flyboy

sign me up for one! Felix

I played Battlefield2 at E3 a few weeks back. Graphics-wise, it's a very, very impressive game! The play-balancing for the sniper is so much better than any other FPS currently on the market. Every time you squeeze a shot off, the game automatically zooms out of the scope view to "reload." You have to re-aqcuire your target each time, so snipers won't be quite as annoying as they are in other games. I didn't play it enough to get an idea of how the Commander mode works, but overally, this game is much more refined than any of the previous Battlefield games. If there's one game I buy this year (and at this rate, there may only be one!) this is it! Felix

Ah, Heroquest... Great game! Great idea about using it as an intro to D&D, as it's much simpler to learn, but share the same concepts! Back in my junior high school days, one of my friends bought the game, and we played it for about a year or so. During high school, we switched over to D&D, and "appropriated" all Heroquest minis and tile sets for our various D&D campaigns. Good times...

The original list price is 13800 yen. So for $30, that's quite the steal! I got mine in Hong Kong over 5 years ago for around $75. Felix

As far as I know, he isn't around anymore. I sent him $2.50 for his catalog three or four years ago, and never got a response. Called him, up and he said that he'd send it again, but I still didn't get it. I think the consensus is that he's gone. Felix

Rover? Hey, I resent that remark. J/K The only decent car to come from Rover: (and it ain't even their car!)

Yeah, I have a set. I think they were made by either Gundamhead (on the boards) or his brother. I think the name they used was Karakorum (sp?) Creations. Unfortunately, the casting quality on my set was rather poor. If I ever get around to building the ride armor with the weapons set, I'll probably end up having to completely rebuild the weapons... Felix

Yup, that's a 323 GTX. Good to find someone who knows their obscure rally cars. This incident happened up at Oregon Trail a few years back. Basicaly wrote off the car since we couldn't source another Group A upright to replace the broken one, and it'd be too expensive to backdate the whole suspension to stock form. That's the problem with trying to run limited-production, limited-support rally cars. Yeah, trying to rally in Norcal kind of sucks. The bright side is that you're only 6-7 hours away from both Oregon and Socal events. (I don't suggest doing Socal events unless you feel like building a tank - roads here are ridiculously rough). Well, it seemed like the SCCA rally program in general had been running out of steam lately. It hit a peak when the WRX first came out, but these past two years, the popularity has been steadily declining. (At least from a competitor's point of view - much fewer spectators nowadays) We'll see if this whole Rally sprint concept they're working on survives. Great concept since it drastically reduces the cost and strain of running a full stage-rally. But they'll have to overcome the total lack of any established venues and events. Until then, the same regional events are still being sponsored by NASA (no, not the rocket people!) and Rally America. Felix

Hey Nick, sorry about your car. Streets is a fun - but technical - track, and you gotta be careful and pay attention to what's around the next corner. Hope you learned something from that that'll make you a better driver. BTW, that broken wheel looks familiar... Here's what happens when your driver get drowsy at speed during a stage rally... Not quite as bad as your situation, but the location made it a hell of a lot harder to get the car up onto a trailer! Made for a good excuse to upgrade to a better car, though!

... but smells like an open sewer! Other alternatives to the more expensive hobby-specific putties are Bondo and 3M blue glazing putty. You should be able to find both at auto part stores. I've been using Bondo lately. I find that it has the same properties as the grey Tamiya putty, but it's three times cheaper. And it's light-years better than the Squadron Green crap. Warning - these may be a little "hotter" than the typical hobby putty, so as WM suggested, apply in thin layers... Felix

I'll take two, also! Let us know when these will be available. Felix

Isn't this like asking, "Which tastes better: an apple, or an orange?"

People seriously need to learn how to take better pictures when they photograph models. (especially when they're trying to sell them) Webcams and 1 Mpix cameras don't cut it. Neither does reducing the resolution of the image so much that it loses all detail. And a solid poster-board background does wonders for focusing your attention on the model and not the stuff behind it. Enough of the ranting. From what I can make out from the photos, the kit isn't too badly done. Seams appear to be filled and smooth (except for the on one on the instrument cowling). The paint looks relatively even and applied precisely, the decals don't show any silvering, and the panel lines seem to be done well. As far as this being built by a pro... I'd say that this is an average/ above-average model. It's much better than some of the other "pro" built-up crap that you see on eBay, but it's not as good as a lot of other stuff that I've seen out there. But it's by no means bad. my 2 cents. Felix BTW, that's not a pro-built model. This is a pro-built model: 1/48 Monogram B-17G

Here ya go: An erasing template for a whopping 99 cents. http://www.artsuppliesonline.com/catalog.cfm?cata_id=1706 If you're looking for something that has more complex patterns such as access hatch patterns, you can get either a 1/48 or 1/72 scribing template from Verlinden. http://www.discounttrainsonline.com/Verlin...temVER-281.html Felix

Thanks for the link. Excellent article. I read that he was going to do this write-up, then forgot all about it until it was posted today! ARC (Aircraft Resource Center) is one of the better aircraft modelling websites out there. Take a look at this guy's Rafele M if you want to see a really good-looking model of a modern aircraft. Felix

