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Chronocidal

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  1. Chronocidal
    I have to admit, I'm probably one of the few that doesn't care what markings are on it. I don't mind a completely clean valk, I'm just a nut for aircraft that transform, and I've wanted a good representation of this one for a long time. The price.. I think I'll buy one regardless. I might regret it later, but considering how much I've spent in the past few years, it'll probably amount to one more drop in the Macross bucket. It is sad that they're making these so expensive for the average collector though.
  2. Chronocidal
    Never played the first one of those, but I definitely still have F-15 Strike Eagle II on 5.25" floppies sitting in a box somewhere. Could probably even run the game again with DOSBox, but good luck finding a drive that you can read those with now. What I really need to get around to is making Strike Commander work. Don't think it was ever actually realistic (pretty much Wing Commander II with F-16s) but it looked pretty fun, and I think was one of the earliest games to ever combine polygon graphics with texture mapping.
  3. Chronocidal
    So. I'm not going to go and say that anyone should go and buy HAWX for this, because it's a terrible, terrible game, with science fiction flight physics. BUT. If you happen to have sunk the money into the PC version, and want some recompense for your loss, this might help a bit. I mean, if you're going to be playing something with pure science fiction physics, may as well run as far as you can with it. This is the reason I love PC games.. even when the companies manage to bork them up, you can sometimes pull something worthwhile out of their disaster. Now, if they could just figure out a way to make aircraft actually turn when you bank...
  4. Chronocidal
    Number I've got from the book is about 15000 times repeated, but I forgot they were actually repeating a two-week period, so I only used half the days. Yeah, I thought 300 sounded a bit short myself.
  5. Chronocidal
    If it's by material cost? You're probably looking at enough to buy a BMW. Or two. Yeah, that's insane, but it's so beautiful. As to the leading edges, I think what would work best is looking at it from an even more aircraft-oriented perspective. They probably aren't going to be flat, and they most likely won't be sharp edged either. In pretty much every case I've ever seen, every leading edge of anything is probably going to be airfoil shaped. Certain airfoils are going to be sharper than others, but if you go by the F-14's, you're looking at something very much in between a flat surface and a sharp edge. I'm thinking basically that you could use a nearly circular cross-section for the edge, probably closer to the longer end of an egg shape. The front edge of that is definitely blunted, and you can pick out the rough profile from the seams on the underside. Between the two you do have though, I agree, the v1 looks better. The sharp edged version just seems too sharp.
  6. Chronocidal
  7. Chronocidal
    Oh, no real importance about that. It was just a nice little side-note to the ending, kind of a callback to the similar incident that happened earlier in the series. I don't think the book version actually mentions it, because the books are purely from Kyon's point of view.
  8. Chronocidal
    I don't actually know of any Yamato valks that mount close to their center of gravity on those stands.. it seems everything has always been very back heavy. The YF-21/VF-22 aren't terrible, but most others anchor the stand around where the hip bar is, which is usually ahead of most of the weight. The VF-17 though has a lot of die-cast up front, and the mounting point isn't too far forward. It might be pretty well balanced. I'll have to unbury the mounting accessories and check.
  9. Chronocidal
    Which bonus scene was that? I need to watch it again to remember. Also, I can actually say I've watched the entirety of Endless Eight multiple times. I didn't appreciate it at the time because I expected Disappearance to be part of that season, but that kind of evaporated when the movie came out. Better not to break it up anyway, and I love what they did with it. The fun in E8 is that they basically took the story, and used it to throw in a ton of random anime references from all over the place. There's definitely a few Macross jokes in there, on top of Eva, and who knows what else. It does take patience, but if you sit and pick out the details, you can tell they had fun with those episodes.
  10. Chronocidal

    DX VF-25G

    Chronocidal replied to zulu's topic in Toys

    Wooo, armor parts incoming soon then!
