Chronocidal

Well, without the boosters it's not so much of a problem, even if they aren't perfectly flat. Long as you don't have anything pressing them down, the tails are fine. Only time they'd normally be held down is if you use the clip, and considering how tight the tail section joints are on mine, I don't see myself ever using that, even with fast packs (the booster clip seems to hold itself up extremely well). The problem is when you add the left booster (using the right booster only leaves a small gap between the antennas and the tail, so there is room there). That booster presses on the right tail, and since it's the first one folded down, the small amount it moves forces the other tail down quite a bit. Even fixing the hinges to lie flat wouldn't fix this, since both tails are being pushed down by the booster. I guess the question to ask is, has anyone scratched their tails without using fast packs?

Interesting discovery I just made a minute ago.. So I just tried out the fast packs on my 1S (just fighter mode to keep the arms immobile), and noticed the same problem others have been having.. the two antennas on the back plate are scratching up the tail paint. I've only folded up the tails a few times, and already there are shiny spots in the paint. I reduced the potential for damage a little by sanding down the rear antenna a bit, while leaving the front one taller. Now the rubbing will only be along the back edge of the tail (and hopefully easier to cover up). But something I noticed when I mounted the fast packs.. the tails aren't lying flat. It's probably a combination of the hinge tightness, and thickness of the tails that makes them not like lying completely flat, but with the fast packs mounted, the tails are being forced against those antennas by the fast packs. I removed the boosters from the center bracket, and attached just the bracket to be sure. The bracket doesn't push the tails at all. The 1/48 missed this problem entirely since it had the collapsing antenna piece, but there's also one other thing the 1/48 did that took me a while to notice. On my Hikaru Super 1J, there's a rather large indentation on the underside of the left booster. For a long time I thought it was a mold flaw, or some kind of manufacturing defect, but it's actually a cut out for the tail. They cut a part of the booster away to give room for the tails to sit flush, since in the 1/48 there's no room between the backplate and the tails. The 1/60 left booster doesn't have this cutout. If it did, the tails probably would have plenty of breathing room, since they wouldn't be pressed down by that booster. Now, I'm not quite sure I want to file away a piece of my booster pack to duplicate the fix, but it's definitely something that got overlooked this time around.

Well, good news.. I didn't break anything fixing the tail. Turns out, the tails are screwed on.. in a fashion. The main mounting peg has a screw in it with a lip that catches on the inside of the mounting point. This screw wasn't loose, but perhaps it wasn't screwed in quite as tight as the other side.. this would've caused the peg to spread and fit the hole more tightly. I never actually got the arm all the way apart, but I was able to push the end opened just enough to let the tail section come out. That was a bit scary really, and keeping the little arm magnet in place while using a screwdriver was a pain. In the end, I don't quite know why what I did worked, but now the right tail is tighter than the left. Basically, I made a small washer out of clear plastic (taken from a sharpie package, yay for recycling), and put that over the screw before putting it back in the tail. Either some of that plastic got into the threads and forced the screw to widen the peg some, forming a tighter fit, or the plastic itself was thick enough to pull the tail closer to the arm. I may see about getting a pair of replacement arms shipped if I can, just in case something goes screwy later. I may just drill out those two screw covers on the arms, and cut a piece of scrap plastic to make a substitute plug. Btw, SchizophrenicMC, I dunno if your post was meant to go in here or not, but I found a quick, cheap, and easy fix for sloppy air brakes a long time ago. I basically just doubled up a tiny piece of scotch tape, and stuck it down to the inside of the brake. Not the most elegant solution, but it's kept my Hikaru 1J's airbrake closed for several years (I just dunno if I want to open it and see if the glue did anything to the plastic ). It may have killed some amount of resale value, but considering how hard Super Hikaru 1Js are to find, I have no intention of selling my only 1/48.

So I was aiming to get a Nora, but HLJ finally ran out of them (been on sale forever), and I decided to grab an Alpha at the discounted price. I get it, and I was a bit shocked at the size... I was under the impression this thing was comparable to something like a Sukhoi... Even in 1/60, it's almost the same size as a 1/48 F-15. Anyway, I get it out, and notice right away a few odd problems. First, the landing gear doors are all terribly floppy, especially the rear. There's really no tension in any of the hinges, and while they will stay closed for a bit, breathe on them and they flop open. Second, and this may be related, the nosecone will not fold over completely. The front doors don't open far enough to let it fold completely, and pressing it forces the doors apart unnaturally. Makes me think the doors aren't seated in their spots correctly. Third, the right side tail is a sloppy mess. The left is fine, and only rotates on it's mount when I want it to, but the right has a lot of play in the pivot, and there's not enough tension to keep the tail up. Left alone, the rearward weight of the tail will make it pivot so the leading edge is facing straight up. I dunno what to do about the gear doors.. they won't let me put the plane in battroid mode since the nose doesn't fold, and the ones on the legs pop open if you look at them funny. The arm I'm working on as I type, I've got it disconnected at the elbow joint, and I'm trying to see if I can tighten up the tail (hoping there's an internal screw I can tighten). Anyone know of a good way to get the screw covers off the arm? Or better yet, anyone ever make a write up documenting how to take this thing apart? I've been trying the search function.. but something about the website seems broken at the moment.

