J.T. Silversmith

I went looking on Brickshelf, and found a few very helpful, in progres, and close up shots of one of those Vipers here. http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=304038

Valkyrie Addict, that is great! I love your Avatar by the way. Anyway, for Halloween I went as myself this year. This is me with my two boys, Commander Rex, and Iron Man. If you are interested I have some more pictures up of my jacket in the Cosplay thread here.Macrossworld Cosplay Thread

Yeah, thanks David. I was going to post one picture over there and then refer to this one, I just have not finished yet.

I wasn't quite sure what the best place to post this was, but I think I will put something here. For Halloween I made an SMS uniform, and I though I would talk about it a bit, and share some pictures. When I think of "Cosplay" I think of someone making a costume that is trying to look like a walking cartoon, a perfect three-dimensional representation of a two dimensional drawing. I have seen pictures of some other SMS jackets, and they looked like someone trying to be a cartoon, and most of the time I don't think it really "works". For this I wanted to do something different. I wanted to make a "real" jacket that if someone decided to draw a picture of it, it might look like what you see in the anime. I also had some real world concerns that effected what I was doing. I am not all that great at sewing, so I decided to use an existing jacket and modify it rather that making something from scratch. I also wanted a jacket I could wear as often as possible. Since I live in the mojave desert in California, it would need to as light as it could be, and look good. I decided what I wanted was a light windbreaker, like the pilots in Top Gun were wearing, only with macross style. I bought an "Athletics Works" brand jacket from Walmart that I thought looked similar to the SMS one, and a yard of berry red fabric. I ripped out the batting used for insulation to make it lighter. Then I added an inch of fabric along the front zipper, and two inches along the bottom. The pointed panels under each arm were the hardest to figure out, and took a lot of test fitting to make sure they were wide enough when I was wearing the jacket, and that the front edges were parallel to the front stripes. I could not find a red zipper anywhere in town to replace the black one, and I don’t think I have the skill to do it on my own anyway. I know the jackets waist is supposed to be much higher, 3 or 4 inches at least, but again, that kind of modification is beyond my skill level. I am a digital artist, and I had already made clean Vector line drawings of the SMS logo and the shoulder patches for my Avatar, so I took them and went to a local shop that does digital sewing machine embroidery, and had them make the two red Macross 25 fleet patches for the shoulders, and went to a Trophy Shop that makes laser engraved name badges, and had them make an SMS badge for me. I decided to have them make the SMS logo in a metallic brushed gold rather than yellow because I thought it looked much classier, and more “real” than yellow. Unfortunately none of the pictures really do it justice, it looks much better in person. I am quite happy with the final results, I think it looks very nice, and very “real”. Perhaps it is a little too real, I was at a church Halloween party and nobody realized I WAS wearing a costume. For those who might be curious I paid $15 for the jacket, $5 for the fabric, $10 for the patches, $18 for the SMS badge, $10 for the belt and $15 for the green cargo pants, for a grand total of $73! Not too bad.

Hey d3v, TheLoneWolf, I think I know what ship you are referring to, though I do not really know much about it. In the Palladium RPG "Macross II Sourcebook One" It is listed as the Marduk Annihilator or simply as "New Type Power Armor". The book says it is a prototype mecha designed specifically for the invasion of Earth. They claim it is piloted by a human sized Marduk officer, is 14.3M tall, Flies Mach 8.5 in space ( yeah right), Mach 2.5 in atmosphere, And Mach 2 in Battroid mode. Its armament is supposedly 2 lasers in the chest, two lasers in the hips, missile launchers in the knees, a plasma cannon in the nose if the jet, and the large missile launcher in the right arm that launches "laser firing missiles". However, this is just like all of the other Robotech RPG books, and any or all of it could be completely wrong! The real problem is I have yet to find anything about it from a more reliable source. Even with an idea of what I am looking for, I have not been able to find any references to it anywhere on the web. The thing is an enigma, I can't even find the real line art for it, just the drawings Wayne Breaux traced from the original art for the Robotech RPG book. To try and distill down to what I think is accurate, I would bet is it really only referred to as a "new type" of mardook mecha, and I would bet there was very little said about it in any official sources. I think the pictures are fairly accurate, Just traced and shaded, so some of the information on weapons is correct. I do think the knee missiles and hip mounted energy weapons are correct, though if they are lasers, particle cannons or whatnot I don't know. The "chest cannons" look a lot like maneuvering thusters to me, but they could be anything. I am sure there is some sort of weapon in the Nosecone/backpack thing, and there does seem to be laser barrels in the missiles for the right arm. A weapon that fires Fin Funnel like missiles to counter the UN Spacy's auto attacker bits would make some sense in the context of Macross II, and is too odd (in a macross series) to be just made up. This is all just speculation on my part. Anyway here are the pictures I've got.

