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Chronocidal

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Everything posted by Chronocidal

  1. Chronocidal
    Are they just.. you know, completely unaware of the concept of learning about a universe before you start writing new entries? Or.. better yet.. could they have perhaps hired people already familiar with it?
  2. Chronocidal
    Ah.. I see they're not against pilfering IDEAS submissions for official releases. To be fair, this is probably why they stopped taking Star Wars theme submissions at all. It's kind of an obvious set theme to begin with.
  3. Chronocidal
    To a point, but if you're in range to even consider that maneuver being effective? You are probably past the point where a missile is going to be useful. It's not 100% certain, since missile technology does continue to develop, but if you are using fancy maneuvers like this in an engagement, it's probably because every other preferable option to dispatch a target has failed, and you are both using guns. You're also putting yourself at tremendous risk. Just because your target doesn't have any missiles doesn't mean his wingman isn't lining up a shot from twenty miles out. Those sorts of maneuvers are definitely showy, and in the right circumstances they might give you a split second of surprise. Properly timed, something like that might even be good to defeat a missile that's going too fast to adjust, but that maneuver also isn't really doing much to move you out of the way of a proximity detonation either, because it stops you dead in mid-air. Generally speaking, burning off energy like that is extremely risky, because it leaves you a sitting duck with no ability to evade a follow-up.
  4. Chronocidal
    Someone I know called it an "aerial 180 pop shove it." Far as an F-35 doing that, I think that's a giant resounding "nope." The F-35 doesn't have thrust vectoring to do that sort of thing, and I feel like the planform area isn't going to be large enough to actually be that effective at stopping on a dime (maybe the F-35C's wing could do that), even assuming it could remain controllable at that AoA.
  5. Chronocidal
    On a kit, yes, but I'm probably not going to attempt -that- much painting on a transforming one. Tails, wings, detachable parts, sure, but that whole body scheme would get tricky.
  6. Chronocidal
    See, I'm actually thrilled to have the official 2012 scheme, because it frees up one (or two) of my original VF-4Gs for custom schemes. I was going to make one with a tan nose eventually, but I definitely want to dig into some old F-14 decals for ideas on one. Maybe a good Sundowners or Ghostriders scheme would look good, complete with the white scalloped underside.
  7. Chronocidal
    Apparently shipping from China isn't as big an issues as from Japan.. my OS Greenscream missile set just arrived, in about two weeks. Not a bad look, though the pylon attachments need a bit of work, or the pylons need some bulk added to the top surface to press against the wing. The upper peg for the pylon is pretty far behind the peg for the tank, and neither the tank nor the wing actually touch the bulk of the pylon, so pressing the pylon onto the wing via the tank just tilts the whole thing all over the place. The pylon really just needs more height above the front half to press solidly against the underside of the wing. Don't know whether I'll worry about fixing it or not. Would probably be easy enough to add a support to the front of the pylon, and it won't show much even if I never match the colors. If anything, I'd probably use these pylons to make a custom set with actual 1/48 sidewinders from a kit. But they do the job, so I'm glad I got them. The "sparrows" on the other hand I'm probably leaving off. I give them credit for making use of the ball joint sockets for the null rays, but the missiles just look goofy there.
  8. Chronocidal
    I think what would be a major improvement there would be to just double up the thickness of both layers of the feet. Perhaps not quite double, but at least another plate or two of thickness on each tier. The hips.. really need a five stud diameter. Honestly, the lack of cylindrical elements of all sizes is something I have lamented for probably decades at this point. At least with the old 80s Technics sets you used to be able to get solid wheel hubs in varying sizes, but since everything has gone to realistic wheel hubs with air-filled tires, we just don't have those options anymore. My ideal setup would be to have full or half cylinder elements in 2, 3, and 4 studs, and halves and quarters in at least 6 and 8. Pieces in 5 or 7 would be great, but just having something in a solid 3-stud diameter would be a huge step up. We always get those oddball pieces like the cylinders used on the minifig-scaled X-Wings, which are great for that specific thing, but work terribly as a pure cylinder shape. If my scale estimates are correct, an X-Wing scaled for 8-stud diameter intakes would need 5-ish-stud diameter nozzles, and 3-stud diameter guns. There's really no good way to do that right now.
  9. Chronocidal
    I'm not entirely sure it would have been received all that well though, at least not right off the bat of Enterprise getting cancelled. Even before Discovery started, it got a fair amount of criticism just on the setting and aesthetics, for being set pre-TOS. At this point though, a box of saltines is a feast for someone who's been eating dirt for three years.
  10. Chronocidal
    So... if you actually did take Indy out of it, I can't say nothing changes, because you turn a fun adventure flick into a humorless Nazi twist on National Treasure, except the surprise ending is that everyone dies. Yes, the plot plays out roughly the same, but who would actually want to watch that? Which... is kind of the same problem I think Trek seems to be dealing with now? They've twisted the characters and universe around so much that I don't think I even care what happens to them anymore. I've got no investment. As an aside, I think Raiders gets a free deus ex machina pass for playing the trope straight to its historical roots, and literally having God save the day.
  11. Chronocidal
    If you order more than one set, NY shoves you to the end of the line, regardless of when you ordered.
  12. Chronocidal
