Chronocidal
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Everything posted by Chronocidal
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You'd need some sort of ratcheted joint to do that, so I don't know how easy that would be to do. These stands really weren't meant for stuff as heavy as these valks, so Bandai probably never even considered such a thing necessary.
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Think those fins you're seeing on Isamu's YF-29 are the fast packs, but I could be wrong.
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Tried out some coloring methods, and coloring these with a standard permanent marker works great. They seem to absorb the ink pretty well. Think this might have been mentioned before, possibly in the other thread.
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Make sure to rock it in the correct direction. The tabs that hold the arm pieces on have an angled edge on one side of the arm, to let the armor slip past them. Should be on the inside of the arms in fighter mode, where a gunpod would usually mount. I think it's the side of the arm without screws. If you rock the armor towards the side with screws, it should come loose without too much trouble. If it still seems stuck though, you could try to gently lift the attachments with something like a toothpick.
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Star Trek Into Darkness, in theaters May 17, 2013
Chronocidal replied to UN Spacy's topic in Anime or Science Fiction
You know what though? ST:V was still much more entertaining than Nemesis, if only for the cheese factor (5, Mister Sulu ). It also made a lot more sense than Nemesis, on every level. After an initial "bleh" impression of Nemesis, the more I thought about it, the more it came off as badly written fan-fic, and quickly went south of even ST:V. I personally love this review of the plot. http://tvtropes.org/...StarTrekNemesis -
Yeah, actually mounting stuff off center or leaning like the VE-1 is what concerns me most about these stands. Unless you glue them together, they can flex around quite a bit, and they tend to twist under certain loadings. By the way, thanks for covering me on the picture side of things, Froy.
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Actually, no, the center of gravity is entirely unrelated to where the stand is mounted. That's actually the entire problem, because Yamato didn't even attempt to put the mounts near where the balance points of their valks are. It'd be nice if we could get the weight centered on the mount, but I don't know if it's actually necessary. The adapter isn't the point that needs the stress taken off it, it's the hinge. Here's a quick pic of what I'm thinking. This doesn't take the stress off the actual mounting point, which still could fail. All it does is shift the weight so that you don't have a ton of force acting way behind the stand hinge, making it droop. You might need to experiment on a good extension length so you could use this type of thing on multiple valks, but I think it'd be simpler than trying to make something like a cradle. The place where this gets complicated is that you'll definitely run into gunpods unless you keep the initial mount pretty tall. Developing new mounts entirely for everything might be a much better way to go though. I still wonder how hard it would be to find hidden places to drill holes for simple mounting points to use in fighter mode. Clipping around the arms would probably work on the VF-1, but you'll need something that attaches to the metal backplate for the VF-19, and I don't know what you'd attach to on the VF-17.
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Star Trek Into Darkness, in theaters May 17, 2013
Chronocidal replied to UN Spacy's topic in Anime or Science Fiction
Nah, just go find a floor plan for a brewery, and you've got Main Engineering covered. -
If the stand mounts for the VF-4 are as far back as they look to be, I don't think that should be too bad... but the metal content might make the stands quite unstable. Really, what it boils down to is that the stands have quite a few quirks in terms of construction. The way the support post attaches to the main arm is a tricky thing, and since both can twist at the base, you often wind up with the two pieces out of alignment. The safest thing to do would probably glue the entire stand together from the start. You lose any adjustment, but it will be quite a bit stronger. The one stand I have assembled seems to lean one direction quite a bit, so I haven't left anything on it for very long. Edit: Quick note, I tested a few battroid modes, and most seem to work fine, even if the fighter mode is too heavy to use. Had no problem keeping the Fire Valk upright in a semi-actiony pose, likewise for the VF-11 and a strike packed VF-1. Haven't tried my VF-17 or VF-0 yet, since I couldn't find their battroid adapters. One thing I did notice though, I can't actually get my stand to support a fully loaded VF-1 in fighter. The stand hinge just gives way after a little while. So, I have an idea for a future version of these mounts. How about an adapter with a built-in offset? Basically, it'd be the same top and bottom, with some sort of extrusion between the stand mount and the valk mount, specifically to push the center of mass to a decent location. They'd probably cost at least twice as much, since you'd be adding a decent amount of material, but they'd be much sturdier in general, since the valk would be located farther forward.
