Chronocidal

Hmm.. pardon me while I go chase my eyes.. they just jumped out and decided to go rolling across the floor...

Heheh.. well, Isamu said on his first flight that it was able to reach the atmospheric service ceiling in 40 seconds...I tried to match that roughly. It'll probably get closer with later updates. I've gotten quite a bit of texturing done in the past two days, but it's going kind of slow.. I should have textured the model BEFORE I broke it up and animated the different parts.

Yep.. there's no way a real aircraft could fly like that.. at least using today's technology. I based the stats off the kind of maneuvers it pulled during the dogfight scenes in the movie... I'll have to look over the movie again, though. I probably overdid it.

Ooh, please do... It'll let me concentrate more on the Mac+ Valks. If you need any help getting stuff flying correctly, I'm sure I could help. Getting the model in the program is the easy part...It takes a lot of trial and error testing to get the plane flying like it should, but it's less time consuming than modeling, so I'll be able to do multiple planes at once. If you need any plugins for Gmax or Max, I've got them.

I have no idea how to do thrust vectoring, I've heard it's not possible. I've been using Max to directly export the FS Models, and format them, instead of the Gmax Plugin, because I can't texture in Gmax well, and I always lose all the animation data in the transfer from Max to Gmax. What I'm tempted to buy is the Flight Sim Design Studio program, which hacks into the model data in specific ways, and can change a LOT of model characteristics, based on changes in data from the game... basically, as is, you have to activate the afterburner flame on the YF-19 by pressing L, which also turns on the nav lights... With FSDS, there is a way to link the activation of those effects with the throttle percentage, so they appear automatically. The same is true for many other things as well, and they can't be done with Gmax. It's not too expensive, and I'm seriously considering it, if it will make things like true thrust vectoring possible. As it is on my newest model, the feet are linked to move with the elevator and aileron control, so they do appear to vector the thrust, but there's no actual change in the direction of thrust. It just looks cool. Except of course when the afterburner effects are on, since they don't move with the feet.

I've got a VF-22 Hasegawa kit sitting up in my closet, as well as a VF-1J, so I'll probably be doing both in the future, but I'll probably do the VF-22 first.. as well as a YF-21 paint scheme for it, of course.

Yep, no reason I won't repaint it various ways. Those are just the material colors from Max, which transfer over to FS2002. Once I make up the actual textures I'll do several versions, most likely the VF-19A scheme, and maybe a couple other custom ones. I'd like to see how this plane would look in some of the old high-vis Tomcat markings.

LOL.. Whoops, yeah, I gotta get my wording straight, considerig I'm an aeronautics major. You're right, it does just have a hinged leading edge... It did have slats at first, but I replaced them, and just made them hinge downward.

What's the actual difference between a leading edge flap and just a hinged leading edge though?

Hmm.. which version is FS9? I know I included flaps of two types on it, but they might not work if that version uses different flap naming conventions than FS2002. It should have hinged leading edges that drop, and the inner half of the wing control surfaces should drop as flaps as well.

Don't worry, I've had lots of texturing experience, so it won't be a problem. I just don't know when I'll get around to doing it.

K, I think there's an option to tweak that, I hadn't played with it much before. Thanks for the tip. Also, the speed brakes should be easy enough, I just have to reverse the axis of rotation. But the position of the speed brakes was something I wondered about.. is there any evidence that the -19 had its brakes elsewhere?

I may increase the stall speed later, but for now it makes it easier to see how stable the plane is at low speeds. I exaggerated many flight characteristics to try and get the plane to fly like how the -19 behaved in the movie. Truth is, I mainly went for movie realism, not real life realism. It resulted in some ridiculous stats, and impossibly high g-levels, but it is fun to fly. I'll probably tone it down some once it's done, but I'm still trying to figure out how to tweak the specific stats to get it to fly well. FS2002 is REALLY picky, and has a way of corrupting the aircraft stat files somehow. It's like the program doesn't like certain values and decides to re-write them, changing how the plane flies without me doing anything.

I don't think 2002 is too expensive anymore, since a new version is out. You might be able to find a copy of the basic edition for around $20.

I'm planning on eventually making a whole series of planes like this, all from the various Macross stories. I started with Mac+ because I bought the YF-19 model first.

Here's a screenshot to look at, I didn't include it in the zip to save space.

K, this is for all those flight sim junkies who have been begging to fly a YF-19 since they first saw Mac+.. including me.

The plane flies like a bat out of hell, but is kind of stall prone.. I'm working on the flight characteristics. The control surfaces are very effective, and if you pull too sharp a maneuver at too high a speed, the stall warning will go off... the plane may not stall entirely though.. a lot of times, the engines will keep it up by sheer power alone, and you get kind of a fish-tailing effect... basically, the plane turns faster than it's flight path. Usually the stall warning will go off once you stop pulling back on the stick. It can be fun to watch the plane slide around a loop, but don't be fooled into thinking the plane always travels the direction the nose is pointing. Also, get ready for some really interesting landings... this plane has a flaps down stall speed of approx. 60 knots. Makes for some really slow landings. It's got spoilers (rudders turn in for speed braking), full gear, and a split flap/aileron system, as well as leading edge slats, and an opening cockpit. It's a fun ride. If you manipulate the controls right, you can pull some VERY strange maneuvers. If the plane looks like it's out of control, don't worry, just give it full throttle, and try to get the nose level, then let go of the stick. It's got some VERY weird ways of flying.

