Chronocidal
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Everything posted by Chronocidal
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Honestly, I'm not expecting it at all. Series released almost five years ago now, and judging by how easy it still is to find Keith's 262 for relatively cheap, I don't think Bandai believes it's even worth the effort to produce any more of that design. The demand just isn't there. I was hoping Mirage flying one would change that, but that feeling faded fast. Also, note how the new movie promo seems to be putting one of the Windermere knights in a new VF-31. That tells me that even the writers of the show understand how unpopular the design is with fans. If they wanted to sell more, they would have kept the 262s in the movie and made them a centerpiece to get fans excited for DX versions. I'd love to be surprised later down the road and proven wrong, but I just don't think the demand is there for Bandai to see it as a viable product.
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Yeah, I'm not sure there are nearly enough orange elements to make a tank in that scale. I think the 9-stud diameter for the tank worked really well for the Ideas shuttle design, even if it was an odd construction, but the Saturn V proved they can do large cylinders effectively. Can kind of estimate the potential dimensions for the parts based on the orbiter, which looks about a 10 stud body width, and 44 stud wingspan. My best estimate of the shuttle's body width is 25% of the wingspan, which puts it at about 6 meters, with the tank and boosters having diameters of 8.4 m and 3.7 respectively. That would point to something like a 14-stud diameter tank, and 6-stud boosters, maybe? The tank is easier to manage, because you'd have to build it like the Saturn V, but 6-stud boosters might be ugly to make.
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Seriously, all I'm waiting for is someone to build up the tank and boosters for it. Then the full crawler.
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Honestly.. for all of the solid chunks of color on the C, it might be better to just mask it and spray it. That one doesn't even have any aztec paneling, and all of the raised segments would actually really help the masking job. I think the only parts that even have any paneling not already marked off by molded details are the nacelles.
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Hah.. we'll see. I've got other expenses that might take priority this year, so not sure what the picture will be, or how long I'll have to get one. I've got a chunk of VIP points to burn before June, so I'll have to grab something, but I'm thinking that Shuttle or the Batwing are more likely. Much as I'd love another pile of gray plates to facilitate military builds, I still haven't even built either of the UCS Millennium Falcons.
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Oh for crying out loud LEGO... make a new full stack already. You had the perfect opportunity on the Ideas site, and you ignored what might have been the fastest 10k vote in history. Still a must have, because that one looks amazing, but really. Small gripe though, those door hinges are funky massive. They couldn't do a better job hiding them? Also, I'm sorely tempted by the giant destroyer.. maybe something to do with a tax refund.
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Aircraft Super Thread Mk.VII
Chronocidal replied to David Hingtgen's topic in Anime or Science Fiction
I mean, Lockheed is nothing if not consistent. Remember the early concept designs for the F-16?
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All looking really good, and actually the blue deflector is more accurate for that rounded alley. I believe the color changed when they redesigned that area to make the full-scale set for First Contact easier to manage.
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Oh, yeah, the cardboard definitely didn't shield it, I'm more surprised the rest of the garage over it didn't do more. What I mean is more that I think the scout shuttle was shielded by the black and dark gray plastic of the bay.
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Never tried it, but it's essentially using scrap plastic to make a color-matched putty. Not sure what type of cement that one is, but I know you can use the same sort of process with acetone and ABS scraps to make a thick ABS glue. Great method to use with thin glue, but at the end of the day, it's essentially the same thing as just using thick styrene glue as a filler, and I would expect it would inherit the same sort of extensive drying time to avoid any shrinkage issues.
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Speaking of the E, boy I wish someone would tackle that ship with a new mold. The Polar Lights 1/1000 kits are just so much better than the old AMT/ERTL molds. I'm messing with that same kit right now, and the plastic just has this mushy, gummy look and feel to it. Molding is all soft, and despite the white stress marks I'm making all over the pylons, I cannot for the life of me get these nacelles aligned. They sit evenly for a couple hours, but the plastic just slowly drifts back into the default cockeyed position. Far as assembly goes, I'm considering clipping off the assembly tabs, and detailing the saucer, hull, and nacelles separately. I'm almost considering doing the aztec pattern using pencils like I remember seeing someone (I think it was derex?) use on one of the 2009 Trek kits, but the tiny patchwork of panels on this particular ship is just a load of chaotic nonsense. Found the box with my older version of this kit.. same nacelle alignment issues, but the saucer fit seems better somehow? Maybe the paint helped it. I think I sprayed the whole thing with a white rattle can in the mid 90s, before brushing the details on, with what I felt were pretty acceptable results for the time.
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I don't know if a surface coating would even stop it, some of this is just natural deterioration of the plastic. Though, I don't know of anyone who wants to cut a valk in half to find out for sure.
