Penguin

Here's another from Calgary, AB!! Mr March's location also reads Calgary, so I know there's at least a few of us on the boards.

Probably just to make us worry. Given Hasegawa's track record thus far, I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they'll do right by us. Then again, they could prove me wrong, and I'll have to send a letter bomb their way whilst dining on crow.

True, but the picture of the model looks like a prototype. It's still possible the final kit will have the dorsal pods as well.

Here in Canada, the only one I have complaints with is UPS. I work days and always need packages to be held for pickup. Typically, I have to call two or three times to get them to stop trying to ship the package to my empty apartment. And their brokerage fees for packages from the states are insane! Canada Customs charges $5 CAN for processing a package. UPS tacks on $30 US on top of the Canadian Goods and Services Tax and their extravagant shipping fees. Yeesh. As for the rest, no problems. Fed Ex is always quick and courteous. Purolator as well. I've never even had issues with Canada Post, and they don't have a great reputation for efficiency.

I remember the ERTL kit taking me about an hour to put together way back when. This one's gonna take just a little more time. Given Fine Mold's quality, this might give my "Code 3 Collectibles" die cast Falcon a run for its money... assuming I manage a half decent job of building it.

In case any of my fellow model freaks are interested, Hobbylink Japan has the preorder up for Fine Mold's model kit of the Millennium Falcon.

Yeah... but is it really piloting skill, or just man over machine... i.e. no soft squishy human to fall victim to insane g forces? Would Sharon or the Ghost AI beat the human pilots if they were all in Sopwith Camels instead of a machine custom-designed to take advantage of an automated pilot?

Actually, the "Defence" score is just AC by another name. "Equipment bonus to defence" is the same as "Armour bonus" for AC. So far, only d20 Star Wars has really embraced damage reduction for armour.

Well, there's no doubt that WotC has used its market presence to shove d20 all over the place, and the OGL definitely aids in its proliferation. My players enjoy it for all the variety in feats and character description it provides. Which, I have to say, I understand. While I love Silhouette, characters are limited to abilities and skills, maybe a few perks and flaws, as far as character description. d20 does have more bells and whistles on that end, which my players are enjoying as a change of pace from the simpler system. Variety being the spice of life and all that, can't say I blame them. As for complexity, there can be a lot of modifiers to consider depending on the task being performed. Some get used often enough that you commit them to memory, others less so. At the end of the day, if I don't know the modifier off hand, I just make it up on the spot and look it up later.

Ye cats and dogs… every system? I’ve been GMing for 21 years and tried just about everything. First off, I judge RPGs by one thing alone... game flow. I've learned that there's no use in trying to judge an RPG system by "realism" (whatever you may construe that to mean) or by it's ability to model the real world. My only concern is whether the rules help or hinder the roleplaying experience. So, here's my quick list. MY FAVOURITES - d20: I've been running D&D games since 1st edition AD&D, and I it's still my first love. That being said, by the end of 2nd edition the rules were such a hodge-podge of systems that introducing new players was painful. We old-timers had just grown with it as the rules were added and so didn't notice. The 3rd edition rules run smoothly and players pick them up fast. d20 Modern ain't bad for character games, but its vehicle rules suck - clumsy and bothersome. Which is why I'm workin' on some faster rules of my own... - Silhouette: My own long-running Macross campaign uses the latest SilCore with a healthy dose of 2nd Edition Jovian Chronicles (one of these days I'll get all that stuff online...). The Silhouette rules are even simpler and faster than the d20 stuff, and I love the mecha design rules. For mecha gaming, Silhouette is my top choice. - West End Games Star Wars: Man, we played this for years. Brought the same four characters from just before "A New Hope" to five years after "Return of the Jedi". We had tons of d6s by that time, but the system was streamlined enough that adding dice up didn't slow anything down. Best chase scenes and dogfights I've ever run were in that game. THINGS I LEARNED TO LOVE - Shadowrun: This system violates my whole "game flow" rule, 'cause it's pretty ugly. Some friends convinced me to play, and I came to love the game world and started GMing. The rules are a real pain, especially if you get into hacking or vehicles, but the rest are seviceable if clunky. And I do like the damage modelling system (one of the few that model penetration power and damage level of an attack as separate values). - Blood of Heroes: Evolved from the original "DC Heroes" game. I think it's one of the best superhero systems out there. Has two tables for resolving actions, which sucks, but I put up with it because you can create any superhero you'd want with any power level, and it's scaleable. THINGS I LEARNED TO HATE - Phoenix Command: The system Leading Edge Games touted as the most realistic combat system anywhere. And it probably is. However, any system that requires you to look up 3 tables to resolve a single attack is not my best friend. Sold all this stuff long ago, except the fairly rare "ALIENS" RPG they put out. - Palladium: Started with Robotech, moved on to Heroes Unlimited and then to RIFTS. Now... just yuck. It had so much variety I didn't want to give up on it, but battles just got so slow (five characters, each with 7+ actions per round, and I had to put them up against small armies... yeesh) and the munchkinism of RIFTS was killer. Still got all my stash of books, 'cause they give me some decent ideas now and again. YOU GOTTA LAUGH - Call of Cthulhu: Never heard so much laughter in a horror RPG in my life. Going mad is fun. - TSR's Marvel Superheroes: "Okay, so you've gained 150 karma for defeating the villain, but you lose 20 for demolishing those three cars and another 10 for not helping the little old lady across the street..." "Great, now my energy blast power can be increased from AWESOME to SHIFT X (???)". Looking back, this was just hilarious. You gotta laugh when the game designers run out of adjectives for super power levels and resort to "Shift X, Y, and Z".

