David Hingtgen

I vacuum the vents on my consoles every year or so. Use the mini-blinds/brush adapter.

Remove the fins and wings from an F-15. You have a box. Super Hornet's not much different. And the F-4 is just plain weird. XB-70 is a box with a tube on top. The F-16 was the first really 'blended' plane. (Well, you could argue SR-71 if you ignore the nacelles)

All that and no comments? Anyways, stuff I forgot: They're AIM-120B's, not C's. Have had C's on the brain lately. Rudders are movable, and surprisingly not floppy despite the working hinges--they will almost click into place when centered. Stabs are movable like most jets. Wheels roll.

Did I miss the DOA game that had everyone using katanas? It can be forgiven for the kunoichis, but not TINA THE WRESTLER. Side note: I always wanted at least ONE move where Kasumi used her wakizashi, since it's right there on her costume. Similar request for Ryu to have the dragon sword, and kunais for Ayane. PS---still angry you can't have Ayane's Ninja Gaiden outfit in any of the games. Best outfit ever, and you only ever get to see it in a few cutscenes...

Wow, I'd pay to see that. Not 840 bucks, but like 40. Also--who wants to bet there'll be fewer Flankers in the world after that day? Anyways... Got my Witty 1/72 diecast Super Hornet today. VFA-102 50th Anniversary scheme. (the one with the red tails and spine) Want pics? Go here: http://www.diecastaircraftforum.com/showthread.php?t=49130 or http://www.flyingmule.com/Merchant2/mercha...e=WT-WTW72008-2 (this is also where I bought it--FlyingMule is highly recommended and they always take many photos of the ACTUAL release, never samples or pre-production models) Quick general summary: It's the Hasegawa kit, in metal. Very similar to Dragon's planes in fit/finish. There's no little pieces to add like a Corgi or Dragon, it's 100% built when you get it. Most people will open the box, think it's perfect, and be very happy. But then there's me, nit-picker extraordinaire. Detailed summary: First thing that's really different is the stand. It's BIG, and black-painted metal. Really nice. Even taller than most Corgi stands. Has a pivot and swivel, so you can pose the plane at various angles. Not a whole lot of movement, maybe 25 degrees in yaw and roll. (pitch is fixed). The stand is designed so that it plugs into the afterburners from behind, the plane is unsupported from below. It works well, and it is a very stable and sturdy design. Fit/finish: Just a notch below Dragon quality-wise. They are constructed much like Dragon---few seams, no screws, just a few plastic parts like pylons and nozzles. However, quite a few of the pylons/flap hinges/missiles were not glued on straight. Some slightly, some quite obivous. Looking at it head-on made it obvious one AMRAAM was quite tilted as were both CVER's. Paint seems to chip easier than Dragon. Upper surface grey seems dark, more like 35237 than 36320. Undersides slightly dark, but close to 36375. (A lot closer than Dragon's gull-ghost-grey belly color) Red certainly a LOT closer to Insignia red than anything any other company's ever done. Too many models come in neon scarlet red, when the real thing should match an authentic US flag--almost a blood red. It's it's a US warplane with red, it'll be that shade and only that shade. Accuracy (the plane itself): It's the Hasegawa kit, rivet for rivet. Interestingly, one of the few errors on the Hase kit has been corrected--the asymmetrical positioning of the auxiliary ECS ducts. (Yes, I know that off the top of my head) The aux ECS ducts are totally new, both slightly forward of Hase's and larger. For those who know/care, the model has HIPEG style launchers on the wingtips. That's correct for almost every squadron, unlike Dragon's. Now, Witty has a thing for working canopy struts. They all use the same basic design--it's really off for their F-15, but for the Super Hornet it's not far off from the real thing. There's a sliding piston and a movable hinge, and it works quite well. I of course broke my canopy and hinge in trying to get the canopy off. It's VERY, VERY hard to fix, so don't try pulling the canopy off. Weapons: here we get to my only real issues with the model, both quality and accuracy-wise. First, everything is already glued in place. Gear, weapons, pylons, drop tanks. It is absolutlely 100% done when you buy it. Some of you will love that--no fiddling with poor-fitting weapons and gear on a Dragon or Corgi... However, that means everything is only as well attached as the factory worker felt like. I'm one of those people that finds a level shelf, gets