The Energon Pub

Hey all,

So I happened upon a PRID Bulkhead the other day, and since I (like many others) missed out on the FE one, TRU had a sale of TF's, and there was exactly one BH in a sea of PRID Primes, I made the decision to pick him up.

After pulling him out of the box, I am very pleased with the figure. It might not be as show-accurate as FE BH, but it's pretty darn good. I really like the battering ram acessory, but I HATE the 'mechtech' wrecking ball gun disaster. So, I wanted to do something about it.

I looked online and found this:

http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/creative- ... eapon.html

Now, the only thing I really don't like about that idea is that it makes the figure untransformable without having to break out a screw driver each time. So, I went for a somewhat simpler modification myself.

I disassembled the 'mechtech' weapon just as in the above article until I was left with the ball and the litle grey piece that cannot be detached. I then filed the end of that grey piece down using an exacto knife and small modelling file until it could fit in BH's hands. This also allows it to be stored numerous ways in vehicle mode. Here are pictures (please visit album for all available photos):

Album:

http://s41.photobucket.com/albums/e251/Von_Richthofen/Bulkhead/

This is the modified mace piece:



This is how it looks in BH's hands, and stored on his back:





Here are two ways you can set it up in vehicle mode:





Hope you like it!

I'll might try that with my rid bulkhead

I like that. I don't attempt modifications often, but there's nothing to lose with this one. The worst that could happen is I ruin a MechTech weapon that sucked to begin with.

That with the Chest Wing mod, and he'd be perfect.

BeastProwl wrote:That with the Chest Wing mod, and he'd be perfect.

Hmmm.... and where can I find said Mod?

Autobot Strider wrote:

BeastProwl wrote:That with the Chest Wing mod, and he'd be perfect.

Hmmm.... and where can I find said Mod?

Ask and you shall receive

Okay, wow, now I'm inspired to try and find some of those hinges. That fixes two problems - the open sides and the overhead "wings".

If only the designers had done this in the first place!

Now, I just have to find out where, locally, such hinges can be found, or alternatively I may use lego.

Thanks!

Ultimate bulkhead, lol.
But yeah, it's such a simple design change, but it makes so much difference, it's a wonder they didn't think of it. Now, all we need is a way to bring up the headlights and Bulkhead would be tolerable.

Okay, so inspired by BeastProwl's reference, I decided that my PRID BH needed some more surgery:

So, I cut the rear doors off from Bulk's "wings", and then tried to figure out how to join them:





I settled on using Lego, since I have a ton of it lying around unused. I found some lego hinges and then cut them so they would fit behind the doors:





However, I found that these hinges were too small and there wasn't enough glue holding them in place so they kept popping off. I then decided to go with longer hinges:



Now, even with the longer hinges, the darned things kept popping off. I had been using testor's modelling glue, but it's pretty useless with harder plastic, so I switched to Epoxy and so far I have had zero problems. It's also worth noting that you have to trim some of the details in the inside of the door to have this hinges fitting nicely.

So here is the finished product! Note that I have my doors hanging low, which allows the back doors to contact the "trunk" area. I like that it fills in the gap quite fully, and kinda makes Bulk look a little rounder... dare I say that he has "love handles"?





And just to show the difference if you have the doors high on the chest:





Next up, I'm going to try and turn the leftovers of his "mace-gun-monstrosity" into a chaingun or something else befitting a Wrecker. Then with the Reprolabels set for this BH, he'll be as good as it gets barring a FE figure!

I just want to know how you cut through plastic so easily. I have a ton of exacto knives, and many different blade heads, yet none of them want to go through plastic.

BeastProwl wrote:I just want to know how you cut through plastic so easily. I have a ton of exacto knives, and many different blade heads, yet none of them want to go through plastic.

I just use an exacto. I cut along where I want to cut through with light pressure until it creates a "track". Then I keep going in the same track using stronger pressure until it eventually cuts through. It didn't take very long at all, actually.

Autobot Strider wrote:I just use an exacto. I cut along where I want to cut through with light pressure until it creates a "track". Then I keep going in the same track using stronger pressure until it eventually cuts through. It didn't take very long at all, actually.

My PCC Mudslinger broke right out of the box as expected, and I replaced his legs and made him into a whole new character using parts from Skyhammer. Problem is, there are pegs on the insides of his thighs that go out to far, and I need to clip them off. It's just regular plastic, so I don't know why cutting along doesnt work.

Nice job o the doors too! Makes that bulkhead so much better.