Chronocidal

Oy, those dingbats.. I specifically requested FedEx for that order I made from HLJ, and now I finally get the shipping notice.. by EMS. *facepalm* No wonder it's been taking so long. Guess I can't complain about it being free, but the last order I got from them by FedEx reached me in two days flat. This one's already hitting a week.

Bleh.. what I want to know is why my free shipping order is taking so long. It was ordered in the middle of last week, and they still haven't sent it out.

True, he even put go-faster stripes on his and Milia's VF-22s! No wonder they were the only ones who could dodge all those Protodeviln space tentacles.

Actually, I don't think I would worry about that tab on the 21/22. In fact, I considered filing those tabs down on my YF-21, because they got in the way.. they're just too big to let the belly plates rotate easily to unfold the legs. With all the pressure on those when trying to pull the belly plates out, I'm not surprised they would get stressed, but I don't think they're absolutely necesary for anything. The plates attach in several other places, and they're held in pretty firmly.

Lol.. well, planes do get dirty, even in space. Mainly I mean I like the details seen in other series better, but I admit colors are a factor. I mean... Yes, it looks fancy. But why on earth would a real aircraft have gold chrome intake covers? Or barring chrome , even yellow? Every other valk in every other series has some shade of gray for those intake covers. They looked mechanical. Even being solid blue, Max's VF-1J still had the usual markings, intake warnings, ejection seat symbols, formation lights... and details that looked like something on an aircraft. Bright gold plated panels are just not a feature you see very often on military aircraft. Anyway, yeah, I'm just picky Been scarred by too much gold chrome plating in that other robot show.

Have to agree there. The only reason I picked up a Fire Valk was because it was on sale, and I was already grabbing a fairly large order, so the small box wouldn't add much to the shipping cost. When I look at my V2 1/60 VF-1s and realize that I got most of them for around $70 before shipping (I almost always wait for sales, I think the only V2 VF-1s I bought at full price were my M&Ms), I have a hard time paying the same for something so small. That being said, if I see this on sale, and/or it's convenient to add it to a larger order, I probably will grab one. Have to admit, I've never been a fan of the stylings of the various valks in M7. M7 is the only Macross I know of where the aircraft really didn't look or behave like aircraft. For a perfect example, compare scenes of the YF-21 in Macross Plus to scenes of the VF-22 in M7. It's the same difference between the VF-17 and VF-171. The little details that add realism, markings, panel lines, etc.. I don't remember a single M7 valk having intake warnings or ejection seat/pod markings printed on them. Those little things make a big difference Now, if I could get a VF-19 styled like the ones in the new Master File book, I'd be all over a full squadron of them. But the cartoony super-robot styling of M7 is so prevalent, you just don't get the same feeling of realism from the aircraft as you do in other Macross series.

If the plastic didn't completely shatter, you could potentially fix him by gluing the hinge and making new pins.

Gah, I knew this would happen. I caught myself thinking earlier, "Watch, they'll have a Yamato sale as soon as the free shipping runs out." In hindsight though, good thing I got the Hikaru+ then.. it's already backordered. Actually... considering it's only 20% off.. or about $25.. the free shipping might have been a bit of a better deal, since I also got a TV CF-1A, and that one's not on sale. In fact, I think most of the discounts on VF-1s are about the same as free shipping. The good discounts are valks that are more expensive to begin with, like the VF-0 and VF-22s, especially Gamlin's. That deal on the Super Hikaru 1J isn't bad either, I'd jump on that if I didn't already have one. I'd kind of like to get that VF-0S... but I've gone back into savings mode, so I shouldn't buy any more stuff until my job is completely secure. I took exception for the free shipping, but I need to not be spending any more for a while.

I got that same "specially processed" message too, dunno what it meant. The trick was my original invoice did include shipping, which just got refunded a day or so after processing.

Same here, got the billing agreement set up long ago, it's basically a one-click buy for me now. By the way, panic mode off, no rage necessary. I did get the email mentioning free shipping as well, but the initial Paypal charge included shipping anyway. This morning HLJ sent me a refund for the shipping, so everything is back to how it should be. I actually wondered if this might happen, and fortunately held off on sending them a rant. What surprised me initially though, even ordering at 3pm their time, I got a notice that the order wouldn't be entered until the next morning. I imagine that had something to do with the mixup, since the order apparently wasn't processed until after the sale ended. This just makes me wonder what their working hours are though, 3pm seems a bit early to me (granted different country; I work 8-5 most days).

I just checked HLJ yesterday, and they seem to be all in stock again, although I don't think any are discounted at the moment.

