wm cheng

So when does Ace Combat come out for the PS3? Are they still in that XBox360 exclusive contract or can we expect to see AC6 sometime soon?

I agree if Hasegawa finally gets around to a VF-25, it will probably be 1/72 and be amazing. I am definitely waiting for one of these (but I won't hold my breath, I would guess its still years away). If its Bandai, it could be a EX kit (which I hope, since they are really quite nice - hey HWR MKII, you should look at their Yukikaze fighter kits, the engraved panel lines are even more crisp than Hasegawa and more in keeping to 1/100 scale than Hasegawa's exaggerated 1/72 scale - not that I'm knocking Hasegawa, but some of the Bandai EX kits are extrodinary) if its a EX, then it will probaby be 1/100. Most of their EX aircraft (which I have) Yukikaze series, Yamato fighters and the Ace Combat Falken are all 1/100 scale and are excellent in terms of panel line details and shape. They can't do landing gears though, they are all too heavy and thick for the scale. I also have the Bandai 1/350 Yamato kit, and its really superb - their molding technology is just incredible. Bandai can do high quality stuff when they want to, but its just who are their target audience/consumer, the 12 yr old that actually watches the cartoon or the adult collector?

Hey JsARCLIGHT, I would be interested in what you consider as the flagship or demo-worthy BR-DVD titles (I'm interested in building up my collection). I find that the new Blade Runner is a simply amazing transfer and is my demo disk (tons of inky blacks! very 3D). I'll jump in finally (been a lurker on this thread for months - but I finally got a HD 1080p projector Panasonic PT-AE2000 with a 100" screen and a PS3 over the Holidays) as I finally have some experience in the issue now. I was format neutral and wanted to sit and wait the war out - being an original Beta AND Laserdisc owner, I am understandably cautious when another format war opens up. However, after getting a taste of HD on a 100" screen - I just had to jump in, plus the PS3 upscales and deinterlaces SD-DVDs so much better than any of my existing DVD players did. Hmm spend $200 on a decent Oppi DVD player or $400 for a new blu-ray player that networks and plays media from my desktop upstairs and allows me onto the internet while in the basement - seemed like a no brainer for me. Ultimately it was the cheap cost of the PS3 and that it had more titles that I was interested in that won me over. Plus I swore I would never own any Toshiba equipment again! I've literally thrown away a Toshiba TV, VCR and HTiB DVD/Amp/Speaker combo and my wife even supported me doing so - since she experienced how infuriating I was when ever I used such poorly designed cheap crap!! The mere fact that Toshiba was the only manufacturer that produced HD-DVD players pretty much made my decision for me. From the hardware side, you've got Sony, Panasonic, Denon, Marantz, Onkyo, Pioneer, LG, Samsung - almost all the major A/V players and NOT a computer software company running the show. Just like cameras, I would stick with Nikon or Canon (traditional photographic manufacturers) instead of the Casio, HP or other computer manufacturers. Thats just my cent and a half. I am glad the war is coming to an end mostly because I hope once it ends, most of the titles I care about will be released - the current crop is slim pickins. And its nice to finally be on the winning side for once (and porn wasn't the deciding factor this time around - did we grow as a society?! )

Sorry if I missed it in these 128pgs, but has Graham or anyone else (anywhere else) made a transformation guide for this puppy yet? I still haven't transformed my baby yet...

Oh! thats such great news!! thanks Gaijin... Getting a 1080p projector in the next few weeks and a 100" screen, the reason I wanted to get a blu-ray player (and PS3 being the cheapest BR player around was just a bonus!) - now I can look forward to AC6 on 100" screen in 1080p!! I love Ace Combat! Yay! thanks.

A question: does the USB flightstick controllers from Ace Combat 5 (PS2) work on newer PS3 consoles? If so, are there any decent Ace Combat like flight games for the PS3 (I understand that AC6 is only for XBox360 right?)? Thanks,

Hey redfinger61 - 1/2" wouldn't be overkill... get the thickest, or at least vertically tallest metal stock you can find inside that arm! it can be quite laterally thin, just tall. I'd go with 1/2" bar stock at least 1/2" the way up the arm, then dress it out with gak to hide it. I mounted my arm horizontal and after a bit of time, it has unfortunately begun to sag considerably (you'd think a 1/72 Hasegawa kit wasn't that heavy?!) I suppose if you mounted the arm vertically it wouldn't sag as much. But if I were to do it again, I'd definitely beef up the metal stock inside the arm. Just something to look out for - you can tell the sag especially because the secondary arm holding the light "GO" unit is still straight and provides a contrast to the arm holding the Valkyrie.

Take your time - I understand busy. I for one ain't transforming it till your review... no pressure!

Great job!! I love the weathering - armour is so rich in textures to detail, and you did a fantastic job bringing them out. Keep posting, I can only get my "fix" living vicariously through you! Keep up the great work. And, yeah... where do you keep it all?

