Nekko Basara

Thanks, Veef and sketchley!

So, is it fair to say that all that "wear it on your left hand" and "diamond because I'm in Diamond Force" stuff was just typical Gamlin awkwardness?

Thanks again, Seto Kaiba and sketchley. I didn't recall that the island ships had shields, but now that you mention it, I can picture it. And regarding the other dangers of space, I agree that meteor showers (or whatever the proper term would be when you are in space) are another reason to have the shell. It feels to me like (similar to jets turning into robots) this is probably an area where the core concept is "because it's frikkin' cool" and then as much solid mechanical design as possible is built around that.

I have another question, and hopefully this will be a truly short one!

When Gamlin gives Mylene the ring at her birthday party, is he:

1) Proposing to her?

2) Suggesting he will propose to her (the old "engaged to be engaged")?

3) Giving her a gift, and cultural context or translation is making me read too much into it?

Thanks again! I feel a lot better with the idea that the art is just inaccurate, than I did trying to make sense of it.

It occurred to me after I posted that when the band visits the "Riviera" resort ship in M7, there is a lovely sky even though that ship doesn't have a shell, but instead uses a weird collapsing shield system. So, yeah, just more evidence that the sky is projected on a clear dome.

Honestly, the shell just baffles me - it's such a huge contraption for such a limited purpose. Of course the colony ships we see in the series are always being attacked, but you have to imagine that for a normal fleet, situations that require closing the shell must be incredibly rare (and even when the "story" ships are attacked, half the time they can't get the shell closed fast enough to matter). Add to that the fact that the Frontier fleet (and presumably others) has loads of other ships that have clear sections and no apparent shell systems. Is that massive shell worth the energy it must take to construct, operate, and haul around?

I dunno... I realize it's all for dramatic effect, but as the valk discussions show, a lot of thought went into these designs, and it's fun to try to work out what that thought was.

Thanks for the quick replies! I still feel confused, but it may just be that I'm not explaining myself well or understanding the answers.

What has me puzzled are familiar shots like this:

To me, that looks like the "sky" is being displayed on the inner hemisphere of the defensive shell... meaning that if you were in the city and looked to the side or rear of the ship, you'd be able to see dark space.

But in Frontier, it is apparent that the clear inner dome can project a sky image upon itself. Can the clear the dome in M7 could do this? (yes, there are shots during attacks in M7 where the sky image breaks up, but I'm not clear if what becomes visible is space or the inside of the shell) And if the clear dome can display the sky, why is the sky also shown inside the shell?

Alright, I finished reading the newbie thread, and while there was a lot of great info, it didn't make me smart. So, get ready for the dumb questions!

Regarding the defense shells on the main "city" ships:

1) In M7 it looks like they show the artificial sky onto the inner surface of the shell, but in Frontier they use the clear dome over the city to show the sky. Is that right?

2) If that's the case, why in M7 doesn't the city have a sort of second horizon where you can always see space across a portion of the sky when the shell is open?

3) If they are going to use an artificial sky anyhow, what purpose does opening the shell serve? It just seems like a liability having to close it if there is danger.

Gundam Wing also got me into Two Mix (openings, endings, inserts), and I love them. Even when it's lyrically incongruous, their songs still make my brain think of cool robots flying really fast and hitting things. Sadly, they're not really active anymore.

I thought that Yuuki Hayashi's work for Gundam Build Fighters was really exciting and original. I guess his background is in rhythmic gymnastics, so it's no surprise that the themes had tons and tons of energy. What was surprising was how he incorporated international instruments and themes. Even if you thought the show was silly, I'd suggest checking the score out.

And as for losing Kanno, I agree that diversity is a good thing, but diversity is sort of her hallmark. It's almost hard to believe that the same mind was behind the pop in Frontier, the orchestral pieces in Escaflowne and Plus, the rock and blues in Bebop, etc. If she and Kawamori decide to bring her back for another Macross, I don't expect it will be "same old, same old."

Thank you for sharing that. It helps me to understand how important this hobby is, and how everyone comes to it from different places.

Your output is amazing, and I look forward to seeing more. Especially curious about those Idolmaster kits and their huge "wallpaper" decals. I love heavily decorated machines like the real-world Tigermeet planes, and imaginary ones like the itasha-themed mecha in AKB0048.

