David Hingtgen

People have thought I was a sentient database for years--you people aren't the first to comment on that---that's been going on since original 9600 baud BBS days...

Anyone have an update on shoulder hinges? What's the current recommendation for getting replacement parts for a first-release V2 Roy? Ask for VF-1S Max shoulders? Anyone get any lately?

Thanks much, that's perfect.

Someone on another board I go to would like to get a "new Jetfire toy" but he's very open to getting a 1/55 reissue or even another VF-1 mold, but he's very unfamiliar with the past 20 years of VF-1 toys. Most v2 reviews only compare that to the 1/48 and original 1/60, and won't help him much as he doesn't know them. Is there any review out there that kind of covers "1/48 and 1/60 v2 for newbies, compared to the original chunky monkey?" In short--what's the quickest way to bring him up to speed, toy-wise?

It's far less "artistic" than the first. Certainly less "epic"---first one clearly had a "the entire universe" sense, while this one could easily be GoW with different characters.

Yeah, I've considered that. I'd like a bigger area, but I may have to go with that. Will have to wait a while though---the feet ended up the glossiest of all somehow, and it'll be a while before they're "rock hard" dry and can be masked. (there's dry, then REALLY dry when it comes to gloss paint)

chen---the pelvis armor plates photograph funny in most pics I've seen. I'm sure mine were originally painted the same as yours--dark gunmetal, with unpainted blue edges. Everyone---yeah, I kinda photographed them "backwards"---my repaint is on the left. I debated on painting the forearms, as they are notably "not as blue" as most of the other navy blue parts due to lacking the gloss coat (dunno why Takara did that), and the G1 toon always had lighter forearms, AND I didn't want to spend forever masking the wrist stripes. But I went ahead and did it, and am glad I did---having a pure black background really makes the striping stand out. Yeah for 1.0mm masking tape! I debated on exactly how to do the pelvis for a while, and came to a final decision last night--I'm actually going to have to redo one part (all silver, instead of just the center), but I'm waiting for a new can of silver to arrive. Currently done: All chest/shoulder parts Feet, nozzles, nozzle holders, shins. Nosecone, forearms. Codpiece, 1 waist armor plate To do: Tailfins (black) Intake exterior (silver) 2 waist-joint parts and a waist armor plate (ran out of paint) All the parts around the engines that are bare metal on a real F-15. (will probably go with titanium, though I'm going to keep experimenting with stripping the factory paint and glossing to match---it's worked surprisingly well so far, but that's a large area) Opinions needed: Feet. Currently they're PURE black. But most seekers including nearly all incarnations of TC have silver on their feet--but the MP mold just really doesn't have any obvious area to paint due to being all curves and very few panel lines. (and I don't want to use G1 style stickers--just doesn't work for the new shape) Chest missiles---what color? I'm thinking red, as most of the other "minor accents" on MP TC are metallic red. Though canon SS colors seem to be kind of lavender? H.stabs---leave pure blue? I kind of want to add a little something, maybe paint the tips black. Or red?

Much as I hate to say it, think of it in Ace Combat terms. Are the newer, better PLANES in the latter part of the game that much better? Nope. Their WEAPONS and avionics are. Really, for "the final massive battle" you almost never want the aerodynamically best plane--you're looking for the one with jamming, longer radar lock-on-range, better mid-flight tracking for the missiles, ability to launch and support multiple missiles simultaneously, and the ability to find the semi-stealthy enemy aircraft in the first place. Raw agility is actually fairly low on the priority list.

Just a quick little preview of my MP TC, showing the difference between the factory colors and "G1 silver and black":

Just a heads-up, but the Rockford airshow is going to be REALLY good this year. August 22/23. http://flyrfd.com/airfest_performers.html And, more bad 787 news: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/boei...9_boeing30.html

I think people are mis-interpreting my comments. I'm not saying the F360 is anything notable. I am saying it is about the best they've done in the last 10 years, because most of the last 10 years has really sucked. The F458 is the first thing in the last 10 years that is comparable to the F360---still nothing noticeable, but at least they're finally getting a bit better than recent designs, and it doesn't flat-out suck. "Not sucking" is a compliment at this point, and better than the last few... 250, 308, etc is way outside the terms/era of my comments. It's like bringing up the '63 Vette when talking about C5 vs C6.

Yeah, but *recently*?

Yeah, I was wondering where the tri-cores came from too.

If you're interested, my Alt Jazz and Grimlock are for sale.

Definitely better than the last, but I still haven't seen anything better than the 360 from them in years.

Seconded. Remember, this is "the MMORPG for people who don't play/like MMORPG's". It should be about as NOT like WoW, Everquest, FFXI, PSO, or SW Galaxies as it can be.

Well yeah---nothing better on an F-15 than their actual shade of gray... Anyways---I like that one both for being the right shade of grey, as well as a perfect mix of realism and color---it's clearly G1 SS colors, but it's also pretty plausible for a real F-15. I especially like the red on the h.stabs, and have been considering something similar for my Thundercracker. (actually, I've been leaning towards black wingtips---have to go check and see exactly where the stripes lay again--I don't want the black too close to the stripes. (It it impossible to do either totally G1 toy or G1 toon colors on an MP---too many physical differences, especially when you get to the smaller details--so why not do something subtly different but cool?)

Question: of all the many MP Starscream repaints, has anyone repainted it to resemble what it was apparently supposed to---a dark grey F-15E? And here's just a quick link to what's probably my fave repaint---it's painted to match what IMHO the G1 toy itself was trying to be--36375 grey. http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/radicons-cus...rscream-g1.html

No, my only Frontier valk so far is a half-built 1/72 kit. I may get an armored 1/60 some day, depends on how the final tweaked Ozma looks. I mainly hope the 1/100 line does some of the less-famous stuff we've wanted for a while--VF-4, VF-5000, VF-11MAXL... *Another* VF-1 is really pointless IMHO. Give us new valks, not new scales of the same valks we already have!

::looks carefully at pic again:: Yeesh, I figured pics of a new 1/100 VF-1 could only be "the" 1/100 VF-1... Talk about over-saturation.

No one's posted the VF-1 yet? (saw it a couple hours ago, but couldn't get into MW at the time)

V.4 Kos-Mos sucks. It's all they ever make merchandise of now, but it's the worst design, and the only version I won't buy at all.

Couldn't get in the past couple hours.

MP SW is $60.

Ok, so if you don't realize the parallels, does it still count? If you eliminate the "morality/preaching" aspects---is it not just a story? (that goes for the bible itself, too)