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Chronocidal

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Everything posted by Chronocidal

  1. Chronocidal
    I know it's silly, but this guy's name gives me flashbacks to horrible 80s Lindberg models.
  2. Chronocidal
    There are some detailed pics in the model topic where I pointed out the problems, but the biggest issues are the main wing supports. The shape of the piece is just right that the stresses involved in folding up the wings will start to form a stress fracture along the narrowest cross section of the piece. Most of the other issues are just fragile parts that can be fixed with a little glue, but the wing supports need structural reinforcement.
  3. Chronocidal
    How about we compromise and just go DMYDMY? All of the dates in my work documentation tend to flip around a lot, but the one I find myself using most is YYYYMMDD, because that's the date extension I add to my filenames. It's a little redundant to the "modified by" date, but also has the benefit of meaning that if I'm making multiple versions of a file, sorting by alphabetical order also puts them in chronological order.
  4. Chronocidal
    See.. I thought for certain people had received packages from NY that were marked with other retail stickers, at other prices than what they were charged by NY. That's where my assumption stems from, mostly. As far as them taking a loss.. no, I can't prove anything, but my suspicion is that their shipping charges and gradual markup process are padding to cushion the reality that they may have stocking requests fall through, and might have to take small losses on some items to fulfill orders. They sell a very wide range of items, and these sorts of things may not be a significant strain if they have to acquire a few on the secondary market to fill their orders. I really don't know. What I -do- know is that NY fubared themselves by failing to place any orders during the first order window with Bandai. That places them in the hole for one pre-order's worth of allocation, and they either have to make that up somewhere, or cancel half of the orders they received. I have no idea how they expect to make up that deficit. Unless they can actually convince Bandai to fill all the orders they failed to place, I don't know where else they are going to get the stock to satisfy all of their customers.
  5. Chronocidal
    This is probably because NY is not ordering directly from Bandai. They took more orders than Bandai would allow them, and are now probably desperately scrambling to find all of the stock they promised people. Remember, they overslept through the entire first round of orders. They are still catching up on those who ordered last year, so if you didn't make that cut, you are going to be waiting a long time. Personally? I'm not betting they'll be able to pull it off, and at this point, I would not even be surprised if they wind up taking a loss on each one delivered. The reason they refuse to give you your money back is because they don't have any to give you. Your pre-order payment was a no-interest loan that they've already spent to run their business. They are quickly falling to my last resort to order literally anything, because they keep demonstrating that all they are doing is gambling with your pre-order money to somehow keep the shop afloat.
  6. Chronocidal
    Yeah, no, their UPS fees are highway robbery. I'm not touching that option, I paid for my shipping already. I ordered two sets on ebay for a nominal mark-up after NY fumbled the first order, so I'm going to just wait it out.
  7. Chronocidal
    Do you actually need ball/socket joints, or would it work to just cut the cannons free from their mounts, and add an elevation pivot? I'm assuming they already rotate at the base though.
  8. Chronocidal
    Hmmm, tempting to grab one of those now. The fighter mode proportions are definitely a little weird, but they don't look too bad there.
  9. Chronocidal
    Your best option is to just wait it out with NY, unfortunately. I cannot recall any cases where they didn't deliver eventually, so you'll get what you paid for, it'll just be on their own nonsense timetable. Worst case, they wind up cancelling on you, in which case, I think it would have to be a full refund. Their store credit is a crock, and you do not want to have to deal with that crap, especially for that amount. I did their store credit once, and regretted everything immediately. I've got four sets on order with them, and I'm resigned to wait it out until they get around to delivering. As far as the items being in-hand or not... I wouldn't bet on it. Between their practice of buying up local stock to redistribute, and their completely faffing off the entire first round of orders, I'm thinking they're going to be hurting to deliver on all the orders they received.
  10. Chronocidal
    I'm in no rush to buy this until they fix the concerns people have with the design. It's promising, but needs work, and I want them to take their time and get it right.
  11. Chronocidal
    Not going to lie, I love the insanity involved in the 262's transformation. I still prefer the 1/72 transforming kit, because it's cleaner, but that one has structural issues that make it pretty fragile to repeatedly transform.
  12. Chronocidal
    I think the color in the episode was some sort of copper metallic, but it looks about the same as the Diamond Select version I have. That one is more yellow, if anything, but they both use the same shade as the bands behind the bussards. All things considered, I'll probably stick with that version, since the phaser cannon under the saucer looks much boxier than it should be. It's a fun "what if" design, but it's hard to nail the look of the tacked-on additions without looking cheaply tacked-on. Diamond Select didn't do very well either, in fact, but it's a large enough model I can probably patch up the seams and fugly screw covers easier in that scale.
  13. Chronocidal
    I'm honestly tempted to pick up the newer version with the massive decals now. I already have all of the individual ships (minus the NX-01) from two previous kits, and none have anything even remotely like the new decal sets. The TV, Motion Picture, and TNG set was actually a hilarious mis-pricing at a local shop of the version of the kit that included a giant clear acrylic disc that you could insert the models into for a flight display. Think it was like $3.00? But I would love a chance to rebuild all of them in matching scale.
  14. Chronocidal
    Yeah, at this scale, trying to add all the details would just make them look overblown. The First Contact ship was -very- subtle in its paneling. What's actually frustrating though is that Diamond Select went through two versions of the ship.. or maybe one still counted as Art Asylum? I don't know for sure, but I wound up buying a second. The first version only put any paneling detail on the saucer, and it was very heavily contrasted, while the rest of the ship was criminally bare. The second version is much more muted, and they finished the job, completing the paneling on the whole ship, and actually lighting up the blue nacelle grills... yeah, the first version only lit the bussards.. I'm seriously considering repainting the whole thing. Will be really nice to see them all displayed together though! Did the kit come with a group stand for the whole fleet, or do you have some plans of your own?
  15. Chronocidal
    See.. Size should be no problem here. If they have the printing quality to put the aztec panels on the 1701-A, or even the details for the E's escape pods and transporter emitters, the hull pattern shouldn't be an issue. I'm thinking they just didn't do it because the surface of the saucer has so many layers. Or maybe they couldn't pin down an "official" pattern.. or something. I don't know. Properly detailing the E would probably require an ungodly amount of massive decals in this case, because the pseudo-random paneling covers the entire ship, and the surface is divided up into so many layers. (Short reason, it's a lot of work. ) The First Contact studio filming model was an oddity for Star Trek, because I don't think they actually had any particular method to how they detailed the hull.. it just looked like patches of tape everywhere. The CGI model in Nemesis had the contrast cranked up, but the Enterprise E has probably gone through the most design changes of any of the versions over the years, since each movie used an entirely different model.
  16. Chronocidal
    Came out nice! Though, I have to say, the E's decals look pretty simple compared with all the other ships in that set. Did they just not attempt printing any of the smaller panel details on the decals?
  17. Chronocidal
    I think it was more a matter of the make-up of the atmosphere having different fluid dynamic properties than Earth. The planes still flew on Earth anyhow, so it couldn't have been that different. Also, keep in mind the original book had much less wacky designs, where aside from maybe some extra control surfaces, the original Super Sylph was something closer to an upgraded F-15 (maybe more like the MTD, the one with canards). Those designs exist, and have been made as resin kits I think. The anime just decided to go off the deep end of aerodynamics, and use the setting as an excuse for all manner of impossible and improbable mutations of modern aircraft design.
  18. Chronocidal
    See, I wouldn't recommend Shapeways off the bat, just because it can be difficult to tune the printing process with them, and the turn-around between trials is obnoxious. What I -would- suggest is using a printer of your own, and experimenting with what you can pull off. I've had some good results printing small parts, so the idea of building up a kit from smaller prints. Layer lines can be dealt with, but you need to make sure to break down the assembly into smaller segments that can be sanded out. Check the other 3D printing topics for more details, but I'm slowly printing out the components to build a Wing Commander model. You're not going to get fine panel lines like an injection molded kit straight out of an FDM printer, but if you want to put the work in after the print, and the parts breakdown allows, you can always scribe everything in manually. I would say that's arguably easier than engraving the model before printing, but it'll very much depend on the model geometry. In the long run, don't go through Shapeways until you have a functional print, and parts that fit together. For as many trial prints as I've made of various items, I would have already paid for a printer if I was ordering repeated prints from Shapeways. Anyhow, back on the subject though, I might have to see if I can find a Sylphid model to mess with. I'd love a Fand I as well, I think that's probably one of the more "reasonable" aircraft in the show. The Fand II is just pure sci-fi.
  19. Chronocidal
    I should look and see how difficult it would be to 3D print a solid model. The geometry looks like it could work, and it would be fun to scale it up to 1/48th. I need to go hunting resources.. I know I've seen a few high-resolution renders of the animation models, and that would make the actual airframes pretty easy to replicate. The real difficulty would be in the details. I think I need to invest in some actual CAD software, rather than 3D animation/gaming focused stuff, because making nice engraved panel lines is by far the most work involved in making a printable model.
  20. Chronocidal
    I don't know about you, but the idea of any browser being able to fire mind-controlled missiles makes me nervous. On the plus side, at least it's not run by Google or Microsoft.
  21. Chronocidal

