The Energon Pub

Dead Metal wrote:

Sonray wrote:Just buy a new cheap one off ebay, or a used one. Looking around on flea markets is a waste of time. People are too smart in this day and age to sell things like tf's on flea markets (which will now be referred to as "boot sales" as that what we call them in the UK). I would know as ive been looking for them on boot sales for ages, thinking id find loads but all in vein. Ebay has ruined any chances we have of finding cheap tf's on boot sales.

Oh Bootsales, that's wy I wasn't entirely hapy with fleemarket (damn, I must stop beeing to lazy to think of the english names, and stop translating German into english like that)
Well that's not completly true!
Last summer I was visiting my grany in Bedford and found MISB Beast Wars for nothing! I got myself a MISB Optimal Optimus for a fiver! And a few smal ones for two quid each!

well in my expeirance boot sales have been useless for tf's. You mind find the occasional G1 example thats in horrid and floppy condition but hardly anything worth getting up at 8am and walking around for miles to look for.

tentagil wrote:Looking really good so far. As for allowing the wheels to rotate, or if you want to give him the wheel to heel thing, all you really need is a twirling hinge piece. I've actually got a hole pack of something that would work that I got at a shop specializing in model trains a few years ago.

If you just wanted the wheels to rotate first you need clearance, which would involve lowering them slightly do to the low arch on the fender you have there. Then slide a smooth pin through the wheel so it can spin freely on it, and mount the end of the pin to the car. Its actually incredibly easy.

As for having it flip down to the heel, wheel the placement is already right to get it there, all you'd need is a hinge on the pin holding to the car so that it can fold down. Little harder to pull of but still fairly easy to accomplish.

Of course I say this with a few years of kitbashing experience behind me, when I first started I don't think I could have done something looking as good as this guy is looking so far.

Hey there. Glad you are liking it.

Nice tips too and i would have gone for the rotating wheel thing but i dont have any of those pins, nor do i know of any place that sells them. But next time i will definateley be doing that. Since this was just my first project having rotating wheels was the last of my worries lol.

He's coming together nicely. Im still getting the bodywork sanded down to match the shape of everything so it fits together niceley now. Soon all i will have to do is finish making his feet, fabricate the hood and then take him all apart again for paint.

Sonray wrote:

Dead Metal wrote:

Sonray wrote:Just buy a new cheap one off ebay, or a used one. Looking around on flea markets is a waste of time. People are too smart in this day and age to sell things like tf's on flea markets (which will now be referred to as "boot sales" as that what we call them in the UK). I would know as ive been looking for them on boot sales for ages, thinking id find loads but all in vein. Ebay has ruined any chances we have of finding cheap tf's on boot sales.

Oh Bootsales, that's wy I wasn't entirely hapy with fleemarket (damn, I must stop beeing to lazy to think of the english names, and stop translating German into english like that)
Well that's not completly true!
Last summer I was visiting my grany in Bedford and found MISB Beast Wars for nothing! I got myself a MISB Optimal Optimus for a fiver! And a few smal ones for two quid each!

well in my expeirance boot sales have been useless for tf's. You mind find the occasional G1 example thats in horrid and floppy condition but hardly anything worth getting up at 8am and walking around for miles to look for.

That's just wat I felt for the last 6 years, but that bootsale was grate in form of TFs.

Bloody hell that looks cool.


Jumped in at the deep end didn't ya? I mean, not even doing slight mods first, but going straight at producing your own!


You sir, have much gusto. I salute you.

Lord Crump wrote:Bloody hell that looks cool.


Jumped in at the deep end didn't ya? I mean, not even doing slight mods first, but going straight at producing your own!


You sir, have much gusto. I salute you.

Hehe, why thankyou *bows*

Yeah i like to jump in at the deep end sometimes, besides ive worked on real cars before i figured a little toy wouldnt be any harder than restoring a REAL VW bug.

Dead Metal wrote:Here he is.



As I designt hin I was looking at Armada Megatron.

First thing that came to mind when I saw that pic was Titanium War Within Megatron, with a RID X-Brawn/Wildride head.

