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sketchley

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  1. sketchley
    Haven't you heard of the VF-X++ from Macross The Ride? http://www.mtranslation.host-ed.me/Stats/Statistics/VF-1/VF-1X++.php (Note: not Hakuna's subsequent upgrade of that.)
  2. sketchley
    Did it clip the building on the way down? It seems to have been flying level up until it passes - and then starts rolling sharply to the left after passing.
  3. sketchley
    I wouldn't go so far as to reduce his role to a plot device. What I did appreciate in that sequence was it tying into the theme of Zorg being over-reliant on technology, technology consistently failing him, and he getting his comeuppance from that. Maybe it could've been handled together, but after the heavy anti-war preaching, it's a refreshing break that such a major player in the story is so casually and glibly dispatched.
  4. sketchley
    Fond memories of this one. Mainly due to it being the only space action SF movie to come out during a long drought of such movies. And the attempt to reinvent future skylines (up until then, everyone was copying Bladerunner. After this movie, everyone started copying this one (gives Star Wars a stern look)). Looking back critically at it, the anti-war preaching scene goes on far too long, but otherwise, its a great Luc Besson movie with an even greater soundtrack, and loaded with memorable characters.
  5. sketchley
    I felt the same. I didn't know about it until the back half of the series was being released - and I was unable to get the sniper rifle. The 1 out of the 3 that I really wanted after the fact! Nevertheless, Bandai is also releasing the System Weapon kits. You may be interested in them: http://bandai-hobby.net/site/gunpla_parts.html
  6. sketchley
    Those were store giveaways for people who bought more than a certain amount of Gunpura (not sure how overseas stores handled them - if they even got them!). The optional parts in them were to mix and match the weapons together to create multi-weapons that combined some or all of the individual sets.
  7. sketchley
    I can appreciate your sentiments. The other thing that came to mind while composing the previous post was that I've yet to come across anything to indicate if the ARMD-02 (the one with the island/flight deck switched) is a one off, or if there are others like it. More specifically, the 1st ARMD-02 was destroyed, and a replacement was made, but this is where we hit the muddy waters of Macross: it's unclear if the 2 ARMD being mentioned are the movie version, or if the initial one was the TV series version, and it was later replaced by the movie version. And then we get the Macross Frontier complication of the ARMD-L and ARMD-R being essentially two, totally different ships! Muddy waters...
  8. sketchley
    One could say the same about a transforming ship. Nevertheless, it's to make the Storming Attacker Form of the SDF-1 more balanced. (That said, it isn't completely unheard of in reality. Car makers switching the internal layout for right-hand or left-hand drive countries).
  9. sketchley
    They still exist. For example, F-203 Dragon II can be seen in Macross the First. Aside from the creative reasons for not showing them, there's the focus by both sides in M0 to use the newly introduced Variable Fighters, as well as the AUA not having a (traditional) carrier to field their fighter, and the UF side relying on unmanned fighters or F-14+ Kai to take up the slack, because of the attrition in aircraft and pilots in the decade of fighting up until then.
  10. sketchley
    There's just one thing to keep in mind with this stuff: never, ever, ever measure it! (that article started to bring a chuckle with how it took great pains to indicate the particles weren't being measured!)
  11. sketchley
    Agreed. Wow.
  12. sketchley
    ... and back from arting to a bit of translations/htmling: Glossary/Disambiguation: http://www.mtranslation.host-ed.me/Glossary.php - with this coming up a couple of times in the past week or two, I made the time to flesh it out a bit more. Hopefully with this edit, I've got the majority of the major terms, and the disambiguation parts will help people outside of figuring out what my translations are talking about! Anyhow, back to arting...
  13. sketchley
    Just looked through a couple of books on it, and there's nothing that indicates that the circular thing is not the light (nor that it is the light). However, the model builders in the VFMF series put the light there.
  14. sketchley
    Fixed! (translation, so it exactly matches the parsing)
  15. sketchley
    Uhm, I've posted 2 different glossaries in this topic. The 1st is the one that I'm building. The 2nd is a translation of the one that was printed in Macross chronicle. The 2nd one is more complete, but it doesn't have the disambiguation aspect that I'm building into the 1st. Not that I can recall. Well... there are some that are just unforgivable. I have one that transcribes "VF-25" as "Brief 25"!
  16. sketchley
    If you haven't seen it already, here's a great place to start with a set of Macross terms (Macross Chronicle's Glossary): http://www.mtranslation.host-ed.me/MCRglossary/MCRglossary.php
  17. sketchley
    Much nicer! I like the one in red.
