fulcy

Why can't you believe you're linking to that site?

I personally would have voted for Flesh Gordon...

please remove me from the list

That is odd, since i ordered mine about 2 months ago, and got them about 2 weeks later... Well, let me know if you need them!!

Actually, the Hazel Gundam is the missing link between the RX-78, and MkII. Advance of Zeta is, if my memory isn't going, a story of the advancement of the Titans organization, I believe before the Grypps war, and the gassing of that one colony...

And though your scans are cool, Deacon is looking for scans of the story - which is typically on a dark blue page, with some pics of the custom models fighting or some such. What you scanned are just images and text related to the custom models made for the series...

Uh, that's why I said that it was originally from Dengeki Hobby Magazine - I just also stated that they are available in mook form, so you don't need to get all dozen or so issues to have the entire story - which I also have. May just cut em out and send those to Deacon instead...

Uhm, Advance of Zeta is from dengeki Hobby - and there are actually two mook volumes available. http://www.hlj.com/scripts/hljpage.cgi?MDW22399 http://www.hlj.com/scripts/hljpage.cgi?MDW22589 If you can't get these guys, I have both of the issues - I'll PM you and we can talk.

Hrmm... Maybe there should be two threads - one for MG and other Gundam kit release news, and another for progress shots of people's work... On another note, Hikuro - you seem to be in a time warp - it's only 1995 where you live?!?!

Praise be allah!!!

You could just bookmark the forums, and bypass the main page altogether...

SPOILER ALERT - well, maybe. Let me try and answer some of your questions for you - I read the AVP book, well, because I wanted to see if the movie was going to suck or not. The book was ok, but from what I am hearing, there were some differences. First off, there were 5 predators who came here to go through their 'right of passage' or whatever. They came to earth to prove they were men... The weird thing was, the alien-predator hybrid makes an appearance, of sorts. One of the extra predators that apparently wasn't in the movie, gets impregnated - a few aliens overpower him, and hold him down till he's impregnated. Then Scar and Lex run into him on the way out of the pyramids - before the chest burster comes out, and Scar puts them out of their misery. What I can't get though - there is no reference in the book to Scar being impregnated - he's always fighting, and being one of the main characters, the action never really leaves him - yet they still have the alien-predator hybrid burst out of him in the last scene - kinda queer, I think. I would think that the predator's sense of honor would make him take his own life, so that he doesn't dishonor himself by 'giving birth' to such a monstrosity. What was inferred from the book - you were only allowed to the surface with blade weapons - you had to earn the right to use the laser weapons, and apparently the humans screwed everything up by opening the box they were stored in. The predators killed the people on the surface, as far as I can tell, to limit the number of possible aliens they'd run into - limit the number of hosts, you limit the number of aliens. However - they seem to ignore this fact later on in the book, where the author repeatedly makes references to the alien swarms containing hundreds of aliens - which is impossible, there should be AT MOST 20 or so. The book says nothing about the queen's blood being able to eat through the chains. The only way the queen is freed is by the alien drones chewing and eating her flesh, to weaken the points at which she is restrained. Sigh - I had high hopes for this movie. They really should have gone after the Aliens vs. Predator - the deadliest of the species plot line, instead of trying to tie these two franchises together, and giving explanations and a foundation for what happens in Alien and Aliens...

Ah, I knew it was one or the other that went kablooie on you... Though, I still have reservations about using a pressure cooker as a vacuum chamber - cast metals in pots aren't as strong as normal metal - but it could also be the vacuums you guys are drawing to - I go down to at least 28 or 29 inches of mercury - enough so that my resins and mold rubbers boil over.... Oh, and here is the link for the really nice vacuum chambers... http://www.abbess.com/vac/vacuum-econo.html

Other thing - was he talking about machining the parts, or the molds for the parts?

Only thing is, it depends on the part you are making too - it depends how small they are, and how intricate they are. If it's a block of -blah- then yeah, it'd be easy to machine up. If it's a little tiny cockpit with all the instruments and such, that might be too detailed. A good point of reference - if you have access to a 3-d modeling program, you can design up your part, and send it to a shop that will machine the mold for you - out of a chunk of aluminum, and will cost between $2000 and $3000 for the smaller parts. Why so much? It takes time to machine aluminum - and even though these machines are computer controlled, you need an operator there monitoring the machine, and making sure it's cutting where it should cut, and not messing up. These operators will typically be making $20 to $30 an hour, and if a mold takes 20 hours or so to make, you think he's going to spend that much of his time on something just because he's your friend? Probably not... But you may be able to talk him into doing it on the cheap - but it's still going to cost some money, in which case it might be easier to do it yourself...

It's primarily needed for degassing thicker mold rubbers, and casting resins. You'll introduce air bubbles into the rubbers or resins when you mix the two parts together. A vacuum chamber will help remove this trapped air, and help the resin flow into all the holes and details of your molds. When you say CAD equipment, you typically need a high end computer and a CNC - either mill or lathe. This equipment doesn't come cheap - and the molds that you can make from these need to be polished, and typically made from aluminum. Regardless what the mold is made of, if it is designed poorly, a vacuum chamber can still be useful in removing unwanted air (unless you are talking about injection molding - in which case I know of no one on these boards who has access to that kind of machinery...)

Another thing, don't disregard that article that tom pointed to - and don't rely on a vacuum chamber to give you good casts. You should learn how to make molds that don't require a vacuum chamber to be free of bubbes first, and then use the vacuum chamber to augment this knowledge, and to improve your technique...

Uhm, do NOT use a pressure cooker as a vacuum chamber. The person who said to do that in Fine Scale Modeler is an idiot, and doesn't know how much danger they are putting themselves in. I think it was cobywan who made a vacuum chamber out of a pressure cooker, and the pot imploded on itself, and I believe gave him a couple of cuts and scratches. A pressure cooker works at a couple of psi, and is made of thin enough metal and glass that it could never stand up to 28" of vacuum for long. My suggestion? Don't look for the cheap way out - you will screw it up. I spent about $400 on my vacuum casting setup, and I'm not scared for my life every time I use it. Check out ebay, and look for one of these VACUUM PUMPS, something about 1/2 hp and moves about 6 cfm should do you just fine - I spent about $150 on a refurbished one, and it works like a charm. Now, as far as a vacuum chamber goes, try searching on ebay, and you'll find a few, but none of them are that nice... And, I can't find the link to the really nice ones that I'd love to get. But this is a start...

Really really REALLY bored at work, and I just got these scans from TLW, so I thought I'd throw them together really quick - this is not final, tis only what I whipped up in about a half hour - you can still see some of the seems and such. Once I get a good few hours together, it should look alot nicer... Click Me!

I was already thinking about making the missiles seperate - need to think about it though. since there are 15 missiles per shoulder armor, there would need to be 30 missiles recast for each set of armor. I don't know how feasible that is, on larger production runs - would need to make a heck of alot of molds just for the missiles then... But, it is an interesting idea...

Alright, uploaded the pics onto MW, cause it appears there is a limit to my transfers on verizon...

Ah, ye of little faith - have patience!

Oh, I agree - me want too!

That's odd - if I had a translation, of something that I go through the effort of paying someone to translate, and I thought it was important enough to put all that legal mumbo jumbo on the page, that I would have back up copies of it - probably even a master set burned to a cd. That and the fact that he is asking if anyone has chapter 13 SAVED?!?! He states: So, why should he expect someone to come forward to say that they have it... Seems fishy to me...

I have that bumper sticker - that's how Exo got his...