The Energon Pub

I don't know man... I'm not much of a kitbasher and I've always thought kitbashing's harder for me to do than scratchbuilding coz you're trying to redesign with parts that aren't meant to function in that way in the first place.

K I've done up the design for the "trailer". And is this one perfect example of what I mean. Where the heck would I be able to find parts to build up something that can get me the right shapes and parts? And I hate cutting through ABS and diecast. So maybe it's easier to scratchbuild than kitbash afterall Just take the first step fellas, it's more fun and rewarding!

Oh, believe me, I'd love to be able to do what you're doing. I've got quite a bit of experience in CAD, and I've designed TFs from scratch before, which I'd love to have built up into the real thing.
I'm getting into scratching the Lobo way, using styrene from the ground up, but even with an accurate computer model, it's hard going to make every component perfectly so it matches up.
Your way, using the model itself to machine out a pjysical version, would be by far the ideal way to do it, but with the funds required to get hold of one of those fancy doohickeys, it's just not an option.

We can dream, though...

Nice work on the trailer, by the way. Are you going to come up with a battle station mode for it? I know it was never shown in the comics, but even if it just opened up into a weapons platform (sort of like Rodimus Prime) it'd be cool.

Ramrider wrote:but with the funds required to get hold of one of those fancy doohickeys, it's just not an option.

Heh that's one problem. That's one of the reasons why an ex partner left the company as I insisted in making the purchase of the machine. He didn't share my vision...

Ramrider wrote:Nice work on the trailer, by the way. Are you going to come up with a battle station mode for it? I know it was never shown in the comics, but even if it just opened up into a weapons platform (sort of like Rodimus Prime) it'd be cool.

The parts are already split apart and ready to be machined. I'm stopping here and let the creative juices flow from the kitbashers themselves. I've made the parts easy to convert if they wanted a battlestation and even included slight details on the floor panels, but that is about as much as I can do without increasing the cost any further for the trailer. Any extra parts or mechanisms will make it more costly. I just wanna quickly move on to the next project.

Griffith that is looking bad ass so far. The Prime and trailer is going to look so awesome together. I would gladly shell out $200 for just the prime model in black.(thinking Nemesis HOS Prime)

Good frickin' GOD. Simply stunning. Absolutely looks professionally made, like a mass-production ready proto from HasTak. Amazing work.

I know this is scratch-built, but since when it $200 a good price? (as opposed to average price perhaps)
I can't imagine anything I'd pay $200 for a single figure for... except maybe a "movie-accurate" transforming Unicron. and... considering the closest fan-made custom we've had are things like Arcee... I'm not holding my breath.

RavageX-9 wrote:I know this is scratch-built, but since when it $200 a good price? (as opposed to average price perhaps)
I can't imagine anything I'd pay $200 for a single figure for... except maybe a "movie-accurate" transforming Unicron. and... considering the closest fan-made custom we've had are things like Arcee... I'm not holding my breath.

Well this isn't quite the same type of scratchbuilt kit most people put out. This guy actually designed it all on the computer then machined the parts out. He's basically doing these at the level, if not the numbers, that a real toy manufacturer would be working at. This is closer in concept to a highend Gundam Model kit then your average fan made kit.

RavageX-9 wrote:I know this is scratch-built, but since when it $200 a good price? (as opposed to average price perhaps)
I can't imagine anything I'd pay $200 for a single figure for... except maybe a "movie-accurate" transforming Unicron. and... considering the closest fan-made custom we've had are things like Arcee... I'm not holding my breath.

its a good price.. when someone is willing to pay it.. and i know i am.. and i know there are others that are willing too....

I got curious earlier this evening and started looking at 3D printers. What type of printer do you use?

Personally I've never thought that there would be a good price for resin kits. I myself do not buy kits or build them. It just happens to be a price that I can barely accept for the hours I've put and putting into this project and a price that some are barely willing to fork out for something like this so its a win-win situation to buyers and seller. And home made stuff will never be comparable to factory manufactured stuff. I never once declared that this is a "masterpiece", a fabulous design or gonna a fantastic kit. I've seen the best kits in the world and own a couple of them. Mine's not even close to those, but I did pay $600 for mine. So my response is "no", $200 isn't a good price for this, and thus the limited supply to fulfill a limited demand.

Deathknell I use the Roland MDX-40. It's a small cnc milling machine. I can't afford a printer but if you're interested in those your best bet should be the Ede series. The others can't give you decent resolution at all.

Ah...I must have missed a post. I could have sworn I read that you were using a 3D printer.

