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SebastianP

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Everything posted by SebastianP

  1. SebastianP
    What you need to know about the 1/72 models: 1. Building them is work, and you need to know how Bandai's kits work before tackling one. 2. Decalling them is more work, and where I ended up giving up on mine, because the stickers suck, and the water transfers suck worse, because they're fragile as hell. Aftermarket decals *would* be recommended, if there were any available. 3. They are absolutely not toys, and will not suffer any kind of abuse. The kits' joints won't handle more than a limited number of transformations before they start breaking from the stresses. Build it, decal it, pose it, and then *leave it alone*. I've broken one shoulder from transforming a kit too much, and I noticed that the shoulder on my Armored won't stand up to another transformation. Combined with how the decals scrape off? Yeah, not a toy. 4. Despite the above, the one aspect in which they'll always beat the DX toy hands down is how easy they are to get, and the small size of the hole they'll make in your budget. You can get all four of the plain Bandai VF-25 kits for the price of one DX toy, and that's at retail. Also, other than super parts for Luca's and Michel's units, all the configurations are available as a single box for each. (Super parts for Michel and Luca are sadly out of production, and unlikely to come back.) 5. If you're planning on displaying either a plain or a Super VF-25 in fighter mode, do yourself a great favor and get the Hasegawa kit instead of the Bandai kits. Not only are they cheaper, but the lack of a transformation gimmick means that they won't deform from a harsh look, and they're among the easiest to build glue-and-paint kits I've ever tried. I just wish I didn't suck at painting.
  2. SebastianP
    It's a nice build, shame the kit itself looks so badly proportioned. (from what I can tell, it's way too wide in the forward section, in the anime the nose of the ship always looked taller than it was wide, and here it looks the other way around.)
  3. SebastianP
    Samueldecal of Hong Kong made decals for the VF-25F and S kits way back when, and may have done so for the others too - I can't tell because their main site is down, and only their old site (last updated in 2011) and their facebook page are up currently. I haven't seen these decals with my own eyes, but a lot of people use their other products. They mainly do decals for Gundam kits, typically stuff like replicating the Metal Build, Master Grade or Fix Figuration looks in other scales, like High Grade (which seldom gets decals in the box). I think they also do water decals that replicate the massive RG sticker sheets for people who're fed up with those. At any rate, it looks like I need to find myself a pair of needle-nose tweezers, because I'm going to need them...
  4. SebastianP
  5. SebastianP
    Listening to the podcast now, some immediate comments...
  6. SebastianP
    Doing my screencap pass right now, checking over the whole episode more or less frame by frame for interesting bits of mechanical detail. Got to the scene around 12:59 where one of the Siegfrieds fire missiles at Keith, and decided, why not count how many frames between shots, because there were more than six missiles fired. Results are kind of weird, the first launcher to pop out a second missile does so six frames after the first, the last one to do so does it after twelve. Note that it has nothing to do with the relative positions of the launchers, as the L3 launcher fired again after six frames, and the R3 fired again after twelve. (those are the inboard launchers, so they're basically mirrored. Averaging it out says that the missile ports can fire 3 rounds per second, so a one second salvo with the missile launchers would be 18 missiles. Maybe not the most useful information unless you're doing RPG stats though.
  7. SebastianP
    Unpainted, undecalled review: http://blog.livedoor.jp/hobisima-rittai/VF-31J_2016-06-26
  8. SebastianP
    You definitely haven't been paying attention, because the Macross Elysion has been consistently referred to as such since we first laid eyes on it way back in episode 2. Hayate uses the name when he explains what it is to Frejya, and later Ernest Johnson introduces himself as the captain of Macross Elysion. And that was just in episode 2.
  9. SebastianP
    Are we out of the spoiler protected period yet? Anyway - with the Aether and Hemera being externally identical, I'm guessing both ships have the same internals as well, so yes the Aether should contain another Macross Cannon. Also, based on the Aether not even trying to shoot at the Sigur Valens, I'm guessing that either the charge time is prohibitive without the Elysion's main reactors to power it, or the ship basically can't fire the gun on its own. Guns akimbo? Maybe in space. On the surface, Elysion used the other hand to steady the Hemera, and I don't think it was just for the sake of a cool pose. More likely, we might see the Elysion fire both guns simultaneously in ship mode - possibly after ramming the Sigur Valens? It's gotta do a Macross Attack at some point, it won't be Macross without it.
  10. SebastianP
    Do they actually? I don't remember seeing any Japanese material that actually gave an English rank, and in Japanese the ranks are all the same. The translations tend to confuse the issue (the official subs for Macross mixes army and navy style ranks, we have lieutenant commanders and admirals on one hand, and majors and generals on the other), and people keep getting referred to by their job titles rather than their ranks (like Max being "kansho" on in Macross 7, or Roy and Hikaru being "taicho" in the original.)
  11. SebastianP
  12. SebastianP
    This incessant complaining about the combat being fighter vs fighter all the time is getting annoying. The reason we're not getting anything else is because unless you need to take or hold ground, Battroid and Gerwalk are pretty much useless in the atmosphere. The Aerial knights stay airborne because they don't have any ground objectives that they can't hit-and-run; and Chaos fights them in the air because they can't make them come down to fight them on the ground, and they can't just leave them up there because then they can pulverize whatever they want from up high. In space, or in an enclosed area (like inside a colony), it's a different story. Mode changes in an atmosphere will kill your mobility, mode changes in space will give you options. In a domed city, you can't take advantage of fighter mode's extra speed or altitude performance anyway, and fighting street to street makes sense because you *can't* take off and nuke them from above. Now, if the Aerial knights ever had something they seriously needed to take and hold on the ground, as opposed to just needing destroy something or to distract the defenders, we'd probably see them use Gerwalk for more than just landing or a hand-break, and battroid for more than proclamations. And that would cause Delta and company to have to follow suit. Or, if Delta did an op where they were assaulting, as opposed to destroying, a ground objective, we might see the knights use battroid and gerwalk. But for the types of ops we see, fighter mode is pretty much the most useful thing to use, so that's what gets used. (Also note that in the one space battle we do see properly, everyone uses Gerwalk mostly. On both sides.)
  13. SebastianP
  14. SebastianP
    Thank you kindly,
  15. SebastianP
    The non-spoiler review: That. Was. CRAZY Awesome. And whoever the troll was that voted negative on this needs to hand in his Macross Fanclub card.
  16. SebastianP
    Without looking at the videos yet (have something else running), it does look like it might be significantly easier to get the VF-31 to hold together in fighter mode.
  17. SebastianP
    In case anyone missed it, this was posted in the 1/72 thread, but is kind of relevant here: (from Figure King magazine) Looks like Mirage's VF in August, and Messer's in October. No word on VF-31As or Sv-262Ba though.
  18. SebastianP

