David Hingtgen

Ok, that just sucks. "Hip joint attachment" comparison: That's not bad proportions, that's just flat-out in the wrong spot. That'd be like having the YF-19's wings hanging off the knees instead of the hips, or the YF-21's tailfins on the bicep. If the hips were merely level with the crotch, it'd be bad but acceptable. But this??--they're on either side of the nosecone, yeesh.

X-21 is really thick, you could use a fork to get it out of the bottle.

How much X-21 did you use in the Future? It's hard to measure, as it's so thick you can't count by drops or milliliters or anything. I think I'll go for a "satin" appearance. PS--Partly I think I was out of practice, partly "trying too hard to use knife alone", and I am doing much better lately regarding sprue nubs. (That's why I'm building my practice Gundam before my VF-25). PPS---I tried the Gundam marker method, and surprisingly it works VERY well. On red plastic at least. I wonder if my Gundam grey 02 marker will match the dark grey parts in the VF-25 kit...

Ok, one more question: Just how bright is Tamiya "Light Green" in the bottle? The spray seems to be very bright, almost flourescent--but Tamiya sprays and bottles don't always match. I'm looking for "beam saber green" and have used Testors Sublime Green in the past for that--but now I'm looking for an acrylic substitute. (of course I find out about Tamiya Light Green 12 hours after I made my last Tamiya paint order.....)

Seconded. People are making everything BUT the shapely chicks in tight outfits...

"Hikari wo mezase!"

Micro Sol won't affect stickers at all. Maybe try Sprue Bros. full address? http://www.spruebrothers.com/ (as opposed to spruebros.com)

Quick question: What's the best paint/process to match Bandai's gold-plated parts? 99% of "gold" paint out there is more like bronze/copper, and not nearly yellow enough to match. And it's usually too grainy---I've found "smooth" silver, but never "smooth" gold/brass--it's always glittery. Since Bandai "gold" is actually silver-plated with a clear yellow sprayed over, is that the best match anyone's found? (painting silver, then putting clear yellow over it). Maybe mini/gaming/figure paint? They tend to have a lot of metallics for weapons/armor---anyone found a match? I have nearly every "gold" paint pen/marker ever made and none match--too green or too coppery. PS--hope that Sinanju comes with some nice stickers, or you'll need a steady hand to paint it---the gold "scrollwork" REALLY makes that suit, and it looks pretty bland as just pure black and red.

Micro sol etc: Will not be found at a "craft" store. Kinda surprised a Hobbytown didn't have them, but not stunned---they focus more and more on radio control these days, and less on kits. Any place that is primarily (or at least heavily) a model railroad place is almost certain to have good supplies for model kit building. If you really can't find it, Spruebrothers (spruebros.com) is a good place to order most anything. They are FAST and you always know if something's in stock. ::checks:: They currently have 9 bottles of Sol and 7 bottles of Set on hand. FYI, miriya and I both ordered our wash from there, and I just ordered some Tamiya paint this morning from them after doing an inventory check and noticing I was out or missing some colors. Sanding grades: 400, 600 for sanding down bits/nubs. 1000+ for polishing them back up.

I still wonder why no clear blue plastic on Sentinel Prime---the one TF of the past few years that DOES need transparent plastic weapons--and he doesn't have it. Versus a hundred other toys with clear orange/red/green missiles etc that don't...

I've only found one glue that'll work decently on ABS----Plastruct Weld, orange-label. However, Bandai MG/PG-style ABS is much "harder" than most ABS I've used it on---Plastruct may work better or worse on it. I have read that "UHU Hart" from Germany is the best ABS glue there is for models, but it's hard to find and I never ordered any. Heads-up to anyone in the US: Mine came today much earlier than I expected, as I had it shipped via SAL. I haven't even finished my practice-Gundam yet.

I plan on free-handing the canopy---masking rarely works for those in my case. (though strangely, when I was like 12, I got an SR-71 canopy just perfect with magic tape) Anyways---any resin casters etc plan on making us an actual 1/72 Alto? I can deal with 1/72 pilots, but Alto seems 1/100 at best, which is beyond my ability to make look decent. PS----IMHO, the VF-25 has pale grey landing gear, based on the anime. They also don't have launch bars. And pale grey paint usually has MUCH better coverage than white paint. I'm going to remove the launch bar and paint the gear grey.

Ok, that's enough "Macross screws" usage to irk me to make a public statement: The semi-official term used for years to describe them is "circle-bar vernier". And regardless of correct designation or not, it's definitely a vernier of some kind, not a giant mecha screw. Circle-bar vernier

I don't see anything they could have used for more than a second or two---95% of Grace's animation in the final ep had to be new. Pointless to alter the entire final ep just to re-use 2 secs of animation.

Ok, it's not MPC itself (found an old version). It just seems that the new version of CCCP takes forever to load vobsub, haali, ffdshow, etc. It used to take just a second or two, now it takes 10, sometimes even 20 secs. Did they suddenly bloat 10-fold in the last revision?