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Star Trek Into Darkness, in theaters May 17, 2013
Chronocidal replied to UN Spacy's topic in Anime or Science Fiction
Sorry if I was mistaken, I thought Spock's ship actually was specifically a time machine.. could be I was reading what the happy meal toy description of it was though. Either way though... yeah. Averting a planetary disaster seems plenty reason to mess with time. -
Update: Tried a couple gerwalk modes. VF-11 works fine. VF-17 actually also works decently, since putting it in gerwalk places that mounting point pretty much right at the center of mass, and you can adjust the angle decently without it tipping forward or back. VF-19 is pretty much a no-go though, unless you put it in an extreme nose-down pose. The mounting point is so far forward, moving the legs forward does nothing to shift the balance. Basically, bottom line about these stands: If you glue them together, or maybe reinforce some of the pivot points on them, they should be strong enough to support pretty much any valk (barring something huge like fully loaded 1/48ths and the SV-51). The ability to pose the heavier ones is very limited though. But the stands do look like they can potentially support even the heavy valks in terms of weight. Have to try battroid poses later, and hopefully come up with a few pictures of all three modes for everything I've tried.
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Ok, I didn't have my camera handy to take pictures here, but I've tested these stands out with pretty much everything I have now, with some surprising results. Note about the stands, they have a tendency to twist due to their construction. I'd recommend gluing them together, and avoiding heavily loaded sideways mountings. VF-11: No trouble really, packs included. I was able to give it a variety of pitch and bank angles, and it held up decently. The VF-11 isn't much heavier than a VF-1, so it's not too surprising. VF-0: REALLY surprised here.. but this goes to show how important the location of the stand mount is. Note, I wasn't following the instructions for how the stand mount was meant to attach, so I may have mounted it backwards. Doing it how I did though, the stand mount was firmly centered around the knee covers, and it balanced nearly perfectly. I was able to sit it on there, and pose it at any pitch angle. Then I added the Ghost booster to it, and it still worked. I didn't have it fully loaded, since I didn't want to dig for all the missile packs, but I'd say a fully loaded VF-0 has potential. I wouldn't recommend any sideways banked poses though. VF-19: Believe it or not, the stand will hold it up, but only in one position, and I'm not sure I'd trust it anyway. Basically, I mounted the stand pedestal with the legs spread as far as I could while keeping it stable. You'll want to use the small square add-on piece, and mount the stand in the center of that, with the second leg placed on the farthest hole on the opposite side of the base. Banking isn't possible, and you only get one pose: nose angled up, with the valk drooped as low as the stand's pivot tip will go before the adapter collides with the pedestal and holds it in place. It's also not very sturdy, so probably will need the stand glued together for this one if you want to risk it. Note on this one: It's actually decently well supported, but the weak point is how the adapter (badly) attaches to the VF-19. I actually had the valk fall back, with the mount still firmly attached to the stand adapter. It just doesn't clip on very well at all. VF-17: Same situation as the VF-19, though in this case the mount attaches very solidly to the belly, so no risk of the valk popping off. It'll sit in the same nose-up pose when the adapter stops the pivot. The thing I'm realizing though... I honestly do not think the folks at Yamato have even the slightest idea of what they're doing developing these stand adapters. The only one placed anywhere near the actual center of gravity of the valk is the VF-0, which is why it works so well even with the Ghost mounted on its back. The VF-17 is actually a facepalm-worthy case of this.. The stand mount is a long plate that attaches to the belly... and they put the stand peg on the front half of the plate.. they easily could have shifted the peg back another whole inch, and helped take stress off the stand, but nope. Anyhow, these are all done in fighter mode, and I'll see if I can get a few pictures up soon, possibly with some gerwalk and battroid poses as well. The issues in almost every case are just ones involving the center of mass of the various valks, so I'm expecting gerwalk and battroid to work much much better, even for the really heavy valks.
