The Energon Pub

Sat Nov 06, 2004 4:13 pm

I say in the passenger seat. If you want you could even have two handguns, or a gun that folds around the post. But personally I'd like just one handgun in the passenger seat leaving the driver side open for spike.

Sun Nov 07, 2004 6:32 am

I do mean in the hip side protection plates. If I make the chest fit a gun or small figure I would have to try and attach the head/face to the back section and it would loose the ability to turn. I am thinking this could work, but the head is a little higher than the top of the cab so the crest of his helmet would have to pertrude slightly or fold down and pull back.

Another thing I have forgot to put on is an armarda/energon style peg that folds out the back of the feet for stability when standing. I am testing epoxy putties that are locally available to me this week. I got this one that was for fixing boats that set totally hard in 45 minutes but was easily workable for 20 minutes. I wanted more but apparently they just stopped making it. The only other ones I can find all have working lifes of about 3 minutes (too short). I don't want to have to order the real stuff because of money constraignts.

Tue Feb 08, 2005 3:49 am

Its been a long time since I started this. I had to stop because I have been building a house and I needed to finish off my kitchen and celing in the hallway. I hate real building but when its got to be done is got to be done.

These pics are pretty self explanatory, critisism is welcome. Keep in mind this IS NOT the end product. These peices will be molded then recast then altered some more then maybe re-molded and re-cast. They are almost totally acurate to the plans except for a couple of cosmetic differences.

Tue Feb 08, 2005 4:06 am

a wooden transformer??

super cool >D

love the design man. commendable amount of thought/work you put into this

Tue Feb 08, 2005 4:06 am

Holy sh*t man!! :shock:

Wood!! Yeah why not! You're going to moldcast is later on.. fresh ideas here folks!

Looks VERY promising ORD, best of luck with the rest and love all those pics!

Tue Feb 08, 2005 8:33 am

wow, how thick is that wood? Thats going to take a crapload of plastic/resin when you recast. But I see the appeal of the wood, easier to keep everything at right angles. Plus, you may end up with a cool wood grain texture on your bee. Kind of like a Cybertronian beverwhack.

Tue Feb 08, 2005 8:55 am

there will be no grain on visible parts. One of the last steps will be filling the grain with "top coat" plaster that is very easy to sand. The size is about equal to armada jetfire. I will include cavity "bubles" in some of the final molds to reduce weight. The only reason I used wood was that out of the materials I had it was the closest to 5mm thick. I prefer to work in aluminium (see one of the pics above) but had no money for any more.

Tue Feb 08, 2005 12:08 pm

That is going to be one bigass Bumblebee. Can't wait to see the finished product.

Tue Feb 08, 2005 9:55 pm

He's gonna look so cool!

Tue Feb 08, 2005 11:54 pm

man, I wish I had a good size work area and tools like those. Looking good so far.

Wed Feb 09, 2005 12:19 am

Wowsers, awesome so far! Just how big will he be, about the size of, say, Alternators/Binaltech Sideswipe / Dead End ?

Wed Feb 09, 2005 5:14 am

Sharp. I like how exact you work. if only i could maintain that. i continually just loose the ruller, forget to make perfect right angles and whatnot. they add up when i try and put it all together.

Wood? Interesting. :!:

Wed Feb 09, 2005 7:11 am

Its funny you should mention my work area VP. I work in my living room on an old table, my wife hates it and I was just arguing about it before reading this post. I have heaps of tools but its still hard to get things perfectly flat. I wish I had a small milling machine or at least a big bench to clamp things too.

I am thinking of doing panel on the outer body that can have an inlay section like on armada megatron. that way the fine detail could be modified and painted seperately. It just depends how the construction pans out.

Here are some more pics. It is particularly hard to get a perfectly round shape of the correct diameter. I needed a diametre of 20mm but had run out of 20mm pvc conduit so I tried to drill a 20mm hole in some wood then fill it with putty. It turned out crap so I then found this old mop to cut up that was 21mm (close enough with some careful sanding)

Wed Feb 09, 2005 2:02 pm

wow, wood, never though to make a TF out of that material (and yet, the first Optimus proto was made out of wood, so goes the legend)

looks impresive, all the work you did on this

keep on!

