David Hingtgen

I like it. Looks very "Russian". IMHO, a lot of the work involved in painting is surface prep. Start with a good surface, and you'll get nice paint. Most of the work is thus the same for painted and unpainted--making the plastic/joints nice and smooth, etc. Actually painting is just 1 more step on top of all the previous work done in assembling the kit.

Debrief screen went "blurry"--like v-hold was slightly off. And it was like going at 1/2 speed. 20 secs later, froze at FMV. Then wouldn't load AC5, it went to browser screen and said no disc inserted. Wouldn't load anything. Wouldn't detect PS2 discs. Detected PSX discs, wouldn't load them (well, loaded FF Tactics, wouldn't load next 3 games). Didn't bother trying a DVD. Already returned and exchanged at Best Buy. Hope this one lasts more than a week. And it certainly wasn't an overheat issue, it'd only been on for 1 mission when it failed. Checked serial #'s, tried to get a very different one from a different batch. Mine was 144xxxx, all the others at Best Buy were 136xxxx and 166xxxx. Picked up a 136xxxx one.

Well I won't be playing AC5 for a while. My 1-week old new slim PS2 won't load anything at all, and won't even recognize PS2 discs. (will play SOME PSX discs) ****! Off to email/call Sony...

Replaying, Mission 17 is a pure dogfight. But seems less intense than "Shattered Skies". Though it really depends on what you're flying. Also had the FMV right after get stuck. Dunno why. Happened about 10 secs after I saved.

AC5 seems quite picky about OWNING planes before unlocking stuff. Unlocked Falken, need a lot more cash to buy it. Unlocked F-4X. Basically a faster F-4 with CFT's and AMRAAM's. Mission 16B is more fun than 16A. Very close to upgrading F-16 and 22.

Jolly Rogers CO plane destroyed: http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/foru...ST&f=15&t=35804

AC-130 is tough to kill like it should be. And they are the highest-priority targets, they can kill friendly ground troops faster than even the A-10. Some notes: X-29 ace scheme is the "real" X-29 scheme. Way too many Aces give sucky, bad schemes. F-4G scheme is so godawful it's an insult to Mr McDonnell. F-14D is kinda weird--not good, but better than the boring default NWASC style. Ever seen the F-15J cherry tree scheme? Like that, but in dark blue. Anyone know if any plane has 4 schemes, or is the 3rd scheme an either/or for Yuke/Ace? F-14D special is Phoenix, and the plane is rated higher in most every stat than the B. Nice, but got it about 20 missions after it'd been useful. Shooting planes down in free mission will count for new schemes, can also acquire "special parts" in free mission. Kills in free mission only count like 1/5 as much as campaign though, for building up the kill bar.

Keeping my tube of Tamiya putty next to my bottle of Mr Surfacer 500, I stand by my claim they are similar. (yes, I'm aware topic is for 1000, not 500)

Everyone rants about the elephants (Oliphaunts) but I just don't see the big "wow" factor. New opera house is way better/impressive. Currently have 12 Ayane costumes unlocked (I like chicks with purple hair, see avatar). In AC5 news, unlocked F-4G and X-29. Also realized it's mission 11A I love, not 12A. 11B--only got an "A", despite doing very very well. What, do you have to never miss with your bombs for an S? Shot down F-4G ace, have his color. Haven't used it yet, can't describe. Working towards F-14D now, know where the ace is. Found EA-6B ace. (It's a lot more fun to hunt them down than look it up in the guide). Anyone know where a regular enemy X-29 is? I don't ever recall seeing one, and the standard X-29 colors are boring. (Same as F-5/F-20 default) Jet acquisition: just go a LITTLE older. F-8 alone would make me happy. Also, I don't like the "bunch" method they always do--fly 3 missions, get nothing new. Fly the next mission, and now like half the planes all unlock together. I much prefer like 1 plane every mission--then you've always got something new, and can try them all out. And I want more totally air, and some totally ground missions. I mean total ground, as in I could take an A-4 and rock, not get nailed by a Super Flanker squadron at the end.

No need for pics of the X-29, I've seen the real thing. TINY little fighter in person. Which must mean the F-5 is equally tiny.

Trying fighting an Ace F-14D in an F-4E...

