UN_MARINE

Maybe a little bit of shading? It's not exactly weathering, but it blurs the line between cartoony & realistic.

Still tinkering with the Ex-S. I finally manned-up & split the shoulder plates. Also improved the smartgun arm for better proportion & articulation.

I wish it had more stickers/decals. Looking at the sticker sheet, it feels so plain.

man... I wish I could make mine look that nice.

I love the Sentinel designs, but the under-inspired HGUC kits drove me to buy the GFF Ex-S. It hovers nicely in my display and does everything I need. I still have a MG S-Gundam waiting for some magic, though.

I think Sentinel has some of the best designs too, Ex-S is my all-time favorite. It's a shame the kit isn't as good as it deserves to be, I hope they consider a new version as part of the "All Gundam Project". I never got the GFF, the stars just never aligned in favor of it, I guess.

I got a 2nd hand MG Ex-S too, after the checklist on the 1/144, I'm afraid the MG will take an eternity plus a hundred years to finish.

I decided to give the GP Base to the Nobell for now.

Is that the HGUC? Nice work on the gun.

Yup, 2002 HGUC. Thanks, it took a couple of attempts to get right.

Been working on this guy forever. If memory serves, I got this way back in '08.

Funny how you start fixing a tiny, little detail, then it turns into an endless list of modifications.

I planned on using a Build Custom GP base for it, in case of unexpected Gunpla Battle, but I think the "picture frame" base will match a lot better.

MG Unicorn is guaranteed to loosen up after a couple of transformations, I suggest picking a mode & staying with it, plus a stand is pretty much mandatory. It's got weak ankles, it'll eventually topple over in either mode.

It's not just that they're devoid of talent, it's the inherent problem with people who steal ideas. They can steal* the idea, but they can never steal the spirit of what made the idea great in the first place. Eventually, the creator of the idea will go on to make better ideas, while the "thief" will be left clinging to what he stole.

*In HG's case, we know they did it legally, but I think you get the analogy.

I feel sorry for their mech/ship design team, the plagiarism copy/paste is just embarrassing.

At this point, I'm curious who/where they "borrowed" the 3D assets from.

For a franchise that's done nothing but avoid getting into IP trouble, these designs should've been rejected from the start.

Is somebody on the "creative" team actually an "enemy spy"?

Just my take on it, as someone who's actually had to go over the Shadow Chronicles production materials once or twice, but to me it looks like a conscious effort to make something roughly analogous to the Macross Quarter-class carrier from Macross Frontier... but with an aesthetic that combines traits from the Oberth-class from Macross and the Shimakaze-class gunships from Robotech: the Shadow Chronicles. To me, the end result came up looking like the unholy lovechild of the METEOR system out of Gundam SEED and the Roger Young from the Starship Troopers OVA that Studio Nue did.

The problem is that, by trying to meld those aesthetics, they've come up with something absolutely hideous that looks like it was hacked together by Orks.

I think "unholy" is still a nice way to put it. Better creative talent could have made those elements work together, if not something pleasantly inspired & unique.

The funny thing is, even Orks can cobble stuff together with a unified style & aesthetic.

That ??? Kibblemaster is a mess, just blatant cut/copy/paste.

It kinda makes sense? In-universe, the technology seems to decline as they progress further in time.

I guess eventually, they forget how to make giant transforming robots and it'll lead to... Robotech 3000?

Where did you get that Prime kit ?

Looks like a RP job to me...

I did the 3D file, then did a test print to see if it works.

For now, it kinda transforms... most of the time.

This happened the other week. Still haven't found the time to make it pretty though.

There's Gundam Breaker for PS3/Vita.

It has the Build Fighters feel of building your own Gundam kit & fighting with it against other Gundam kits.

It's got most of the "Legacy" Gundam units up to the recent Build Strike Gundam.

The game's a little "grindy" though - but then again, most Bandai/Namco games are.

I unlocked the Deja Vu mission, it's probably the easiest mission in the game. I managed to get an S rank on the 3rd attempt.