  11. Chronocidal
    Funny how ordering the bundle actually does save you money.. about 13 cents. Really though, depending on how it's shipped, you might save some on shipping. The VF-17 packs aren't that bulky in fighter mode, and they don't change the overall dimensions of the valk, so they could potentially package them already attached. They'd need to redesign the plastic tray, but I bet they would fit in the same box that way. Not sure what I'll do yet, but I already preordered the bundle, since that's the VF-17 I wanted to start with. Only reason I got the S model was due to HLJ's sale. If they release a Millia 17S later, I might just sell my black one, since I don't think I can justify having three of these (I might make an exception if they release Ray's later, and ESPECIALLY if they release that two seater in the orange and white trainer scheme ). Speaking of the Sound Force version though.. I'm curious. This may have been brought up before, but what are the two hidden slots in the very tip of the backplate for? They obviously don't hold on the super packs, and the instructions even point them out, but I don't have a clue what they're for. Is Yamato just planning ahead for a possible mount for the sound booster?
  12. Chronocidal
    I'm actually pretty interested to know if anyone's legs and back hinges aren't incredibly stiff. Forget popping the wings off, I had to push the back so hard I was worried the backplate would snap in half.
  13. Chronocidal
    For as important and prominent as those little shoulder flaps are, I'd probably just remove the other one too so it matches. Though, these days, it's probably plenty easy to make yourself a replacement. Heck, for a piece like that, you could probably build out out of scrap from old model kits, because using something like Shapeways for it would be overkill.
  14. Chronocidal
    Ok, before I forget, a couple of things I noticed transforming this thing that might be handy to be aware of. First, obviously, the hips are going to take a lot of force to pivot 180 degrees. They are incredibly tight... but more so on the left leg than the right, which did not help my peace of mind at all, since the collapsing hip bar mechanism is made of two differently sized shafts that collapse into each other, one of which is smaller and has a detent in it to snap into place.. well, guess which hip has the smaller shaft. Second, the back plate.. another set of freakishly tight metal joints attach it to the shoulder bars that go around the head. I honestly thought they weren't meant to move when I first transformed this thing. I had to work these joints back and forth a few times very carefully (taking several minutes each time.. they were so freaking tight, I almost grabbed a pair of pliers to do it with). Honestly, you can transform the thing decently even if you don't do this particular step of the transformation, so if you can't get these to move, it might not be worth the frustration. The only consequence is that either the torso snap or backplate snaps won't connect, because the backplate is too far to reach. Third, and this goes directly with the previous thing.. Be careful with the linkage holding down the chest plate and shoulder bars to the torso. Underneath the chest plate are two independent swing bars that hold it down, and the aforementioned shoulder-to-backplate connections are similarly independent hinges. If you are not careful, and do not rotate the hinges on both sides evenly, you will cause the entire framework to twist, and put nasty stresses on the connections. This is particularly bad with the backplate hinges, because in my case, the hinges were so stiff it was literally impossible to move them both at the same time, because they each took both of my freaking hands to move them. Bandai needs to get it through it's thick head that these types of hinge structures are a bad thing. They've used them on every Frontier valk so far, and if you aren't careful, you can tweak the framework and wind up shattering the connections. I remember seeing several people reporting that their version 1 DX VF-25's had one or both of the main connections holding the backplate to the torso completely shatter. There's nothing keeping those hinges in line with each other, and if you move one more than the other, you twist the entire structure off kilter, the hinges won't be lined up, and the whole thing could snap in half if those hinges get stresed and fail. Not to cause a panic here, but just be aware.. this problem did occur on older DX valks, and could happen again, since the mechanisms are similar. There's probably warnings in Japanese about how you should keep those multiple hinge joints lined up, but most of us can't read them. I haven't read of this happening on any of the VF-25 renewals, so maybe the materials were designed to be more flexible (the plastic is certainly higher quality). So just be careful. Lastly, about the way the hip bars wobble if you don't snap them in.. I'm not sure if there's any guidance in the instructions about this, but the nose gear doors can definitely get in the way here. One of my hips didn't want to lock in, because the gear door was keeping it from snapping down. I don't know if there's a good way to prevent this, but you can definitely sit the gear doors on either side of the hip bars. No idea yet if one position causes more stress on the doors than the other.