It's sing-along time... "Get up, come on get down with the sickness You mother get up Come on get down with the sickness" etc., etc.

For all those interested, this kit is now available for pre-order at Hobbylink Japan, right about HERE.

Well, top of the bench is D.D.'s SV-51, ready for its final matt finish, and beside that are a trio of Bandai Zentraedi mecha from the recent re-releases (Glaug, Nousjadeul Ger, Queadlunn Rau). Unfortunately, most of my bench is taken up by my brother's Tamiya 1/350 Bismarck and a sprawl of its brass photoetch parts. I swear, next time he builds a model at my place, he's getting a square foot of space and that's it. That thing's been sitting there since I got it for him two years ago.

Well, the main vendor I use for all my paints is Squadron. Squadron carries just about anything you'd want, unless you want lacquers . For acrylics, they carry Tamiya, Gunze (my two favourites), Aeromaster, Pollyscale, and a couple others. For enamels, there's Testors and Humbrol. Finally, they also carry a few Alclad Lacquers, but not much of a selection. I've never had a single problem with Squadron. Stuff is shipped fast, 100% accurate, and well-packed. They do take credit cards and money orders, but not PayPal.

Another option might be the Gundam Colour set for Cima's Gelgoog Marine. The purple looks pretty close. Take a look at the set HERE. The purple is on the right, but it's not as dark as it looks in the colour sample. Look at the kit picture instead.

Against all wisdom, I'm starting to allow myself some cautious optimism. If RotS turns out half as good as the new trailer implies, it might just be worth the previous two films just to get to this one.

I'll second that. Most excellent, indeed. I love the image for the bootleg section.

Will do.

Yeah, no surprises there. If the gods favour us, someone going to WonderFest will spot something new , but I'm not going to get my hopes up. I think we're in for a dry spell, model-wise. Mind you, I'll probably pick up one of the three-heads-in-one kits... watching the new "Battlestar Galactica" has got me hankerin' to do a VF-1A in a Viper-style paint scheme.

Wow, Wolframbane... not a single person managed to actually discuss the topic of your post before it got hijacked into the ever-so-stimulating and not-the-least-bit-overdone topics of "I Hate Macross II" and "I Hate Macross 7". Sadly, I don't think that's a record for this board. Your hypothetical extrapolation is one I've heard before, and I always thought it wasn't too bad from a character perspective. The only thing I thought was missing was an explanation about how technology went from VF-22s and the like to the VF-2 series. Tossing the idea around with some friends a while back, we posited an economic collapse in the Earth sphere, as a result of too rapid colonial expansion, along with continually escalating military costs to patrol and protect all those colonies, spread out all over. The end result was a scaled-back UN Spacy that had largely left the colonies to their own devices, and a shift to cheaper mecha based more closely on the old VF-1s. I don't remember everything we came up with, and of course the scenario was never a perfect fit, but it was fun to discuss. Walking the alternate timeline route, I've dragged Macross II into the "canonical" timeline twice in my Macross roleplaying. A few years back I was deep into Battletech, so I had the Marduk emulate the Clans in Battletech, turning them into an offshoot of the Protocultures who fled the civil wars and war with the Supervision Army, eventually establishing a separate cultural evolution in another galaxy. I'd already brought the VF-2 series of Valkyrie into the timeline as a production line aimed at colonial sales (replacing continually upgraded VF-5000s, etc.). I basically ran my players through a slightly altered Macross II storyline, replacing Earth with a long-distance colony world (established by the Megaroad-10) where Silvie and co. lived and where the returning Marduk first re-entered the home galaxy of their ancestors. It was a lot of fun twisting the plot line around, and bringing some of the "canonical" VFs into the story. Just recently, in a different campaign, I put together a storyline to allow my 2040-era characters to experience both Macross Zero and Macross II, by creating a little time-travel story where an anti-UN terrorist goes back in time and helps the Anti-UN Army sabotage the factories producing the VF-1 engines and also to nuke the SDF-1 before it launched. The result was a prolonged UN War that lasted until the Zentraedi arrived. VF-0s and SV-51s were no match for the Zentraedi, at which point the story moves forward to the 2040 of the new timeline where a long, bitter war with the Zentraedi has resulted in an Earth much more like the Macross II Earth, while the Zentraedi loyal to Bodolzaa had developed emulators and the Marduk caste in response to the effect of Earth culture. The characters would have entered in the midst of a new offensive by the Marduk Zentraedi. Silvie Geena was Max and Milia's third daughter in this timeline, both of them having died before getting to number seven. Unfortunately, the game's been on hold for a while, so I haven't had the chance to run them through that whole scenario yet. Luckily, none of them visit this board, so they won't read this and learn what's coming.

That's all that showed up in their 2005 catalogue, anyway. Doesn't look promising.

In case anyone was... y'know... interested or something, it's up for preorder at HLJ, right HERE.

Love #1, but I think the spine should be left as-is. I find adding the characters makes it too busy.

Well, I picked up Hasegawa's catalogue for 2005, and while it did indicate another 3 models in their "Virtual-On" series, the only upcoming Macross release seems to be a VF-1A/J/S fighter mode (i.e. all three heads in one model). It doesn't seem like anything actually "new" is in the pipe.

In my search for an "air superiority blue" for my VF-0D, I came across Military Hobbies, which offers Lifecolor acrylic paints from Italy, which include air superiority blue. Has anyone here used Lifecolor in the past?