David Hingtgen

I haven't bought a Gundam kit in years, but if they keep miniaturizing lights, they may be able to make an "internal glow" PG Unicorn Gundam some day. THAT I'd buy.

Thank you for spoiler-proofing whatever it is you wrote. I have accidently read WAY too many spoilers in this thread the past few months. It seems like people like to post visible spoilers here 30 secs after they air in Japan, even when it's "forbidden" to do so in the main discussion threads. Though when the final ep airs, I plan to completely avoid the site entirely until I've seen a subbed version. No way whatever happens will "stay quiet" that day...

Yup, at its simplest, thrust is simply mass times velocity. And much like the most powerful current jets being the quietest/coolest, the most powerful ones also have the most mass going the slowest. (as opposed to a 1960's jet, which tried to move the air as fast as possible) Caveat: A plane's exhaust MUST be faster than its forward speed, or you will have no net thrust. If you want to go mach 3, you better have a mach 4 exhaust... But if you're just hovering around in GERWALK, you could have an exhaust of only a few hundred knots, just very high mass air flow. I'd expect valk engines can switch between "high mass" and "high velocity" modes---the F120/F136 engine can do it in real life, and it is "the way of the future" for fighter jets. (and a Concorde replacement)

It may be a bit redundant, but I'd love to see Mylene "wearing her valk". (I think it'd work better than most, since that valk is feminine to start with). Could use a lot more of the valk parts than other drawings. Heck, could even give Mylene the same "hair" and glasses as her valk...

Some valks clearly have thrusters used primarily for forward thrust in GERWALK mode---the VF-1 and YF-19 for instance. Others, I figure they're kind of hidden--there's lots of "undetailed, in shadow" areas in GERWALK mode drawing. What's directly above the belly plates at the rear of a YF-21 is never shown for fighter mode, it's ALWAYS in shadow. Same for some other areas of other valks in GERWALK. GERWALK has always gotten the least detail/drawings AFAIK---the only reason we see it so much in Zero and Frontier is because they have a fully rendered 3D model to work from. How often do you get a good rear/belly view of a VF-1/11/19/21 GERWALK? Also, with how much thrust they have, just a bit of vectoring can create quite a bit of forward thrust. And the faster they go, the more they can vector it backwards, as they transition from engine-based to wing-based lift.

Oh, at least say SOMETHING. Just don't go ranting. Personally, I hate Basara. And the enemies are lame. But I like Mylene and Gamlin a lot. IMHO, the main problem is that the series focuses on the least-interesting aspects---Basara, Gigil, Sivil. The music's good, no doubt about it. Basara's great as a singer, few people disagree with that---most people just don't like his personality. Whereas Mylene can sing AND is cute. And Gamlin just rocks. (anyone trained by Milia and having her approval of piloting competance has to)

If I could have only one valk made from this line, it'd be Mylene's. VF-4 is good, but it's not a "valk with boobs". And pink.

Hey, 3 months more time is good IMHO. That allows for some pretty major changes. (and since the show had to use samples at least a few weeks old, that's 4 months of re-work potential) Of course, we can only hope that everyone who walked by the Bandai booth told them, "legs too big, battroid too squat overall, shield too far from arm". As opposed to "it's perfect!"

More heat=more energy=turn more compressor fans faster. If you had a turbine material that could take it, you could give a turbine 1 million degrees to work with, and it could absolutely scream and turn 5 dozen fan stages at 20,000rpm, sucking in tons of air and ejecting them at hypersonic speeds. Or something equally ridiculous by modern standards. The limiting factor in many modern jet engine designs is the ability of the turbine to withstand the heat---we can easily design a combustion chamber that will make more heat than the turbine can take, and you get melted turbines. That's part of the reason we don't have nuclear turbines, nor really need them---we can't deal with the direct heat of jet fuel, much less a reactor. Is there any current fan theory assuming the reactor uses a secondary circuit, like a nuclear ship? Because direct "nuclear reactor into turbines" kinda implies the exhaust itself is then highly radioactive. I'm not even going to try to explain the YF-19's cooling issue, as I know nothing about shedding heat in space, etc.

Rant: You know, the more I look at it, the more I think they did *nothing* more than copy the old one from the 80's for nostalgia's sake. Plus balljoints. It's not at all a "masterpiece" design----while the legs can't be improved THAT much, I've always thought that in 20 years, surely we could get better arms when in lion mode. And a better black lion in every mode. I'd really like to see a truly new Voltron some day. One that actually uses "modern transforming toy tech" and tries to follow line art and animation, rather than copying an old toy. Either big or complex enough to actually hide the lion legs, etc. It'd be easy with a few hinged/flipping panels---so long as you don't needlessly make everything out of solid diecast for no reason other than nostalgia. Then copy it in plastic...

Over at ARC, they're saying Johnson is going to stop making it in some places, notably the UK. Will likely become even harder to find than it already is. US production continues, though.

I don't think I've ever gotten a good look at the NUNS symbol. Anyone got a pic?