That's what I'm planning to do, provided I can get the pins out.. basically, pull the pins to file down, then rebuild the part a bit by soaking the breaking areas with superglue, and redrilling the holes to fit. I may try to reinforce the part too, but dunno how I'd want to do it. I'm almost tempted to try making a new part altogether from scrap styrene (or shoot, maybe some aluminum sheet), but I don't know how that might hold up.

Well, sad to report a couple of problems, but hopefully I can fix them. Just got a Roy -1S and Hikaru -1A, and both have visible problems in both shoulders out of the box (neither even transformed yet, I just pulled the legs down to check the shoulders). The Roy has stress marks (possibly hairline cracks) on both shoulders, while the Hikaru has a large crack on the right shoulder, and a stressmark on the left. Apparently this is what I get for jumping on HLJ's free shipping So, now the question is what's the most reliable fix? Will Overdrive sell you replacements if you didn't buy from them? And do they even have replacements with the fixed pins yet? Really, since none of the parts have actually broken fully, I'm tempted to just coat the whole assembly in super glue around that area. If I knew pulling out the pins and filing them down wouldn't break the already stressed hinges, I'd do that in a heartbeat. What I really need is one of those do-it-yourself 3d printers they have now.. I'd redesign the part from scratch. Oh well, for now everything stays in fighter mode. Edit: Btw.. are the wings supposed to have detents? Mine all move smoothly, with no restriction.

Now I know what that reminds me of.. It's basically a rough color variation on the YF-16 demonstrator model scheme, with completely different tails. Hehe.. and I just got a 1/72 YF-16 kit from a friend. I think it's time for a mashup...this one could really benefit from a brighter red, and matching tails.

Great, thanks!

So, I wanna jump on the chance at getting stuff while HLJ has their free shipping deal going. They have the 1/60 Roy plain (no fast packs) and the 1/60 Hikaru with fast packs), but the strike Roy is backordered, and the free shipping only applies to stuff they can ship quickly. I'm guessing the fast packs are easily swappable, but do the fast packs come with the decals pre-printed? I'd really want to use the black jolly roger logos on the boosters if possible, so I could swap them to the Roy without clashing. Feel free to delete this once answered, and I apologize if this has been answered before.

Whoa, whoa.. wait. They made the full battroid head? This brings up some interesting thoughts. What I really want to see is the parts breakdown. If they molded the whole thing in separate sections, it's just going to be begging for a full custom transformation. Funny, they actually beefed up the gullet area on this one. Not in the center, but along the sides, between the center gear bay and the intakes. That's definitely more accurate to all the lineart I've seen. Those little cylinders underneath shouldn't have been visible from the front on the 1/72. The gear look quite a bit better this time around too. The rear gear still might not be quite anime accurate, but they actually look semi-feasible this time. What I don't get is the way they made the wings "sweep"... I realize there are physical limitations at work, and the wings would intersect the legs if they swept like they did in the anime... but this just looks like a weird anime magic substitute.

HOLEEEE... Man am I glad I held off on the Gamlin. My wallet is crying right now. Crying tears of sweet, sweet, M&M joy. This is gonna be an expensive year indeed.. especially if I go for the full M&M quad set like I want.

*dies* Ok, ignore what I said about the story ending abruptly. I cannot WAIT to read whatever comes out next... So, now the question is this... would it be faster to wait for a translation of the upcoming Vol 10, or just learn Japanese myself?

This is likely the last in the season, unless they adapt one of the smaller later stories that took place after the festival. There are a couple of stories that fit in between the first season and Disappearance, so we still may see more.. or maybe, we'll see something like Someday in the Rain again. Personally, I kinda want to see story where the new class president forces the SOS brigade to do the Literature Club's newsletter. That's a bit later though, and I dunno how far. Spoilered in case anyone doesn't want to see stuff about what they changed Ok, that's enough spoilers for one night... maybe a whole week. My recommendation.. if you haven't read all the novels, do so. It will probably spoil things yes, but I think it's worth it. There's just so much untapped material in the later stories, I dunno how they're gonna do it.. if they do it at all. At this point, the series is really back to where it ended the first time.. all the new episodes took place within the original first season timeline. I still haven't given up on Disappearance yet though.. all the teaser art we saw for so long before this spring is specifically for Disappearance. All the hype, all the publicity, was focused on that story. If they don't do it now, I dunno if they ever will.

