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wm cheng

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Posts posted by wm cheng

    Legos, anyone?

    in Anime or Science Fiction

    Posted

    On 5/27/2025 at 7:32 PM, Chronocidal said:

    Little late, but I think it was in LDD.  I know there have been some custom part update packs for it, since LEGO stopped supporting it.

    Downside to the update would be the lack of actual windows, but I'm absolutely not upset by not having a cockpit with minifigures in it.  It's cool that sometimes they work out in the correct scale, but I'd much rather focus on a having as accurate a shape as possible, rather than being shackled to the existing stock of clear elements.

    Since it hasn't been brought up here yet, I'm just going to say I'm really torn about this new set.

    LEGO-Icons-Shuttle-Carrier-Aircraft-1036

    On the one hand.. I want to get it.  On the other.. the primary reason would be to rebuild it, because this design just upsets me in so many ways.

    As a starting point, I'm not nearly the airliner aficionado that I know some folks here are, but this 747 has so many serious flaws that I can't look at it without cringing.  Primarily, the cockpit absolutely needs a redesign, but the placement of both the wing and stabilizers relative to the fuselage just bother me.

    But the shuttle.. this hurts.  Mostly because it's almost dead on 1/110 scale, same as the Saturn V, and more importantly, the Ideas shuttle that got rejected.. and this design is so much worse than that one.  I do like how they used some ball and socket joints to angle the main engines, and I might steal that design for mine, but the rest is just a painful downgrade in so many ways.  It doesn't even look as nice as some of their City-themed minifig scale ones, and even using one of their old single-piece molded noses would have been an improvement over the weird half-octagon cone they designed.

    I have gradually made a lot of tweaks and modifications to the original KingsKnight design, especially the nose and tail (the feature I'm most proud of, that thing is a SNOT jigsaw), but I also redesigned the wing to use the old-style notched wing plates, which let me give the wing a proper gray leading edge both on top and bottom.  Those pieces sadly aren't made anymore, but I'm certain something could be worked out using all of the new angled tiles they've made.

    ss(2025-05-27at04_08.22).jpg.2d0bf831f7867971e0f084929ea81d4c.jpgss(2025-05-27at04_10.38).jpg.f6ab64d740a608aa611ba2b786e1bc1e.jpg

    Funny enough, the original Ideas design was closer to the Enterprise anyway, since it left out the upper nose markings that I rebuilt it to include.

    In terms of the set though, I know it's not historically accurate, since they just decided to replicate the Paris Air Show scheme carrying the Enterprise, but it feels like a lazy cop-out not to include the parts or stickers to pick one of the other shuttles. <_<

    They even missed a stupidly easy detail by not adding the upper windows on the cabin, or even a sticker for them.. which is specifically what that notch in the upper cockpit panel was used for in previous shuttle sets.  I know the Enterprise had those windows covered, but they were still there, and it would have made a very low-effort detail.

    I don't know.  Maybe I'll use the points I racked up during the Star Wars sales to discount it and pick it up later this summer, but it's definitely a fixer-upper.  I could even use the stickers (yes they're all stickers) from the shuttle on mine, since the parts involved are mostly the same. :p 

    I feel exactly the same way @Chronocidal - I feel they just phoned this one in.  I was so excited to hear about this one, I love official Lego sets especially their space stuff but there's so many bad shapes that I can't seem to support this set.  The 747 shape is so wrong, and my KnightKnight Shuttle is so much better than this one.

    What will Hasegawa do next?

    in Model kits

    Posted

    6 hours ago, electric indigo said:

    Were these strips even shown in the animation? I was always under the impression that they were added by Hasegawa (under Kawamori's supervision of course).

    IMO the VF-11 looks better without them (and the warts), so I sanded them off.

    9940008384_b8916cbe7b_c.jpg

    Gorgeous!!!  Love that splinter scheme!

    Macross DYRL in 4K UHD with English Subtitles

    in Movies and TV Series

    Posted · Edited by wm cheng

    Damn it!  Won't ship to Canada.

    So is this 4K transfer worth it?  I have the previous release and it wasn't too sharp and I've noticed a lot of 4K transfers lately aren't very sharp and not a noticeable improvement over the 2K blu-rays (ie; Oblivion).  Is it actually sharper or higher resolution and a noticeable improvement over the previous blu-ray release?  I saw a Japanese review on Amazon.jp that said it was blurrier/softer than the 2K release - is that true?

    Whats Lying on your Workbench MK IV

    in The Workshop!

    Posted · Edited by wm cheng

    OMG @MechTech that Gatling Gun is just so many kinds of awesome that I'm speechless.  Fantastic work, just the machining would be enough, but to get it to rotate and then you go and light up just the firing barrel was just over the top and now you're just really toying with us.  If you can combine forces with @derex3592 on that awesome A-10 and be able to miniaturize that gun to fit into his A-10 nose then I'll give up modeling for good 😛  Wow just amazing work everyone!!!

    OK @MechTech the next step is to add smoke and slave to tracking - have you seen this?

    https://www.facebook.com/share/v/12FsTWag4YL/

     

    A little more disaster on that never-ending (16month long project) 1/72 Hasegawa VT-1 - seems like everything that can happen to it did (including that horrible paint crackling reaction after the decals!), so now we had to replace our hot water tank in our basement over Christmas, it started leaking, then they repaired it, then it literally exploded and sprayed hot scalding water everywhere until I could shut it off.  Unfortunately, this happens to be right behind my workbench in the basement.  So they came to replace it with a tankless system, what I didn't know was that they needed to drill a new hole in the basement to vent the new tankless system, so instead of going to the wall closest to the unit, they tubed above and decided to drill and vent out the opposite wall right above my modeling workbench.  My entire bench including all my airbrushes, paint brushes and every tool and pieces of model is now coated with a fine layer of brick dust over everything!  It will take days to vacuum and clean everything out (especially all my brushes which were standing on end with the bristles upward now coated with fine rock particles fallen into them).  From a guy who used to get freaked out if there was a speck of dust or hair on the paint - now just another reason to delay finishing up that model... if ever.

    Bandai 1/60 DX Chogokin Macross Plus YF-21

    in Toys

    Kitz Concept Toy Thread 2.0

    in Anime or Science Fiction

    Posted

    28 minutes ago, Radioguy said:

    I hope you know they resurrected...

    If you are seeking recompense and couldn't reach them before, they are reestablished and easier to contact now.

    Thanks @Radioguy - it was my understanding when they filed bankruptcy that the banks and lawyers got all the money that was left, I think that company is a new company and has nothing to do with the old HAL-9000 project (unless you know something I don't - there were a lot of us out $1k or more)

    Kitz Concept Toy Thread 2.0

    in Anime or Science Fiction

    Posted · Edited by wm cheng

    I love my Battlepod!  But no more kickstarters for me EVER - I lost over $1K over that HAL-9000 fiasco, it was written up all over the most respected magazines and online, but when it went down and bankrupted none of those outlets that reported on how great it was printed anything about the loss - ARGH!  (of course having said that, I did pre-order the Tomy Refit Enterprise LOL - but I think that's a bit different than a Kickstarter)

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