For atmospheric operation: Heat is energy. Motion is energy. A jet engine basically converts one to another. The extreme heat of the combustion chamber (or fusion reactor) is extracted and used by the turbine---the heat energy (as much as possible) is converted to kinetic energy by the turbine--it spins, thus spinning the compressor fan up front. The compressor fan moves the air from the intake rearward, as much and as fast as it can. 2nd law of motion--action/reaction. Air rushing out the back of the engine=plane moves forward, thus thrust. Again--a balloon or waterjet are jets---they expel a fluid rearwards, thus creating forward thrust. No combustion or heat is involved. A box fan creates thrust, just not enough to move itself. It's a "powered" jet--a small electric motor. An F-15's engine is a "supremely powered" jet, in that it has a complex fuel-driven mechanism to spin the fan with great speed and power, allowing it to move far more air, and at a greater speed, to produce far more thrust. Now, due to the simple fact that there IS hot exhaust rushing out the back of a normal jet engine, that too is making thrust---but it's a small part of the total thrust. (and in a turbojet, it'll always be mixed with the compressor's air and ALL the air coming out will be hot) Basically a "useful byproduct". And it's making thrust because it's hot AIR RUSHING OUT, not because it's HOT air rushing out. If it was cold, it'd make just as much thrust (and would indicate a VERY efficient turbine as it would have sucked ALL the heat out and put it to use--possibly physically impossible) Tanks and helicopters are the same---the heat is converted to kinetic motion-----the turbine uses the heat to spin a driveshaft, rather than a fan. But the operation is the same. They are not creating thrust, but they are still a "heat to motion" energy converting engine... So how do afterburners work, since they are basically just adding fire/heat to the exhaust, and not air? Because a jet exhaust is a nozzle, and it tapers. To exit, it is forced to accelerate--and that takes energy out of it. So to help/counter that, you add more energy to the exhausting air----and heating it up is a simple, brute-force way to do that. You can add so much heat that it'll actually leave the nozzle with more energy (and thus potential kinetic motion) than it left the turbine with---thus a functional afterburner. I'll leave space operation to someone else, as that's a rocket, not a jet, and out of my knowledge.

Frankly--it's not like a Yamato 1/60 is any more symmetrical. They don't lock together in one solid, perfectly aligned piece. YF-19 and Sv-51 especially show that fact. Even something as "solid" and "locked together" as a G1 Optimus Prime---doesn't sit perfectly level with perfectly aligned parts.

Easy, VF-4. After that, I hope for Mylene's valk, VF-3000, VF-5000, and VF-14. I don't need smaller versions of stuff that's already available---the whole point of the line (IMHO) should be to make valks that aren't popular enough to justify the development of 1/60 ones.

2 to 5 copies of each ep, subbed, in multiple formats-----surely, something will work from this: http://getfansub.com/wiki/Macross_Frontier Though lately, it's been mostly MKV's. There are avi's out there, PM me if you really need a direct-download AVI option.

Just an FYI---feel free to send new pics to the mods for posting, but I personally only plan to put substantially new/interesting pics in the first post. There's no point in showing dozens of nigh-identical pics from different guys taken at the same angle at the same show with the same reflection in the glass... I mean, is HLJ's pic: http://www.hlj.com/hlj_gallery2/v/c3hobby/DSC_5596.jpg.html Really showing something different than the one already uploaded here: http://macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?act=...st&id=57579 (and ours is bigger, anyways)

We don't know the temp of valk exhaust---just because it's colored, doesn't mean it's insanely hot. Currently, the most powerful jet engines are the ones with the coolest exhaust. Hot exhaust=waste. The goal is for the turbine to EXTRACT as much heat energy out of the combustion (or nuclear fusion) process as possible to spin the compressor, not to spew as much heat as possible out the back. Heat=noise, not thrust.

I don't think the photo's level. And since we know the landing gear is removable, it could easily be explained by one of them not being inserted correctly.

I agree with eriku---whatever mode it's in, you see LEGS. It is like they are too large compared to everything else.

Hey Dangard---what's the best way to get the best possible resolution for playing on a PS3? I plan to get one soon, and want to watch Frontier on my TV in the highest res I can get. On my PC at least, gattai's been giving the sharpest resolution, with GG and Kei tied for second. Lunar's "fuzzy". Shinsen is in tiny resolution (all the copies I can find). But groups are rarely consistent, quality/compression wise it seems. I've been downloading a few copies of various eps, looking for the "ultimate" version/group that I'll then get all the eps of, before converting everything. I've copied a few eps to USB sticks to play on the 360 as an experiment, and while certainly watchable, are not as high quality as I'd like, even using the best settings I can find. I kinda blame the original files, not the conversion process.

Is there a release date for the SF ones? Seems like I've been waiting forever since the first pics months and months ago.

I just want a Linna fig that's a lot less than 50 bucks... Actually, this one's my fave: http://www.hlj.com/product/ATS34348 but again, way too expensive. (yes, I like the 2040 designs---a lot) Adding motoslaves just makes them even MORE "too expensive". BGC seems among the few series where there is just no way to get a couple "cheap" figures. Even fairly obscure characters from anime/games that I like, I can find a $20 or $30 figure. But not BGC. They come in "expensive" and "really expensive".

I've never seen test-shots etc that had the parts inked in on the sprues. That's kinda pointless/misrepresentative.

There's absolutely no comparison between the old and new 1/60. The real question is 1/48 vs new 1/60. And I lean towards the latter. As does Graham, based on his review.