Cool...I think I may look at that Roland though.

tentagil wrote:

RavageX-9 wrote:I know this is scratch-built, but since when it $200 a good price? (as opposed to average price perhaps)
I can't imagine anything I'd pay $200 for a single figure for... except maybe a "movie-accurate" transforming Unicron. and... considering the closest fan-made custom we've had are things like Arcee... I'm not holding my breath.

Well this isn't quite the same type of scratchbuilt kit most people put out. This guy actually designed it all on the computer then machined the parts out. He's basically doing these at the level, if not the numbers, that a real toy manufacturer would be working at. This is closer in concept to a highend Gundam Model kit then your average fan made kit.

OK I feel a lot better about showing my handmade DeLorean now, heh. No way it will come close to competing with this, but still.

layouts77 wrote:

tentagil wrote:

RavageX-9 wrote:I know this is scratch-built, but since when it $200 a good price? (as opposed to average price perhaps)
I can't imagine anything I'd pay $200 for a single figure for... except maybe a "movie-accurate" transforming Unicron. and... considering the closest fan-made custom we've had are things like Arcee... I'm not holding my breath.

Well this isn't quite the same type of scratchbuilt kit most people put out. This guy actually designed it all on the computer then machined the parts out. He's basically doing these at the level, if not the numbers, that a real toy manufacturer would be working at. This is closer in concept to a highend Gundam Model kit then your average fan made kit.

OK I feel a lot better about showing my handmade DeLorean now, heh. No way it will come close to competing with this, but still.

I can't even imagine scratchbuilding anything yet, so I give you props for being able to pull it off.

How can you make those things using machines? and how much does that machinery cost?

rhinox555 wrote:How can you make those things using machines? and how much does that machinery cost?

I looked up the milling system he uses...It runs in the $10,000 range. I better start playin the lottery!

Well, think it's part of his business so presumably the business pays for it and uses it in general.

10.000? it's actually lower than i thought,but still not affordable for me,oh well,i'll have to keep on handsculpting then.

rhinox555 wrote:10.000? it's actually lower than i thought,but still not affordable for me,oh well,i'll have to keep on handsculpting then.

Well they do have a leasing option

Hey Griffith,do you take requests for sculpting?

I paid a little more than 12K for my setup coz the local distributors had a little "mark up" on their own. Didn't get lucky with lottery so its bought on a loan (so though $200 for a kit isn't exactly a great price but there are bills to pay). There's no leasing option here in my part of the world or I'd use that option too, and would have gotten the bigger model that's twice cost, twice the size and comes with an automatic tool changer. The ATC will at least increase my prototyping speed by two to four times depending on how well I design the parts layout.

What do you mean by requests for sculpting? If you mean taking suggestions in what I should do next its yes, but since I've so many designs that I wanted to do I'll probably follow what I have planned unless your suggestion is really cool.

And if you're talking about paid commissions, yep I do that but I charge professional fees for normal sculpts (statues/busts) and for articulated/transformable ones there's an additional design cost. These costs are actually waived in this project, if you guys are wondering...

When you are ready to start taking orders on HOS Prime...How exactly will you go about it? Will you sell them via Ebay or what?

yeah, I'd like to know when you're gonna start taking orders too. I'll definitely buy one from you when you do.

I'm still cleaning up and assembling the trailer parts. Then I'll need to coat the parts and make molds then do test shots to see if I need to fine-tune any parts. When I'm sure I've got a solid product then I'll start taking orders.

griffith76 wrote:I'm still cleaning up and assembling the trailer parts. Then I'll need to coat the parts and make molds then do test shots to see if I need to fine-tune any parts. When I'm sure I've got a solid product then I'll start taking orders.

Yeah but HOW do you take those orders? Just PM you here or do you have a website of your own? Will it be through Ebay? Just curious

Its a little tricky on this part. My company has a website. Our "main businesses" includes "prototyping" and "production work for events". What I'm doing here is kinda like a side-line. We charge high fees for prototyping services (while other prototype makers charge ridiculously high) because our clients are either coporates or organisations so they do have certain budgets for us to work with.

On the issue on "commissions", I'm still exploring this area after started with an iron man bust that eventually got bought over by Bowen Designs recently and I'm interested to gain more experience through private commissioned projects by individuals. The problem with this is that the fee is usually pretty low and we can all understand that its a world of difference what a coporation and individual can afford. So I usually take up projects that I like or find fun or challenging, but even my fees would be considered high as people tend to compare with mass produced stuff. So if you have any great ideas to share you can pm me and we'll probably end up communicating through emails or msn messenger. Its ok to just share ideas and experiences without getting into any serious business, we're all here to learn.


And btw here's the last WIP pic. I've had enough of assemblies and disassemblies. Tomorrow the rest of the parts gets the gloss treatment and the molding will start. Enjoy... I missed out the "smoke stacks" on the train though... :p