David Hingtgen

I think the issue is, that real-life scheme isn't very famous and it does look weird to most people (myself included, despite it being on the cover of a book I often reference). It's close enough to the ultra-famous SEA camo that everyone knows and expects, that it looks off to people, almost like a mistake---like they tried to do SEA camo and screwed up. Plus I think the colors are just off enough that they didn't really match the JASDF camo that well, making it look even stranger to people. The JASDF is decidely more brown, the LV2 is too yellow/pink.

It wouldn't have been closed based on the first two posts, but Phalanx--you REALLY didn't need to go there.

The first low-vis was an almost exact copy of the standard 1980's F-15 scheme. Plenty of other grey low-vis schemes to do, including the F-14's unique low-vis scheme---there's no scheme that'd fit better or work better for obvious reasons. Or, with Roy's scheme being closely based on VF-84's scheme, why not "copy" some other famous Navy squadrons? Do high-vis! I of course would vote for VF-111.

See my previous comment.

Or my fave quote of his, when a reporter asked what it was like the first time he ever saw a jet: "I shot it down"

Oooooh, the BIG Yamato kit. I have a 1/350 Iowa and Tirpitz I'm slowly working on, and have been considering a 1/350 Musashi. If you're unaware of it, one of the best Yamato site for modelers is here: http://www.coma.ais.ne.jp/~watakan/yamato/index.html Somewhat Engrish-y, but very good info, especially on paint--down to the actual ratios and materials used.

Nintendo's official stance is still "no plans to release DS Lite in the US in the foreseeable future". Nintendo would also like you to really ignore the US version manual that exists, and the fact that a lot of things point to it being released with New Super Mario Bros.

Food threads tend to get locked REALLY fast. PS--Pepsi makes Mountain Dew. Thus, Pepsi wins.

I've always been surprised that most large R/C airliners, despite being like 1:8 scale, have godawful proportions and shapes, being less accurate than $3 1:600 scale toys. You see tons of incredibly perfect R/C F-15's and the like, but most airliners I see are just hideously off. But Airbuses tend to be done a lot better, and I have no idea why. Wonder if it leaves a scale wake----it'd still be dangerous to small aircraft!

And for a bunch of pics of Ace Combat X go here: http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/game/docs/20060414/acx.htm

As I've said numerous times, it's not the volume, it's the sound itself. It's a high-pitched whine that pierces all. It could be made 99% quieter, and it'd still bug me. I know what a rapidly spinning drive sounds like (nothing like burning a DVD at max speed), and this is not it. It's the screech of bad bearings or something. It shouldn't be there period. PS---amazingly, I found SEVEN 360's at K-Mart today. Thought about snagging one, since they'd certainly be a different batch. Then tonight, tornadoes ripped through town and my side of town is pretty much cut off from the other side, and that side is without power. PPS---I still see a lot of "disc scratching when the console wasn't moved at all" reports. My XB would carve out a circular scratch in almost every game, but it never affected them. And I didn't even BREATHE on that thing... I'm still thinking about waiting for another running production tweak or two before I buy a replacement 360. I still prefer top loaders----all my PS2 games since I got my Slim PS2 are still utterly pristine, as opposed to the "very faintly scratched just from putting it in the tray a few times" all my others are. PSX games? Perfect for years, until they were used in a PS2. Dreamcast? Not a one is anything other than flawless. XB? All slightly scratched.

Re: slowing down That's always been the #1 failing of Trek ship design (and SW too I think)-----no way to slow down or reverse. Both ST and SW feature vectoring exhaust nozzles, clearly implying that thrust from their sublight drives have forces directly operating on the ship. Yet they can rapidly come to a stop "magically", with a rate of deceleration far greater than their forward acceleration. I can totally buy "collapsing the warp field" or "coming out of hyperspace" to stop faster-than-light propulsion. But when they make it so clear that their sublight drives are little more than advanced forms of rocket propulsion that are directly affected by the ship's mass, it makes it hard to explain how they slow down rapidly with nothing but a few tiny verniers, when it took the main engines quite a while to ramp them up to speed. Of course, it just looks cooler on screen to have big glowing engines at the back, and the audience can more readily identify the ship with present rockets and jets that way.

And am I so out of the loop that I have no idea what "Macross Zero style" refers to or means?