Fri Feb 11, 2005 7:12 am

I have been working non stop on this so here is what I have done. this will be it for a week at least because I've got to work.

I decided to eliminate duplication of reversable components to cut down on work. parts like the arm assembly etc that can be built once but molded twice i am not going to mirror in this part of the proccess. this will also help me maintain symetry in the final cast. Also I am saving the complex "clicking" parts in the joints for later. I prefer to do that on a cast incase I screw it up. This origional is too hard to do fine detail in so the small holes needed for pins or springs can more easily be added to a plastic copy.

Fri Feb 11, 2005 3:35 pm

looking nice so far. Your basically taking the same approach I am w/TWW grimlock. I'm only scratch building certain parts (limbs) once and mold casting them to make it symmetrical. I've done this to the upper thigh already. Will do the same for the forearms and lower legs.

Mon Feb 14, 2005 6:13 am

Thats wicked stuff man! Looking great!

Tue Feb 15, 2005 2:28 pm

where do you host pictures? is it free of charge?

Wed Feb 16, 2005 5:23 am

these pictures are all reletively small in memory so they don't put me over my limit. I have 10mb of space (not much in my opinion) from my isp. It seems small considering hotmail in my contry now gives 250mb storage for free.

Its not free, my account costs about $30 a month but if I pay by 3 month intervals its $20 a month.

My real job is stopping me from doing any kind of work on this. When I get time its after 10pm and I can't make noise

I have been given a test sample of a plastic powder called plaztex for casting fine detail that needs high durability. It seems a little tricky to get right but I plan to show it because from the results I have seen him get we all could use this stuff. It is very expensive for weight so its main uses would be for joints etc. My local kmart stopped selling the putty I have been using so now I have to go to another suburb to pick it up

very anoying.

Fri Feb 18, 2005 7:46 am

I have been working on the fists and the side protection panels/half of wing. The fists I redid 4 times and am reasonably happy now. I opted for a rounded kind of fist because molding square detail a smaller sizes ends up not working properly. The main problem with the fist is to get the size big enough while still being thin enough to fit through the hole for transformation. My solution was to make it look as if he is holding a gun to stretch the fingers out (its hard to make it out from these pics). I have only half completed one side panel but it seems good so far. After making it I can see for sure now that I can't fit a gun in the side. To do it would mean reducing the mass at the attachment end and it would not be strong enough to hold together in the final product.

No time yet for the plaztex.

Fri Feb 18, 2005 8:09 am

excellent (again

)
Bumblebee is coming along great, and it's awesome that you keep us so close through the project with all these pics.
And dude! The speed at which you keep em coming is excessive!

Fri Feb 18, 2005 8:42 am

looking back at the CAD drawings more, I was wondering, you are going to make him able to lift his legs up at the hips, right? His waist piece isn't going to be solid like Alt. Sideswipes, is it? I mean with the gundam style of flip panel there should be no need for that limitation.

Fri Feb 18, 2005 11:25 am

Man, it's really impressive the way this project progressed. I thought making him out of wood first off was kinda silly, but it has proved to be a really good idea.

Sat Feb 19, 2005 4:49 am

the legs will have a large degree of movement as it is a component of the transformation. I try to post pics to show how the bits come together. I do this because I want people to look back when its done and use my methods in their own work. There are a lot of materials in this and I know that emphasis has been on the wood but the most important material in my opinion is the aluminium. it allows me to get clean lines in a thin space. it also keeps its shape when you bend it and can be cut without splintering like some plastics. If anyone was wondering, the tool I mainly use to cut aluminium (of 2.5mm or less thickness) is a printed circuit board trimmer tool. It can be picked up at most electronics shops and gives the ability to clip around something. Saws and files are also good. Most putty also sticks really well to aluminium and corosion will not weaken the bond. The wood in this peice was only chosen because I had no money to buy the sheet of aluminium I needed (it cost around $40 Aud and I would also have to get a bus there and back). Aside from that, putty is good stuff, I use "knead it" because its the only one I can get locally. To use putty you need a belt sander. without it, it would take hours to take the surfaces back.

Tue Feb 22, 2005 4:03 pm

have u seen this baby

The Energon Pub

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