    No, Star Trek was culturally aware, and creative enough to give you a message without bashing your skull in with it directly (comparatively speaking, anyhow ). It was also.. you know.. somewhat competently written, which makes a huge difference. I think the definition of "woke" may be shifting, but my impression is essentially the idea that you must use your platform to promote a specific message, while all concept of good storytelling, fun characters, and being actually enjoyable to watch must take a back seat to the current politically driven agenda. One of the best points I've heard for both Trek and Wars recently is the idea of making a story "timeless," rather than "relevant." Timeless stories can be retold, and have a message applicable to all of history. Relevant stories die along with shifts in political climate. It's the difference between an Aesop fable, and an SNL political skit. One has meaning that will remain relevant. The other will fade into obscurity as people forget why it was (supposed to be) funny in the first place. What I find rather amusing is just how utterly bleak and dreary all of these "woke" properties are turning. Like.. OK, on the one hand, yes, I realize they think they're writing cautionary tales. But quite honestly? They just cannot seem to make anything happy for the life of them. Everything is terrible, everything is bleak, and the future is a nightmare. Seriously, if that's all they can come up with? I don't want them having any part in any future I experience. Get out, and let someone with hope write something for once, before all the doom and gloom becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
  13. Chronocidal
    I hope that banana cannon isn't a production sample.
  14. Chronocidal
    Going to just go out and say it, I -hate- having giant flappy hinges in the wings/tails on seekers, or even worse, requiring them to fold over at the root with no locking mechanism. Like, at the very least, could they try and make the hinge disappear from the top, rather than making the whole hinge visible on the surface? I know why Maketoys made them fold that way, but what it also led to was a flood of photos of their Seeker mold with tails and stabs splayed at any number of cockeyed angles, which is a serious eyesore to someone who actually likes the look of the F-15. I'm left wondering if the photographer just didn't make the effort, or if the hinges literally will not stay in place. I think what they're going for with the new Seeker mold is trying to fold up the stabs and tails like the smaller DX9 mold did, but instead of leaving them hanging, they're trying to hide them inside the main wing.. which.. ok, I give them credit, that's ingenious, but I'm not sure whether the giant honking thick wings resulting from that choice will look better or worse than just folding the tails and stabs flat behind the wing. Either way, the canopy on the chest is either completely fake, or will make the F-15 ducking fugly. Won't really know until we see alt mode diagrams, or prototype pics.
  15. Chronocidal
    You know one really easy upgrade you could make to that battle damage.. why not just glue scraps of metal wire into the openings? Just any old chunk of bent paperclip, useless scraps of electrical wiring, twist-ties, you name it. Just stick them on the inner surface of the saucer around the broken edge, and bend them to your heart's content. The one piece I think I would alter is the long straight sprue poking out of the starboard side. Might just be odd angles, but it looks like it would stick outside the exterior of the saucer. Don't have to cut it, I'd just heat it until you could bend it into a curve roughly the same as the saucer structure. Plus, the heat will pre-burn it for you.
  16. Chronocidal
    I think part of the difference between the Transformers and Macross communities might just be that the Transformers franchise includes a portion of the fanbase that Macross mostly doesn't have: people who are invested in the mecha as characters. Not to say that we don't have people who love dynamic battroids with great posing ability, and what one could maybe consider "personality," but we're mostly aware that valks are manufactured mechanical objects. Take a look around Macross World, and you will find yourself predominantly neck deep in mecha and aircraft fanatics. We like planes, and mechs, and planes that turn into mechs. It's pretty simple, and for certain people (myself in particular), the mechanical aspects of transformation are just fascinating, and we love seeing physically possible mechanisms in action. Transformers on the other hand? Yes, you're still going to have the people who want physically detailed transformations of realistic-looking vehicles, but you're also going to have people who are invested in the individual characters in the show, and want to have something that imitates their presence. Mechanical detail and possibility may take a backseat to dynamic posing, expressive articulation, and just pure character-driven nostalgia. They don't want a car with accurate styling, they want a statue of their favorite character that just happens to transform into a fair representation of the vehicle they turned into in the cartoon, possibly going so far as to want a caricature of a famous vehicle design because that's what they saw on screen. Character nostalgia may be more important than mechanical detail and accuracy. There's nothing wrong with wanting either, but trying to accomplish both gets very hard, and sometimes impossible, if some character-driven detail or feature directly contradicts a real life detail someone wants to see.
  17. Chronocidal
    I think it more passable on the MP3/11 molds because the OS mold beefed up the original some to structurally reinforce certain points. That block of plastic getting in the way looks like it could be important to reinforce the outward pivot for the wings.
  18. Chronocidal
    Really, the way they always detail the self-destruct initialization makes it sound like there are multiple sequences available, for specific cases. In this situation, they were making sure all of the data in the bridge computers was gone, and ensuring all the Klingons heading there would be wiped out. I'd think a warp-core detonation would be something reserved for if you actually intend to do damage with the blast, and not a great idea if you're within range of it (remember Generations? ). Considering they were about to depend on the Klingon ship in orbit to get them off the planet afterward, they probably didn't want to risk damaging that ship in the process. Still, I'm sure it absolutely was an intentional visual to have the registry blown away. Whether it made technological sense is really irrelevant in the long run, since they can do whatever they want to fit the plot. Either way, it really was an impressive sequence.
  19. Chronocidal

