The Energon Pub

Okay, so confession time: I really only bought the Classics Ultra Magnus Vs. Skywarp set so I could get my boy Skywarp. I've never been a fan of the whole "White Optimus Prime Is Ultra Magnus" school of thought. The Magnus repaint has grown on me, however, and I decided a few little paint modifications would endear him to me further.

If you noticed, the Magnus on the box is painted quite differently from the one you get inside the package.



I wanted something similar to that, but as I'm even less of a fan of the baby blue as I am of the WOPIUM movement, I decided to spruce him up with three small modifications:

1) Paint the white Forehead vent and silver Face mask blue.
2) Paint the blue Eyes red.
3) Paint his blue Light Pipe Head white.

The first thing I did was remove the screw in the back of his head and pull out the Light Pipe part of his head, since the eyes are part of this piece and it's easier to paint them that way.

I painted his blue eyes classic Magnus red, let it dry, then screwed that part back in. This much is so easy that with a paint pen you could have it finished within seconds.

Then I mixed up a small batch of blue Pactra acrylic enamel that approximated the same color as the paint apps on his arms and crotch. Using a Games Workshop detail brush, I filled in his forehead vent and gave his silver face mask a good once-over.

The last step was highlighting his muttonchop cannons with a dash of silver, just for the hell of it.



So there you have it. the whole process took maybe a half hour, and the results are significantly better, IMHO.



I am still in the process of painting the back of his head white, to conceal the light piping, but it's taking multiple layers of paint and a considerable longer amount of time to accomplish. Light piping is a neat idea in theory, but in actual practice I think it detracts from the appearance of the figure when a chunk of the head is a completely different color. I prefer to do away with the 'feature' whenever possible.

Think I would have just went with clear red over the eyes and light pipe to give him glowing red eyes.

Actually, that probably would have given him glowing purple eyes, considering how deep a blue the light piping is.

it indeed DOES give him purple eyes I tried that before going with the metallic gold and red clear paint approach on mine.

Well, this is better then:)

REDLINE wrote:it indeed DOES give him purple eyes I tried that before going with the metallic gold and red clear paint approach on mine.

Redline, when you attempted to apply the red clearcoat directly over the blue lightpiping, was the resulting "purple" more of a red-purple like a wine color, or more of a violet? If it is more of the former, I wouldn't have too much of a problem with that, but if it is more of the latter, then It definately is.

violet... defintely looked outta place.

REDLINE wrote:violet... defintely looked outta place.

So, definately a very cool color, closer to blue, not a warm color like wine or crimson.

it was also REALLY dark, even with only a thin coating.

REDLINE wrote:it was also REALLY dark, even with only a thin coating.

I'm guessing, when you tried putting clear red right over the light piping, you only applied it to the eyes themselves, correct? I just picked up the two-pack 9it's finally out in Buffalo! ) , and decided to try applying clear red to mine, only I painted the whole thing with it. While it does indeed make it very dark, mine did come out more of a wine color, a deep crimson, not a violet. I'll be able to tell more once it is dry, but it looks promising. It may not be bright red, but, we'll see.

Well, I just reassembled his head and it worked, and it looks pretty good. It is a very dark purplish red, like crimson or "black cherry", but it is red. So, yes, you can get red light piping, but you have to paint the entire piece with red clear coat (not just the optics), preferrably two coats, and the red will be a dark crimson, not bright scarlet.

Here are a couple of shots of the new light piping:

If you keep painting your figure, I hope you do something with his legs. They just look so bland. Like you I bought the two pack for Skywarp as well. Come on Hasbro, one more...Thundercracker! As for using the light or sun to get the light piping to work is something I hate about some of these figures. But, I found if you use a laser pointer to flash down on the clear part, it gives it an electric feel. I bought a cheap 2 dollar pen light at Walmart that shines a red laser and has a blue light. Perfect for either autobot or decepticon. Try it sometime, you'll agree it makes some figures come alive.