IAD

Anybody notice how the cockpit bubble is transparent in the first scan, and apparently "shielded" in the second? (Especially looking from the side view.) Is it an optical illusion/early prototype, or is there some sort of sliding heat-shield inside the bubble? Or did I just miss something, and all this has already been hashed out? ~Luke Edit: Just answered my own question, that second set of images is pretty old, so it's probably just a cloudy prototype canopy. Oh well.

I wouldn't panic too much about exactly what we're seeing there... As has been mentioned a couple times, they look like stereolithography models, aka rapid-prototype/3D printer stuff... Possibly somebody just ran off a few of the animation CG models for kicks? I've worked with a machine that can make models like those in ~10-20 hours. (Basically, just load the CAD model, click "Print", and come back the next day.) I know if I had access to those files, that's one of the first things I'd do. (Quickly followed by milling one out of foam, and putting RC gear in it!) ~Luke

I use Rhino... Good software, better than ProE/AutoCAD, etc, for this sort of thing, in my opinion. ~Luke

Thanks! It's so funny, seeing those clips on a TV show... ~Luke

No, no, I knew... Graham actually gave me a phone call (uber-long-distance) to get permission to use the footage. However, I didn't know what footage they actually used, and would love to see the actual broadcast. ~Luke By the way, if you search YouTube for RC SV-51, you'll find all the videos I've posted. ( <-- Mk2)

Yeah, and I'd love to be able to afford to build a jet turbine VF. ~Luke

Hey, not so fast.... An overpowered RC prop job with three times more thrust than weight, definitely, that's easy... A 40mm ducted fan anything is pretty tricky. Not a lot of thrust there. So, no... Given the limited power output of the small fans, good aerodynamics are required. The SV, though not the greatest, is still a pretty reasonable airframe, overall. ~Luke

If anybody does find a torrent or something of the footage, I'd love to see it. If anybody saw it personally: Which ship did they show, Mk1, in grey, or Mk2, in pink? ~Luke

Ok... I'm a little tired of the flock-of-birds thing.... Radar screens don't show high-resolution images of the shape of the target generating the return... Just dots. (OK, dots, sometimes with lines extending off them, to show travel heading.) Even the F-22 radar doesn't show airplane shapes, and it's the latest/greatest thing around, radar-wise. Radar waves striking a non-stealth aircraft tend to bounce back towards the radar station. The angular shape of the -117 causes radar waves to bounce off in various directions... (For stealth, any direction besides that of the source radar station is a good thing.) This reduces the amount of energy returning to the radar station, which in turn makes the aircraft appear very small. (A very small dot... Like a bird.) As Graham said, stealth works in space, too. The US seems to have deployed a stealth satellite as early as 1990. (Code-named MISTY. See: http://www.globalsecurity.org/space/systems/afp-731.htm Good site, not an "Above-Top-Secret"-type. ) Having said all that, I never really liked the VF-17/171 (sorry Graham!), for the simple reason that the faceted shape of the F-117 was due to the limited computing power available at the time. Newer stealth aircraft (B-2, F-22, YF-23) are nice and smooth, and have excellent stealth characteristics. (And, coincidental, are nothing like a flock of birds in size and/or shape.) For me, seeing facets on a stealth OT variable fighter is like seeing tiers of oars on a modern battleship. (Now, the SB-10/10 Starwing... Much better. ( http://www.un-spacy-qmtdb.com/Macross%20Plus/starwing.htm )) ~Luke

Mecha-wise, looks very good. Yeah, I'm picky. Oh, and it would be nice if I knew what they were saying. ~Luke

Mr. March, did you take the top-views down? All I'm getting is a red X? ~Luke

Ok, thanks! So the aluminum gear on the servo output is just taken from the HS-125 gearset? ~Luke

Looks fantastic..! Can't wait to see the video. Quick question, what diameter are, and where did you get your final-stage gears for the ramp-folder? ~Luke

Landing gear, hinges, gear doors, dummy engines, telescopic ratchet joints.... ~Luke

