David Hingtgen

Well THAT was unexpected. SquareEnix announces FF 13 for PS3. Yes, 13, not 12. http://www.gamespot.com/news/6149412.html (scroll down to 2PM) I'm interested--more by that that 12 certainly.

I'm waiting. Might wait even longer for a non-white Lite.

Maybe, when it's all done, and if I think it looks decent. But as the radar is apparently grey, I'm going to leave it as-is. Still debating seat and HUD. (Yamato molded fake details where the HUD should go, making it hard to do, especially with no HUD generator for the HUD to use)

Quick question: Is there a list somewhere of everyone who's used Megatron in gun mode? Surely some fan's come up with one, but I couldn't find it. I ask because I know both Starscream and Skywarp have done it several times, and it'd be an obvious accessory for MP Starscream--but as I plan to get MP Thundercracker, I'd like to know if he's ever done it. (As they'll likely include the same accessories for all 3 regardless---except maybe the crown, that'd be really pointless for anyone but SS)

My letter to Namco regarding "aircraft control scheme modeling" would be very long indeed. Then we could get into physical differences they didn't account for... (like the wrong seats in their F-14D)

Thank you VERY much. Hmmn, the "red/orange" spot so prominent in DYRL is there too---might have to mod the seat. Definitely going to add a HUD, though I don't have any spares in 1/48. Might just buy a cheap F-14 kit for parts... (Might use the seat, too! ) Darn, red head-lasers looks pretty canon. Might paint them metallic grey for sheer "looks-better-ness" anyways though.

Thanks!

No excuse, 30 secs of watching "The Final Countdown" will clearly show the stabs providing primary roll control... Also, Namco even got the INTAKE RAMPS right on the F-14. Watch closely--they'll start moving down as you go faster. A tiny little detail they did in favor of the far more important BIG MOVING STABS.

Of course, if they COULD design it, it'd be the greatest, most complex transforming toy of all time.

That doesn't really count IMHO. Look at any comic or animated show. 99% of the time, natural blonde and natural redhaired people will have BLACK eyebrows because it's either too difficult to do such a narrow line, or because the artist is just lazy. That's always an annoyance of mine, anytime a redhead in comics has black eyebrows. Max is no different. They're drawn black because of laziness, basically. And you'll find just as many examples of black eyebrows on Milia for the same reason. Look at the clip you posted of DYRL--they're black, and I think we all agree she has naturally green hair and should have green eyebrows (like they are SOMETIMES drawn, usually by Mikimoto I think--he cares)

And making it a one-of-a-kind jet doesn't exactly go with the "very hidden, very in-disguise" theme the movie's supposed to have. (That's a YF-22, not a F-22)

And so many of their kids had blue, blue-green, green-blue, etc hair. Now, Mylene w/pink is just weird, but so many of the others seemed appropriate based on parentage.

Getting ready to put my 48 Milia nose back together, but would like to add some authentic paint/color detail to the ejection seat and the area behind it. Yamato's molding doesn't seem to match Kawamori's Design Works book nor DYRL, so I'm assuming they based it off the Hase kits or the TV series (of which I don't have a good enough copy of to reference from) So anyways---are there any screen caps from the series etc that shows any details/colors of the ejection seat (mainly the sides) or the rear cockpit area? I don't really want to leave the whole cockpit and seat grey, but also don't want to just "make things up". I really should get good copies of where her VF-1J appears before I start painting it. Ironically the seat sides are pretty close to a VF-0's it seems... PS--anyone have a list of where Milia's VF-1J appears? I think 25, 26, 27, 30, 34 off the top of my head.

