Ghadrack

I'll be there. I'll wear my Skull Squadron shirt probably Saturday morning around the dealers room.

Awesome! Might be able to make good use of the old "Early Bird" pass again this year

It's only a steal if you have the skills to do a good job constructing, painting, decaling it and can make it look at least as good as the toy is and discount the time and effort necessary to do so. I think it's a reasonable discount given the amount of work it will take to assemble.

I waited too long to pick up the toy version like a dummy and it seems to have either sold out or had it's price jacked up everywhere. I hope I can catch a second bite at the apple here. hopefully we get a little advanced warning on the release date, a kit version sounds just perfect to me. ~Edit~ Maybe I spoke too soon, I just checked HLJ and they are getting a restock in July so hopefully they announce a release date for this so i can make a decision on whihc verson to get before they sell out again.

My expectations were pretty much on target for the movie. I wish that they hadn't hyped it so much and blown nearly every action sequence in the commercials, because I think if I would have been surprised by a few of the enemies I would have had an even better time watching the movie. I didn't hate it, but I also wouldn't go getting a tattoo of the title across my chest or anything either. It was a fun distraction for a couple hours.

I caught this last night with a buddy. While not as bad as Cloverfield, the shaky cam action in this was lame and made the movie less watchable. This trend needs to GO, it covers up sloppy fight choreography and lazy photography, it does not, ever, improve a movie. I laughed out loud a few times at inappropriate moments in the movie due some seriously cheesy lines. That being said, it was exactly what I expected in a mindless - humans versus technologically advanced alien invasion movie. I had some laughs, a few startles and some fun watching people shooting stuff (although the cruddy filming almost always made it hard to figure out who was shooting what and what was getting hit.) I wouldn'trecommend it unless someone was just looking for a shoot em up on the big screen, but for that it fit the bill.

I am prone to take most of the stuff we are hearing as not being fact, but some of the reports this afternoon sound pretty alarming. I continue to hope that it is exageration and that they wil begin to gain ground in containing this potential catastrophy.

I am under the impression that since the vast majority of the country suffered very little damage that the government should not have any problem delivering fuel and replacement fire/water trucks indefinitely if they need to, the entire countries resources weren't evaporated afterall. I think what's scary is that things are out of control and it seems like they are having to devise methods "on the fly" to try to solve these problems, and when you are dealing with unforeseen and completely unpredictable scenarios no one can be certain of how the situation will unfold. You know how when there is a brushfire in California, we know how fire acts and the effects that the wind has on it and even though it can be a catastrophy and there is a measure of uncertainty about how far and fast things will go, we kinda know what to expect. With this, no one seems to know what may happen and it's leading to all this crazy speculation being broadcast around the world at lightning speed. People in California are panicking and buying up iodine pills as though thousands of miles away they are at risk of high level exposure. We'll probably see more deaths due to children geting thyroid poisoning from Iodine overdoses than we will radiation exposure victims. Anyhow, this isn't about us. I hope our memebers, their families and friends are all safe and that the officials can come up with a solution to control the plant so that you may have some peace and rest easy for a while and the recovery can truly begin. I also hope that the people who are staying behind to fight to control the power plant are successful and survive their mission.

Also, it's not like people are putting money in envelopes and sending it to "Japan", most of us are talking about donating to organizations that specialize in rapid response first aide and emergency supplies and shelter to desparate people in dire situations. Just because a country happens to have a higher per capita income doesn't mean that the geeral population have access to private helicopters to fly them away from natural disasters, there are currently tens and hundreds of thousands of Japanese citizens whose homes, workplaces and even families have been demolished by this unfolding disaster. Setting up shelters, organizing people, delivering supplies like food and water takes a coordinated effort and organizations like the Red Cross are skilled at doing just that and have plans to do so, so they aren't forced to make it up as they go like an unprepared city government may have to in case of a critical emergency. And on the other point, which I think is an unfair generalization about the nature of the people, I found the people very helpful and hospitable in my trip to Japan. Even if they hadn't been, for me, the old Golden Rule applies, Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. You are of course welcome to do as you see fit and dislike anyone you choose, but aside from the good feeling that most people get from helping someone in time of need, and other personal benefits people reap from true altruism, you never know when you may find yourself in need. And back to the disaster... I am disappointed that it seems like we are getting so much misinformation about the real threat from the reactors at Fukushima. You can pull up any four or five news sites right now in the US and get drastically different stories about the level of danger. I am assuming it is because either no one really knows what is happening or the news is very bad. Obviously the government in Japan doesn't want to start a panic, but I wish instead of the sensationalism we are getting from the knuckleheads at CNN and the big broadcast stations they would show us the reports being given on Japanese TV/Radio with a straight translation, no commentator nonsense. I'm still hopeful and sending my best wishes to everyone affected in Japan and I too am thankful for the heroes who may right now be sacrificing their lives at the plants to help contain the damage to the reactors. The company I work for is setting up a matching donations program today to double contributions employees make to several emergency organizations like the Red Cross and doctors without borders and some others for employees who wish to contribute. I know they do it for the PR but I am glad they do it because it helps increase our small individual contributions.

