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mechaninac

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Everything posted by mechaninac

  1. mechaninac
    Hmm... interesting/promissing... I'm going to keep an eye on this.
  2. mechaninac
    Great idea Graham. I've got a couple of phrases to add: "Tried to preorder a Bandai VF-171EX but all I got was this lousy T-Shirt!" "If I had a Dollar for every "Order Stop" I ran up against I could afford to buy a VF-171EX off Ebay..."
  3. mechaninac
    Err... You're showing the feet thrusters for the VF-1; of course Yamato got it right on all their versions, so did Bandai and Toynami, for that matter. The problem is that according to available animation (DYRL?), CG (games), and line art, the VF-4 does not share the same feet design as the VF-1 series... the feet thrusters of the VF-4 are unique, with a paddle-like design that may prove too delicate to pull off in 1/60 scale. If Yamato keeps the VF-1 style feet on the VF-4 I can unequivocally state that they are getting it wrong. They may have their reasons to go this rout, and may even have Kawamori's blessing on doing so, but it would still be incorrect based on all available sources.
  4. mechaninac
    Tekaman Blade is out for pre-order at AmiAmi
  5. mechaninac
    Officially Figmas are non-scale but most work out to around 1/12. Robocop is about 5 3/4" and Roger Smith is just shy of 6", so that should give you an idea of what height to expect; however, since I don't own any of the Bandai figures I have no idea how they'll compare. And it's out for Pre-order at AmiAmi
  6. mechaninac
    After pretty much giving up on getting this I was finally able to place a pre-order with HLJ... would've preffered AmiAmi's 26% off but 8% isn't too shabby, all things considered. Thanks so much all of you who kept scouring all the usual haunts and posting the links. Edit: ...and order confirmation e-mail received, so I think it's truly official!
  7. mechaninac
    Currently watching Shikabane Hime for the first time; I'm half way through and loving it. The title 'Corpse Princess' made it sound like it would have been just another cutesie girl-centric* anime, but that's the furthest thing from the case. *Sure, the hero fighters are all girls, but so far there has been no fan service, love triangles, school life hijinks, harem shenanigans, yelling out of absurdly named special attacks, or any other similar cliches.
  8. mechaninac
    I think the little 'thank you' she receives towards the end, coupled with the whole situation presented before her and how it relates, however slightly, to her own personal history, kind of opened her eyes to new possibilities (it gave me the impression that it made her feel somewhat "noble"... she had a look of peacefull satisfaction watching the centipede mount walk away with its occupants, and blissful optimism walking away from Bosk and the others). To answer your question, if good or evil are judged by one's deeds then she did good while still looking out for her own self interests, so does that make her good or just not-evil? Overall, I really enjoyed this Ventress-centric two parter.
  9. mechaninac
    I thought that's exactly what we've been collectively doing for the past several pages... I keed, I keed....
  10. mechaninac
    As Indy put it: "It's not the years, it's the mileage..."
  11. mechaninac
    Exactly. I was more than willing to pre-order this sucker, even at near full MSRP, but Bandai's under production/under supplying of retailers means I'll be saving myself around $200+ that I can spend on other stuff or just not spend at all.
  12. mechaninac
    Great news, indeed! Although I understand why they're releasing Alto's scheme first I wish they had gone with the Teal CF version; after all, that is the first VF we see in the MF series. Regardless, I can't wait for the pre-orders to be up and hope they don't close within minutes of doing so.
  13. mechaninac
    You're right. I stand corrected... it is Darth Maul! At the time I made my reply I had not watched the extended trailer. I'm not sure I like the idea of bringing Maul back from the dead, specially considering the way he met his end in TPM; but I since bringing the dead back as un-dead has already been stablished as a Dathomirian thing, Palps mentioning Darth Plagueis having the ability of actually restoring life to the dead, and that SW technology can sustain life even to just a brain and some vital organs as a sentient being as evidenced by Grievous, having Maul as an upper torso with droid lower half is within the stablished rules. But I still don't think I like it... it cheapens the climatic ending of TPM's awesome light saber battle (the best of all the prequal movies, IMO). I think it would have been much better if they had made it so that Palpatine, or one of his agents, had smuggled Maul's remains or portions of it off Naboo to extract genetic material from which a clone of Maul could be made and inbued with his memories by means of Dathomirian magic. I'll have a better idea about how I feel about the whole thing once I've had a chance to watch the episode next Friday; but either way, it should be fun.
  14. mechaninac
    Darth Maul, apesar de ter exposição limitada no Phantom Menace, foi o personagem mais memorável dos últimos três filmes. O problema é que, estando morto, a única maneira de têr ele no show teria que ser em um flash back ou como um Fantasma da Força... mas ele não era poderoso o suficiente pra fazer como o Obi-One, Yoda, ou até o Anakin. [For the non Portuguese readers] Darth Maul, despite having limited exposure in the Phantom Menace, was the most memorable character in the last three movies. The problem is that, being dead, the only way to have him in the show would be in a flash back or as a Force Ghost... but he wasn't powerful enough to do like Obi-One, Yoda, or even Anakin.
  15. mechaninac
    I find myself thouroughly enjoying any episode featuring Asaj Ventress, her character's journey from Dooku's underling to trajic "heroine" has been one of the true bright spots in Clone Wars.
  16. mechaninac
    Wow, that really narrows it down...
  17. mechaninac
    Those are some seriously cool fast packs, but can't say I care for the color. I hope they're just test shots 'cuz ducks egg blue...
  18. mechaninac
    Wow, that being the case, then whoever designed the molds at whatever tool-shop Bandai uses, and whoever at Bandai approved them, should be taken out back and given a proper beating. It's one thing to do what they're doing if there are no other molds with the proper coordinated parts, but if those exist then this is just bone headed stupid indeed... to do so much right with the renewal version only to then goof up on something so unnecessary. I still want an Ozma, Michael, Luca, and CF (if they make one), though... I guess I'm just a sucker for having glaring WTF errors/questionable decisions stare me in the face.
  19. mechaninac
    Yeah, Banday likely had the tooling done so that many of the parts share a single mold, thus injected together with the same plastic at the same time. It appears that both left and right halves of the wing gloves were put on the same tool, and if this tool is also shared with a number of other parts there is next to zero chance that the factory would swap plastics just so a few components could be shot in the correct color... once a production run is started they'll run it until the quota is met with very little extra, hence why they'll continue to paint certain parts, bottom wing gloves included, to make them art work correct instead of incurring the extra cost of scrapping a lot of unused pieces just so they can have a few parts molded in the right color plastic for any particular VF-25. I'm sure this must have been a cost cutting measure as having as many parts as possible share the same injection tool saves on machine cycle times, material procurement and storage, factory floor space (one injection molding machine instead of two for any particular run -- this excludes all the dark gray parts that share their own tool, and labor (someone hired for a painting operation is cheaper to employ than a qualified injection machine operator). On the VF-25F this wasn't a problem (all white as it is), but it will be a recurring issue from the 25S onwards; we'll just have to accept this compromise or not buy the toys if this is a deal breaker, there really are no other choices... lamenting it won't change a thing.
  20. mechaninac
    "What're you lookin' at? It's a nice hat..." Gotta love Cad Bane
  21. mechaninac