and ruler, and squints at the model with one eye to make sure everything's lined up and even. And most of the stuff on the wings isn't. Specifically: All the pylons are canted. Now, all Super Hornet pylons should be angled, but only the outer ones are canted. In other words, like every other plane on Earth, the pylons should hang down from the wing vertically when viewed head-on. Except the outer ones, which are canted out like the tailfins. However, Witty seems to have made it so all the pylons cant outwards. They are all too consistent for them to have been merely glued that way, it seems to be a mold issue. Now, the drop tanks were all glued quite squarely onto the pylons, but since the pylons are angled, they look a bit off. Related to that, the CVER's (dual bomb racks) on the middle pylons are DEFINITELY molded at an angle. (I ripped them off a reglued them, checking the attachment points carefully). I'm not sure if that's to counteract the angled pylon (it makes sense if you assume Witty thought all pylons should be angled, and molded everything else at the opposing angle so the weapons would end up straight). Either way, it doesn't work and the CVER's are anything but level from head-on. And the CVER-to-pylon joint is a whole lot stronger than the pylon-to-wing joint. Outer pylons: Being a copy of the Hase kit, it has the same error. AMRAAM's on a HARM launcher. Normally not a big problem to fix (switch launchers or switch missiles) but Witty molded the HARM launcher to the pylon. And sort of "mixed" the actual point they meet so you really have a "pylonlauncher" and you really can't remove the HARM launcher, and even if you did grind it down, you wouldn't quite have the bottom of the pylon to put anything else on. The only solution is to find HARM's and put them on. Or just not care and leave the AMRAAM's on the HARM launchers. However, the AMRAAM's were the most "off" of all glued things--one was like half it's own width off the pylon, and angled like 30 degrees. I have currently removed mine, and I might just remove the pylons entirely--it is very common to see a Super Hornet with the outer pylons removed. (I'd prefer no pylons than a pylon with the wrong launcher and missile--but that's me being anal) Finally, all the missiles are white. AIM-120C's and AIM-9X's haven't ever been white, and every older missile was changed to grey many years ago. You'll find a FEW last AIM-7's and AIM-54's with white still, but 99% of the missiles out there are grey, and the -120C and -9X are too new to have ever been grey. Also, stripe-wise, they have impossible combinations. Blue front red rear, and yellow front, blue rear. The entire paragraph above also applies to the Hasegawa kit---Witty copied the missiles/weapons EXACTLY, from mold to placement to painting. (Hase also made the HARM/AMRAAM mistake, but Witty simplified the mold and combined all the parts for the outer pylons, which makes it very hard to fix--for the Hase you can simply use the correct parts, rather than follow the instructions) Crew: Pilot and WSO, they could be removed but there's no reason to. They fit better than Dragon's, but don't look quite as good. (Mainly the helment shape) Cockpit: No instruments at all. Just blank black plastic. Like you see on a lot of Corgi's. Not too much of a problem with pilots sitting there though, they hide the panels a lot. Detail I have to point out: They actually printed "do not paint" in itty-bitty letters on each and every antenna. Error I have to point out: if you get a magnifying glass and read the aft warning labels, they read "Danger, Ayvesting Hook" and "Iewafe of Blast". Of course, Hasegawa's decals usually have similar Engrish upon close inspection. As do most Bandai Gundams. Overall---generally about the same as Dragon's Hornet, which I still consider among the best 1/72 diecast. A few things better, a few things worse. For the average collector, they'd probably consider it among the best you can by. Anxiously awaiting their F-14, for the F-14 doesn't have many pylons or weapons to screw up. (You can't possibly try to switch Phoenix pallets and Sidewinder rails around)

LM002's pretty famous--has the Countach engine in it. (Not all that impressive nowadays, but back then it was) Its main marketing feature was 100+mph on open sand IIRC. I still rate Mid to late 80's Countaches as the best-looking car EVER. 1987-88 QV's are the very best, subtle changes to the deck and grills. It took FOREVER for the Diablo to grow on me. Like 99's the best--new headlights, then they changed them immediately after. I hate all Lambo's after the Diablo.

