David Hingtgen

The wheels are on the outside of the strut when lowered, and on the upper side when raised. Turn 90 degrees.

Having watched the final ep, I guess I'll have to hope/wait on fan-art to get more "Grace in flight-suit" stuff.

I'll third that. Also, the gunpods take a lot of force at the front the first time to get them on the belly plates, and it WILL make stress marks on the guns themselves.

I've been wondering if they're purposely trying to make it as un-Yamato as possible.

I was just thinking, Luca's looks 100x better in the more "teal" color, than the pale minty green his is in the series...

Nearly every valk has had the legs bend/position the same way for FAST pack attachment. There's no need to "leave a big space above them" for the armor. The legs are "straight" in fighter mode and flush with where they should be, and to lower the legs to make room for armor you move the leg joint "1 click" at the thigh and "1 click" at the knee. If there's a huge gap with straight legs, something's wrong.

Yup! And they don't need to be complex, either. Now, I'm wondering *why* the nose gear is so short---look how long the nose gear DOORS are. The bay has the be fairly long. My main concern at this point is the legs in fighter mode---why are they way below the level of the wings and shield as seen from above? There's not merely a "gap", they seem to be half as high up as they should be. They should be well ABOVE the shield in fighter mode, just like a VF-19's legs/shoulders are. That ruins the look of fighter mode than any proportion issue IMHO. At this point I can't believe that the toy's been mis-transformed that much EVERY time. They're not even close to being in the right position. But I mean--why even have the large cut-outs around the shield and wings, if the legs don't go into them? So you can look down through the holes and see the legs? PS---is it just me, or are these new pics of an older sample?

Basic seam-filling with glue: You need a model cement that really liquifies the plastic. Generally, these are the thin watery ones that evaporate very quickly. Apply to the parts, and give the parts a good squeeze as you put them together. The plastic should liquify and ooze out of the joint a bit. Let it dry hard. (overnight if not longer IMHO). Then slice/sand/scrape the excess plastic away. Smooth out the seam as best you know how (probably sanding/polishing). The better you are at this, the better it'll look--to the point that the seam can be invisible, as there is nothing but their own plastic between the parts, welded to each other.

The "circle slot" area in the grey bar does seem to have a "two-stage" locking position, that the 2nd stage can only be "with certainty" achieved while the whole backpack's up and away. I'll see if fiddling with that area helps. I did just now take apart the entire backpack, adjust some screws (one was a bit off kilter and had a part near the tip of the nacelle a few degrees off, one was physically deformed--swapped it with a non-important foot screw) and transformed it again. I got it mostly flush by just squeezing hard in some areas, and did get the plates flush---but I think it'll all pop apart if I look at it funny. Will see if it'll hold overnight. Still, there REALLY should be some sort of lock there---like the old one had. Maybe I can build one...

Ok, at first I thought "that's just how it is" but looking at Graham's and Swoosh's pics, theirs is flush in fighter mode. I'm talking about the seam between the "fixed" and "sliding" parts, that runs between the engines. On mine, the sliding section is always raised up a bit. Is there supposed to be some sort of tab there to hold it down? And it's not related to the legs---I can completely remove the legs, and it will not stay down. (pushing it down when in fighter mode is guaranteed to pop the belly plates open though) I really think it's an arm/hand thing, as if the arms aren't in fighter mode, it'll stay in position, and even sorta click down. Anyone else have/had this problem? Regardless, I would like pics of exactly how the hands should be positioned, as I think that may be part of it. Mine was like this out of the box, but I can't imagine it's an actual defect, unless there's a tab or something missing. This bugs me way more than the plates, as you don't see the plates unless you're looking at the belly (and I can usually get the plates to mesh if I fiddle with them long enough---but the raised section never stays down without totally screwing up the entire bottom half of the plane) but I always see this gap.

Ok, how hard is MM9 compared to say MM3's "remixed" robot stages and the wily levels? That's the hardest one *that I remember well*.

Ouch, *you* can't beat the Wily levels? You're the biggest MM fan I know. (I have to wait for 360 version). Of course, if I get a PS3 soon enough, I may just wait until I have one and get that version. I'm fairly used to 2D MM on a PS-style D-pad. I've done the d-pad mod on the 360 pad, but it's still only "acceptable".

Ok, I'm thinking I may be mis-remembering how I converted. I think I *did* have the separate .ass files for the MKV's, and the MKV's alone won't work. It's kind of redundant to have the MKV (which has the .ass embedded inside) and the original .ass the MKV was made from, but it does seem to be required.

