Jump to content

Chronocidal

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    10756

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by Chronocidal

  1. Chronocidal
    So, a word of advice about these.. If your shoulder covers tend to pop off, don't try and fix it. I actually did more harm than good to the shoulder trying to get it to attach correctly. It's back on, but now that forward triangle piece with the tiny trap door is very obviously modified. I wound up sealing the joint with super glue, and filing it smooth. I would try and just smooth over the entire piece, rescribe the separation lines, and paint over it, but the plastic isn't actually black. The annoying part though.. in the process of trying to fix that shoulder, I managed to ding up the paint on both chest cannons. Fortunately for me, I happened to have a bottle of acrylic paint that is a near perfect match, but I'd like to go strip it off and use enamels for extra durability, so I might see if I can find a match. Tamiya "Light Gray" was a little too dark, but I have a small bottle of Testors/Pactra "Light Gray" acrylic that matches. I just need to check if that color is one of the standard Model Master colors I have. Edit: darn this stupid glitch.. probably a browser problem, but the quick reply never saves paragraph breaks.
  2. Chronocidal
    Yeah, the old F7U was notoriously bad for carrier ops. Horribly underpowered, and the engines were unreliable on top of that. Apparently a sizable number were lost on failed catapult launches because the engines flamed out. The ludicrously high nose gear and crazy angle of attack needed for landing didn't help either. What's actually amusing.. my dad owns a couple 1/72 kits of the Cutlass, and has compared some part sizes with the idea in mind to make a next-generation version of sorts, sort of a 70s era revamp of the design. If the internal ducting in the kit is accurate, it looks like you could literally just take out the old engines, and replace them with modern F-18C/D turbofans with very minor changes. I always loved the design of the prototype, which had an actual streamlined cockpit, but that huge bubble nose ruined it.
  3. Chronocidal
    Hehe, I grew up in Hanford, know the feeling. The superbugs will be around for a long time yet though, they're only talking about replacing the old model hornets. Maintenance costs for those oldies are skyrocketing, because all the focus is shifting to the E/F/G model hornets. Gonna be really weird when/if the Blue Angels and Thunderbirds both start flying the F-35... they've had the 16s and 18s for so long now.
  4. Chronocidal

    Macross 30

    Chronocidal replied to Tochiro's topic in Games

    Given the resemblance, I'm tempted to assume it's going to be Aisha's older sister. Though, the way that reddish scene is drawn, I half thought that was supposed to be Misa.
  5. Chronocidal
    No joke, but they're talking about Lemoore, not Fresno. Fresno's ANG base has had F-16s for a long time. Anyway though, they're talking about legacy hornets, F-18C/D models, which the JSF will replace eventually.Not going to replace the superhornets anytime soon, especially not at Lemoore, since I think that's basically the west coast headquarters for superhornet operations and training. I think someone in congress has been trying to float the idea of a multi-service base, consolidating the Fresno ANG and Lemoore NAS aircraft into one area. Makes some sense, due to the land-locked nature of KFAT, and the relatively remote location of LNAS, but I don't expect it to happen any time soon.
  6. Chronocidal

    Macross 30

    Chronocidal replied to Tochiro's topic in Games

    Holy crap... do they seriously go back to SW1? Or is it just a flashback? (hah)
  7. Chronocidal
    Is it just me, or does Togusa just look not quite young enough compared with the rest of them? Also, while the Japanese voices are changing, any word on whether they'll keep the English cast the same? I don't know if they're in quite the same demand as the Japanese cast, but some of them are pretty prolific on the voice acting circuit as well.
  8. Chronocidal
    I still love this particular topic from io9 a few years back, where they were discussing what the next screwball monster movie should be. At one point, someone brings up the fact that they're running out of monsters... so they should start combining animals with forces of nature. Hilarity ensues. http://io9.com/5960981/syfys-next-hybrid-monster-should-be-bearantula Also, Mansquito always needed a sequel: Miss Quito.
  9. Chronocidal
    The D just had the disadvantage of having a few angles where it just didn't look good at all. Anything from above and in front mostly, because the entire ship disappears behind that huge saucer. I have a love/hate relationship with the E... partly because I love the ship to death.. but also because I spent the better part of several years working on a replacement model for the original polygonal travesty in the old Bridge Commander PC game. You never grow to know a ship quite like you do when you build a polygon model, and then draw each of the hull panels onto the textures by hand. As far as the saucer separation goes though... yes, they tweaked the design for Nemesis, but they also based the tweaks to the neck around existing panel lines. I would bet if they really tried, it could still separate. Problem is, the lower section's got no propulsion, so even if it did separate, you're probably throwing back to the original series, where the separation was an emergency measure to save the crew in case the warp drive went kerblooie. The extra impulse drive on the D made both pieces capable of operating independently, but besides being a plot device, that made sense because you'd want to be able to get all those civilians in the saucer to safety if you needed to fight with the drive section, which had most of the weapons. No such problem with the E, since they pretty much ditched the civilian population from what I understand. No civilians to evacuate, no need to ditch the saucer for fighting.
  10. Chronocidal

