David Hingtgen

Yes, that part of the hull is 100% Tamiya Missouri. Althought since all the Tamiya kits use the New Jersey's hull (misfit of the class, boy can I rant on that) it took a bit of shaving and sanding to get a non-NJ hull out of it. Most of the work converting it will be above decks. There's many dozens of hours already put into the superstructure and guns to make the Iowa from the Missouri. (Even had to buy new planes for the catapults). Plus of course, expensive aftermarket resin and brass stuff. (Not super-detailing stuff, flat-out "necessary for the conversion" stuff). I am not going to go all-out and do etched brass railings, individually turned barrels, etc. I do not have that level of skill. But I am doing EVERY thing that makes the Iowa unique. Door by door, vent by vent. I'm just not applying 4 layers of screens into those vents, nor adding brass handles to said 4mm tall doors, like some people who put 10,000 hours into them do.

Optimus isn't an alternator. But knowing Takara, there'll be 5 or 6 repaints at least of him. As for Silverstreak: I think he looks much better than Smokescreen. (I hate stickers/logos on cars--whether rally or rice) Silverstreak car mode pic: http://www.hasbro.com/transformers/images/..._vehicle_lg.jpg Robot mode: http://www.hasbro.com/transformers/images/...ws/81309_lg.jpg

Massive spoilers of course. Anyways----I'm going through again (not going for 100%, I have better things to do--but I do want like 99% to see all the stuff I missed) and either I never saw the explanation, or I totally forgot, but a big question I have while going through again is: Why/how does the Awesome sphere show *Tidus and Yuna* getting shot in front of Vegnagun? By the end we know that that happened to Shuyin and Lenne and leads to a lot of things, but why does the the sphere play back Tidus and Yuna? (Yes, I tried every place I could think of to look, but there's no "things you wonder about" FAQ--and gamefaqs's board has about 99,000 posts and isn't searchable)

Over on the A.T.T. newsgroup I suggested the Kiyodotai squadrons as the best real schemes possible for Decep F-15's. There's one that's half black and half grey--a good Skywarp. Just make the robot parts purple and you're set. And there's several deep blue/grey ones---Thundercracker. The only problem is Starscream. For that, it'd probably be best to "fudge" a bit and use the F-15ACTIVE scheme--white/red/blue, which is close as you'll get to grey/red/blue. Also, the F-15 is the best choice period for a TF, due to its fuselage/intakes being a box, with wings and stabs and nose tacked on. F-14/F-16 are the worst choice due to fuselage shape. F-18 would be decent, but the F-15 is still the best. F-22 would be ok, as it is boxy, but more like a trapezoid. I have hope this'll be the case, for they're probably the most famous planes in Japan--home of Takara. Here--anyone else agree with these for Skywarp and Thundercracker? (At least as far as real schemes go--there are no metallic blue F-15's with red stripes and black fins)

Closeup, showing the hull better. (And apologies for overall pic conditions--midnight in winter isn't the best lighting---plus anything with a 10:1 length:width ratio is just plain hard to shoot at any angle)

And just to make it possibly somewhat on-topic, if there's ever a model of the Asuka, I think I'm one of the few here who models modern warships and can help with them. Yes, this is the model which is 3 Yammies long and 1 Yammie tall with room for a VF-11 on the fantail. Anyways, Well, I actually haven't progressed on it for a few months now (can't airbrush in the snow) but I figured I'd take some pics before I box it up for the winter. Just the hull's done, it'll be a while before the whole thing's done. Like, maybe in November. Will do the main deck next, then the superstructure, and finish with the guns/turrets. So here she is at the moment. Camo scheme is MS.32a/1b, one of the rarest there is. And it changed a lot. I'm doing her as she appeared "after January but before June". Looked different from this in Jan, different in June. Colors are 1943 version of 5L Light Grey, and pre-neutral 5B Navy Blue. (The light grey is actually quite bluish, hard to tell in the pic. And yes, that is actual Navy Blue as used by the US Navy for camo paint, not navy blue like your coat) Navy Blue is VERY grey.

