David Hingtgen

Lots of programs are back-ups, alternatives, or "replacements for the ones currently being developed". Basically---when a plane enters service, its newer, better replacement should already be on the drawing board. The F-14 was an 'emergency replacement' for the failure of the F-111B. It was basically a hasty redesign of the F-111B that had been started once Grumman saw that the F-111B was going to suck. It used as many A-6 design features and parts as possible to save development time/costs--including the wings and landing gear. The F-111B parts are the engines, weapons, radar, and swing-wing feature. So when the F-111B was formally cancelled due to sucking (if only other planes had that happen), and the Navy issued an urgent request for a new design--Grumman had already done a lot of work, and it'd be cheaper and sooner than expected due to re-use of a lot of the money/development put into the F-111 and A-6.

R_deckard--your plan sounds like what I plan to do at some point--basically remove the conformal tanks to make a normal F-15, and put all the kibble back where it is on the G1. (hip kibble on legs, and intake kibble back on the wings). But I plan to wait quite a while and see what future releases of this mold are like---either Takara repaints or hopefully Hasbro or possibly even some remolding. But the exact separation lines etc of how Takara molded it makes a big difference in feasibility---can't have the entire fuselage side be "open spaces and ribs" or putty over a foot-long area. Damn, I was REALLY hoping the conformal tanks wouldn't be molded with the arms, that screws up a lot. If they were separate, all you'd really need to do is slice the CFT off the intake area, and slice off the bottom of the hip kibble. (Though that'll almost certainly be the biggest reshaping/puttying area). PS--if you need some reference for carving, frankly the best bet is the Revell-Monogram 1/48 F-15E kit. Usually 20 bucks, can often be found for 13. It's the most accurate F-15E out there, and has the most accurate conformal tank and fuselage shapes. And the tanks are separate from the fuselage--annoying for the 99% of buyers who'll build it with them attached, but very useful for holding a 3D conformal tank in your hand and seeing how it separates/intergrates with the fuselage itself. If you're serious about removing the conformal tanks, I think your time/effort would be best spent in acquiring a model kit than hunting down pics and drawings and books. Man, if SS was 1/48 he'd not only be as big as most people expected/wanted, but there'd be a ton of F-15 model kit parts to use on him for customizing.

If you leave the "shoulder thingies" off in fighter mode, you've lost a chunk of the wings. If they were molded slightly different (separate the fairing and conformal tank), you could do it and be just fine. The "shoulder kibble" is the "bottom point" of the wing on the original version and G1 mold.

Wait a minute--he does have a new sig, he just made it hidden... Cryptic as always though.

Hey, Graham has no sig...

Back OT: Regarding load speeds. Is it really so much the speed, or how it's arranged on the disc? Because loading speeds for "comparable" stuff seems to vary greatly, and I see quite a few comments about how a big factor is at the very very end of production, where they actually "arrange" where data is located on the disc. Valk Profile 2 (which keeps getting better) is amazingly fast in loads. For the most detailed and gorgeous textures I've ever seen on a PS2. "Simple" graphics in other games can take far longer. Or compare Xenosaga 2 and 3. Completely opposite in loading times for very similar engines. And then there's always streaming loading. And then caching, used to great effect in Oblivion.

If you do, let me know how. A hinge/rail/channel to allow it it slide upwards isn't hard, but getting it to lock to stay up is the trick. (And it'd probably look better if some of the upper hip kibble was moved to the wings, especially since being moved upwards would really make it project above the knees) Basically the area right around the ball joint--take it off the hip kibble and attach to the wings. (I believe that the opposite was done from the original mold to the new one---they took bits from the wing roots and attached it to the hip kibble, so that they'd have somewhere for the "ball" to attach to) Or the easy way is to just reposition the pegs/holes, so you just take off the hip kibble and attach it whereever you want. Not "perfect transformation" but that'd be hard to achieve when modifying a toy. PS--since you seem to be the only one I've seen actually mod the toy by cutting off the ball joints---are the conformal tank bits on the arms removable at all? They sure look like separately molded pieces. I'd really appreciate some info about if they could be taken off. (As well as more photos in jet mode showing exactly how much of the wingroot they incorporate) Basically I really want close up pics of the underside in jet mode, where the wing meets the fuselage. PPS--the skinny silver bits next to each foot (in between the nozzles in jet mode)---you can just slice them off if you want. It'd actually be more accurate for any USAF F-15.

I did! Mazinger, thought I'm not familiar enough with the series to know exactly which one.

No. Mach .95 and Mach 3 are quite different. And the XB-70's a lot bigger. The XB-70 pax version was proposed when it was still flying. It was little more than a few windows and seats in the forward fuselage.

How do you think submarines get air, when they stay submerged for months at a time? The CO2 you breathe out has O2 in it---take out the carbon, you get O2. Air recyclers. Same as plants, just mechanical. Space Shuttle flat-out makes air. Carries tanks of liquid nitrogen and liquid oxygen onboard----spews out what's needed. Makes water too, and actually makes so much they have to dump it overboard.

Ironically, the opposite was seriously proposed for the XB-70----ultra-high speed airliner.

Well I was wrong about one thing: The extra machine gun is intentional from Kawamori, not the mold-maker "trying to make it symmetrical" or something.

