The Energon Pub

by **TFLobo** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 12:02 am

Hey everybody! This is my next project and possible BotCon entry. A scratchbuilt HOS: Megatron based on Guido's concept drawing.

The first thing I did was planning. I drew him up in AutoCAD as best I could based on Guido's drawing. My plan is to use 3" PVC pipe for the large wheels so I based all the dimmensions off of that. CAD was nice because I could draw up transformation sequences and see possible conflicts.

Head to toe he's a little over 8.5" tall and the cannon will be a little under 14".

by **TFLobo** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 12:05 am

I started him over the 4th of July holiday and got a majority of the torso built. I'm trying to make him in peices so it will be esier to paint and more like an official Transformer.

This is the first work I did.

[img]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y134/TFLobo/Kitbashes/HOS%20Megs%20WIP/WIP3.jpg

by **TFLobo** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 12:12 am

The next thing I did was add the detail pieces to the stomach area. Also worked on the shoulder/hip joints and made the upper legs(Which are off of Lego Knights). The head is just something I tried making out of sculpt. It didn't turn out very well and I don't plan on using it for the final one but I do like the size and shpe of it. Just need to use a different face.

Stomach detail.

And head transformation.

And upper leg articulation.

by **Viagra Prime** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 12:15 am

Looks kickass so far. I see you are using lego knights (whatever they are called) for the joints.

by **TFLobo** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 12:21 am

This weekend I was able to start on the lower legs. It was a lot of tedious work.

But he can finally stand on his own.

Manditory articulation shot:

The knees look a bit big compared to the drawing but it was really a toss up for the alt mode to look right. The upper legs will be thickened up so it'll look better.

For the knee, I did get clever. In order to fold over onto the legs, I had to put in a spring. Pain in the ass but it works like a charm.

And here's the alt mode thus far. The feet are planed to fold back on the upper legs so it will eliminate the gap above the waist.

And here's a pick of all the parts so far. Total time into it up to this point is about 70 man-hours.

by **piranacon** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 2:01 am

wow its such a profesional scratch build it woudl be a crime not to repo that , especialy with all the work you put in to makeing it possable to disassemble it
but lookign forward to seing it finished

by **High_Octane** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 5:04 am

Lobo's my hero! This is one of the best Megatron designs out, the spikes make him look gothic

News Credits: 4 · by **MacrossFA19** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 6:01 am

I have tried scratch building bots and that is hard as hell. I really don't know how you guys do it. Simply put, it is amazing. Lobo that is beutiful craftmanship, a work of art. Keep it up.

by **nobody1898** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 8:32 am

WOW

by **kodafrenzy** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 9:24 am

Awesome job Lobo! This is just too much for me to handle! :shock:

And I call for a Sexy Party! :twisted:

Where did you find that metal mitre box? All I can find are plastic.

by **TM Mazinkaiser** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 11:26 am

AWESOME!!!!

by **gawd6sic6** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 11:54 am

holy hell man... that thing is going to rock... keep the great stuff commin!

by **TM TM2 Dinobot** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 12:47 pm

Dang man. That is totally amazing...

by **Ramrider** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 2:03 pm

This is incredible; thanks for sharing it with us, Lobo.

Might I suggest, for the face, using the same styrene-layering technique as you've used for the stomach detailing. I've done that a couple of times and it tends to work well.

Also, how does the spring in the knee work in the transformation? I'm having trouble visualising its purpose...

by **ChaosDeathSaurer** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 5:59 pm

That is beautiful. :shock:

Website · by **Skullgrin140** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 6:08 pm

Now this is gonna be Sweet! The first ever Hearts of Steel TF Scratchbuild ^_^ I have high hopes for this, Keep it up

by **TFLobo** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 11:17 pm

Thanks for the compliments everyone!

Ramrider wrote:Also, how does the spring in the knee work in the transformation? I'm having trouble visualising its purpose...

Here's a pic of what I had in mind.

The idea was that the knee armor wouldo rotate out over the front of the leg and in the same time, flip around so the wheel was facing down.

I built the "T" piece out of tube styrene to accomplish this but after I put it all together, it wouldn't fold out over the front of the leg. The problem was that the actual hinge for it is between the knee joint and the front of the leg. The styrene I used for the front of the leg was actually blocking it from moving. So the spring makes it so it could pull out and clear the front of the leg. The only other option would have been to grind down the face of the leg to match the radius of the hinge (Which IMO would have looked bad in the Alt mode) or move the hinge. But then the geometry for mounting the hinge would have had to have been different and looked like crap in Alt mode.

Ramrider wrote:Might I suggest, for the face, using the same styrene-layering technique as you've used for the stomach detailing. I've done that a couple of times and it tends to work well.

I thought of that since my sculpting sucks.

One thing I really like about the head Imade is the size and shape. From a silhouette I think it's perfect. The only thing is the face in the pic is rather small compared to the rest of the head and I want to try and keep that. An Alternator face is about the perfect size for it. I'll probably go with Silverstreaks face with the sculpt around it.

by **Primus_feather** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 10:39 pm

So What about his feet?
Your design sketch/Plan shows only a single foot peice (still nothing yet in the Physical figure?), Guidis Concept has a Double fold to his feet, Will that reflect in your Figure?

by **eggshen** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 1:18 pm

Holy

Damn Lobo, that is freaking amazing.

by **Caliburn** » Thu Jul 20, 2006 7:40 am

Hotd*mn, what a fabulous scratchbuild robot.
It already looks awesome, I can't wait to see it in finished form.
Erh, one thing I have to ask about the cannon:
Will you use springs in it as well so it'll have a backblast reflex like other giant cannons or will it merely be a telescopic hand-moved one?

by **Primus_feather** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 12:53 am

Skyfire wrote:Hotd*mn, what a fabulous scratchbuild robot.
Will you use springs in it as well so it'll have a backblast reflex like other giant cannons or will it merely be a telescopic hand-moved one?

I like the Spring Idea, Hey Lobo any chance this would work, I havnt figured out the cannon trigger yet, but the top Cannon would work right?

by **Caliburn** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 6:44 am

Hmm.. not a bad design Primus_Feather, it just might work.

by **plowking** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 7:36 am

This is really sweet Lobo. I'm liking this a lot.

by **TFLobo** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 10:50 am

That's a cool idea Primus Feather! And nice drawing!

But I think I'm going to try and make a firing cannon. My idea is to make something of a gimmick feature using a red valve handle that plugs into a slot. Turn the handle and it does something. For Megs, I thought it could pull back the spring on the gun. On Shockwave(Whom I also plan on making), it could extend the gun barrels.