David Hingtgen

I must just have weird preferences. I hate the effect Rain-X, wax, silicone, etc have on a windshield. Beading=bad IMHO. Just give me "natural clean glass".

I know I can reset it to 0 votes for everything with Mod-Powerâ„¢ but I'm not 100% sure it would allow people to re-vote. Should we risk it anyways, since the poll is fairly irrelevant now?

Both of which (F-15 and 16) also weren't supposed to ever bomb. LANTIRN--making night-strikers out of day fighters since the mid-80's.

But doesn't that require/assume you've got a nicely polished/waxed finish beneath it to start? A clay bar will take paint spots off of a waxed surface because the wax prevented the paint from adhering well to start with. AFAIK. A winshield won't have that. (unless you went to a touchless car wash and got the wax option, which usually puts it EVERYWHERE--few things worse than a waxed windshield IMHO) I do need to clay my car some day, any remants of its last waxing are long gone, and I've got (I think) rail dust and a bit of road tar all over behind the rear wheels and bumper. It's amazing how many things you can find when you get 3 inches away and REALLY scrutinize your paint...

Phalanx--that is WAY beyond the realm of possibility.

While my 1/48 Milia is in pieces being tweaked (mainly sanding, gluing, and clear nail polishing) I've already got the feet out and am thinking about painting them to match the 1/60. I'll probably take the feet totally apart into pieces prior to painting, but I'm wondering about long-term flaking/chipping--especially with most metallic paints being more fragile. I plan to use Tamiya Flat Metallic Grey, it matches pretty well to Yamato's dark metallic paint. PS--pics of painted 1/48 feet would be nice, or opinions of if it looks better once you did it.

Assuming you don't want to use actual paint stripper for risk of damaging your finish---scrape it off. The only issue is how sharp a scraper you can use without damaging the windshield. I've found most glass to be surprisingly resistant to your basic razor-blade scraper.

I never clean my windshield with anything dedicated--it gets the same soap and water as the rest of the car. It gets windshield washer fluid almost every day though. (Prestone at the moment, doesn't freeze up in winter quite so easily as generic blue stuff)

I'm actually more interested in the wiper blade/arm itself, than the rubber. I currently have Bosch Micro Edge--I actually thought it slightly inferior to OEM wiping and lift-wise, but lasted much longer. My current main concern is lifting off at highway speeds. The Bosch Micro Edge I have have more/larger cut-outs than most others, but still lift. Rain-X ones have more cuts (both on top and slots) but smaller, but I have always disliked the beading effect in any form on a window, and I think their blades (like silicone ones) try to do that. Looked at the Aerovantage by Anco, and trying to find the Bosch Icons or possibly Valeo, which are VERY different and supposed to beat all "conventional" wipers for aerodynamics. (So many blades simply have horizontal slots, which do nothing IMHO--especially since horizontal slots ENHANCE lift on wings) Currently thinking of just buying one blade each from several brands, and seeing what I like.

I like that HotRod so much I can't imagine the one they went with as being "better". Different maybe, but better? I bet it'll be worse (to my eyes). "The coolest concept sketch is never used". That holds true for TF's, fighter jets, warships, and everything else.

I had several 1/60 and just got a 1/48, and I think the 1/48 has a way better fighter mode.

Girls with massive calves and forearms, and guys with incredibly thin waists. Animation usually exaggerates the physical differences between the sexes because subtle facial features etc don't come across. But this seems to have done the opposite...

Thus the "cheap" F-35, which is supposed to fill the gap in our "stealth fighter procurement". That's about the most screwed-up program since the F-111. Not surprising, they had pretty much the same design goals. Plus stealth and hovering. Who wants to bet F-35's end up costing more than F-22's?

Not if it replaces Block 30 F-16's, all the F-117's, a few B-52's, and we give them to the ANG!

Sad that the following question is almost OT: Has anyone tried the Bosch Icon wipers? Lots of people seem to like them, and apparently they are very similar to what 04+ Grand Prix's have. It's spring, and that means time to replace stuff---first headlights and wipers, then brake and power steering fluid.