I never got F-15, but I ate up Janes F/A-18 for a while, and that thing is disturbingly accurate... like, borders on national security risk accurate. I got a chance to fly a real superhornet sim for a while, and the thing was spot on. I really wish more sims had that style cockpit.. best full 3D pit I've ever used. This IL-2 demo has given me a bit of hope for the genre actually.. I've never seen a console sim with separate flap/gear controls in that style (though I admit, I've mostly just played the AC series). After I finally got the throwup taste out of my mouth from hawx, it's nice to see SOMEONE knows how to make a flight game (I think it's even *gasp* Ubi! last I checked they still had the IL-2 license). It plays beautifully, and I'll probably have to get the full version quickly. I just hope they re-release the Hori stick for it, because a regular controller, or even that saitek aviator stick just isn't gonna cut it with this. I would've liked the option to fully configure the controls personally (really prefer the ace combat controls for throttle and rudder), but I understand why they did it the way they did. Having to hold the stick down to look around was a pain though, and I was always giving slight rudder when I tried to speed up (silly mixed axis controls ) As for the realism setting.. I actually had a much better time on the "simulator" setting, than on "realistic." Dunno why really.. seemed like the plane was much more controllable from the cockpit. Missed the padlock view (especially with the stick-press POV hat), but I could actually.. you know, pull back, and not have the plane go out of control every 3 seconds. I gave up on realistic, but completed the first couple missions on the sim setting. Oddly.. this isn't the first sim I've played that had that crazy stall problem. The MS Combat Sim 3 P-51 had the same issue. You could be going a good 400 knots in level flight, pull back into a 2g climb, and get blasted by stall warnings. What it boiled down to for that game was oversensitive flight dynamics settings, so this might be similar (but unfortunately, not moddable in this case). Seems someone finally managed to cram a nice balance of arcade and realism into a console sim. The arcade mode is fun for just shooting the crap out of everything, and the simulator mode is a great challenge. They even scale the score ratings for each level... I got 8 kills on the sim setting and got a rating of "Perfect!," but 40 kills on the arcade setting only got me "Great"

Well, the episode where Q poofed a mariachi band into the bridge and started handing out cigars and women was very entertaining. Also, you don't find it out until later, but Tsuruya has a much bigger part in all this than you may realize.

Even though I kinda got it to begin with (I think being a musician can help a lot with appreciating the show), I don't think I would ever want to be that mature. My single favorite moment from M7 still sums up most people's reaction to it perfectly I think... Chlore's face in FOTSW when that giant ballistic subwoofer punctures the bridge and blasts them all away with rock music. It's got that perfect mix of "OMG!!," "WTF!!" and "ARE YOU FRAKING SERIOUS??" As for the rest of the series, I think my sig sums it up nicely.

Random question about the Lunar subs, if anyone has seen them... is it just me, or does the video just flat bug out every now and then? I've been working on downloading their set of eps 1-10, and ep2 finished first. I keep getting nasty pauses, where the video just freezes a couple seconds, then jumps ahead appearing extremely distorted, then goes back to normal after a few seconds. I'm wondering if it's my video settings, or just a crappy encoding. Anyone else see this happen? I'm probably going to just get the Thora version instead, but as nice as the picture is, I was hoping to keep the file sizes a bit smaller, and get more episodes on a dvd. Edit: Ok, kinda found my problem.. still buggy, but the H.264 loop fix helped some. Now it only freezes up on stuff like the animated lyrics. I dunno what I'll do yet, the Thora translation is bugging me something awful. It's not the dialogue they're using (which is fine), it's like they didn't actually bother looking up the opening and closing lyrics... did they use some alternate romanization of the songs, or did they just completely fubar the lyrics? It seems to me like they didn't bother looking them up, so we get the Japanese equivalent of "Scuse me, while I kiss this guy."

What I kinda don't get with the head area... isn't the head supposed to be above those plates? Or was the VF-19 head area changed around significantly from the YF-19? Gullet is pretty big after all.. but I don't get it. Even with it, I still like the proportions better than the 1/60. Maybe it's being masked by that loose panel, but it still seems a nicer shape overall.. Oh well, I'm weird. The crotch plate probably is causing a few problems, but I really look forward to seeing some better views of this. One thing that might help.. how bout now? Edit: I think I may have realized part of what it is... Yes, this one may be the same thickness as the 1/60, proportion-wise.. but this one is wider. The leading edge design is obviously different that the YF-19, but it looks like it's much wider overall. Between the wider wing root pieces, different leading edge design, and wider shoulders, the wing pivots get pushed further out on this one. Mix that with bigger wings, and it the fuselage doesn't look so tall in comparison.

