Hey guys, just dropping a side project I've been working on a little here and there for a bit. I decided to hack up the FansProject City Commander armor a bit and make it more G1. I had the idea back when I first bought the original release in '08. After seeing L_K's work with his (which was great), I knew just how awesome it would look and he has given me the push to hack up the BFG to make more of a car carrier type of trailer. Still haven't gotten that far just yet. First off, the armor needed those damn knee pads hacked off, so I hit 'em with the dremel. After that, I wanted those giant mitts gone, so I drilled out the backside of the hands and popped 'em off. I had recently gotten a set of Alt hands from a member over at TFormers. I hit 'em with some Krylon Fusion Satin White, then cut off most of the wrist piece, leaving a flat area that still allows them to swivel (then I glued the suckers in place--they hold well since it doesn't take much to swivel the hands).
I also added my G1 Takara re-release Ultra Magnus launchers and missiles. Almost forgot, took the smaller bot (the Classics Magnus) out of the armor, unscrewed the legs, and removed the folding knee pad. I then took my dremel and cut off the piece that had the pin still in it, then carefully shaved some of the insides of the legs and their remaining knee pad holders (or whatever the hell you call 'em). I shaved them enough so that I could take the knee pad and insert inside of the area, giving a more squared off knee for the bot and making it look MUCH better in the armored mode. The City Commander's original knee pads were freakin' HUGE and I hated how they ate his upper legs. By cutting them like I did, it did remove the attachment for the waist piece, but it still slides right into a nice spot where it used to and it seems to stay in place when in alt mode. I then hacked off the lower portion of his crotch (guess he'll learn to "deal with it"--lol). I then took the head and pulled the face piece down a bit, to give him the effect of larger eyes. I'm still debating on whether to take it a step further and go with the more visor-styled eyes of the G1 'toon Magnus. This will all be painted up similar to how L_K did his (G1-styled/'toon) and I may or may not do a more G1-styled chest for this. I like how it looks, I just don't know if I like the way the chest piece almost looks droppy--I want it up at the top of the chest. So some styrene work may be done. I will be painting the silver areas on the lower legs a nice blue (maybe leaving a couple of silver areas on the bumper). And I'm getting rid of the red on the arms and the white on the waist--I'll build a better waist belt with styrene also).
Anyway, let me know what you think of the leg and hand mods. I also may square off the shoulders a bit more, but still not sure yet. No work done yet on the BFG, other than popping off the panels and seeing where I'll need to make some cuts. Gotta give L_K a shout out for his inspiring work also.
*Update* Decided to give him a facelift and make him more G1. I removed the CC face from the helmet and sanded down the extra facial lines across the cheeks and cut the nose guard off the helmet. This meant I needed to build a new nose from a small square styrene rod. I decided to do the nose in a mix of G1 'toon and anime-styled. I also shaved that awful beard protrusion and got it down to something similar to the G1 'toon look. I sanded very carefully around the mouth to get rid of the muppet-like mouth and lines, while leaving the lips/mouth intact. Here's what I have so far (unpainted)--I'm still debating on whether to give him the larger eyes/visors or to just leave it as-is. I like how it looks now (much better than the CC's original face).
But I'd like some other opinions on this.....yes or no......should I leave the eyes the way they are now? Or go with the larger eyes/visors built from styrene? I've been told to leave the eyes as-is so far. I'm leaning that way, but I also think the visor-type eyes might look good. Just don't want to go that route and end up screwing up and wishing I had left 'em alone. Anyway, here's what I've done with the face so far:
And a few black & white shots to try and see how it looked without the obvious red mustache and beard now that I've shaved him. lol
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