on-screen in M7, and maybe the original serieis as well, so "Miria" is wrong IMHO. I think Isamu's name was screwed up as well. Anyways---will any of our intrepid decal makers make aftermarket VF-1 decals for the low-vis VF-0? (VF-1 the squadron, not the valk). And possibly adapt them so we get the FULL fuselage striping and correctly-sized nose markings? Oh, and red ventral fins, that's part of the scheme. Wolfpack markings would rock on the VF-0A, but there's no way I'm going to try to use sucky Yamato stickers for such large areas. Or maybe 1/72 or 1/48 VF-1 decals would work: http://www.camdecals.com/main.asp?img=48-029 (I already have them in 1/72, but they're reserved for building an F-14 in those markings some day--if I had a VF-0 I could photocopy my set and see how they'd fit)

Big point: IF Also--G1 could mean toy or anime. For most of all TF-dom AFAIK, fans generally prefer/expect toy colors. Examples: Starscream. Baby-blue fists, or deep blue fists? Thundercracker: baby-blue overall, or metallic sapphire? Grimlock: yellow chest, or metallic gold chest? Prime: pale grey stacks and bumper, or chrome? "Baby blue fist" MP Starscream wouldn't be accepted any more than Greenscream is. G1 *toy* colors are what we want. Anime-accurate never looks good. Except maybe for Astrotrain.

I've lit up stuff too, LED/fiberoptic/electroluminescent. But I still don't see a way to do the landing light on the nose gear. Not to light up the whole thing like it should.

Speaking as a mod: Ummn, Haterist---why'd you perform thread necromancy, just to say "oh yeah!".

OMFG! VF-1 markings! I might have to get this for that alone. I was planning on waiting out to see if we get a VF-0 w/Ghost, or VF-0D, but I don't know if I can pass up the Wolfpack... PS--do the stickers say "Sin" Kudo? Does Yamato purposely avoid the generally accepted English spellings of pilots on all their valks? LOL--"Bewear of blast". Can Yamato just find one person familiar with English? Or just copy photos correctly? I doubt you'll find a single US Navy plane that has "bewear" on it. I don't know Japanese at all, but I can accurately copy Kanji from a pic. They should be able to copy English from a pic too. PPS--just realized the incredible irony of a VF-0 with VF-1's markings. Maybe Yamato will do a VF-1 with VF-2's markings... (I'd buy it) I am a bit worried though--Yamato seems to have made the nose stickers as large as the tailfins----so either the tailfin markings are tiny, or the nose stickers are huge. I'm thinking it's the latter, and that'll look weird. We're also missing the aft 3/4 of the nose stripe, it should go from radome to intakes, interrupted by the kite. VF-1's markings would work PREFECTLY on a VF-0, but only if they're sized right and they do ALL the striping.

I still think G1 Astrotrain was way better, and the best triple-changer ever. (Blitzwing is still my fave though). G1 Astrotrain was like 99% perfect in both vehicle modes (hey, a rocket-boosted locomotive was COOL) , yet still managed to have about the best robot mode of any triple-changer. The new one--it's a shuttle with half a train on the wings. Or it's a train with the back half made up of an upside down shuttle. The blockiness of a switcher steam locomotive really helped, combined with the boxiness of a shuttle. Going for sleeker, more modern interpretations made it worse. Plus there's only one space shuttle, and I'm getting real sick of the 8,000 quasi-shuttles they've made lately, usually as Jetfire. Either make the real, Rockwell-designed NASA Orbiter, or don't do it at all. It just looks stupid IMHO to make all these "shuttle-esque" designs. Especially when the real shuttle looks the best of all by far. "Made up" cars work fine, since there's zillions of car types on the roads, and zillions more concept cars. But there's only one shuttle, and we all know what it looks like.

It's fairly well known that Macross Plus was based off of the YF-22 vs YF-23 competition. Especially with the YF-21 being based off the YF-23. A lot of the controversy over the YF-23's loss lead to changes, which is why we had X-planes, and not the YF-24 and YF-25 for the JSF competitors--because they weren't officially competing. They were merely "experimental test planes for the same idea".

Interestingly, Classics Starscream has the same fictional conformal tanks that MP SS has. Pure coincidence? I thought Classics and MP had completely different design teams. How would 2 different new F-15 seeker molds decide to add conformal tanks, and screw them up in the same way? As for the stripes: not sure. Seem to follow a panel line, but from what I can see that's NOT how the F-15's wing panel lines are. They'd be further aft, and wouldn't "not parallel" the leading edge as obviously, if they followed the real panel line. Either way, it just looks stupid. And it's Thundercracker's wing stripes anyways!!!! SS has pure red stripes (no white border) and they don't "make a turn" at the tips and head back. TC is the one with a white border that turns back at the tips. Let's hope the recent rumor I saw (said to be from Hasbro at Botcon) about a US release in anime colors coming this way is true. We should know tomorrow for sure. Though my hopes aren't very high. With the hip and intake kibble, and the Popeye forearms caused by CFT kibble, I'd demand 100% perfect G1 toy colors to buy that mold. (Note, toy colors---for Skywarp there's not much difference, but SS and TC have SO much better colors for their toys than on screen--mainly the shade of blue---TC has got to have his METALLIC blue finish)

That's it. But as for lighting---kinda doubt it. The piece is only 1 or 2mm thick with the nosegear strut right behind it.