    Taking the Plunge

    mechaninac replied to Macette's topic in Toys

    I got the whole Vermillion Squadron about a year ago during one of HLJ's many Macross sales, 40-50% off on each Valkyrie was hard to pass up even though, like you, I had been holding off on adopting the V2s due to the fact that I already had quite a few V1s; but let me say that despite my misgivings and hesitation to take the plunge I must admit that the ones I got are awesome (elsewhere on this site you can get a break down on which editions to avoid due to QC or engineering flaws and which examples are safe). I still prefer the looks of the 1/48 in fighter mode despite the low hanging arms, but the 1/60 V2s are superior to their larger cousins in just about every other aesthetic comparison. I'd say wait for a good sales deal and/or shipping discount and get one, or two, or three, or four......
  22. mechaninac
    Try out any new techniques on an old model or some scrap pieces before you tackle your intended project in order to hone in your skills and see if your choices of collors and order of application achieves the desired effect. Since dry brushing means that the paint is mostly dry at application, and deposited in such minute amounts, multiple layers will not turn into a blended muddy mess, but they may turn into a multi-layered mess. There is a cool way to get a toned down washed metallic surface using just spray cans. Spray the part(s) silver (Testors Enamel / Tamiya), alumimum (Testors Buffing Metallizer), or steel (Testors Buffing Metallizer), or Metallic Grey (Tamiya) and let dry. Next use Testors clear smoke over the base coat a little heavier than you'd normally apply a clear coat... this will cause the smoke to run and accumulate in any recessed areas (the trick here is to apply enough of a smoke coat to get it to migrate to the low spots, but not so much that it ends up dripping and causing unsightly runs) . After the part is fully dry it's ready for dry brushing to enhance high spots and make it more "metallic".
  23. mechaninac
    Sure sounds like somebody is trying to make a Mint off you... A grand, really?
  24. mechaninac
    Depends on the effect you're trying to achieve. You may want to give the metal areas a smooth coat of silver or steel, next give it a wash with diluted black or dark grey to grimy up and tone down the base layer, then dry brush with silver or chrome to enhance the contrast/dimensionallity of the metal; finally, dry brush on some rust (orange brown) and ghost grey. This should give you a worn metal look. However, you'll need to try many different base-wash-dry coat combinations until you hit upon the one that captures best the look you want. Try a simple flat black base coat with dry brushed steel and/or silver for a really cool looking gunmetal effect, for example.
  25. mechaninac
    In my experience, when brush painting metallic colors, it's almost never a good idea to thin them (thinners tend to lift the metal particles out of solution); metallics work better when they are fairly thick, actually. Also, if you need large areas to be painted in a metallic color you're much better off spray painting with a rattle can or airbrush as metallic paints tend to show brush strokes more than nonmetallics, at least for me. When painting small details such as buttons and the like, concentrate the paint by letting only what you'll need dry a bit before applying. When dry brushing, just use a tiny bit of the metallic paint straight from the bottle and stroke against a paper towel until the brush is almost completely dry, then proceed to lightly pick out the high spots on the figure/model... the resulting effect can be quite stunning, but remember to stroke lightly and only put down the most minute amount possible, stop, step back, and examine the results -- you can always go over the area(s) repeated times to enhance the dry brushing effect until you've achieved the desired effect... overdoing it is far worse than under-doing it. And never, ever mix your brushes. It's best to have a set exclusively for enamels, another for acrylics, another for metallic enamels, and another for metallic acrylics, and a set of old beat up brushes for dry brushing... mixing mediums in this set should not be much of an issue. As others have stated, try everything out for yourself to see what works best for you, and have fun.
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