I was really hoping to have at least one mission involving Farbanti or North Point. What's an AC game without North Point? Sequel: Upgrade planes faster! More pure air-to-air missions. There's no "Shattered Skies" mission in this, I want a pure giant dogfight at least twice in the game. With Phoenixes, for a first-strike advantage. Also, a bigger "difference" of planes. In AC2, the 1st vs 2nd time through changed like 50% of the available planes. AC5, there's only like 2 that change for 1st vs 2nd run-though. And bring back multiple weapons per plane.

I got missile warnings, but don't think I was ever actually fired upon. I flew through "sorta fast". Some R1, but not afterburner. Used F-22. PS--after the core, GO! Think ROTJ Death Star escape. And watch for low ceilings. (And high, there's a nasty spot mid-way) Like go up up down.

Aberfoyle Spring Water! And Tab B repair tips.

Haven't flown F-4G yet, just unlocked it. Did notice F-4 flying controls are now PERFECT. Ailerons only move down, not up. Uses spoilers instead of an "up" aileron. I supposed the JASDF helped with that, they still have F-4E's in service. I don't think we'll ever see a correct F-14 because the JASDF doesn't have them, thus no "first-hand" knowledge/base visits for Namco staff. I think "hard" builds up kill gauges faster. Got 75% of F-4E in 1 mission. Hard limits your gun ammo, but you still get a LOT. Seem to take a lot more damage though, I swear one missile did 88% on my F-20. Twice. Don't think it'll be much of a problem, I was never "shot down" the entire first run through. I either failed missions, hit the ground, or had a mid-air. Had a 95% damaged F-35 on the one mission I used it. (it's really good for one late mission). I think I took out more B-1B's in mid-airs than with missiles. (I don't like mission 4, but watch for an Ace F-4 early on, slightly SE) Free mission DOES build up kill gauge, but VERY slowly. Utterly pointless unless you need like one more kill, and don't want to "waste" a campaign flight for it. You must OWN a plane before you can unlock the special colors (either Yuke and/or Ace). If you take down an ace before you own their plane, the special color will not be there when you unlock that plane. You can kill the Ace F-14D very early on the second run-through, but you probably won't have the F-14D then, so you'll have to go back later and kill him again when you do. ECCMP--I vote for "Electronic Counter-CounterMeasures Pack". Or Pod. But ECCM is a valid term. Jammer jamming, etc. mikeszekely--absolutely true, pointless to "evolve" a plane, as you'll get next-gen stuff before you can upgrade. They should have made it take a LOT less kills to upgrade. Let me have the F-16 Block 60 before the Su-47 comes out... I do like the Tornado, and use it on the anti-sub missions. Bomblet dispensers ROCK. Will try out Hornet next time, since there's so few targets in the stage you can't build the kill gauge at all so it doesn't really matter what you use. (I so want a Tornado ADV) Finally---"add on" missions are denoted as "+" in the Free Missions. So the true final stage (which is pretty easy assuming your first AMRAAM volley works well) is "27+". The other "extra" stage is 19+. Which I actually tried to beat early on, before I figured out to RUN. I did well too, took out like 4 of the suckers and an E-767 with an F-14B...

Won. Hope you like the main theme song, you'll hear it a lot in the final missions. At the very end, I had 799 kills, Nagase 20, and everyone else single digits. Only got an A on the final mission, that's going to suck to try to go through again and get an S. I think all wingmen combined had like 8 ground targets, so don't ever bother giving them an A-6. Just give them all F-15C's and hope they cover you in your A-6/A-10 etc. All in all, the only planes I ever got upgraded were F-5E>F-20, and F-14A>F-14B. Got 16 and 18 and 22 halfway, others not worth mentioning. (Since I didn't have the YF-23, I had to use the F-22 for my all-purpose plane late in the game) Free Mission also includes an enemy-less option, if you just want to cruise around and look at the scenery. No music when there's no enemies though. Haven't decided if I need to go get all S on Normal, or win on Hard, for my next task. Through sheer luck I snagged the "prototype plane parts" hidden in the final mission, so I don't need to go through again. Final mission---I sure hope you got good at AC4's final mission, this is worse. Actually, it's lot more like AFDS's final mission. A lot. Even I go to "first person" mode for that. But don't worry, you don't have to go in space or anything.

P-51 may have speed and fame, but the original Corsair is the most truly kick-ass plane of all time. I vote F4U.