Oh, unless you've got something significantly different than I did, those aren't waterslides on the 1/100 Ranka & Sheryl valks. They're these very thick, possibly vinyl stickers. I think Bandai made them so thick (nothing like Gundam stickers or what you get on the newer "regular" valk kits) so that they can stretch over contours without ripping. I don't think they would respond to decal solutions at all.

I found that they worked a lot better than I expected them to. Each sticker was fit exactly to the space over the rear 2/3 of the valk, using clear sections as needed, so lining them up was easy and only minimal trimming was required. I stickered the wings and stabilizers before assembly, but you basically have to do the body afterwards, because the stickers cross multiple parts. The approach on the top of the jet is very different from the bottom: on the top it's mostly one huge sticker that has to go over a lot of bumps and details (wish they hadn't done it that way), while the underside is this crazy patchwork of multiple stickers that have to fit together to cover the much deeper contours of the leg area. The latter took more time to line up, but I think it worked better.

A few things I noted:

- Although the thick stickers obscure a lot of the fine panel lines, you can pick out the major lines by using a toothpick or burnishing tool to push the sticker down into them before fully pressing down the flat areas. It's unfortunately hard to do this with the finer lines, simply because you can't detect them through the graphics (at least, I couldn't).

- There are tough spots on the upper body of the jet (the biggest sticker) where the sticker has to contour over the two nubs behind the head, and the rear of the central fuselage. It may help to poke small holes to let air escape, and really work the sticker over these spots repeatedly before tamping down the rest of it.

- There are a pair of louver details on each side of the back of the jet that are just begging to have their detail picked out by pressing the sticker down. I wish I had resisted this urge, because their placement on Ranka ends up looking a bit like whiskers (these aren't mine, but you can sort of see them in the great photos here). Whiskers on Ranka isn't a terrible idea, but... I think to the degree that the sticker could obscure these depressions by being pulled taut over them, it would look better.

- The sheet comes with extra stickers that aren't called out in the instructions, so you can have fun sprinkling these around the emptier front 1/3 of the jet, or the gunpod.

- a couple of good coats of Future over the finished stickers gives a nice look, and seals any edges.

- I'd suggest not clear-coating the gunpod, because the stand adapter that fits onto it will scrape the coating something fierce (oops). Or maybe round down the edges of the adapter.

I'll see about getting some pictures of mine up. Again, only Ranka is done so far.

EDIT: I just re-read your post and realized that you were offering advice on the wallpaper decals, rather than soliciting it. I hope I'm not coming off as a complete dick with all of these un-asked-for suggestions. Your work is fantastic, and I have no doubt you know what you are doing!

Very cool! I just finished the Ranka and Alto (plain) 25F recently, and I have the Sheryl version underway. I'm curious to hear how you like them. I found lining up the stickers across the contours of the Ranka version to be an exciting challenge.

Folks probably found this already, but HLJ has an unboxing video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_kQG4wDd_4

Lets you see the unique new frame parts, and the weird GN cables and decals.

Makes me want to put everything else on hold and get one!

Thanks, close313 and CrazyDude. I wasn't really worried about getting my own in a hurry - I have enough of a backlog! But I appreciate the Bandai/HLJ insights.

I found this review of the RG Exia. Although I don't understand a thing he was saying(I even turned on the useless automatic captions), the review is very entertaining and funny. So much more than the english reviewers that I actually watched till it ended.

Awesome - thank you for sharing that!

I was alarmed when I saw so many stickers for the green parts, because I thought that would look cheesy, but it looks like they go on under the clear pieces rather than over them. Cool! I wish the reviewer had done more to show the arm articulation and how the GN cables there work. Other than that, great review - even without understanding the language, it answered a lot of my questions about this kit.

Does this mean it's out now? The last I saw, HLJ had delayed it into May.

The F-16 Block 60 with the CFTs is a great looking plane.

Older aircraft get to be like kitted-out tactical firearms. Some folks see the rails and flashlights and multiple optics and think it looks badass; others see a mess of afterthoughts that ruin the original form.

Personally, I can usually enjoy both sides in different ways. One of my favorite examples is the Skywhawk. To me, the initial machines look like sleek 1950s rocketships. But the 80s and 90s machines, all hump-backed and covered with extra doodads, look like grizzled warhorses. Both are "beautiful" in their way.

So, yeah, I think that F-16 looks great for what it is, but I won't blame anybody thinks they've ruined the original viper.