I built my PG Zero, but didn't paint it. Just inked it. (Well, I painted the gold parts, as plain yellow just didn't look good). Also messily dry-brushed all the internal parts with various brass, steel, and aluminum colors. *Messily* drybrushed--I didn't highlight distinct areas or parts, merely added some "color". It's all covered up 99% of the time anyways, no point in making it look good. (Kind of along the lines of people who REALLY detail the rudder pedals in a cockpit---you can't see it without a dental mirror and a penlight) I decided to leave the wings as-is (as opposed to my 1/100's pearlescent white wings), as I decided there'd be no way to get the effect I really wanted, without having them internally lit with electroluminescent wire... (which wasn't going to happen).

Yes, there will be repaints. They will likely have a repaint of every single mold based on what's been said. Also minor mold tweaks for the repaints. The first will be Silver(blue)streak. He will be remolded so that he's a perfectly normal Impreza, not a rally version. New spoiler, new front fascia/grill, foglights, wheels, roof, rear window defogger, side-mirrors, etc. A good dozen changes. And he'll be silver. With a new head.

None of the above. I want fighter and battroid to be as good as possible, and that usually means swapping parts. Swapping a FEW parts to get MUCH better modes is a good thing. Swapping a LOT of parts just to transform is bad, but the VF-0 isn't that. Look at the nigh-perfect 1/72 YF-19 model featured in Modelgrafix. It transforms and is far better than any other YF-19. Why/how? Because it swaps a FEW, CRITICAL parts that just wouldn't work any other way. If it couldn't swap a part or two, one mode or the other would be quite off. But because it does, we get a perfect fighter and an awesome battroid, with only the "groin" being inaccurate. (And a larger scale could probably have enough room to fix that). Sometimes you just gotta swap a part, when Kawamori draws the fighter and battroid mode versions of that part completely different.

For a name, I vote Myung. (Because it's close to Miang). Anyways---Graham--anything you can share with us regarding any sort of Mac+, YF-19 etc news? And I'll second (third?) a request for a VF-0D. Finally--my guess for the reason it's 1/100 is so that it's easier to sell an upcoming 1/48. I mean, it'd be a lot easier to sell 1/48 VF-1's if there wasn't a diecast 1/60 available as well. By making a VF-0 which has swappable parts, no diecast, and is much cheaper, it's easier for Yamato to sell both. Just my guess. People would complain if they did like the VF-1 with similar 1/60 and 1/48, but this way there's a lot of difference, and everyone's happy.

Porsche's owned by Volkswagen. So is Audi and Lamborghini. AFAIK it's not *Lamborghini* that didn't want a TF, it's their German owners. So don't expect a 911 or Boxster, no matter how cool they'd be. The oft-mentioned thing is due to Volkwagen's WWII/Nazi connections, they abhor any depiction of their products as war-like in any way. And that includes turning into an armed mech. And now they own Porsche, Lambo, Bugatti, Audi, Bentley, etc. So all those companies now have that same "no war-like toys/models" clause.

Alternate transformation: rotate head and waist 180, swap hands. Trim plastic from trunk near joint to get it to fold closer to his body. His gun is finicky, but only because his fingers are so stiff and the trigger finger likes to move with the others. Once you get it, it's quite secure. As for the arms---yeah, there's a lot of joints, that only move like 270 degrees, and it's always the other 90 degrees that you're trying to work with. Also, many of them only "work" if the arm's bent a certain way. Look closely at the red parts closest to the chest--ONE of the corners is rounded. The black parts can only rotate around it there, and only if the arms are in the right place. (Getting his elbows/forearms right are yet another thing--I think 2 of the 4 corners are angled to allow passage without getting in the way of the doors--his arms aren't QUITE square in cross-section, and it's just enough that they'll only rotate in one direction without bending the door mounts) Overall suggestion for his arms: arrange/TF them when they're going straight out to his sides--every joint is movable in that position. Get them all lined up, THEN move them down to his sides. If you move them down, then try to rotate, it won't work. (Well, it will, but with severely stressing and bending the parts). PS---I found if you trim the trunk for the alternate transformation, and fold it back, but leave him in the standard transformation, it looks a lot better than the regular transformation--less kibble, and he gains shoulder-mounted missiles.

