I have not yet begun any actual work on the figure aside from breaking the neck's glue seal, but I have drafted a task list.
I. Parts to manufacture or obtain:
* Replacement left half of hood and accompanying wheel
* Replacement right half of hood and accompanying wheel
* Replacement front bumper
* Replacement windshield
* Replacement front door windows
II. Modifications to make:
* Carefully gut the electronics and the battery compartment
* Remove the chest cannon
* Remove the spring from inside his head so that the battle mask can be properly retracted and deployed at will (like on Cybertron Optimus Prime)
* If possible, cut the solid black rear windows on his truck doors and insert real glazing
* Remove the plastic blocking his knees from bending properly
* Cut apart his aft and add more joints so that the truck bed cover folds up properly out of the way.
* Make his front bumper actually deform and become part of his chest detail instead of using faux-parts
* Rearrange his truck kibble to be positioned more accurately and better-integrated, especially the panels on his arms. Sacrifice the weapon compartments if need be.
* Give his hands wrist swivels at minimum
* Build new cannons for him that are A. Reasonably accurate and B. Collapsible. I would like to retain cannon integration.
* Paint the dark blue bits into more accurate colors as necessary
* Paint the details
* Build the big gun from DotM at some point.
Comments and suggestions?
EDIT:
Work has begun!
I have gutted him of all electronics, even the battery box contacts, This will clear a lot of space.
I have also modified the head. I removed the spring for the mouthplate lever, and shaved down the inner side of the lever. This means that rather than being up by default, Ironhide's mouthplate can be deployed and retracted at will (much like Cybertron Optimus Prime's).
Here's Ironhide reassembled (for now) with the mods in place
