The Energon Pub

It had to be done... now I've got hold of a second Classics Prime, I've started work on converting him into Motormaster. I've reworked some torso details and sculpted a new face so far, as well as starting on the paintjob.





Here he is with his old body...


The cannon so far...


...and in vane mode.


I'm also toying with the idea of making a full Menasor. Here's a torso mode I came up with for Prime, with a Brakedown acting as a potential arm (Drag Strip, maybe?). I think the knee flaps may work as connectors for legbots too. I'm thinking I can also use the hole for the wind vane to plug in a larger head, a la PM Prime, and I want to try to work out how a sword could be hidden in truck mode too.


Any comments or ideas greatly appreciated.

After a jowl mod and a quick paintapp, here's how Motormaster's face looks now. The sculpt wasn't quite as smooth as I'd've hoped, but I'm pretty happy with it.

Nice to see Prime getting made into a Decepticon, and not being called Scourge. Motormaster always made more sense, to me.

Yeah, same here. I've never quite fallen for the old "Prime's Evil Twin" gig. Motormaster is the closest thing he ever had in G1, and rightly so.

I am trying to make several mods to make Motormaster differ from the Prime fig. While structurally it's basically remaining intact, I'm planning to ditch the smokestack weapon and fit new exhausts on the forearms, as well as adding some different detail work on areas like the forearms, shoulders, and possibly legs. That, and of course whatever mods I make to help him combine...

Nice, i think the hardest part will be make adapters for the legs.

It might be, although like I said, the knee flaps may kind of give me a head start. It should be a lot easier to work out how the connections will work once I've sussed out what the legs will be made from.

Why not use Mirage as Dragstrip? Mod him to move the wheel/back part and he ends up a good bit smaller, I think he'd work pretty well. Then a few modded Hotrods would give you the other limbs.

I also wouldn’t use the knees as the connection points. I would use the feet.

I don't know about using Mirage and Hot Rods; us primitive Brits haven't seen them yet (at least I haven't), so I've no idea how they'd work or connect. I certainly wouldn't rule out the idea yet, but right now I'm just pottering around with stuff I actually have.

As for using MM's feet as connection points... I'd like to do that. The problem is that he'd then wind up with multi-jointed legs, unless you have any ideas for making the thighs retract into the lower legs, which I don't at the mo.

Just have the side parts that fold down for the transformation not fold down, that will lock the knee effectively removing that joint. Use the transformation you have their but with the legs facing the other way so that the original knee is facing his back then use his downward pointing feet as the connector point/knee joint for the combined form.

Hmm. I'm not entirely convinced how that'll look, but it sounds like it has potential. I can't help thinking the thighs would wind up particularly long and spindly-looking, but it may work. Although if I do it, it'd probably be better with knees forward and using the standing foot as the connection piece, considering how it folds.

When I get back home in a few days (I'm with my girlfriend's family for Christmas), I'll have a potter and see what comes up.

Thanks for the ideas.

That’s what I was thinking too. Keep the legs facing forward and use the feet in standing position.

Well you've inspired me to try my hand at a Menasor of my own now. of course now I have to actualy find classics in my area. All the ones I have are BBTS purchases since the shelves are still clogged with Cybertron here.

But once I get myself a pair of Hotrods, a Prime, and a Mirage I'll get to work, still not sure who would make a good Dead End thats in scale though.

The transformation wouldn’t be even close to accurate, but you could use Bumblebee.

Not really worried about transformation accuracy really, though I'd like a close alt mode, Bumblebee is to short in both modes though. He'd jsut throw off the combined mode completely. Maybe E-Downshift, he's about the right size, but then I'd have to find another one of him too.

So far Prime's the only Classic I've been able to find. Personally, though, I'm not too concerned what lines the figs come from; I'm actually quite liking Brakedown now, and I'm actually tempted to make at least Drag Strip out of him (with some mods, obviously), especially since I've already worked out how to attach him in arm mode. Depending on how different I can make him look, there's a chance I might make someone else out of him too (either Breakdown or Wildrider, I think).

I'll be interested to see how your Menasor turns out, Tentagil. Have you worked out how Mirage and Hot Rod could be transformed to work as limbs yet?

Arms yes, still looking at legs though. Hot Rod I think I've figured out for that, Mirage will harder to do as a leg since he's so thin. I mean he's got a good foot built in, but the front end is so thin that attaching it to the leg is gonna look wonky. But I have a few ideas to try out to make it work.

I've a set of hands in the right size for the combined mode handy in my junk box too which is nice. Thinking a I may build a trailer from scratch that can give me the Chest piece, crotch piece, and back/over shoulder part to complete the Menasor mode. Right now I'm gonna focus on making Breakdown since I already have an extra slightly butchered Hot Rod from a failed attempt at that interior mod, and try to find the other bots i need to do this. Then I've already figured out how to make Wildride significantly different fusing the same mold.

Still not sure on Dead End though. I mean I want a fairly well articulated bot mode with a good alt mode thats around the same size in both modes as the classic guys. E-Downshift is close but he's actually a little too big. Not a huge difference but enough that it throws it off a bit.

At this point I'm looking at this list to make him

Motormaster - Modified Prime with scratch Built trailer (Will house chest and crotch pieces as well as hands and Menasor's gun)
Breakdown - Modified Hot Rod (New head, some resulpting/body work, paint)
Drag Strip - Modified Mirage (resulcpted head, paint work, possible adding the extra wheels, not sure yet)
Wildride - Crosswise
Dead End - Modified Hot Rod (New head, resulpting/body work, paint)

Edit: changed my list a bit. Crosswise fits pretty much perfectly as Wildride and I think I can modify Hotrod enough to make him Dead End.