I have been using one as my avatar here, but I have been waiting for an excuse to post the larger version of the one I did. Looks like this is my chance.

I'm with you there Shaka-Z, water would be a great propellant, fairly heavy for lots of thrust, easy to transport and store, easy to clean up if spilled, not to corrosive or volatile, good for the environment, and really easy to get a supply of, and cheap to boot. If you really can use almost anything for propellant things can't get much better than this.

I have to admit I was one of the people who misunderstood the wording in the Macross Compendium, and I thought the engine output of the '19 was limited in outer space and not in an atmosphere. That made sense to me because a vacuum is a very good insulator, and thermal regulation is one of the major concerns in real world spacecraft design. In the space shuttle the inside of the cargo bay doors are radiators and as soon as it is in orbit the doors are opened to help keep the ship cool. In an atmosphere air molecules come into contact with a hot object, and pick up some of the heat. the hot air moves away by convection currents and more cold air replaces it. the cycle continues, and the object cools off. In a vacuum there is no medium to help carry away the heat, so it can only use infrared heat radiation to dissipate heat, and that is very slow. So I thought the '19 was not as fast in space, but that is not the case it is limited in an atmosphere. Since outer space is so terrible for cooling purposes, the mechanism for keeping the engines cool must be completely internal. To me the most likely means of keeping the engine cool in a vacuum is to use the propellant itself. So if the '19 is faster in space than in an atmosphere, it means that the propellant used to produce thrust in a vacuum is more efficient at cooling the reactors than the air is in atmospheric flight. I think that would make sense if the propellant is a liquid, it will be able to transfer a lot more heat than a gas. so simply put, the '19's engines are so hot that there is no way to keep them cool at full power using only air as a coolant, but in space the propellant used can keep the engines from overheating. We know the '19's engines can work as a jet and a rocket, so it is logical to ask, as some people are asking, why have a dual system if the engine is more powerful in rocket mode? Simple, it uses internal propellant in rocket mode, and uses the atmosphere as a propellant and coolant in jet mode. Therefore you have unlimited range in an atmosphere, and a limited duration of propulsion in outer space. Given how radiation conscious they seem to be on Frontier, I think is is safe to assume the exhaust from a valk is not radioactive, so either the there is a heat exchanger or the OTM thermonuclear fusion reactor output is "clean". I would also assume that the exhaust temperature of the engine is relatively low, based on the lack of collateral damage to streets and pedestrians by VFs in gerwalk mode.

Those last two pictures really make him look a lot like Prowl. Well now I know where this guy fits in my personal Transformers universe, (the comic book version of )Prowl Finally became the leader of the Autobots, and got rebuilt, taking on the name "GTR Prime". This guy looks really cool, and it looks like he has flip out blasters in the back of the seat, fun. I also love that his name is the same as my oldest son's initials "GTR". Now I have to figure out how to get a hold of one of these, darn it, need more money!

Check out the Transformers Animated toy "Oil Slick", this might be just what you are looking for. Here is a link to a Seibertron.com picture gallery of Oil Slick being ridden by Torch. Check it out. To keep things from getting to far off topic, all this last week My 5 and 3 year old sons have been watching Tron two or three times a day, and playing with my old light cycle, and now they announce Tron 2. They sold me before I even saw the trailer.

I've been beginning to wonder if Sheryl's earring really were her mother's. It seems much more likely that Grace gave it to her as a part of the "Fairy 9" project and told her that it was from her mother to insure that Sheryl always kept the earrings with her.

