Chronocidal
-
Posts
10756 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Gallery
Everything posted by Chronocidal
-
Oh sheesh, sreiously? Wonder if the super pack version will get the same delay. If so, I might just cancel my preorder, and wait for a sale, since there's so much else coming.
-
Uhh... did HLJ take it down again? Now they don't even list the product.
-
Probably not. Remember.. landing gear are supposed to collapse under weight. Let a plane sit long enough, and lots of pieces look like they're out of place. Gear doors go slack, control sufaces drop, and stuff sags all over the place, because it's built to flex when flying. Interestingly, this looks like one of the few valks to not have your standard catapult bar on it. It might be one of those planes that actually pumps the nose gear up before takeoff, similar to the F-4.
-
Ah, yeah, it's a side effect of the way the VF-4's legs collapse. The knees have to bend that far to allow the thigh to relocate into the underside of the wing.
-
I thought that was dismissed as an ad for the unpainted A-model kit though? If not, curse you Yamato... I don't need any more VF-1s to have to buy!
-
Hope that's not the case, since I was hoping to officially call my VF-1 collection "done" this month. I got my VT-1 pretty early, and it's still one of my favorites. I forget why I convinced myself not to get the VE-1 at the same time (think they were both on sale at the time), but I'm glad I can rectify that decision now. I just hope they go and revisit the other hard-to-find ones, especially the M&Ms and Virgin Road. I'm ok with missing the VR though, since it's just a 1D with Max's J scheme. I think they've covered just about every single canon scheme short of the Alaska Base VF-1 at this point, so I wonder if they'll start branching into some of the non-canon stuff soon.
-
Prometheus - on Blu-Ray and DVD Oct. 9, 2012
Chronocidal replied to Pizza the Hutt's topic in Anime or Science Fiction
You know, I can't say I've seen this yet, but the impression I get from most of the details I've read reminds me of my overall impression of "The Great Gatsby" when I had to read it for a lit class. I don't remember much of the book, but my overall impression was that the story was full of the completely meaningless fluff that people filled their lives with. I think I got away with an A on a paper explaining that the point of the book was that there actually was no point at all. Obviously this isn't trying to make (or not make) the same point, but the idea of the meaning being so obvious that everyone misses it by way of overanalysis, expecting it to be deeper.. Bottom line, and the impression I get from this? The human race is still too stupid to deserve any answers about their existence, and they repeatedly prove it throughout the movie. -
I'd be plenty happy if they'd have realized how stupidly simple it would have been to make it so the pegs twist and lock after you put them in. I mean come on.. it looks like they were planning that already, what with the pseudo-slot for a screwdriver. Once I get the hardpointed wings though, I might not even need those pegs. I'm going to be drilling out the remains of those tiny hinge nubs, and replacing them with a screw (AKA attaching the wings like Yamato did on the VF-17).
-
December I believe sadly.. so meh. As for the wing pins.. honestly I didn't have as much of a problem with the big pins as I did with the tiny ones the wings hinge on. Mine just flat out snapped off, so now the only thing holding my wing on is the big fat pin, which isn't even the rotation point. Absolutely the worst wing pivot design in history.
-
The display stands do what they are meant to do, but I've never cared for how obscenely bulky they are. Someday when I get space to actually display the valks I have, I'll probably build my own stands for them. I'm not sure how I'll do it yet, but that method of using rubber coated wire to make custom shaped supports is looking pretty promising. For now, the ones I keep out are either displayed on their gear, or standing upright on their feet.
-
... Am I seeing things, or did Rei Ayanami join the bridge crew? Could be wrong, but I don't remember anyone in the original series having blue hair (Minmay notwithstanding).
-
1/48+fp's, 1/60+fp's, 1/72, 1/2k, 1/3k,1/100 and now 1/144
Chronocidal replied to VF-18S Hornet's topic in Toys
I noticed the difference in canopy tinting myself, and yeah, it's a lot more pronounced on the G than either the F or S. If I could swap the canopies around without causing any damage, I'd swap Michael's and Alto's canopies. I'd actually prefer if they were all closer to Alto's, or even just clear, but I don't know why Michael's is so much darker. -
Well, I'm only guessing that he won't be any harder to get than Michael. I'm still going to just eat the markup and order from NY again though, especially if they come through for me on this replacement part. I can't be staying up all hours refreshing HLJ to catch their 15 minute sales windows. Luca's actually the only one I think really MUST have the super packs though. I mean, all the other planes look decent without their super/armor packs, even Ozma. The radome and lower antenna just unbalance his plane enough that it doesn't look right without the packs on.