Eh, 739ER is nothing more than a higher-weight 739. Physically identical to a base 739, but different door arrangement. Anyways--yup, the SR-71 is a special case in that it is actually most efficient in afterburner, and does so for hours on end. So it's not supercruise. It's burnercruise. Basically, when over Mach 3, almost all the fuel goes to the afterburner, almost none to the turbojet. The turbojet basically ceases to function, most of the air is bypassed around it and goes straight to the burner. (in a totally different way than a turbofan) SR-71 design speed is Mach 3.2---any lower speed is less efficient. If it goes Mach 3.1, it won't have the range to complete its missions. Interestingly, it actually becomes even more efficient when it goes faster--but the airframe can't take it. The SR-71's "high cruise" speed is 3.3, with an emergency dash speed of 3.35. On the few times these were authorized---they landed with extra fuel. (The SR-71's absolute limit is Mach 3.4---that will destroy the aircraft--don't give even a moment's thought to all the Mach 4+ rumors---a simple calculation of the Mach angle will show that the bow wave will intersect the wing leading edge around Mach 3.4, so that's the limit---and Blackbirds have been destroyed proving it) Concorde normal cruise is officially 2.04, but typically holds right around 2.00. Highest in-service cruise was 2.23. The Tu-144 is all-around faster, but its supercruise limit is 1.6 It can only do 2+ in burner. Well, the basic Tu-144D was. The LL is almost certainly faster, but nobody knows how fast. Estimated the thing could hit 2.5. (Certainly 2.4)

And the answer is: Magnets! Magnetically attached "half-gunpods" on the belly plates. It'd be easy to hide some magnets in the belly plates. And if the belly FAST packs were magnetically attached too, they could be made very thin. However, I'm thinking the FAST packs too may need to use the "half gunpods" as well. Just look at the D'stance----it requires insanely long gear that can't possibly retract into the wells to have like 1mm of ground clearance with all the stuff attached to the belly. If people accept half-gunpods for the armor-less belly, they should accept the same half-gunpods for the armored belly. Full-size gunpods would be for battroid only. (I'm thinking the same set of half-gunpods could be used for both armored and un-armored belly in fighter mode, so there's not a bunch of different sets to keep track of--just one set that'd fit the belly plates with or without armor)

World's best super-cruiser is still the Concorde, so a big goes out to all the F-22 fans...

Which is what I suggested at the bottom of my post.

I just really don't think the FAST-pack-less gunpods on the -21 are feasible on a toy. Space in the belly is so critical the thickness of the gear doors and tire tread is an issue. And there's supposed to be room for guns? You'd need massive doors and hinges in the belly plates, even if you did have room. The height of the doors alone would equal the depth of the belly. It can work in 1:1 scale with a bit of anime magic and the sliding doors Kawamori is oh-so-fond-of in the M+ and later valks. But not with simple hinged doors and 1:60 scale. Basically--I think any attempt at doing so would so compromise the design, it'd end up looking worse than the original Yamato YF-21. Just skip it, and make the gunpods fast-pack only. ::lightbulb!:: Or possibly---make special "fighter mode only" gunpod parts---like, just the visible bottom half of the gunpods. Attach to the belly plates, and there you go. But trying to actually INSERT a full gunpod into the belly isn't going to happen.

Either way, I thought the face color change was almost as bad as the rest of the colors. SS has a dull grey face, to clearly contrast with the other 2. (Though the "later" 3 seekers all have grey faces I think) Changing head and face colors is pretty unprecedented--I mean, Prime ALWAYS has a blue head with a silver "mouth plate". If they made it deep grey, people'd sure complain.

When there's 3 physically identical characters, with ONLY color differentiating them, color becomes very important. Especially when Starscream had a dark grey face, but Thundercracker had a silver face---and the toy has a silvery face...

Since *I* like commercial airliners more than anything else, it will always be on topic here. About 80% of my model planes are airliners. I've read the F-22 makes a distinct sound, but have yet to hear it myself. And for jets, it's all about the engines, obviously. F-16C Block 30 and Block 32/42 sound VERY different. And Block 52/re-engined 42's are probably the loudest and most "ripping", vs the "roar" of Block 30/40/50. Super Tomcats, having re-tuned versions of the F-16C Block 30/40/50 engine, are surprisingly quiet, despite having two of them. Late model F-15E's are said to be about the loudest jets there are nowadays, having 2 of the Block 52 engines. (There's now so many F-16 engines, you'll find them in about every other plane too) I've only ever heard F-15C's. Oh, and Super Hornets are incredibly noisy and "ripping", right up there with an F-16 Block 52. Complete opposite of the Legacy Hornet. And that just makes the Super Hornet "whisper" pass even more amazing. Super Hornets have more of a "rip" than any jet I've ever heard. If you want a buzz, listen to a Rolls-Royce.

Copy the D'stance for most of it, but use the original's foot/leg storage, and neck/forward fuselage.

I keep thinking she has two distinct powers: 1. Healing. 2. Feels no pain. Otherwise, she wouldn't be nearly so casual about things, and probably spend half her life just screaming. PS--is it just me, or is she incredibly accident-prone/unlucky? I mean, she'd have already died like 4 times so far, excluding the "stunts" for the camera etc. Key question is the sink disposal---did she go after it knowing full well she couldn't be hurt, or was she just stupid and stuck her hand in without thinking? PPS--Peter, dude, just try not-so-high things. If you can do it, you can do it from 10 inches, not just 10 feet. ::edit:: Damn, just read a spoiler about him. I tend to avoid threads about shows/games/movies, as well as wikipedia for that reason. Might leave this thread too, as even speculation tends to bug me---because there's always at least a few that are right. I'm the opposite of someone who searches out every forum and bit of info--I like surprises, and try NOT to figure things out. Entertainment is supposed to be just that.

Nothing really on Gol. I've waded through EVERY page (and there's less actual info each page) and nothing really to report. Certainly the most intriguing crash in years. It's rare to go this long without knowing what actually happened. (WHY can take years, but WHAT is usually known pretty quickly)

Here's an E with the conformal tanks off. Could be for maintenance, could be because the wing CO wanted to see how fast it could go. (It is the wing commander's plane, but no way to know if he's flying it)

Super Dimensional Washer--with Fold(ing towels) capability!