Knight26

Very cool model, almost makes me wish for a WM Cheng Version, lol. That or a 1:72 Scale Prometheous and Dadelus (sp?) those would he huge and too cool.

Last One, Stern Shot.

Starboard side of the Island, man my Dad wound up in several of these shots, camera hog, lol, jk.

Mid ship Flight Deck, A-7's and EA-6Bs on Deck.

"Skull One Ready for Take Off!" Plus Forward NATO, whips, etc... THose finger on the end of the flight deck are gone now too on the real thing, like I said early 80's configuration.

Forward Elevator and Flight Deck, lookie a Hornet.

Aft Starboard Side, missing my RAM Launcher it is

Aft Elevators and Hanger Interior

Port Island Aft, with elevators, aircraft, Jolly Rogers, and NATO Sea Sparrow Launcher.

Flight Deck, Island, and some guy to give you a sense of scale. CHeck out all the tie downs on the deck too, way cool. Resized this one, sorry about the last one.

Some time ago on the old boards we had a discussion about extremely large scale ship models. DUring that discussion I brought up this model, a 1:72 USS Nimitz Aircraft Carrier at the NImitz Museum in Fredricksburg, TX. Well on a recent trip back there I managed to take some pictures with my nephews old digital camera thought you folks would enjoy it. BTW this is in the 80's configuration as the Phalanx mounts have since been replaced by RAM Launchers, which I work on. I had to convince my nephew not to point out this change to the museum staff. Anyway onto the pics, bow shot.

Well as some of you know I was recently away for three weeks on a trip for work, got a buttload of Over Time for it too. The trip was to the USS JFK, CV(A)-63 where we certified our launchers and trained the crew. Well it culminated in a 2 week underway period during which we shot about ten missiles. Four RAM BTVs (Blast Test Vehicles) which are used for structural test firings, basically to see what effect the rocket motor blast has on the ship's structure. We fired two BTVs from each launcher, though I didn't get watch the second set of shots because the space I was in has bad doors seals and an open stuffing tube that let exhasut gas into it, not fun but everyone was fine. Anyway we then fired a single Block 1 round at a drone for a certification shoot, nailed it, but since it was telemtry round with no warhead it tore up the drone but did not destroy it. Well we brought the drone around again to shoot the second launcher ar it, but it was so damaged from the shot that its radar was unusable and so we couldn't fire at it witht he Block 0 round. The range was a bunch of idiots and they did not launch a second drone so we couldn't shoot the second launcher, ugh. After that we went out to NATO test range and over the next two days fired five NATO Sea Sparrow missiles. I was off the ship by that point, took the COD (Carrier Onboard Delivery) off, got to take a cat shot, was too cool. Anyway was a cool trip, though it got really cold since we were off the coast of Virginia for the shoots. Anyway attached is the only good picture the ship took of one of the BTV launches, thought you would all get a kick out of it.

Nice work, will love to see the final product.

nice, can we get another shot of the interior of the pod, looks like some blood and gore in there, cool.

What about the other Armor 1:48 jets, it seems that we all agree that the F-14 model is bad, but what about the MiG-29? I was thinking of getting the JG-73-1 MiG-29 they made or maybe the A-10, but the picks of the A-10 I've seen are not that impressive. The MiG-29 looks good from the pictures though, any thoughts.

TMoS?

That guy either has the most understanding Girlfriend/Wife in the world or still lives in his mothers basement and has never evn kissed a woman.

Heading out to a carrier to cert a launcher, nuff said for now.

Well all i found the Yamato Escaflowne at my local anime guy, got a good deal on it $55.00, just slightly more than valkyrie exchange. Anyway, as soon as I got it home I opened her up. Very Nice. Just a quick word of warning for any planning to purchase it, mine was very loose and many parts fall off easily. Transformation is an interesting process that involves remvoing and then putting back on a great number of pieces. It is a nice piece don't get me wrong, but not a toy to be played with, just a display piece that can be transformed and reposed at will. Sorry no time for pics now. Just remember when you get it that many parts are held on very loosely and sometimes is seems by nothing more than gravity. Has good diecast content and a fair amount of plyable rubber parts, non-load bearing. All in all a neat addition to the collection and a good addition to any collection.

38.xxxx% hey I can't avoid it I'm an engineer and a sci-fi writer as well as an anime fan, it comes with the territory.

We discussed something along these lines back on the old boards as well. In my personnal opinion I think that Macross uses a hybrid control scheme. The stick, throttle and rudder pedals are used for general bot motion and directional control, with the computers compensating to make it walk and stay balanced. Weapons aiming is accomplished via eye motion control, basically the device you see in Macross-0, yet was never explicitely illustrated before. Fine motion control and combat moves are translated through the pilot's movements. The movement of the head is directly tied to the helmet and eye sensors, so when the pilot looks up the battroid looks up focusing the main cameras there and bringing a clearer image to the upper monitors. Hand and arm control uses sensors in the forearms of the flight suit, hence their size, to deteremine things like punches and using ones rifle as a bat, firing it etc... Mind you the hands must still say on the controls to keep the valk moving. The same goes for the legs and kicking, hey those bell bottoms are both fashionable and practical, lol. It would take a lot of training to learn how to use it effectively and a lot of activities would be preprogrammed in by the pilot and factory. It would be complicated but usable. IN my own stories when battle suits (fighting robots) are used there are three four control methods. 1) A motion suit, where the pilot is strapped into a frame and wears a VR helmet setup, his motions (or hers) are then translated into the bots motion. COmplex and not the most effective it is a stopgap measure. 2) Direct Nueral interface, basically your matrix plug in the back of the head. 3) Indirect nueral interface, a "mind reading" helmet much like Guld's is employed here and the pilot controls the bot as if it were their own body. 4) Body replacement, not a popular method, but in this one elite soldiers have their brains removed and permanently hard wired into their bots, mind you these bots are a heck of a lot tougher and stronger then any other.

What makes you think he's not here? *cackles evilly*

Actually over here completely inert weight test rounds are also completely blue. A Blue stripe with a brown stripe would be a telemetry round, live engine, no warhead.

As some of you may remember I make my own e-mail christmas card every year that I send out to my friends and family. Well here is this years and previous years can be found in the following yahoo photo album: http://f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/sj_schaue....com/sj_schauer

IMHO the new version corrects for the biggest flaw, a really poor cockpit design. The canopy on the Viper, like the X-wing is poorly laid out and gives really bad visibility. Many 70's era sci-fi starfighters have this flaw to them.