David Hingtgen

Thinner paint works better for eliminating brush strokes, for me at least. Also--white, orange, and yellow are less opaque than they used to be. Why? No lead. Lead is what's used to make quality, opaque pigments for those colors. But since stupid little kids still like to eat paint chips that flake off, it's not allowed in model paint. You'll never find a nice opaque yellow nowadays---you just need coat after coat.

X-Wing was HARD. Never beat it. I don't recall it exactly, but I stopped at one mission that just had insane odds, and even flying better than I ever had, I didn't even come close. I tried for a long time to beat it--basically until the B-Wing pack came out. Beat the B-Wing pack except for the last mission, which was the trench run, but in a B-Wing. Yeesh, even using cheat codes (long after I had given up) the Death Star missions in X-Wing are just insane. "Take out all 75 gun emplacements within 10 miles of the trench---you have 10 mins, and 50 T/A's are coming after you" TIE Fighter--that was actually beatable, and fun. And the T/I is the best. (You know someone played TIE Fighter if they type stuff as TIE, T/I, T/B, T/A, and T/D) The later expansions weren't as good, the tractor beam was just a gimmick---but it did have one nifty use: Very late, you could get it on the basic TIE and Interceptor. But it didn't take away from the engine or laser power, it added to the total power available. So if you took away all its recharge power, you could either keep your 110 speed in a T/I while recharging lasers, or "maintain charge" lasers, with like 130 speed! Also, I learned more about EU ships from TIE Fighter than anything else----everyone remembers how much harder Modified Frigates are to take down than standard Nebulon-B's. It's also about the only place to see a Nebulon-B in its intended role as an IMPERIAL ship.

Skywarp (G1 toy) in jet mode has a purple nosecone (well, he should, depends what version you go by), engine nozzles, and vertical stabs. And if you go by the prototype (catalog, instructions) he should have purple h.stabs, launchers, and missiles as well. All molded, not stickers. Even if MP SW comes with a sticker sheet 3x as big as MP SS, he won't have half as much purple as he should. In other words--WTF do you mean, G1 Skywarp is "pretty drab"? He's among the most colorful ever, winning "best colors" several years in the Trannie awards. And robot mode just adds even more color with his arms and feet. Try looking at the actual toy, not a poor scan of his boxart. If Takara wants MP SW to look at all right, they should start by molding the entire tailfins in purple.

G1 toy Dirge is lighter blue than animated Dirge IIRC, and Classics Dirge is lighter than either. But not grossly so. Animated Dirge tended to have dark grey instead of black, while G1 toy had black. Classics Dirge is clearly based off G1 toy more than cartoon. Still don't know what they based Classics SW purple off of though, he's almost magenta-pink, than lavender. (Lavender or straight Decepticon purple is generally accepted for SW, but Classics is way too pink) Still----we all expect Classics TC to look amazing, and we're all ticked we can't get it for less than 300 bucks...

Don't forget The Return of Optimus Prime---he was all chrome in that ep, to defend against the hate plague.

We had a discussion here a while ago, and we believe Shin's F-14 (the CG model at least) is based off of Fujimi's F-14D kit, which is not quite really anything. It's closest to a B, but of course has a D's chinpod. In other words: Shin's has an A cockpit, because the F-14D kit it was based off of is so inaccurate.

How so? Top Gun had A's, not A+'s. Anyways---pics of F-8 rocket launchers are rare, you pretty much need a lot of F-8 books to have a few pics. Basically there's a large panel on the belly just in front of the gear, hinged at the rear. The front end lowers, and you get a rocket launcher revealed. The speed brake is a smaller part of that panel, hinged at the front. It was taken out for the D to make room for a larger fuel tank. It was also fairly worthless to start with, as pylon-mounted rockets were bigger and better, and there was a big risk if any rockets didn't launch right--since the rocket launcher is RIGHT below the main fuel tank, and the rocket exhaust is angled into the fuel tank area when the launcher's deployed... Checking around, it seems the speed brake auto-deployed partially for trim purposes, when the rocket pack was lowered. So you do get a "zig-zag" of panels.

Go to Botcon.com for pics of Classics Dirge. He's just a Dirge-colored Ramjet, no mold changes, so I feel a lot better about not getting him. But of course, Thundercracker my fave should be perfect, mold-wise...

TIE Fighter is still the best PC game I've ever played, and the best "space sim" game I've ever played. Being in the SW universe just makes it even better.

KOTOR is one of the few comics I read now, and the best SW EU I've seen a long time. (I ignore most of it--it's all downhill from Heir to the Empire) Of course, I am a huge fan of the KOTOR games. But still---KOTOR is more "old school" SW than just about anything else nowadays.

Corsairs simply rock, 'nuff said. They sound the coolest by far, no question. (Yes, that goes out to all the Mustang fans). One of my all-time fave airshow experiences is simply eating pizza while sitting on the grass next to a Corsair.

F-14A+ Kai. Not F-14D Kai. Having the original cockpit is the main thing that makes it an A+ instead of a D.

The F-8A through F-8C have rockets built into their speedbrake panel---not sure they could use both at the same time, it's double-hinged and almost zig-zags when both are open on the ground.

Neat! Lots of tiles, lots of slopes and wedges too. I see some Star Wars parts, and new style Technic/Bionicle hinges etc. Do you happen to have LEGO set 4953, Fast Flyers? The wings are quite similar in design. http://creator.lego.com/en-US/products/4953.aspx

The above post could also be read: "I am in the early stages of playing with my XVF-7 sample so don't expect reviews for a while"

Umm, erm...

It was always perfectly clear to me from Yoda staggering and clutching his heart that he felt "the distubance in the force" from all the Jedi dying and was thus ready for treachery from his troopers.

http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=231

A real Gripen C mainly adds in-flight refuelling capability.

Chindenathus said what I was going to. Basically---a properly installed LED will last forever. My PS2's red LED has been going for years on end. But most cheap LED installations like in keychains and toys, have no resistor/circuitry----they'll work, but only 1/1000 as long as they should. That gives then tens, maybe hundreds of hours of operation, instead of the thousands or hundreds of thousands of hours they would if they had a proper resistor. Going resistor-less means you can do it cheaper, and in a smaller space. But it won't last long, and it especially doesn't like to be on for longer than a few seconds, as it'll REALLY burn out then with no resistor.

Big Boeing bombers have traditionally done well with having only a stub of the fin remaining---you can find very similar B-17 pics. Strange that the JAL 747 did so much worse, but I think it had its controls frozen as well, which doomed it.

Nothing's been done for many years, and there can't be THAT much demand for its services. There's not much the An-225 can do, that the An-124 can't. Anyways, I recently heard An-225 #2 is just a static test frame, and can't be made flyable. Pic of the day: Never let someone tell you turbulence is just an annoyance. It has ripped apart large jets in mid-air, and severely damaged even more.

For how "up to the minute" civil aviation usually is, this has been a surprisingly "rumor-filled" event. It actually seems it might have been fixed, before the first threads indicating it had been damaged showed up.

With the complexity of the transformations, I think Deluxe is too small for almost any movie character. Especially Bonecrusher----imagine him Leader-sized.

Wouldn't silver or gold paint have looked a lot nicer?