The Energon Pub

Hello eveyone, I'm brand new to the repainting of figures so forgive me if I sound like I don't know anything....because I don't. I was hoping that I might get some advice on painting my Classics 2.0 Acid Storm into Thundercracker. If anyone has some good input on how to help a beginner I would greatly appreciate it. And just to throw it out there you guys do some wonderful work, I've seen alot of these kitbashes and customs and I drool everytime. Thanks in advance for all the help.

It's a little specific, but try this.

i did this very repaint just last weekend so i can tell you its actually a nice project for beginners. first thing you want to do is take Acid Storm apart as far as you feel comfortable without fear of breaking him. then rub the green paint off his cockpit with some rubbing alcohol. another good idea is to put masking tape over the parts you do not wish to paint, like the fists and feet for example.

once disassembled and clean you can begin painting. Tamiya paints are really good for this one, i used Metallic Blue and Chrome Silver mainly, with Black and Red for details. spray works great for the blue but have a matching brush on paint for detailing. i found that Classics Skywarp was a great template for Thundercrackers layout, save for the wings which you can decide how you want to paint for yourself. one more tip is for the nosecone, a black prismacolor or sharpie marker will work a lot better than paint due to it being more of a rubber than plastic. the tips and tricks link posted above will help greatly for any other questions you may have. hope it works out and post some pics when your done

Thanks all for the starting pointers guys. As soon as I finish this I will post pictures of him, just be gentle in the criticism....or I might cry. Just kidding but my last question is about disassebleing him. I know some parts of the figures are screwed together, but how do you remove other pieces such as pins. Once agian forgive me if these are stupid questions.

its not a stupid question. i hear that you can remove the pins by tapping them out with a thin rod and hammer (be very gentle with that) but i didnt go that far. i just left them in and put masking tape over the attached parts i didnt want to paint.

If all goes to plan I will be able to start on this project next week, waiting on avaliable funds. Grimdragon I wil take your advice about the pins and just leave them alone, I don't want to risk breaking them or something because I only have one shot at this...and my wife will kill me if I have to buy another Acid Storm. Any preferance on sealants? Just wanting to get a specific list together so I know what to look for when I get these supplies.

Ok, the work begins tomorrow, hopefully this all goes well, I've found a shop that sells the paints I need thank god!! I will post if I run into any road blocks, as I asked in my last post what makes a good sealant for these figures so I can put this on my list for tomorrow. Thanks agian and as soon as I am finished pics will be posted for judging and criticising

First strokes have been started and Thundercracker is officially underway. I will post more pics as I progress. Please provide any input from the pictures I post.

sorry, I wil try putting on a picture agian.

OK. After way too many weeks of working on him Thundercracker if finally complete to the best of my abilities. After his paint dries I will reassemble him and place pics in this thread. All I ask is don't judge him too harshly please, he is after all my VERY FIRST repaint and I know I could've done better. Well pics will be up in a few hours thanks for all of you who gave me great tips and advice while this small yet lengthy project was underway.

DSCF4345 by PanzerBatallion, on Flickr


DSCF4348 by PanzerBatallion, on Flickr


DSCF4347 by PanzerBatallion, on Flickr


DSCF4342 by PanzerBatallion, on Flickr



DSCF4345 by PanzerBatallion, on Flickr



DSCF4350 by PanzerBatallion, on Flickr

Well....here he is. I do know some spots you can still see some green, I couldn't get the paint to stop rubbing off so I just decided to barely touch it up enough to where it looks blue. And I know the tailfins are supposed to be a dark blue but I didn't realise this until halfway into him, so I just left it alone. I plan on going back and touching up the stripes on the tailfins to make it look a little more streamlined. All in all I'm happy with my work considering it's my first repaint. Let the critiques begin!!!

Awesome job guy! I'm thinking on doing my first repaint soon too and it's nice to see such a nice first effort to inspire me. It gives me hope that I can do a good job on mine too (even though painting is my bane)

As for the paint rubbing off I hear if you sand those spots down a teeny bit and then paint them they wont rub off as much. I also hear people saying they seal those spots with a drop of super glue.

I really like this repaint. I think you chose the right colors too (I like that he's not that dark navy blue color). What paints did you use btw?

Testors standard blue, red, and silver. Just make sure you mix the blue really well or it comes out sort of dark. I appreciate the kind words, and trust me...if i can do a passable job like this you sure can....I can barely do paint by numbers good. You should be fine, let me kow if you need any help and I will shoot you some pointers.

It's a pretty good job! It's not an easy repaint for a first timer because of the need to do straight lines where there are no details to help you. You need to get a very fine brush, maybe even cut the bristles to make them shorter and use the blue to correct the edges of the red lines. Have a cloth handy to wipe off the paint if you go wrong. Stay calm and be patient with it!

Take a look at my first repaint (Starscream). The lines on him were done by hand.

Thanks for the feedback guys. It makes me feel alot better to know that people who have done these types of projects....realy well I might add.....have given me a thumbs up on a project I thought would only look good to me. I do plan to go back and clean up the stripes on him, and I will take your advice about the brushes...that really was one of my biggest problems with him.

A tip for doing the stripes: use tape to mask off the wings so you get straight lines.

For example:


Either that or buy the label set from Reprolabels

looks like he came out pretty good