David Hingtgen

Testors Acryl is rather unique. It's Propylene gycol based. Testors Acryl has sh*t adhesion to anything other than Testors Enamel IMHO, but not much affects it once dry.

Just a slight comment--the Su-37 had (note the past tense) 2D nozzles. Even the Su-30MKI is 2D technically, but it can get 3D effects from them due to their off-axis pivot line. True 3D nozzles are rare---see F-15ACTIVE and MiG-29OVT/Mig-35. A Flanker with true 3D nozzles would be yet even more impressive than the -30MKI. Also I think people are getting confused by what FBW is. It is a method used to send the pilot's commands digitally to the control surfaces. As opposed to physical braided steel cables running from the control stick to the elevators etc. While it is needed for planes which are unstable, its mere presence means NOTHING about the plane's stability. The A380 is one heck of a stable plane, but it's fully FBW just because Airbus likes FBW. Definition of stability: When saying a plane is stable or not, we're talking about pitch. And it all depends on the relative positions of the center of gravity (CG), and the center of lift (CL). CG ahead of CL= stable CG behind CL= unstable If they're the same (hard to achieve, as CG and CL shift a bit during flight a bit) it's neutral. Also, most unstable planes are BARELY unstable (CG behind CL by a matter of inches), whereas most stable planes are quite stable. Further definition of stability: Stable planes will attempt to return to level flight if left to them selves (as in, taking your hands off the controls from any given attitude). Unstable planes will attempt to further diverge from level fight if left to themselves. Neutral planes will maintain their current attitude when left to themselves.

Part of (and possibly the main) the reason for having a separate name (any name) for the SUPER Hornet is to eliminate confusion over radio calls----you REALLY don't want the landing signal officer nor arresting gear crew to be expecting the other type of Hornet---so regular Hornets go by Hornet, and Super Hornets go by Rhino, so there's no chance of being confused on the radio. (And since there's no F-4's nowadays there's no confusion there) Of course, being an F-4 fan I too think Rhino should be reserved for the F-4 only... Anyways---my guess for the Super Hornet max speed is 1.6. Draggier and heavier than a Hornet with only a moderate thrust increase. And I'd guess the F414 is even more optimized for Mach .9 cruising than the F404 is. I do put a lot of credence in the "subsonic when loaded/low" though, as even very fast fighters won't get much past 1 when low, and many normal loads bring them below 1.5 at altitude.

Black landing gear? No way. Landing gear's gloss white for a reason, even in the future. Black wheels? Possibly, and has happened before, but every time they do it, they quickly go back to gloss white. (Russia is fond of green wheels for some reason)

But it'd be better than the DOA movie...

Well, real missiles are grey, even on all-black planes.

QAAM----Very true, but they are better than standard, and with how often you run out of time (instead of dying) on the final mission, any increase in damage or hit probability is much appreciated. PS---the Soldier (or maybe Knight, I forget) F-14 scheme is 100% Razgriz--even has the valkyrie/shield on the tail.

Current discussion on ARC is "What is the Shornet's top speed". Conflicting info from pretty good sources, including .9, 1.3, and 1.6. And we're talking airshow-clean configuration. PS---I've always thought the Super Hornet would rock in a dogfight. But it's still ugly and slow compared to a Tomcat.

I have a "mastered" AC5 save (All planes, all colors, all S on all ranks--except maybe 1 mission I think) and didn't unlock the Falken yet. Ok, even if XL/XMAA can hit Pixy, it happens so rarely it's a waste of time and ammo. QAAM is far better. PS--the MiG-21 has QAAM's, but I doubt you'd want to use it for the final mission! I just got the YF-23 (QAAM), I'll see how it does. I always feel invincible in the YF-23...

Based on what I've read, like most "unexpected" gun kill pics, the F-22 probably started out at a severe disadvantage for the sole purpose of seeing how a Super Hornet does at knife-range against a super-agile fighter. In other words, in a "real" scenario, the F-22 would have had a 99.9% chance of shooting the Super Hornet down before the Super Hornet even knew the F-22 was there. That is the F-22's main way to fight---basically a long-range assassin. I think in like 1 of 100 encounters could an F-15 even get close enough to actually dogfight with an F-22, the other 99 times it was shot down before it even knew the F-22 was there. Thus, the Super Hornet was probably intentionally allowed to find the F-22 first, at close range, and then see if it could manuever with it to get a gun kill. Or something along those lines. I can't imagine it was a fair "start 50 miles apart, and see who kills who first" I would guess the Super Hornet is the best US plane after the F-22 at knife range, and may even have superior high-alpha and nose-pointing ability (they have a 10G over-ride if they need it). However, no plane would ever have the chance to get in close to an F-22 in the first place---unless you've set it up that way solely for training.