That is a really tricky question, with the Animated toy sizes there are two separate "scales" or groups that are the most common. I call them "Autobot scale" and "Decepticon scale". Leader class Bulkhead, Voyager Optimus Prime, Deluxe Ratchet and Prowl and Jazz, Deluxe Lockdown and Activators Bumblebee are in "Autobot scale" and all look good together in Robot mode. To look right in Vehicle mode you should an Activator or Legends class prowl. In what I call "Decepticon scale" you can use Leader Megatron, (a non existent Leader class Lugnut) Voyager Starscream, Voyager Blitzwing, Deluxe Blackarachnia, Deluxe two pack Prime, Deluxe Cybretron mode Prime, Voyager Lugnut, Voyager Grimlock, Deluxe Sentinel Prime, Deluxe Snarl and Swoop, Activator Ratchet and Prowl, and Legends Bumblebee. I am not sure what group Soundwave fits in better, I would have to guess he is in the "Decepticon scale" group but until I go back and watch the episode to check I don't want to say. I think Ultra Magnus is "Autobot scale", but I am not sure until I see more pictures of him with other toys in robot mode. Then there are a few that are too big or too small for either, Deluxe two pack Megatron is way to dinky to be much good, Voyager Megatron and Lugnut probably go well together. Deluxe Bumblebee is way to big for his own good, though he might look good next to activators or legends class Prowl in Vehicle mode. You can get way more characters at the right size with the "Decepticon scale" ones, if you don't mind a bunch of Activators Autobots. In general all the decepticons are huge, Blackarachnia and Lockdown being the smallest, and they are about the same size as Optimus Prime the second largest Autobot.

I went back and looked, and Brera saving Ranka isn't the first time we've seen a jet with arms done, in episode 13 Michael just beats him to it! Michael is in jet mode, trying to hitch a ride on the Vajra ship, and the left leg drops a bit, and the left arm reaches out to grab the ship. It looks like the leg even tucks back into place after the arm is out. What I really thought was interesting was that the right leg and arm never move, only the left ones. Though the next time we see him, when Sheryl tries to fly away in episode 14 the plane is in full gerwalk. When Brera does it you see the legs fold foreword to stop, it pauses for a moment in gerwalk, then transform back to battroid. So it could simply be in gerwalk mode, with the legs back. I guess it is like only transforming the legs when you go to gerwalk and leaving the arms tucked away. I guess there are two alternate configurations for gerwalk mode, interesting. Also after going back and looking at the stills of the 25 and 27 and unlike most other VFs I don't see any other external difference between Gerwalk and Jet mode other than the position of the arms and legs, so the question of whether it is a jet with arms, or a Gerwalk without legs is like asking if a note is a C sharp or a D flat, when both are describing the same note.

I think what happened if the Megaroad is stuck in the middle of a massive fold fault jumping directly to the middle of the galaxy, and eventually they will reappear, to them it has only been a few weeks, to the rest of the galaxy it has been 50 years. everyone Hicaru, Misa and Minnmei say "We made it" Everyone on the Frontier says "what was that?" and then Grace drops a Dimension Eater on them and they all die. The End!

My Wife and I teach online classes, and one of her students sent this message to her, "Transformers 2 has been filming out at Edwards the past couple weeks. My husband just found out that one of his jets is going to be flying a mission for the movie on Thursday. He got a pic with his cell phone of Optimus Prime at the gate before he went into work the other morning and I had to send it to you." Here is the picture she sent.

This might help with the VF-17 controls discussion Here is a picture from Macross Design works, it looks like some of the text talks about how the controls work, but I have no idea what it really says. I like the look of the thumbwheel on the throttle, I could see that as a transformation lever.

Mr March I am in complete agreement, the Vajra are the Zentradi from SW1, and probably like Vrlitwhai's fleet specifically. Ranka is Minnmay, and I am afraid that the NUNS Government / Leon /Grace are like the Boddole Zer Main Fleet. Despite all the people saying singing will not work on the Vajra, I do believe Ranka will reach them through song. I actually don't see any "aberrations" in their behavior, they are by instinct, ruthless predators. Very "Nature red in tooth and claw", but once Grace and her group stop poking them with sticks, it should be possible to find a non violent solution to the Vajra problem.

