ghostryder

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My first attempt at paneling (tonight!) was done with 0.3 mm mechanical pencil, with H hardness lead. I like how the lines are a bit more subtle than with a standard No. 2 pencil, or marker. I think a real paint wash looks best, but for a novice with little time, the 0.3 mm pencil works pretty well (updated w/ better pics). naked batteroid strike

Wow, I had both of those cards, and it didn't dawn on me that it was a GBP valk until now. Funny how they chose the 1A-style single laser, instead of 2 lasers.

I just got my first 1/48 a few days ago, and agree it is reasonably durable for a toy of such detail. The ABS plastic feels very tough. One question I do have - does anyone have problem with the paint stripe at the top of the wing wearing off where it swings into the glove vane? I can see some of the plastic color already showing through. This is something that even bandai has resolved in their reissues, by recessiong the paint stripe.

Thanks for the warning, Hurin. I presume that panel lining around the nose area will make the gap less obvious. I guess one should also apply stickers with the gear up, and then slice along the gap to allow expansion?

My 4th edition Roy from Valkyrie-Exchange has a crooked skull on the left tailfin, just like the 4th issue in the comparison shot left fin right fin Did I mention nose gaps?

Just wanted to send props to Kanata67 for sending me his extra vernier thruster stickers. Now the CF can bank and roll in space.

check yer PM

Thanks. Since bandai's "brown" is more of a camo olive, I didn't want the entire head to be that color. I think the head color and chestplate trim distiguishes it from you typical -1A CF, without making it look too high-vis in combat. Believe it or not, I used light gray Krylon Fusion, which is a near perfect match for the bandai plastic.

You guys kill me ... at least I wiped the bits of rice off first.

Blecch, sorry for the bad pics. I think the wife will be getting a new digital camera for x-mas . I also need to work on my diorama skills. Still need to add stickers and custom squad marking, but these pics will give you an idea of how a 1/48 yamato head looks on a bandai. I think it's a big improvement over the bloated bandai head. I also added some trim to the chest plate to reduce the perceived chunkyness in fighter mode. Hey kanata67, I need those vernier thruster stickers to finish the chestplate! Note: I couldn't mod the yamato neck to fit the head attachment stub on the bandai, so I used the bandai neck - it's a little skinny, but at least i can swap the old head back if i need. VF-1S CF head Batteroid closeup Fighter

I guess another question to add to DeathHammer's - since the Valks have air intakes, I suppose on earth the fusion reaction is used to superheat air to create thrust, much like a jet engine does with kerosene combustion. I'm not sure if this is more efficient than relying on the reaction alone. Does the mechanism change in space? I suppose the inlets shut in space and thrust is generated purely by the reaction energy release.

Here's a visual of the heavy hydrogen fusion reaction, for us non-nulcear physicists: I've read that deuterium is cheap and plentiful, while tritium is derived from lithium, also cheap and plentiful. So I suppose the products release during a Valk explosion could be deuterium, lithium, tritium, and helium? More info here. Water is made of hydrogen and oxygen. There is one atom of deuterium for every 6000 atoms of hydrogen. So deuterium fuel is plentiful. The energy released by fusing the deuterium in 1 litre of seawater is equivalent to that released by burning 30 litres of gasoline. Tritium is unstable and decays into helium with a half-life of 11 years. So there is no natural tritium. It can be produced within the fusion reactor by installing a blanket of lithium around the fusing plasma. When hit by the neutron generated in a fusion reaction, lithium breaks into tritium and helium. The tritium is rapidly extracted from the blanket and sent into the plasma to be fused. So overall, the lithium is consumed and turned into helium. Lithium is an abundant, inexpensive metal. The fuel for fusion is therefore deuterium and lithium, both abundant and inexpensive. The final by-product is helium, a safe, stable and environmentally friendly gas. However, there is no such thing as a free lunch. Creating the conditions for the fusion reactions to happen is extremely difficult. The difficulty is that both nuclei are positively charged and therefore repel each other. In order to bring the nuclei close enough to fuse, they must be hurled at each other at high velocity. Also, the nucleus is very small, so the probability of a good head-on collision is low. The hotter the gas, the faster the atoms travel. The velocity needed to overcome the repulsion corresponds to a temperature of 150 million degrees C. At that temperature, the collisions between the atoms are so violent that the electrons are knocked off their nuclei. You obtain a soup of free electrons and free nuclei called a plasma. It takes a considerable amount of energy to heat the deuterium-tritium mixture to that temperature. You therefore need to make enough fusion reactions happen to produce more energy than initially invested to heat the gas, which is a condition called break-even. The denser the plasma, the more often head-on collisions will happen. The plasma must also be kept hot long enough for the fusion reactions to produce the desired energy. Keeping together a dense, 150 million degree C plasma for any period of time is the big problem.