As for the Typhoon CFTs, could we say that the extended range program has gone "tits up?"

So, basically Ozma is Stacker Pentacost to Ranka's Mako Mori. Which is why Ranka grows up to be such a badass Vajra-hunter. No, wait...

If the Typhoon stays in service as long as the Lightning, I shudder to think what those will look like.

Try http://www.mahq.net/

They also have a podcast. It's very different in format from the SpeakerpodCast, but it's still fun.

We need to take a step back if we find ourselves saying that jets with arms are realistic, but flying them with guitars is absurd. There are choices we make make about what we want from each show and what we are willing to accept in the premise. These choices are personal, they aren't right or wrong, but they also aren't absolute.

I love what Mr. March has to say about viewer age and the maturity level of the various shows. My personal experience is sort of the opposite of his prediction; I think I'm an older fan (I grew up with Robotech), but I find myself increasingly enjoying less "mature" pursuits and themes. M7 was the last Macross series I watched, and I approached it with great skepticism due to its reputation. For me, the frequent humor and more light-hearted tone was a breath of fresh air, and it gave me a new perspective on just how fun Macross can be. For the place I'm in right now, M7 was just right. Obviously, not the case for everyone, but again, it's personal.

Alright - space is metric, after all.

Sorry if I came off defensive. "Although" was a poorly chosen word on my part, loaded with unintended bias. All I mean about the space exploration is that I hope imperial measure will just be a historical footnote soon. Even in the US, most science and defense work is already metric.

???

Many English speaking countries use the metric system. Canada, Australia, New Zelealand, the UK... just to name the big ones.

And I'd hope all of them do once we start, you know, colonizing space and stuff. I was just noting it, not expressing amazement.

(Now I'm imagining poor Milia who has to learn kanji as an adult! She probably just got the spoken language in SDFM times, then went to whatever European language Max uses. But as she progressed to Mayor of M7 City she probably does need to use kanji)

Just re-watching M7, and I noticed that Gamlin's bio sheet that Milia reviews is in English (althout using the metric system). That doesn't mean every document in her massive piles is the same way... but I hope she didn't have to learn both!

Can I just make a shout-out for Canaria? She's a female doctor AND the pilot of the most badass mecha in the entire franchise. She's also married, with a son, and a husband who seems happy to take on more of the "homemaker" role. And on top of that, she appears to be of non-Japanese, non-European heritage. Canaria frustrates so many stereotypes. She doesn't play a big role, but nothing she does is trivial. If there is a progressive "social message" character that nobody could take issue with, it's got to be her.

EDIT: And she stands in for Veffidas in Lovely Bomber. So awesome.

Hey, LowViz Lurker, thanks for writing that. I feel like it would be jumping down a rabbit hole if I tried to respond,, but I can see you put a lot of thought into it, and I appreciate that.

For what it's worth, while I don't really think about what my "favorite" Macross is (remember the courses in a meal analogy), if I rate them in terms of "awesomeness per minute of running time," my #1 is Plus.

My only big gripe with Zero was the soundtrack. It wasn't bad (when is Kanno ever bad?), but it just didn't have the catchy pop angle, which I think is a key part of the Macross triangle.

Other than that, I like Zero a lot. I am more forgiving of a loose plot when it's in the short OVA format. Likewise, I don't mind a fairly unlikable character like Sara (or Myung in Plus) when the runtime is short.

Sir, yes, sir!

I didn't get much of an impression of a triangle from FB7, but admittedly I've only seen it once and it's a total mess. The Basara-Sivil relationship was front-and-center, but a lot of Mylene's interest in Basara was edited out.

I think that the classic M7 triangle is weak to begin with (although the show isn't harmed by this). Basara has nothing but brotherly regard for Mylene. Mylene takes an interest in Basara, as any young lady would a cool guy, but is well aware that's she's too young for anything serious (though other characters forget this). And while Gamlin seem genuinely interested in Mylene, it's with the same sense of responsibility he'd probably apply to setting up a 401k. To stay on topic, I think that's what keeps M7 so appropriate to young viewers; it has great action and music, but its romantic subplots never rise above a simmer.

For my own question - and maybe Gubaba's answer covers this - why is Ozma in FB7 so clueless about the events of the 37th expedition and the history of Fire Bomber? Was there some big post-Protodevilin cover-up? Is there no Space Wikipedia?