THOSE FREAKING BASTICHES. I just got the Paypal invoice, and they charged me freaking $60 for shipping. I placed the order way before they ever announced them killing the free shipping deal, around 11pm PST on tuesday, which would be 3pm JST on wednesday June 9, with the 16 hour time difference. The sale ended at 6pm. WHAT THE HELL?? I'm gonna be sending HLJ a nasty complaint letter tonight.

Thing about that area is it's not quite as space limited for fixes, and there's a lot more plastic there to work with. You might be able to fix that with some type of glue, probably thin stuff that will seep into the crack easily. Just make sure to keep rotating the joint while it dries to make sure it doesn't freeze up. I actually just replaced the hinges on my Hikaru 1A last night, my fixes are finally failing after about 8 months (my Roy is still going strong though). One crack I glued before eventually split again, and my replacement pins (paper-clip segments) were too small, and kept falling out of the joint. I'll probably re-glue the crack, glue the pins in at the ends, and save the joints as a backup set.

I think all that the "until allotted stock runs out" bit means is that the offer is only good for items currently in stock, ie, if you order something that's waiting for a restock, you won't get the shipping deal once it's back in stock again. I finally broke down and got myself a 1/60 TV cannon fodder, as well as the Hikaru VF-1S+ version, bringing my collection of VF-1s to what I'm going to call a perfect 10, and stop. I was kind of planning to get a TV stand alone Roy, but considering I've already got the DYRL one, the only thing I'd really be getting was a new pilot. And, since separate DYRL-style strike packs seem to have vaporized into thin air, this was probably the only way I'd get a second set. In the end, I did get a second VF-1S, which is what I'd planned for to begin with, and just traded a tv Roy figure for strike packs, and markings a little more different than a change of head arrow colors. Aside from that though, I stocked up on a few modeling supplies I'd been hearing a lot about in various build-up threads. Picked up enough Tamiya masking tape to last me a good while, some Mr Mark Softer and Setter, Mr Surfacer, and a few Tamiya paint supplies (bottles and colors). This free shipping deal apparently drained their selection severely, but I still got a couple important colors (for a heck of a lot cheaper than my local hobby shop to boot). Sad, I almost convinced myself to buy an armored Ozma kit too, but I think I'll wait for a sale on that one. It's impressive to be sure, but not $90 impressive, and I've already got 8 other Frontier kits to build from their previous sale.

I just read the ad on HLJ about them selling them and couldn't help but laugh... it's nice that they're giving a gurantee that someone outside Japan will get a few, since they specifically say the sale is only good outside the country... but then I read the bit about HLJ getting a grand total of 3 to sell. The process to order it is a bit crazy as well, it's first come first serve, via confirmation emails only.

Sounds like it'll be in scale with the models rather than the DXs, it's advertised as being 1/72 on HLJ's listing.

Oh boy I could go into sooooo much detail for this. A lot of it comes from flight simming, since I'll often substitute that for flying a physical plane around (bonus for the lack of a hand holding the plane, and actual flame effects in the engines ) Note, a lot of these tracks cross over into my own personal label of "eargasmic." 1. "Flight to Neverland" from the movie Hook. I picture this one a lot for aircraft test flights, and if I ever get a pilot's license, I swear I will be either playing or singing/humming this during my first solo (regulations permitting). 2. "Ride the Dragon," or "Escape from the Dragon" from the Shrek orchestral score, used a lot for YF-19 flights in Flight Simulator. (Also of note: in my own head, I always hear "Escape from the Dragon" when watching the attack run on the second Death Star in ROTJ.. Sheesh.. There's even a roar sound that would synch up nicely with the explosion wave forming...I get chills just thinking about how well that would fit. Pacing is a little different, but I want to do a recut with that music someday.) 3. Northern Cross is a fun one. The fast paced lyrics in that one are like the vocal equivalent of a barrel-roll laden, Itano Circus massacre. Same for Lion and Infinity to an extent, but I associate those more with high-G dogfights and aircraft carrier punches than with crazy missile swarms. 4. Voices, Aimo, or .. whatever the name for the Mac0 end theme was that Aimo replaced in MacF, mainly for just smooth sailing, like sailplane flights, or Alto's cloud cruising. 5. If I had a CF to fly around, it'd be "TNT" (watch me explode! ) 6. For anything Mac7 related, it's usually "Holy Lonely Night" (for me, one of my favorite parts in the series was when that song got first used in battle, just because it was new and different ), although, I'm really starting to like some of the Fire Bomber tracks not used in the series like "Diamond Calling" and "Tread the Lightless Night." 7. Thanks to Forrest Gump, I'll always picture destroid (especially jungle) warfare accompanied by "For What it's Worth," or maybe "Fortunate Son." There's so much more too.. The Origa/Kanno tracks from GITS, the entire Macross Plus soundtrack.. Heck, even Yackety Sax (the Benny Hill high speed slapstick music) works well for missile barrages. It's like every track I listen to has a flight equivalent. Actually, I think it's something my brain does.. I don't know why, but I tend to associate pitches (notes on the scale) with angles, or motions. It's not always consistent, but it's like converting the whole "do-re-mi" bit into roll, pitch, and yaw angles.