XLAA and XMAA will never ever hit the last boss. QAAM or the "basic" missile are the only ones. I fired some 60 AMRAAM's and Phoenixes and AA-12's and never got one hit. Part of the reason I suggest the F-15C---QAAM's. Save most (not all) of the QAAM's for the 3rd form--they do a little more damage, enough to save a missile hit or two (since you get so few chances--sometimes he'll just refuse to come head-on) I found that doing the "run far away, lure him to come, then charge head-on" takes WAY too much time. Just keep turning into him at close range---he'll came at you often enough that you'll get more chances in the 5-minute window than if you "perfectly" set up head-on runs from long range. He's SO agile he can turn around and come head on whenever he feels like, no matter how close he is. My best run yet was like 2 minutes 7 seconds, for all 3 forms. I got a lot of 45-degree-off QAAM hits on the final form.

Go slow. Unlike every other "dodge the super weapon" mission in AC, this one has really good aim. If you're blasting South at Mach 2, you'll hit it before you can even turn. Hold around 600mph. Also, fly banked---then you don't have to roll, you can just haul back on the stick the moment you see it. I often fly banked 60 degrees, and going SE or SW instead of due South. Then, when I see it, I can just quickly pull back and be pointing due South, while avoiding the laser. It will always be right ahead of you, no matter which way you're pointing. So I purposely fly off course a bit to lure it over, so when it fires I then turn due S, towards safety and away from the laser. Also, it WILL have one last shot at the VERY end, beyond the white line. Watch for it.

Ah, 15, how I hate it. But learned to master it. 1. Pick a FAST plane. Got the money for a MiG-31 or can sell stuff? Buy it. After that, F-14 or F-15. MiG-31 is worth it for this mission alone. Russian design at its finest---HUGE engines=speed. 2. The ground enemies at the start are a minor threat, but should be eliminated. 3. Nagase's location is random, but is often one of 2 spots, and usually the Western-most one. Memorize where they are. Determine exactly what stage of "finding" her will activate which enemy (like the enemy E-767) and exactly how long you can let the timer go before getting a mission failure due to not looking for her. Spend every possible second blowing up ground targets, and when you only have like 30 secs to the next stage of "finding" her, race over to where she probably is, kill the bad guy, and go back to blowing up ground targets and Super Hornets. 4. When you get the "final" finding of her, run SE immediately and kill everything at max range. An Apache cannot dodge a Phoenix, so F-14D is a good choice, though you're unlikely to have it--anything with XLAA is a good choice here. Second to the Apache is SAMs and AA in a line running SE. The third biggest threat is new planes approaching from the N, including an ace X-29. The SAM and AA that attack the rescue chopper do not show up until the rescue copter does, so you can't take them out early. The best way to protect the helicopter is to prevent the enemy from firing--that's different from killing the enemy. Now, about the only way to do that for ground targets is to kill them, but if you can just constantly buzz around harassing the enemy choppers and planes, you can stop them from firing as they're trying to evade you. If you spend more than 5 secs on an enemy but haven't killed it, break off and go after someone else. Your goal is to distract enemies enough by attacking them that they can't do much damage---unless you're lucky the bad guys won't be in the perfect place to kill them all quickly---so just keep harassing as many as possible as often as possible, killing when you have a chance. PS---wingmen! Set them to ignore YOUR target so they go and harass other enemies. I have won several times because a wingman fired (and missed) at an enemy, but it was enough for the enemy to break off from the rescue chopper while I was busy with another enemy. Or in summary--you said it only took a few seconds to go chase down enemies and kill them, but the chopper died in that time---just chase them off, not chase them down. Saves a few seconds, and that's what you need.

But they specifically said *I* was so "knightly" and fought with honor, when I was playing as a soldier--I really think that FMV should have gone with my maxed-out Knight bar playthrough.

Mostly airplane forums: Airlinebuzz.com, ARC, Model-Hangar, Airliners.net, DAC.

I'm tweaking/customizing my 1/48 Milia and while I have the nose in pieces, I was thinking about painting the radar. I don't recall ever seeing the radome opened up on-screen, and was wondering if we ever did get to see the actual radar itself? If not I'm going to paint it up like an F-14's.

Has the Rafale sold to anyone besides France itself? It's doing surprisingly poorly.

I thought it was the same place, but wasn't sure. PS---anyone else think they screwed up the FMV's in Zero? Playing as a Soldier got me a lot of "Knight-referencing" interviews, and playing as a Knight got me interviews about my strategy and observation...