  15. Chronocidal
    If you ordered them together, be aware that they won't ship them until the armor packs come in this winter. I had to email them and request to split the order, which they did without a hassle, but they will ask you to pay the difference in shipping (came to about $12 for me I think). It was easy enough to do with Paypal for me, but I only needed to do that since I paid up front.
  16. Chronocidal
    Actually no, this only happened starting with the YF-29 re-release. Both VF-25 renewals were pretty darn easy to get comparitively, because the windows each lasted at least a few days, possibly weeks. I remember I got in pretty late on my order for Alto's, and still got one from HLJ with no trouble. I think it's because people didn't trust Bandai after ther first versions. And, I think Ozma's preorder went up before a lot of people even had a chance to get their Alto version, so the initial preorder wasn't bad, but once people got their hands the Alto and discovered it didn't suck, everyone ate up the orders fast. Now, it's like a feeding frenzy for the preorders. On the other hand though, now that the VF-171 release has come to pass, I think it's not quite as bad as it seems from the preorder. People can still get the 171 through Nippon Yasan, and HLJ opened up orders right after release (they seem to have skipped preorders entirely). I wouldn't call them necessarily easily available, but there isn't the absolute shortage that the preorder makes you expect.
  17. Chronocidal
    Yeah, screw it. Not interested enough in this to care anymore. If they had actually made it somewhat resemble Roy's scheme, I might've been willing to try and get one now, but that paintjob is nothing like it. Maybe someday Bandai will get off it's backside and finish the 1/72 kit line. All I really want is fighter mode in a non-"3-year old with a pack of crayolas" paintscheme. If Nippon Yasan or HLJ manage to have some in stock around the release date like with the VF-171, I might try again then, but I've spent too much in the past month already.
  18. Chronocidal
    Ok, I know exactly what caused my problems earlier. That double hinge on the backplate that lets you move the back closer to the head to attach to the hip mount plate? It would not budge. I seriously thought it wasnt supposed to move, until I found the little image of how it's supposed to fold over. So, when I pulled that plate toward the back to lock it, it was too far away to reach the snap under the nose section. Works now, but I cannot believe how incredibly difficult this thing is to move the metal parts.
  19. Chronocidal
    Is it wrong that I kind of want to suggest putting a couch in the cockpit? You know.. Actually, if I ever did make a Falcon kit, I'd probably rig the hatch to be able to be opened, and rig a couch prop to hang out of it, with a tiny obese Han figure hanging off of it.
  20. Chronocidal
    Wait, Ozma's seriously had the stripes in the game too? I just have to ask, WHY?? They're freaking fugly. This plane would be so nice looking if they just didn't try to make the paintscheme some pimpmaster mc spazatron tricked out deal. Seriously, it reminds me of those cars you see all covered in tribal tattoos and crap. This paintscheme is about as much a tribute to the VF-1S as a leopard print couch would be a tribute to the Thundercats. Same colors, but not even remotely similar in style or taste.
  21. Chronocidal
    That's pretty awesome. If your kid doesn't pick up the habit of putting things in their mouth, they're a fun thing to play with from a really early age. My parents started buying them for me at age 3, and they used to all fit in a single 1 gallon ice cream bucket. Now I've got about 4 of those, plus a few 5 gallon tubs full. I really need to finish designing my 1/32 VF-19, and get the pieces to build it someday. I've basically been designing a double scale Yamato version, and the transformation of the nose works fine so far (minus the cockpit details, there's just no room for it with Lego). I've got the whole planform and dimensions laid out in that Lego digital designer thing, and have built everything forward of the hips now. It'll be beautiful provided I can find ways to make it all transform, even if it's nowhere as posable as the Yamato one. I really should clean out a bookcase so I have some room to display stuff one of these days. I don't use any of those old 386 era games anymore anyway.
