David Hingtgen

Agreeing with what F360 said---going only by the outline of the profile is misleading IMHO--I mean, in sheer "silhouette", a AGM-86 cruise missile and L-1011 airliner are pretty close, since by only using the outline you can "ignore" any sort of three-dimensional issue or things in the horizontal plane. Example: F-16 and F-16XL. Almost identical profiles, but very different planes due to one being a tailless delta. Of course they are very similar, but by going solely by their profile you get the impression that they're 99% structurally identical, when really they only share fuselage parts and v.stab. Or, for an extreme example, from head-on, a bowling ball and a cheap pen are utterly identical--perfect circles.

Is there any gold in the paint or is it just the lighting? Because that instantly reminded me of bare titanium, like the A-12.

Just finished it. Overall thought it was inferior to KH1. There were just hours and hours of "doing stuff without advancing the plot at all". It was like: Play through Beast's stage. "Find Riku yet?" "Nope, I'll keep looking". Play through Aladdin's stage. "Find Kairi yet?" "Nope". "You'll find her eventually" Play through Mulan's stage. "Find Riku yet?" "Nope, I'll keep looking". Play through Halloweentown. "Find Kairi yet?" "Nope". "You'll find her eventually" Basically, if you're not at Twilight Town or Hollow Bastion, there's no plot. The middle 20 hours of the game not a thing happens. KH1, while also suffering from "lots of time spent not advancing the plot" didn't have it nearly so bad, and I liked the music better. Though Wonderland and Tarzan's Jungle just sucked--I still hate those stages---the 2 hardest/most confusing stages in all of KH, and they're the first 2 of the first game--I bet a LOT of people stopped early in KH1 for that reason.

The Long Beach plant will be turned into a planned community, but the "Fly DC Jets" sign will be saved because it's a national historic treasure/landmark etc---but they're going to move it. A lot of the buildings are already gone. The DC-8/9 assembly building will become a big warehouse. Here's Boeing's website for it--buy land in "Douglas Park!" http://www.douglaspark.org/ Who wants to be the first?

Ok, we're now completely OT. Back to discussing the VF-1 or take it to PM please.

We've got TWO vice-mods participating, we'll keep things in check.

That's a big issue for most all WW2 engines---liquid cooled inlines tend not to do well for battle damage---one bullet in any line will stop them dead really fast, while air-cooled radials tended to suck up a lot more punishment, as well as usually being easier to armor.

From the side, you mainly see the angled intakes and the engine nacelles---neither of which the F-18 even has. And the overall profile of the nose is F-111, as has been discussed. Which isn't surprising since the F-14 really is the F-111B hastily redesigned for air combat with a bunch of A-6 parts. THAT's a project for tonight--look for A-6 stuff in the VF-1.

The thing is, the VF-1 has a ton of small, specific details that are almost direct copies of F-14 parts. IMHO the intakes and wing glove alone preclude most any F-18 elements--two angled, widely separated intakes with a tunnel between them mounted below the glove right up front is a completely different design from round intakes on the sides of the fuselage mounted well aft behind a LERX that lead to side-by-side engines. The VF-1 has no spine nor LERX. Also it has the F-14's beavertail, which is incredibly distinctive and makes the entire rear fuselage like an F-14's. I just don't see any F-18 in the VF-1 from any angle except POSSIBLY having the fins mounted a bit forward from normal.

I'll quickly chime in that I think it's fine how it is and shouldn't change. Second point is that nothing ruins a forum faster than discussing politics. Most every board I go to has a "no politics/religion" rule, and the only one that doesn't is 10x crazier than the others put together.

"Roy's Rules" My default mod-answer for anything nowadays...

Especially since the mold they include the decals with is the least accurate one they could possibly have chosen. They really should have used an F-14D kit...

IMHO That's the worst version of Super Mega God Fire Convoy I've seen---I base mine on the first/most famous version from Japan, but for the hip armor I use the parts exactly how they are in "fire truck trailer mode" and they fit perfectly and look really nice. Always surprised I've never seen anyone else use them like that, as it looks better and is fairly "obvious" since you don't have to fold them or anything. Maybe I should go get mine and take a pic.

Along the same vein as my earlier post--what version? British P-38's sucked as we discussed just a little earlier. The definitive US P-38's rocked. Why do you think they got up to version "J" so quickly? They were fixing problems left and right, with many subvariants for each letter. Same for the Ta152---there are dedicated high and low altitude versions.

I was going to post that, but was waiting for someone else to do it first. A Zero can TURN and should never be dismissed. Zero's main problem is sheer durability--what would be light/minor damage on most planes is fatal to a Zero.

Umm, P-51D vs BF-109 and P-51D vs ME-109---what's the difference? Also, the 109 has a HUGE range of variants, you've gotta at least specify E, G, K, etc.

The board is supposed to be PG-13 (though we often creep higher), so try not to get too much past that discussing various "aspects" of Major Kusanagi's construction/anatomy etc. Secondly, we do have female board members, though I doubt they'd be perusing this particular thread much.

One thing missing from that is the VF-11 accent color change--the elbows/ankles/hands/feet went from a dark teal to a medium grey on the FP version.

Now that they're out, I'm waiting for Graham to reveal the "neat new features/improvements" he hinted at and couldn't tell us.

Not quite a scan, but better than nothing: http://www.1999.co.jp/dbimages/user/hobby/.../10027950n2.jpg The bureau number is 161621 BTW--though I'm 99% certain that's purely Hasegawa's idea, not canon at all. Box photos: http://www.1999.co.jp/dbimages/user/hobby/...g/10027950a.jpg

roborob---is your Camaro repainted? That doesn't look like Quasar Blue Metallic, and I know of no other blue anywhere close to that color for a mid-90's Camaro. And I notice lots of the normally black parts are also blue. PS--that's my fave Camaro wheel style, and one of my all time fave wheels period. Was that style ever available from the factory chromed?

Should I pin it now, or wait until it's "refined" as kensei said? Maybe add pics of the differences?

I'm trying to decide if I should use the optional gray decals Anasazi includes on the 1/48 M&M sheet----I'm thinking that the red really won't show up, and that the gray would both stand out and look better overall---but I don't think I've ever seen pics of someone who's actually done it. My main concern is how opaque the gray is, and if the red plastic would show through. (Red decals might not show up, but you don't have to worry about the red plastic showing through, it'd be impossible to tell) As you might imagine I'm trying to find out if that's how it'd be done in real life, but bright red planes in actual service (as opposed to demo teams and other planes with all the data and warnings omitted) are hard to find, and most of the VF-1 markings are closely based on US Navy markings, which has never had a red jet that I know of. Only really red one I've found is the "Milia red" F-15 Japan has. There's also a few F-14's and 18's with red, but not overall red---they seem to usually have white markings where the red is, sometimes black. (Black is hard to read on red) Of course, real grey planes have grey markings that can be VERY subtle, but they do specify that there should be contrast.

....as the thread marches ever closer to UTTER pointlessness

But, but--we all WANT Miami Vice the TV show...