The Energon Pub

So my red movie Ironhide project was a great success until i tried transforming him. Thanks to the lame-ness that is acrylic paint the whole project was ruined. Such a shame as well because the bot mode looked awesome...



Oh well...it wasnt meant to be but i didnt want to just throw away the figure so i sand-blasted the red off. It left the plastic in a predictably rough condition but at least i could salvage it and give Ironhide back his black paint job.

This is the result. As you can see the paint is a tad rough in spots but considering what i had to work with he came out alright. This is just to let you know what condition the figure was in after i sand-blasted the red paint off.
From this:


To this:





















"its an option"




"you feeling lucky, punk?!"



As you can see i went to town with the detailing, giving him an almost 100% accurate movie look. I reshaped his face to get rid of that ugly pig nose and make him look more appealing and more accurate to the hi-res cgi render. I also added longer smoke stacks, side steps and re-positioned the 4X4 logos on the rear fenders. On the factory toy these are in the wrong place so i fixed them. I also added a GMC badge to the rear tail gate.

The front wind screen looks like it is cracked and this wasnt intentional. For some reason the lacquer made the matte black paint that i had put on the wind sheild crack and i couldnt be bothered to fix it. I left the bumpers matte black as they are this color on the actual GMC Topkick used in the movie.

I wanted to add some detail to his cannons as well and get rid of the stupid missles the factory toy had. I whipped out my rotary tool and drilled out those suckas and filled in the holes and painted them. I added some bits of styrene and painted them black to try and make them look more accurate to the movie render, as well as add some copper piping for that extra bit of detail.

All in all he could have come out better with a factory toy as a base but considering how rough and on the edge of being thrown away the figure was after the red acrylic disaster i think he came out great.

Thanks for looking!

Heres a little preview of my next repaint:



(the lighting sucks but he is actually a movie-accurate matte silver with darker splotches on the wings.

You're getting better and better man!
He looks awesome!
As I saw the title, I thought this was a Spider-Man thing, oh well.

Just one question, why didn't you use paint remover, it would have spared the plastic.

I like this a lot better than the red one, anyway. Great job on the cannons and face. Can't wait to see Starscream.

Dead Metal wrote:You're getting better and better man!
He looks awesome!
As I saw the title, I thought this was a Spider-Man thing, oh well.

Just one question, why didn't you use paint remover, it would have spared the plastic.

I tried, didnt work.

Sonray wrote:

Dead Metal wrote:You're getting better and better man!
He looks awesome!
As I saw the title, I thought this was a Spider-Man thing, oh well.

Just one question, why didn't you use paint remover, it would have spared the plastic.

I tried, didnt work.

Oh Ok, well now he looks like he was in a fight

Duh. Duh-nuh nuh...do do do do doo...(beginning to AC/DC's Back in Black)

nice save looks good , did like the red one though any chance of another but including the same improvements you made to this one?

DJs in Disguise wrote:nice save looks good , did like the red one though any chance of another but including the same improvements you made to this one?

I doubt it as i have other projects id rather do instead.

Nice save indeed , although I really liked the red alot more..

nice recovery dude, it's a darn shame about the Red though - it was lookin' fabulous together with the yellow striping on the sides.

Thanks guys. Glad you all liked the red one so much. Maybe i'll do another one some day just for you.

Sonray wrote:Thanks guys. Glad you all liked the red one so much. Maybe i'll do another one some day just for you.

Yeah, but try something that allows transformations, okay?

shockticus wrote:

Sonray wrote:Thanks guys. Glad you all liked the red one so much. Maybe i'll do another one some day just for you.

Yeah, but try something that allows transformations, okay?

Thats simple, i wont use acrylics.

Man, I feel for you since your project didn't turn out to your liking. I spent many months working on a big project that failed once. At leaset you're left with a pretty sweet looking repaint that's possibly better than the original.

Sonray wrote:Thanks guys. Glad you all liked the red one so much. Maybe i'll do another one some day just for you.

well, let's just say that the red repaint proved that despite his quirky design, IH could still go lookin' good with his G1 colors. i just wished Hasbro could have seen it your way and did the recolor IH a deep maroon instead of a funky G2 blue, which does not befit the movie characterization of IH at all.

Sonray wrote:Thanks guys. Glad you all liked the red one so much. Maybe i'll do another one some day just for you.

What actually happened? Why wouldn't it transform?
I'd like to know in case I end up almost screwing up a repaint in the same way. Nice recovery though dude, he actually looks better than most repaints I've seen straight from the factory model.

Your red repaint of Ironhide will live forever in Seibertron's archives and our memories. That red Iron Ironhide was truly kick-ass.

Did take many pictures of the red one? How about a link to the gallery if you have one

Justicity wrote:

Sonray wrote:Thanks guys. Glad you all liked the red one so much. Maybe i'll do another one some day just for you.

What actually happened? Why wouldn't it transform?
I'd like to know in case I end up almost screwing up a repaint in the same way. Nice recovery though dude, he actually looks better than most repaints I've seen straight from the factory model.

He was able to transform, but as soon as you touched him or even looked at him the wrong way the red acrylic paint started chipping off the bot parts. You expect a little bit of chipping here and there but this was insane. There was no way to fix it, especially since the rubbing areas had already been sanded down for extra clearance. The acrylic paint simply didnt work and thats why i avoid using them now.

So my advice to you: Dont use acrylic paint. Only use it for tiny detail work and dry brushing.

olokin wrote:Your red repaint of Ironhide will live forever in Seibertron's archives and our memories. That red Iron Ironhide was truly kick-ass.

Did take many pictures of the red one? How about a link to the gallery if you have one

I have a couple of other pictures but the one i posted is basically the best one. I didnt take any pictures of him in alt mode. Sorry.

Sonray wrote:

olokin wrote:Your red repaint of Ironhide will live forever in Seibertron's archives and our memories. That red Iron Ironhide was truly kick-ass.

Did take many pictures of the red one? How about a link to the gallery if you have one

I have a couple of other pictures but the one i posted is basically the best one. I didnt take any pictures of him in alt mode. Sorry.

It is a nice image. Great job on the restoration though.

Dreamchylde wrote:This might be a stupid question, but would/is there a way to remove the windshield and replace it?

I thought your red version was awesome, btw.

Erm....not that i can remember.

Thanks!

olokin wrote:

Sonray wrote:

olokin wrote:Your red repaint of Ironhide will live forever in Seibertron's archives and our memories. That red Iron Ironhide was truly kick-ass.

Did take many pictures of the red one? How about a link to the gallery if you have one

I have a couple of other pictures but the one i posted is basically the best one. I didnt take any pictures of him in alt mode. Sorry.

It is a nice image. Great job on the restoration though.

I might as well post some of the others as they have more natural lighting.





In hindsight, i dont think the red was dark enough. If i do this again i will make the red darker.

Sonray wrote:

olokin wrote:

Sonray wrote:

olokin wrote:Your red repaint of Ironhide will live forever in Seibertron's archives and our memories. That red Iron Ironhide was truly kick-ass.

Did take many pictures of the red one? How about a link to the gallery if you have one

I have a couple of other pictures but the one i posted is basically the best one. I didnt take any pictures of him in alt mode. Sorry.

It is a nice image. Great job on the restoration though.

I might as well post some of the others as they have more natural lighting.





In hindsight, i dont think the red was dark enough. If i do this again i will make the red darker.

it's more than nice! actually, i never thought the head sculpt could look so good. the red color makes the head look as if it's wrapped in a helmet, just like G1 Ironhide!

maybe a little darker shade of red would do, but as it was, it's a pretty good repaint and homage.

alt mode pics woulda rocked too, but i guess that's the point why you repainted it back - because the paint got in the way of transforming.

keep it up!

It's Still alive!
Good to see you went through with it.
Looks nice and the windsheild adds to the realism, like battle damage.