I think that's just the heatshield in batteroid mode. If you look at the top view of the fighter, the canopy looks fine (better than the VF-1, which is too bulbous).

Actually, after seeing some comparison pics, the 1/48 1S head is smaller than both the 1/55 1A AND 1S heads. The longer lasers threw me. Reason for putting the 1/48 head on a 1/55 - wanted to make a 1S in CF colors, and the bandai heads are just plain ugly

Hey, the 1/48 head is a bit bigger than I thought! The main head is smaller than the 1/55 1A head overall, but the big lasers and side turrets make it look bigger than the 1/55 1A head. Anyone have a comparison shot of a 1/55 1S (takatoku head style, not the 1990 bandai super) compared to a 1/48 1S? Don't want to waste a perfectly good recast head on a chunky, if it's gonna look rediculous.

Toynamis aren't that bad. If it weren't for their craptastic plastic, tiny heads, Popeye arems, chicken legs, funky nose profile, stepped-on fighter profile... wait a minute.. I have one, so I can say this. On the plus side, with some home-fixes to the loose joints and some paint touch ups, they make good easy-to-transform toys that look better OVERALL than the chunky monkeys. It's too bad Toynami never achieved what the MPC was meant to be - a bigger better version of the Bandai HCM.

After watching Modern Marvels on the History Channel last night, I started thinking - the US seems to have at least explored combining the benefits of thrust vectoring and canards on the X-31. I even remember a few years back seeing a NASA experimental F-15 with canards and 2-D vectoring. While most european nations have gone the route of canards (Rafael, Typhoon, Gripen) and the Russians have combine canards and vectoring on the Su-37, you never see canards on production US jets. I've always thought the the low wing loading and drag of a delta wings with the benefits of canards was a great combo, but this never gets past the drawing board or X-phase in the US. Remember, before the monstrosity we know as the Super Hornet, the Hornet 2000 program including at least 1 delta/canard design. Anyone who can shed light on this? It's been years since Iv'e gotten into this stuff, so forgive me if this question reeks of newbie.

Speaking of aggressors, does anyone know if or how top gun instructor vs. student kill ratios changed when the Navy got hold of F-16Ns to supplement their tigers and skyhawks? How about legacy hornet aggressors?

Binaltech, eat yer heart out...

whoaa... I remember my friend had Psycho, Bug-bite, and Herr-Fiend! The only go-bots that could transform into gerwalk mode... super go-bots... by Bandai

Moderators, meant to post in Newbies section, please move. A bit confused during this episode. Before Global sent the SDF-1 back to earth and before folding, the SDF-1 was in the process of linking up with ARMD-1 and ARMD-2 (you could see Daedalus and Prometheus floating in space during the attempted linkup). Of course, ARMD-1 gets wasted by Breetai. Is is assumed that D & P relinked with SDF-1 prior to folding? Didn't look like they were linked prior to re-entering the atmosphere. I remember seeing 2 ships in the water that were accidently transported during the fold, but assumed these were other UN ships.

Well, that explains the Kfirs in the first movie. The Israeili airforce got good publicity from both of the first two movies for the flying scenes (for those that don't know, It was all Israeli aircraft in the first two iron eagle movies... the US didn't approve of a script containing a teenager beating national security like that, and wouldn't back it) 336061[/snapback]

Yeah, wouldn't this have been a better choice for the Mig-29 or "Mig-28"? Don't know if these were around during movie production... F-18 agressor

When i get my brownie in the mail and actually get some free time to fix the head, I'll post some.