Noyhauser

I stand corrected. Can we get a scan perhaps? Still though, I guess its a bit of anime magic... Don't get me wrong, I like the designs and all... I think the hellhound was in my top 3 wants for models all time

That was my original point... I'm just saying that in the Jiga's case it looks quite anemic, and the hellhound's case its missing alltogether.

I saw the vaned exhaust port, (I've built my jiga already) and thats what I first thought too... but it looks far too small to counteract the force of the propellers imho. And I'd rather see the series do something more interesting rather than the Comanchero, like a EW-204 Multiped Tank.

Meh I could care less about the Commachero, its an dated, ugly design imo, and completely unlikely to ever see a model made out of it. Then again both the Jiga and the Hellhound don't have tail rotors or Contrarotating props, so... well another strike for realism. I've been waiting/praying for the hellhound, but given how wide the nose is, I'm having doubts. edit: forgot picture

Actually, its supposed to be the one from the 2nd gig episode, as the baseplate of the model is embossed with the 2nd gig logo. (but yes you are right, the first appearance was in the first series.)

I've been accused of being an anime elitist in the past... LOGH, Macross, Votoms, GITS SAC are my staples. I don't appreciate excessive fanservice or hokeyness, and at first I had the exact qualms about Gurren Lagann as you did. Still though I gave it a try, and I don't know what it is about Gurren Lagann, but I think it works, and is effing awesome. The ridiculousness of it at times (in a sort of stated way) is what makes it so good. Again I usually don't go for shows like this, but somehow it just works, and is amazing. And its chock full of anime references. 22 is both a homage to Macross and Gundam (CCA) (wouldn't people say?) Epiciticy indeed.

I don't know if it is him. I mean look at the advisor beside "Future Simon," it doesn't look like anybody currently in the series. The enemy is the "galactic council" or something like that. It may simply be a segment about a previous user of Laggan that might be explained later.

If this is the same kit I got from Valk, it does not transform but is a real beauty. I haven't fully finished it (but did test fittings, priming, ect) and its absolutely amazing. I may well pick up another one (depending on other projects on here)

Nied Given the current state of the Iranian economy, I was really skeptical as to whether the claims were true. the Iranian government has now placed fuel rationing on its populace, unemployment and inflation are high. Moreover many international companies are voluntarily refusing to do business with the government because of the sanctions places as a result of the non-compiance with the IAEA. So the domestic politics which Mahmoud Ahmadinejad campaigned on to get elected has turned out badly for him, I doubt that purchasing a huge lot of fighter aircraft would be on the menu at this point in time.

I'd be very interested as well. I've been wanting to get a set of these but missed out when they were first offerred at WF.

Interesting article about weapon handlers on the Harry Truman Enjoy http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?...&ran=175752

Why does "technological advancement" and cultural development equate peace? I mean this is a culture that created the Zentredi and the Evil Series to put down revolts in its own colonies. If anything its reflective of a culture that has achieved such greatness with an equivalent level of moral arrogance. The best parallel can be found in our Classical history. The Athenians achieved unheard of cultural developments in their day, and yet were ruthless towards weaker city states like Melos who were their allies. The cultural superiority clearly bred arrogance towards junior partners. In the case of the PC, putting a "test system" into seeded worlds was just a sign of that. If a seeded world didn't meet their "standards" of development, then they would be #1: looked down upon as a lesser race #2 a possible threat to their culture, and therefore needed to be extinguished before they can do harm. They may have sounded like an advanced galactic society, but in reality they seemed to have suffered from many of the same faults are common to human civilizations in general.

No and yes. By itself, it comes off with water, but I don't know how good the contrast would look with just the regular toy paintjob underneath.

