The Energon Pub

Finally get to finish my Leader Megatron. Took a lot more work, time & paint to bring it up to this OK looking level (still very playable and a bit rough, but better looking than stock), when both Prime and Brawl just need a weathering wash & some silver highlight touch up. Megatron need quite a few more layers of paint. And the silver paint just smear all over your hand without a good layer of clear coat. I used (Model Master Laquer Overcoat # 1959) semi-gloss to better match the 'not so shiny look' on the other two. Turned out pretty good with no bubbling. Pretty happy with the results.









Toy-wise, I would rank them as follow:

Leader Prime - 9/10 Hands down a great toy, aside the slightly off proportion and chunkiness. Great construction, very nice spring ratchet joints and weight balance, fun transformation, nice truck mode, with nice gimmick and clever automorph. Other than a slightly nicer sculpt and joints on the wrists & waist, I can't really ask for more at this $40 price.

Leader Brawl - 8.5/10 Brawl is very nice. Almost as good as Prime, but feel a bit more fiddly due to all the smaller parts and weapons hanging all over. And some of his ratchets(arms) are not as nicely built as Prime's. But articulation is just about as good as Prime's, minus the nice ankle ball joints. Brawl also got the best light & sound gimmick, with multiple ways to trigger/change the sound effects. His robot mode might look a bit funky, but sure he packed a lot of firing power LOL (with at least one weapon on every limb), and a awesome tank mode.

Leader Megatron - 7/10 (6/10 if stock) Hands down the sucky guy among the three. Articulation is low with either small movement range joints or with stuff getting in the way. Flimpsy toes that can't support weight due to the legs automorph design, making Megatron often off balance and hard to do action pose without falling. Jet mode is not too bad. Nice wing span and wing folding automorph too. But how the head rested is pretty odd. Really ugly paint job with funny pink parts too. Arm gimmicks are fun, but only if you swap the springs in the arms. So Megatron can be kind of nice, but it needs a lot of work and fixing to get there.

really really nice.... good stuff. i like .

awesome paint job!

Thanks for sharing your great work mpchi, I'm sure these leader figures will thank you for their new lives.

Cheers!

I like the paint job you did on Megatron. I want to repaint mine.

great stuff, my favorite part was what u did with megatrons face, real cool

Kudos to you! :3

Like the Megatron figure the most, but thats probably because he does need the most work to look decent.

Yeah, he does take more work. But I do have to say that his head sculpt is actually quite good and very detailed, down to his teeth. Almost makes Prime's head look like a Deluxe figure in comparison. Just that the original paint job hides all those nice sculpting on the face.

I pretty much killed his teeth while I was painting his head... that plastic is fragile...

I like nice work, to me it looks like ur not a big fan of the dry brush correct?? I like the way u washed primes legs,,, sweet!

Deceptiwho? wrote:I like nice work, to me it looks like ur not a big fan of the dry brush correct?? I like the way u washed primes legs,,, sweet!

Thanks for the compliment. I used dry brush a little, but only whenever it needs to and when it looks good. Megatron has some, mostly on the arm attachment and some on the lower leg to show some tone transition and wear. But having the entire thing dry brush all the way through might look a bit odd.

Most of my leader class Prime is dry brushed actually if u want Ill post some pics so u can see what it would look like... hes not near done yet but...

Deceptiwho? wrote:Most of my leader class Prime is dry brushed actually if u want Ill post some pics so u can see what it would look like... hes not near done yet but...

No worries. Just post pics when you are done. Would love to see the results.

A comparison pic just for kicks.

Will do sir, prolly within the next day or so..

those look wicked!! great job! the only reason i have'nt bought a leader megs is because of his looks! yours looks very cool!!

Hey I want to wash my Brawl like that? How did you go about doing it?

gah, i hate this type of people, they can do so awesome repaints and i feel sad cuz mine looks less cool...and your repaints are awesome...and please dont get me wrong in the i hate u thing, all im sayin is that people do so awesome jobs on this and i feel pretty much less capable of making one of my own...oh and ur repaint of brawl is awesome!

Damn! Brawl looks awesome - wish I could get one painted like that!

Those are heller cool!

great job, MOAR MOAR!

King of Terror wrote:Hey I want to wash my Brawl like that? How did you go about doing it?

The good part is that, all of you guys can paint it just as nice, if not nicer than mine. I am no joking. Megatron needs more paint work. But for Brawl and Prime, its a piece of cake. Just need some paint, patience, and a few hours. In terms of procedure, its very easy:

Get some flat black (dark grey if you want lower contrast) enamel paint, and a bottle of enamel thinner. Dilute it around 1 portion of paint mix with 2 portion of thinner, so its very thin. Use some cheap brush and apply it all over to all panels. Brush on more if there are a lot of mechanical bits, like in the belly and armpit. Let dry. Then use Q-tip dipping a little thinner, and smudge away, while wipe off excessive paint with tissue/paper towel as you go. You can always brush on some more paint in areas that need more paint and redo the smudging. When you got all areas covered and look the way you like, let dry. Then use a silver paint marker to touch up some edges, corners, highlight in areas you want to show some metal wear. Some finger smearing might needed in some areas. If you worry smearing the nice detail while transforming or handling the toy, add a clear coat at the very end (model spray can type will do). Thats all! Not much modeling skill is needed really and no need mad airbrush set up, as I am no modeler myself. Haven't build a plastic kit for years.

Hi mpchi!
Thank you for sharing how you created your works of art!
I really want to try it too! So I had a few questions....

So basically you painted your figures "black" then removed the "black" from it till you got the proper shading?

Then you added metallic silver for touchups?

Thanks in advance!

-ed

Kingplay wrote:Hi mpchi!
Thank you for sharing how you created your works of art!
I really want to try it too! So I had a few questions....

So basically you painted your figures "black" then removed the "black" from it till you got the proper shading?

Then you added metallic silver for touchups?

Thanks in advance!

-ed

For Brawl & Prime, yes indeed. As both of these figures have pretty good base plastic colors already. So I let a lot of the plastic colors shows. And you don't need to paint them solid black for sure. Use a very diluted thin out black paint, mainly just for the paint to seep in and fill all the panel lines and details on the sculpt, with a bit of extra to give the parts a dirty look. So while you covered the panels with your black paint, you should still be able to see the base plastic color pretty good. Just a lot dirtier looking.

Thanks for answering

Few more questions though!

Thanks in advance also

1) Did you apply a layer of black to the actual painted areas too?

2) I noticed that brawl's colors seem to be more rich in your picture, is that the effect of just applying a thin layer of black to it? Or did you add some other effect?

3)Also did you need to take the toy apart, or you just painted it?

4) Last question! For the megatron, after you repainted it with silver, did you use the shading effect on the newly applied silver paint? Just wondering if you start smudging the newly applied silver paint with thinner wouldn't it sorta come off?

Much thx mpchi!