David Hingtgen

I plan to spend hours investingating/testing, but not today. Based on how it only becomes misaligned in that last little bit of putting the arms together (you can have them 90% connected and the gunpod still straight) it has to be just a TINY little thing that is in the way---so IMHO no need to cut off an entire peg. More like shave off .1mm of one side of a peg. Just have to figure out which one, and where--otherwise you'll end up sanding/shaving all over, and eventually just have a loose, floppy gunpod.

That's my "last resort" option. It holds fine with just one peg, but when they're TOGETHER you see problems.

If you look at the gunpod head-on, is the grip angled off to one side? Pretty minor, and don't think it's really an issue, but it's something to look at. Also, to me, the lower hole on the grip seems "not perfectly circular". Another thing to investigate.

If you take the shield off, and put the arms together--the pegs line up perfectly. At least that's what I recall when I first transformed it.

I know it's supposed to be grey, and I wanted it grey---but it seemed I was the only one when we were talking about it! There was a lot of outcry from people who wanted it to stay black like the prototypes. So I'm happy it was changed to the correct grey. Maybe it's so dark to try to please the people who wanted it to stay black. I actually think the canopy frame and "intake striping" should be the same color, but Yamato made the intake ones much lighter. I'm going to work on mine the next couple of days. Got the tabs sanded down (they are about half-sized and now curved on 3/4 of their surfaces), carved out some room in the grey parts they attach to, and made the nose gear doors close flush. (It really bugged me how off-kilter and protruding they seemed to be--I even sanded down their exterior surface then polished them back up). Next up is tightening the shoulder armor flap, and working on the knee joints. (One has an issue--not sure if it's a molding or assembly issue, but I can see the spring protruding, and that knee is forced to spread wider than the other one) Then I'll work on the main gear, then gunpod. I vow to find the real reason the gunpod is angled---if you put it on either arm, it's perfect---tight and straight. But when you put the arms TOGETHER it gets messed up. I also narrowed it down to the "upper" part of the arm's slot, as I can close it at an angle and the gunpod is still straight. I'm also leaning towards it actually being a shield problem! Look carefully at how the shield attaches to the arms, and how it forces them together. Will report if/when I figure it out. (I want an "invisible fix"---I know that somewhere just a tiny bit of sanding or carving will fix it---but sanding everything will just make it loose and floppy--the key is to find just that little spot that messes things up, and eliminate it--could be the arm, could be a shield tab, could be the gunpod itself)

PS---anyone else notice the canopy framing was changed to grey? It's a dark grey so it's not obvious, but it is not black.

1. I didn't break it. It separated into pieces which flew across the room, but amazingly----it just separated into pieces with nothing breaking. Amazingly, the "sliding part of the spine that always slips out"---has never done so. 2. Launch bar is NOT a tow bar. It is used for attaching a plane to the catapult. The tow bar is much larger, mounted lower, and not part of the plane. A launch bar's normal position is up, it is only lowered when the aircraft kneels down to launch from a catapult. It actually does kneel down, it compresses the nose gear. Have a look: Next, an F-14 kneeling with the launch bar attached to the catapult shuttle (the shuttle is what actually pulls the plane to fling it off the deck): Finally, an F-18 with a tow bar attached---it's MUCH bigger, and below the launch bar:

Sorry, I'm not big on choppers. Looking around, it seems it should be 36118 grey, but tend to fade quicker than most, looking lighter than that. 36118 is your standard Strike Eagle/bomber dark grey. Annoyingly, Pave Low current paint specs seemed decidedly hard to get. (also, my main modeling/paint site is down tonight so I can't check the #1 best source)

That's gotta be 'box scale'. Or possibly "matching size instead of scale".

I like the 1/60 VF-1's quite a bit. If I find a Max VF-1J for a good price I'd like to have one (since the 1/48 is way too much). IMHO, the 1/48 has a better fighter mode due almost purely to the way the backpack is between the legs, rather than above. That's the main difference. But the 1/60 is sleeker on the lower half (no low-hanging arms), has no movable/breakable flaps or nosecone, no BP-8 problems, no arm-armor problems in fighter mode, etc. There really are no "issues" with the 1/60. It's simply a bit more "crude"---most noticeable with all the little rockets and verniers in the FAST packs.