A little nitpick, thats not *always* true, though I completely agree that it happens far less frequently than delays due to product design. Defence Contractors have to learn how to produce a certain piece of machinery and that process can create delays or unforseen hiccups. Once that process has been learned then full scale production can be achieved. Its also somewhat more difficult to point out when delays or problems during full scale production are due to design or production error. They may take quite some time to manifest, or are blamed on the product design phase. In reality its actually a bit of a black hole of reporting. Most auditing attention has been paid to problems in technology and product design phases, not the production design, particularly because the problems with the first two phases are usually the ones that cause the most problems. But it does happen. The AESA Array, and the MV-22 program have had problems with production design problems that have held up their full production (in addition to technology and production design problems). [edit- the A-380 is being held up because of a production delay, not one of design or technology. The wiring problem is not a technology or product design problem but one of manufacturing.] In 2003 the Government Accounting Office introduced a a new best practices scheme for the development of major weapons programs. This assesses all three sections of weapons programs development which I outlined above. As for the time it would take for a valk's product design phase, I don't think it would be that much longer. Just imagine the computer power, and design techniques that would be available due to overtechology (like what Mr. March discussed). Semi-intelligent AIs could test all aspects of the plane before it was ever built, only reporting problems to a man in the loop when needed. Stuff like that would hurry the design process along substantially. Well I don't think it would differ on the order of magnitudes. First off 99% of UNG production will always come from the factory satellite, which would far oustrip any other means of production the government could create. Thats great for mass producing whole fleets of warships but it doesn't really help the fleets once they are far from the centres of power. Fleets like Macross 7 on the other hand are much more limited in their production capability, taking a year just to produce a single Macross Class battleship with their Three Star Factory ships. Moreover all this says nothing about maintenance. All your production capabilities don't matter in the least if your fighter is a hangar queen that requires specialized maintenance and a lot of expensive parts. Thats what matters in the end for these fleets. Given the local limitations of production, I'd say that units like the VF-19 are just too expensive (and specialized) to justify full scale production, and that the VF-11 will remain the main line fighter for some time. If they were so easily produced, the Macross 7 fleet would have replaced their VF-11s with VF-19s as they were destroyed in combat. Instead they continued to rely on the VF-11, and only build 5 more advanced fighters. It tells me that its still more efficient to build and maintain a bunch of the lower quality fighters than one or two superfighters. Since their main threat is still massive numbers of Zentredi units, and so large numbers of cheaper fighters like the VF-11 make more sense.

Probably not. What you're not getting is cost. By 2040 we see a UN Sphere that is not firing on all cylinders economically, where you have serious rebellions among colonies, which was the primary reason for project supernova. It means that while a new fighter is needed for attacking key targets precisely without causing massive casualties that would occur if they used reaction weaponry. That meant that the main threat for UN Spacy was a massive Zentredi incursion, like boddol's main fleet. And it was made particularly apparent that the VF-11 is generally good enough against regular Zentredi units. In reality cost, is a major factor preventing the wholescale adoption of the project supernova fighters. The YF-21, likely a better fighter than the YF-19, was not accepted partially because of its prohibitive cost. In the year they fought against the Vartua, a very large threat to the UN Spacy, the Macross 7 fleet produced a total of five advanced fighters, three VF-19S and two VF-22As. They did not replace the VF-11s destroyed in combat with those fighters, which tells you that the VF-19 type fighters are far too expensive for general use. What is more effective? 20 fighters that are good enough or 3 fighters that are waaay better than all of the others. Why don't we equip all our squadrons today with F-22s? Why are we developing F-35s which are inferior to the F-22 in almost every way? Why are our airforces made up mostly of F-16s and not F-15s? Because of cost. We've seen this already in macross, the VF-5000 became the replacement to the VF-1, rather than the VF-4. So no. VF-19s/VF-22s probably would remain a specialty fighter. More likely what would occur is that a more direct

^would that be the cause of why my Mac VLC suddenly can't seem to handle it? Bummer.

Not to be a bit of a nitpick, but did you ever consider making a hole in the spitfire for the IFF being blown out? I don't have the book with the photo with me but apparently if the risk of capture was certain the pilot was supposed to blow out the IFF, which rested behind the cockpit on the right side.

My family lives in Kyoto and Wakayama-Ken. I've probably lived there 4~5 years total, though not all in one time. When I live there I'm IN japan, not in an english speaking community, or in contact with any english speakers. While I have a family that lives there, I've also got many good friends, quite a few I made through playing rugby. I go out drinking with them, hang out, go on away trips (ect). If anything I feel more at home at times in that "crippling homogenous society" than I do at my place of birth in North America. And don't fool yourself, westerners in my perspective are often no better with their understanding of the world than Japanese are. Thats not saying much for either.

Wow, thats a bit harsh, who's sprouting myths now?

Ep 10 is out You know what to do... http://www.tokyotosho.com/

What, you didn't hotkey groups? man the best feeling was on a map max mp games setting off your waves of units against an enemy line. ahh those were the days.

I agree with what kywell said, though I like the Tamiya putty as well... its really no fuss basic stuff.

Agreed I basically have a darwinistic approach to the matter. If he's weak enough to be constantly mind controlled, I'll shoot him on the spot, and deal with it that way. Not strong enough? Your problem. Then there is the whole psi "baiting strategy" where you just leave some of your weakest soldiers unarmed and able to get psi controlled. At very least, you should just make sure the guy with no resistance isn't carrying the blaster launcher.

Two items I find help immensely at night, one is flares, obviously. Cheap and small, you can spam them across the map. The second item is proximity grenades. Prox grenades are fantastic, not only for doing damage against aliens, but also as a sort of mine that you can leave in place to cover a flank. You can move on and if it goes off, you can return to shoot whatever remains.

I don't know if you're "screwed." Rarely was I able to get a psiwarfare capability going before the ethereals. And if you have a hyper wave decoder,you can avoid doing Etherals land missions (once you got your live one) and just blow out of the sky any offending Ethereal unit.