    Hi-Metal R

    Chronocidal replied to joppewo's topic in Toys

    I think it's due out with the Tomohawk.
  22. Chronocidal
    So, as a slightly ridiculously intensive alternative.. what if you masked panels, and then sprayed from alternating directions, in slightly different shades? Only reason this pops into my head is that I've been rewatching Babylon 5 recently, and while the CGI is utterly ancient, that's a very prominent feature on the ships. Everything looked like it was slightly heat-blasted.
  23. Chronocidal
    I still have a sizable collection of the old Action Fleet ships. Never was able to get my hands on the E-Wing or Tie Defender, but I grabbed all of the main fighter designs, plus the Imperial Shuttle and Millennium Falcon. They weren't all the most accurate in terms of proportions, but they were just a perfect mix of size, features and playability. Actually, now that I think about it, I believe the Action Fleet A-Wing was nearly the exact same size as the Bandai "1/72" 1/48th kit.
  24. Chronocidal
    So, in all honesty, while some of the kits have fragile bits, I can't say they don't lend themselves well to being handled relatively gently. The 1/72 X-Wings are pretty hearty, and snap together like LEGO bricks, with enough stickers to make them pretty presentable. They still look best with paint and weathering, but I find myself zooming them about at least as often as my assorted valks. Can't argue with wanting some better toys though, and I would love to see someone make a renewed Action Fleet. While Bandai would do a beautiful job, I don't want to deal with the import mess, or Bandai's obnoxious supply and demand manipulation. I want something I can pick up from a local walmart or target, like I was able to do with the recent Tie fighter and earlier figure-scaled vehicles. I really just want star wars vehicle toys to stop sucking.
  25. Chronocidal
    As much as a part of me would like this, please don't give them any ideas. I can only deal with so much Bandai exclusive pre-order hell. Let me relish the easy availability of the kits on Amazon.
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