Penguin

Kevin Smith once said something about God being a Canadian... if it wasn't 3 AM right now, I could probably come up with something witty to say along those lines. But it is, so I can't, and I'll just say thanks for the kind words.

Totally Silhouette. I've been using it for Macross for years. You don't spend hours designing mecha but retain lots of crunchy details for the technophiles amongst your players.

Ummm... yeah... all that stuff recorded with the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra... totally techno... Are we talking about the same soundtrack?

I think I know what you're referring to, Chas. When spraypainting, aim the spray from behind the seam where the tape meets the plastic. If you aim towards that seam, then paint can be forced underneath and into any engraved details that the seam crosses, plus it causes the paint to collect at the seam, creating a raised "lip" where the tape was, instead of a smooth transition. i.e. Tape _____________________ Plastic direction of spray ------->>

I see where you're coming from, Kurisama, but I don't know if I agree with "tragic". Guld does redeem himself well at the end, and the offhand comments about his heritage definitely point to some ugliness still lurking about in post-Space War I culture (no doubt there are still many SWI survivors alive who remember only the Zentraedi devastation and pass on their anger to their children ). However, I always thought that all 3 of the main characters were suffering heavily from the "never left high school" syndrome... still wallowing in their own post-adolescent angst, and thus not yet mature. Isamu, poster boy for immaturity, still in love with his planes to the exclusion of everything and everyone else. Myung hung up on lost childhood dreams, unable to move forward and take control of her life. And Guld, still hung up on Myung with what I see as having more in common with a high-school crush than mature love. He misinterprets his night with Myung after the fire as validation of her feelings (rather than seeing it for what it really was... an emotionally exhausted woman seeking a moment of peace), and follows her around like a lovesick puppy. All three of them have to grow up at the end, with Guld making the first and strongest leap, sacrificing all his future hopes and ambitions to save his friends (... or maybe it was jsut another adolescent romantic fantasy... "Once I die for her she'll realize how much I care and love me back"... but I prefer not to see it that way). I always saw his death as the catalyst that would make the other two realize how much they were wrapped up in themselves and start to grow up as well. Or maybe I'm just reading too much into all this...

And explosion in space should be round. There should not be some random planar ring coming in a three dimensial environment like space. 398300[/snapback] Not entirely correct... the shape of an explosion in space will still be determined by the progression and nature of the exploding... um... thing (damn... too early in the morning for real words). If one side ejects more flaming debris than the other, you'd see a spike to that side, etc., etc. If, say, the Death Star's reactor fractured along a seam or plane or something and the explosion only progressed out through there, then maybe the a planar ring explosion might make more sense, were it not for the question of how it keeps burning as it travels without a supply of oxygen. I dunno... I kinda agree with Sundown. First time I saw it, I immediately thought "WTF... that's from Star Trek VI?" It seemed like an unnecessary embellishment, but not a major flaw. I had grown to like the fact that the Death Star just went "BAM" and was gone, without a lot progressive explosions rippling around and so forth. I'll definitely pick up the originals. I saw the first film when I was 7, and it'll be nice to see it in more theatrical-quality than the original widescreen VHS I picked up way back when. But, I still love the SEs for all their surround-enhanced audio goodness... especially since they took out Luke's "wuss-scream" from Empire. The poor guy had enough challenges to his masculinity by being compared to Han without adding that little insult.

Well, I'll be going PS3, but only when the next Gran Turismo is ready.

Hmmm... perhaps I'll have to give that book a closer perusal when I get back home.

The more you build, the better you get, the more you want to try, the more tools you need... it does not end...

There is a Gundam Plamodel thread in the "Anime or Science Fiction" forum HERE. I'm sure you can get plenty of feedback there.

Your big problem there is the matte coat. A matte finish feels "rough" to the touch because it's basically bumpy at a microscopic level. The marker paint sinks into the little valleys and grooves in the finish. When you try to wipe it away, the tissue fibre is too big to get into these tiny imperfections and can't get at the paint. If you search for any thread about panel lining on these boards, you'll see a common theme: gloss coat first. The gloss coat is smooth and shiny, allowing paint to flow easily into engraved panel lines, and also allowing you to wipe away errors easily. Then, you apply your finishing coat over that (matte, semi-gloss, whatever you prefer). I do most of my panel lining using the soft-tip Gundam grey and black markers and 0.02 Copic markers on top of a gloss coat, wiping away the excess to leave only a thin amount of the marker paint inside the actual engraved line. Works like a charm, since the soft tips can get into lines even the small tip markers can't.