-
Indeed, they look beautiful there. Do wish they'd gone a little lighter on the canopy tint with Michael's though. It looks so much stronger compared with the other two. As far as difficulty.. well, Ozma and Alto were both easy to get preorders in if you jumped on them. Probably partly because Ozma's preorder went up before Alto's was even released, so there were no reviews to reassure people. Once the reviews hit though.. ugh. I kinda think Luca's might be somewhat easier to get, just because of the generic lack of anything his plane was ever seen doing. I don't think he's anyone's favorite character. If anything, he should be the first to be bundled with his packs, because I don't recall ever seeing him with them off. Heck, I'm not even sure he ever transformed out of fighter.
-
You know, I actually wondered why we don't see more transforming custom Hasegawas anymore. I mean, we've had so many more kits released now, you'd think there would be more people wanting to customize them. I mean.. customizing a 1/48 to transform might be a bit redundant, but I really want to see someone make a transforming 1/48 YF-19.
-
Oh, not saying I don't already. I'm just saying it's funny how a company as experienced with plastic models/toys/etc as Bandai could have such trouble molding a flat piece of plastic, when their competition has been at it for years now.
-
That actually would explain a lot about the wings, but I still can't exactly comprehend how Bandai has NEVER been able to make their wings flat. It's not exactly something other people can't clearly do...
-
All Things Videogame Related: EXTREME VS!!
Chronocidal replied to Keith's topic in Anime or Science Fiction
Well.. ok. As much as I love Freespace2, I'm sick of that engine being the go-to for every single space combat game in recent existence. People have managed to do amazing things with it, but there are still a lot of things that you'll probably need a new engine to achieve. Mostly, I want full 3D cockpits. We've had those since 1998 in many games, most of which weren't anywhere as good as FS2. Also.. You know... For petes sake.. I WANT TO BE ABLE TO LAND MY SHIP MANUALLY. I honestly can't put into words how sick I am of "press X to enter the hangar/hyperspace" to end missions. That, and I'm tired of sims being limited to either space or atmosphere. Some games have tried to incorporate planetary and space flight, but it's only done very rarely. Last good version I remember was Wing Commander III, and even that had to rely on cutscenes for reentry. I'd love for someone to take up the challenge of building a seamless transition from spaceflight to atmospheric/surface attack missions. -
Yeah, I noticed the lopsided wings on mine too, but it wasn't too pronounced. I kinda don't get it. How is there this much variation in quality? Are they making each one by hand?
-
Bandai 1/72 fully transform able VF-1 plastic kit for Macross 30th Ann
Chronocidal replied to Vi-RS's topic in Model kits
So did Bandai and Hasegawa make some kind of crazy trade deal so they could tackle each other's Macross product realms? First the Hasegawa VF-25, now this. Hasegawa definitely has made dedicated battroid kits though, so I don't think that was ever a restriction on them.. maybe they just weren't allowed to make transforming kits? Could be they never wanted to try. I do hope that this kit gets a foot into the door to wedge it open, and they make a lot more of these, because I'd love to see more transforming kits like the VF-25, especially if they decide to tackle the more magical transformations like the YF/VF-19 and YF-21/VF-22. Not to mention all the other valks that have never even been seen as a 1/72 mass production kit, let alone one that transforms. I'll probably grab one or two of these, just to see what they're like. If they do manage to mold them with the same type of color division as the VF-25 kits, I hope they make a full series of them, since I wouldn't mind building a couple if I don't have to paint them (much). Honestly, I might not even bother painting them... I just love putting things together, and it's always fun to see how new iterations treat the transformation mechanisms of the VF-1. They won't be easy to paint or anything, and probably just as painful to build as the VF-25 kits, but I'm just interested in seeing how the design works at that scale. The question is, are they aiming to truly make a replacement for the classic 1/72 Bandai Perfect Variable VF-1 kit line? Or is this just a one-off anniversary thing that'll turn into a collector's item? -
Doubtful, since you'll need to be able to realign the legs to apply the leg packs, and I doubt Hasegawa will make it easy to do. You might have individual leg pieces, but you'll need reworked knee joint at the very least. Suppose you could always mashup the two kits though, assuming they match up well enough. Either way.. I'll be looking forward to some quality decals on these, as well as landing gear that doesn't suck. Don't know how many I'll buy, since I've picked up so many of the Bandai kits (both 1/72 and 1/100 versions), but I'm interested to see what Hasegawa can do with this design. Enough with 1/72 though, where's my 1/48 version?
