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SchizophrenicMC

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  1. SchizophrenicMC
    It dates back ages, even before The Origin. Casval Deikun, in hiding as Edward Mass, met a young man who looked like him but with brown eyes, named Char Aznable. Assuming the other man's identity, he joined the forces of Zeon, in order to enact his revenge for the assassination of his parents from the inside. And that's why he always wore a mask: to hide that his eyes were blue, instead of the brown eyes of the true Char Aznable.
  2. SchizophrenicMC
    Wow I'd forgotten all about the original Char Aznable.
  3. SchizophrenicMC
    1991, but the manufacture date is 8/90. State of Texas classifies vehicle age by manufacture date, regardless of model year. If the MFG date is formatted differently (eg due to being an import with a foreign VIN) the date is assumed to be 01/YR. So anyway here in 2 weeks I'm gonna get her inspected, registered, and re-plated.
  4. SchizophrenicMC
    Reminds me: I'm gonna get Classic Car plates for the 240SX next month. It's not due for new plates or anything, and the emissions exemption for 25 year old vehicles is automatic, but the classic plates look cooler than the ones I currently have.
  5. SchizophrenicMC
    It's just crazy enough to work!
  6. SchizophrenicMC
    See, the feeling I got from all this was immediately Armored Core, though I couldn't place exactly why. Might be the high heels on some of the MS they've shown off so far. I'm not a fan of that design style. I need a bit more Katoki in my life.
  7. SchizophrenicMC
    I watched G Gundam again last year. Man, let me tell you, nostalgia is a bitch. It wasn't as good as I remembered. I watched Gundam Seed again last week. Man, let me tell you, nostalgia is a bitch. It wasn't as bad as I remembered.
  8. SchizophrenicMC
    Because Destiny and G Gundam didn't happen right?
  9. SchizophrenicMC
    When AGE was in production, we said it couldn't be worse than 00. When G-Reco was in production we said it couldn't be worse than AGE. Suffice it to say I'm not holding my breath.
  10. SchizophrenicMC
    We finally get to Mars in Gundam, and this is how we do it? Sheesh. Pass.
  11. SchizophrenicMC
    As a Gundam fan, I don't really like it. What's with high-heels cannon fodder over there? For that matter, Sumo-bot With Mjolnir? Gundam mecha design just keeps straying more and more from what's always made it unique.
  12. SchizophrenicMC
    Lockheed projected 5,179 planes would be demanded. Even today, Lockheed and Canada's industry minister are claiming "up to 5000" airframes, even though third party analysis puts demand around 3500 airframes at the most. The US alone is supposed to buy around 2500 of the planes, for which there are around 3100 confirmed orders to date. 115 F-35s of various specification have been built since "production" began in 2006. If it takes 9 years to manufacture 115 airframes, it's going to be 242 years before the rest of the line is up and flying, unless Lockheed pulls some miracle out of their hat and actually puts it into a production scale that matches what they're claiming for demand. The plane isn't a production aircraft yet, it's a 115-unit prototype fleet. Until Lockheed commits to the full production run, in a reasonable amount of time, it's not in production. It's just a motley bunch of hand-built demonstrators. That's a bit embarrassing for a plane that's cost $40bn to develop, even though it was projected at $25bn, and was supposed to enter full production a decade ago. From the conception of the Lightweight Fighter Program in 1965 to the service introduction of the F-16 in 1978, 13 years passed developing the most advanced fighter of its time and putting it into full scale production. Since 1973, (when "production" began) over 4500 F-16s have been built. Lockheed announced participation in the Joint Strike Fighter Program in 1994. They still don't have a service-ready aircraft, let alone the numbers to really qualify it as a combat plane. Oh, but let's give it another decade, right guys? It'll be fine. We'll just keep underwriting it until 2025. Lockheed will have it by then. I'll see, right? It'll be fine, and it'll be the fighter of the future, and it won't break twice the initial program budget in development alone, and unit costs won't keep climbing and climbing past what was projected during the sales pitch where all the politicians decided to back it. There'll be thousands- a composite cloud- ready to rain justice and democracy on the undeveloped world. What a damn farce.
  13. SchizophrenicMC
    Like I said, it was impressive a decade ago. Now you have a LOT of politicians who've spent money on this thing, and they really can't afford to give up the ghost on it. Doesn't matter what the test pilots say about the test planes, if the thing can't reach production.
  14. SchizophrenicMC
    The F-35 was amazing 20 years ago when it beat out the Boeing offering. It was impressive 10 years ago when it was supposed to go into production. It was frustrating 5 years ago when it was ridiculously over budget. It's disappointing today. And 10 years from now, fully 3 decades after it was chosen to be the JSF, I don't even know what words we'll be using to describe it. It's a boondoggle. It's the most overbudget program the US military has ever encountered, and we built ten Nimitz-classes. If anything else had gone this far past schedule, this far over the budget allotment, it'd be fodder. But no, no, not the precious Joint Strike Fighter. That's a special marvel, the brainchild of amazing military minds, the thing that will give us the edge in modern warfare because it has... Things. Let's be real here: the F-35 has only been saved from the scrap heap because it'd cause too much political furor if the military admitted their hugely expensive, past-due, broken plaything had not only failed to bring results, but also left all our allies with a broken promise. Even more than it'd leave Lockheed Martin bankrupt, it'd end some political careers. Politicians hate that. I live in Arlington, Texas. I'm less than 20 miles from where they're supposed to build the damn things. Forget the pilots, I know technicians and engineers who've actually had their hands on F-35s. Not a single one of those bastards is impressed with what's become famous in Lockheed circles as the most mis-managed project since they lost the Rocketdyne F1 schematics. The only people I know who still think it's a good idea are Lockheed executives, pilots who've seen videos, and politicians who need to save face more badly than they need to save tax dollars.
