David Hingtgen

Ack, wait for me! (Or just email me if it's important). Anyways.... 1. Shin flies an F-14D with an F-14A's cockpit. So you've got to kitbash no matter what you buy. 2. 99.9% of F-14D kits have the wrong rear fuselage. 3. Only the newest, latest Hasegawa F-14D's have the correct fuselage. No other manufacturer, and even early Hase F-14D's are wrong. 4. Yes, the engines are the main difference between the A and the B/D, but there's more than that. 5. Namely, the rear fuselage nib fairings. And they're an utter b*tch to try to correct. I've only seen one person ever do it, in Fine Scale Modeler. If you're good with sculpting and putty, go ahead and try. 6. Don't forget the ECM antennas on the rear stabs, the nose gear door, the chin pod, the wing glove vanes, and the nose pitot. 7. Your best bet by far is to actually buy an F-14B. F-14B's and D's are VERY similar, but the B has the same cockpit as the A. So you effectively have an "Almost D with a A's cockpit"--which is what Shin flies. Just shave off the ECM bumps under the glove, and get the dual chin-pod, and you've got Shin's plane. (Assuming you start with an ACCURATE F-14B). 8. F-14B kits have the same problems as F-14D kits--wrong rear fuselage nib fairings. And they're much more likely to have the wrong gun ports too, since WAY too many manufacturers think you can take an A and change the engines to get a B. Nope, B and D are far more similar than A and B. 9. Think I'll mention it again--it's not just the engines, the rear fuselage is different too. You can't just put brand-new GE engines that are 4 feet shorter than the original 30-year-old PW's and expect it fit, do you? Nope, you need to change a few parts around to blend the new engines into the old engine bays. 10. I'll review the various kits out there if you want, just tell me what scale you want, and what you want to model, and I'll tell you what to get. PS--I know off-hand that the Hasegawa VF-101 '97 OCeana NAS kit is one of the few accurate F-14B's out there.

1. Absolutely not. 2. Probably not. 3. Ever seen the official actual line-art/drawings for how the VF-1 transforms? The legs detach, then reattach. Actually, removing the legs is accurate to the anime, etc. Non-removable is simply how many people prefer it, regardless of the fact that it's not how the "real" VF-1 transforms.

Ahh. MM3 was the best IMHO. Its music STILL rocks. And it was LONG too, you got your money's worth from that game. $45 was a lot of money back then (that's what, like $70 now?), especially when you're 12...

I haven't seen them in months. Videogamedepot used to have tons--you could buy them by the case for $60.

Yup, most every JP model-maker has "on" and "off" seasons for models. They mold a few thousand, then it takes months/years for them to distribute out. After a while, they're hard to find, and when demand is high enough to justify another run, they'll do it. Right now, a lot of Hasegawa's 1/72 planes are "out". But there'll be more in the future. Dragon has just recently started pumping out warships again--especially submarines. Stuff you couldn't even find on ebay is now on local shelves. (And I snagged several). Tamiya's ships are "off" but there's still plenty left to go around. Their planes are "on" though, you can order from anywhere. Bandai is especially notorious for this--they go on/off several times a year it seems. (Especially for MG/PG kits)

American Psycho rocked purely due to Bale. I'm surprised it took this many replies for it to come up.

It's always good to build an "easy" model after (or during! ) a hard one. I'm doing it now. (Might do two or three by the time my main project's done)

What really caught my eye is the Hornet back there! Also, is that an F-100's nose in the lower-left corner?

A few more pics here: http://sailormoon.channel.or.jp/jisha/kaiken.html

Just a quick FYI: the yellow on the upper part of the chest is 100% correct. They are bullet-lights. Trust me, it's absolutely essential to the look of any standard 70's to present semi. It's up there with "big tall stacks" for things that make a truck look like a truck. It's just that they've never been made accurately. (Really technically, they should be transparent amber). And hey--if they lit up it'd be awesome. Newer trucks use LED's for them, and they're in such high demand you often can't get them and have to settle for standard bulbs. A semi without a line of amber lights across the top just isn't a semi.

Think I'll vote for Mars (legs). Anyways--yup, looks like above-average cosplay (with bad wigs) rather than an actual movie. Dye the hair! Or more intensely-colored wigs. Mercury sucks, and Sailor Moon (was going to abbr as SM but thought that'd be mis-interpreted here) isn't blonde. More like "sun-bleached brunette".

Small LED's can run on a watch battery and nothing more. They'll burn out quicker without a resistor, but they'll work fine for a while anyways. (As in, 500 hours instead of 10,000 hours----and NOBODY's going to keep the matrix lit up for days on end). It's like any light-up LED pen, keychain, etc. The matrix could easily be self-contained, or just make it actually have metal parts, and if Prime's hand is metal, it can make contact to light up. (Most small LED applications are like that--simple contact is on-off). Place Matrix in his hand, it lights up. That simple. (Hopefully, if Hasbro's smart). Open letter to Hasbro/Takara: Please make more TF's like these. 2 or 3 per year, at $75 a pop, is way better than like 20 $5-10 toys. This Prime is WAY better than entire waves of most lines, and I'd much rather have a few awesome TF's than a bunch of little cheap ones.