Ever since I downloaded the new version of CCCP to correct the issue ep 24 had, Media Player Classic loads really slowly--sometimes takes 15 secs before the mkv actually plays. As in, the player itself loads instantly, but I get 10-15secs of black nothingness before the file actually plays. Now, after that first loading, subsequent MKV files are quick--but a month ago my PC could start an MKV "cold" in like 1 sec. Anyone know why/what happened? I notice that the new version of MPC has the "home cinema" thing in the description, and I don't recall that in the previous version. (my previous CCCP was probably 9 months old). Is there a way to get the "old" version of of MPC with the newer version of CCCP or are they intertwined?

I *still* want to know why she "switched back" to her standard outfit (and when and where it happened--we see her in ep 22 in the suit, ready to board her VF-27---then she goes out and hooks up with the Vajra queen, and she's in her normal outfit again??????)

The problem isn't how to make it shiny again (I actually often make it TOO shiny when polishing it back, as Bandai plastic isn't THAT smooth and shiny when it comes out of the mold) The problem is physically removing the protruding nub itself, without removing any of the "original" part itself. I am quite familiar with basic parts removal from the sprue using nippers. And no nipper does a perfectly flush cut---you always have a nub left. Here's my typical part removal sequence: Use sprue nippers, have 1mm of nub remaining. Use x-acto, .25mm remaining. Use x-acto again, .1mm remaining. Then I start trying to get that last little bit of nub off---.05mm, .02mm, etc. That is when I start "taking out" plastic OTHER than the nub itself, in an attempt to get it perfectly level.

Trying to perfect some techniques before I do my VF-25, so I'm quickly building a Gundam. I've noticed over the years that whenever I build "unpainted" kits like MG Gundam and Zoids, I tend to spend a LOT of time very carefully slicing the sprue nubs with my xacto (seriously, 25 mins doing the thighs and feet of an HG kit--that's like 8 parts), trying to get them perfectly flush and smooth and hopefully invisible. However, a lot of the time in my quest to get every last bit of nub removed, I end up going "too far" and remove some of the plastic of the piece itself in the provess. It's usually subtle, but especially noticeable when two pieces butt together--you'll see a bit of curve/depression. No matter how careful I am, it seems impossible to remove every bit of the nub with an xacto held as perfectly flat to the piece as I can without inadvertantly shaving out a bit too much. Suggestions? Should I switch to "slice off most of nub, but always remove the last bit via sanding?" (of course, that always dulls the surrounding area) Or do I just suck at "slicing off nubs without taking too much"? I tend to prefer "slicing" a nub vs sanding on a part that won't be painted, since slicing leaves a shiny remnant that matches the bare plastic, and can sometimes be invisible, or nearly so. Sanding always roughs up the area, requiring polishing etc, and takes a lot longer. But if I keep getting those annoying little "shallow depressions" from trying so hard to slice off every last bit of the nub it may be worth it to change.

ron5864---could you explain what you mean by "solution"? Because I've used Pollyscale Steam Power Black for years (and used it yesterday), and it's not a "weathering" paint or anything as I know it--it's not thin, transparent, or anything else that indicates it's formulated for weathering effects---it's just normal paint. Do you thin it a *lot* to make a wash out of it? (In fact, it's the color I plan to use to touch up the rubbed-off spots on my v2 Roy left tailfin---it matched best of all the blacks I have)

Giant flightsuit Grace would have worked too, and been more appropriate.

For the shoulder--I think he's talking about the biggest piece of shoulder armor on top. Look around where the actual shoulder joint "opening" is---there should be a ridge on the inside edge. The "photo model" has no ridge there. I think the example one has the left and right armors swapped.

Sundowners! PS---what'd you use to cleacoat and how'd you apply it?

For the Model Master semi-gloss clear----do you mean their enamel one in the spray can, or the acrylic one in the bottle (and then airbrushed)? And what'd you use to tint the canopy--yours is the best I've seen.

Done to match his stomach grill? That'd be like molding G1 Prime's legs in yellow to match his forearm markings. Cyclonus should not have gold/tan/beige. Like I said at TFW---that's like green on Prime. It's NOT one of their colors. And as I also said at TFW---that's the worst "silver" plastic Hasbro's ever tried. Look at the G1 Dinobots--nice silvery plastic. The G2 Dinobots used it as well. And ever since, Hasbro's tried a bunch of different silvers, all of which are far inferior--they look like plain grey, or barely metallic. And Cylconus is the worst--that's "metallic off-white", not silver. Plain grey would have looked much better. Or you know, PURPLE, since Cyclonus is well-known for being very purple (or lavender, really), even among Decepticons. Look at the digi-bash I found and posted--the only difference with the middle one is that the tan and white are molded in silver-grey plastic. Looks a million times better. Cyclonus doesn't need any paint apps other than his eyes and abs. Just mold him in two shades of purple for animated appearance, or purple and silver for toy appearance. But tan and off-white do not make sense at all.