What is the "blue & purple" art book? Is that the same as that small one that came with the DVD? or is there something else out there - I really would like anything there is on their technology mech designs - love the aircrafts!

I've found the exact same thing! it really bugs me too... However, through some trial and error (just my opinion, with no technical knowledge behind what I'm about to say) I found that my cheapo Toshiba Home Theatre in a Box all in one thingy in the bedroom to be much worse at this dialogue being quiet than my basement home theatre with a IMHO fantastic 2nd generation Sony DVD (back then when they cost $600 and weighed 50lbs) and a decent Yamaha amp with a separate DSP decoding the Dolby Digital signal - plus much larger and better speakers. So I would suspect that the el-cheapo HTIB doesn't decode the soundtrack properly or as well as some other systems. What I do is turn up the centre channel - usually you can adjust the volume and delay for the individual speakers to tune it to your room and speaker placement - I found that if you boost the centre channel speakers, the majority of the dialogue comes through this channel (not exclusively, but mostly) and you can also turn down the rear left and right channels if you find the ambient stuff too distracting (this is usually the effects channels). I hate it when there is important dialog going on at a restaurant, and you can hear the nonsense conversations around you almost as well as the main actors. I've been finding that with broadcast TV, the dialog is quiet too, but when the commercials hit - WHAM! its so loud...

No, unfortunately not... it was just too expensive and the proportions were too high. I am hoping that this "re-issue" might address the tall proportions and make it a little more affordable. Any news on the "re-issue" would be appreciated!

Now to finally glue the main launch rail supports to the base section. The Captain had graciously included these tiny brass hex bolts (they're fantastic, I never knew they made them so small!) to attach the main support to the base. I am using them as location pins, but the actual strength will come from 5 minute epoxy cement. The kit has divits where the holes for the brass bolts should be, I just followed them and used my pin vise to create the holes. The holes line up perfectly, but just in case (since I'm pretty paranoid with shrinkage and such) I drilled all the holes on the upper support piece first, fed the brass bolts through, and lined them up to see if they actually land on the divits on the base piece - and of course true to John's fastidious nature, they line up perfectly. However, I would always drill from the top down and proceed around just in case sometimes they don't line up properly due to some warpage or uneven shrinkage in resin - remember resin garage kits aren't always as high quality as John's sculpts (I guess I'm old school and used to some pretty crappy resin offerings in the past) Once its properly located, I rough up the mating surfaces above and below and slather on some 5 minute epoxy cement and glue the two main sections together. That's it for now... (oh, this last batch of photos are not colour correct, they are with my older Nikon990 and have a incandescent colour cast to them)

So I flipped the whole thing around to check on stability. Its really tight and snug - just the way I want it, since its going to be sitting on this launch rail 90% of the time. The gunpod modifications really lock the whole rail thing together. Its starting to come together - I can't wait to start painting this thing! I still need to assemble the entire thing and add a few greebles here and there. Now that its finally together, it has confirmed a sneaking suspicion of mine, its a little too tall and lean. I just wish it was a little lower or squatter - it seems as though the whole thing including the boosters could be 10-15% shorter and 10-15% wider - IMHO it would convey the sense of weight more convincingly and be closer to the lineart. (just my 2 cents - but it does seem to match the Launch Vehicle produced - I wish that was 20% lower and fatter too).

Thanks everybody for your support - it is really muchly appreciated! Okay, where I left off, I pushed the pins enough into the underside of the Booster to scratch the paint - luckily they landed right in the middle of the circular indents - that's where I drilled the corresponding holes to receive the pins. I just used a pin-vise (much more accurate than a dremel - they are too fast) with the appropriate bit (I didn't know which one, just started out small and reamed the hole with a larger bit until the pins fit in snug). You can see in the later pictures, the tailfins of the gun pod fits right into the slots I sanded out - it all looks as though it was supposed to be that way! I just had to re-position the end claw piece so that it looks as though its supporting the gunpod.

Thanks, why only one more season? What a jip! What is "Razor"?

Does anyone know when the new season starts to air?

Unfortunately, mine definitely suffers from this droppy problem - its fine if you have the landing gears deployed and have it sit on the ground - the weight of the plane corrects the drop, but if you lift it off the ground, the forward fuselage droops at the top of the heatshield joint. (most suffer from this I believe)

THANKS! I can't believe I missed this - when was it? Was it last year when my baby was being born?!

After sleeping on it for a few days... (I guess the advantage of not having a solid stretch of time to work on this) - I thought up a much simpler solution to the forward arm being located to hold the gunpod. Instead of setting the entire arm "down" a bit to allow for the added depth to the Valkyrie due to the gunpod now, why not just take some material away from the forward arm and notch the "hinge-like thingy" to allow the gunpod fin to slip inside of it. This allows the forward arm to sit in its originally designed location (much closer to lineart) and allows another glue attachment point to secure this arm in place. So after numerous test fittings, I measured and measured again and started to sand away the material I thought was in the way of the gunpod. Its just a trial and error process - you keep taking a little away a bit at a time until you get there... its always better to take too little away then have to build it back up again... So of course the end tip grapply thingy also has to be modified, its pretty easy, just take a bit of the hinge part off.

