The Nighthawk

You know, for all people's moaning about how crappy the Shuttle is, and a lot of talk I hear about how we should scrap manned space missions altogether, I don't see any shortage of people lining up for the tiny chance of making it as an astronaut. I wish I'd done better in school so I'd have a shot at it (of course thanks to Rutan maybe I do!!). Let's not forget that even though the shuttles are due to be permanently grounded in 2010, they were intended to have a 100-mission lifespan. When we do kill the program it'll be like having a classic car that's 25 years old and only has a couple thousand miles on it. So what to do? We could always build new ones. Compromise or not the thing does work. The concept is sound and proven. The airframe works. The booster system works. It's still the only spacecraft ever built that provides a true shirt-sleeve environment for a crew of 7, complete with an airlock, docking ring, massive payload bay, the arm, and of course that all-important re-usability. Yes, there are some faults. The tile system is outdated and new technologies may be able to help with that. The insulation problem can be fixed, if enough money is spent and people are allowed to think outside the box. New shuttles could be built to replace the current fleet, using the same basic design, along with the latest computers (which being lighter and more efficient will either save weight or allow for more powerful systems), new advances in propulsion, etc. Basically like some car companies that have popped up offering new versions of old classics like late-60s Camaros, with modern engines, brakes and safety features. Looks the same outside, totally new inside. The only obstacle is money. And, if we weren't wasting money torturing Iraqis and getting our soldiers killed by suicide bombers, we'd have money to spend. Some good ideas have come down the pipe... Like the X-33 project. Problem is these great ideas run into a news media that's sick of space except as a punching bag, a public that's losing the ability to care and politicians who don't understand the benefits to society and can't get enough kickbacks from the contractors involved. The space program is losing steam, not just because of failures, but because the gullible public sees a lot of money being spent for what looks like little gain... Add the media harpies to that, constantly beating on NASA as being an outdated bureaucracy that Americans should have outgrown by now, and a bunch of right-wing whackos in government who both revile and fear anything scientific, left-wing whackos who think the NASA budget should be taken away and used to feed the poor, and the cash-grubbing whackos in government who just don't see enough dollar signs and favors coming out of it... They're damned if they do and damned if they don't. I used to think, during the early days of the X-Prize competition especially, that NASA was a bunch of snooty elitists with crazy requirements for astronaut qualification. Now I realize they have to be, since they only get to send astronauts up on the rarest occasions. Now I kinda pity them. I guess what I'd really like to see is for this country to stop being wussies when it comes to space travel. Buck up, take the hit, show some of that American bravery and start launching and developing solutions. It's dangerous work. We know that. So is war but we have no problem jumping into that fruitless endeavour, our reasons based on pure lies no less. Let's see... more than 1,700 dead Americans in Iraq vs. 14 dead Shuttle astronauts.... Hm. Tough choice. Fly the g*ddamned Shuttle.

Has anyone tried a repaint of a Yamato 1/60 D in this paint scheme?

Hey guys. Been awhile since I was here last so I am WAY outta the loop on all the latest stuff. Could someone tell me what all is coming at this point? I know about some stuff-the brownie 1/48 and I just read part of the 1/60 VF-0 thread. But there's a heck of a lot to sort through, so could someone give me an update?Pretty please with jet fuel on top?

My only prob with M0 is the same one I've had with lots of subbed shows lately--namely I can't follow what the heck is going on, because the subbing is so spotty and inconsistent. I just watched an all-subbed copy of Last Exile and I have no idea what the hell I saw.

I'll say this, I liked M7 more than I expected to, and probably more than I should have. There are good and bad points... The Good. Characterisation is excellent. Basra, while respectable for his determination and talent, is also at times selfish, flighty and annoying as hell. Mylene serves her purpose perfectly as a token "wiggle-chick" with some musical talent and useful skills, and Ray is the confident, always-ready brains of the group. Viffidas is much like Ringo-along for the ride. They're almost exactly like real band members I know. Other characters like Millia and Max are just as I would expect them, all grown up, in charge, and finding their lives lacking in middle age. Gamlin I most easily identify with-the competent guy who knows his job, does what he's told, and gets caught in the middle of all kinds of crap, all while hoping in the end he'll get the girl. The human/Zent characters drive the show well. The Protodeviln, however... Well, see below. *Some* mecha designs are great. I really love the VF-17, the VF-22 and to a lesser degree the VF-19, and it's nice to see cameos by the older mecha. The military ships are nice and for the most part their designs make sense; they're a fairly natural evolution of the ships we've already seen in the Macross universe. Not too happy about the fate of the VF-11 though, and the Sound Force stuff... Again, see below. I like the feeling that the colony fleet is more than just a collection of ships. There's a strong sense that this is a real community, with each ship being important to the whole fleet. The Milky Road between different civilian ships and to some degree the more outlandish designs of those ships actually enhance this feeling for me. It looks like a real city moving through space with ships designed to provide comfort to the occupants, allowing them to live and work in a familiar environment. They may look silly and strange to the viewer but imagine being there. How the shell shape of the vacation ship reminds you of the Earth you've left behind; a reminder that you may be a colonist but you're a human colonist. Psychologically this is sound design to promote good mental health among the people of the Fleet, and it's a nice detail that adds to the series. Links to the past. Love how they find the ruins, the little bits that fill in the history of the Macross universe. That's great and I believe it sets things up for more stories involving the Supervision Army. The Bad. OK, Sound Force is just whack. Valks with faces and clownish paint jobs are one thing, and being a Transformers fan I can kinda get around that--but the whole premise of song as a weapon of war and peace is beyond ridiculous. As a psychological weapon as in M2, it makes sense. Combining it with magical Overtech to turn Spiritia/Chi/Ki/Whatever into an effective energy field that breaks the enemy's defenses is Ka Ka. (Ancient Egyptian joke) It reeks of Dragonball Z. They wanted to continue the theme that the exchange of ideas and culture can help to usher in peace between disparate peoples, yadda yadda, I get it. It's a theme carried over from the original Macross and taken way too far by making all conventional weapons next to useless, forcing them to rely on new magical tech and the talent of musicians using very expensive prototype military hardware to change a relentless enemy's heart. Right. Happens all the time. Way too exaggerated, and made worse by the limited number of songs in Basara and Mylene's catalog. The Protodeviln are, like, the worst villains held over from Thundercats, Silverhawks and Sailor Moon, thrown together in a blender on "frappe" and poured out into dirty glasses. Give them custom mecha and enslaved humans/Zents and it's still not much better. Actually I like the brainwashing idea but the PD themselves were kind of a let-down when I first saw them, and how they act like bad characters from lousy American saturday-morning cartoons. Through them, and what seems to be a departure from standard Macross story-telling, much of the series devolves into typical "baddie-of-the-week" type stuff. Macross can be so much better. Mecha battles were atrocious. I saw this before I saw DYRL, and found myself asking, "what happened?" VF-11's, among my favorite mecha ever, just blindly flying along getting blown up just like CF's in the more poorly-animated eps of the original Macross? Lousy. Re-hashed footage? Too lazy to even change the background to reflect a different environment? Terrible. Only main characters got any decent fighting scenes and even Gamlin made that same sniper-shot-through-the-cockpit at least a half dozen times. To the same enemy mecha. Crap. The best VF-11 fight scenes are, and may always be, the opening minutes of M+. My Final Opinion: Overall it's an entertaining series. Drags on a little, yes, and as I said above, suffers from "baddie-of-the-week" syndrome. The plot is preposterous and childish but as simple-minded fun it's good enough. I certainly don't hate it, or feel cheated that I spent money on it. It's Macross but it's not. Take it for what it is, remember its target audience and it's more enjoyable. I'll certainly take it over the alternative (which is nothing).