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Star Trek Into Darkness, in theaters May 17, 2013
Chronocidal replied to UN Spacy's topic in Anime or Science Fiction
Mind meld =/= another movie's worth of explanation over what the crap happened. Not to mention yeah, the entire borg-esque mining vessel thing. At least with the original Khan, you KNEW why he was upset with Kirk, and no one had to spell out the plot in a comic book to explain it. Really though, the thing that drove me nuttiest about that entire plot.. Yes, your planet was just destroyed. You have acquired A FREAKING TIME MACHINE. You could fix it.. but no. You decide that instead of using your new-fangled time travel ability to set things right, you go nuts and decide to set things wronger by going back in time and destroying the planet of the person you thought was responsible... WHICH STILL MEANS YOUR PLANET DIES IN THIS NEW TIMELINE TOO. Seriously. Edit: And nope, already not the same ship as in the teaser trailer. Looks like someone took the 2009 movie version and dressed it up in TOS markings, but we know from the teaser those markings aren't on the nacelles, and they're already shown to be the TMP-onward style of markings. And the ship is still freaking hideous. -
Well upright, sure, but what if you just let it sag to however far it will go? Will the stand support the overall weight, or just collapse?
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I'd think there's a pretty good chance these could support something like a VF-11, even with packs. Aside from that though, there aren't really that many other valks to try. VF-22 works decently it seems from those pics, though balancing it might get tricky. For the SV-51s, they came with their own stands, so that's not really necessary, but I think VF-0s are going to be too heavy. The YF-19 might work, but then you're starting to dip into the ones that are really off balance around the stand mount. Now, the question I have.. if you ignore the fact that the pivot on the tip of the stand isn't that strong, are the stands themselves sturdy enough to support heavier valks? The pivot seems to be the weakpoint for all of the heavier valks, but what if you just re-define the problem? Say you just mount the adapters sideways, so the pivot lets you roll the valk instead of pitching it up or down? Or what if you just accept that the pivot can't hold the weight, and let it sag until it hits the maximum travel the adapter will allow? Would the stand support a Fire Valk if you accept that it's just going to have its nose pointed at the sky? If I recall correctly, the actual model adapters that those stands use normally are octagonal, allowing you to mount them at 45 degree increments, kind of like how the SV-51 stands do. That won't work with these adapters, since they go over the outside of the tips, but if the tips are square like I think they are, they should let you attach the adapters sideways. On another note though.. has anyone tried these with stuff in battroid mode yet?
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Star Trek Into Darkness, in theaters May 17, 2013
Chronocidal replied to UN Spacy's topic in Anime or Science Fiction
You know what they really need? A villain with a motivation that isn't based on events that occurred entirely offscreen. Nero was bad enough, since you only really knew what happened if you read that comic book prequel. Now another guy shows up vowing vengeance for something that we've probably never heard of. Really. If it IS Khan, what's he going off about vengeance for? The Botany Bay wasn't a penal colony ship. Khan used it to escape Earth, looking for a new place to go. Unless in this version they decide that he vows to destroy everything because he's still pissed at being defeated... ugh. I still can't see how this guy could be Khan though. "Khan Noonien Singh" really doesn't sound anything like "blue-eyed, black-hared, pasty-white dude wielding a gatling gun." -
I wouldn't worry about that ship not being reflected, I don't think it's supposed to be that big, so it seems much closer than all those background elements that are reflected. It's reflection might fall below where the bottom of the frame is. Looking good either way, and I'm looking forward to the after-Christmas sales to finally grab a PS3.
