The Energon Pub

Right, I've titled this movie-accurate as thats what I was hoping for with this kitbash. I'm not too sure how accurate it is, but in terms of design, I've removed all the kibble & repainted him to movie colours. He's no longer transformable but I really don't care, he's a good representation of my favorite movie 'con & I'm happy with him as a display piece.

This started of as a Bonecrusher with a broken arm. I messed up a screw when putting it back together, went out & got a replacement, & decided to see if I could salvage the old one a little. I did.
I've cut off & sanded down the flaps on the arms, & the wheels hanging over the sholder as these are not on the movie model. I've also glued the hips together & one day hope to use some sculpting material to make the gap solid. I then repainted him into a base coat of dark yellow. I then drybrushed silver/grey onto most of him, giving him a dirty look. At some points in the photo's it looks like the paints been chipped, but it's not, the silver just doesn't come out great in photos. After this I added some gold to a few places & blacked out the section on his face, adding other small details there. I was a bit messy hear as I'm not used to painting at such a small level. The wheels were an interesting experience, after base-coating the whole body (minus the wheels) I noticed some of the paint had got on the wheels. I could either repaint all the tires & make them look new, moving in the opposite direction of the effect I was going for, or paint them muddy & make him look even more worn. I went for the latter. This choice occurred again with the windows, do I repaint them a bluey colour or leave them dirty & drybrush them silver to look reflective. Again the latter was chosen.
I'm not too sure what else I did, I can't think of anything, but I'm pretty pleased with him. He looks great between all my movie figures on my shelves. Really nice next to the protoforms actually.

I notice looking at these photo's that his right eye is slightly dirty, it appears I got some dark yellow on it during painting. I will put this right at some point, but if you could just ignore it for now.

Anyway, on to the photos. I got a little trigger happy with the camera, sorry Dial-up users.
The first picture is a two parter as I couldn't decide which light looked better:




Close up of his head:


Ima chargin:



The arm modifications:




Sadly no more 'con logo:


The dirty-silver claws:


The muddy wheels:


Some side & top views:



Before & After:


Face off:


And the winner is:


Where's Prime when you need him?:


'Crusher with his possee:



And here he is on display:



Not bad for my first real custom, eh?
What do you think, comments, criticisms? I'd love it if an experienced 'basher like Sonray or Jin (just off the top of my head) could give some comments. I hope you guys enjoy.

Yay!
It's awesome. I hate to say it, but it kicks some of Jin's work. You even added muddy tires!
Rock on.

Hehe, thanks dude!
It's not possible that this beats Jins work (or for that matter that of any other frequent Seibertron kitbasher) but thanks for saying it, it's a major compliment!

Justicity wrote:Hehe, thanks dude!
It's not possible that this beats Jins work

I am sensing low self esteem..
But, I was serious, sometimes Jin doesn't even add detail like that, you did great..I reiterate.

Sherade wrote:

Justicity wrote:Hehe, thanks dude!
It's not possible that this beats Jins work

I am sensing low self esteem..
But, I was serious, sometimes Jin doesn't even add detail like that, you did great..I reiterate.

Your low self esteem senses be correct, however I was just meaning that my first retool & repaint can't be compared to the kitbashes of an experienced repainter. Thanks though ^^




C'mon people, I want some responces! I left the thread overnight, I'd expect more people commenting that just Sherade Do you want my low self esteem to take over & make me think it's horrible & never work again!

He looks so much better without the arm kibble. Great job on the details too.

Nice custom! Bonecrusher looks so much better now. Nice work.

Excellent work! It makes huge improvements over the retail version. The extra detailing on the head gives it much more character. Im not sure if it the lighting in the photos, but imho it would be nice to have some shading and highlights in some areas of the body and limbs to give it a more monstous and menacing look. The thing which struck me was adding dirt to the tyres. Very effective (did it come from over spill onto the wheels?) and could be improved slightly by painting them in matt black and adding an extra shade of brown between the two in place.
I have seen this toy in the shops but thought it looked a bit naff (this from someone who bought an Arcee because he thought it looked great! ) Thanks for changing my mind. Great job.

Really great job. I love the muddy tires you went for, makes him look like he's seen his fair share of action.


And if people say they think your work is better than someone of Jin's fame, dont disagree with them. Not only is it a huge compliment, but they are not always superfantastic. His movie Unicron I didn't like. But ol' walnut head here I'm loving.

Ooo Muddy tires lol.

I've never seen that before.

Awsome dude this kicks some serious ass
if hasbro see this

Wow that’s real good! It looks like what Hasbro has on the back of the card, you did great on the face. Could you give us an alternant mode pic? Or maybe with voyager Prime?

Much better without the arm panels.You could try re-emphasising the remaining panels with a thin dark wash of dark brown.It'll bring 'em out a treat!

Nekoman wrote:Wow that’s real good! It looks like what Hasbro has on the back of the card, you did great on the face. Could you give us an alternant mode pic? Or maybe with voyager Prime?

Thanks for the compliments (everyone else as well!) but as said in the first post, he's non-transformable. There is no alt mode. He came from a broken BC, & no longer has any of the necessary alt mode kibble.
And I don't have voyager Prime, hence using Bumblebee instead, with the caption "Where's Prime when you need him?".

Justicity wrote:

Nekoman wrote:Wow that’s real good! It looks like what Hasbro has on the back of the card, you did great on the face. Could you give us an alternant mode pic? Or maybe with voyager Prime?

Thanks for the compliments (everyone else as well!) but as said in the first post, he's non-transformable. There is no alt mode. He came from a broken BC, & no longer has any of the necessary alt mode kibble.
And I don't have voyager Prime, hence using Bumblebee instead, with the caption "Where's Prime when you need him?".

Then show us how he looks without the kibble, so we can all point and laugh.

Sherade wrote:

Justicity wrote:

Nekoman wrote:Wow that’s real good! It looks like what Hasbro has on the back of the card, you did great on the face. Could you give us an alternant mode pic? Or maybe with voyager Prime?

Thanks for the compliments (everyone else as well!) but as said in the first post, he's non-transformable. There is no alt mode. He came from a broken BC, & no longer has any of the necessary alt mode kibble.
And I don't have voyager Prime, hence using Bumblebee instead, with the caption "Where's Prime when you need him?".

Then show us how he looks without the kibble, so we can all point and laugh.

I did contemplate doing this It is quite a sucky alt mode without kibble, not only are the sides empty, the front two wheels missing, & the remaining wheels hanging loosly with nothing to clip onto, but the hips are sculpted together so.... it really wouldn't work XD
Sorry dudes, but he's fixed in place for good. Thats what I wanted, so I could pose him without having to re-fit everything together every three seconds.

If people really cared about keeping all the figures transformable all the time, the OP backpack mod wouldn't be so appealing, nor would half of Jin's work...

But the fact of the matter is, Jin's work is awe-inspiring (if not a tad clean for my tastes... but still unbelievably amazing), and once bought, these things become ours, more so by those who mod them...

I love the fact that you took a toy that was essentially trashed (with the broken x-formation), and made it into the most accurate (to date) toy version of this killer villain...

I'd suggest maybe filling in his arms, so they don't look so gappy... and painting on top of that to match the rest of your work as the only suggestion...

Maybe work on the face more... but I loved Jin's face (made me by this fig)...

Wonderful job man, keep it up...