Chronocidal
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Everything posted by Chronocidal
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If Bandai can do what it did with some of the HMR releases, they could easily do combination TV/DYRL versions of a couple valks. Just make a combination Roy VF-1S with two pilots (and [/I]maybe[/I] a different head, but I feel like a different color forehead arrow is pushing it as far as necessary differences), and a combination TV/DYRL VF-1A CF with two heads. I'd also be entirely okay if they just do 6 TV series releases, and call it done. Maybe 7 if we get a DYRL Hikaru 1S. I'm absolutely not buying everything all over again. Of course, I said that with the HMR series too.
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Top Gun: Maverick (Top Gun 2 is comin)
Chronocidal replied to Ladic's topic in Anime or Science Fiction
So.. what you're saying is we should merge franchises, and this is actually Stealth II? Now that just reminds me of someone's suggested Jurassic Park far-future sequel: -
Don't believe it's ever been shown, though we also never saw those weapons carried in the animation to begin with. Frankly, I think those descriptions were made up entirely off the cuff, without much consideration for what the weapons look like. There's nothing that remotely suggests the SPP-8s are meant to launch and travel. The LPP-12s at least have details like folded fins that make them look like they could feasibly fly, but I think the boxes were just meant to be micromissile pods. Visual details aside, those concepts are rather interesting though, and sound like more advanced developments on things like penetrator warheads, and shaped charges. Delivering the weapon to point blank range before performing the actual attack would greatly increase lethality, especially if they are directed to attack specific target components.
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So the GAU-8 is 30mm, 7 barrels, and 3900 rounds per minute. Most Macross gunpods don't have that many barrels, from what I've seen, but use vastly enlarged ammo. The Macross Tech Manual lists the GPU-9 on the VF-0 as using 35mm shells, with three barrels, while the GU-11 is said to use 55mm shells, with a much slower rate of fire, and much lower ammo capacity, at only 200 rounds (but still more than the F-35A! ). That increased caliber is a doozy though. With shells that size firing that fast, the site estimates each GU-11 round at about 1/3 the pure kinetic energy of the main gun on an M1 Abrams. I'd assume later gunpods would continue that line of development, generally using larger rounds, but lower rates of fire, and smaller bursts. If you assume the use of newer advanced technology would allow for more accurate dispersal of bullets, and less scatter, this makes sense. You wouldn't need nearly as many shots fired to score a significant amount of hits. Actually, one of the features I remember from the old Robotech Battlecry game was that it gave you a "sniper" mode with the gunpod. Gameplay-wise, it just allowed for single accurate high-powered shots you could "charge up", but it makes me wonder if something like that could be applied to the internal mechanization of a rotary cannon. Essentially, lock the rotary barrels down to increase the accuracy, and fire off rounds one at a time, sort of a semi-automatic mode. Probably not all that useful for an aircraft, but possibly more precise and practical for fighting in battroid mode.
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Still got the floating wing glove tabs, and I'm guessing the process of locking down the shoulders with the fast packs on hasn't gotten any easier. Also fun that due to molding seams, depending on which side you view, the plane is either made by SIN SEI INDUSTRY, or SINSEI INDUS TRY. Yeah, I'm gonna have long and intense scraping sessions with this bird.
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Painted markings always just look so much better than decals.. I'm honestly tempted to make stencils for major insignia markings on a lot of kits. Looking amazing!
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That would make sense as well, but why the missing shipper boxes? That just seems odd to me, and if Bandai had rejected a production run, wouldn't there be some notification somewhere that that's what happened? I know we have folks in Japan able to pick up on those sorts of things locally, but I don't think there has been any sort of official news on why the 31A release has been such a mess.
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Pretty sure NY is picking them up anywhere they can from resellers at this point. I'm of two minds about this. On the one hand, the lack of any communication about this nonsense is insanely frustrating... but at the same time, I have to wonder if NY is actually shelling out to acquire these on the secondary market, and taking a huge financial loss to fulfill their orders. I honestly don't understand why they refuse to explain anything about this mess, but whatever the reason actually is, it's not doing their reputation any favors.
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Bandai certainly does seem to love painting figures based on animation errors.
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Thanks, fair enough, I guess it's just always been that way. Never going to not rub me the wrong way, but at least that's one less thing to blame directly on Bandai.
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So... you say "visual balance." I do not think that means what you think it means. How "balanced" does this look to you? Also, just FYI... the letters are bold. Bold Arial font, to be precise. Like.. this is literally my reaction. You're missing my point. I'm just curious if they meant to swap the word order from the original. Flight Test Center. Not Test Flight Center. I'm thinking it's just a bad translation, but I don't know if that's an artifact of the original Plus, something from Hasegawa, or something Bandai did all on their own.