Just had to post this:

F-15 movable intake lips are dual-role. The primary and most obvious use is to give the air the best route through the ramps and intake, mainly at high alpha---they can move down a lot further than they can move up. I believe they don't have much of a role for compression (that's what the ramps are for) but I do think they do move down a little at high speeds for SOME compression. I really should get the F-15's Dash 1 manual... Their secondary use is pitch control at high speeds. Not too far off from the glove vane idea of the F-14---the faster you go, the less effective the h.stabs are. F-14A uses glove vanes to unload the h.stabs to restore effectiveness, but the F-15 actually uses the intake ramps as canards for pitch control---I've read that when supersonic, the ramps have 1/3 the effectiveness of the stabs. AFAIK they cannot operate differentially for roll control---at high speeds the F-15 (like most fighters) uses only differential h.stabs for roll control. Even if the intakes did try to control roll, they wouldn't be very effective. Off the top of my head, the intakes can move down 15 degrees, and up 4 degrees, from the neutral position. The Ace Combat games modeled it amazingly well. Get an in-cockpit view, swing the camera around to look at the intakes, then try varying speed and pitch. How they can get something that subtle correct but can't get the F-14's basic roll controls right I'll never know.

FYI, air intakes are kept so glossy and pristine they are waxed with turtle wax. Skinniest guy in the squadron gets the job of crawling up the intake and waxing them.

Clear nail polish has the nice property of adhering enough to most plastic to stay put, yet can usually be removed with no signs it was there if you need to. I'm putting tons of it into my new 1/48 Milia...

DS Lite US release is June 11th. $129.99 White only. Nevermind their "we all know that's total BS" official statement 4 weeks ago of "no plans to bring it to the US at this point". I still want Navy really bad. Might have to import it if Nintendo takes too long to bring the other colors over. Anything BUT white. My GBA is white and I've disliked it since I bought it (only color they had). And I dislike all the GBA/DS milky/ice colors too. Just doesn't work. Truly transparent colors (like so many PSX/DC/PS2/XB cases) would be nice, but not the "1 step away from opaque" stuff Nintendo does.

Also, even fairly old jets have an "auto-rudder" to correct for yaw when the gun fires. (Assuming the gun's not on the center-line)

Clear nail polish is the solution to a lot of Yamato problems.

I went through most of the OVA last night and found the turbine shot. I'm currently thinking the animators basically scanned (or directly copied) a F110-powered F-14 or F-16---even the convergent and possibly divergent nozzles match, as does the afterburner duct---all things which don't match the other drawings etc of the VF-0, nor the Hase and Yamato versions.

Phalanx---planes have 3 or 4 FBW systems for redundancy, not "difficulty in controlling them". Any unstable plane with FBW will basically self-destruct (most likely to due a RAPID pitch-up or increasing oscillations) if the system completely failed, and a stable plane with FBW would be VERY difficult to control if it failed. AFAIK no plane's ever lost all 4 of a quadruple-redundant system. You can find the failure modes for most FBW planes if you look---most are designed so that if 1 fails there's no affect, 2 will lose some "protections" and maybe mild loss of response/performance, 3 will cause serious problems, 4 will either make the plane fall out of the sky instantly or be so hard to control the pilot will likely crash. Also, a lot of planes have a lot more computers in their control scheme than you'd think. The F-15 for one. Despite being "totally traditional" it still has the computer interpret/command some aspects of the control stick inputs. I'd have to go look it up, but it doesn't flat-out obey a pilot's commands like a P-51 would. And of course the computer controls the intake lips when they're acting like canards.

I'm impressed they actually have a TURBINE in the feet, and not just another intake fan like 99% of most toy jets do. (As does the 1/48 VF-1) Wonder why they used gold paint though. Maybe they were going for titanium? PS---it looks remarkably like an F110's turbine and that is what Shin's F-14 had. Can't remember if we see the turbines well in the OVA and if that's accurate. PPS--still waiting for a VF-0D. The 0S is just too similar to the VF-1 for me.

Landing gear (and their bays/wells) are painted gloss white so that any leak or crack can be easily seen. Same reason air intakes are gloss white. Black would hide any cracks, and most fluid leaks. But when you have a pristine white surface, every defect shows up.

I'm waiting for repaints/remolds of both. I want Thundercracker, and a VF-0D. Plenty of time to save $$$.