Sorry, I love AC4's story. The letter from the kid to you, it's one of my fave plots in all games ever. It doesn't have 1/10 the dialogue of AC5 or Zero, but it is simply "deeper" IMHO. And I find the missions and stages very memorable, more so than all but a few of 5's. Have you looked at Whiskey Corridor? Really closely? It wasn't a desert just a little while ago--it was destroyed by one of the asteroids. It's a harbor. Or it was. Look at the ruined docks, the broken oil tankers, etc. At first glance it's "Desert Storm III" but take a close look, and it's a ruined land like the first mission, just in a very different way. It was wiped out so fast they couldn't even move the boats out to sea, and now it's just a dry wasteland. Plus that's one of the missions where you come across that same group of ground troops--I had lots of fun defending them throughout the game, listening to their chatter, etc. If you really look around, AC4's world shows even more "geographical" destruction than AC5 and Zero combined. Also it seemed to do better than 5 in how the missions related to each other--the first part is desperation----save the last airbase, knock out their radar to evacuate the troops, defend your emergency HQ, etc. You're on the run, and the territory you control shrinks mission by mission on the map. Then you start a counter-offensive--knock out their oil supplies to spoil their naval plans, then go after the Navy itself, then Stonehenge, and work your way back to their capital. AC 5 had you all over the place reacting, rather than a good solid war plan. A lot of people seem to miss how hard Farbanti was hit too, and I believe its destruction is a big part of the cause of the war in AC4.

Is the exact pronunciation "we" or more like "wheee"? The double-i spelling makes me want to lengthen the sound...

Final Boss Spoiler: (highlight to read) I thought YF-19 w/fold booster too. X-02 looks like YF-21 only because the YF-21 looks like the YF-23, and the X-02 is made from YF-23 parts. I actually found Hard easier than Normal, just ROCKED against the final boss this time. Going through on Expert, going for Mercenary this time (though it might take a while, my bar was maxed out Knight last time--got the "Supreme Knight" medal for winning with the bar maxed out)

I like 4 and 5 a lot better, music and plot-wise. No question/contest. 0's story really never "grabbed" me, and felt more like I was watching the story, rather than being in it. By mission three in 4 and 5 you were really "in" the story, I was at mission seven in 0 and was wondering "when does it get good?" Honestly it reminded me of AC 2, mission-wise. "Go blow this up. Then go blow this up. Now take out this place". Stage design was boring too, IMHO. Generic city, generic fields, generic mountain. 4 and 5's stages all seemed "memorable" just by how they looked. I found very few themes/melodies in 0's soundtrack, can only even remember like 3 mission's songs, despite having played twice now. Ironically mission 1 has among the best music. Replays? I don't see the slightest bit of difference. Follow yourself, wingman, or target, and select front/back, 360, etc.

This might be the solution: The hatch for the head that also has the little "hook" fold out (BP-9) should be in a different position for battroid mode than it is in GERWALK/fighter mode. Push it further in/down that it goes for fighter mode. It should actually be BELOW the surrounding surface--locked in place, not simply laying there. There's two little tabs that hold it in place there. That'll affect the angle of the whole backpack.

I'm very surprised/pleased with Prime. Complete opposite of Astrotrain IMHO. Will probably buy it, unless he looks much worse when good pics surface. Wonder if we'll get a trailer this time, or will he be like MP Prime... Though seeing all the people on the forums call it a "flat-front" truck irritates/annoys me to no end. No different than calling a jet a "whoosh plane" as I heard once. (Because it makes a whooshing noise to fly) Those types of trucks are called cabovers. CABOVER. Or C.O.E. Not "flat-front". I swear that term was invented on the 2005 boards a few years ago, and never existed prior to that. When something already has multiple specific terms existing for it as well as nice simple abbreviations for those terms, there's really no need to make a new 3rd-grade-vocabulary equivalent term. PS--they're generally just called "roof fairings", sometimes "aero fairings". Definitely not a spoiler, as no truck has downforce or lift issues at all due to their shape. Even though some are quite spoiler-shaped.

Went through on hard, and ended up using the F-15C AGAIN to win! Started "expert" and just now bought the YF-23. Annoyingly I opened up the F-22 just before the final missions on the first play through, but have found you can't buy a new plane before the "inside the dam" mission--you can switch planes by going back to the title screen, but no purchasing. Similarly, I had unlocked the YF-23 but couldn't use it until the next play-through. Have shot down various ace X-29's, still no X-29. Is it flyable? It's going to be a LONG time before I have every plane, they're expensive. Still no F-16C nor Super Hornet, though I got the F-16XL.