I don't recall a radar mission anything like that. Branching path? Now on mission 24. Mission 23---not too hard, but annoying. Su-35's seem to be able to outrun ANYTHING, the only way to hit is to get in ultra-super-close gun-range, and let off Sidewinders. Mission 18/19/20---all hard, no save, no plane change. Big main plot points/changes stuff, lots of cut scenes. Mission 19--run like hell. F-14B's are not fast enough, I died several times (but couldn't change planes since F-14B's rock in mission 18 and didn't want to go through it again). F-35C is quite good according to the stats, haven't used it myself yet, I just give it to Archer all the time. Gripen is surprisingly attack-heavy with the Typhoon being air to air.

mike--You missed 12A? Oh man, that's probably my fave mission so far. I'd love a Flanker, but since the F-15C is my childhood fave plane... hellohikaru: No. This is what the wingman commands actually do: Cover: sit behind you and shoot anyone who gets between them and you. Attack: they attack your current target. Disperse: go after targets near you, but not your target. They will NOT go way off and leave you alone.

There's got to be some other requirements for wingmen kills--they aren't boosting mine at all, I've been watching very closely. That, or they're not making a single kill. Do you have to have multiple of the same planes, and have them fly while you fly? Because giving someone my one F-15C for a few missions doesn't fill its bar at all. Same for everything else. Or do you need multiple F-15's so all your wingmen have it? BTW--the F-14B kicks all sorts of ass. PS--I really wish the killbar was displayed in flight---if I had made 1 fewer kills, I wouldn't have the F-14B for the current mission. PPS---yes, there's no more red/orange/yellow targets. They're merely 'targets'. And you don't seem to know the point values until the debriefing. I have gotten a few S ranks, a few A, a few B. My only suggestion is to really listen to ground chatter---bad guys really tend to "pop up" from nowhere. Like "Whiskey Corridor" only worse.

There was apparently one good cockpit photo in a magazine I don't have. That kit looks close to the Italeri one (just more detailed) so I presume it's correct. And the real ones are always going in and out of storage, covered and uncovered canopy, etc. Might have just photographed the real thing. (I think they did for much of it, #2 is usually viewable, but not at the moment) F-23A would have been about 2 feet longer to add a Sidewinder bay ahead of the main bay, a gun on the starboard side, and have smaller exhaust trenches/nacelles, possibly making the whole back end smaller.

It does have full intake trunking and full exhaust trenches, but the pic's not very good. (They're separate pieces inserted into the main fuselage pieces). Here's the cockpit, minus the seat (the seat is your standard F-15 seat).

The Crusader III's ventral fins could fold horizontal. F-14 was originally to have similar ventral fins. Collect-Aire YF-23: has open weapons bay. Canopy is vac-formed. A few white metal bits. (gear, missile trapeze). All flaps/ailerons are separate, if you want to position them. Here's a belly shot, the whole kit is pretty much top/bottom/radome/rudders. This is like "the" seam in the kit when the two main halves are together.

The F-16 takes a BUTTLOAD of kills to upgrade. I like the 16 more than the 18, and have flown it for twice as many missions, yet have less of the bar filled for the 16 than the 18! Super Hornet's easy to get (though I don't yet, because I spent all my time on the 16). Theory: Bar fills at a rate dependent upon how many new versions are immediately unlocked. I think the F-16 will unlock Block 60 and XL and F-2 all at once, thus it fills slowly--because those are all derived from the C, not each other. As opposed to F-14A to B to D. And F-18C to E to G. I'm done playing for the night, rest of the house is asleep--if I can't play it with the music loud, I don't want to play. I did notice right before the end I was getting some "shakiness" in the debriefing screen, and slow-down in the next mission. Think my new PStwo got too hot from being on almost all day (though did stop for an hour for lunch), or that was just a really intense mission. Still don't like new PStwo controller, may buy a transparent blue on or something. (Unless I can find a guaranteed "old" black one MISB). Newer controllers are built cheaper.

Only used F-14 once so far. Exactly the same as the demo. That includes no differential stabs. Same for the Tornado. It's especially annoying that the Tornado DID have differential stabs in AC4! It's like they totally start from scratch every time, and never fix/improve how the plane's controls move. AC2 actually had the Tomcat's tail work right. Of course, AC4 had the F-117's rudders backwards, will have to check that out at some point. F-16 now has differential stabs, F-14/15 still lacks them. Sigh, could somebody write a big nasty letter to Namco telling them that just about every fighter since 1960 has differential stabs for roll control? And that many planes rely on them as their PRIMARY roll control? It's the rare plane that doesn't nowadays. I doubt the AC5 Flanker will, even though (like every other plane from the past few decades) the real Flanker uses stabs for supplemental roll control.