Knight26

Gott im Himmel!!! I agree it is probably the rarest of the rare Macross items, but nearly $700 with two days left, that is nuts. To the members who have them, how much did you pay? Of course I hope to someday find a beat up and abused one, where the stitching has started to go, then take it down and hove someone make patterns from it before repairing it. Imagine, custom Macross VF-1S plushes, lol.

I've always loved the Hasagawas, the only thing, and it is a small thing, that I had against them was the leg angle in fighter mode, non-FP, but that was a minor gripe and nothing to bash over.

I think Focker is confusing the book, movie and TV show, combining them which I've know many people to do. I myself found the series to be fun and a little closer to the book the then movie, at least technologically. However it still had far too many elements from the movie driving it. I have the whole series as well, mostly because I like the designs and can sort of watch it as a seperate entity. The movie however was complete garbage. As for the anime version, I have a non-subbed copy, its not bad, I love the mechanical designs, but the bugs look like garbage, and after the boot camp portion the story goes seriously off track from the book.

Just watched with all my office mates, several are still laughing so hard that they are hurting, loved it, reminds us of what we do with tech support on the launchers too.

I didn't dislike, nor did I love the ending, one thing I wished had been there was a Zentran Scout picking up the signal of the AFOS folding and reporting back to Breetai's fleet. Remember when the Zentran first show up in SDF Macross Exodore comments that they picked up a signal from earth and that is what they tracked in.

@ Lynx: I'll look into canting the dorsal fins. As for the profile view, I agree it is starting to look very much like a hawk or eagle. I may rename it now and just make the Phantom-4 an older fighter not seen in the books, we will see. I will not hook beak the nose though, sorry this isn't Buck ROgers, lol. @ ZD: The nacelles were done that way intentionally as a nod, though I may make the sides opaque again so they don't glow, I am undecided at this point. @A1: I went to the bubble canopy because it fit better in the overall GF Design scheme, all their fighters have bubble canopies. However, I plan to make a few variants of this one and one will be an early variant which may or may not have the angled canopy. This one is the standard late war model so it has the bubble canopy.

@GC yeah the DVDs were originally suppossed to be double sided, and some actually are. However, from what I have read the very first pressings were double sided but there was a mix up at the manufacturer and they did not get enough double sided disks so did the rest as two disks, hence the lack of artwork.

Well you know me I love my registry pics, don't worry I still have a lot of work to do, but here is a quick glimpse into its future.

Looking over the pilot's shoulder.

Some shots with the pilot in the cockpit.

underside and rear

Ok, I spent most of the day cleaning and going through all my junk, took a large load over to the Salvation Army, so I did not work on the design too much. I ddi make some progress: 1) Reshaped the Dorsal wing fins, I think they look better and match up with the ventrals better. 2) Built up the wing root, adding much needed additional structuring. 3) Worked on the area around the cockpit, adding some greeblies. 4) Reshaped the nose, should have done that before detailing the area around the cockpit but, oh well i think it turned out nice. 5) Added several sets of anntennae will add several more bumps and blisters all over the main fuselage. 6) I added the initial set of nose RCS thrusters, still need to add those that go underneath and those in the tail. Any suggestions are appreciated. @CK: the craft is kind of like a B-52, intended as a strictly interim fighter to be used as a testbed for developing new technologies for the fighters to come. So it was not designed for grace and came out very bulky to allow for its intended continuous upgrades. However it became well loved by its crews and with numerous upgrades stayed up technologically so stayed in service. @GF: Interesting comparison, though the hellcat was never one of my favorite wing commander craft, I can just barely see the resemblance though, in design and mission.

That beast is beauty, I am all over it once it comes out.

Uh no, it's a fighter, way too small to be a bomber, though it would be entertaining to see what it would look like with a torpedo or two strapped on. Of course being that it was made by Sukhoi, that is entirely possible, lol.

Another shot:

Okay major update Time: The cockpit tub has been cut, though I need to fix it in a couple places, and the canopy has been hollowed out and framed, though I may frame it a little more heavily. I added a bunch of details to the engines including the thrust vectoring plates, which will shutter closed when using the manuevering vents. I've also colored the whole plane a sort of haze gray for now. Next I will get back into the main fuselage, I am still considering the large ventral fins and filling that trench in the rear full of hardware for the reactor. BTW the engines are designed to be interchangable left to right, just flipped over I've also added the main dorsal wing fins and ventral fins and I think they work well together, though I was originally only planning the ventral setl. Along with that I added the external generator coils on the dorsal and ventral sides. The ventral coild are strictly for powering the Gauss Rifle and the shields. The original model was unshielded and because of the power requirements of the gun and shields additional generators had to be added. The generators have stayed despite technological advances that made the various systems more energy efficient giving the fighter excellent power reserves, but if not managed properly the systems can overload. I also added lights to the engines and the cockpit, the cockpit glow looks ok right now, but I may need to turn it down a little. I'm trying to figure out how to proceed from here, I think I may build up the wing roots and start adding the external anntennae. Any Thoughts?