Mr March I think you have a very good point there, The Vajra may not be actively trying to attack the humans, just defending themselves. They do however seem to aggressively follow and eradicate anyone they decide is an enemy, even to the point of aggressively attacking a lone pilot in an ExGear, even if the ExGear is unarmed. (Alto in Ep. 1) Sometimes I wonder if the Vajra are more interested in killing the pilots than destroying the VFs they are piloting. (Like Gillliam.) They also seem to like using human ships as nests for their eggs. And then we have two instances where the Vajra capture to people without harming them. What is different about those two people that the Vajra would capture them rather than kill them. Luca had the experimental fold communication device, with it's conspicuous purple stone, and Ranka, who seems to react to the Purple stones as well. It can not be just the purple stones, because the Vajra have always reacted aggressively to Alto, even when he had Sheryl's earring. I think it may be that the Stones must be "active", giving off some type of super dimensional energy. Perhaps that is what is going on with Ranka, for some reason she has some sort of energy signature the Vajra react to. (embedded stone fragment, experimental implant, protoculture blood, whatever.) Lets take the Vajra are an insect hive idea and run with it. Hive insects on Earth use pheromones to communicate with each other, what if the Vajra use super-dimensional energy waves to communicate. It is possible, they do use super-dimensional energy to fold space and to power weapons, so perhaps that is how the central brain controls the other Vajra. When they detect super-dimensional energy they could interpret it as "I'm a Vajra don't attack me" or as simple as "you smell like a Vajra". That could explain why Ranka and Luca were captured for further investigation rather than killed. It could also be possible that Ranka could be in heightened emotional states, be broadcasting her emotions to the Vajra. For example when Alto accidentally grabbed her in the cockpit of the VF-25 in episode two, she screams, and is feeling"GET AWAY FROM ME", and the Vajra hear it and react by retreating. I also believe that she broadcasts her feelings when she sings. To speculate further I think Ranka may be to the Vajra like Basara was to the Protodevlin, or Minmay to the Zentradi. She will be the one who gives them what they truly need. I think Grace and her faction are using the Vajra and Vajra derived technology to start a new war. They are using Brera to prevent anyone else from learning too much about the Vajra and thus challenge the technological advantage that they have. They want to be the next OTEC company, but based on the Vajra. Then they start a war and sell weapons to the various colonies and fleets. I also think Leon is just a pawn, he thinks he has a lot of power, and hopes to align himself with Grace's group, and perhaps gain full control of the government.

Honestly Zinjo, I was just kidding about the MacrossII thing, but it is fun to think about. On a more serious note, It seems that there is some legitimate operational"Niche" a Macross type ship seems to fill, because they built the New Macross Class ships, and now the Macross Quarter class ship. The NUNS government seems to see a need for them now, and the macross was valuable during SWI. So it is not really surprising to me that there was the same need for a Macross type ship in earlier colonization fleets. Additionally with "New Macross Class ships, there does seem to be some implication of an (old) macross class vessel. So it does not really throw me that there were more Megalord type ships.

Who says Kawamori doesn't love Macross II? He just made it possible for it to become official with the teeniest of retcons. The Macross in MacrossII was really the SDF-3 and was the flagship of the second Colonization fleet. They Find a habitable world, Call it "New Earth" and set up home. Unfortunately for them there is a major fold fault between them and Earth, cutting off all communications. After a while they stop thinking about the old earth, and simply refer to their planet as earth, and the SDF-3 simply as the Macross. Then 80 years later an offshoot of the protoculture called the Marduk show up. Now it fits into continuity just fine!

