David Hingtgen

Planes are unlocked by shooting down their aces, basically. The F-16C was among the very last plane I ever got, annoyingly. I think the F-16C rocked in this game--it had extremely typical and useful weapon options---AMRAAM, 2,000 pounder, and HARM. I usually buy the F-16 as soon as possible (as my first upgrade from the base plane).

The cartoon version switches around what model of truck Prime is. Mainly a season-by-season thing. Kind of like how Sideswipe sometimes looks a lot like a Countach, and sometimes looks more like Bluestreak...

Bayou Billy, from The Adventures of Bayou Billy.

I want a Fine Molds Star Destroyer. The AMT one is the only kit that has such poor fit that even when I was only 10 years old I realized it had huge gaps and ill-fitting parts when building it. Well, tried. I don't think I ever did get it together.

Semi OT, but basically EVERY Japanese manufacturing company built war equipment in WWII. But Mitsubishi was certainly #1, they built a lot more than just planes. (Notably the Yamato-class battleships) No different than here---Chrysler and GM built tanks, and some car companies even built B-25's.

For the love of God don't hang around ACIG.org. Trust me, it's like going to Robotech.com for Macross info. Tom Cooper may be fairly reputable, but the forums there are no better than Abovetopsecret.com etc.

GE and PW are two different companies. Though there are a few joint projects for large airliner engines recently. The TF30 is a PW engine. The GE engine for the F-14 is the F110, which is used on the F-14B and F-14D. And Iran's would have the exact same problems. Note that all the videos you see are the IMPROVED version of the TF30! Early ones were even worse--failed more often and with bigger booms. Feel sorry for VF-1, VF-2, and VF-124, who had to deal with the really early ones.

Unless of course you go Soldier/Knight/Mercenary like I did, with the Typhoon being among the last planes you get.

Which one of many F-14 exploding videos is it? Doesn't really matter, it's the same thing every time: The TF30 is one of the worst jet engines to ever enter service. Their compressors stall all the time, usually leading to blade bending, and subsequently blowing up the engine.

Pixy and PJ are still better by themselves than Edge, Chopper, Swordsman, and Archer combined.... Pixy has 1/10 my kills in some categories, as opposed to Edge (the best of Razgriz) who has like 1.5% of my kills.

In the end, Britain had(has) the best Tornado variants. Only the UK and Saudi Arabia even had the ADF version, and the IDS Gr.4 far surpasses the "almost how they were delivered" versions everyone else has.

Dobber--I don't see anything new in those threads from what was known a few weeks ago. We're looking for the new "airbrake and radar" pics Renato mentioned.

That was my point/question---if it was going to be for a Valk, coolant would likely be inappropriate. Also AFAIK, green-dyed coolant is only used in the smallest of piston powered planes, and non-military. You're much more likely to find it left clear or colored pink in larger props and military planes, I think.

Before I see the pics: I still say that's "swappable nozzles", not engine detail, based on previous pics... Anyone who knows F-15's knows the difference between feathered and unfeathered nozzles, and I think MP SS has feathered for robot mode and unfeathered for jet mode.

I still vote Rafale. The new carrier is being designed for both the UK and France, and so it will be designed with Rafale capability in mind. It's actually the UK version that's not finalized, as they don't know what plane to design it for! But with Rafale capability being inherent to the design...

Mine (and I think Skull Leader's) #1 site is down at the moment, no point posting a link that's dead at the moment. That site will beat any other site for accurate up-to-the-minute F-22 info, trust us. I will say F-16.net is about the best site period dedicated to a plane. F-15StrikeEagle.net and any F-14 site have nothing on the Viper's page. Strange that there's no Hornet page out there AFAIK.

How does Robotech even count? Shouldn't each third be considered separately? ;P Seriously--how are they counting Minmay's songs? Do they mean Macross songs? Because there's no way they thought Reba West is the "standard all future anime should be measured against".

Never stopped Takara/Hasbro, they paint and tampo print along opening transformation seams all the time. Anyways---HUD printing? I'd love to see that.

Any chance of a kite-only set? (both regular and low-vis, sizes for nose/wing/FP) With solid white background circles for applying over tampo-printed markings? I'd like to re-logo several valks, but don't want to buy a $20 complete valk+FP set for just new kites. And I think every set could use the pure white circle kite backgrounds. Just make them about 1mm smaller than the kites--because the kite's black border will cover over everything regardless. Then you wouldn't have to worry about getting the kite EXACTLY over the white background. PS---I have US Air Force and Navy/Marines painting manuals, and can tell you exactly what shades of grey 'should' be used on various background colors---if you want to try to get "real" low-vis colors.

Saw it, will pick it up soon, but not immediately. I still don't have a DS. It'll be either the first or second game I play once I get my DS Lite.

A little late here but--- Coolant for what? What type of plane?

Yamato just plain can't mold/paint stuff accurately enough. They're way behind the current standard for model planes, diecast or not. Plus I doubt they'd do any better. Dragon's stuff is getting worse and worse, and Corgi still can't tell a naval Phantom from a land-based one.

"Overweight being fixed". For every pound they drop off, I hear of another pound needing to be added on. I have yet to see an actual weight decrease. It's more like: "Plus 1000, minus 800, plus 700, minus 500, plus 50, minus 30..." Of course, IMHO it's all for naught if it's the next budget target after the F-22 and production is drastically cut. Instead of replacing the Viper/Hornet/Warthog it'll replace Hill, Mountain Home, and Shaw's planes, and that's about it...

If it's metallic, I use Testors Metalizer Sealer. One of the few clears that won't totally kill a metallic's shine (since its designed NOT to)

Fast jet damage? SAM. F-18's took SAM's in the Gulf War and came home. Every Harrier hit with a SAM went down. And there's always AAA. Mach 2 capability didn't help any of the Strike Eagles or Tornados lost since they couldn't use it. Attack aircraft are still forced to fly low and slow a lot of the time. I've yet to hear of somebody dropping a JDAM from Mach 2 and 40,000ft. (And I know you simply can't go very fast with a Paveway due to seeker issues) Damage survivability of any kind, and especially when low and slow is still worth something.