    BANDAI DX YF-19!!

    Chronocidal replied to seti88's topic in Toys

    I want to say that's exactly what you should expect using the included stand adapters with any of the Yamato/Arcadia VF-19/YF-19 molds. They are insanely unbalanced, with a ton of weight located far behind the mount. I know Yeti made a few adapters that clip around the backplate for a sturdier connection, so I don't know if you might have used one of them. Either way though, that's very disconcerting. Any chance you can just screw the peg directly back into the mount?
  20. Chronocidal

    BANDAI DX YF-19!!

    Chronocidal replied to seti88's topic in Toys

    Ugh.. I'm still sad we never got an official release of those schemes. They're probably my favorite scheme on the YF-19, and I know I'm going to have to do one of my Hasegawa kits in the dark blue.. someday.
  21. Chronocidal
    Bit of a throwback post, I was messing with my oversized Greenscream, and realized it's very easy to fix the colliding inner wing flaps. I just filed away half the thickness of the leading edge of the flap on the underside, and blended it toward the trailing edge. They don't lay perfectly flat when folded, but it's not like anyone's looking at the backside of the wings anyhow, and it doesn't show at all in jet mode.
  22. Chronocidal

    BANDAI DX YF-19!!

    Chronocidal replied to seti88's topic in Toys

    See, that's still not right though, because those heels still fit under the cuffs! They need to stick out about another five inches to the rear.
  23. Chronocidal

    BANDAI DX YF-19!!

    Chronocidal replied to seti88's topic in Toys

    It's because Bandai made the heels oversized, and basically designed the feet almost entirely for battroid mode. The feet on the VF-19 Advance had very skinny heels, and looked odd in battroid, but entirely streamlined in fighter mode. They switched methods for the YF-19, and overcompensated, making the heels into blocky chunks that stick up above the end of the leg, rather than sinking into it. Meanwhile, Yamato and Arcadia never seemed to have trouble with the shape of the feet, they just could never get the ball jointed ankles to work quite right.
  24. Chronocidal
    I also figured the mashup was partly due to the organization being a combination of multiple countries. On another note though, has anyone seen if there's an expected release date for Kakizaki?
  25. Chronocidal

    BANDAI DX YF-19!!

    Chronocidal replied to seti88's topic in Toys

    One thing I did that helped my DX YF/VF-19s was just squeezing the hinge pin on the swing arm. You do need something small and flat to press in on the rivet, since it's recessed, but squeezing that rivet did tighten up the wing quite a bit for me.
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