Chronocidal

Love that video. Any of you seen or own any of the giant 1/18th scale aircraft they've got nowadays? The FW-190 at my local walmart was down to around $30 cause no one would buy it. But they are beginning to branch out and do jets... Bought myself this behemoth for Christmas this year... holy crap on a stick. It's about a meter long. They're starting the Vietnam era with this one, but if they make an F-4, I'm gonna be in trouble... the ceiling's already full with this thing. If they end up making an F-14, I'll have to just get my own apartment and fill it with em. They aren't bad quality at all, considering they're toys, and they're getting even better. If I could find 1/18th scale decals, I might seal all the joints, and detail it up even more. Not a bad buy for $65, plus I have something to hang on that hook in my ceiling left by the last tenants.

Wait.. you've gotta be kidding.. is that using the polycount function in the toolbar, or something else? Cause it looks far too smooth to be that low.

I can render some for you.

Yeah, sorry I've been so erratic with updates, it's just that classwork, and my other flight sim work usually push this aside. On the good side of things though, I was able to get a YF-21 flying as well.. it's just not textured, and has even less of a cockpit than the YF-19.

Nice... What's the polycount on it?

Just fyi, I think i can get you a link to a pdf of the F-14D NATOPS manual if interested.. really big file though, and I'm not sure if it's still up. Been pouring over it to develop a flight sim model over the past year.

Oy... I DO remember the BBC versions.. the bad parts that is... I personally couldn't get over how they filmed the people swinging swords, then drew in animated monsters for them to be swinging at. One thing I realized recently though.. LOTR covered a much larger scope, as far as characters and conflicts went, and there was FAR more to cover in one movie than with this series. They had to cut LOTR down to fit in the movies. With these books, it's kind of the opposite. The books themselves are pretty short, I think I remember reading one in an afternoon once. So, putting this into a feature film gives you the opportunity to actually expand on the books. If I remember right, the final battle in Wardrobe happened mostly in the background, while Lucy and Susan were with Aslan bringing reinforcements.. so you never saw much of that battle. They only come in at the end, after the witch's wand is broken. So, they may have added quite a bit to fill in that section of the book, which is probably where that centaur general will come in. Also, I don't know how far the scope of this project is.. they might insert hints of Horse and his Boy into this movie, just maybe as an aside, in the last bits of the movie. I'm really curious how they'll do the time lapse though, since they stayed in Narnia for years, maybe even a decade or two (could be really off here, my younger sister has the books right now, otherwise I'd be reading em ) I'll probably be there on opening night, one last hurrah before finals start. But I'm also awaiting the soundtrack.. first time I saw the trailer was at Episode III, and being excited already, it really gave me chills hearing the music. funny actually... when the train whistled and I saw the four kids, my jaw dropped, and I went, "No WAY..." and everyone stared at me like I was nuts. Then they all joined in when the wardrobe appeared.

Hi folks, yep, I'm still alive.. just buried neck deep in other work. I'm working on a professional F-14 model at the moment for IRIS (company that makes payware FS aircraft (shameless plug ) so my time's been mostly spent on that. The FS YF-19 is pretty much workable, just no working cockpit gauges (no idea how to do those). I'm gonna try and get the afterburner flames to work a little better, then put what I have up for download I think. Just too much else to do. Technically it's done I guess, I just never made a good virtual cockpit for it. My methods have changed so much that I may redo the model later with a ton of fancy animation and programming, with even more detail, but that may be a while.. possibly for the next FS version. :? I've been fooling with CFS3 again though, and I actually have a fairly workable YF-19 model for it, complete with working gunpod, and bombs, although missiles aren't really possible... I guess I could just make a giant load of rockets, but they don't seek at all. Even the cockpit gauges work, since I pasted them in from a stock model. I'm planning on making a YF-19/YF-21 pair, so you can dogfight in CFS3 with em.. dunno how that'll work, but it could be fun fighting online in something other than WWII planes.

Hmm.. actually, I kinda started to take that route with the Hasegawa YF-19.. I've got a high-poly version somewhere that has the fuselage modeled pretty much identically to the kit. Just cut it out with cnc, and you've got a mold master (in whatever scale you want, I might add... oooh.. 1/18th YF-19 to go next to my F-104... :D:D)

Actually, I can personally say I know someone (female) aproximately that size... she's actually around 6'5" I think.. dunno the shoe size, but I do know she custom ordered a pair of pants with a 40" inseam. >___< Doesn't look anything like Minmay though, and I don't think she's into anime at all, so it's not her.

Schweeet..... sounds like this could be fun. I'm going to have to see about getting my YF-19 and YF-21 into nurbs format.. I've always had the worst luck with using nurbs, I don't know why... I can loft simple shapes, but nothing complex. And nothing ever lines up sadly. But, if it would help, I can divide my models up into sections to mold that will approximate the Hasegawa kits. I'll get my 1/48th YF-19 yet...

Meh.. Seen it. It was cool when I was 14 and there was one above the gift shop after Star Tours. Then I got a sense of proportion. I will give it this, it's a lot better than the toys, or the Ertl kits.. but still.. you realize if you sat down in that thing, your feet would probably come out the torp tubes. Plus I love the way they added that hydraulic ram to raise the canopy.. right in the middle of the window.