The threads combined rather strangely--now it looks like I have replies posted before I asked myself a question to someone else in the future...

Point: X-Brawn was altered because he was a nigh-perfect Mercedes (320?). Mach Alert/Prowl however, isn't quite a Diablo. Yes, he's obviously supposed to be a Diablo, but he's not. Apparently he's just far enough off that Lambo either didn't care, or couldn't take legal action for infringement. Ironically, the little spychanger guy (the yellow one) is a more accurate Diablo, I think I pegged him as a 93/94 when I was comparing my RID toys. PS--since we got a C5 Vette, that gives me great hope for like a 2002 Z28 SS.

Hasbro instructions? Blech. Butchered worse than Smokescreen's. (Why Hasbro why? Takara's already made them, is it that hard to copy B&W pages?). Had I read the Takara ones, I would have saved myself a lot of frustration with Smokescreen's arms, etc. (It's flat out impossible to EXACTLY follow Hasbro's Smokescreen instructions for the arms---but it's easy with Takara's) Sideswipe's worse, they just go from "Viper interior" to "robot chest", neglecting about 3 folds and 2 posts and a second hinge on the dash... Hasbro, king of "before and after" illustrations, showing nothing inbetween. "Arrange parts as shown--you're on your own to figure out how to do it, though" So here's the Binaltech scans for the Viper: http://www.bwtf.com/binaltech/lambor/book/index.shtml Start on page 4 or so for the actual transformation. You know, bad/incomplete instructions are actually worse than no instructions--because you'll assume they're right, and it'll just screw you up.

We DO highlight commander's planes. Where do you think the bright yellow and black Jolly Rogers planes come from? Or shark-mouthed Sundowners planes? Air Force isn't big on it, usually just accenting the tailcode/serial number and modifying the fin-stripe, but the Navy goes all-out. (Unless it's the early 90's, and they're taking low-vis SERIOUSLY)

If you were ever bored and browsed through the member lists at the old board, over half (some pages it'd be like 80%) had 0 or 1 posts ever, or hadn't posted in over a year. The "active" members are about the same I think.

A few more comments: Did some hinge-carving, still not totally enthused about the alternate transformation. Even though the effect is only slightly larger than Smokescreen's chest, it's enough that I don't like it much. BUT, doing it allows the OFFICIAL tranformation to look better! It cuts down the kibble by like 50%. So regardless of how you transform him, do some carving. Tail-lights got me curious, so I took the trunk apart and looked. In the "that's weird" category, the lights are totally clear plastic, with GOLD paint behind them. Yet they look red when viewed the right way. (Well, more of an orangey-pink than red--but not gold! ) Weird. (And I took them totally out of the toy, so they weren't picking up any hues from the red plastic). Smokescreen also has pure clear lights, but he'd be a lot more effort to disassamble just to see the backs of his tail-lights. PS--Transformers.com has confirmed an Alternators Tracks Corvette. (Yes, it's an obvious/rumored mold/name, but they never officially mentioned it before AFAIK). Big question is--C5 or C6? PPS--Sidewipe is taller than Smokescreen, larger overall.