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Star Trek Into Darkness, in theaters May 17, 2013
Chronocidal replied to UN Spacy's topic in Anime or Science Fiction
Actually, that trailer gives me hope that the JJprise might be going away faster than we expected. But yeah. I'd rather this wasn't Khan, but I don't know why Gary Powers would have that accent. Either way, he doesn't look the part for Khan. Also, I'm suspicious of them using such an obvious homage. Given the order of events in that bit, I think the situation may be directly reversed. What I really do wonder about though is whether they're going to attempt to backtrack, and shoehorn Carol Marcus into this timeline from the start. -
Actually.. no. It really isn't a good idea at all, especially for anything like a toy. The only reason those packs worked was because the YF-19 never left fighter mode. There's no room to deploy the arms in gerwalk with those boosters there, and moving to battroid would mean those boosters are hanging off the hips and probably constantly colliding with the legs, since there isn't room between the wingroots and legs for them to be there.. They work and look great in fighter, but they'd have to be jettisoned for any other mode.
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Actually, the cockpit's pretty easy, or at least the nose section is. I'm not sure about pulling out the cockpit itself. You just need to remove the screws from the tip of the nose, in the area where the hip bar goes, and one from inside the landing gear well. After that, the nose should pop apart decently easy. Just make sure to keep track of the landing gear doors, because taking apart the nose will let them fall out, and they could pop loose and fly off somewhere.
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Had the exact same breakages on my YF-19 as well. Just to note.. it came out right around the same time as the VF-0, and had VERY similar plastic.
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If you check the other thread, there are a few pics of a VF-22 on them, but that's one of the lighter "big" valks. Anything much heavier than a fast-packed 1/60 VF-1, and you'll probably have issues. Anything like the VF-17/VF-19 is probably out, unless you find some way to support the bulk of the valk behind the mounting point.
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Just to make sure, remember, the Macross Zero F-14D isn't standard. In fact, given the mashup of details on them, I'd half guess the production team animated the CG F-14 in M0 based on a Monogram/Revell F-14D kit I think David Hingten gave a detailed rundown of all the inconsistencies on the M0 F-14, so you might want to do a search. I know there were a few differences, such as mounting AMRAAMs instead of Sparrows, and using the old seats with the overhead yellow and black handles. I think the cockpit in general may have been vintage A-model equipment, since I remember him using the old missile selector switch. But I also want to say they mixed around some of the various antenna bulges and such on the aircraft, possibly the ECM bulges on the wing gloves. I'll have to watch again to be sure.
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No one's tried it yet, since it's not even out. Considering how many people have bought and enjoyed the PSP releases though? I doubt it'll be any kind of serious problem. Think of it this way. You have something like 10 buttons, two joysticks, and a directional pad. The controls can't be that complex, it's nothing like a sim. Worst case, you get some missions with screwy completion requirements, and have to consult a guide. I don't consider "understanding the plot" to be a necessary part of this game, because let's face it... even if you could read Japanese, I'm not sure the plot would even make sense then. You've somehow fallen through a wormhole, and the major characters of every Macross series to date have somehow miraculously appeared in the same airspace in their various personal valks. Stuff happens. Then you fly around and blow things up for fun. All plot/character development/etc is secondary to the fact that we're getting to fly around in 30 years worth of Macross valk designs on our TVs, blowing stuff up with copious amounts of gunpod ammo, and liberal application of the Itano Circus. Edit: Beat me to it, and I actually missed the entire "guild based" thing.. so yeah, there might be more depth to this than I thought. I was under the impression it was just an overall upscale of the PSP games and their mechanics.
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I honestly haven't ever tried taking the lower legs on a VF-0 apart.. though I've pretty much disassembled the entire rest of the thing. Problem is, it's just glue all over. I've never tried taking apart the intakes either, because there's too much glue involved, and knowing the tendencies of the VF-0's plastic to just shatter, I haven't wanted to mess with it. If you're trying to get the lower legs apart, are you sure you've got all the screws out? I know there's a rubbery screw cover near the knee joint, so there might be more of those in other places. Really pisses me off too, those stupid screw covers are such a royal pain.