Even though its a nice snug fit with the gunpod locking into the main rail's little notch, I don't want that as the sole means of support for the Valkyrie with Boosters (its quite a big chunk of resin in the end and very bottom heavy). So will attempt to pin it. I realize that the kit provides for some very nice brass screws with hex ends to attach the main rails to the structure, but I found that the structure didn't quite exactly line up with the main rail circular nubs - plus having a screw through at so many attachment points (X10) would probably permanently attach my Valk & Booster to the rails. If any of the corresponding holes in the Booster was just a little bit off, then it would bind with the launch rails. So I just opted for only two pins at the top - combined with the notch for the gunpod tail and the weight of the Booster itself, I think its pretty safe for the two pins to hold up the Valk with Booster. Plus it so much easier to line up just two corresponding holes and makes it easily detachable so I can zoom it around the room! I used a pinvise to drill the holes in the main rail first and used a thick paperclip (usually what I pin resin kits with, unless its real heavy duty, then I cut a piece of coat-hanger wire for that). Once they were located, I then pressed it with the launch rail against the underside of the Booster, the sharp pins digs into the resin and scratches my paint job locating them. As you can see, they locate themselves quite well right in the centre of the circular divits at one end (they start to go off a little towards the rear of the Booster - could be resin shrinkage). Then I use the same pinvise and drill into the resin Atmospheric Booster for the corresponding holes. Of course I also drilled through to the structure part so the pin ties all three parts together, the structure, the main rail and the booster (which will be detachable). I use 5min Epoxy for the actual attachment - I always use 5min epoxy for anything that requires strength. Once the rail is attached, I glue this entire assembly to the main support again via 5min epoxy. The captain has engineered an ingenious way of pining everything through each other at this critical connection - but I chose to just use a strong glue and I'll re=drill through if necessary, its a bit easier in terms of lining everything up and the resin will break before the 5min epoxy gives (as long as you rough up the mating surfaces first and make sure that it was washed thoroughly so there is no remaining release agents).

Unfortunately the main rail cylindrical nubs didn't line up perfectly with the circular divits provided in the underside of the Booster. I thought it would click in like lego. But with the notch cut out of the main rail section - it seats the rear of the gunpod quite well and allows me to have the entire assembly turned right-side-up and see the launchrail/stand support the Valk with Booster! Now what concerns me is the forward arm with the holes in it. It needs to be dropped so that the little end grappling unit looks like its holding onto the gunpod instead of seating hard up against the Valkryie itself. However, it seems a little separated from the main launch rail unit (I'll address this later...) - I could always "gak" it up to close up the gap.

Hey HWR MKII - did you get and build the LV? I'd love to see it - did I miss a build up or photos here? Ok, back to the problem at hand. One tragic flaw, I built my Valk with the gunpod in place! I didn't realize, but the launch rail is made to hold the Valk without a gunpod in place. In fact (now that I look closely at the lineart) they were right... the Valks attached to the Atmospheric Boosters have no gunpods - ARGH! I can't really send my Valk up naked... so I decided to see what I can do to modify the launch rails to accept a Valk with the gunpod attached. You can see that essentially the main rail ends at where the underside of the Booster ends and connects to the rear of the folded arms in the Valk. Its not too bad... I could go without the main rail, and just use the structure and attach it that way - but I'd like to use everything the Captain has sculpted. So I decided to just notch back the main rail to accept the tail piece of the gun pod - not a lot of material that needs to be removed in the end.

Fantastic work!! Don't rush it... so what if you don't make it for the competition - at least its gotten you off your butt and started on this amazing bird. Looking great so far, have fun with it - I'll definitely be watching with great interest. I've always love this design - I just wish the nose was less needle-like and more like the Hasegawa VF-1's with that characteristic droop. I wish Hasegawa would make this kit! But its looking like your model is giving them a run for their money! Keep up the great work! Wm

Another tool that's very useful is a Pin Vise, basically a small drill bit on the end of what looks like an exacto blade handle. You twist it in your fingers to drill very tiny and precise holes. I'm just drilling out some extra resin for the pin of the stand to seat into. Make sure when you cut parts off sprue, that you leave a good chunk of resin still bonded to the part, you can file and sand it down to the actual part later, but resin is more brittle than styrene, so if you cut/trim too close to the part, you risk snapping or cracking a piece of the part away (and its a little more difficult to fill resin parts then with styrene). Of course, you dry fit all the parts so you get an understanding of where work has to go into clean-up (which there is very little on this kit) and how all the various pieces relate to each other so you can devise a painting plan - so you won't necessarily follow the order of the provided instructions explicitly because it may be easier to paint certain pieces separately and assemble them only after painting.