Not a major update - I have been working on Motormaster, but I want to get a bit more sorted before I post more updates.

However, I have pretty much made a decision on how I'll do the limbs for Menasor. I've pottered around a bit with some basics and such, and worked out that I can make arms from Brakedowns (as above), and that Clocker/Swerves will serve very nicely as legs - in fact I've already started to repaint the Brakedown I have into Drag Strip. I'll need to make some more investigations as to exactly how they'll connect, but I'm getting a pretty good idea. Meanwhile, here's a quick digibash to illustrate roughly how he'll look (using Brakedown and Blackjack).

Honestly? I don’t like it. While Brakedown might makre a half-way decent Dragstrip, he is no good for any of the other three Stunticons. Also, attaching the leg bots to the knees of your “Motormaster” will inhibit knee flexion. Using Classics Deluxes would work better.

While I don't have any of the deluxes to mess with, I've gotta say, I'm doubtful. The basics work out about the right size for the limbs. I'm pretty sure the deluxes would be too big. And as for the position of the leg connection, what I've got in mind should hardly obstruct the knee articulation at all, if at all. I tried it with the legs at full length, and it just looked ridiculous - far too lanky to be Menasor, and I can't see how I could make Motormaster much bulkier to balance that (except for maybe scratchbuilding a trailer to add Menasor's mass, which I think is Tentagil's approach).
As for using Brakedown for a non-Drag Strip Stunticon, I'm not entirely fixed on it yet. I may find something else to use, but if I do go with Brakedown, you can bet he'll be modified enough to make him work as whoever I convert him to...

The problem with attaching the leg bots to the knees is it requires Prime/Motormaster’s knees to be alredy bent, and that model’s knees only bend 90 °. Therefore, once the leg bots are attached, he won’t hav bending knees at all, unless you count reverse bending. The other problem is that you would have the main bot’s lower legs sticking out behind the bot, which would be unsightly. It would not look good in the least. Having the main bot’s legs fully extended, and using larger limb bots would be much more aesthetically pleasing as well as more functional. Tentagil is on the right track building a trailer to add bulk.

Actually the whole large bots legs are dangling behind thing would be reminiscent of the original. I'm curious about how you plan on attaching the limbs and still have a working knee joint there.

Have you thought about mounting the smaller bots to his legs? I mean actually mounting them to the front of them of the lower leg itself. Would make for some really thick lower legs though I guess.

Tramp wrote:The problem with attaching the leg bots to the knees is it requires Prime/Motormaster’s knees to be alredy bent, and that model’s knees only bend 90 °. Therefore, once the leg bots are attached, he won’t hav bending knees at all, unless you count reverse bending.

Depends on how you're attaching the 'bots. You seem to be assuming that I'm attaching them directly to the lower legs, which would bring the articulation down to zero; but that's not what I'm doing. I'm planning to utilise the existing kneeflaps to act as part of the connection mechanism. When the limb bots attach to them, they'll be able to flex back about 90 degrees, as you'd expect.

Tramp wrote:The other problem is that you would have the main bot’s lower legs sticking out behind the bot, which would be unsightly.

True to some extent, but from what I've got so far, they don't stick out anywhere near as far as you'd think. Besides, surely that'd just add that much more G1-accuracy - having weird protuberances at the back of his legs wouldn't be new feature to Menasor by any means... [EDIT: he he... as Tentagil noted while I was typing all this...]

Tramp wrote:Having the main bot’s legs fully extended, and using larger limb bots would be much more aesthetically pleasing as well as more functional.

That's an opinion, but not one I hold with myself. As I said, the fully extended legs seems to give very spindly thighs; even with bulked-out lower legs from deluxes, I'm not sure how good it'd look. And since I'm planning to have full articulation of the legs, your suggestion certainly wouldn't be more fuctional, just as functional. Or slightly less, since Prime's feet don't actually tilt 90 degrees.

Tramp wrote:Tentagil is on the right track building a trailer to add bulk.

He may be on a right track. Believe me, I like the idea, and I can't wait to see how it bears out, but that's gonna be quite an undertaking. I considered it, but couldn't decide where the hell I'd start - eventually realising it may not be necessary to scratchbuild a trailer.

I didn't even think of the knee flaps, mostly because I tend to forget to move them when I transform him. But that could definitely work, they'd give the range of motion if attached right.

And yeah I'm gonna have to work with the somewhat spindly upper legs on my version, the super folding trailer I'm designing should help some, but I'm still in early stages so we'll see. If I get it right the trailer will include the gestalt head, the shoulder attachment points, as well as a waist cover that well bulk up his lower body some and fill some gaps. It will also add some more upper chest area and the classic box behind his head.

For me its jsut a matter of its actually easier to find the Classics deluxes right now, and I jsut want a Menasor who actually towers over other bots. I mean the original is incredible short really. I want a towering monster.

Yay! No pics yet, since I've yet to actually do the mods (due to woeful lack of Brakedowns and Clockers). But I think I've figured out a working transformation for Menasor, using the aforementioned figs.
I've also got a pretty good idea of how to make a spare Brakedown look very different, but still function the same, and to mod the Clockers so they work well as both Stunticons and as better legs.
And for the record, the knee-flap joints should work very well...

Still need to work out how I'll do the head, hands and sword, though. I definitely want to avoid having extraneous parts that don't go anywhere in the vehicle and robot modes. I have a couple of ideas, but they're very hazy at the mo...

EDIT: I've actually just had an idea filched unintentionally from the Predacons, utilising vehicle mode weapons as feet for Menasor; I have a couple of spare double-barrelled arm cannons from E-Shockblasts which, with mods, will fit quite nicely onto a Clocker, and are about right to work as feet too. I'll need to work out wat to do with 'em in robot mode, though...