Actually the terms are interchangable--the key thing is if the plane is "airshow clean" or not. Even just a few pylons or bombs can knock off hundreds of miles per hour. Also, since speed is considered less and less important, a lot of planes can't achieve their design speed any more. I doubt any F-15 can go above Mach 2.3 nowadays, totally stripped clean. (less thrust+more weight+more drag=lower speed) Plus 2.3 being the typical canopy heat limit for them. Both the F-15 and F-111 are limited by heat more than thrust/drag. They can go as fast as they want until the airframe gets too hot. Quick note: most any plane can be made airshow clean with a single button. The emergency jettison (separate from the normal jettison) will explosively blow off everything that can possibly be removed from the aircraft, so that you can RUN if you need to. Every pylon, missile, bomb, adapater, launcher, and fairing will be gone. (Exception being F-15 CFT's, no way to remove in the air) I've always wondered about the F-14 though, as its wing pylons are rarely removed, even for airshows and tests. And the Phoenix pallets are so huge I wonder about blowing them off in flight. I have to check more on what an emer. jett. will do on the Tomcat. The F-16 is the only plane I know of that can easily achieve its top speed so long as its stripped clean. ::edit:: Seems that the F-14 won't jettison a Phoenix pallet nor any pylon, and will not jettison Sidewinders. That's the least effective emergency jettison I've ever seen.

I just found this too! Anyways, about color: Several things to consider. There is no "battleship grey". As in a specific color you can go out and buy that is called as such, nor a commonly used color specifically for battleships or anything. That out of the way, there's several common colors, and WW2 is by far the best reference for what was out there. However, for such huge objects, scale effect does make one heck of a difference. Large warships are the ONLY thing I ever even think about dealing with scale effect when painting, but you should definitely think about it for this. Finally---being a Japanese design (sorta) you probably want to check out Kure grey and Sasebo grey----the two main greys used on Yamato class ships. To this day, it seems colorists in Japan use the Yamato as a color reference for all military ships. And that's a LOT darker than any other ships you'll find---Japanese warships were painted much darker than other nations, and the battleships in particular were especially dark. Just some historical info to consider in picking colors. PS---Japanese "lower hull red" is much more brown than most nations. Start with brown then add red, not vice-versa.

Top speed is utterly pointless, as it's never achieved. Top speeds are CLEAN speeds, not max speed with a load. A Super Hornet won't even break Mach 1 in full burner with a typical attack load, and even the vaunted super-fast F-15 won't break 1.7 with its typical CAP loadout, the F-14's about the same. An F-2 with its gigantic anti-ship missles won't fare well either. The F-22 will blow them all away 99% of the time, as it doesn't lose any speed from external weapon drag. It can super-cruise with 6 AMRAAM's faster than a Super Hornet can go in max afterburner with the same load.

What Jemstone said. Anyways----Snakes on planes are a serious problem for planes coming from Guam. Brown tree snakes LOVE to climb aboard and thus spread to other Pacific islands--notably Hawaii. Hawaii and Guam literally have a task force trained to inspect planes before the leave and after they arrive, and to hunt down any brown tree snakes they find. They are also about the hardiest snakes there are, with no natural enemies. They're hard to shoot or drown and love to eat Hawaiian native endangered species. And they rapidly lower property value--nothing like a million-dollar home with snakes in the trees. (Which will of course be the movie's sequel, once the plane finally lands at the end of the movie).

Probably not, enamel vs lacquer. Try lacquer thinner if you can't get Mr Color Thinner. http://www.swannysmodels.com/Surfacer.html

Stickers inherently suck, even the best ones. Use decals! Is Anasazi working on VF-0 decals yet?

Korea's F-15K's are being delivered, but they're not operational yet. The Gripen has won a surprising number of orders. NOBODY is buying the Rafale, and few are buying the Typhoon. The Gripen is certainly the Eurocanard of choice. PS--anyone get their Gripen book from SAAB? It's been months since we last discussed it.

I'd vote for four.

Is there any line art showing the landing gear? We don't get to see it much in the OVA. Removing the animated sig/avatar is my first "high-level" use of mod power. It's rather intoxicating. And corrupting... PS--thanks for the pics though.

I actually think mine's defective based on how much buzzing goes on and all the other sounds contained within that buzz. However, since it will play games perfectly, I really doubt MS would replace it for "noise". MS responded to my email and told me to call them. As I've said, it's not just the volume, it's the specific noise itself that's so annoying. Even a person with a very quiet voice can have an incredibly annoying voice that's irritating just to hear them whisper---same with my 360. Honestly I think it'd be easier and quicker to just take it back, get a refund, and buy a different one in the future. Also, checking yet more on 360 drives, seems the new quieter ones have a much higher failure rate--basically they can't take the 16x loading speeds for long. Also seems they have a higher incidence of being really noisy (they're either really quiet or really loud it seems, with the old drive being in the middle)...

It's back in the box, going back tomorrow. None in stock in the entire city as of today, so I'll just be 360-less for a while. Maybe I'll try to snag one in June, get a totally different batch--and maybe there'll be another running change. I might just wait until there's some "newer ones are quieter" reports out there. I wonder if I'll be the first person to actually return a 360 for a refund. (I was the first person at BestBuy to ever return a Slim PS2, because it died after 12 hours) I haven't had very good luck with systems lately. Hopefully my DS Lite will be ok...

Even ignoring carrier landings, almost every figther jet period has a single center hook for emergency landings. Just saw a photo of an F-16 recently using its, and it was one heck of a spark show...