-
WIN. Although.. dangit. Now I want more so the scales match, and I already have 6 of the cheap 1/100 kits. Guess the bonus to this is that you could build the transforming kits permanently in battroid/gerwalk mode. Also.. hah.. I'd love to see the gear linkage required to synchronize the wing sweep on that one.
-
All Things Videogame Related: EXTREME VS!!
Chronocidal replied to Keith's topic in Anime or Science Fiction
HOLY $#!%%!!!! Chris Roberts, I salute you. Not only have you personally revived my hopes that the awesomeness that was Wing Commander might someday return, but you did it while simultaneously throwing an absolutely massive middle finger toward the current game market. Bravo. Also, I wouldn't get my hopes up about a Frontier style sim, though I hope mods are able to happen. Roberts' sims have always been more a mix of Star Wars and atmospheric physics than realistic, thruster driven, newtonian pysics sims. That being said.. I'm so freaking psyched. What's actually funny... the ships look like they came straight out of Wing Commander. Inside and out. They've even got the classic gunsight-style center sensor display. But now they're fully 3D cockpits. Bottom line? I want WC remade in this engine. Start to finish, or at least 1-3. It almost looks like you could just patch in classic WC ships, and they'd fit right into the existing game, fighters, carriers, and all. The only concern I've got now is that this'll wind up being another game focused on online play. That in itself isn't exactly a terrible thing, but if it goes the route that Mechwarrior Online has, it'll nix any possibility of a larger epic single-player campaign. Even worse if it goes free-to-play, but runs on microtransactions, which will pretty much destroy any chance of anyone making mods for it. Granted.. given how successful MWO seems to be so far, it's still a step forward for the sim genre, and I'd LOVE to see a decent online space sim MMO. Black Prophecy was so beautiful, such a great physics engine, and had SO much potential, but it was entirely wasted on a design team who have no concept of how to design a usable control scheme (to say nothing for the rest of the bass-ackwards game design choices). Drawing sim-fans in with a control setup that allows full stick/throttle/rudder control assignments, and then making you unlock "maneuver skills" that require you to "double tap" the throttle, or push it to max and min simultaneously... yeah. No. -
1/48 Atmospheric Booster & Launch Vechicle
Chronocidal replied to macrossfan00's topic in Model kits
Ok, after looking a little closer, it might not even be as complicated as I originally thought to do a combined 1/48 Yamato/Hasegawa booster/stand. I thought the booster covered more of the legs, but it's just over the feet. The complicated part would be setting up the booster to accept the folded tail structure on the 1/48 Yammie. Once that's done though, you just mold it to fit up against the backplate, and surround the feet. You could support the entire thing by placing supports that extend under the backplate where the wings would fold into. To adapt it to the Hasegawa kit, you'd make a custom plug that would fill the hole for the tail section, and just glue the booster directly to the fuselage. You'd also need custom plugs for the feet to make sure the hasegawa legs fit snugly, and custom knee joints to drop the legs, since they haven't made a 1/48 super VF-1 kit yet. This actually works better, since you could design the custom knee joints to make sure you can align the kit's legs with the body, even if there's some positioning difference between the Hasegaway and the Yamato. Really, whether this would be possible or not depends on how close the kit is to the Yamato. Since the kit is much more adaptable, you'd want to build the booster with the Yamato in mind, and then adapt the kit to fit it. You're probably not going to ever bridge the gap between collectors and model builders, but this would give the maximum flexibility. You'd be able to sell the kit to builders who want a model, and to collectors who want a cool stand for their 1/48ths. You'd just need a couple extra filler parts to adapt it to the Hasegawa. The real trick would probably be making it so you could remove the Yamato valk. You might have to make the booster split in half so you could lift the top, drop the VF-1 into place, and set it back down to cover it. -
Ok, so, update on this missing crotch plate. Got an email back from NY, after asking what options I have. I basically told them that I'm missing a piece, and since it's rather small, I'd rather order just the part instead of returning the entire item. Their reply was quite encouraging actually, and they've asked me for the product barcode, and part reference number to contact Bandai with, in order to request the spare part. So, now I might need some help from those of you who might know where to look. I don't have a "part reference number" per se, but what I do have is the part name, garnered from my Alto Super Pack set. The exact part name in Japanese is "本体股部" (whether the kanji will show up correctly here, I don't know), and according to an online translator, it roughly means "crotch body." Sounds about right. It's not called out at all in the normal instructions. If anyone here knows of a way I could potentially get a part reference number from Bandai, that'd be great, otherwise, I'm just going to reply to NY with the product code, and part name. It's at least worth a shot.