Thanks guys, but you haven't seen anything yet! I'm going to do another long update here...
UPDATE:
First off, I wonder if Rumble or Frenzy would retain bladder control in the face of this?
Roller's MASER Cannon, Deck Gun mode:
CS, two of Contruct-Bots Soundwave's guns really came in handy for Roller; now he has guns that can mount on him in alt mode, and he can go in "two gun" style against that sawed-off little punk Frenzy:
Yeah, the deck may look a little too busy now; I have to paint some silver back onto it and tone down the detail a bit:
More detail for the combat mech's base:
Continuing to detail the deck, right side...
And the left (please forgive the blurry pic):
More pics on a more professional background per se:
The blue markings on the sides of the trailer are temporary as you'll see in a bit. Also, a latching system is now in place for the tailgate/ramp. Parts kindly donated by craftsmith now serve to lock the ramp in pace (as seen near the top rear of the trailer in a few pics).
I thought about using foil tape, but ultimately decided against it. it was just too much of a contrast and didn't really look right in tests. If my current idea doesn't work, I can still use it, but for now, I have a different technique I used:
Believe it or not, the silver and the blue striping are both
masking tape; I'm just waiting for them to dry fully, which is why they have slight wrinkles. I found that painting silver, then silver/ pearlescent mix (50/50), then coating the work with DecoArt Triple Thick Glaze gives it an almost chrome-like finish. Not quite there, but good enough for this project. The blue is DecoArt Metallic blue painted onto masking tape , which was then cut and applied to the silver in strips, then coated at the same time with the glaze.
Progress pics:
Inside the bay:
The displays are all G1 sticker scans, with the diagnostic of Optimus turned vertical (and some work to make the outline look more like Optimus!). After printing them to scale, I glued them to the back of clear plastic, and mounted them to the inside areas of the Combat Deck.
Classic G1 display:
Classic "Your skidplate is electro-grass, and I'm the nuclear-powered lawnmower!" display:
Not a good time to ask Prime about his opinion of Megatron:
I then did more work, with decals kindly donated by craftsmith.
The ones on the side of the trailer had to be done by hand (very complicated and
not my best work); the one on the front of the trailer was one of the ones sent to me:
I also took the time to devise a new hitch system for the trailer: only the peg slips in and is held by Prime's lower legs. The rotation system is held in the trailer, where it turns on a pinion/collar system:
The peg fit into place (trailer detached so you can see the pin in place):
The pin rotates very freely, yet stays in the trailer quite well. This prevents Prime's legs from having the lock mechanism "popped" open.
Right side symbol:
Left:
The only way I could do these was to scan the labels into the computer and reprint them at 185% on masking tape. I then hand-painted the details in (which explains the soft lines and unevenness) and applied them to the trailer.
Then, I finally managed to engineer a fold-out pylon to support the front end of the combat deck when the trailer is transformed:
(Yeah, I know it looks like a leg.
)
In any event, it now supports the deck and trailer modes, so I don't need to put anything under it when it is displayed alone in either mode:
Stay tuned...