Oooooh... Just got word that HLJ is having another Paypal-related free express shipping sale! I've held off ordering anything, maybe now's the time to get a couple more kits and Valks.

Heh.. bet if you could get apart the leg it'd be simple, but the VF-0s come from Yamato's, "Screw it, we'll just glue the whole darn thing together" phase. The YF-19, VF-0, and SV-51 are all nearly impossible to get apart to fix without breaking them worse than they started.

My guess would be those function just like the leading edge of the X-02's wing in Ace Combat 4, split into upper and lower halves that part to allow the hinge to pass through, but close up to form a sealed edge once the hinge support is past. Still doesn't explain how the wing then slides into the position shown in the colored picture though. I'll have to grab a copy of this, these images look like they would be incredibly fun to build a flight sim model out of. I think the mid-sized wing version of the VF-19F might be my new favorite version of this plane. What I do find annoying/funny though.. no matter how many times I see any variation of YF-19/VF-19 lineart.. I have yet to see any drawings that include even remotely reasonable divisions in the belly plates to allow for the transformation to work at all. At least this newest version seems to include panels along the fuselage that resemble the cut in the Yamato 1/60 and Bandai Hi-Metal used to shorten the forward fuselage.

That's pretty much the gist of it, I just put a blob of glue on each of the leg tabs to enlarge them. I suppose there is a trick to it though. I always use the slowest drying and thickest super glue I can get. The one I've been using for a while is Sentai Distributors Maxi-Cure brand, the extra thick 10-25 second stuff. It's plenty thick to build up a blob on tabs, and if you catch it at the right time, you can actually shape it a little. I think what I did for the leg tabs was to just put a little on the top and bottom of each tab, and let it dry till it wasn't sticky anymore, but was still soft enough to make an impression with a fingernail. At that point, I pushed the tabs into the holes to let the glue mold to the shape of the hole, then removed them again to let them harden the rest of the way.

Oh, I had a similar problem with those lower leg/backpack connections. I tend to hold the plane right behind the knees in fighter mode, and the pressure there always popped the legs out. Again, a layer of superglue on those leg tabs fixed it up nicely.

*facepalm* No, I completely forgot Asakura! Comes complete with tentacles too.

I've noticed that about the hip/intake connections too, they're not very snug where the plastic pegs into the metal. Next tweak I might try on the one I'm fixing up is to beef up the pegs on the legs to fit a little better. I love super glue.

Actually, the thing that sticks in my mind the most about the VF-0, especially when compared with other valks: it's actually streamlined. Nearly every other variable design has huge flat panels that face to the rear of the plane, usually the hand covers (the VF-4 avoids this, as do the VF-25/VF-27 due to the shield design). In the world of aircraft, non-streamlined flat surfaces at the rear of the plane are a huge no-no. It's called base drag, and comes from the turbulence caused by the air having to fill in the space behind the plane as it goes forward. On the whole, the VF-0 has probably the most streamlined shape of any valk I think, at least until the VF-25. Compared with the VF-1, the head, shoulders, arms, and hands are all completely blended into the fighter, while the VF-1 has big blocky shoulders sticking into the airstream, and all that flat area at the rear to make more drag. What's funny to think about.. in terms of technology this makes perfect sense really. The VF-0 had conventional engines (beastly ones, yes, but still conventional), while the VF-1 had nuclear engines. Given that much thrust, they may have just looked at the drag coefficients, and laughed them off. What's interesting to me... the same thing has happened in real life over time. Look back at the fighters designed in the era between about 1950 and 1970, and you'll notice that one of the popular trends in fighter design was a "coke-bottle" fuselage shape (great example is the F-5 Tiger, it had an extreme amount of this). That shape had the effect of seriously reducing the drag coming from shock waves approaching Mach 1. But these days, you really don't see much of that shape any more in fighter aircraft (only newer design I can think of off the top of my head that still has it somewhat is the Saab Gripen). Why? Because with engines that give 40k lbs of thrust, that drag isn't really an issue anymore, unless you really want to optimize the fuel load of the aircraft (which to an extent is why the Hornet has such a short range). Long story short, with enough power, drag isn't that big a deal, but it's still nice to get good fuel efficiency.