David Hingtgen

Few places have a worse reputation than Treasure Island Sports. Better known as tisinc99 on Ebay. Also, they don't seem to have the M&M ones at all. Yes, they have $130 1/48 VF-1's, but so does anywhere else if you don't care what version you get.

I have to comment again: Whoever's weathering that SS just doesn't have a clue about airplanes, especially the F-15. If there's one plane on earth that doesn't ever reveal its panel lines it's the F-15. If you want to go get mocked at an airplane modeling forum---panel line your F-15. Adding black streaks and highlighting the panel lines/joints of something which which is known for being clean and smooth and featureless does NOT make it look realistic. That's like saying toning down a red 2007 Corvette and making the paint dead flat with gigantic black exhaust stains all over the rear bumper makes it more "realistic". No, it doesn't. Corvettes are bright, shiny, glossy red and after years of operation don't get black bumper streaks AFAIK.

I liked Adm Ackbar cereal the best. "It's a trap!" is the most-quoted line of all SW in some forums--it's the ultimate response to any question anyone ever asks.

Contra+Grappling Hook=Bionic Commando 2!

That 20 plane order is about all Northrop's gotten in the past 20 years. The F-20 is probably the best example of "perfect plane but still didn't get the order". F-20 vs F-16ADF. The Tigershark wins, no contest. YF-23 vs YF-22 is heavily debatable, but F-16ADF vs F-20 isn't even close. I think the F-20 blew it away in every category but top speed. But its sheer "get up and go" capability actually allowed it to out-intercept the F-15! Raw speed doesn't matter in time-critical intercepts if you need 10 minutes on the ground to run up the engines and avionics.

"Bumblebee" just isn't extreme enough anymore, he'll be "Yellow Jacket" or "Death Hornet Mk.2" or something...

1. Vac canopies are usually thinner and more brittle. It'll work, but support the canopy from underneath so it doesn't crack--use some clay or something. 2. As in transparent orange canopies or something? Coloring future works, though most people tend to use Tamiya's clear paints, especially as they have "smoke"--which is basically clear black and very useful for many things. 3. Generally Alclad is applied over a base layer of gloss black. All metallic paints are affected by the base coat, but the polishing/buffing ones are VERY dependent on what they're applied over. Are you going for the "painted panels with chipped edges exposing bare metal" look? If so, I really think that'd be an utter waste of Alclad, as you'd be at 3+ layers and a lot of effort, with 90% of the Alclad invisible. Just use normal silver in that case, if you want to actually expose an underlaying layer. Some people use little bits of tape, masking fluid, etc to mask off the silver before painting the next layer, then pulling off the tape. Personally I'd go with applying silver to the edges afterwards by drybrushing.

Northrop always makes good designs IMHO, but always get passed over. Washington just doesn't like Northrop for some reason.

And Boeing always has massive military contracts to fall back on--Airbus doesn't. There were rumors a few years ago (after the Sonic Cruiser and 747-500/600 never being launched) that Boeing would actually leave commercial aviation and focus purely on military stuff. Boeing just got the new CSAR contract for frigging Chinooks! If that isn't the worst decision ever for "which aircraft should we give the contract to" I don't know what is. People gripe about Airbus subsidies, but Boeing gets just as many in the form of "questionable" awarding of govt contracts. I mean, if the contract up for grab is described as "we need something to replace the Blackhawk--it's too slow, big, and vulnerable by modern standards"---how the **** can Chinooks be anything but pure govt pork to Boeing? Also note that the Chinook is being expected to replace the Blackhawk on semi-covert ops where speed and stealth are critical. The Chinook is like a flying beacon. Most people were expecting the new HH-92 or US101 to be picked. Wow, going from a 1970's design to a 1950's design. That's like replacing an F-15C with an F-4F ICE. It may have upgrades, but the airframe itself is a generation older.

Actually it was already briefly mentioned there, but being more of a R/C toy with TF stickers, I planned on letting it stay as its own thread.

It's pretty clearly an F-22, not a YF-22.

I was wondering when that pic'd show up here. I'll make a prediction: We might have the greatest "toy vs TV" appearance discrepancy since G1. Because there's no way THAT Prime can transform into ANYTHING with those proportions. Alternately: That's not a robot. That's a superhero in red and blue, with a mask.

Wow, this might be the most corporate BS-speak-filled article ever: (an "interview" about 360 failures) http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2007/06/a...0_failures.html

Really? Any way to tell without opening it up? I just got a refurbished one back, wonder if it'll do better heat-wise.

Found Leader Megs today. If you pick one up, try out the automorphing before you buy---they varied widely in how well they worked. Focus on the two chest armor plates that move horizontally---half of the ones I tried were very uneven or one side didn't really move at all.

West Coast team is raffling them, or selling outright for 40 bucks. East Coast team is selling for 3 bucks, or two for 5 bucks--or so I hear. Maybe East Coast is selling casing only, with no shell/penetrator. But 37 bucks for a fake shell is a lot. A real dummy penetrator+casing might be worth that, but not a replica. Did you win the raffle, or simply pay? Or did they change how they're offering them since I saw them 2 weeks ago?

F-5? Was it the Sundowners like I just posted? If not, was it dark and medium grey? Probably a 90th TFS T-38.

The 787 is selling so well, the current rumor is that UAL may buy A350's simply to get them earlier--the wait list for a 787 now is years.

What I really want is to be able to do Nora vs Shin's VF-0D.

Typhoon vs Rafale? The Gripen's better than either IMHO.

Well, the high show and low show aren't all that different IMHO, mainly just the finale. High vs low impacts the single-ship demos more---I got the "low" Super Hornet a few weeks ago and it was half of what the high show is, and all the cool moves were omitted.

Re: the grill----too many cars (including US ones) don't seem to account for that fact that the vast majority of states require front plates, and the whole look is ruined by having to mount a plate bracket in the middle of the grill/drilling into the bumper. There aren't many cars that seem to have had a front end designed to look good with a front plate installed (aka, has a ready-made spot for a front plate that doesn't require adding a big bracket, or covering up any vent/grill/intake up front). The 97-03 Grand Prix comes to mind. That Audi is fine with Euro-style "skinny" plate between the upper and lower grill sections, but put a US plate on, held by a big plastic bracket--it'll really look bad.

Way too cute (especially the voice) for me to take her seriously as a Terminator though.

Finally found a pic of the restored YF-23 #2:

Ack, I'm doing really poorly today. Meant Bremerton, not Bangor. (Too many "B" places in Washington state for US subs)