Definitely, as that's what I'm working on it in

LOLOLOL... Wow.. my model got around I see. Dang.. I want one now. Hmm... Wonder if the original source model would help them.

funniest topic I've read in a long time...

Hey all, sorry for not being here for a bit, school's been out, and I've been away from my computer, so I could barely even get to the internet (had to go to friends' houses, our internet wasn't quite working). I'm working on a HUGE project at the moment, and I really want this thing to be perfect before I release it, so it may be a while still. But it is almost done.. I've just been discovering the joys of XML coding for FS, and adding a few extra goodies to the plane. Hopefully I can get it up here soon.

Actually, they look to be just about 4 stories in that last one... unless the building on the corner has unusually high ceilinged floors.

Hmm, quick question.. what kind of phone/plan do you need to use these? I know my current phone won't do it, but I'm planning to get a new one soon. Which types can use mp3s for ringtones?

I usually have to say that the X-Wing takes the cake as far as my favorite ship... but it's not nearly the best designed. It just looks cool. Star Wars fighters are up on the top of my list. The gunstar is an interesting concept as well, but it's by no means sleek... kinda boxy, sorta ugly... still incredibly cool in my mind, but I tend to think of it more like a gunship than a fighter. Kind of like a flying laser tank. The vipers from both the old and new BSG are nice, wouldn't mind having a model or two of those. Some of my favorite designs come from the Wing Commander universe (games only.. stupid A-10 ripoff midget fighter ). The older games had some kinda dorky designs, but the latest games seem to be going more towards classic aircraft design principles (bubble cockpits, etc). The WCII Morningstar, WCIII Excalibur, WCIV Dragon, and WC:Prophecy Panther and Vampire all rank up among my favorites.

You know, personally, I'll be really interested in seeing how they do War of the Worlds. I read the book a long time ago, and it really seemed like most of it was more of a psychological story than anything else.. from what I remember, most of the book took place in an abandoned/half destroyed farm house, looking out of cracks in walls to see what was going on. Not much action in the latter half at all. The visuals will be incredible of course, but I'm sure I did see a ferry get toasted in the trailer. So, I'm assuming they just adapted things as best they could to include the newer technology. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory will probably be seriously weird, but it's supposed to be, definitely see it eventually. Stealth? All kinds of things wrong with it, but I'll probably see it with friends just for the pure sci-fi/aircraft cheese factor, and laugh my butt off at the Mac+ similarities. But not at full price. Batman Begins sounds very good... The Love Bug 2005? Holy crap on a stick Disney. That franchise died a LOOOONNNGGGG time ago. Died a horrible meaningless death when Herbie got stranded on some banana boat to the bahamas or something. Yeah, now Herbie looks like he got put through an episode of "pimp my ride"... all he's missing are the spinning rims (or, wait, did he have them and I blocked it out?). Let sleeping legends die in piece you unoriginal plot whores. The one thing that I'm REALLY looking forward to isn't coming till December. I was plenty excited about Star Wars already, but when I saw the four kids get off the train, I was already going "Whoa." I've always wanted to see the Chronicles of Narnia in LOTR style, and this looks like it could be it. The music in the trailer was great, and I hear they're using the same people from the WETA workshop that did LOTR... So I'm really hoping it turns out well. If it doesn't, heads will roll, but they have to know that to screw up this story would be just about as bad as if Peter Jackson had royally screwed up LOTR. Some people I know only got into LOTR after reading the CoN. Okay, I'll admit, I'm probably way over-enthusiastic about it, but I've been waiting for someone to make this ever since LOTR started. Here's hoping it'll be the perfect movie to end the year.

Well, if you made your own Graflex replica, as long as the measurements were close enough, you could probably order some of the simpler parts and blade from the Graflex Shop...Definitely be cheaper than the whole shebang. Probably wouldn't work as well either,, but you never know.

Well, that kind of depends on which saber you're making... Luke's ANH/ESB has some pretty complicated cutouts on the front, as well as all those fancy buttons and gizmos from the original Graflex. If I make a LOT of money this summer, I might consider Graflexshop's kit, but if I can find the parts to make it myself, I'll definitely go that route.

Hehe.. that's kinda what I assumed their purpose was. It does look kind o like there are cooling vents or something under those panels when they fold out.

Quick question, I don't know jack about Gundam.. but am I seeing things, or is there an XB-70 Valkyrie in the last couple of frames of the trailer? Looks like it's even in the original US markings.. Did they ever use this plane in the series, or was it just something that looked kinda like it?

Looks quite a bit short actually... Too bad they're such small scale. Btw, yes, Ertl inherited crappy SW kits from MPC.. but the MPC X-Wing STILL beats out the newer Ertl Pro-Shop X-Wing in terms of detail, if you ignore the cockpit.. It amazed me how they could make the cockpit better, but the rest of the kit got so much worse. But maybe that's just me. And I agree, the s-foils on the ARC definitely look like an afterthought.. I mean, there aren't even any visible components attached to them. At least with the X-Wing, spreading the wings gives the engines a wider base, and the guns a more spread out firing pattern. All the s-foils on the ARC do is make a bigger target.