Yes, let us hope for the best..! As long as there are no VF-sized aerosol cans of Raid, I'll be OK. ~Luke

Ok guys... I took the DVIX version, ported it into VirtualDub, and did a frame-by-frame... Caught some screenshots that might be of interest: A "space scorpion" killing one of those "sorta-VF-17"s... What appears to be an powered armor of some kind. (Human-sized, apparently.) A couple shots of the "sorta-VF-17"... A giant bug destroying a city... And a cel-shaded VF-25. (Or not cel-shaded, but... Still, there it is.) ~Luke

I don't use the tabs to hold the gunpod in... With a bit of fiddling/pushing, the gunpod can be made to sit perfectly centered. The magazines have to be securely locked together, in order to fit in the leg cavities correctly. I haven't really had a problem with the head-spike, I usually just tweak the head until everything lines up. ~Luke

"...How's the balance in the battroid and gerwalk modes?" It balances very well in GERWALK, though it feels a bit tail-heavy if you have the booster loadout on it. Nothing bad though, it definitely isn't about to fall over, or anything like that. ~Luke

Yes, I agree, good engineering practice states that you should fillet joints, in order to prevent stress concentrations from forming. I suppose they could even modify the existing molds, since adding fillets would mean removing material from the mold... ~Luke

Yep, I've got that same stress mark. I've been monitoring it, about 12 transformations so far, and it doesn't seem to be progressing. I'm torn between reinforcing it with epoxy, or leaving it as-is, so I can keep an eye on it. ~Luke

"Doesn't the CA glue melt the joints a little bit after it penetrates through capillary action??" I didn't apply enough CA to do anything that dramatic... Just the absolutely thinnest film, applied by toothpick, on the metal pin, in order to tighten up the joint a bit. I kept it moving it while it set, so it never really grabbed anything. Using clear fingernail polish would probably work too, I guess that's pretty standard practice, for Yamato joint tightening? ~Luke

Well, nobody's posted SV-51 poses here yet, so.... Not the best, but it's a start. ~Luke

The "Yamato wing fixer" would be the two metal pegs, I believe. The CA is exactly what I did on mine, likewise, it now works perfectly, and Dojumpjump has just saved me the task of posting pictures/instructions myself. Thanks! ~Luke

Ok, so far, it looks like there's two ways of doing this: Both require that you tighten the outer wing panel hinge. I used a TINY amount of thin CA (superglue) applied with a toothpick. And I mean a TINY amount, not even a drop, more like a film on the toothpick. I put it on the metal rod, right in the middle of the hinge. (I'll add photos later.) Put enough so that with boosters and pods, the wing will hold any angle without difficulty. Fingernail polish would probably work just fine, the CA is just more permanent, in my opinion. Now, option (1): Just a slight mistransformation. See pics. This may or may not require that you correct any double-right or double-left hinges. (Again, I'll add photos showing how that's done, later.) This trick takes advantage of the fact that the "wing end" the small double-hinge is much stiffer than the "fuselage end." Basically, the double-hinge oriented vertically, as in Battroid mode. Option (2) is a bit more complex, and as of yet, only tentatively proven, but basically, a small shim in the right spot will allow the wings to stay level, even when properly transformed. What I plan to do is make the shim out of a layer of J.B. Weld epoxy. The stuff is grey, so it will blend right in. I'll tell you how this works out. At the same time, I'll be adding fillets to the wing-support/body pivots, where those stress marks are. They aren't getting worse, but may as well make sure it stays that way. ~Luke

More cycling, nothing to report. I did start tightening joints, starting on the outer wing hinges. I also found I have two right hinges, so I removed, flipped, and trimmed, 100% successful. (For what it's worth, it took all of 5 minutes. Very easy.) The wings now hold the "boosters lit" configuration, without resting the wings on the anti-ship missiles... Also, I think I've found a way to keep the wings from sagging with full loadout, I'll post if it works. ~Luke