More stuff on the "basics". I can decal with the best of them, but filling seams is the bane of my existence. (And I'm not fond of painting or gluing either, in that order) Washes/panelling/detailing are all secondary to simply building the kit itself nicely out of the box.

Little update: finished priming the hull, and a few other misc bits (mainly 20mm locations). Will spend the next day or two cutting out and priming all the little bits. (52 20mm guns, 19 40mm guns, about a hundred life rafts, dozens of gun directors, etc). After that, finish the light grey application (mostly touchups, plus the hull and little bits), then do the navy blue camo pattern after it's dried a few days. Let that dry for a few days. Then the boot topping (aka the black paint at the waterline) then the brown/red hull bottom. And then the hard part, many many hours of masking and miles of tape to paint all the decks blue. And hope that the tape doesn't pull the paint off the resin parts. While waiting for stuff to dry, I have other kits to build. (Nothing like a submarine for instant sense of accomplishment---top half, bottom half, and a lot of black paint)

Just a quick FYI: The Baroness isn't technically a cosplayer. She's an actress hired by Hasbro, not a fan in a homemade costume. Equivalent of a "booth babe" at E3 or something.

Yup yup. Ent-B is known to have had a long (50 years or so) career. Model still exists, may or may not have been repainted since its last appearance as the Lakota. And that's still one of the largest Trek miniatures ever made, detailed and good enough for today's FX. (It is HUGE, far larger than the Ent-A or Ent-D models) (yes I know there's multiple Ent-D's) Dunno about the Ent-E model--I know it's very large, but never seen a good pic of the whole thing for scale. And I have little hope for a TDK Trek game.

It's the actual stuff used to light them up on DS9 (also seen in most Batman movies, and Men in Black---any time you see a cool blue glow, it's that). And there's only one place that sells it. Email TrekFX@aol.com and ask for info about Lightsheet. They also use their own drivers/converters, but they're simple to wire. There's of course some standard bulbs and stuff too, but the warp nacelles and deflector dish use lightsheet. (And you're on your own for figuring out the wiring/resistors/power supply/ ) If you're seriously interested, let me know and I'll email you the PDF's I have on the stuff. I *really* wish I had taken some pics of the wiring--I almost did, but then closed it up. There's dozens and dozens of them in there---whole thing is basically parallel, but the saucer/main/nacelles are wired together in serial. (Basic wiring is from power supply/stand (which was also custom built from parts from Radio Shack---the ship itself is totally removable--there's simply a small hole in the bottom of the shuttle bay where it plugs into the stand--the stand itself is part of the circuit). So I can take the ship off the stand and fly it around, then attach it to the stand and light it up. (Did I mention I spent weeks figuring out the wiring, and basically learning electronics/wiring/led's/bulbs/soldering? )

I've got that pic too, and it's out of scale. -19's are HUGE compared to -1's. Watch M7, you'll see just about everything compared to everything. PS--Tomcat is an extraordinarily large and oddly-shaped fighter. F-16/18's make for better "normal plane" comparisons.

Saw that before I think. Anyways, it's painted up as a USAF F-15. 18th fighter wing, based at Okinawa (certainly the most famous USAF squadron in Japan, since they're based there--Misawa would be second). Anyways, 18th FW is currently F-15C's, and has had F-15's for a LONG time, one of the very first and best F-15's wings there was. Kadena is the name of the base itself. They're "The Samurai" and have one of the few logos as cool as The Jolly Rogers. And their tail code is ZZ, as you can see. It'd be easy to make yourself, just snag some 18th FW decals and you're set. (I think I have some ZZ tailcodes myself, but no insignia). PS--that's lower-low-vis than even they themselves do. 18th FW has always been one of the most colorful of F-15 wings. PPS--"Shogun" is their newspaper, one of the best in the Air Force. Also, they publish it online, so I read it whenever I can. http://www-02.kadena.af.mil/18wg/staff/18w...news/shogun.htm

I'll just add that I think one of the most important steps is to PRESS the decal down to squeeze all the air bubbles out. Don't just soak up the excess water, that's not enough. I use paper towels+fingers (soaked in microset) to really rub them down. You practically want to burnish them into the surface (without damaging them, of course).

Hey, at least I posted after direct comments about a Baroness cosplayer. And at the very least, I posted pics of a hot chick, unlike 90% of cosplay threads which immediately degenerate into either really fat people dressed as sailor moon, guys dressed like Faye/Rei/Belldandy, or other unappealing things. Now if I had any Mylene cosplay pics I'd post them.

Yup, it rocks. The good thing is, they often show 2 or more eps back-to-back, so if you catch it, you can usually see several eps (including ones you missed earlier). I've seen about 5 eps myself. Try 9-11PM, later in the week (Thurs/Fri/Sat).

What I wouldn't give to be a Stormtrooper... (As you can see, there's multiple Baroness cosplayers that Hasbro uses) Some are hotter than others, but the hottest I posted first.

Last of the big, clear pics

Enjoy