David Hingtgen

Always reference Penny Arcade: http://www.penny-arcade.com/news.php3?date=2004-09-31 And the Shadow Hearts covenant comment afterwards is also my #1 gripe with RPG's lately...

Herpa primarily does 1/500, I collect 1/400. They do some 1/400, and the recent stuff has been quite nice, but most of their 1/400 isn't that great. The only Herpa in the collection is the Lufthansa at the very left edge of the pic. (down low, behind the stand, not the 747 up higher) My collection is mostly Dragon, then probably Gemini, SMA, Jet-X, Aeroclassics. Just got 5 new Gemini's today in fact. If you're wondering why I don't have massive numbers of Armor F-14's etc: Airliners tend to be identical. One 767-200 mold will be accurate for every 767-200 ever. But military planes vary a LOT. Armor's F-14A is like Block 95, and I will not accept that for a Block 75, 110, etc. I want near-perfect accuracy for military planes, thus I generally build kits (SLOWLY) myself.

Gotta go to Russia to see the S-37 fly...

Super Metroid SF3 3rd Strike (all-time best 2D fighter ever) Xenogears Final Fantasy 7, 10

Never liked Aloha, and turboprops are severely under-represented (no ATR's, etc), but I have a few Hawaiian: Current colors 717, old colors L-1011, old colors MD-80. Might pick up a DC-8-62 in the future. Actually, the 717 is in that pic. About 2/3 "back", front row. Look for the KLM MD-11---there's a United 727 behind that (grey scheme)--the 717 is right behind that one, just below the Yellowbird DC-9. You can just make out the tail. Well, and the nose, since it projects ahead of the UAL 727's nose, but it's plain white and not distinctive.

Not a current (nor clear, but it's hard to focus on 6-inch planes from a distance of 1 through 8 feet) photo of "Shelf #1" but it'll do for a start:

I've got about 195, so I'd say "yes".

Coota---whichever pic you're referring to, is real. Few things I hate more than "fake" planes. And whichever one you're referring to, I have a few more.

Rafale. Mirage's suck.

Aircraft battle damage: Heated x-acto tip jabbed into the plastic. The infamous soldering iron method is too round/big. For interior: go find a cutaway drawing of any modern jet, plenty of inspiration. Or pics of broken planes.

Few things show up on radar better than spinning jet engine blades. I'd imagine a helicopter's rotor would be the same. But staying low to the ground is a big help, fighter radars always have problems with picking up stuff low to the ground.

Who knew the Su-27 had engaged the MiG-29 in combat (and won, big time)? http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/article_189.shtml For that matter, that entire war went unreported, I don't recall ever hearing about it.

F-15's have bombed choppers in mid-air, I bet a Super Hornet could too. Though an Apache's a lot faster than most choppers.

Actually I have been quite out of the loop as of late, when it comes to Red Dwarf. I mean, I live in Iowa, it's amazing they air it at all. Occasionally. Out of order. In the summer. I knew Trek was big in Japan, but I really wondered if the humor of Red Dwarf would carry over well. (Trek has little/no humor, no translation worries--fake technobabble is fake technobabble in any language)

Starbug! With Mini-Rimmer! Who knew Red Dwarf was even known in Japan? http://www.hlj.com/showreports/ths04/scifi...os07331-01.html

I'm just going to make a special mention for Yu-Gi-Oh, for having no semblance of plot whatsoever. It is nothing more than a very long, animated manual/tips/strategies for playing the game. In a 1,000x more blatant way than Pokemon/Beyblade are. "But if you had acquired the red-eye dragon card, available in expansion set 4, you would be able to counter that attack in only 2 moves!!! Now watch as I rearrange my deck to include more ice-elemental attacks. Mwah ha ha ha" Tune in tomorrow to learn how to defeat armored harpies if you don't have any lightning counter-attack cards... I am fully aware of cartoon/toy tie-ins (it all started with He-Man and the retraction of an FCC ruling AFAIK), but Yu-Gi-Oh is so far beyond all the others. He-Man, and all other "80's toys-toons", no matter how inane and toy-istic, still had stuff happen/plot.

And I've just been waiting a long time to post this somewhere on MW.com, and this is a good enough chance. Late in the game, my 4-plane squadron (with me at the lead) will probably look something like this: (God I wish I could see a Russian airshow someday)

Hopefully they'll let us fly higher this time! Need 80,000ft for an anti-satellite shot. Anyways---one of the disappointments for me in AC4 was the lack of "normal" Flankers. Yes, most games have too many, but AC4 had only the most advanced, not-in-service-and-might-never-be-in-service Super Flanker prototypes, etc. Su-27 would have been welcome, as would the Su-33. Su-32/34 have good export chances, and the 30MKK and 30MKI are in service. So anyways---what Flankers in what schemes do you want in the game? IMHO, one of the all-time coolest camo schemes period, is the Ukranian splinter camo which is slowly being applied to their Flanker squadrons. It fades rather quickly, so this one looks much more "rich" than the usual in-service ones. Amazing that this is "everyday" camo.

Will have a post later once a certain site is working again, but in the mean time I thought of something: AC always has "hidden" planes in missions---like the SR-71 and XB-70 which are worth BIG points if you can find and shoot them down in AC4. Any ideas/wants for this kind of stuff in AC5? Cool "what-if" XB-70 schemes: http://www.jsfedwards.com/b70.html

That's a new one for me. But if nothing else, it looks cool. "New trend replaces painted brake calipers: disc patterns! "

I was just thinking, a perfect way that we wouldn't "mind" wingmen so much: If we get credit for their kills. Or partial credit. Or if unlocking new planes can also count kills/exp from your other squadron members. Think how awesome this would be: You fly an F-14A, and work towards getting the F-14B. You assign your wingmen to fly F-15C's, and their kills count towards unlocking the F-15E! That'd be great. Just make wingmen kills worth less than your own, to encourage unlocking planes "yourself".

I dislike a lot of the 3rd colors in AC4. I do like the F-14, F-15, Su-37, and X-02 one though. Anyways, it's coming: http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/sim/acecombat5/news_6110309.html Also--lol, "air to ground AND air to surface" attacks.

Just looked it up: RB01 is the designation for the 2-seat non-naval Rafale PROTOTYPE. AC has always mixed up "specific aircraft designation" with "model type" for the Rafale family. It's like if they said "F-14 AB204". Well, that's a specific plane in a squadron, not a type. Same for "RB01". Quick Rafale list: Rafale C: Standard Rafale. Rafale B: 2-seat Rafale. Rafale M: Naval Rafale Rafale N: 2-seat Naval Rafale Yes, B and C are 'backwards' for their names. And I don't know why AC says "80% parts commonality" for the B and M, I figure it'd be like 95%---they look about as similar as a US Naval and a Canadian land-based Hornet.

I'll pick up on the F-20 vs Gripen after I re-read my main Gripen info. (Too late tonight, gotta go to bed, already up later than I planned) Gripen's great and as modern as it gets, but the F-20 is just so darn lightweight and agile, and has its 30 sec start-up. Might want to add in the X-29 too, another plane with a single F404. I've got to read up more on the Rafale too, since AC5 has the RM01 and RB01. I honestly hadn't heard of a "RB01" until I saw it on the AC site!

Going to have to look it up. I know one does, and one doesn't. ::looks:: Ok it seems (according to WAPJ), early ADV's didn't have auto-sweep, but later ones did, and early ones are were retrofitted. Checking more, they specifically mean F2 vs F3. Upgraded F2's are F2a's, but are now out of service (since they never got the engine upgrade--it's possible they simply couldn't). So all F3's were built with auto-sweep, with F2's being retrofitted.