Retracting Head Ter Ter

Its complicated only if you don't have instructions (all in Japanese). Play for these types of machines revolve around shuffling your 'deck' (normally only 4 cards in play at one time for say, the Sangokumushi game) around the board. No fast reflexes or dextrous button tapping required.

This concept has been around for some time. Started with football/soccer games I think. These machines don't look cheap though. Might be a big investment on the arcade's part.

I loved playing it with a group of friends. I remember the Skaven character was over powered. Collected STR tokens too easily due to the 'move anywhere on a six'. Could just knock the final boss out in a normal fight without weapons or special cards.

Man, they still have not moved the control stick yet!

One thing to note for those who have not gotten their mitts on a 1/18 DMZ yet. They feel almost like a completed model kit rather then a toy. From the materials used to the weight to the texture of the paint. It feels like a built up and painted model kit (one with dang good joints though) rather then a toy. I think its mainly because the plastic used is identical to those of common injection plastic kits rather then the ABS or whatnot that Yamato uses. Decide for yourself if its a good or bad thing. Its quite light for a toy of its size (but again, joints are GOOD). I suspect that it won't take drops as well as toys made of say ABS but I am not about to test the theory.

Air Asia was one of the first budget airlines in SEA. Its doing very well right now. They aren't some 2 year old or 6 month old flash in the pan. But 200 planes still sounds fishy. Their CEO is a maverick much like Branson.

I am interested. How does the airliner industry work with regard to orders and confirmations and deliveries? When the customer makes an order, what is the consideration and commitment at that point? Is there a point further down the road when a further contract needs to be signed before the airline is obliged not to back out of the order?

Yup, thats the Bandai 1/350 Yamato. The one further down is the SOP version. Good luck with the shipping if you are not in HK/Japan.

The most substantial edit was at the start. SB had the long WW2 flashback of the IJN Yamato edited out. Other then that, its the usual barebreast/shower scene/blood/alcohol edits common to most Americanized anime/manga.

You mean you found the 1/12 cheaper then the 1/18? The 1/18 is at 10k yen, the 1/12 is about 15k yen. Unless you found a good deal on ebay? I prefer the 1/18 due to the better pre-paint details plus I got mine cheap at about 70usd. The drawback is that right now, the 1/18 line only has 2 models and no accessories.

I think there is a lot of hardware which my country can afford to buy and would be nice to have, but there are also political considerations. In my earlier post, I did emphasize that counter-battery is a very important defence concept. Guess you can see why now.

haha! Answering that question will give you an idea why I keep harping on the buffer zone. If you shoot a 30km round from the north to the south, your artillery round would splash into the sea! Yup! You heard right. You would have overshot the dang country with a 30km north to south shot. Does that give you an idea how uncomfortable it is to have enemy held territory that close to all your airbases?

We got both. Counter battery is an important defence concept due to the reasons in my preceding post. Again, we can do all the stuff stated in your post and it won't be enough. See my previous post. We need the buffer zone.

Yeah, thats why I find them very playable. If only the Yamato 1/48 valks had joints like that. My favourite joint in the toy is still the ankle joint. Love the side-to-side motion. Where did you get the Blue one from? I got my Greenie from CSC, didn't see the blue one on sale there.

We can make excuses for the detour because we are discussing 'What F-16/F-15s can't do' for this particular question. OK to answer your question. The water separating Singapore from Country X is very very narrow. There is no space for naval assets in that narrow strip. This is not the English Channel. However, the main point is again Singapore's size. Even if we can use air assets to blow everything up before they reach the shore, it still leaves us with a very lousy tactical/strategic position because enemy held territory is still well within artillery range (heck, even small arms range!) of our urban areas and military installations. We want to deny the opponent that. And to do that, we need a Buffer Zone to be really secure. To get that Buffer Zone, MBTs are good to have. Basically, its not just stopping enemy troops from coming ashore. Its also about stopping enemy artillery from hitting the urban areas/airbases etc. As you said, our best first strike ability is in the air assets. We don't want our air bases to be within RPG/mortar/etc range. Any other prudent army would do the same.

I got the 1/18 takara Dual Model Zwei Scopedog too. Love it. Very playable toy with good detail and paint job. If only they made accesory packs for it.

This require some understanding of our local and regional political situation. Look at the map of South East Asia. The Australians are not going to attack us. The Chinese or the Indians are not going to attack us. Thailand is also not likely to attack us. And countries further away like Ukraine/South Africa etc is of course not in the picture. That leaves only certain states, uhm, where the majority of the population are of a certain, uhm, faith. That bigger one with lots of population has effectively ZILCH long distance (as in from there to singapore) strike capability. No meaningful maritime assault or amphibeous forces, weak air force with most planes down. Its F-16As are grounded by spare parts shortage. The soon to be 6 Flankers will be overwhelmed by several tens of F-16C/Ds backed by F-5 interceptors and soon the Strike Eagle. So that leaves the one which does not need naval/air assets to strike hard into our land. And as already mentioned, the small land mass doesn't give us space to defend. We need to STRIKE first and create a buffer zone. Tanks are needed in such a land based assault scenario. p.s. And as Coota0 said, if it gets any bigger scale, we have to hold until the Cavalry *cough*pacific*cough*fle...*cough arrives.

Singapore needs tanks because the geography of our nation (yeah I was a conscript too) doesn't allow us any strategic (heck even tactical) depth in defence. So the doctrine is to strike first, fast and hard into the other guy's land and secure a buffer zone the moment conflict looms. By the time the other guy is in our residential/commerical urban areas, its already GAME OVER. To strike into the other guy's land, tanks are good to have. Along with AH-64s. And the F-15T/SG. p.s. As a side note, the British Empire thought that tanks would be useless in the tropical terrain. Then Yamashita brought a bunch with him.

Didnt Singapore just buy a bunch of Leopard2s?

So, SIA is buying 9 more A380s? First good news for Airbus for months. edit: Seems like its not 9 more. Just final confirmation on 9.

Exactly, it pisses me off when people try to argue that just because Naval Destroyers are escort ships, STAR Destroyers must also be escort ships. BAH! Besides, the MC80 Star CRUISERS are obviously smaller then the Imperators.

OT for a bit. I never liked how some fans push for there to be Star Cruisers, BattleCruisers, Battleships/Dreadnaughts etc as ship classes bigger then Star Destroyers. The SW Galaxy does not have to follow Earth naval terms. Besides, if one studies the history of the word 'Destroyer' as it is used in navies. It is a contraction of 'Torpedo Boat Destroyer'. Meaning a destroyer of torpedo boats. Now, the Star Destroyers are meant to subjugate entire star systems, hence the name Star (System) Destroyer. And even if the Executor was much more massive, it can still be classified as a Star Destroyer. After all, on earth we have 'Battleships' ranging from 20000 tons to 70000 tons. And 'Carriers' ranging from 17000 to 95000 tons.

I can understand the weight penalty of the stronger airframes etc. But do they at least remove stuff like the arrestor hook? BTW, how many carrier landings are these planes rated for?

Guess thats why Singapore went for the F-15. The Hornet wasn't even in the running. Since Australia doesn't have carriers, would their Shornets be carrying unecessary weight meant for carrier ops? BTW, beside from presumably 'more-stealth', would the Shornet have any other performance advantage over the F-15E/K/T? I suppose easier maintenance?

I just saw his site, he is making a 36 inch SSD! That should be something, judging by the quality of his 24' SD.