David Hingtgen

We're ALL going to need YF-19 decals fairly soon, sure hope Takatoys or someone can deliver.

Kikaioh rocked. The more anime series you've seen, the more you'll get out of it. Still amazed it came to the US. Reason enough alone to never sell my Dreamcast. (though the final boss is CHEAP imho)

The mini-game for a PS3 wait should be Tekken 1.

The more translations of Famitsu reviews I see, the less credit I give the magazine. Nobody is more shallow/cares only about graphics than Famitsu. GamePro is better, and I realized GamePro really sucked when I was 11.

I'd argue more for "stylistic" drawing than lazy. Alternate universe Burkes or something.

Northrop jets have always been sleek as hell. The F-5 prototype could supercruise, the YF-17 could (yup, it's THAT much sleeker than a Hornet), and we all know about the YF-23. IIRC, the YF-22 design couldn't supercruise until they brought NASA on board to "tweak" about a zillion points on the airframe until it could slip through the mach. Whereas the YF-23 in mil power will easily out-accelerate a F-16 in burner.

Yup--clearly Burke-ish, but not a Burke. Nor the JASDF Kongo class (their version of the Burke). They're just far too "swept back" overall.

What's with all the people selling their PS2's? Yeesh, I still have my PSX. (you never know when a backwards incompatability may crop up--and the amazing fact that sometimes the fast-loading is actually slower)

Plus the little fact that MiG-29's that do have louvers have them closed most of the time, and they're very hard to see when they're closed. Why model opening louvers when you can just show them closed?

The F-22ish F-15 design is only a silhouette, but trust me, it's 99% accurate to an YF-22. It was one of those "history of the design charts", and there were basically two final choices after all the refinements: What we got, and one that looks like the NEXT fighter we got.

Huge FF fan (I like JRPG's, should be obvious by now), but I skipped 11. Saw 12 tonight when I was preordering CV: Portrait of Ruin. Will probably pick it up sometime in next 2 weeks. (Still have to finish Okami, which went on hold for Valk Profile 2).

Telekinesis=Jean Grey=able to do ANYTHING with enough practice/skill.

I'll let Nied handle this one. Accurate and correct Flanker info: http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/flanke...anker_home.html PS--wasn't the Su-37 officially called an Su-35-2 or something? I know Nato designated it a "Modified Flanker E" (with the Su-37/27M being the standard Flanker E) Note the use of past tense.

Um, "Hulk" was the movie debut of the F-22. They said Lockheed themselves provided pics/specs etc for it to be accurately modeled in CG. Maybe it's the debut of ACTUAL F-22's on screen? Though I don't recall any mentionings of F-22's being flown for filming.

Ever see the 2nd-to-last F-15 design proposal? Matches the F-22 almost exactly. The YF-22 looked more next-gen than the F-22. They "F-15'd it up" for the production version.

Or even better, start the rumored "military" line of Alternators. F-22 Starscream... Though we still don't know if SS is a YF-22 or F-22. The early design art was clearly a YF-22---you know, the cyber-monkey that they said wasn't anything like the final version. Sorry, never really like Megatron's design. Character yes, robot no. I only complain about stuff I care about. (note I haven't said a word about Classics Bumblebee for example--I simply don't care about him)

It has a MiG-29's VERY DISTINCTIVE overwing strakes (actually a super-long fillet extension of the v.stab used for countermeasures), a MiG-29's nosecone and canopy, and a MiG-29's tailfins. Compare: http://aeroweb.lucia.it/~junap95/fighters/images/mig29-2.jpg

Except that the Flanker and Fulcrum are two entirely different planes. That's like saying "Well this Corvette looks like a modified Ferrari Testarossa".

Continuing the "overweight planes" thread: Apparently the 787 is overweight. Haven't heard any specifics though. Leafed through Air&Space's F-35 article at the magazine stand. One of the ways they reduced weight was very interesting: More complex gear doors. The original design was a simple one-piece style and hung open when the gear was down. The new design is more airliner-esque with multiple doors that close up as much as possible after the gear is done moving. How does this save weight? (since more complex gear doors add weight)--- With the gear doors up, there's no interaction between the big gear doors and local airflow/exhaust when hovering---so the v.stabs can be made smaller. It's all a stability/control issue when hovering.

Actually, Takara already did do better. All they had to do was NOT let Kawamori mess with MP SS once they had already designed it. It would have been out much sooner, and made many people much more happy. And it wouldn't have been green.

Exactly. YF-23 is the most modern, sleekest-looking plane ever. 20 years from now we still won't have planes that look like that. (Look at the F-35---a decade newer and is nothing more than a warmed-over YF-22/F-16 hybrid) Anyways--AFAIK there is still no term for the YF-23's tail fins. They are not ruddervators, as that would be a separate control surface from the main stabilizer. Bonanzas have ruddervators (I ALWAYS watch Bonanzas when I see them overhead). The YF-23's flight manual simply calls them "all-moving tail surfaces". I think "slab ruddervator" is a technically correct description, but you never actually describe it as such--that's like saying "slab elevator" instead of stabilator. Stabiruddervator?

Becuase HFH thought it'd look cool on-screen, that's why.

Detachable legs really screws up the D'stance fighter mode. Most pics are very carefully posed to hide it, but: The D'stance has the feet hang out the back of the plane. Purely due to having them removable. The Yamato/SHE does it far better. While the D'stance has overall amazing proportions, I'd want the legs to store the way the Yamato does. Technically it's not the removable legs so much, as having an actual detailed "interior" to the plane (mainly the GERWALK mode cascades), when the belly and legs are ripped away--that detailing takes up ALL the room the legs normally have, so they can't tuck themselves into the engine nacelles like on the Yamato--they're squeezed in BETWEEN them, making the back end of the plane open up, with the feet hanging out. Look carefully at the D'stance pics--the feet are out in the open, with the belly plates hanging well below the engines at the rear. Purely for the "limbless mode" to be possible. Having just the legs removable would be fine, but it'd look ugly as heck---the D'stance devotes a lot to having a smooth, "functional" interior when the limbs are off. Eliminate that, and you could easily have an even sleeker, better-fitting fighter mode than the D'stance. Cost? Well, the YF-21 has a simpler transformation than the -19, with fewer parts. It's just ALL about shapes/proportions, to make fighter mode look good. But since it's Yamato, and it's new, it'll cost more than any other I'm sure. VF-0A is more than the S, just 'cause it's newer. I'm sure whatever VF-0 is next (Shin? Stealth?) will cost even more.

Oh man, I never ordered my sets to replace my 1/60 stickers with decals. What are we going to do for the YF-19?!?!?! I am a huge decal fan (it's only thing in modeling I do well)--I have more decal sets than kits!

According to the Hase kits, the Ghost and inner missile pods shoud be RLM66 grey (no way that's the "real life" color) and the outer misiles pods should be RLM79 yellow. The RLM color system is WW2 Luftwaffe, and nothing else. Hase also uses purely British colors for the VF-0A though. So do they plan a "low vis" one first to match the new low-vis VF-0, then dark grey ones for Roy etc? You'd think they'd do Roy/Shin colors first.