  15. SchizophrenicMC
    Well, that makes things all the more interesting. And while I agree with the Viper/Hornet guy, I think this just stands as one more example of how the aircraft is deficient relative to its cost. For what this plane has cost, and the amount of time it's taken to make it (can we really say an aircraft that's over 20 years into its development is still in its infancy?) it really should have better performance. And it's not like this test pilot was wet behind the ears, like the Viper pilot makes him out to be. This guy has over 2000 hours in F-15s, at least notable seat time in F-16s, and apparently some test pilot time in F-18s. (At least that seems the most likely reason a test pilot would end up in high AoA flight in a plane that isn't his main assigned airframe) I have to imagine the test pilot knew how to get good results from a twin-tail fighter. If you read the report, a lot of his complaints come down to the fly-by-wire software getting in the way, especially in blended region flight. He would try and affect a maneuver, and then the computer would tell the aircraft not to respond, even though it was within the physical abilities of the plane to maintain control in spite of the input. If your only maneuvering advantage is yaw rate, and the computer locks out yaw, or gives you a reduced roll rate, that makes for a pretty frustrating flight, to say the least. This isn't the only reason the Lightning II sucks, it's just one of the many.
  16. SchizophrenicMC
    I really enjoy painting my kits, personally. I think the paint makes the kits really pop. But even my MG Unicorn, one of my favorite kits ever, is a raw out-of-the-box build. These kits come molded in color for a reason. They look good unpainted, right out of the box. But adding the extra steps just makes that go from good to amazing. If you don't want to go full-on paint, but still want to add something to the look of your gunpla, the first thing to look at is panel lining. You can do it with a marker, a thin paint wash, or even a premixed wash. Adding a bit of dark color to the little lines on the kit brings out the detail and gives a sense of scale. (Because if this were really a 15 meter tall giant robot, those panels would have a big enough gap to really cause some shadow) It's a really forgiving technique that doesn't cost a lot, and can add a ton of effect, even to a raw plastic build. It's not the kind of thing you can mess up irrevocably because your hand slipped, especially if you haven't painted the kit first. RGs and modern MGs come with pretty good color separation and don't often need much, if anything, in the way of paint. Aside from panel lining, I've never added any paint to an RG.
  17. SchizophrenicMC
    RX-78-5 is pretty cool, but it suffers from a few weak joints and it can't hold its gun up on its own. It's also very obviously not a modern MG. 6/10 would not build again.
  18. SchizophrenicMC
    That kind of thing always pisses me off. I'm young and I don't particularly look handicapped, but I have rheumatic arthritis which makes walking and standing for long periods painful. So I have handicapped parking placard for one of my vehicles, and handicapped plates on the other. Sometimes when I switch between the two, I end up in the vehicle without plates and forget to hang my placard when I park. (Of course, when I park at a meter, it's a rare and deliberate action, so I always remember to make sure I'm displaying, whichever car I'm in) And I'd hate to see my car vandalized because some armchair activist teenagers decided they'd be justice warriors and mess with me just because I didn't hobble out of my car with a cane or crutches. Leave well enough alone. If you're really bothered, call police, take pictures, and have them issue a citation. That way, people who are breaking the law have to pay a fine, and people who aren't, but forgot to display their placard, don't get unduly punished. (Well, more unduly punished than having to go to the courthouse and show them your placard)
  19. SchizophrenicMC
    They'll probably re-release the extra finish Try Burning, but I'm not sure I understand the tan Unicorn. Is that colored titanium gold, or is it tan like it looks to my colorblind eyes? The Beargguy III special version has kind of a Nyan-Nyan feel to it, and I kind of want it. Damned Hong Kongers having all the luck. We should build our own Gundamplex, with blackjack and hookers. In fact, forget the Gundamplex and the blackjack.
  20. SchizophrenicMC
    This captures the plot pretty succinctly.
  21. SchizophrenicMC
    Nah, man. Stage is already set for you: American conservatives love drones. (Was that too political?)
  22. SchizophrenicMC
    But... B7R. And to answer Sildani the F-22A still has its own struggles. The F/B-22 would be just another Lockheed boondoggle. I say we let Boeing design the next fighter. At least they'd get it production-ready.
  23. SchizophrenicMC
    In that case, the F/A-18F might just well be that aircraft. The F-16 is still lighter and cheaper than the F-15. And despite its then-cutting-edge fly-by-wire control system, at least the plane was cheap. Even the most expensive variant, adjusted for inflation, had a unit cost under $30m. Lockheed advertises the cheapest F-35 unit cost at $108m, but some sources suggest the actual unit cost for the F-35A is $148m. And it's over a decade past deadline, and it's still not production ready. And it's showing more and more signs of being an air inferiority fighter every day. At least the F-22 was able to make its full (if small) production run. If it hadn't, I don't know how Lockheed Martin would be able to convince its creditors to keep them in business.
  24. SchizophrenicMC
    Every avionic feature on the F-35 has found its way into other airframes because it's been over a decade since they were invented, and electronics tend to have that trickle-down effect. The only advantage the F-35 offers is multi-aspect stealth, but even that has drawn criticism for being potentially inadequate anyway. Once the initial wonderment waned, I ceased to see the viability of the JSF.
  25. SchizophrenicMC
    It's like it's a powered exoskeleton of pure win. Kind of reminds me of the Astray Red Frame Power Loader, crossed with the exoskeleton from that episode of Dexter's Lab where he wins at basketball.
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