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I love Alpha Trizer's colors, but it's not as good as Leo Prime's.

Ok, now that I've got Primal Prime posted ... it's driving me crazy that painting Transformers has been such a challenge for me. Maybe it's time for an airbrush, which is required to do Primal Prime's chest properly.

I know very little about painting. I add clear coat to Beast Wars figures that have chrome paint worth saving and I do small little touch ups here and there. I did the custom class Longarm figure at BotCon 2012 with mixed degrees of success. I felt like the clear coat in the class went on really rough with the airbrush so I've been too chicken to do much more than what I've done.

However, it's driving me crazy that I've got a BotCon Blastcharge and a BotCon Primal Prime. What do you guys recommend for an Airbrush and what other tools or equipment do I need? I was doing some research yesterday and found the following on Amazon but I have no idea what the difference is between all of the different airbrushes that this company offers:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=iwata%20medea%20airbrush&sprefix=iwata+medea+%2Caps&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Aiwata%20medea%20airbrush



Does anyone have any websites that show tips and such on equipment that I need to purchase?

I don't mind spending up to $500 if I can get a quality airbrush and compressor. But I don't want to spend much more than that unless you guys say I really need to.

Hopefully some of you guys can help me out!!!

Personally Seibertron, I'd commission a guy to do it. I tried painting several figures, all of which turned out miserably.

Between the Cheetor photos in the gallery and cheetah comment in his bio, I take it Alpha Tizer is post Beast Machines Cheetor? Or some version of Cheetor?

OptimalOptimus2 wrote:I love Alpha Trizer's colors, but it's not as good as Leo Prime's.

I can't help but wonder if the grey swords that came with Alpha Trizer were colored that way to provide more color accurate swords for Go Prime and Alpha Trizer if you do a swap. The "red" swords that came with Go Prime look like an identical match for the red color used on Alpha Trizer.

With the swords each figure came with ...




With the swords swapped ...



What's odd about this to me is that the red swords came with Go Prime in the first place since the red wasn't used on Go Prime at all. Might it be possible that both figures came out of the factory at the same time and the swords were swapped at some point or am I putting way too much thought into this?

Seibertron wrote:However, it's driving me crazy that I've got a BotCon Blastcharge and a BotCon Primal Prime. What do you guys recommend for an Airbrush and what other tools or equipment do I need?

When it comes to painting plastic, I would recommend Krylon Fusion paint, which are in spray cans. I haven't used it myself, but I've heard that it's good for painting plastic even though they are spray paints. You can buy them in different sizes at your local Walmart, Amazon, their official website, and other websites online. The official website has a how-to video for using the paint. You can click it here. Or you can go to other how-to websites and videos, your choice. I hope this helps.

Yweggo wrote:Between the Cheetor photos in the gallery and cheetah comment in his bio, I take it Alpha Tizer is post Beast Machines Cheetor? Or some version of Cheetor?

That's correct. Alpha Trizer is a post-BM Cheetor who somehow merged sparks with Alpha Trion.

OptimalOptimus2 wrote:

Seibertron wrote:However, it's driving me crazy that I've got a BotCon Blastcharge and a BotCon Primal Prime. What do you guys recommend for an Airbrush and what other tools or equipment do I need?

When it comes to painting plastic, I would recommend Krylon Fusion paint, which are in spray cans. I haven't used it myself, but I've heard that it's good for painting plastic even though they are spray paints. You can buy them in different sizes at your local Walmart, Amazon, their official website, and other websites online. The official website has a how-to video for using the paint. You can click it here. Or you can go to other how-to websites and videos, your choice. I hope this helps.

I definitely want to go the air brush route. Just need to know what equipment to buy that others suggest. Thanks for the suggestions though.

I searched for airbrush paint for plastic and I found this: Creative Airbrush Colors. It's legit and highly reviewed on Amazon. From 3 to 5 stars. You can see their list of items here and you can search for their color sets on Amazon here. Do not get Wicked Colors, Createx Illustration Colors, Auto Air Colors (unless the plastic is hard), or Auto Borne. This was the only result that I could find. It's a tough search for airbrush paints for plastic. Well, I hope that this helps you.

I simply went the route of having my Primal Prime painted for me at BotCon, by this awesome guy. His works are very professional-grade, and I highly recommend him for anyone considering commissioning someone to paint their figures for them.

Last year, he painted people's Blastcharge figures and this year he did the same for the Primal Prime figures. Hopefully he'll continue to paint people's custom class figures at future BotCons.

OptimalOptimus2 wrote:I searched for airbrush paint for plastic and I found this: Creative Airbrush Colors. It's legit and highly reviewed on Amazon. From 3 to 5 stars. You can see their list of items here and you can search for their color sets on Amazon here. Do not get Wicked Colors, Createx Illustration Colors, Auto Air Colors (unless the plastic is hard), or Auto Borne. This was the only result that I could find. It's a tough search for airbrush paints for plastic. Well, I hope that this helps you.

You can dilute any acrylic on the market and make it an "airbrush paint".

Midnight_Fox wrote:

OptimalOptimus2 wrote:I searched for airbrush paint for plastic and I found this: Creative Airbrush Colors. It's legit and highly reviewed on Amazon. From 3 to 5 stars. You can see their list of items here and you can search for their color sets on Amazon here. Do not get Wicked Colors, Createx Illustration Colors, Auto Air Colors (unless the plastic is hard), or Auto Borne. This was the only result that I could find. It's a tough search for airbrush paints for plastic. Well, I hope that this helps you.

You can dilute any acrylic on the market and make it an "airbrush paint".

Well, sometimes acrylic paint doesn't work. I'm just putting down some suggestions. That's all.

OptimalOptimus2 wrote:

Midnight_Fox wrote:

OptimalOptimus2 wrote:I searched for airbrush paint for plastic and I found this: Creative Airbrush Colors. It's legit and highly reviewed on Amazon. From 3 to 5 stars. You can see their list of items here and you can search for their color sets on Amazon here. Do not get Wicked Colors, Createx Illustration Colors, Auto Air Colors (unless the plastic is hard), or Auto Borne. This was the only result that I could find. It's a tough search for airbrush paints for plastic. Well, I hope that this helps you.

You can dilute any acrylic on the market and make it an "airbrush paint".

Well, sometimes acrylic paint doesn't work. I'm just putting down some suggestions. That's all.

Just looking for tips on airbrush. $60 for a commissioned work is a lot of money when I could be spending 200 to 300 to get the equipment and figure it out myself which would also be helpful for repairing figures for seibertron store.

OptimalOptimus2 wrote:Well, sometimes acrylic paint doesn't work.

My brain can't process this sentence. I've never seen that happen in 20+ years of painting plastic things. Not saying you're wrong, I've just never seen it.

So I'm late to the Flamewar and Brimstone/Hunter gallery updates party...

I like the way Brimstone looks. So based on his bio, I understand he's basically an over-sized Targetmaster buddy for Scorponok? If that's the case, I was disappointed to learn that there were no images of Brimstone being "wielded" by Scorponok in "weapon mode".

Hunter/Shokaract is neato. Not a character I'm attached to, but it does look nice.

Primal Prime is okay, but not quite the right mold for that certain character, IMO.

Ape Linq is awesome, and have been waiting for this redeco for a while. Just wish it wasn't a BotCon exclusive. Though I kinda wish the bio card's colors and the deco matched up a little bit better. Him having a lighter-colored face on the bio card compared to the actual figure is bothering the crap out of me.

Alpha Trizer... eh. Cool for fans of 3H potential exclusives, but, like Hunter/Shokaract, just doesn't appeal to me enough to warrant the amounts of monies they're asking for. Same goes for Flareup.

Flamewar is epic. Beast Hunters Arcee was practically destined to become Flamewar. And it works really good. Might have to hunt her down one day. Maybe one day.

That's all I can say about the BotCon galleries for right now. Can't wait to see the box set and the Decepticon Clones/Dread Pirate Crew. The Clones especially, since those are the ones I'm legitimately tempted about. Gotta build up that Classics shelf!

Seibertron wrote:

OptimalOptimus2 wrote:

Midnight_Fox wrote:

OptimalOptimus2 wrote:I searched for airbrush paint for plastic and I found this: Creative Airbrush Colors. It's legit and highly reviewed on Amazon. From 3 to 5 stars. You can see their list of items here and you can search for their color sets on Amazon here. Do not get Wicked Colors, Createx Illustration Colors, Auto Air Colors (unless the plastic is hard), or Auto Borne. This was the only result that I could find. It's a tough search for airbrush paints for plastic. Well, I hope that this helps you.

You can dilute any acrylic on the market and make it an "airbrush paint".

Well, sometimes acrylic paint doesn't work. I'm just putting down some suggestions. That's all.

Just looking for tips on airbrush. $60 for a commissioned work is a lot of money when I could be spending 200 to 300 to get the equipment and figure it out myself which would also be helpful for repairing figures for seibertron store.

Well, there's somewhat of a learning curve to airbrushing, and the cleanup and maintenance can also be frustrating if you're not very disciplined or patient. Depending on the person, sometimes it's just too much trouble, especially if you're not particularly interested in customizing figures.

Also, besides the obvious airbrush and compressor set, you'll also need a spray booth and/or respirator, as well as a cleaning pot. Some cheap lacquer thinner or IPA just for flushing the AB will also help keep costs down. I usually recommend a 0.3mm airbrush, as it's versatile enough for detailing as well as base coating.