I love trying to compare Mecha like this, though often the hardest thing is trying to figure out concrete points of comparison. As far as Gundam Vs Valkyrie combat, there are lots of things to consider. First off is what model you are talking about. As a baseline let's start with the VF-1 and the RX-78-2 in standard configuration. The Gundam is larger (18 Meters vs 14) and heavier (43.4 metric tons empty vs 13.25). The VF-1 has greater acceleration in space (+7G's vs .93G's) and has a greater power output(650 MW vs 1380 kW). Walking on the ground the Gundam it a teeny bit faster(165 km/h vs 160 km/h), but how often do we see a VF only running? it usually uses thrusters to skate around and may be faster in reality. Armor is much harder to compare because they are both fictional materials. (Lunar Titanium alloy vs Hyper-carbon SWAG armor) I've got to say the Gundam has tons more armor than a VF. In the original cartoon, you see 105 MM Zaku machine gun rounds bounce off the armor easily. Armament also goes to the Gundam, The beam rifle is supposed to do the kind of damage a battleship does, though it only has 16 shots. The VF-1's head lasers have unlimited ammo but can't match that kind of firepower. the Gundam's two 60 MM headvulcans are larger caliber than the VF-1's gunpod. The VF has missiles, but due to Minovisky particle radiation, they probably would not be able to target the Gundam at long range. They may work at short range, but it will be easier for the Gundam to dodge or shoot down. The Gundam is a heavy hitter, one hit with any weapon would annihilate a VF, but with the VF more than seven times as agile in space, will it ever be able to hit it? The VF can Fly circles around the Gundam, but the gunpod is ineffective, and the missiles are unreliable. Its only effective weapons are the head lasers, and I really don't know how well they can really do. So who wins? I'm going to cop out and say the one with the better pilot. If the VF is packing UUM-7 micro-missile pods, they are much more likely to hit, as they are meant to be used in relatively close quarters, giving an edge to the VF. Unless the Gundam is packing his Bazooka, then it is still a draw. If the VF has a FAST Pack it is definitely the favorite, though it is still close. I think a Strike equipped VF has a major advantage, the RO-X2A high-powered double-action beam cannon is probably now in the same league as the Gundam beam cannon, and it still fast and agile, and has many short range missiles. If the VF has RMS-1 reaction warheads, it's game over. Even though the VF may not get a target lock with the missiles, you would only need to get close. IIRC there is only one Gundam designed to survive a close proximity from a nuke, and this one is not it.

David, the Sharpie brand "Copper" metallic pen is a very close match for the paint on Blackarachnia. It looks really good on mine.

Actually the VF-1 does have arrestor hooks, two of them in fact, one on the inside edge of each engine nacelle. there is a picture of a VF-1 with landing hooks deployed in the Macross Design Works, and in the This is Animation Special Macross Plus. I don't know about the Phoenix though.

It may be easier to get high efficiency pair annihilation reactions by using different types of anti-matter. Theoretically there are anti-matter equivalents to ANY sub atomic particle. For example Anti-electrons are called Positrons, Electrons are negatively charged, and positrons are positively charged, so their charges would pull them together, they annihilate each other, and release energy, In the form of two Gamma Ray Photons. Increasing the Kinetic energy of the system would produce more photons, or if fast enough, other larger anti particles. This process is not necessarily violent, and is what happens in a PET(Positron Emission Tomography) Scan. Positrons are injected into the bloodstream of the brain, and when neurons in the brain "fire" they give off electrons. These electrons react with the positrons, and the gamma rays are picked up by detectors in the scanner, allowing doctors to see what areas of the brain are active WITHOUT injury to the patient who is often couscous through the whole process. I do believe the Positrons remain in the brain until they all react in some way, so you could say it is very efficient reaction. So without knowing what types of particles are reacting, and what form of energy they give off, it is really difficult to speculate about anti matter weapons. Also Gamma ray photons are very energetic particles, enough so that they do not really interact with the human body, it just passes through you, so a massive Gamma ray burst would not make a good weapon against human beings, we are not dense enough or massive enough to absorb any. Though it might be more effective against a Zentradi, and would certainly work against the meter thick hull plating on most battleships.

Fluid Pulse Actuators, I knew that, and figured everyone else was familiar with the term as well, so I didn't say anything about it. So as to exactly what that means, litterally it is pretty simple. Fluid= a liquid or gas. Pulse= a moving wave of pressure. Actuator=a mechanical device for moving or controlling a mechanism or system. A google search turned up a few real world medical devices that use pulse waves moving through tubes to move things. That dosen't really tell us much though, they could still be hydraulic or pneumatic, and actuators could be refering to the actual motors that make transformation possible or it could mean the system that activates the motors. Mechanically those are two very different things. If I had to place any bets though, I would guess it is essentially an O.T.M. advanced form of hudraulics. Most "hydraulics" we think of are hydro pneumatic systems. Like the pistons on a backhoe's arm use a pneumatic pump to put air into the hydraulic resivoir, pushing oil through the lines to the piston, and causing it to move. I suspect a Valk uses pressure waves to move pistons rather than pneumatic pressure, resulting in incredibly high speed high pressure pistons, able to through around tons of mass in a fraction of a second. I also seem to recall somewhere hearing that a Flea jumps by pumping massive amounts of blood into its legs, and the resulting pressure wave forces the legs straight with incredible force, allowing it to jump incredible distances for it's size.