*I* agree with Kurisama completely.

Ooh, I didn't know it was that cheap. Imagine if we still had the 700 plane order...

Why throw a hissy fit over such a minor detail? 399005[/snapback] 1. How is that a "hissy fit"? 2. Because a roof spoiler is something quite different on a semi than a roof fairing. 3. It goes along with the massive mis-communication and almost flame wars you see on TF boards, when one guy says Starscream has blue stabilators, another guy says "they're grey, are you blind?", guy #4 says they're TAILFINS, and guy #5 says he thought they were called mini-wings. When all along they were actually discussing the v.stabs. I call it "preventing flame wars before they start". You KNOW something similar will happen when MP Starscream will come out--one guy will say some part of it looks wrong, should have been painted red, etc, and because the 3 people in the argument don't know what the parts of an F-15 are called, they all start flaming each other because they don't know they're arguing about different parts of the plane, and actually agree with the first guy...

AFAIK it's roughly 160 million per F-22 and 90 million for a new F-15K or equivalent. Maybe the F-22's 130 million. Nied---ignoring "when the runway's gone" there's usually not AF planes at naval stations.

Permanently, or for airshows? Phalanx, there will be VERY few Raptors out there. 183 at last count I think. There's not enough F-16's for every state to have them, much less F-15's, even less so F-22's. Generally, F-22's are only showing up at all at airshows where they will be stationed, and/or the biggest/most famous airbases there are. Andrews will never have F-22's stationed there--no point with Langley so close, in addition to Andrews having only the 89th Wing I think---they're for MATS/Airlift, not fighters. The only confirmed F-22 bases are Langley and Elmendorf I think---the list changes with the tides, phase of the moon, planetary alignment, and what General Jumper had for breakfast... There will be so few F-22's even front-line MiG-killing F-15C bases like Eglin won't get even a single squadron, much less enough to re-equip the wing. I personally expect Kadena and Lakenheath to eventually get one squadron each, with their other squadrons remaining F-15C's. PS---it's Oceana NAS, not AFB. I doubt a Naval base would ever station Air Force planes.

Airshows? I like going here to find out who's where: http://www.schultzairshows.com/ Click on Demo Schedules, then the specific team/plane you want to know about. Also, http://www.stevesairshow.com/demos06.html USAF schedule, including fly-overs: http://www.acc.af.mil/library/factsheets/f...eet.asp?id=3679 http://www.acc.af.mil/library/factsheets/f...eet.asp?id=3813 http://www.airshows.org/list_events.php has EVERY airshow, just takes a while to sort "Thunderbirds and the Strike Eagle demo team" from "3 Cessnas and a pancake breakfast"

It's called a roof fairing, not a spoiler. (As I posted on the 2005 boards). Sometimes called an aero fairing.

I'm thinking about it. I THINK my Vice-Mod powers would allow me to reset it back to zero---the buttons and options show up.

Sorry Graham, we've already had a whole (locked) thread here on MW about that, which was then discussed in this very thread back when it happened. Even the F-14 tail in Ireland is almost old news by 'net standards now. The latest F-22 news is the almost-demo at the Langley air show last weekend. Practically hovered in a vertical postion. (I figured any plane with enough thrust and control could do it, but the F-22's the first plane that actually did AFAIK) Plus a cobra, but that surprised nobody.

But a big part of the controversy on ARC is how can it look that good? F-14's look like sh*t after 6 months at sea even with constant washing and touchups---how can that tail look better than most line-birds after YEARS in salt water? ::edit:: It was 162594? That's one of my fave Tomcats--one of the last (and best-looking) VF-111 CAG planes. I didn't know it had ended up as one of VF-101's crashes. Fitting though, it seems to have been lost due to a TF30 engine crapping out on it... "If it was a A-model, it was probably the engine's fault" Here it is in '92, wearing the greatest squadron markings EVER: