Ghost Train

I saw this flick last weekend: utterly unremarkable. I am now interested in watching the original though, have only seen bits and pieces of it. Random comment time: When Klatu steals the guy's suit and puts it on, one hyphenated word came to mind... G-Man! If they ever make a Half Life Movie, I think he would be good for the role (provided he masters this thing called acting).

I have concluded my personal tests on the viability of Gundam markers. Jardann, thanks for the tip, I might try that next time, I haven't check this thread in a bit. My personal conclusion for the ultra fine point markers (GM01-200), those should be avoid avoid avoid avoid The main problems are run-off if coated with an additional layer of something, or lack of erase ability if it's used on any type of treated surface. They do make Gundam Marker removers, but have yet to try those. The only case where I'd recommend using the fine points might be on an unpainted model that you just want to line... but that's it. In almost every other scenario, some sort of wash is much more superior. Now, I do highly recommend the Sumiire markers (the one I got is GM21-200). Those have a thicker brush tip and deliver the ink in a sludge-like appearance. They wipe off easy with a cloth, and work quite remarkably like a home made wash.

I saw the trailer this evening... has potential. Can't say the same for "The Day the Earth Stood Still," it was more like "The Day this Movie stole my IQ"

This is true, I did read about the social commentary of the film prior to seeing it. The social commentary was not a plus or minus for me, it was what it was. The monster itself was nothing too awesome either. I enjoyed the film because of its portrayal of the dysfunctional Park family, which was often times really comical, and often reminds me of my own clan

Judgement day... it's coming DU DUUN DUUN DUUN DUN.

Don't forget the Wave kits! I have the VF-0S battroid. They are non-transformable (but it's a model, so I don't care), but have very nice proportions and are snap fit as well. There is a VF-0A and VF-0S kit now, but next year they're coming out with VF-1 models as well.

I've always felt that Macross Plus was in some ways based on the Advanced Tactical Fighter competion between the YF-22 and YF-23. But yea... I can definitely see the resemblance:

I can see this happening actually: al13nzspacegurl > o/ hi2u hum0nl337earth > hi, sup ^^ al13nzspacegurl > not much, just chillin, nice to meet u hum0nl337earth > k... asl? al13nzspacegurl > secret hum0nl337earth > lol k... how about those yamato valks and their self destructing shoulders.

Not sure if this was directed towards me, but I'll answer anyways . First, I never stated that ET's don't exist, to quote myself: Also, never stated that I've shut my mind down to all probabilities, in fact I said that all things are possible, and even the best fool proof scientific theory on any topic is but a theory open to revision: My point is just that tin-foil enthusiasts and conspiracy theorists love to draw the alien connection way before any other more plausible explanations are established. When we study something odd in nature or archeology or any topic for that matter we try and explain it based on our existing understanding of things first and build upon that, as opposed to just completely turning a new page on research and claim that the "aliens did it." Progress and science is built upon layers of existing knowledge - ie. you must understand how gravity works before building a plane or going into space. Even if a theory is proved to be wrong eventually, the paper trail will help explain in posterity why a particular line of thought is incorrect. And regarding the human seeding theory (that Homo Sapiens come from another world). I think it's complete BS, but hey the internet is a big democracy and I respect everyone's right to say whatever they want. I can only do my best to present evidence to challenge this. First, creationists or other <insert colorful group> love to point towards the lack of a missing link to invalidate evolution of humans (or evolution in general). Trying to find a missing evolutionary link is akin to looking at a chain of office paper clips and asking which one is a real species, and which one is a link? It doesn't work that way. Because it's based on random mutations of DNA, evolution can go sideways, branch-out, revert, and in all directions, the particular fitness of one product against an environment is what determines which variation survives, not how advanced or primitive said species is. One needs to look no further then the DNA evidence. Humans and most animals that inhabit this earth share 90% of the same DNA. Chimps (our closest species relative) share 98.5% DNA similarity with humans. Related to DNA is that all animals (MWF member included) pretty much have the same metabolic pathways. The way a dog's DNA is copied, transcripted, and used to assemble a protein is exactly the same a human would (this is called the Terminal Dogma btw.... Evangelion reference ). Also, if it's not evidence enough, the vestigial structures within your own body, pieces of tissue that serve no apparent purpose like your tonsils, appendix, etc, is clear proof of man/womankind's animal ancestry. Did you know that whales have hip bones even though they have no feet? So for the purpose of science fiction, it's all good and entertaining to write about an alien connection to the biological or social evolution of humans, but in the real world, this represents the least plausible theory of how things came into being.