You have a point there. Doesn't work on night vision, but once you go to infra-red, all bets are off again. But it's useless in the daytime, when you need it the most. Interesting. I've seen pictures of the night cammo, but I didn't know it was actually the reversible side of the standard BDU... Felix

From what I've read (and I could be wrong here), digital camo is supposed to make it difficult to resolve an object when you're using an imaging device, not your eyes. Most forms of indirect imagery (satellite, electro-optical, etc.) nowadays is digital, and images displayed by said devices are reduced to a finite number of pixels of varying brightnesses and colors - like your TV. The individual pixel information can then be transmitted (to a display on the device itself, or out to a remote receiver elsewhere) and recombined. The resulting image is only as good as the resolution of the optics/digitizing circuitry, the amount of noise picked up during transmission, the display itself, and a number of other factors. The digital paint scheme supposedly breaks up the outline of the object by "faking out" whoever's looking at it the recombined image by creating what looks like a bunch of random pixels of different colors, instead of say, an aircraft. So in effect, the digital cammo'd object blends in with its surrounding pixels and becomes less distinct. And as Gaijin and PAO70 mentioned, this also works on analog imaging devices that are inherently noisy, like night-vision systems. This doesn't work with normal analog optics, like your eyes or a pair of binoculars. So if you were looking at the thing through a pair if binoculars, you'd still see the outline of the hornet with a funky paint scheme. Now the real question is... Now maybe I'm missing something, but how is this even effective in this day and age. All of our current "enemies" are fairly low-tech, guerilla-style fighters, and have none of the imaging capability for this type of cammoflague to be useful against. So unless we go to war with a more technologically advanced foe, this is pretty much just eye candy. Conventional cammoflague would work just as well. Still looks cool, though! BTW, here's some interesting info (from an armor modeling website) about old-school "digital" camoflauge the Brits used in Berlin back in the day... Centurion cammo Felix

Yes, sanding works by removing the damaged plastic. Depending on how deeply the damage has penetrated the plastic, you might have to use coarser sandpaper. If the yellowing is bad, start with 600 grit sandpaper, move to 800, then 1000, and so on. You can polish out the sanding swirls with polishing/rubbing compound (Blue Magic), but that may make the plasic much shinier and smoother than the original parts. Felix

Wow, I'm jealous! This is as close as I ever get to riding in a "real" rally car... (OK, it's a real rally car, but it sure isn't a WRC car!) Felix

Nice Nick, R1's are great - I wish my FD had that second oil cooler. And the black suede seats.... Where was that picture taken? Sevenstock? And is that a Spirit R badge I see on the fender? I call Rice! J/K I'd prefer a white FD over a black one any day since black is so common, but the chances of finding a white '94 or '95 in good shape with low miles are slim to none. MY first FD a was a Montego Blue '94 that I got rid of after 6 months because I wasn't driving it and I was too afraid that it'd break on me. Unfortunately, I think this black one is going to be going away for the same reason... The Spirit R wheels are very similar to the BBS RS-GT's. So if you've got $660 x 4, there yours to be had at Tire Rack! Felix

Here ya go. Nothing special - it's pretty much stock - But it's a '95! These are the stock rims. I haven't had a chance to upload pics of the new ones - unfortunately, they aren't the BBS's from the Spirit R. Those would have cost me an arm, a leg, and my left testicle. BTW, the RX-7 is probably going to go up for sale soon since I no longer have the time to be constantly tinkering with it to get it to run smoothly. Insanely fast, but if you don't maintain her, she'll make you pay! $18K for a clean, fast, lo-mileage, very rare looker. Anyone? I wish Mazda would hurry up and get the next-gen RX7 out... My "riced" out WRX ('cause all my mods were to make it look like the JDM version - no engine mods whatsoever!) OK, enough showing off... Felix

I recently bought a set of 99 JDM RX-7 wheels, and one of them was just slightly bent. I brought it to Rimpro in Gardena, and they fixed it for $85. Took a few days, but they do great work. OK, it's not OC, but most of the more well-known/reputable wheel repair shops aren't in the area. There's another one in North Hollywood called Tru-Wheel: http://www.truwheel.com BTW, I like what you've done with your car Vostok! That's a nice looking front spoiler - much better than all the over-the-top STi Ver* & Greddy crap that everyone's riceing out their Subarus with nowadays. Man, I remember back in the day (before WRX's), when putting any sort of body kit onto an Impreza was instant grounds for being called a ricer. But I digress... Felix

Thats cause Silverstreak is a JDM car. The smoke screen car is a european car. (Only England, Japan, Hong Kong, and Australia/New Zealand drive on the right hand side) At least that I know if. Actually, Smokescreen is also a Japanese-produced car, since all WRX's are made in Japan. The WRC car that he's based on is left-hand-drive. It's interesting that despite the fact that the Subarus, Mitubishis, and Fords are all prepped by various race shops in England, they're all LHD. I think it's because most of the countries that WRC events are held in drive on the "correct" side. Felix

Yeah, that one on the top is made from the trailer of a Bromry Eyevan from Dougram. The one on the bottom is from a Swedish S-tank kit. Probably 1/35 scale. Not sure who made injection versions of that kit way back when, though... Felix

True, I just tagged on the name "razorback" because the early P-47's were called that (per your description), and they had the same cockpit configuration. I stand corrected. Felix