Apparently, there's a Gray Fox skin unlockable through hard mode.

The mission rating seems a little more forgiving than Peacewalker. The major penalties are on mission time. 20-25 minutes seems to be the limit for S rank. Getting detected & killing don't affect the ranking as long as you don't exceed 3 alerts & 6 kills. Retries are a no-no, they'll bust you down to B or C rank instantly. Getting the special requirement per mission is also a huge bonus.

The trials don't affect the rating at all, they're just filler.

Listening to the tapes was tedious even in Peacewalker. I wasn't too thrilled when I saw the cassette menu again, but I figured they had to be there to give context to the people who didn't play Peacewalker.

At least now, you can run around & do the mission while listening to the tapes.

Wow! Will they

...or is it just wishful thinking?

1. Minmay Guard Paris Act

2. Macross Plus "Hostage VF-1"

3. Low Vis Gray

4. SVF_113 Enigma

5. Isamu Custom

I'd go with an Ex-S with a pair of beam smart guns or a heavily modified GM Sniper.

Either go big with Gundam-ness or crush them all with a cannon-fodder machine!

If the battle system grants special characteristics to each kit, does that mean AI equipped mobile suits have the potential to fight & win by themselves?

It's a "Super Robot" trope - every piece of conventional hardware is ineffective, therefore: Giant Robots! it needs no more logic beyond that. The sword scene is also part of it, has anybody seen an episode of Voltron where they go for the Blazing Sword right off the bat?

I love this movie, I need it on BD. (We got gypped with an alternate dub, I need to see it with its original/western audio track.)

I put it in the Super Robot category - "just enough hand-wave, not too much hard science".

If I had anything to complain about, it's that the movie was pretty tame when it came to upping the ante on "Ultimate Weapon".

I found some things silly. There'd be no way an 80 meter tall mech would survive crashing into the sea, and other things that defy physics, like "10 diesel engines per muscle strand". But hey, "Super Robot rules".

the problem with the way the master file does it is that it requires the wings to be hollow

Variable Fighter Master File - VF-19 Excalibur -035.jpg

Wouldn't you just need to dislocate the wing glove, fold & slide the wing over, then move it all back in place?

I think that's a straightforward way to do it. The v1 could almost do it, but the wings couldn't slide outwards to let them sit flush against the legs.

I've seen this film three times, yet one scene has been bothering me for days:

Was the Mako introduction scene originally supposed to be in Japanese? Because the dialogue was obviously dubbed over in English. Even Raleigh was "dubbed over", giving the impression that he was originally speaking to Mako in Japanese.

I got that impression too.

PS: I Saw it again & I saw more Macross.

Just got back from a show, without going into spoiler territory...

1. GO SEE IT!

2. Go see it multiple times!

3. wm cheng, your work is awesome on screen!

Finally...

Came today:

Now that's a super nice something I wish I could afford...

Only 700 out there, right? Congrats!

I love 3A toys, don't much care for the company though.

(I've got a penumbra, don't have cherry bomb but I do have OG cherry).

Wow! Awesome collection! I just got started so I'm choosing my figures very carefully.

That Cherry Shadow figure is the reason I got interested in 3A, though I'm super bummed I wasn't able to get it.

actually, that asinine nose sculpt was all IMAI's fault, not BANDAI's. when IMAI went under in the early 80's, BANDAI bought out all of IMAI's MACROSS model kit molds,

and, starting in 1985, went on to lazily re-release the best-selling of those kits every half decade or so, until fans were generally quite sick of the tired old things.

AFAIK, the last major re-release of those dated old kits was for the 15th anniversary, but i believe BANDAI might've ponied the ancient things out once more

some time in the interim between 1997 and the day they finally got off their lazy GUNDAM-spangled asses to deliver this new VF-1 effort for MACROSS' 30th...

Huh... I didn't know about the Imai history ( should've done my homework ). But in any case, it's Bandai's nose now - especially since they insist on keeping & reiterating all the wrong details.