Maxtype

See, I want the "just took on the fleet" look----and as I commented earlier, you never see "dirty" red planes--they're all shiny clean demos. And I get the impression Milia's plane was probably never shiny to start with---I think it should be red, but flat red.

VFA-102's CAG plane is currently about half red, but they painted it glossy to start with---quite rare. It's stayed that way for a while, it might actually get a chance to weather decently. I might have to wait until that plane gets older, for a reference to weather my Milia! However, it's the 50th Ann. scheme, so they might only leave it painted like that for a year.

David,I think you are correct about glossy vs. flat on the MilliaType-I want it flat but fairly clean.Where can I see a photo of that VFA-102 CAG bird?

What do REAL panel lines look like on REAL red (purple) aircraft? I could only think of one team, the Red Arrows (they're excellent by the way). Here's their website: http://www.raf.mod.uk/reds/gallery.html Note there are panel lines in some places, and not in others. The question is if you're going for "display team clean," or "Miriya and I just took on the Zentraedi fleet." - MT

Thanks for those pictures,MechTech!I'm going for a "Viva Maria" episode-time line so Millia's Valk probably would look like the Red Arrows-pretty clean after 2 years of peacetime ops and marriage. So do you guys figure medium-to dark grey pre-shade?Or an oil wash of medium brown?

Well here's an image of a pre-shaded Millia super from the Completed models by Hong Kong Modelers thread in the Models forum. Don't know what colours he used for the pre-shading though. Couldn't you just use like a medium/dark grey or something for pre shadinng? I've never used the technique, but my impression was that the colour one used for the preshading was not all that important as long as it was darker in tone than the base-coat colour, but not too dark.

This is quite close to what I was thinking-maybe a bit cleaner.It's funny-I would love a 1/24 scale Viper Mk II to build 'cuz those birds are DIRRR-T! I just don't think a Valk would be BSG dirty-especially not Miria's. ^_^David,your second example is probably the closest to what I had in mind.Another question for you guys,onthe red Valk,would you prime it grey or white?

If nobody minds my adding a question on this thread,I'm building a Hasegawa VF-1J as Miriatype and I was wondering how to do the panel lines on this red airplane.I figure her plane won't have too mush weathering-Miria would probably assign one guy just to polish the Valk-and I don't know if I should airbrush pre-shade(and what tone to use)or lining later?

Claudia was a minor character, after Roy died and Hikaru and Misa got together, not sure what was left for her to do or accomplish in the series.

In that regard, I think it's one thing the Robotech series got right, they just killed off the bridge crew. From a story perspective, it makes alot of sense, too many characters complicate things. Traditional Macross ended, doesn't matter if Claudia lives or dies. Robotech's version of Macross had two large sections of story left to tell.

To work Claudia back into a storyline, the typical route is probably to introduce a new generation of characters and make her a mentor or give her a small cameo in a series. (Look at TV series, this rarely works. For every Frasier, there's 20 Joanie Loves Chaci or Joeys. God I'm old) But for all intents and purposes, she was a minor character and making her a major character could be troubling.

It's like baseball players. Some people are meant to ride the bench. Great for a few at bats, some pinch hits or spot duty, but once you make them a starter, their flaws start to come out.

Young Roy and Claudia would be interesting. But it would be dependent on Roy's involvement. But older Claudia, not sure where the story could go.

Personally, whats going to be a bigger problem for Kawamori isn't the characters he chooses, but this apparent hard on for these mystical philosophical surreal storylines. SDF Macross and many elements of Macross Plus was about complex characters in relatively simple situations. Over time, I feel the trend has been to show simplistic characters in complex situations. Macross Zero had some great animation and action sequences, but other than Roy, I didn't care who lived or died. And since I knew Roy wasn't going to die, I felt very little for the characters.

Claudia was a great character because the audience learned to care about her. Even if she was a minor character. Bringing Claudia back would be more than just finding the right story for her, it would also be about going back to the kind of characterization and depth that made the original a classic in the first place.

I wasn't thinking so much that she SHOULD come back as if anyone had seen any info about her-I have an Animerica magazine(can't find it just this moment,of course) from late '98 on'99 that tell the fate of the Bridge Bunnies,Breetai,and Global-and I was wondering if there was some info about Claudia that had come out since then.I just don't have the skills to translate my Macross artbooks,and I was hoping that some translated stuff from VF-X2 or Macross Zero would mention Claudia.

w m cheng-you ARE the master!I'm so inspired by your work.

I should have close up of pics of an F-14's ladder if you'd like some references.

Not that one so much,but the thin 2-step one-I just checked and there's a great view in"Pineapple Salad"when the crew check Roy's VF-1S.My problem is trying to fabricate it in 1/72 scale.I'm building a VF-1J as a MiliaType with a ground crew loading weapons.I'd also like to have an open canopy and deployed boarding ladder. I guess I was asking if anybody had made one out of brass or something.

Great work-can I get on the list for a couple?

Second Hasegawa Macross kit to attempt

Cockpit with no side details...

Cut out some small thin bits of styrene for the side panel details and with the PE control handles.

More Progress pics below

http://www.outthere.info/VF-1D/VF-1D.htm

Very nice.What thickness of sheet styrene did you use?

This is just truly awesome work !

::edit:: Are you talking about the built-in ladder, or a separate one? F-4's used both, depending on Navy vs Air Force. I know the VF-1 canonically has a built-in one like the F-4/F-14, but can't recall if they ever used separate ones.

As for hinge pics--none that I can find.

The Navy-style built in one.Gomen-I should have been more clear.

Military fighter jets kits? I can talk a long time about those. Here are my opinions:

Academy: High *quality*. Accuracy is something to watch for. Some are excellent, some good, some suck.

Trumpeter. Exact same comments as Academy. Just FYI, Academy and Trumpeter are the main reason every other company is scrambling to catch up nowadays---model companies have been VERY stagnant the past 20 years. Then Trumpeter and Academy show up on the scene with high-quality kits cheaper than most everything else. Hase and Tami are still at the top for the most part, but the gap closed a lot.

Revell--most of it sucks IMHO, but the new stuff is very good. The 1/48 F-15E is very, very good. Same for 1/48 F-18E. And the only actual F-15E, period.

Hasegawa---even the old stuff is better than most company's new stuff. Price has exploded upwards lately, for no apparent reason. Watch for "decal" boxings---the $8 and $28 F-18 kits are EXACTLY the same. One just has VFA-195's 1998 markings, and the other has VFA-195's 2001 markings. You're paying 20 bucks for the decals alone, when after market decals are twice as good and half the price.

Italeri. AKA what Testor's reboxes and sells as their own. Decent all around, though their 1/48 F-14 is to be avoided. Also makes the best YF-23.

Tamiya. Best fit and quality, period. Just low selection of subjects.

The thing is, a lot depends on the KIT, not the company. Even scale can make a significant difference, for the same subject from the same company.

For models, accuracy outranks most everything else IMHO--that's why they're model kits and not diecast pre-painted. If it's plastic and I build it myself, I expect it to be right. FYI, no F-14B/D other than Hasegawa is correct. Revell's closer than most, but they did a "just plain stupid" mistake.

Honestly it's a lot easier if you specifically say what you want a model of, and in what scale. Then I can help even more.

But first, go here: http://www.modelingmadness.com/

Left column, kit previews, and kit reviews. That's most every kit out there.

I agree with most of these opinions.Some of the price differences between companies is due to "most favored Nation Trading Status"for China(Trumpeter and Dragon)and taiwan(AFV Club)and Korea(Academy).Japanese kits seem to be hit with some kind of tariff.Hasegawa kits are now distributed in the USA by Dragon so the prices seem to be coming down.Tamiya put there domestic factory/warehouse in Marin County,CA-very ritzy developments and housing-and seem to be charging us to pay the higher rent.Why they didn't put the warehouse in Oakland .

You know the F-4 Phantom-style crew ladder on VF-1's?Has anybody scratchbuilt or modified one in 1/72 scale?Also,are there any good drawing or photos to show the pivot when the Valk's canopy is open?Thanks.

Ummm... George H.W. Bush served as a Navy pilot in WWII, flying a TBF Avenger off of a light carrier (the name eludes me at the moment). He was shot down during a mission and was picked up the by the submarine USS Finback.

I don't mind if they name a ship after him, as he served a our country in the military and as president (whether you liked him or not). I just don't think anyone should have a ship named after them until after they're dead.

Right on with that-naming for people that are still alive just seems wrong.I miss the old carrier names-Saratoga,Independance,Essex(which has now been bestowed upon an amphibius ship).Oh well,maybe one of the new attack subs will be Colorado.We havent had one since that lovely clipper-bowed battleship from the "30's.

Aegis... blonde hair, bad-ass pilot, skull insgnia with black and yellow colors, same last name and NOT related to Roy? I find that hard to believe! I can deal with him not being Roy's son, but I'm sure he's related in some way.

Hey guys.I just looked on Macross2.net,and someone there said a panel at AX 04 said Aegis is not related to Roy.Anybody ever heard that

It's great to be back on-thanks guys for the hard work!

I had no idea Hirotaka Suzuoki was so prolific. This is definitely a great loss to the anime world.

That makes at least 2 Gundam 0079 cast members who've died relatively young of cancer.

Who was the other?

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He will certinly be missed.

I had always assumed that she was the mother of Aegis Focker. As far as that scene of the SW1 survivors, I'll have to look that up. Approximately where is that scene? Is that at the Armistice?

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I thought I saw someware that Aegis Focker was Roy's nephew-but it aint on the Macross Compendium site-anybody know?

My wife and I have netflix DVDs landing in our mailbox almost on a daily basis. I've been watching so many new anime series my head's practically spinning. And wow, some of them are so good. I just finished Texhnolyzed, and I thought it was great. A work of art! So I couldn't help but wonder what everybody else thinks are the best series/movies ever. Some of you have been able to watch animes that we english speaking only (the unfortunates) people haven't been able to enjoy yet, such as the Karas series and Eureka 7. At the very least, I'd like to find out which animes I need to watch in the future when I can, and which older ones I've missed out on.

Addition: To anyone who might know... how popular IS anime in Japan? There seems to be so much of it now, and oftentimes it's so brilliant. I'd assume it's all the rage but who knows, maybe it's not as mainstream as you'd think?

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An excellent oldie-one of my all-time faves is Galaxy Express 999.It is an epic romantic film that all anime fans should see.I used to work in an anime store and it was my standard recommendation.

IIRC there is a scene in Mac+ that shows the crowd gathered for the Sharon Apple Concert.  In that scene you see a number of people that have been theorized to be survivors of the original crew including Claudia and Global.  So she is still alive at that time, but as two she is doing with her life, who knows, maybe she and Global hooked up, or perhaps she is some high ranking diplomat by that time.  She would after all still be a hero of SW1.

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Thanks,Knight26-I'll look for that now-Claudia was always a favorite of mine

I know Kawamori has said that the story of Misa,Hikaru,andMinmay is done-and we know about the bridge bunnies and the micronized Zentraedi-but what about Claudia?

I'm pretty sure Edgar from Macross Zero is her Brother.Was there ever anything about her?

Hmmm, so who else would be interested in a 1/72 scale transport?  Maybe if enough people jumped on, then someone would carve a master.  ANy takers?

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Me too.

Guys whats a good site to get info and history of the different valkyire color schemes? Minmay guard, Angel Birds, etc.

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I believe the Minmay Guard scheme was from the Japanese hobby magazine Model Graphix-I don't know which issue.I have the Hasegawa Battroid kit with the markings & I think they were just having fun,imagining a joyous concert on the surviving moon base/city.On the markings sheet the unit is liisted as U.N.SPACY/SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMAND/SPECIAL WEAPON DEVELOPMENT WING/87th SPECIAL ESCORT SQUADRON"MINMAY GUARD' hope that helps

Hydrogen is everywhere, actually. The sun's solar wind is largely hydrogen.

That's part of why it features prominently as a scifi fuel. If you have a scoop of some sort, you can just fly around and collect fuel from space. It doesn't even have to be a physical funnel, you can use REALLY big magnetic fields.

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True, but in space, aside from the big gas planets, there really isn't that much of it. Even in the pseudo-scientific technical manuals for Star Trek, they don't claim for such a system to be that effective in producing the quantities needed to sustain a long duration, let alone fast, trip.

Here's a scientific article on the idea: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bussard_ramjet

And some scientific stuff:

"The collected propellant can be used as reaction mass in a plasma rocket engine, ion rocket engine, or even in an antimatter-matter annihilation powered rocket engine. Interstellar Space contains an average of 10 (to the -21st power) kg of mass per cubic meter of space. This means that the ramjet scoop must sweep 10(to the 18th power) cubic meters of space to collect one gram of ions per second."

In other words, 10,000,000,000,000,000 cubic Km to get one gram.

For fun, in imperial: 62,137,119,200,000,000 cubic miles for all of 0.00220462262 pounds of it.

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Probably why it usually shows up on relativistic ships in sci-fi.

The faster you're going, the longer your volume is, and the less width you need on your scoop to sustain things.

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the Helium 3 isotope wouldbe a very efficent reaction mass for Macross drives-and it is present in the atmospheres of the gas-giant planets.Also,I believe the waste produced by fusing Helium 3 is good old H2O. I think it wouldn't be difficult to harvest with Macross level tech(I believe the major difficulty is GETTING to the gas giant planets) .Addenum-I just saw on one of those Lunar landing hoax BS websites that there is 10 billion tons of Helium 3 on Luna-deposited by the solar wind.