Update: Ok, the manuevering vents on the engine nacelles are in. Now I think I may have to come up with shutters for the engine exhaust to in order to make them effective, bugger. Right now, ignoring the open main exhausts, I have them set for a right roll combined with a nose over, to give you an idea how it looks with them in use.

I still have my old X35/36 from Saitek, replaced at least half dozen or more springs it in by now, mostly in the rudder rocker. I never found it that hard to program, heck it is easier then the Thrustmaster IMHO. Now it isn't Xp makes it harder to do now for some reason. However now it also looks like you can program on the sticks themsleves without the GUI software which would be nice. I think they are running about $100-$150. If I start to fly flight sims again seriously and my X35/36 dies on me I may consider getting one, provided I can grip test them first.

Update time: 1) I nixed the radiator fins. 2) Because of a program error I lost all progress on the model this morning. As an experiment I took the triple missile packs off of the later model Solaar fighters and with some modifications to make them dual launchers slapped them onto the engines. Each engine now has two standard launchers on top and two triple-mini launchers underneath. 3) I recontiured the area behind the cockpit. 4) The canopy is now a more bubble type, I will still need to frame it, and the framing will be pretty heavily done. 5) Small change moved the guns down a little. 6) Fixed the docking mounts I'm not sure how to proceed, I want this one to be a dirty design, so it will be covered in anntennae soon, plus I still need the reactor radiators and a lot of other details. I will work more of the manuevering vents on the engines tonight while I consider how to proceed, any ideas? Edit- Reuploaded, still having a problem seeing it?

Don't feed the troll folks just point him to the truth.

Check this out the new Saitek X52 HOTAS setup. It looks like they've combined the best of all their sticks and the other out there into one super HOTAS setup. If I saw one at my local best buy or Circuit City I would hand test it, see how it feels, how natural, how comfortable. has anyone seen one of these with their own eyes yet? The only thing I don't like about it is that it they did away with the rocker rudder control on the throttle and replaced it with the twist stick rudder on the stick. I'm not a fan of that design, much prefered the throttle mounted rocker rudder on my X35/36 combo.

Small update: I started on the engine manuevering vents yesterday, but decided to start working on the larger salient features this morning instead. I was considering a large ventral fin for use a thermal radiator sprouting off the belly. It would fold for storage, but I just couldn't get it look right and still be able to fold. Instead I have opted for four fins sprouting out at angles from the main fuselage, but am not sure about those. I've also added the missile pods to the wings, the missiles will go inside and the front will split open to allow the missile to launch, then can close back up again. We will see where this leads. I am really unsure about those radiator fins though, thoughs?

Hmm, hoping we get some wookies ripping peoples arms out of their sockets.

Who the heck is Kate Bosworth?

Quick update, still adding the major salient features right now. I've cut out the engine exhausts installing baffle vents and added the fixed armament. I've changed up the armament from the two fixed gatling plasers to four larger caliber single barreled wing root mounted cannons, and added a single gauss rifle to the belly. Reason being that at the point in the war that this craft was introduced it was the only craft that stood a chance 1V1 against the confed craft of the day. So it was decided to add a single heavy Gauss rifle to it to give it some anti-bomber capability while the next gen interceptor was being developed. The weapon has stayed throughout the years though. Next up, I'm not entirely sure what direction to take this design, but here is what I am considering: 1) thrust vectoring plates on the engine exhaust, similar to the original (??) 2) Manuevering vents along the engine nacelles 3) External hardpoints for the missiles, on the wings and nacelles 4) Ventral fins (??) 5) ATM control surfaces 6) Recontour of the fuselage immeidately behind the cockpit (??) I appreciate any thoughts or ideas anyone has that they think will help. Oh and those colored bits midway down the fuselage are the dorsal docking mounts, just a stand in texture right now until I model them in. @Agent One: No the cockpit is about the same size, maybe slightly larger, the fighter just got a bit bigger.