The part on the front of the nose gear that goes up and down. On all real planes, it's white. And all Hase and Yamato VF-0's and -1's, it's white. And that way in the anime. So I really expected it to be white. First thing I'll paint now. Anyways--well, mine literally exploded into pieces trying get the forward fuselage to move. After you "crack" the forward fuselage just a bit to unlock the tab, then you have to move it up and back? Those 2 little tan tabs? Well, even after unscrewing the grey parts, and separating the forward fuselage apart, it still wouldn't budge. (And having seen Yamato's supplemental instructions, and having it apart and knowing how it moves--I was moving it exactly how it was supposed to). Eventually, I applied enough force that it broke the glue welds and stripped an internal screw, and the forward fuselage separated from the rest of the YF-19. But it still was locked together! One side had no parts any more, the other side was no longer screwed together. But it still held. So I gathered up the rest of the YF-19 parts from around the room, checked to make sure nothing had actually fractured (I really, really though it had snapped in half from the noise it made, and the explosion of parts---heart skipped a beat) and re-assembled the rear half of the valk. So, twisting and praying some more, the remaining part of the forward fuselage 'lock' finally gave. Then I spent the next hour carefully sanding down all the pieces, putting the screws back in, gluing the other parts back in, and testing. So it works now. But not without exerting more force than it takes to unbolt parts of my car. I am 100% certain that had I not un-screwed and disassembled as much of the forward fuselage as I could before hand, it WOULD have fractured, instead of merely "popping the glue joints and stripping a screw". I'm amazed no one's broken a YF-19 yet. Basically--I was transforming it perfectly correctly, and supporting the "surrounding" parts as much as I could--and it preferred to strip out a screw and break parts off their glue welds than to move in the direction it was supposed to. PS---GERWALK mode is a floppy mess IMHO.

I thought it was supposed to be white. It is on all the "official" pics. (and is on real planes, and all other Yamato valks)

Got mine today, and think I have a first for a QC error: The launch bar on the nose is grey instead of white. Is it painted white on everyone else's? Mine is bare plastic.

"Dirty disc" is 360-speak for "overheating system".

Ironically, of all the low-vis valk schemes, I've yet to see the F-14's, which is the most appropriate of all IMHO. Also----why not do like modern CAG and CO planes? Keep the low-vis grey overall, but go with the brightly colored tailfins and nose stripes, etc. The above-linked SVF-111 VF-19 is like that. It's basically the F-18's low-vis camo, with VF-111 full-color markings.

There are no other scales. 1/60 is pretty darn near exclusive to Yamato and Takara's MP Starscream. It's a "compromise" scale between 1/48 and 1/72---but no model kits are built to it, and likely never will be. I would go with 1/72, because the VF-1 isn't that big of a fighter---it'll look bigger with the 1/72 stuff around it. If you went with 1/48, a small plane will look even smaller.

...because the kibble makes it so you can actually tell what they transform into. Instead of decompiling into 15,000 metal shards, and rearranging.

Nothing lately about the GOL crash AFAIK. Best/most recent theory for the actual breakup is that the ERJ's winglet sliced through the lower skin of the 737's wing, which was stressed enough to almost instantly go into flutter and break off, then the 737's wingtip flew back and over and sheared off its own v.stab. Still not sure if engines came off prior to impact. AdamAir--Singapore Nav sending ships to search last I heard.

Spin-chute attachment.

You could easily have a paint scheme that fits the movie's requirements, G1 colors, and "modern semi" paint trends: Red overall, blue fenders, blue chassis. While I have never seen that, it is absolutely possible. Having the fenders a different color than the rest of the cab is a HUGE trend for trucks now. And nowadays you can get the chassis in a different color than black---I have personally see a red semi with a teal chassis and fenders, so red with blue chassis and fenders probably does exist out there somewhere. (I have also seen orange with purple---fugly, but sure catches your eye) Also, you can color the fuel tanks too now, with vinyl. But for Prime we'd probably just want them left bare and polished up.