I'd highly recommend buying an HG kit before attempting this, if you've never dealt with an MG level or higher modern Bandai kit. Surely there's at least one Gundam mecha everyone likes enough to buy to try out before building their VF-25. Here's a good chunk of the modern kits that are small/cheap enough to practice/waste/sacrifice before you risk a $40+ VF-25. http://www.hlj.com/hljlist2/?word2=&se...0&SeriTxt1= "HGUC" are generally the most complex/newest and there's several good ones for under 1000Y.

Yup--it's all about merchandise (and DVD) sales. The more people that buy Frontier kits, the more Macross kits they'll make, and the more Macross seasons/OVAs/movies Bandai will thus sponsor.

Comcast doesn't like MW, that's a well-known issue.

I'm mainly basing my decal vs sticker opinions on pics like these: http://gamu-toys.info/gangu/pura/r3/mf01/DSC_4056.JPG (ventral fin) and http://gamu-toys.info/gangu/pura/r3/mf01/DSC_4150.JPG (tailfin) A water-slide decal over gloss black plastic shouldn't look like that. But a sticker would look just like that. Foil stickers are printed on thin silver mylar (foil) instead of a clear sheet. G1 Transformers almost universally have foil stickers as do most SD and HG Gundams. The VF-25 includes a small sheet of foil stickers as well, which must be used in conjunction with one of the other sheets. (unless you want to paint those areas). Now, could someone translate the painting guide? It's much more complex than I expected:

I'd just like to point out that most current Yamato toys are "unpainted plastic with many snap-fit parts". Their seams aren't puttied in, they have no paint except for a few stripes, and they're mostly not glued together--either snap/pressed together parts or screws. (and many larger Bandai kits use screws too) Just something to think about. Now off to add even MORE info to the first post. (though many of the questions asked in the last 20 posts are already answered there)

Camaro's getting a HUD? Hmmmmmn. That could be a huge Challenger vs Camaro decider for me. (assuming I have the money and can afford the insurance when my current car's paid off)

Real-world current example: US Navy carriers. They get their hull numbers by order built, regardless of class/type. CV-63, Kitty Hawk, Kitty Hawk class. CV-64, Constellation, Kitty Hawk class. CVN-65, Enterprise, Enterprise class. CV-66, America, Kitty Hawk class. CV-67, JFK, Kitty Hawk class (modified, sometimes considered JFK class) CVN-68, Nimitz, Nimitz class. Now, there was serious consideration to building more JFK-type ships, as the Nimitz class cost so much. So we very well could have had say CV-69 JFK class, CVN-70 Nimitz class, CV-71 JFK, etc and have a very "jumbled" order of "class number vs hull number" nowadays. The hull numbers go in order, regardless of how many of that CLASS exist. We've got the 1 and only Enterprise class right in the middle of all the Kitty Hawks. And even with different TYPES of carriers, the numbers go in order--CV, CVA, CVAN, and CVN. All use the same "group" of numbers. So SDF-4 could easily mean the 4th "SDF type of ship" regardless of exact class. If there was a long period of building Megaroads, then they decided on a whim to build another copy of the Macross itself and call it Global, it may very well have been only the 4th Macross-class ship built, but have a number like SDF-15, if there were a bunch of Megaroads in a row built prior to making the Global (SDF-2 through 10, etc)

Well, that shot is of the "official" shirt they're making, so I figure they got the specs from the production team etc.

Egads, a Mechamaniac post! "Mechamaniac, the ghost mod..."

I'm going to unpin this for now, I'll re-pin it when/if Ryuji starts up again.

I found out something accidently that I don't know if it's common knowledge (never came across it in the threads, just lots of arguing about loose vs tight torsos): The torso WILL lock together pretty firmly. There is a "barely just barely slightly holds" stage that many people seem to achieve, then there's a "can almost pick it up by the nosecone" stage that few people seem to find. Basically--the whole forward fuselage can slide downwards about 1/8 inch at the very end of transforming to battroid. Not the "torso shortening" thing, where just the canopy area slides down towards the nose. Bring the nosecone itself down. That makes a slightly wider part of the forward fuselage go between the intakes, and instead of just barely touching the little intake tabs, the fuselage will fairly firmly wedge itself between the intakes. I'll try to get it back to fighter mode and experiment with FAST packs and gunpods tomorrow. My first attempt at getting the gunpods on the belly plates (not the FAST pack plates) didn't work at all--wouldn't even go on half-way with the force I was using.

ISP problems with MW usually mean you can't access it at all using that ISP, using a proxy on your end wouldn't help AFAIK. But it does in your case, so this is new to me.