::edit:: Nevermind, I was wrong. Darn Graham sneaking in a post while I type... FYI, for those wondering, the lowest numbers are 7 and 8, Max Jenius and SuperOstrich.

You mean besides the pic of it and MS's own little hints via a Halo-style fake/viral website? http://www.gamespot.com/news/show_blog_ent...pic_id=24365883 Still a potential "Bogus" to use a Gamespot term (blech, but their site loads fast) but I wouldn't be surprised if there actually is a portable XB.

Also, Future has the advantage of being utterly totally clear (unlike most "clear" coats). Seriously, its more clear than my tap water.

I'd love to have a copy of that DVD, but the auction links are now long expired and it seems that just about every seller mentioned is "no longer registered" with Ebay. Is there a specific cover to look for? There's a zillion "all 5 eps" out there now, ranging from 1 to 3 discs, and I'm certain there's multiple 1-disc versions out there. Any help/links appreciated.

Ooooooh. I so want the OVA series. (Seeing as how I've seen neither it nor the manga--my only Area 88 is the SNES game and recent series)

I had no idea it was a Bombcat--based on what I knew of its age and history I figured it was just a "normal" F-14A. Understand the desire for bombracks now. Hmmn. Depending on exactly what's missing from the bombracks you should be able to get parts----the actual mounting lugs are utterly standard on all jets, from Marine F-4's to USAF F-22's. 14in and 30in spacing are the only options. And there's gotta be dummy Mk.82's available.

Hmmn. Being that there's so little known about the F-14 AMRAAM rail, could you put Sidewinders on them? All other AMRAAM rails are backwards compatible. Surely you can get dummy CATM Sidewinders or something. PS--I'd put a Sparrow at the rear of the tunnel. Perfectly fine with 2 forward Phoenix pallets, and looks much cooler than a TARPS. PPS--I personally would ignore the bomb racks on the Phoenix pallets. If you can't put bombs on them, leave them 'clean' as if they were in a Phoenix carrying configurations.

Closed for being the zillionth topic on this, with the exact same title even.

Somewhat directly related to the above post: For BW, a lot of the toys were liked/bought BECAUSE of the characters. The show itself was great, but many toys sucked. But you bought the toy anyways because you liked the character. For a lot of recent shows, you bought the toy IN SPITE OF the character. (pretty much anything on Toonami). The toy was neat, but the show was so stupid you tried to keep it out of your mind. Alternators sell because there's no inane poorly-animated pokemon-esque show to go with them. Smokescreen's cool because the toy is cool--if he was on TV he'd probably be the ultimate boy-racer personality and an idiot. Finally--I wouldn't worry about not getting a license for jets. No military jet company has issues with "our products being depicted as weapons" like Volkswagen etc. Also, they have NO standards for accuracy. They could send Jetfire in to Northop-Grumman, and it'd get approved as an F-14... If you pay, you get the license, that simple. Boeing is apparently incredibly anal about color though, but for fictional schemes like Thundercracker I doubt they could complain about the accuracy---ironically window color is the #1 thing they tend to comment about, I'd love to hear what they say about bright orange cockpits. (Yes, Boeing will refuse a license because of dark grey vs medium grey windows on a 747, but will approve a Super Hornet model with non-existant 10-foot tall airbrakes) PS---we can HOPE that the planes will be to scale with each other (there's not THAT much difference between the F-14/15/16/18) but I wouldn't be surprised if they're all exactly the same size.

Will you be able to get an AMRAAM for it? Man, it'd be fun to stand around and watch "guys who know planes" argue about an AMRAAM on a Tomcat at a museum... (The vast majority of people "who know planes" that you find at museums and air shows know less than a well-read 10 year old)

You darn well better take a thousand photos of it if you do! Every 9X I've seen is grey, even the earliest mock-ups and prototypes seen 5+ years ago.

Well I'm currently engaged in a debate on another forum about the Witty Super Hornet's weapons. The AIM-120C and AIM-9X on it are gloss white. His current argument is "well MOST are grey but there's some white ones so they're still accurate". Well I'd be very interested if anyone has a pic of a real (not a mockup or prototype) AIM-9X or AIM-120C that's white. Even an AIM-7 would do, just so long as it's a recent air-to-air missile, and preferably on a Super Hornet. PS--anyone know the color of the very first testing AIM-120's? On the F-14? I know the pic is SOMEWHERE but it'd take forever for me to go through every Tomcat pic I know of. Same question for the AIM-9M--I know 9J's were white early on, is the M new enough to have always been grey?