--B-- wrote:

Dead Metal wrote:Here he is.
As I designt hin I was looking at Armada Megatron.

First thing that came to mind when I saw that pic was Titanium War Within Megatron, with a RID X-Brawn/Wildride head.

you got a good eye under those red sun glasses, B.

Wheel_Jack wrote:

--B-- wrote:

Dead Metal wrote:Here he is.
As I designt hin I was looking at Armada Megatron.

First thing that came to mind when I saw that pic was Titanium War Within Megatron, with a RID X-Brawn/Wildride head.

you got a good eye under those red sun glasses, B.

Even more impressive is how he can use a keyboard when he only has paws.

Hmm...seems someone beat me to this project.

http://www.marksprojects.com/bumblebee.htm

But thats fine because at least i know how awesome he will look once he is finished, and the doors folding behind the feet idea is great, im gonna do that to mine now too!

Im nearing the end of the fabrication process for my kitbash. Im now just trying to make a hood because i messed up the original one. And im working on finishing up the feet. After that all i have to do is make a slight mod to the neck base and then fit it all together and then paint it.

I fell a bit behind as i had a few days of procrastination hence why there hasnt been many updates for a while.

Anyway, watch this space.

Oh and by the way, does Bumble Bee in the cartoon have a box like shape on the rear of his car mode? You know not on the roof but actually on the back, just above the bumper and basically on what would be the hood of the VW?

don't sweat it. I rather like it when somebody "beats" me to a project. you can see what works and what doesn't without going through the trouble yourself.

Just a quick update:

I almost have him completed but tonight when i transformed him into alt mode there was a huge gap between the doors and the side pillars around the windshield and front section of the roof which i thought i had already taken care of long ago. Seems with all the other scratch building going on this gap became bigger and now needs to be filled.

So i am going to widen the pillars and roof section to cover up these gaps and once that is done i am going to try and fabricate a clip that will hold the doors firmly in place to the rear section of the alt mode when transformed, otherwise he will be very delicate and transforming him will be more of a balancing act rather than a fun experiance.

I also need to make a few further mods to the forward hood section that become his feet but its nothing major, and then i need to make a large mod to the actual detachable hood itself.

Other than that everything is shaping up well so hopefully i can have him finished by the end of this week. Once the final mock-up is complete i will take a pic and post it here to show you what he looks like before painting.

Im waiting for some clear autobot symbols to arrive from reprolabels to put on his chest/roof which will add the finishing touch to the paint job once its done.

Man...next time i do a kitbash, im drawing up som freaking diagrams first!

This trial and error bullcrap, 95% of which is error, is really starting to fry my nerve circuits!

OH MY GOTH
GO THE SUPER GLUE!!!

Blimey Charley - your first kitbash and you've jumped straight into a reshell? Nutter, that's what you are.

Blinding job so far, though, from what I can see. Especially since from what you've said, you hardly did any pre-planning on it either. Can't wait to see how it all turns out.

I don't know if you're still looking for guns, but I have a suggestion that I used for both my Goldbug and Cliffjumper figs - the pics here are Cliff, but Goldbug got a similar gun.
The gun here comes from Armada Sideswipe (or Treadshot, or Oilslick, or whatever you prefer). It's a handy little pistol, and fits nicely in the hand. For this one I made a gas canister made from part of a Games Workshop Necron gauss flayer, but I didn't do that for Goldbug.



And the gun also stores nicely in vehicle mode... if you point the handle into the gap between the heels and the peg that holds the knees together, the rest of the gun nestles snugly between the forearms.

Ramrider wrote:Blimey Charley - your first kitbash and you've jumped straight into a reshell? Nutter, that's what you are.

Blinding job so far, though, from what I can see. Especially since from what you've said, you hardly did any pre-planning on it either. Can't wait to see how it all turns out.

I don't know if you're still looking for guns, but I have a suggestion that I used for both my Goldbug and Cliffjumper figs - the pics here are Cliff, but Goldbug got a similar gun.
The gun here comes from Armada Sideswipe (or Treadshot, or Oilslick, or whatever you prefer). It's a handy little pistol, and fits nicely in the hand. For this one I made a gas canister made from part of a Games Workshop Necron gauss flayer, but I didn't do that for Goldbug.



And the gun also stores nicely in vehicle mode... if you point the handle into the gap between the heels and the peg that holds the knees together, the rest of the gun nestles snugly between the forearms.

I love that cliffjumper! I need to get me one of those...well two actually. One to keep original and one to mod.

Ive managed to make a gun. I modded an UZI 9MM and lengthened the barrel and changed the location of the ammo clip and cut a few bits off here and there to make it look less uzi-like. I also had to change the butt of the gun to fit into his hands.

Yep np pre-planning, just jumped right in at the deep end and got on with it.

He shaping (literally) together nicely now though and i should have him finished within the next few days as long as i dont procrastinate too much that is...

Could you show me some pics of your goldbug?

No problem. Here's a pic of Goldbug with a fan character of mine, Hardshell. If you click it it'll take you to my Photobucket album, and there are some more pics of Goldbug after it. The one before is demonstrating his light piping.

Ramrider wrote:No problem. Here's a pic of Goldbug with a fan character of mine, Hardshell. If you click it it'll take you to my Photobucket album, and there are some more pics of Goldbug after it. The one before is demonstrating his light piping.

Nice but i cant view any pics in your album. It says its private and wants me to put in a password.

Nice re-paints, i cant really see the light piping though. I was thinking of doing something like that with BB involving a tiny LED inside his head which lights up at the push of a button. However LED's are freaking expensive from what ive seen and i dont know where id mount the battery and switch either. Maybe on a bigger project like on an ALT but maybe im just over complicating things so i decided to just paint his eyes light blue.

Oh, right - didn't realise it was private by default. I've changed the settings now; if you try clicking the pic again, you should get into the album.

I don't think LEDs are that expensive, but if you did go that route, you'd be hard-pushed to find anywhere to fit batteries, and you'd probably lose articulation, at least in the head, and possibly more depending on how you rigged it. It's definitely best left for at least a Voyager size fig or an Alternator.

I do my light piping using hot glue. I cut out the eyes with a drill and scalpel (assuming I need to - obviously with the BB mould the job's done for you), and then remove a chunk from the back of the head to allow the light through. Then I pump hot glue into the gap, and once it's set it's translucent. Then I just have to trim and file it to shape, and paint it with a coloured clearcoat to tint it. Some colours seem to work better than others, though. I'm finding blue doesn't work that well, but red and yellow look awesome (as evidenced on my Hardshell and Dreadwind bashes).

Ramrider wrote:Oh, right - didn't realise it was private by default. I've changed the settings now; if you try clicking the pic again, you should get into the album.

I don't think LEDs are that expensive, but if you did go that route, you'd be hard-pushed to find anywhere to fit batteries, and you'd probably lose articulation, at least in the head, and possibly more depending on how you rigged it. It's definitely best left for at least a Voyager size fig or an Alternator.

I do my light piping using hot glue. I cut out the eyes with a drill and scalpel (assuming I need to - obviously with the BB mould the job's done for you), and then remove a chunk from the back of the head to allow the light through. Then I pump hot glue into the gap, and once it's set it's translucent. Then I just have to trim and file it to shape, and paint it with a coloured clearcoat to tint it. Some colours seem to work better than others, though. I'm finding blue doesn't work that well, but red and yellow look awesome (as evidenced on my Hardshell and Dreadwind bashes).

Ah, hot glue eh? Didnt know it was that simple! I might try that myself. I have to ask though, how the heck did you get hardshell to hold his jetski like a gun? Thats an awesome little mod! So is his light piping!

I like your cybertron (?) hotrod mod, he looks great! Did you paint on those flames or are they stickers?

Great artwork btw! Oh and how do you make your own heads?

Sonray wrote:Ah, hot glue eh? Didnt know it was that simple! I might try that myself. I have to ask though, how the heck did you get hardshell to hold his jetski like a gun? Thats an awesome little mod! So is his light piping!

That was a fiddly bit of work, but not actually as hard as I thought it would be. First off, I took off the 'windshield' and filed down the hinge on the base part, so that the windshield folds out more. The gun barrels came from an old MechMac kit, but I had to do a fair bit of filing to make them fit, and to allow Hardshell to still tow it in trailer mode.
The bit you're interested in, though, is the post. I unscrewed the trailer so I just had the jetski, and carved out a hollow in the seat area (using a combination of scalpel, rotary tool etc - whatever got the job done!). The post is just a short length of styrene tubing (4.8mm diameter). It's attached to a hinge made from a couple of layers of thick styrene shaped to fit into the hollow, and a 1mm hole was drilled right through the trailer and hinge, so I could insert a length of wire to act as a pin.
I used 4.8mm tubing partially because it was the closest to 5mm I could get, and partially because I made up the extra 0.2mm with a coat of paint and a couple of layers of superglue.

Sonray wrote:I like your cybertron (?) hotrod mod, he looks great! Did you paint on those flames or are they stickers?

That's all paint. Also, what you can't see from the photos is the metallic effect they've got, which is done using a coat of Inscribe Acrylic Pearly Glaze. That stuff's brilliant.

Sonray wrote:Great artwork btw! Oh and how do you make your own heads?

Glad you like the artwork! As for the heads, I'm not quite sure what you're referring to. Most heads are just modded from the existing ones with styrene and putty. The only two exceptions that I can think of are the Alpha Trion (which is cobbled together from E-Bulkhead's face and Vector Prime's rear head, with a styrene tube used for the neck post), and, the Armada Prime one, which I'm guessing is what you're talking about.
It's only the face that I copied, but that was hot glue again, actually; I basically pumped hot glue all over the component, then when it was set I peeled it off and filled it with Milliput epoxy putty.

Was that any help..?

ah i see. Yes it was quite interesting. You can buy styrene tubing in different sizes like that? I didnt know that, it would have saved me some hassle with the damn gun i modded if i did. Oh well.

Yeah, the Evergreen stuff (most common manufacturer) comes in quite a few diameters. Memory serves, I've got something like 1.8mm, 4.8mm and 5.3mm. I also find microstrip useful for scratchbuilt guns (like the Hot Rod you mentioned earlier). It's basically long thin strips of styrene (the stuff I have is something like 1mm x 2mm x 300mm), which is great for detailing.

Ramrider wrote:Yeah, the Evergreen stuff (most common manufacturer) comes in quite a few diameters. Memory serves, I've got something like 1.8mm, 4.8mm and 5.3mm. I also find microstrip useful for scratchbuilt guns (like the Hot Rod you mentioned earlier). It's basically long thin strips of styrene (the stuff I have is something like 1mm x 2mm x 300mm), which is great for detailing.

Thats what im gonna need for my MP Prime trailer if i ever get round to it. Where do you buy it from?

I've got a couple of model shops near me; I get most of it from Gee Dee models. You should be able to get from anywhere that sells things like model trains. They also do specially textured sheets, designed for scaled pavements, platforms, sidings etc; they could come in handy for you too.

Ramrider wrote:I've got a couple of model shops near me; I get most of it from Gee Dee models. You should be able to get from anywhere that sells things like model trains. They also do specially textured sheets, designed for scaled pavements, platforms, sidings etc; they could come in handy for you too.

I have nothing like that around me. I was hoping you had a website where you bought your stuff from as the only hobby craft store near me only sells the very basic stuff, they dont even have styrene they are pretty useless, everything sucks around my area.

Do you know of any place online or any ebay sellars that you could send me their links?

If the worst comes to the worst i could send you some money and you can go out and buy what i need and i'll give ya a drink or something for sending it to me.

Well, I've never bought styrene online, but I just did a quick Google...
http://www.google.com/search?client=ope ... 8&oe=utf-8

J Perkins might be able to help - they're a wholesaler and don't sell direct, but might be able to help find someone who does. There's a store locator link at the top of the page; if you click that and enter the first two letters of your postcode it'll find model stores in your area who could well have what you need. Try that - you never know, there might be stores near you that you don't know about.

Meantime, I'll ask around, see if I can't find something more solid - there might be someone on Transtopia or TerraGenesis, for example, who know somewhere.