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I wouldn't mind the lettering so much either, if it wasn't insanely ugly for all the reasons mentioned above. It's misaligned, overlaps the black so half the letters disappear, and it doesn't even match the position of the letters on the opposite wing. It's like they looked at the design, and asked, "How can we make this as offensive as possible for anyone with any amount of OCD?" The word I want to apply to how Bandai approaches tampo printing is rapidly approaching a very NSFW term. They could have just done exactly what Hasegawa did, and it all would have looked beautiful.. but noooooo.... they had to get creative, and put their own spin on it, moving around everything in some sort of mad stenciling party that rearranges all the original canon markings, and adds new ones that are misplaced, misspelled, and hideous. On that note.. minor question.. is it actually New Edwards Test Flight Center in Plus? Because the original Edwards is the Air Force Flight Test Center.
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I'm not convinced that the heels can't be pushed in further actually. After messing with the Advance version, I was able to get the feet to seat lower, in a spot where I think the heels would blend better. Even if not, fortunately, if the design of the foot internals hasn't changed since the Advance, the heel caps should be a single piece that can be removed and replaced by a custom part. I plan on tackling a Shapeways replacement as soon as I get mine. The ugly tampo is another issue entirely, and part of the reason I ordered three of these. At least one is going to be scraped clean of all that crap, and will have the wing stripes re-painted. I'm also going to thin out the black panel down the spine, and maybe even remove the UN SPACY on the legs, because it's printed so low. Depending on how the sizes work out, I might replace some of the tampo with markings from the 1/72 Hasegawa kit. As much as people blasted Arcadia's release for not having enough tampo printing, I'll take that any day over having to remove all of Bandai's overblown tampo splatter.
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Star Trek: Picard (CBS All-Access)
Chronocidal replied to UN Spacy's topic in Anime or Science Fiction
To be entirely fair, ruining the Borg in new and (un)creative ways seems to be a rite of passage for every new trek series. As mentioned before, I know The Return was a giant Shatner self-insert fanwank, but I always kind of enjoyed the irony of the thought that they originated with V-GER. -
Makes sense to me, they don't want to cannibalize the release of their big ticket item by selling a slightly smaller and cheaper item of the same type. Bandai haven't been in this situation with Macross before, since they had always been releasing different valks than Yamato/Arcadia, or in a different scale. Competition with the Yamato 1/60 VF-1s was almost certainly a big part of why the original HM line failed.
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The fact that Bandai panel lined the decals on these kits makes me want to scream. The only way to conceivably decorate these kits in a decent fashion is to mask off and paint all of the markings by hand.
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Honestly, I just want a Strangereal version of the Cold War, where SAC went fully active, and all those experimental aircraft that got cancelled when ICBMs were funded went into full active service. B-58s, fully active A-5 bomber wings, and all the fun stuff most people have only seen concept art of. You want a super-fighter equivalent for that era? Give me a B-70 escort mission, flying a wing of F-108 Rapiers. They aren't as well known, but some of the Century Series even had concept designs in progress for upgrades that never happened, things like the F-103 and F-107, or the proposed Doppler radar and canard upgrade to the F-106.
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Macross Δ (Delta) Movie Gekijō no Walkūre (Passionate Walkure)
Chronocidal replied to no3Ljm's topic in Movies and TV Series
DYRL will always be a high mark I think, but what's funny to me about it is that, outside of the tunes taken from SDFM and the main theme, I think it really only had a single soundtrack theme throughout the entire movie. It was remixed and re-orchestrated to fit every scene it was used in, and gave a consistent feel to the movie in a strange but very memorable way. Maybe that was just me though. To me, Plus stands out specifically because it is so different, so serious, and works on such a small scale compared with the rest of the franchise. It's absolutely part of a larger universe, but it boils the story down to where the focus is entirely on the main three (four?) characters, and you get a more complete picture of them, compared with stories involving a ton of people whose entire characterization depends on visual appearance, and a few expository statements. It's the more subtle characterization that makes the characters stand out, and makes them more interesting. But then again, I'm biased because Plus was my first exposure to the franchise, the designs are my favorites of the franchise, and I love the soundtrack to death. The music is an odd thing though.. it's absolutely fitting to the visuals, and it's really effective at setting the mood, but it's also strange and unconventional in ways that make you wonder what you're listening to, and even question why you're listening to it... but that's kind of Yoko Kanno in a nutshell, I think. If anything, the Delta movie felt a lot more effective at characterization to me specifically because it was so much shorter, and there wasn't time to hit the viewer over the head with all the exposition they used to pad out the series. Funny random side-thought, that only now occurred to me: Who wants to bet the illegal neural network chip that ran Sharon's AI involved components made of fold quartz? I don't know if that has been mentioned officially, or discussed elsewhere, but it would probably fit the situation. -
Star Trek: Picard (CBS All-Access)
Chronocidal replied to UN Spacy's topic in Anime or Science Fiction
Without having the time to actually watch this at the moment, I'll say I'm vaguely intrigued by that poster. Are they thinking of doing some kind of R&D-focused historical series about ship's design and production? Edit: Scratch that, didn't realize it was all still speculation. An interesting idea, but probably not likely to happen. -
Taking a step back can be helpful, and those Bandai kits are a joy to assemble, they should be a nice stress-free breather*. I've picked up two or three of each of the 1/72 ships now, and I haven't even progressed past the assembly phase, because they're just enjoyable to put together and take apart over and over. *Except for the Y-Wing that is.. that kit has enough tiny parts to make you go blind, and there are certain parts better assembled with tweezers. I really wish they'd gone full 1/48 for the whole line.