Sheesh, $50? I got my red leader ones for between $15 and $25 a piece... no ladder or R2, but still, $25 for a figure and a ladder? Heck, even the ForceFX one I got was only $25 I'll probably wait till they go on clearance. Then again.. my sister does work at Target...

Ahh, so that's it.. I just realized what those parts are in the previous picture. They plug up the big gap behind the thighs that the Yamato YF-19 has. You can see the outline of the piece on that battroid pic. And I'm not so sure the legs are drooping.. could be the angle, but it looks like the shield is just mounted really high above the rest of the body. If you look at the location of the wings on the side of the leg, they look like they attach just above the yellow spikey bit on the leg ring, which is about the midpoint on the leg. In fact, that's what makes me think the gullet is better... the gullet on this one looks about the same level relative to the bottom of the intakes as on the Yamato... but the legs on this one, especially in the intake area, look much more streamlined than the Yamato. The 1/60's legs always looked really bulky to me (probably due to landing gear, and also the tail mechanism, a problem the VF-19 gets to avoid due to the different tail design). I'll probably wind up being completely wrong about all this when we see some side views, but even with the gullet, I like the overall proportions of this one more than the 1/60. There does appear to be some real funkyness going on with the shield/head area though, between those ginormous shoulders... I don't see the head, and it almost looks like they either hid it under the shield, or left it off for fighter, and had some trouble with the shoulder mechanism. Oh, and one other difference from the 1/60.. I dunno which is accurate to the anime, but this one's canards don't fold.

Oh, I just meant I still wished Yamato had figured out another way to do it. For a compromise that big, I would've taken detachable gear in a heartbeat. Besides that though, even not counting the gullet... I dunno. The 1/60th YF-19 fighter mode has never really appealed to me for some reason. It just looks fat and bulky to me. The battroid looks fine, but I prefer fighter mode most of the time. For some reason though, I really like the overall shape of this VF-19 so far. Can't put my finger on what's different really, and won't know for sure until closeups are available. Could be the bigger wings (the 1/60's have always looked really stubby to me), or maybe it's because the VF-19 was always more bulky in the anime to begin with. I really can't say. The feeling might go away when more shots of the fighter come out though.

I was always under the impression that the Kai had almost identical wings to the YF-19. The VF-19 models optimized for space combat had the clipped wing design, the big ankle rings, and no canards. The Kai essentially is a cross between the YF-19 and the later VF-19 models, taking the same body style, and adding back in the large forward swept wings and canards. Strangest thing to me is that the shoulders seem a bit huge in fighter mode. Probably a compromise for a better battroid, but it kinda sticks out. I'd like to see a closeup of the head mechanism too. Otherwise, the fighter looks awesome.. better than the Yamato 1/60 even. Funny.. looks like they even managed to avoid the gullet. Probably since it doesn't have retracting gear, but still... I'd love to see what would happen if Yamato and Bandai teamed up.

You've just given me an epic idea for a repaint.

Most of the verniers are still black, yes, but only the ones that are detailed. The orange hexagons on the ankle, as well as the orange rectangles on the side, and the round dot on the shield.. those are supposed to be verniers as well.. at least, I've always seen them labeled as such. If not, I'd love an explanation of what those are. Anyway, I was always under the assumption that there were reasons a lot of the details were black, especially the borders around the leg bays (hinges, exhaust vents for missiles, etc). I'm just not really impressed with what amounts to a simple color swap. It's like they just decided to make random bits orange for the heck of it, without differentiating between colored markings, and mechanical features. The stripes around the nose sensors, and the front of the canopy especially... painting those areas orange just doesn't make a lick of sense to me.

Ok, that is by far one of the dumbest repaints I've yet seen. Seriously, this reminds me of those times when I was about 8 years old, and decided to add "detail" to some of my models. I took a paint marker, and decided to paint random panels different colors. This is exactly like that. THEY PAINTED THRUSTER VENTS FREAKIN' ORANGE. It's like they took the normal paint palette, and just said, "Ok, lets just put orange paint in the machine instead of black." ... Actually, looks like that's EXACTLY what they did... the colors are reversed. Everything that used to be black is now orange, and all the stuff normally red is black, even the intake warnings, and the borders around the nose sensors are now orange. Fail. The color scheme itself isn't that bad really, it reminds me of old test model markings. If only they'd bothered to give a second thought to what parts needed to be changed, and what needed to stay the same, it wouldn't look like some 10 year old had just photoshopped the thing. Still not quite on the level of the "lets paint it black and add a gold border to EVERYTHING" version, but not far off.