Interesting, but I'd especially like to hear what Knight26 has to say about the feasability of this: _______________________________________________________________ F-15s could carry Patriots for missile defence missions By Graham Warwick Air force to also test Raytheon's NCADE candidate against ballistic weapons threat Launching the Patriot PAC-3 surface-to-air missile from a Boeing F-15C fighter to intercept a tactical ballistic or cruise missile could be demonstrated within two years, believes Lockheed Martin, which has received a $3 million follow-on contract from the US Missile Defense Agency (MDA) to continue refining the concept. The Air-Launched Hit-To-Kill design is one of several concepts being studied by the MDA for boost-phase intercept and homeland defence. Work completed by Lockheed under an initial $2 million contract concluded that launching the PAC-3 from dual-missile canisters under the wing of a tactical fighter was feasible, says Mike Trotsky, vice-president air and missile defence systems. There are two possible mission scenarios, says Trotsky. In one, a forward-deployed F-15 on combat air patrol (CAP) would launch the PAC-3 to intercept a ballistic missile in its boost phase. The homeland defence mission envisages tactical ballistic or cruise missiles being launched from barges. "The aircraft could be on CAP or be scrambled and intercept both types of target," he says. The F-15's radar would detect and track the target. The aimpoint would be uploaded to the PAC-3 before launch and updated during flight using the fighter's radar as a datalink, with terminal guidance to be provided by the missile's active seeker. "We would not have to do much to the PAC-3. Once it leaves the aircraft, its mission is pretty much the same," says Trotsky. Raytheon is working on a competing air-launched boost-phase intercept concept under the MDA's Network Centric Airborne Defense Element (NCADE) programme. The company's interceptor combines an AIM-120 AMRAAM air-to-air missile's first stage with an AIM-9X Sidewinder's infrared seeker with a new second stage using hydroxyl ammonium nitrate propellant. An F-15 test flight is planned for mid-year under a 12-month, $7 million risk-reduction contract awarded last year. Raytheon says NCADE will be the same size as AMRAAM and rail launched, and that F-15 flight tests will involve an interim design using the AIM-9X as its first stage. Trotsky believes that Lockheed's approach offers lower risk, although the combat-proven PAC-3 has never been integrated with an aircraft. "Although NCADE is based on AMRAAM, and therefore low risk in integration with the aircraft, it is a new missile with no pedigree," he argues. Lockheed has also looked at arming the F-15 with its new THAAD missile-defence interceptor, which is three times the weight of the 320kg (700lb) PAC-3 and 1m (3.3ft) longer at 6m. __________________ Actually, I'm even more interested in (and think is more likely to be in service) that boosted IR-seeking AMRAAM. Image attached is from the article, F-15 with twin Patriots in a box launcher. Size-wise it'd be huge, along with anything else listed in the article, but weight-wise almost nothing would be a problem, due to the basic pylon being rated for a 600gallon.

Oh, one more thing: XS 3 has a long summary of each previous ep, chapter by chapter. It could take quite a while to read. It's basically a collection of stills from all the cutscenes, and lots of text explaining what's going on. It's available immediately, you don't have to win the game first on anything. If you played 1, you're plenty familiar enough with the characters to follow the summary of 2, in 3.

wolfx--not at all! Forget 2, play 3. As I said, 2 was a waste, there is NOTHING about Gnosis, Shion, KOS-MOS. Here's the spoiler free version of XS 2: Shion meets her brother, they talk. Flashbacks to the incident on Miltia 14 years ago (all of which will be re-flash-backed and expanded on in XS 3). Lots of stuff about Gaignun, Jr, MOMO, and Albedo. That last sentence is 90% of the game. And bigger mecha are introduced. Basically, it's all character backstory, mostly Gaignun/Jr/Albedo. There is little to no actual plot about the whole Gnosis thing. Even though "KOS-MOS and the Gnosis" is supposed to be the main overall plot of the series.

The undersides of the wings are entirely blue or orange on the Super Nova schemes, along with the bottoms of the nacelles and intakes. Just FYI. They are actually more colorful underneath than above. Also, since they are the test planes, they have extra test equipment on them. They are HIGHLY influenced by the F-15 test planes---both in configuration, paint schemes, and paint colors.

There's no valk I prefer in battroid mode---but for "anti-UN variable fighters"---I prefer the SV-51 in battroid. It just looks evil. "Black angel" is the best description, with the wings and all. Or possibly, "fuschia angel".