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This is going to be fun to see in person, the whole thing looks like it has to unfold and collapse under the fighter. I'm thinking only the smaller panel on the inside of the arm (the section with the slot embedded inside the black stripe) will stay permanently attached, leaving the smaller two panels to collapse and fold under the right arm, while the big gun winds up underneath the opposite arm.
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You're not wrong though, there are complicated aerodynamic effects that occur at certain speeds that can be disastrous. Aircraft definitely have "do not exceed" thresholds for airspeed, and they're generally the kind of thing that either result in the plane being retired due to airframe fatigue if exceeded, or end in the aircraft disintegrating in midair, as they literally shake themselves apart. If you want to dig into the science of it, look up the term "aeroelasticity." It has to do with natural vibrational frequencies in materials, and how at certain airspeeds, resonant frequencies can literally cause materials to vibrate and flex in ways that will be completely destructive to the airframe. Anyway, no, the Ace Combat games never get that detailed. In fact, I don't actually even know of any hardcore sims that go that far in their simulation. You might get warnings of aircraft overstress and eventual structural failure (including the aircraft breaking up), but the mathematics involved in those sorts of structural calculations require dedicated simulation software all their own to determine. At best, sims usually just take the published aircraft operating limits, maybe add a fudge factor, and then make the plane explode when you go to far. In my (perhaps skewed/biased) opinion, the Ace Combat series basically merges the classic WWI-WWII (maybe Korea/Vietnam) fundamentals of air combat with modern aircraft, and a very simplified approximation of modern technology. You have full control over the aircraft in terms of maneuvers, without any of the fluff of managing engines and sensors, and all the combat takes place roughly within visual range, which is something that you pretty much never see in the modern era. Beyond Visual Range (BVR) missiles are all the rage nowadays, and things only got so close back in Vietnam due to things like rules of engagement requiring visual ID of targets, and early generation missiles being fairly unreliable. All of that rolls up into a nice package deal of fast-paced, close-in dogfights with cannon and (very) short range missiles, and everyone's favorite modern combat aircraft. That being said.. I'd love for a historical flashback AC that tackled a bunch of the designs from the Cold War. Start players off in stuff like the F-86, F-90, F9F, F-11F, then move up through the F-100 series (SO happy to see the F-104 in this one!), add in the A-4, A-6, A-7, F-4, F-8. Throw in a few classic MiGs and Sukois, some old Mirages, Tornados, and EE Lightnings, and cap things off with the F-14/15/16/18 and MiG-25/29 as the top tier. There are so many fun aircraft from that era that we only get little snippets of in popular media. It's like everyone tends to forget everything between the P-51 and the F-14.
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Interesting where that slot is located, since that will put some limits on both where the pack can be stored during fighter mode, and whether the hands will be able to fold in and out. I have to assume that's not the only attachment point, since that's where the dual cannon sits, and it will have to fold out of the way to let that side of the arm fit inside the opening on the inside of the lower leg.
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The arm cannon is a fun little extra, but I'm more interested in the stacks of wing hardpoints I can use on all my other Bandai valks. Judging by that last layout picture, it looks like the missiles have slots in them, which would imply the pylons are separate pieces. If that's the case, I might make some modified pylons for more varied loadouts.
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Converting files, maybe... building CAD/CAM designs for molds to reproduce parts that were designed to be 3D-printed could quite another thing. You can make a lot of complex shapes in a single piece with a 3D printer, but they might need to be broken down into entirely different assemblies before you could successfully make injection molds for them. Ideally, you could build the 3D printed parts with this in mind, but it also depends on how fancy of an injection molding process would be required. The complex multi-directional molds that Bandai uses on its kits can make some incredibly detailed parts, but I don't know how many injection molding factories can do that kind of work.