My asian films list is a bit long... but if you haven't seen one this year, see The Host. I'm also a big fan of anything directed by Ang Lee, though he has directed many Western films most recently The Hulk and Brokeback Mountain. His projects are really risky, and in the case of his last film (Lust Caution), risque ... not many directors would have the courage to direct a film about gay cowboys.

I've never actually seen F-91, have only a passing familiarity from reading about it . I do love the designs of all "formulas" from F-90 to the Crossbones (I think those were officially named Formula-97's), as they contrast so much with earlier designs (0079 -> CCA).

Now now, I didn't call anyone specifically a bigot (in fact I stated that in my last thread), I'm just saying that the idea itself has a taint of racism, but that people who believe in it don't necessarily know it. They might not be biased themselves, I guess is the way to put it. So if I came across with the wrong tone, I apologize XD. What you say is true and I don't disagree with you. Everything is possible, and it could be that one day I'm proven wrong, and yea, definitely the governments probably hides a lot of batsh!t crazy things from the general public. Nevertheless, between picking option A: which states that a bunch of humans s sat down, thought about it, and came up with a plan to do something awesome (given some information about how we know people lived back then), or B. aliens swooping down and teaching people how to do something, I'd go with A. That is not the same as saying I don't believe in ET's or even them visiting us. I just believe that most of the things that people attribute to aliens have perfectly good "earthly" explanations. Finally, this is just the old geezer in me talking, but I suspect we've moved further and further into accepting ET "human development" theories because in many ways we're starting to loose the know-how on how to actually "do stuff." Everything in our world falls into the 1 click instant expectations category. We seem to be content that a black box is there, but have no curiosity to find out how the "black box" works.

The pyramids are the prime example of what I was referring to. I've never heard anyone suggest that the Roman aqueducts, the collosium, or any examples of superb Greco-Roman engineering (the foundation of Western civilization) were built by aliens... and it's unreasonable to suggest such a thing, because said projects were somewhat well documented. However, whenever a non-Western archeological point of interest is examined - Easter island, Chichen Itza, the pyramids, it's always end with "OMG, those heathens COULD HAVE NEVER possibly had the intelligence, the technology, and the basic understanding of science to pull such a thing off!" This is precisely why those alien interferance theories are insulting to people from said cultures who originally built the object in question. We think that knowledge and technology progresses in a linear fashion, but in reality once a foundation is established, technology builds upon itself at an exponential rate. A good example is the science of flight. The Kittyhawk flight was in 1903, and the moon landing occurred in 1969. To go from being able to barely lift yourself from the ground for a few seconds to landing people on the moon in about a lifetime illustrates this perfectly, and suggests that ancient people building remarkable things is not a crazy notion. As for Romald Emerich, his last movie 10,000 BC shows a hint of this stink. Although it's never explicitly stated, the king is assumed to be of alien origin (yes yes even though his blood is red).

Partially correct XD. The Nephilim were described in greater detail in the Book of Enoch, a non-canonical Christian text (yep, one of the earliest cases of Retcon lolz ) It describes the fallen angels and their designs on the realm of humankind. The descendants of the fallen angels and the human wives they took, were referred to as the Nephilim. In recent years this has become a favorite topic of tin-foil enthusiasts trying to suggest how aliens impacted the genetic & social evolution of mankind - which people with IQ greater than 50 find absolutely reprehensible and amounts to a thinly veiled form of racism: what I don't understand I attribute to aliens. Now this isn't meant as an attack on anyone on MWF , with fiction it's all good and golden, but applying this theory to real life: fail.

