The Energon Pub

News Credits: 9 · by **Mykltron** » Sat Mar 28, 2009 1:17 pm

[This is the original post of the first mod. For updates and lots of pics, scroll down to a later post.]

Ignoring the odd bit of slicing that I've done to increase joint range of motion on various figures, this is my first kitbash.

I thought Blackout was really cool in the movie, especially the way he used the small rotors as a strimmer-style weapon so I was very disappointed with how the toy turned out.

I've used magnets to make the rear rotors detachable from the tail and attachable to his right wrist just like in the final battle. The wrist attachment is secure enough for the blades to spin - and that's why they're blurred in the picture! I also added ball-joints to his wrists and those plates on the inside of his forarms so his wrists can rotate and the plates can sit in-line with his arms. It took AGES to splice together the posts of 3mm ball joints to make the mechanism for those plates!

I would like to find some small weapons to attach to his arms like in the film but that'll have to wait. When that's done I'll paint him.

Please let me know what you think of my first true kitbash! If you want more pics just ask!

by **primezimm** » Thu Apr 02, 2009 7:31 pm

Thats pretty cool. I was disappointed to when I took a good look at this figure. Bought 1 for one of my boys. Warming up to it though, since the release of Evac, and these mods really help!

by **closet_rat** » Wed Apr 08, 2009 9:46 am

Definitely post more pics, we wanna see what you did, from various angles, so we can try to do it too!

Looks like a great job so far! :APPLAUSE:

News Credits: 9 · by **Mykltron** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 11:02 am

I've added some weapons to Blackout and he's looking better. Next I'll buy some more paints so I can sort him out good and proper. Then I'll post more pics!

News Credits: 9 · by **Mykltron** » Wed Apr 22, 2009 11:36 am

Finally, Blackout is finished. I would have finished him earlier but I couldn't find any weapons that I liked to add to his arms.

Before painting him there were several changes to make. Although I like this figure more than I expected he was still rather lacking. The first thing I had to do was trim the hinges of the main blades to make them hang properly:

I added ball-joints to his wrists and the plates on the inside of his forarms so his wrists can rotate and the plates can sit in-line with his arms. It took AGES to splice together the posts of 3mm ball joints to make the mechanism for those plates!

By embedding magnets in various places I made the rear rotors detachable so they can attach to either wrist, just like in the battle at the end of the film.

I added small guns to make him more movie accurate. These are also attached with magnets and are small enough to be stored inside his helicopter mode.
The blades and guns can be attached in a variety of ways to recreate different scenes in the movie...

Remember, there are more pictures of him here!

by **aerospace starscream** » Wed May 20, 2009 2:43 pm

more pics looks amazing

News Credits: 9 · by **Hip-Hoptimus Rime** » Thu May 21, 2009 1:05 pm

I love the Blackout figure, and your mods make him even better. Well done!! :APPLAUSE:

News Credits: 1 · by **Solrac333** » Sun May 24, 2009 12:52 am

Oooooo, very nice!

News Credits: 9 · by **Mykltron** » Wed May 27, 2009 10:40 am

lord black metal wrote:more pics looks amazing

There are a few more pics here. There are also pics of plenty of my other repaints for you to enjoy!

News Credits: 9 · by **Mykltron** » Thu Aug 27, 2009 10:42 am

I've just updated the photos in my earlier post ^up there^. I've added weathering and found a better gun that resembles his left arm gattling gun in the film.