The Energon Pub

by **clay** » Fri Nov 24, 2006 3:30 pm

It's been an industrious couple of days!

I've always liked the idea of Magnus actually being a smaller robot with extra armor thrown on, but not so much that he always has to be a repaint of Prime. With the proliferation of easy-to-find Meisters, I took a chance.

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f303/claywyatt1982/kitbash/PB230037.jpg

The head, while a pain to paint, was even more troublesome to remount on the Meister neck. I hate to cut and whittle the joint down so that it's little more than a stub. The Prime head sits on it neatly now and is secured with... sticky tak. Professional, eh?

Anyway, I think the neck stub is at the right height that, if I can find a ball that will fit the socket inside the head, I'll need to do little more than super glue it on top. But the question is how do I do that? What do you guys use for making/replacing ball joints?

I also need to alter the car mode a bit to differentiate it from Meister, but I'm not as sassed by that at the moment.

by **Pun-3X** » Fri Nov 24, 2006 5:20 pm

Hey Clay!

I'm liking the idea so far. Can't really help with the replacement ball joint, except to say that you should come up with something that you might be able to drill from underneath (into the ball joint's peg) and secure it to the body with a screw.

As for the paint apps, I'd say he definitely needs some. Pin stripes are the easiest solution for the car mode, but the robot body could use some red and blue--unless you're going for the full-on inner robot look.

by **TM Rawhide** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 1:19 am

Magnus from a Meister. Interesting. It definitely does remind me of Magnus

Anyway, for your head troubles. Over at Reprolables they over a sticker sheet to turn Nemesis into Trailbreaker. Along with this, they give instructions how to put Swindle's head on NP and NP's head on Swindle. This might be of use to you. Copied the link for ya, Right here. Hope it helps.

News Credits: 4 · by **MacrossFA19** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 6:44 am

Or you could try hot glue.

Sqeeze some hot glue into the socket of the head. Dip the ball joint into some water then shove the ball into the socket. Remove the head and trim the excess that came out, voila. The water will instantly cool the glue giving you a perfectly tight joint.

by **jimsloth** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 3:37 pm

So you already cut off the old ball? I never do that personally, don't want the neck to ball (which is already a stress point) to be a seem. If the ball is too big, I just ream out the socket. If the ball is too small, add clear nail polish in thin layers to the socket and once dry test them out till its a good fit.

But if its too late for that, You might want to find a bead from a craft store that fits right, then drill a hole down the neck, and fit a nail through the hole in the bead and down into the neck. Then just super glue away and the nail should give it enough added support that the joint wont break. You'd also need to cut off the end of the nail to the correct length as well.

by **Ramrider** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 3:43 pm

Yeah, if you've already cut the ball off, then anything you attach to replace it gonna need to be pinned securely to the neck, otherwise it'll snap off the second you try to move the head. I don't think there's a glue around, not even the best superglue or epoxy, that'd allow you to make a tight but movable joint like that.

by **clay** » Sat May 26, 2007 1:17 am

I was never happy with the Mazda Magus, and eventually regarded it as a dead end (not that kind of dead end).

I had a couple of spare Wheeljacks laying around that I changed my mind about what to do with, and eventually decided that using one of them for a Magnus would be neat.

I removed the blue stripes, and painted the belly, forearms, and shoulders blue. I originally painted the belly red (as it is in the 'armor' form), but it didn't really gel.

I am happy with it now

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f303/claywyatt1982/kitbash/magnus1.jpg
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f303/claywyatt1982/kitbash/magnus2.jpg
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f303/claywyatt1982/kitbash/magnus3.jpg

by **DTM** » Sat May 26, 2007 9:40 am

wow, that's amazing. If you put his doors up stright it would look like the stacks in armor mode, cool

by **Ramrider** » Sat May 26, 2007 11:45 am

That's a really good choice of mould, well done. It's bulky enough to represent a character like Magnus, and most of the colours are really in place! Nice job!

by **TM Rawhide** » Sat May 26, 2007 12:26 pm

Ramrider wrote:That's a really good choice of mould, well done. It's bulky enough to represent a character like Magnus, and most of the colours are really in place! Nice job!

I completely agree. This mold works wonderfully for Magnus. Never would've thought of it. If I didn't already use MP Magnus, I would most definitely do this as well.

The only thing I'm having a bit of trouble with is the blue line on the side of the car. I'm basically feeling that for this to work as Magnus none of the blue markings had to go. The absence of the other blue lines while this one is still present, kinda bothers me. I would go with either no blue line in altmode at all, or all lines.

Other then that, very nice.

by **clay** » Sat May 26, 2007 1:59 pm

Thanks guys!

Rawhide wrote:The only thing I'm having a bit of trouble with is the blue line on the side of the car.

They're part of the standard mustang deco. All the mustangs I've seen driving around town have a trim line with "MUSTANG" written on it.

Come to think of it, it's a bit weird that Grimlock doesn't have them.

Anyway, that's why I left them on.