    Bandai DX VF-31

    SebastianP replied to UN Spacy's topic in Toys

    Don't think we'll be getting any armored packs personally, because they'd screw with the hinges for the modular weapons container, and the wing packs would need to be entirely different between the Siegfried and Kairos versions. Basically, if there is any kind of armored pack, it won't cover the back of the fighter mode very well, and it will most likely be for the Kairos only. This whole DX toy business makes it difficult to figure out what kind of movements we'll see among the pilots in Delta Squad - Mirage was promoted to Delta 2, does that mean she'll be put in the VF-31F? Or will she remain in her VF-31C with a new number painted on it, which will annoy anyone who buys the toy that has the "wrong" number on it? Or will Hayate mangle his VF-31 so badly he needs a new one, and end up in the VF-31F instead of Mirage? If so, will the numbers be shuffled around (again upsetting anyone who wants different numbers on their toys)? Or is everyone going to remain flying the same aircraft they are right now with no changes, with a new pilot eventually getting the VF-31F? My personal epileptic tree is that the next person who'll fly the Shinigami is going to be Roid - we've never seen him fly, and Keith refers to him as having clipped his wings, but nothing says he *can't* fly - it may just be his position at court prevents him from doing so. And sooner or later he'll need to have it out with Keith anyway, because Keith is being a massive dick and Roid, for all that he's been an integral part of the war on the side of the Windermereans so far, has always been the *reasonable* one who's been keeping the rest in line.
  19. SebastianP
    Like this:
  20. SebastianP

    Bandai DX VF-31

    SebastianP replied to UN Spacy's topic in Toys

    I don't see what people think is so wrong with those super packs - they're basically the same general style of packs that were used on the VF-11 and VF-19, they'e just mounted further outboard to avoid getting in the way of the multipurpose pod. Hard to see where else they'd be mounted, really.
  21. SebastianP
    We'll probably know within a couple of days, as the kits are available in Japan now and the speedbuilders will be posting their reviews soon. Edit: Pictures of the decals from Hobby Search at least still make it look like the decals aren't solid colors, but you can't tell how thick they are or anything like that.
  22. SebastianP
    That sounds really strange. Here, I pay 25% VAT on anything I haven't managed to finagle a checked "gift" box on the label, payable on delivery (I.e. I go to the supermarket to pick my thing up, pay the VAT at the counter, and get my box.). HLJ notoriously does not check the "gift" box, so their stuff always costs 25% more than what they say; but many of the smaller hobby shops that sell through amazon always check the gift box. It's just getting kind of difficult to figure out which of the hobby shops are really offering free shipping through amazon, because some of them will say free shipping when you start the order, and then when it's time for the final check if you really want to place the order - literally the final screen - they'll hit you with a huge "shipping and handling" charge. Then you just have to back all the way back out again and try a different store. At least with HLJ, you pay what they say up front you'll pay - to them, at least. I just wish it was easier to spot that kind of stuff ahead of time.
  23. SebastianP
    I assume it relates to how the Battle Galaxy is missing in the movies. Basically, I think that Galaxy spied a Vajra nest, tried to take them over using their tech, but it wasn't ready and the Vajra tore them a new one and went looking for their fleet. So the conspiracy packed themselves into the refugee ships, and ran to Frontier, where they planned to execute a hostile takeover to get a second shot. In the TV series, I'm thinking the plot was kind of similar, except the Battle Galaxy lived to fight another day and Frontier wasn't exactly taken over. I am kind of wondering how Leon Mishima got so important in the scheme of things. He's a lieutenant, Captain Perry should have ground him under his boot heel...
  24. SebastianP
    What makes you think any of Walkure are wearing actual clothes at all?
  25. SebastianP
    Going by the panel lines on the VF-27 model kit, there may be one hardpoint under each wing, just inboard of the engines, where there are two small circular panels in a straight line parallel to the centerline. It's nowhere near as obvious as on the VF-31, but if there are any hardpoints at all, that's where they'd be. The YF-29 looks like it too has one hardpoint under each wing - in this case, the evidence is two narrow rectangular panels arranged in a line just inboard of the fixed portion of the wing, on the 1/100 Bandai kit (and on the DX toy, I just noticed). These are not obscured by the super parts, though the leg packs stick out enough to make clearance problematic for long stores. The YF-30 of course only has one official item made of it, and that's the DX toy which has functional hardpoint connectors for two hardpoints under each wing. And of course it's obvious where the hardpoints are on anything that's gotten a Hasegawa kit of it, because they're awesome like that.
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