I hate the feeling of helplessness watching all this stuff on TV and not being able to do anything other than send money. I guess it's part of the double edged sword of the information age, but seeing these live reports and having had the priviledge of travelling to Japan makes it seem so close, I wish I could go after work and on the weekends and volunteer to help somehow. My best wishes are with everyone, their families and friends affected. I hope that aide in the form of food, water and shelter can be provided for all of the survivors quickly. I can see from the news reports that the sense of community and order has already greatly benefited the Japanese people, I hope that they are spared the desperation of starvation/dehydration during the rescue efforts. Since a great deal of the tsunami damage appears to have been done in coastal areas, has the country's internal infrastructure been spared earthquake damage enough to allow for transport trucks to bring in supplies and bring out survivors? Watching the news and hearing all of the constant aftershock and tsunami warnings, I wonder if there are plans to start transporting survivors inland to shelters away from the coast to allow them some measure of peace from the recurring Tsunami sirens? Then again, the scale of this is so big, I guess that would be asking for the impossible, moving hundreds of thousands of displaced people even a few miles may be a monumental task. This just sucks

Package received here as well, safe and sound! 2 down, 4 to go!~

That came out great and your photography is spectacular, crisp clean pictures that really show all the detail work you did. Great job all around, thanks as alwasy for sharing!

I'm too lazy to resize the pic at the moment, but here are some of the parts on my cutting mat next to a soda can for scale Obscenely cool model parts~!

I popped the box open last night and started to do a litle minor clean up stuff, and did some test fitting per the Captain's recommendation. I' snapped a few pictures that I'll try to get uploaded tonight if noone beats me to it. The gun next to a soda can is pretty funny. This thing is going to be monsterous.

You want to see pics of 1/6th of the kit, as in, the parts of a single appendage? I haven't decided if I am going to assemble mine in stages as they are released or save them up and do one big build at the end.

Payment #2 sent. I know we all signed a contract, but if someone does have some life event happen and is forced to back out partway through, do you have a waiting list or might there be an opportunity for someone else to buy them out? I hope that doesn't happen to anyone, but 10 months is a long time. I wasn't certain of my fluidity so I played it safe and only requested one but kinda wanted to get two kits. It would probably be a hassle to work out the logistics of buying partial kits and transferring the remainder of the contract, but I was just curious if it had been given any thought. ~EdIt~ Schpeeling

I can't find the thread and the posts that explain what DYRL? is right away, I'm gonna keep it brief and I hope I get this straight. DYRL? was a high quality, thatrically released, short form, condensed version of the Macross story with better art that was explained as a movie history of the Macross tale for the people in the macross universe, so it's an idealized, embelished history of Macross within Macross. So, IMO the DYRL? version of the SDF-1 therefore is a just a snazzier artists rendition of the ship to look nicer on the big screen.

Thank you so much for the thorough review, videos and pictures Graham, I was hesitant to buy without seeing feedback first, You've sold me.

Wow. Just wow..... (Suddenly he regrets not taking the advice and buying a second kit......)

Nice work Marc! I think I'm going right for Bronze/Brown for mine, need to finish the last few details on another kit before I get serious about painting this though. Looks like this is available for pre-order on Starshipmodeler. I'd like to have a second one, it's a great kit.

REL too? Do they have a plasma donor center nearby, I may be going home without a car, shirt, shoes or half my blood if I can find someone to buy it. Seriously, that is grounds for an assault charge against my wallet. Why don't you guys kidnap Moscato and set him up down there as well so I can have an aneurysm struggling with how I am going to explain a multi-thousand dollar hour in the dealers room during early bird time. I guess I better start saving now. ~Edit~ Sorry for literring in the thread with jibber-jabber not really related to the topic, my excitement got the better of me, on with the show!

Oh god..., if you and Neisen both set up in the dealers room this year I may end up selling my car and walking 240 miles home with about 400 pounds of resin strapped to my back.

Imagine an emoticon with eyes expanding and then exploding here. I remember way back when seeing ads for a 1/24 scale valk for sale in japan and thinking how awesome that would be. Now looks like we will get to see one. Any chance you'll have this done and be attending Wonderfest in Kentucky this year?

I've been fooling around making laser canons from sprues since you posted that little trick. Pretty awesome. ~Edit~ Yeah, I missed the great link in the initial post. Mine's in primer atm too but I needed some color inspiration. Looking at the Kamjin vaiant covered in moss/crud I wish I had bought a second, I may have to really scuzzy mine up, because, well, It's Kamjin

Hopefully it's not cancelled and this isn't a sore spot, but I'm curious about the status of the book? My comic shop never got issue number 3, I see it's still for sale on TFAW, where I guess I'll have to pick it up.