    Macross 30

    Chronocidal replied to Tochiro's topic in Games

    Phew, that's something of a relief. Screen's too blurry to read a lot of text on that gameplay video, and I'm not familiar enough with kanji to pick out what a lot of it says, but the right stick label on the control layout screen definitely starts with カメラ (ka-me-ra). All those hours spent playing PSO2 are starting to pay off.
  11. Chronocidal
    I think the only thing botched about the Hi-Metals were the pricing. They were nice little hunks of fun, but they priced themselves out of the market. I got most of my 1/60 VF-1s for less than it would have cost me to get one of the Hi-Metals. Granted, there's a good deal of markup in there because of how hard the Hi-Metals were to get, but I'd chalk that up to Bandai's lack of fortitude in willing to take a risk and produce a decent amount of the things, not to mention their disregard for the international market.
  12. Chronocidal
    Yeah, the leg alignment thing is a nuisance, but it's not like they're falling down entirely. They just sag a few millimeters. Anyway, as far as the shoulder goes, fortunately it's not quite busted.. it still holds on ok in fighter mode. The entire shoulder cover just loves to pop off in battroid or gerwalk, and sags because there's no tension in the pivot around the metal shoulder joint. Mostly it's just ugly, because I tried so many times to glue it back together, and had to sand down the surfaces to get rid of the glue residue. I figure it's not worth messing with anymore. My last resort was going to be to sand off all the locator pins, make the pieces flat, and fill the gap with a piece of black scrap plastic, but considering how often I transform it, it's probably better to just leave it be. On the plus side, I took so many pieces off the thing to work with it, I now have a great understanding of how to disassemble a VF-17.
  13. Chronocidal
    Alignment could very well be part of the problem, but that's a problem in itself. There's nothing to guide the alignment of the legs. My "best guess" way to do it is to line up the legs so the backs of the ankles mesh cleanly, and then press them together against the underside of the backpack. The tabs are obviously fitting where they should, but there is no way those dinky strips of plastic are going to exert enough friction to keep those legs from falling. There's just nothing to grip. It's almost like the legs are supposed to be slightly off line, so that they don't mesh together all the way, and the outward pressure on the tabs is what is supposed to keep them up. Tiny differences in the molding could cause that though. Get thick enough tabs, and maybe the legs would snap onto them. Might just have to thicken them up with some glue to see if it helps, but I've never had them on a stand anyway, and setting them on the gear fixes the problem easily.
  14. Chronocidal
    Yeah, I've never been able to get the legs on either VF-17 to stay up if I didn't support them. The "tabs" that are meant to hold them up are nowhere near big enough to give them any kind of support. That is one place they really should have used magnets.
  15. Chronocidal
    So, I jus had a rather hilarious thought. The rebranding seems like they're focusing a lot on their line of figures and dolls and such... most of which are rather well endowed, so to speak. We've never heard anything one way or another about a MAXL. Wouldn't it be amusing if the rebranding that focused on these figures was actually a required development, and when we finally get Mylene's valk, its a crossover perfect transformation macross branded VMF50? Maybe they needed special arrangements to produce a macross item with roboboobies. It might explain why we never got an accurate Miria pilot figure.
  16. Chronocidal
    Eh, I was going to wait as well, but I don't mind grabbing another VF-19P before they potentially disappear. If they go on sale later, I'll grab two more. I just can't get enough of that mold.
  17. Chronocidal
    I'd agree, except the pieces I need to replace are maybe a couple bucks worth of plastic. Plus, I don't need an entire spare VF-17 sitting around without a right shoulder, just so my D can have one. Eh, it's not pretty, but after posting that I tried to put everything back together as best I could, and it's sort of holding together. I just cannot find any way to force those two halves of the upper shoulder together, as if something is in the way. I wound up filling the gap with superglue, thinking I might have cut away some of the plastic when I cleaned the pieces, but now that shoulder piece is actually too thick, because it's interfering with the way the hip and that little triangle flap sit. Not to mention, superglue and black plastic is never a good combination. The parts are all fogged up.
  18. Chronocidal
    Freaking hell... anyone have a busted VF-17 I can scavenge the right arm from? My right shoulder is pretty much trashed, because something went wrong with the molding, and it will not stay on. I fortunately got the screw cover off the main shoulder piece, so I can get the entire arm apart, but the little folding triangular part with the trap door is shot. In fact, the metal shoulder piece itself might be malformed, because I cannot get the shoulder to glue together around it. It's like it's too wide. I've tried every freaking which way to get this thing to glue back together, and nothing works. The parts just will not touch enough to get a good glue surface.
  19. Chronocidal
    The problem I have with the hips is that while you're supposed to rotate the hip bars forward and lock them in place by pressing them in, the doors are in the way. You either wind up squeezing the doors to the point they want to detach, or you leave the hip mount entirely floppy.
  20. Chronocidal