  22. Chronocidal
    You know, I'm not sure about all types of engines, but don't many of them actually have a stator stage first in the compressor? Or, if not an actual stator, just an inlet guard of sorts with blades to block large objects from entering the actual engine? That's the engine in the JSF, and I know Hornets and Tomcats both have those stationary vanes before the actual blades. I know it's fun to see the fans spinning, but I think you only see that on podded turbofans, where you've got a huge bypass ratio, and most of your thrust is actually coming from the fan (turbofans are more like ducted turboprops at low speeds). Actually, here's one thing that I always considered as a solution to the "compressors should be further back" problem we get so often.. The blades you see? They're not the actual engine. Most lineart puts the bulk of the engines in the lower leg, with what looks like a secondary compressor on it anyway. What if those blades are actually just a complex set of multi-axis inlet ramps? If you consider the segment of leg going through the knee joint as one big ducting system designed to kill off shocks, and focus the air into the actual engine, then there's no reason you can't have that system so close to the front of the intake. Granted though, that's conceptually how it could work, but probably not how it was animated. People love to see the engines spin, whether the part they see spin should be spinning or not. The intake covers can sort of act as inlet ramps as well, since they're similar in shape to the F-14's variable ramp structure, but they're just too close to the front of the intake. Actually, now that I think of it, that's probably also what those side vents on the intaes are meant to be: compressor bypass. Similar to the big vents on the upper surface of the F-14's wing glove. If you're narrowing the inlet to stop shocks, you've got to have somewhere for that extra air to flow to, and that might very well be what those vents were meant to be. They're not nearly in the right place for it unfortunately, but it might have been the general idea behind them. They'd have to be farther back, and there'd need to be an opening in the inside of the intake for air to go through there. It's looking really astoundingly beautiful so far, I can't wait to see more of it detailed up. Though, I do have to nitpick one thing about the intakes.. the front edges just look a little too thick/blunt. Granted, with the VF-1, you're already kinda throwing concern about drag to the wind because of how much base drag the design has (caused by not streamlining the back end.. those arms are a HUGE source of drag), but the intake walls just look odd to me squared off as much as they are. I don't know how hard it would be to make that change just to see how it looks though, so it might not be worth bothering with. Intake edges are always a pain to model since they're generally a mass of chamfer operations that builds up polygons quickly. I know you're not concerned with that too much on this model, but my "this is too detailed" sense tends to kick in. Too many years spent building flight sim models.
  23. Chronocidal
    The black nose on this one makes me wonder actually.. are those pieces molded in black, or would I have the option of sanding it off? I mean seriously... if it weren't for the half and half paint on the nose, I'd be all over this. If I had both, I'd be tempted to swap the cockpit/nose areas to give this one the white nose. Actually, I admit.. I'd be tempted to strip the paint entirely off this thing. The nose is the worst part I think, but the yellow intakes make me think some guy just got bored and started randomly clicking spots with the "dump" tool on photoshop to see what looked interesting. It's not quite as facepalm-worthy as the Doublenuts and BoP YF-19s were, but it still doesn't make sense. Well.. not that Bandai has ever shown any understanding of why certain parts of aircraft are painted certain colors, but still. The intakes just look gaudy.
  24. Chronocidal
    Well, it was nice dreaming I might get one. You know, I'd love to see a comparison of numbers between orders for things like the super and armor packs, and numbers of VF-25s actually produced. Actually, who knows. It seems Nippon Yasan has a pretty good relationship with Bandai as far as getting stock of things, so I'll see about ordering with them once the preorders show. Heck, they still show the Alto YF-29 as being in stock. Then again.. eh, I don't know if I like it enough to justify the price. Guess we'll see when the preorders roll around. I've spent too much in the past month already.
  25. Chronocidal
    So, is this an exclusive (meaning made to order) or a regular release? I'm actually hoping for exclusive, because I might actually get one that way. I'll gladly jump on this one since i couldn't get the "normal" scheme. Still though.. what dingbat do they have coming up with these schemes? It's just another palette-swap of the original, and it still has the dumb tiger stripes I wanted gone from the first one. I mean, it still looks awesome don't get me wrong, but when I think "VF-1S Scheme" I think of the tribute schemes in the Master Files book.. not this. If I could get ahold of the original, I'd swap out the forward fuselage too.. painting the entire upper half black just looks... dumb.
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