Well, I was holding off on this update (which I've shown at a few other places) until I could get a hold of some likeable stickers or decals. I might just cave and buy some G1 repros and make them work, but I'm not sure yet.
Anyway, I got a trade for the Meister head I'd wanted for the Wheeljack head I had left over from my Mustang Prowl. Took the visor off to start.
Here's a pic before modding, just for reference to the changes.
I decided that while I liked the red-coloring of the cartoon Red Alert, the actual cartoon style head looked silly. (that piece on his head just looks like a red bow to me. Not doing it...)
I decided to try and mimic the G1 toy version, which is the same as G1 Sideswipe. The above shot shows the head after everything was shaved down, plus some sloppy pencil work showing what was removed.
I also decided to mimic the circular 'ears' on the side of the G1 head, so I ground down some pin caps, drilled some holes and stuck 'em in.
Here, you can see I had already started painting. I'd forgotten to take the pic before hand to show what it looked like, but then this layer of paint went on too thick and I had to start over. So I used the oportunity to take the pic I wanted.
Here we are, fully painted. You can see how the antlers came out compared to the original.
Now, I've since repainted the face in silver after scraping away those noticeable red splotches. Once I get the decals/stickers I want, I'll take some new pics.
Full body comparison
And the legs facing the original way to match the G1 version better. (Though the crotch is now backwards, but eh...and I still prefer it the other way around
)
The doormod as already shown previously.
The pins I used were stripped from an RiD Heavyload's front wheels. The length is perfect, though the thickness of the pin is too much. I had to grind them both down quite a bit, so anyone wanting to do this mod may wish to find a different set of pins.
Also, I found out that with this particular mod, it was probably better to mod the head's socket instead of the ball, as it is rather high into the Meister head. I did it in the reverse and sanded down the ball joint. As a result, the bottom of the head would scrape against the ball platform and strip the paint right off. I sanded down the platform and still had to cut away at a little more of the underpart of the Meister head. The piece now moves more smoothly, and the light coat of paint underneath hasn't scratched yet.
Well, there we are so far. A few touch-ups and some stickers...and I think he's all done.
That was also part of the clean-up I had to do. Just haven't taken any new pics since these.