It's a pretty small download, since the model doesn't use any actual textures yet, just a few 16*16 bitmaps for specular higlights and reflection. To install, you should just have to unzip the file, and copy the YF-19 folder into the aircraft folder in FS2002. Once that's done, copy the two fx files into the effects folder in the FS2002 directory. Should be pretty simple.

Note, I don't know if this will work with FS2004, but you're welcome to try it. If I ever get 2004, I'll make sure to make a new version, but from what I hear it's not hard to convert the planes from 2002 to 2004.

yf_19.zip

K, here's a sort of work in progress.. I say sort of because it works, but it's not textured yet.

You're right, man that looks good.

Btw, I'm also working to make the YF-19 gear up... what are you planning? Cutting the gear well out entirely may help, but I wonder if it would be too much weight to just fill the gear well with lumps of clay, and press the doors into it.

Do you intend this to be for all WIPs? I'm thinking of all the different types. I mean, there's Photoshop work, actual drawn stuff, plus CG modeling. I've got oodles of stuff that could go here, but most of it is CG.

I think the main issue is whether the company that originally produced the kit is defunct or not. If they're out of business, unless the molds got sold to someone who would reproduce the kit later, likelyhood is that you may never see that kit again. Recasting it may be the only way of ever getting a copy of the kit.

Personally, in the case of something as rare as the YF-21, I'd recast it myself, and build the recast, instead of building the original kit. So, in a way, recasting allows the collectibility of an item to be preserved, and still allows you to enjoy the product.

Hehe... as far as supersonic flight goes, I think at least a large chunk of the southern half of California is fair game due to all the flight research that goes on there. Edwards AFB has planes going supersonic routinely, but it's isolated enough to not cause too much ruckus. They start their annual airshow off with a sonic boom, traditionally by Chuck Yeager (dunno if he's done it recently though, last time I know of for certain was the 50th anniversary celebration in '97). Also, they're actually experimenting with making sonic booms less noisy.. it has to do with blunting certain aspects of the aircraft, mainly the nose.. they had a pic of the ugliest T-38 I've ever seen, with a nose cone twice the thickness of the rest of the plane.

But anyway, I did have one question.. I can't tell for sure, but is one of those break-up sequence photos reversed? One of them looks like the plane is missing the left wingtip, instead of the right.

Toy Story NOTHING... that looks like a photo from off a shelf!! O_O!!!

I really should use Rhino for more than polygon modeling... How on earth do you get those complex surfaces so smooth??? I always end up with ridiculous distortions.

Hehe... I've got fond memories of that plane.. I think I've still got a picture somewhere of myself at about age 4 standing under the engines.

Btw, as another size comparison, I've got a 1/72 scale kit of the XB-70 under my bed.. it's three feet long. A 1/48th kit would easily be four and a half feet long (I've actually seen one.. vacuuform kit, very rare and pretty expensive). VERY big plane.

Agreed... plus, I think the colors in that magazine pic are better as well. But that little catapult hook up on the landing gear is still colored..

There really isn't anything keeping you from buying a set of strike armor if you get the -1J, no. All the Valks are identical, and can use the armor (as far as I know).

There are three main differences between the separate strike parts and the ones that come with the VF-1J. Mainly, the VF-1J parts are more of a green color to match the tv show, the arm armor is a little different shape, and it doesn't include the extra part to replace one of the booster launchers with the beam cannon. If you're not at all concerned with accuracy to the show, and want the strike cannon, go ahead and get the strike armor separately, then buy the Valk of your choice to put it on.

Personally, I went ahead and got the -1J with the armor...Besides the uniqueness of the set, I figured if I was going to just get one 1/48th, I might as well save on shipping, and get the whole thing at once. But that may change depending on if I get a good paying job this summer. I'd certainly like to have a strike -1S to display as well.

Whoa... K, I've had that space shuttle for years... never cared what his name is... but wow. Spay-C??? It's still in pretty good condition actually... I always wanted the F-15 too, but they stopped making them before I knew what money was.

I never watched any of those shows, except for MASK, though... Three things got me hooked on that, mainly, Switchblade the helicopter/jet (coolest thing I'd seen at the time), Thunderhawk (the flying car that made me believe at age 5 that ALL cars with gull-wing doors could fly), and that R2-D2 knockoff T-Bob. I actually have some rather fond memories of that show.. must've led me to build an incredible amount of transforming vehicles with Legos.

Personally, I don't really care for the Bandai sculpt of the VF-19, otherwise I would've looked into getting one a long time ago.. I think it's nearly a crime that they made the fighter mode so stubby. The nose should easily be another inch or two long. It's not a bad design otherwise, but I guess that's what they had to do to give it a perfect transformation.

Ahhh, k, thanks for clearing that up.

K, I don't know if anyone else noticed this, or thinks that it's odd.. but when did HG start selling the original Japanese SDF Macross series?

MACROSS DVD Complete Set

Maybe I'm out of the loop, but why would HG be selling the AnimEigo dvd set?

And besides that, what's up with them selling Mari Iijima's "Right Now" album??

Sorry if I missed something here, but this makes it seem to me that suddenly they're doing a whole lot to promote the original Macross, rather than Robotech...