Part of the reason VF-154 had such good results was that being the last F-14A squadron in combat, they had access and permission to use every last F-14A spare part in the inventory on that cruise! Nothing like having spare parts for a hundred planes to keep 10 flying... They didn't repair or test a thing--if something didn't work they replaced it. Plenty of spares, and no point to fix anything when the planes will be leaving in a few months anyways. Kind of the opposite of what the B-1B squadrons are having to do. They're scrapping young, perfect condition planes just to get parts for the others. The B-1B order apparently had NO spare parts and NO attrition planes. They've had godawful serviceability/readiness/availability rates since day one, purely do to lack of spare parts. It's practically "Iranian F-14" level---stuff is designed to wear out and be replaced every X number of hours---and the B-1B's just simply don't have them.

Dragon is just F-ing stupid in many ways. See their Super Hornet--which has HARM launchers carrying AMRAAMs, which can't carry Dragon's own HARM!!!! It's incompatible with their own weapons. And their CVER rack on the Super Hornet has lugs to mount 500lb bombs--but Dragon doesn't have any that fit because all of theirs are permanently mounted to F-16 racks! Yaargh! And then we could talk all day about the mold itself... Anyways---well, VF-154 did have among the most unique Tomcats at the end, being the last operator of the A model along with VF-211. So there's bound to be things off. Skull Leader--I've never liked the SD Knight version, and so have almost no pics of it. I never knew it had black tips---that's VERY rare on a Tomcat, only early VF-124 and 32 had painted tips AFAIK. Any good pics showing the black tips? My Witty Super Hornet should be here next week, will post a bit about it. I'll be very interested to see pics of the actual retail version of the FoV Tomcat, as well as Witty's. FoV listed for end of Feb, while Witty's is listed for March. Either way I think they'll both blow away Dragon. Revell is still #1 for accuracy so far, but it's got too many seams and screws, which is unacceptable nowadays. (And they've still only made 1 scheme for each type) PS--Witty's Super Hornet is a Hasegawa copy, and if their F-14 is too, it'll be VERY interesting to compare to FoV's Hasegawa copy.

That's been the news. I'm all for it. The more they buy, the more we can buy. Also, Japan is about the most trust-worthy country we could sell it to AFAIK. The vast majority of (and I think all of the "big") US military secrets are sold BY AMERICANS to foreign countries for the price of a new car. China's the last place Japan would give military secrets to.

No idea, but I'm waiting to see what the Witty F-14 will be like. Their Super Hornet blows away all the others (because it's a perfect copy of the Hasegawa kit). If they copy the Hasegawa F-14's they'll beat most kits! First release is rumored to be Black Knights final CAG F-14D. Being a D model we'll know in an instant how well they researched the F-14.

Yup, those are the two I have. Strangely, I can NOT get them to show up now! I've searched for that photographer, that serial, "NG 100", VFA-154, and every other way I can but A.net just doesn't seem to have them any more. Either way--that is the least-photographed Shornet out there.

I just have to chime in that I whole-heartedly agree. Most gamers are casual gamers, and buy crappy games that have big ad (read: covers of magazines) budgets. Want proof? Hang around EB or Gamestop for a while. You won't have to wait too long for someone to come in with a bag FULL of old PSX games. They'll trade in like 23 crappy games you've never heard of, plus 3 bucks, and buy a used crappy PS2 game. (Used being in godawful condition and a whole 3 bucks off MSRP) I once saw a guy trade in like 45 games and 50 bucks for a used PS2. They REALLY should have let other people (me) make our purchases first. (Yeah that was my yearly EB purchase, boy did I pick the wrong day)

I'll second the small/jeweler's files. There's a lot of times they'll work far better than sandpaper. I know there's got to be people like me who sanded and x-acto'd a piece for 30 minutes until finding that one perfect file that'd do the job faster and better. I'm fond of the "knife" style file, it's my all-purpose one.