Assuming of course you believe the crap Popular Mechanics feeds us about the level of sophistication of our military systems. If you're willing to step outside the realm of accepted belief in what's considered "cutting edge" you might not like just how far ahead things really are. Remember what they tell us is the "latest" tech level is actually about 5-15 years old.

Truth is it's not likely we'll ever again see air-to-air combat. The Russians can't pay their pilots, the EU is chicken and the Chinese like our corporate money too much to get into a fight with us. Even if someone was stupid enough to jump into the latest export fighters and come tangle with our guys they'd be dead before they knew it. It's not about the aircraft, it's about pilot training and conditioning and mulit-tiered control of the airspace through AWACS and satellite uplink. In this day and age of the digital battelfield we could go back to WWI schemes, paint our planes bright red and it still wouldn't make a difference. Hence why the F-22 Raptor is little more than a gigantic corporate welfare program--too much emphasis on the non-existent A2A role and not enough on strike. It's a trillion-dollar corporate welfare program for Lockheed. The days of manned combat aircraft are numbered anyway. With testing of sophisicated stealth UCAVs, improved uplink technology, the ability to handle G-forces that would instantly kill a meat pilot, and autonomous control systems getting smarter on a weekly basis the scarf-and-goggle days will soon be over... Watch out folks, the X-9 Ghost is the airshow demonstration craft of the future.

Mine won't do that! Wha the fah? How can I mod it!

Wow. It's big. It has lots and lots of huge guns. It makes enemies soil their armor. I want it.

Wow. Digress much? Back to the original question of close-quarters weapons on Valkyries, why didn't anyone design some kind of pistol-type gunpod? Semi-automatic, in a higher caliber than the GU-11, and easier to handle in close combat... Obviously in big heated space battles this would be next to useless (unless you took a trip inside a Zentraedi crusier) but later in the series Valkyries are used extensively for urban warfare and pacification of the full-size Zents on Earth. Wouldn't something like a knife or baton, or pistol, be more effective for such operations? Certainly more controllable than a 55mm three-barrelled rotary cannon spewing out a thousand rounds a minute... Even as far as Mac+ and M7 where there's a good deal of city combat. You're trying to defend the place, not rip it to shreds...

Check Macross Design Works and compare the Ostrich to other fighters. It's right, the fins are stubbier than a normal Valk. I don't think it's meant to do much in an atmosphere, remember it is a primary trainer (apparently) used more with FAST packs in space than without.

I was sceptical when I first heard about M7, but I finally broke down and bought the set--figured I could always sell it on Ebay if I didn't like it. Now I've watched all of it and wish there were more. And who the heck is that girl with the flowers? The Valks whup ass and the writing is pretty good. The characters are engaging, funny, and well-developed, for the most part. One wants to know what's happening next and actually cares what happens to these people. I give it a hearty thumbs-up, even if I do have to agree with Keith(j/k)...........

Well let's see... He's the only guy on a ship full of beautiful women, the stuff of Penthouse Letters fantasy. He gets to fly what is at the time the fastest, hottest, most bad-ass mecha in the Macross universe. He's fifty freakin' feet tall. And best of all, he gets a vacation from Hikaru's ceaseless whining! (And I LIKE Hikaru, but he is a whiny little baby.) What would YOU do in this situation? (My fellow men, that is)

Definitely full articulation, opening missile hatches, coskpits and all that jazz... I also like the support vehicle idea. Each one could have something that makes sense for its role, i.e. the Phalanx could have a missile-carrying truck with a little crane for reloading, just like the US Army MLRS it emulates... And the Tomahawk could come packaged with a 6-wheel armored scout to spot and aquire targets for destruction.