LOL. I edited right as you posted a reply. And yup, the brakelights don't look as good. It seems that the red paint they used throughout is extra-transparent--his cylinder heads are practically pink. They're RED in the box pics. I think Smokescreen actually has clear red plastic lights, while Sideswipe has clear parts with clear red paint over them. For me, I like him mainly because: 1. Not covered in garish logos and stickers. 2. He looks like my all-time fave G1 Autobot. (Alt Smokescreen has G1 Smokescreen's head but little else----but Alt Sideswipe even has G1 Sideswipe's foot and leg markings and design, and with an "unofficial" door positioning, has his arms as well)

That's not the issue I have. It's the BOTTOM. License-plate area. No matter how you cut, it's always about the same distance from his waist. Yes, you can alter the hinge so that the upper part of the trunk is closer to his neck/shoulders, but the lower part is always going to stick way out from his waist. It'd need a section cut out and made into a Z-fold hinge to allow it to get close to waist. ::edit:: I haven't actually tried cutting out the bit yet, as I didn't think it looked like any hinge position would allow it to look good, based on how and where it pivots. But I might as well try it, maybe it'll move just enough. Nothing else to do tonight.

I believe it simply says VF-1, which is the Wolfpack squadron, which is one of the more prominently displayed insignia on their jackets. (I think) (You can find a good half-dozen names and numbers on Maverick and Goose's equipment, but VF-1/Wolfpack is the most common, though VAW-110 is also seen a lot)

Fiddled with the alternate transformation---I think the trunk is just too bulky and juts out too far to have it look good. If they had designed it to do it, they could have incorporated a hinge/collapsing section near the bottom of the bumper, to allow a Z-fold, to bring the rear bumper in much closer to the chest (like a full 1/2 inch, maybe even 3/4 of an inch). But as it is, no matter what angle you put it at, he'll still have like a beer belly. (Or beer pecs more accurately)

Blue vs clear is JP vs US, I believe. No Prime actually matches the Takara box/manual. (I wish it did, I like the *silver-painted* legs much better than silvery plastic legs)

Found Sideswipe myself tonight at Wal-Mart, so he's definitely out. A few comments: Not as shiny/glossy as Alt. Smokescreen. He's not FLAT plastic, but noticeably not as smooth a finish as Smokescreen. Seems a bit orangey, too. More of a Ferrari red than classic Viper red. (But I haven't seen this particular Viper color in real life, so I dunno) Awesome engine--chrome valve covers with red accents and the Viper lettering. WAY more accurate engine than Smokescreen. Has intake plenums, cylinder heads, etc. Hood's a bit finicky to open though. Steering gimmick much better executed that Smokescreen. Doesn't get in way of transformation at all. More kibbly than Smokescreen. The whole back end and hood just hangs off, and the front bumper really interferes with his foot positioning. Like Smokescreen, Hasbro tossed out a few minor transformation steps. (like the steering wheel, tonneau cover, steering mechanism, headrests, and other things that need to be moved/lined up to form the robot chest, and allow the floorboards to fold up) There's like 6 joints in EACH shoulder. You can arrange the doors and sidesills and wheels however you want. I think the "official" way is the worst, making him look like G1 Sideswipe is the best. No, he doesn't need to have *widely* splayed legs. Just a bit. Actually, if you transform it right and figure out what the instructions left out, his "windshield as chest" looks quite nice. The whole interior folds up (kinda like Smokescreen) so there's no hollow areas underneath the windshield. I haven't tried out the "trunk as chest" transformation yet, as it will require a bit of plastic-cutting at the joint. I think the main point of that variation is actually to reduce the amount of back kibble, and make him more balanced. (He's not nearly as stable as Smokescreen). Overall---about as good as Smokescreen, maybe a little worse. Some areas better, some worse. But G1 Sideswipe is my all-time fave Autobot, so a new one is great.

Macross is clearly following USN practice for aircraft markings. They even use "VF" for squadrons (with an S added for space). And they use modex numbers as the main identifiers, not bureau/serial numbers. Because 112 is easier than 161855. Serial numbers are there, but not easily visible and only used for "accounting purposes" etc. I wonder if we'll ever see the Macross equivalent of the F/A-18, and thus a SVFA squadron. Or a dedicated night-attack UN Marines version, thus an SVMFA(AW) squadron.