Correct. It is a kit.

Watching the animation, Guld appears to be reaching for the manual controls until that explosion occurs on the battroid's back. Falling like that, with no power, shouldn't bring any more than 1 g, which he should be able to take no problem. My take is that, after the explosion, he wanted to regain control through the BCS, couldn't because his concentration was shattered, and was too proud to try for the manual controls again.

There is a remover specifically for Gundam markers. Check the Hobbylink Japan site. That's where I saw it. I've never used it, though. Gunze lacquer thinner also removes Gundam marker paint. I've used that plenty to clean up my marker errors, and it's never damaged the plastic yet. That's on good ol' polystyrene and resin kits, though. Other materials might not fare so well.

July 11th, according to Amazon.

I did not encounter a single glitch or freeze while viewing the DVD. The only dub actor I might miss from the Manga video is whoever did Gotoh. I got strangely used to his voice from my old dubbed VHS copy of Patlabor 2.

I don't customize toys much, so I can't comment on the tools, but www.reprolabels.com carries reproductions of the Jetfire stickers, in both original Autobot and a purple Decepticon variant. You could scan, resize, and print them off as decals.

You took the words right out of my mouth... except "turd". I probably would have said "crap".

Sounds like something to look forward to. I've got the Sound Renewal soundtrack for the first film, but missed out on the one for the second. Kenji Kawai's music for the second movie is one of my favourite soundtracks, especially the piece that plays during the montage of the troops occupying Tokyo. I love that shot of the soldier standing backlit by the "Lumiere et Ombre" sign (which is "Light and Shadow" for those not French-conversant). <non sequitur>Losing to a team named "The Mighty Ducks" just adds insult to injury </non sequitur>

Alright... recently finished watching the newly released, remastered, "sound renewal" DVD of the first Patlabor movie. If you're a fan, it's time to upgrade from Manga's old title ASAP. For the unaware, both Patlabor movies underwent a "sound renewal" in 1999, getting remixed into 5.1 surround. This newly released DVD represents the first availability of the upgraded sound here in North America. The new sound mix is just incredible. Can't comment on the English dub, since I fell in love with the Japanese voice talent watching the original subbed TV series from U.S. Manga Corps years ago. From the Helldivers chasing the rogue X-10 in the prologue, to the subtle echoes and background audio in the Ark at the start of the film, and lastly to the storm-lashed finale, the "sound renewal" version is a quantum improvement over the previously available version. Subtitles are much improved over the Manga DVD as well. There's some story detail here that was completely missing from the Manga subtitles and English dub. The only annoying thing is that the subs translate "-san" as "Mr" or "Miss", which gets annoying the fifth time you read Noa say "Mr Asuma", they also and mispell "Ohta" as "Oohta". As for video, the darks are good and strong and detail is sharp. There is an overall lightly "washed" cast to the colour (i.e. nothing is too bright), but I think that's an intentional choice given the overall quality of the image. The DVD is available in both a regular, single-disc version and a limited collector's edition with second disc, a background book on the movie, and a second book collecting all the storyboards for the film. The latter left me nonplussed, but the first book is a gem IMHO, given a general lack of published Patlabor material. Haven't watched the second disc yet, as I've been swept far from my DVD player to scenic Fort Washington, PA, for two weeks of software testing thrills and excitement . At least the weather here's warmer than Calgary right now... *Ahem* I digress. If you like Patlabor, or are looking for some mecha anime with a little more atmosphere and brains, give it a look. The remastered Patlabor 2 comes out in in July.

Also known as lock-bait.

Just to clarify... I use Pollyscale for the base colour coat, not the top coat (although I realize that my text made it sound like I did). I use Gunze spray for the top coat. What I meant was that, using Pollyscale as the colour coat, the Gunze has never brought out any streaking or flaws in the base paint job. I've used Pollyscale top coats for a couple of small items, but I mostly use the Gunze spray.

I prefer Tamiya's "Insignia White" aircraft spray for the VF-0S. It's what I used for the fighter, and what I'll be using for the battroid. It just has a hint of grey, which I think looks better than stark white.

Are you looking in the "Coming Soon" list, or just for all things Eva? Re-releases often don't show up on the Coming Soon page, but instead the previous item will go from Unavailable to having a restock date.

What's more, the guys at ReproLabels have solid quality, and they're in Canada (i.e. cheaper shipping). I'm currently using their stickers on a Hasegawa VF-1-as-Jetfire custom, and they're quite sharp.