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I would never say you shouldn't take them out of the box, but just be aware of how sunlight and heat can ruin plastic. I learned that lesson hard with my old GI Joe space shuttle, which, even in complete darkness in a thick cardboard box, turned a nice shade of butter yellow from sitting in the garage for years. (Funny thing.. the white shuttlecraft in the bay? Still pristine. The dark plastic of the bay, and black bay doors absorbed all of the UV, and it's still in perfect condition.) Bottom line, if you want to protect your toys, keep them inside of something else that will absorb UV rays, and keep them in a temperature-controlled environment.
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Yeah, those bits do give it trouble. I think the bigger thing I noticed was that it felt like the lower half of the saucer was collapsing up into the upper half, raking the entire saucer forward, and making the nacelles even more cockeyed. If I follow the centerline profile of the main hull forward, the saucer doesn't look right. I think the lower saucer is actually warped down a bit, which is pulling the whole thing out of alignment.
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You don't have to even put the Bandai ones out in the sun, a lot of them will just yellow in the box. Makes me curious to dig out my old VF-25s and see how they're doing. The VF-1s though? They're not a bright white, they're a very light gray. Don't know if that will completely prevent yellowing, but it should help.
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Looking good, the work should be worth it when it's all done. I just cut loose the E on my set, and snapped it together for a test fit, and decided I might need to build an internal support for the saucer, because I think it's actually collapsing downward... to say nothing of the wacked out nacelle pylons. You're right though, the B, C, and E are all a much later mold that came out probably a decade or more after the TOS, A, and D, and the NX-01 is I believe the only actual new mold in this kit. Irritating or not, the detail on the C really makes it stand out from the others. Did you wind up picking up the fancier decals for the E, or just going with the kit set?
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So this might be one of the weirdest things I've ever written about a VF-25 kit. The Klan VF-25G kit? Most solid super VF-25G ever. No, not just model. Most solid representation of the super VF-25G period. I'll probably disassemble this and finish it properly someday, but for now, this is just an incredibly swooshable (if slightly oddly proportioned) VF-25. It's a little larger than my 1/100 fighter mode kits, which lands it solidly in the HMR scale range. Legs are a bit chunky just like the other VFG kits, but it holds up well, and the boosters attach very solidly, which is the first time I've ever seen that on a VF-25.
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Yeah, might just be some kind of forked sliding mount. Judging by that pic, might rotate on the mount as well, since those boosters look like they're tilted down. I think some of the other shots in battroid looked like the boosters were askew as well, so that would explain it.
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It does look more balanced, but I'm concerned what sort of mounting shenanigans that's going to create for any potential DX releases. That mounting point looks like a pile of colliding polygons with no physically possible solution. There's no hook over the wing, the booster just looks pasted over the top of where the hinge for the outer wing section will have to exist. The VF-31 booster mount was one of the very few rock solid mount designs Bandai has managed, because of how it locked down so snugly over the tail and wing. Maybe it will use a similar sliding lock over the outer wing panel hinge? Maybe it slides around the outer wing so the boosters can rotate down with the wing? No real way to tell yet, but it doesn't look very sturdy.
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Yeah, this x1000. Bandai's exclusive accessory shenanigans is just miserable for people who acquire something after the fact, and can't get those. There's a potential gold mine to be had just mass producing weapons, or fast packs, or armor, or other accessories that you could use with all of their releases. Shoot, just pick up any of the Master Files, and go to town making all the unofficial stuff. They don't even have to be direct knock offs. Bandai has left a ton of material on the table because they just don't want to produce it themselves.
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Yeah, the cockpit model on the old UCS shuttle is rotten. Shape across the board was a bit weird, really, and there've been some much better alternatives developed since it was released. I really would like to get that new UCS ISD, since that one looks leaps and bounds more robust than the one from.. oy, was that twenty years ago now? The original was all a mess of loose plates held by magnets, and was more like a sculpture than anything else.
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The Transformers Thread (licensed) Next
Chronocidal replied to mikeszekely's topic in Anime or Science Fiction
Ok, that takes me back. G2 Ramjet was the first (and technically only) Transformer I had as a kid. Not a fan of that chunky block of a mold, but I'd love a MP-style in those colors. -
Definitely take a look back through this thread. It's been around a while, and I know there was some pretty good discussion of the novels a few years ago when I read through them. I didn't actually know there was a third one, now that you mention it. I feel like I heard a rumor of it at some point, but thought the story had fairly well ended in the second book, or at least ended as well as the animated version.
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How is that piece even installed? It looks like one of those things you'd destroy the valk getting a new one put in.
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Appreciate the update, I'd post that to the other NY thread too if you haven't already. Might be worth hammering the issue with Paypal a bit to see if they'll take action despite the timeline.