Don Wheeler of donsairbrushtips.com, on the other hand, is more fond of 0.5mm airbrushes, and is even able to do detailing work with them.

As for brands, Iwata's Eclipse HP-CS is one of the most popular AB's among hobbyists. You can also try Tamiya's HG line of airbrushes, which are also made by Iwata.

Badger and Paasche AB's are also quite popular, but just be aware that American-made AB's use a 1/4" diameter hose connection (Type L) whereas air hoses that come with Sparmax or Iwata compressors are 1/8" (Type S), which the AB's from their own brand are obviously compatible with. You'll need an adapter joint in order to use a Badger or Paasche AB with the hoses from the brands I just mentioned.

In the long run, getting an AB and compressor set is indeed the most cost-effective route. If you tough it out through the beginner phase and start getting the hang of airbrushing, the equipment will start paying for themselves.

Midnight_Fox wrote:

OptimalOptimus2 wrote:Well, sometimes acrylic paint doesn't work.

My brain can't process this sentence. I've never seen that happen in 20+ years of painting plastic things. Not saying you're wrong, I've just never seen it.

Maybe he simply means acrylics aren't durable enough for articulated figs like TF's, where so many different parts tend to rub against each other.

Some sanding and clear coating should take care of that, though.

Sabrblade wrote:I simply went the route of having my Primal Prime painted for me at BotCon, by this awesome guy. His works are very professional-grade, and I highly recommend him for anyone considering commissioning someone to paint their figures for them.

Last year, he painted people's Blastcharge figures and this year he did the same for the Primal Prime figures. Hopefully he'll continue to paint people's custom class figures at future BotCons.

Cheetimus makes beautiful customs, I gotta agree.

Mindmaster wrote:If that's the case, I was disappointed to learn that there were no images of Brimstone being "wielded" by Scorponok in "weapon mode".

Ah, yee of little faith! It will be in Scorponok's gallery. Maybe I'll add the pics to the end of Brimstone's gallery as well.

Mindmaster wrote:Flamewar is epic. Beast Hunters Arcee was practically destined to become Flamewar. And it works really good. Might have to hunt her down one day. Maybe one day.

I think Flamewar is my favorite figure of the BotCon 2014 exclusives. Very well executed. Perfection in my book. I love that they used the different molds for the girls too. Very nice touch.

Mindmaster wrote:That's all I can say about the BotCon galleries for right now. Can't wait to see the box set and the Decepticon Clones/Dread Pirate Crew. The Clones especially, since those are the ones I'm legitimately tempted about. Gotta build up that Classics shelf!

Clones will be posted in the next 12 hours!

Seibertron wrote:Clones will be posted in the next 12 hours!

For the Wingspan-type clone, might we possibly see pics of its vehicle mode with Tornado in gun mode attached to the underside of one of its wings, with the Arms Minicon it came with attached to the underside of its other wing, as a nod to a part in the pre-comic story where Tornado hitched a ride down onto a planet with Skyduster?

Mkall wrote:

Yweggo wrote:Between the Cheetor photos in the gallery and cheetah comment in his bio, I take it Alpha Tizer is post Beast Machines Cheetor? Or some version of Cheetor?

That's correct. Alpha Trizer is a post-BM Cheetor who somehow merged sparks with Alpha Trion.

Like Tigatron and Airrazor did when they became Tigerhawk?

Continuing the exclusive streak of Seibertron.com exclusive galleries of exclusive BotCon 2014 figures, we are proud to present a double feature with Targetmaster sidedish in Dread Pirate Crew Wingspan with Pillage and Pounce with Plunder, respectively repainted from Transformers Arms Micron Jet Vehicon and Steve Vehicon! Click on any image below to view the full galleries.


Convention & Club Exclusives Dread Pirate Crew: Wingspan Clone










Convention & Club Exclusives Dread Pirate Crew: Pounce Clone










Convention & Club Exclusives Dread Pirate Crew: Arms Minicon Pillage








Convention & Club Exclusives Dread Pirate Crew: Arms Minicon Plunder

This is probably, the best BotCon 2014 set of them all. Wingspan and Pounce look so rad in robot mode. Sorry Thrustinator.

Yeah, totes going to set some aside to see about getting my mitts on these. Slap some Decepticon faction symbol stickers on there, and BAM, Classics Pounce and Wingspan.

Should note for this new news that the names "Pillage" and "Plunder" belong only to the Arms Minicons specifically belonging to Thunderclap and Rolling Thunder, respectively. Skyduster and others have their own as well, but theirs either don't have names or don't have known names.

I am disappointed that the "minimal intelligence" referenced in the bio for the clones' clones is a 7. That matches G1 Highbrow's score.