Okay so here I am going to show what I did to the figure. ultimately, I decided some places due to rubbing should remain stock colored, and or plastic colored so as not to paint and have chipping. I ALSO wanted to only paint enough so that this figure matches my future purchase of MPM-03 Bumblebee and other future Masterpiece Movie releases. My main issue with this release was a lack of additional paint applications. To me, it felt like they half-assed the figure. Tabbing issues on Alt-mode aside, I think the figure as a whole is great, but for minor problems in Alt-mode and missing Paint apps. While I can't do anything about the engineering, I can however make the figure worthy of it's title "Masterpiece" by just adding minor paint applications that quite Frankly, Hasbro should have released the figure in.
Here are a couple more beauty shots of my figure and highlights of where the Paint was applied.
Incidentally, the color that matches Prime's Blue the closest.. is called Testors Blue Fluorescent. That's the closest color I could find that didn't require mixing. Also, the Model Masters Silver is the best and brightest to match the silver already on the legs. I used Testor's Gold to paint the orange like areas, that should be gold.
Here you see the Gold Apps applied to the torso, the knee area, along with Silver applied to the lower legs, and inside the knee joints inside the golden rings. Now Prime doesn't look like he is wearing shorts as the original Hasbro release made him look.
As you can see, I also tackled the back of the legs...
The Blue added to the pieces is proper in my estimation, and in addition, above the hip just under the back is a small Hexagonal Butt plate, which I painted as well. You can only access it by giving Prime basically a rectal exam to paint it, but I painted it blue like I felt it should be done. Additionally the interior of the arms should have a blue piece as well, which I did, and the shoulders should have a golden piece on it.
I painted the struts under the arms all gold, along with the Nike like Check mark on the head. I added the gold to the inner leg joint where the knee is as a ring, and there again, you see the silver used. I twisted the silver leg joints around as I painted them. I was worried that painting silver along that lower leg would rub, as there is a bit of hangover on the top originally painted thigh. It actually has enough clearance to paint those sections without paint rubbing when turning the leg-thigh joint just above the knee.
I did the gun in silver, and black spray as the overlay on the tip. I used a clear coat spray (Satin) guaranteed not to yellow. It made the gun a bit dull, because I over sprayed some on it, but it still looks great, and the peg for the gun inside for the hand doesn't rub off silver.
Here are a couple of More Images. See How the Dark of the Hasbro Grey actually matches the ThreeA Optimus Prime figure, arguably the best rendition of the robot mode, and CGI accurate..
To Me, the Minimal Paint apps I have applied is how the Masterpiece MPM-04 Optimus Prime should have been released by Hasbro. Premium Paints, silver, gold and the blue's should have been done on the first release. However, if you got the Hasbro and don't want to spend any more money on the TAKARA TOMY release version, just do a bit of painting.. and you will have in my humble opinion, a better colored figure then Takara, and feel satisfied that the dark grey is actually kinda accurate.
So if you're not sure you bought the right release.. just do a bit of paint, and you'll feel like you have the best of both worlds, and a bit more accurate figure for your collection, and not too overly painted so as not to match your future Masterpiece Movie figures. This is How Optimus Prime MPM-04 Should have been released.
Cheers!