David Hingtgen

If it's not fun, destroy it. Just IMHO, but it's incredibly therapeutic. Now, if it's like 75% done, it's *usually* worth finishing. But not if it'll be hell to do so. Far better to spend the time on a different kit that you'll enjoy.

Re: Sundowners There's no red tip or base, I think that's the main problem--they have the ENTIRE fin as a sunburst. You should have MOST of the fin a sunburst, with solid red trimming/edges. It's like a Jolly Rogers plane without the yellow fin accents. Also, look at the bottom-most red rays. They're perfectly horizontal. Never seen that before---they should dip lower in the center/angle upwards a bit. Not perfectly level. Here's a quick retouch I did to get my idea across: (I'd have to redo all the angles of all the rays to get it to look "right" with the new angle of the lower ones)

Boo-friggin-yeah.

Usually only saw 2 or 3 at a store then I think. It was about a month after launch that I started seeing them.

It seems any plane on display at a military (or CIA) installation usually gets the canopy opaqued anyways---there could be NO cockpit and you'd never know.

Update/retraction: It's likely these may be "semi-demos". Full demo still not expected until the 2008 season. Probably more than a fly-over, but don't expect a cobra or anything.

Due to discussion on that thread, here's my scale F-22 vs Peterbilt 379 scale comparison pic: In other words: An F-22 is friggin huge, even compared to the largest American semi-truck there is.

Just like to point out I spotted 20 PS3's at Wal-Mart today, possibly more (I wasn't going to check EVERY rack for a second row). That's a $24,000 "bounty" for being on the shelves more than 5 mins.

Flying of course, but not a demo. (The only "exclusive" move to the F-22 is named the "Raptor Roll" currently--think kulbit, but roll instead of pitch--basically a very tight barrel roll, but while moving upwards with almost no airspeed)

If you like Navy jets, there's a lot of nice new lithographs here: http://www.carrierbuilders.net/store/index.php And the paint research looks to be far more accurate and plane-specific than any others I've seen. Haven't ordered any yet, but plan to. They sell small versions for only $5 each, so you could get every squadron you like.

Here's the F-22 schedule for the year: March 24th- Tyndall AFB, Florida March 31st-April 1st-Point Mugu, California April 27th-29th- Langley AFB, Virginia March 5th-6th- Fort Lauderdale, Florida May 12th- Seymour Johnson AFB, North Carolina May 19th-20th- Andrews AFB, Maryland June 9th-10th-Sacramento, California July 23rd-29th- Oshkosh, Wisconsin August 18th-19th- Chicago, Illinois September 1st-3rd- Toronto, Ontario, Canada September 7th-9th- NAS Oceana, Virginia September 27th-30th-Columbus, Ohio October 27th-28th- Belle Chasse (New Orleans), Louisiana November 3rd-4th- Kennedy Space Center, Florida November 10th-11th- Nellis AFB, Nevada These are expected to be full demos, not mere flyovers. Won't know exactly until ACC itself puts up the schedule.

I'm with Graham--it's neat, but I'm waiting for Nora. Pink mecha rule!

It was VFA-11? Never knew that.

Found a little recent snippet about AESA capability, specifically a Super Hornet's: "The same report contends the radar has demonstrated a "quantum leap against significant tactical air threats," a reference to classified details about range, resolution, electronic attack options and the ability to positively identify targets - by fusing information from various sensors - at long range. Gaddis won't discuss radar ranges. However, a long-time Pentagon radar specialist says the radar resolution is good enough to detect small targets, such as stealthy, subsonic cruise missiles, at ranges great enough to conduct effective attacks against them."

Posted this to ARC, and got several replies. Current thinking is that that is a full-scale RCS testing model of a -23, with YF-23 #2 currently being on display at Northrop's El Segundo facility. Still don't know about #1.

I know we have some French-speakers here, edited topic title to reflect your request. (most translations requests here involve Japanese)

I did the best I could with the wiring when I put in the new power supply today, but every power supply nowadays includes enough cabling to do a half-dozen hard drives and graphics cards, there's more stuff in there now than before. (modular cabling seems rare, none of the powersupplies I really wanted had it) Have most of it tucked to one side/area, shouldn't be too different from before. Makes me wonder why there's no such thing (AFAIK) as a case fan that is mounted on a PCI slot, and exhausts through their slots in the case. I currently have NO cards in my PCI slots, yet the AGP card is right above them. It'd be the perfect spot for a nice little supplemental fan. (of course, if I wanted more fans/noise/cooling, I would have just bought the fan-cooled version of that graphics card) PS--does any case have low-mounted fan options? Every multi-fan case I've seen just have multiple ones all in the "traditional" area, and not "below the graphics card, where it'd be useful".

Case fan is a 92mm.

There's so many types/variations of enamel, acrylic, and lacquer, it's almost impossible to know what it "really" is and what it can/can't be layered with. There's acrylic enamels, lacquer acrylics, and most any other combination you can think of, due to the fact that the paint itself (binder+pigment) can be pretty independent of the solvent. Thus, acrylic enamel---acrylic binder in an enamel solvent. And acrylic lacquers, and lacquer enamels, etc.

Most US G1 rerelease cars were 35 bucks---why was HotRod only 17?

Got my new powersupply today, so I could put everything else in. BTW, the old PS did NOT like the power drain the new RAM caused. After about 20 mins, it'd start buzzing so I'd have to shutdown. So I was using the PC in 20 minute "spurts" for the past 2 days. They were right when they said my PC's factory supply couldn't handle many add-ons. (but with RAM being notoriously finicky, I wasn't going to change the RAM around again just for 2 days when I got it operating in dual-channel across all 4 slots) So I have my new RAM in, my new power supply, new DVD drive, and my new graphics card---that's going to take a while to tweak. I swear my "smooth scrolling" feature is worse though, can't imagine how/why. PS---my graphics card is now the only card I have on the entire motherboard. I had to use a slot plate from my last PC to cover up where the old modem was. However--with my graphics card now being much more powerful than the old one, and passively cooled---perhaps I should just leave the opening in the back of the case where the modem was open, just for airflow/circulation? Or maybe upgrade the case fan. (I haven't even actually USED the graphics card for 3D yet, won't know how hot it gets for a while)

Much like the YF-23, the Firefox is such a cool design, that 20 years from now there probably still won't be anything as neat.

Thus spawning the following comic: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/02/10

A380 had its worst-case-scenario (max weight, no thrust reverse) rejected takeoff test, far less "interesting" than people were expecting. Just smoke and red-hot brakes. Nothing exploded. So they did a lot better than they did with the A340-600. Test conditions: Initial weight: 1,487,000lbs/674,376kgs. V1 (abort speed): 166kts/191mph/306kph. And some more on Airbus problems in general (mainly the A380's fault): http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/...us_tragedy.html

Magnus and Skywarp are the repaints, Prime and Starscream came out months earlier.