  18. sketchley
    I'll bite. Bandai 1/72 Rigaado Everything up to panel lining was completed in 2013. And then it sat gathering dust while I mulled over how to panel line it - previously I had been using a Gundam pen, but the usual means of cleaning off the excess don't work when it's applied over clear coat. I read up on alternative means to panel line, and tried Japanese shodo ink on the Hasegawa VF-1 Battroid (still a work in progress) to less than stellar results. I tried manga ink on parts of this one - only to realize too late that I had accidentally used acrylic based manga ink and not water based, like I intended! So, the first part of the year was spent trying to clean the worst of that gunk off this kit. Only after my attempts with diluting watercolour black in thinner were a success on other kits, was I able to finish off this one. I have a lot of mixed feeling about this one, which is why I haven't shared it until now. various Gundam kits (limiting myself to the kits finished this year) top shelf: - RGM-79C "Wagtail" Conversion - got around to getting the base kit and building it with the conversion parts that came in an issue of Dengeki Hobby. Am currently mulling over what to paint it. - AMS-129 Geara Zulu middle shelf: - the 3 Build Fighter kits. The GM still needs panel lining. The other two have spot painting (mostly on the blades and spikes). They added a nice accent. - GM cold weather - one of my first experiments with the aforementioned diluted watercolour panel line/wash fluid. I am quite satisfied with the results - not that they show up clearly in this picture or anything. V2 Gundam & Enterprise - lots of fiddly parts with the Gundam. The panel lining was a real chore with the diluted watercolour! Surprisingly, I'm more satisfied with the cold weather GM above than this one... - the Enterprise was surprisingly hard to mount just right in the holder. Ergo - it counts as a finished kit, no? Macross Armoured Factory -Armoured Factory itself: still a work in progress. -Armoured VF-1J: I spent a lo-------ong time painting this one. I didn't lay down any primer and made the mistake of using a water based paint for the base coat. So... on top of layers of coats to cover the blue plastic, I had to be really careful when applying paint over it. Clear coat, you say? Wish I had thought of that, along with using the panel lining mixture on the grooves in the forearms. Those are all hand painted! Masking and everything. @.@ - Phalanx: quite satisfied with how it turned out. All the moreso because I was able to use all the tricks and skills I had picked up from all the mistakes up until then. - Bandai VF-1A: not sure if I finished it during 2014. Nevertheless, in trying to pose it with the Zaku build fighter knife in its hand, the fingers popped out. While trying to put them back in, the hand broke off at the wrist! That kit is no end of trouble... (had to glue the backpack on permanently as none of my fixes on the joint worked...) VF collection - VF-11 tawny: quite happy with how these turned out. It was also the test bed and proof of the watercolour panel lining mix. - VF-11 white: after the success of the spot painting on the two Gundam build fighter kits above, I went back and added paint to the engine nozzles, upper arms, and gun pod. I also removed the Battroid FAST packs and connectors, adding them to the tawny fighter. Shame that they're hiding in this picture. - Nousjadel-Ger: it sure came out brightly painted, didn't it? As it was an old school kit, I approached it with a bit more care than usual. Even then, it ended up testing my patience. Nevertheless, it certainly sets off the VFs its standing next to. (I'm planning on painting one of the VF-17 sets a green colour, for a Sound Force-like look).
  19. sketchley
    Not really. We don't refer to the "covered wagon settlers" as "covered wagon colonists", do we? Another thing to take into consideration is that each SF franchise has its own jargon. E.g.: class M planets in Star Trek. Why shouldn't English Macross fans enjoy the full range of SF jargon that the Japanese fans do?
  20. sketchley
    Being a Macross fan can be confusing at times. It doesn't help that because the shows are created years apart with largely different production crews and they don't maintain an overall series bible, that sometimes contradictory things crop up. The SDF/Megaroad isn't contradictory (as Seto pointed out), but it does take some time to wrap ones head around. To add to his post, maybe one should consider the Megaroad name as both the ship class (SDF Megaroad class) as well as the SLRE Fleet type name (Megaroad class SLRE Fleet led by a Megaroad class SDF). It probably doesn't help that in-series they tend to use certain names for things, and us English speaking fans tend to use names that are different (E.g.: the bizarre tendency to call them colony fleets, when they're referred to as Emigrant Fleets both in series and in the documentation). Over the years, I've been slowly building a disambiguation glossary of some of the major terms. I've been neglecting it more than maintaining it. But in this case, it should help to illustrate how many names there are for some of the things that appear in the Macross series: http://www.mtranslation.host-ed.me/Glossary.php
  21. sketchley
    And it's time to update the linky (stupid free hosting yearly limit!): UN Space Database content + mine: http://www.mtranslation.host-ed.me/Stats/index.php
  22. sketchley
    If memory serves, they were sent out in advance of the still being produced Megaroad fleets to scout out routes for the fleets to safely travel. So, there's a possibility that the same numbered ships followed the same courses, but not likely that they travelled together, in the same fleet.
  23. sketchley
    I'd like to add that likes and dislikes aside, the movie versions of TNG were flawed from the start, simply because the producers tried to shoehorn them into action movies when the TV series itself was decidedly not. The TOS films work much better, as the show itself was action oriented (how many times did Kirk resolve things with a fist? How many times did Picard?) I've only seen the first of the 'reset' films, and although I really like the characterization and character episodes in it, I found it completely forgettable. I disliked how they handled the overall plot, and specifically, how they handled the villains (as villains are generally what make or break these kinds of movies...), and how they handled the reset itself - it left an aftertaste like the producers were trying to have their cake and eat it, too! I did find a theme in a rewatching of the 1st movie, but it is weakly handled at best, and it is quite forgettable once the end credits start to roll. Compare that to the themes of ST II, IV, and VI, which can be recalled decades after seeing the films... Does any of this mean that ST3 (new one) will be any better or worse? It's really too early to say with the choice in director. He may surprise us like Brad Bird did with MI4. Nevertheless, it all comes down to the writing. After all, 'a great director can make a decent film out of a mediocre script. A bad director can ruin a great script.' The key being that the quality of the script is just as important as the skills of the director.
  24. sketchley
    I think his point is that it's not a retcon introduced recently (in the MF series), but has been around since like forever. I'm pretty sure that I've seen it mentioned elsewhere (not the MF nor MC), and until this topic popped up, I was under the impression that it was common knowledge among Macross fans...
  25. sketchley
    I'd also add that it was about something more than what you see. A theme, in different words. Many great stories (not just movies!) are like that - they are much better when they are actually about something. In ST2's case, it was about death and rebirth. It's hard to get more universal than that (arguably, ST4's theme and relevance hit a lot more non-fan's buttons, but that's beside the point).
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