Spent last weekend working on this: Wasn't going to paint that much (because I don't believe in wasting that much resources in a HG kit) but had to anyways, the plastic was really swirly on mine. Gave the cockpit block a slightly different color to make it look more like the "gleaming" color as shown in the anime. White parts were repainted with the lightest gray I could find. Gunmental for dark parts. ... And my next project, can't start until January though

It will be interesting to see. I'm sort of an NBA fan (Detroit Pistons fan to be precise). An occasional break from cliche mecha pr0n is always a breadth of fresh air.

From what I've read, the 2012 date is just the end of another cycle of the Mayan calendar, there is no explicit mention that it is the actual end in any Mayan text. Even though the Mayans had remarkable mathematical and astronomy knowledge, the Year 0 of their calendar is dated to about 3,000 BC, which we know can't be true as overwhelming evidence shows that the Earth itself is 4.5 Billion years old. So we can all put our tin-foil hats back into their protective vacuum chambers. Regarding the lack of entries beyond 2012, ,maybe the calendar maker decided to quit all of a sudden and become a pastry chef, who knows XD. Now, about the film... just looks like another "Day After Tomorrow" to me.

Your post is made of win, was going to say the exact same thing. This thread is hardly meant to be (I hope) a scientific approach to determining the best/worse of 2008. I'm not surprised at all either that Macross Frontier wins the MWF academy awards lolz...

I voted Yes and No ... I love choices. I would say that for being "collectors items" vs "toys" the price is somewhat reasonable. For being really beautiful collectors items with the tendency to self destruct its arm(s) or other <insert valkyrie part> they're overpriced.

Can't believe hasn't been mentioned, but worse game in 2008 is: SW Force Unleashed. The game has its moments, but the sucks outweigh the wins. Not only did it not live up to its overhyped expectations, but it's just a poorly designed game that could have benefited from a few more months of polish - Crap targeting system - Lots of bugs (at least in 360 version) - I had my character disappear from the screen quite a few times... also in the destroyer pull-down sequence if you follow the directions on screen you will never get it done, I mean that whole scene was supposed to be the iconic moment of the game, yet they blew it. - Characters are not particularly memorable

WOW... that was awesome. Definitely going to get me a few bottles of those for my next project, it seems like you almost get the great finish obtained by applying enamel wash... only that it's somewhat foolproof. Thanks for posting this XD.

I made another thread in the correct section, mods can close this one

I recently started using GM's since they seemed so convenient, after applying it to an unpainted kit and realizing how easy it is to dab away errors with some alcohol, I was sold. I decided to test some of the characteristics of the marker in conjunction with painted surfaces and see what would happen. I'm referring to the ultra thin markers (GM02-200 (grey) for reference). I'm not bothering ever with the huge jumbo markers. Constants: -All paints assumed acrylic, thinned at a 70:30 ratio. Used a clear flat for my experiment -Using marker GM 02-200 -Painted surface is standard Bandai white gunpla runner Experiment 1: -Panel lines on an untreated piece of plastic with GM (straight out of the cutter, no paint, primer, etc, NADA!). -Dry -Apply coat of flat-clear Result: Lines will loose adhesion and run off, some might stay on, put generally they will now adhere so weakly to the plastic that slight motions can run them off. Experiment 2: This reflects the more proper way to paint, but I shortened some steps for the purpose of experimenting -Prime Surface -Dry 12 H -Apply 2 coats of whatever color -Dry 12H after each coat -Panel lines in with GM <-- Here now -Flat coat application Result: In progress, but here is the dilemma. While drawing in lines on top of coats of paints, the selling point of the marker, the extreme alcohol solubility disappears. Normally I use a q-tip with isopropyl alcohol to clean up my mistakes but if a mistake was made on an already painted surface, I would have to rub a little bit harder for it to disappear, which damages the paint ... so yeah, I'm not so sure about using the markers, I might upgrade to a more professional "wash" method, but it's just another skill that I might need to learn.

I think I recall reading somewhere that Kojima feels that the MGS story has been told and finished and is moving on to other things - mainly revisiting Zone of Enders. But yea... I'm also waiting for a 360 port of MGS4, I'm pretty sure it'll happen eventually.

It takes some time to get into it. I also thought that the first few episodes were a bit too bland, too Gundam Wing-ish... but things really pick up.