RFT

goign back a bit, but I got MP-03 for christmas and wanted to throw my thoughts in. Colour aside, i'm really happy with it. The tailboom solution seems less annoying now I've got the toy in front of me than it was in pictures, and the legs seem nicely in proportion. I think I am going to cut off that annoying bit that sticks out between the engines, though. the extensive tampo work puts the yammie VF-1 (my other recent big transforming purchase) to shame, as do the quality of the stickers (nice and thin, if a little opaque) that colour - realism and character aside, it;s quite a nice colour, and gives the figure a nicely demonic (bat-like, really)feel. he's certainly a villain. standard F-15 grey wouldn't have quite the same effect. my wife did ask "who's that one supposed to be" and when I said starscream, and showed her the other ones i had (G1 and RM) she did mention that the colour was what threw her off. I was thankful for the alternative transformation sequence info posted on here, so sheers to whoever that was.

My reissue Hakaru 1A (my only 1/48) has the same thing too. are there any recent DYRL paint job 1/48's that don't have this?

oh joy, the US/UK JSF "Operational sovereignty" row rears it's head again: link to BBC story I thought the matter had finally been sorted out a while ago, but I guess not. I would hope that the "plan B" mentioned in the article had already been thought of.

it does seem odd that if the problems with A380 lie with the requisute cabling for passenger amenites (as has been reported) , they don;t just start building the frieght planes which must be free of those problems to get some money coming in for theproject while the passenger variant is sorted out.

best bet to fix is a dab of cyanoacrylate (Super or Crazy) glue, though obvious make sure none gets near the head laser hinge. I got a 1/48 reissue hikaru 1A (my first 1./48) last week and while its head was ok, one of the upper air intakes kept falling out in battroid. teeny spot of glue sorted it.

The F-117 was supposedly offered to the RAF in an upgraded form but we turned it down in favour of Tornado GR.4. I think at the time this was happening GR.4 was supposed to be a much bigger update than it ended up being, having a redesigned "stealth" nose and intakes. I'm not sure, now, that anyone would really want F-117s. they're old, a nightmare to maintain, and they don't do anything that JSF isn't planned to do. there's been talk of export F-22s in the older thread. Japan was supposed to have been approached. I suspect that the UK might have been as well. personally I can;t see it happening for a good few years, I don't think the US political climate would allow it. it;s been bad enough sorting out the operational sovereignty thing on JSF which was a co-funded project almost from the start. to gain congress approval, Lockheed would effectively only be able to sell F-22s so downgraded that countries may as well buy F-15s, Superhornets, Typhoons or Rafales, and get a lot more of them. Anyway, from a purely functional POV what country other than america (that are friendly with america) can afford to field such an expensive plane that's so specialised in role? countries that aren't super-powers need multi-role aircraft, and I don't think the F-22 is sufficently multi-role to do the job.

I'd have said that the nose is the main area I prefer the 1/60's shape over the 1/48 - it's pointy and sleek.

I have to say that I do like the 1/60. I think for the non-serious collector on a budget (me, basically) then they're a good buy. If I could have afforded a 1/48 when I bought my 1/60 i'd have bought a 1/48, but the 1/60's brought me a lot of pleasure since i've had it- at leats when the thing isn't falling over.

MP starscream is in jet mode. HLJ may end up having to do it for US sales, I guess, but modifying thier entire stock would be a dumb move when a signficant proportion of thier business must be outside the USA in any event, the Takara reissue of G1 megs was sold through HLJ unmodified so i'd expect them to follow that policy.

I doubt it- BBTS are based in the USA, which is why they feel they have to do it- with HLJ shipping out of japan, to places all over the world where this law doesn't apply (such as the UK) they shouldn;t need to do anything but place a disclaimer on the pages along the lines of "US customers be advised your geatron may get intercepted by customs)

at the moment, Hobbylink japan have got a 1/48 (the Hikaru 1a) on 20%-off discount. worth checking out. I've ordered one as it finally brought the thing into a price level I'd be OK with paying.

I'm looking for a pair of 1/60 VF-1 hands- the "holding the rifle" pair, for want of a better decription.

Yeah I saw these in Nostalgia And Comics in Birmingham a fortnight ago, priced at £25- I was a little tempted, but i've got a much nicer 1/60 at home so what woul be the point? for £10, i'd have gone for it for the desktop at work, but i'd rather save the cash and put it towards a 1/48.

I did manage it by the narrowest of margins, so I've now unlocked every plane (though I haven't bought them all yet- that'll take a while). Unlocked "The Gauntlet" as well, though I haven;t completed it yet.

Completed playthrough 3 (expert/mercenary) last night, so now the Falken and Morgan are in the shop waiting for me to earn the cash for them. every plane now i've either unlocked ot bought except one, the F/A-18C, and i'm a touch nrevous because i now have to get my meter out of mercenary fast enough to be in "soldier" in 3 mission's time. much as I like the game i don;t want to have to slog all the way through yet another campaign just for the hornet. it has been fun merc-ing through the missions, dropping FAEBs all over the place, especially densely-packed yellows.

The credits at the end fo the video say that the anime content was from Mac plus, but also the DYRL PSX game.

The rubber ends are quite grippy, but they can leave marks on the paintwork of the valk.

double post...

I've never seen that "F-22" F-15 proposal- is it online anywhere? the MiG-1.44 just leaves me cold- it looks too much like a copy of the Typhoon but with some added MiG-ness and an extra tail.

It's not so much the amount of fuel you use VTOLing that's the problem, as a simple question of weight Vs thrust. fuel use is an issue, but it's not the main limiting factor. whether you're taking off straight up, off a ski-jump, or conventionally, you're still going to puch the throttle as far forward as it can go. ski-jump and conventional takeoffs can get more off the ground (or the deck) because the wings make a contruibution to lift, which they don't in a vertical takeoff.

Can you unlock planes to buy in Free Mission mode, or only on campaign play-throughs?

I used to do okay with them in AC5 (on the Typhoon and Tomcat-D). In the end I went with buying an F-15 and QAAMs, which got me through the missions- Downed the morgan on my second attempt. Interestingly (well, i'm not sure how interestingly) I got the supreme knight medal, despite my meter being a few pixels from the end.

Having started this thread over a year ago, I finally got the game (just before going on holiday for a week) (bloody namco PAL release delays...). I've nearly finished my first playthrough, as a knight, and so far it's good, but it's not blown me away like AC5 did (though 5 was my first Ace Combat game so that may be to be expected)- the changes to the money side of things has been a postitve change- i've grown quite attached to the Gripen that's seen me through most of the campaign. I may have to chop it in though- i'm having a bear of a time with Wizard squadron's YF-23s and i'm wondering if a different approach is required. the XLAAs don;t seem to hit anything- so maybe I should go for somethign with QAAMs, like the F-15.

off-topic, but is that a strike eagle carring a bunch of amraams? (and a couple of sidewinders from the looks of it as well). is that common?

your exchange rate is way off there- 200m euros is about 260m USD.