    Macross 30

    Chronocidal replied to Tochiro's topic in Games

    Annnnnd.... Now I seriously want to hear a Sharon Apple/GlaDos crossover album.I don't know which would be creepier... Hearing Sharon sing "Still Alive," or GlaDos singing "Borderline" and "Wanna Be An Angel."
  21. Chronocidal
    (in Vader voice): Impressive.. most impressive. Looks awesome. Yeah, probably about time I ordered this and grabbed that VF-0D set finally. Do your parts work interchangeably with the originals? I'm wondering if I could mix and match your faceplate with the original head cover to simplify the matching process. Curious though, what's causing the head to pop up in the rear some? Looks like excess plastic is hanging down under the cover in one pic. Not a big deal, I'm just picky about keeping things streamlined.
  22. Chronocidal
    I think it's just that they messed with the original proportions of the ship soooo much. They squashed the lower hull, then pushed the saucer so far back, the entire thing looks unbalanced.
  23. Chronocidal
    Actually, I think the entire reason the lower ones are mounted on that pull-out tab is so they don't absolutely have to be removed for transformation. I'm not sure pulling them out on that piece is necessary for transformation, but it makes it much easier to do if they stay in those mounts.
  24. Chronocidal
    I might beef up the tabs with some superglue as well someday, but so far, mine manage to stay on well enough. Honestly.. as far as replacement parts are concerned, I think NY seems far too preoccupied to do anything. I got a nice enough reply from them about my missing VF-25G crotch plate, but given how much Bandai seems to care about overseas customers, I doubt they're going to bother helping. You may have better luck contacting someone who lives in Japan, and asking them to request the replacement parts for you. An old friend of mine from high school is currently in Okinawa, so I might just see if he can request the part locally for me. Edit: Ok, this might just be a problem with older browsers, but the quick reply option will not save any kind of formatting applied to posts. I have to go back and edit them before the paragraph breaks appear.
  25. Chronocidal
    Really.. that's kind of my issue with all of Bandai's valks. They just aren't pleasant to transform. It feels like a chore to get things lined up and in place correctly, and you're worried the entire time that you're doing it wrong, and something will scratch, or break, or fly across the room. The VF-171 is a little better than the VF-25s I think, just because the transformation isn't so fidgety with the torso, but they seem to absolutely adore overcomplicating everything with overly intricate mechanisms and nearly unworkable motions. The hips on the 171 in particular.. they just don't work. I can't understand why something designed in CAD would have issues with parts needing to occupy the same space, but Bandai's designers managed to pull it off. I've nearly snapped off the front gear doors several times, because there isn't room for them behind the hips. Fortunately, I mostly bought these for the fighter modes anyway, so I'm perfectly happy displaying them this way. But while I pick up and fiddle with my various Yamatos frequently, the Bandai ones just feel so much more fragile and delicate, despite all the die-cast they use, which only seems to make them less sturdy, because the added weight inevitably winds up contributing to everything flopping around when the joints go bad.
×
×
  • Create New...