The Energon Pub

I've decided to revisit my old fan character, Hardshell. He was one of my first repaints, years ago, and I loved the character. He was repainted from a red Bumblebee once I'd finally got hold of a yellow version, and was gloss black and gold.

Well, I found an old Bumblebee keyring with an arm missing, as well as a Cliffjumper, and decided to have another go at him. I took out Bumblebee's arms and trimmed down Cliffjumper's to fit. I also sculpted a faceplate onto 'Jumper's head and fitted that.
I opted to change the main colour to a really dark purple, which I thought would be a little more interesting.

I still need to do a couple of touch-ups, and I want to put some detail on te back of his head when I decide what. I was going to attach a Decepticon symbol, like the original Hardshell, but I thought that would be too garish given his stealthy tendencies, so I want to get some Reprolabels rubsigns when I can afford to.

Here goes - vehicle mode first:


Note the big black square at the back. Any suggestions on how to fill that?

Robot mode:

Here you should be able to see how I shaved the shoulders to fit Bumblebee's body.

Somehow the colour on this shot looks much more like the real-life colour. It is a very dark purple.

Ordered some rubsigns yesterday morning, so I should be able to finish him off soon.

Finished.

Vehicle mode; front view


Rear view


Robot mode; rear view - here you can best see the engine-style detail on the back of his head. I was inspired by a 4WD Beetle I saw in town...


Robot mode front view


Hardshell reveals his true allegiance! I used a Reprolabel rubsign, but painted black over the edges so it didn't stand out so much.


HARDSHELL - DECEPTICON

FUNCTION: Espionage, saboteur
“Fear not the army of foes you can see; fear the one foe you cannot.”

Profile: Hardshell is the ghost in the machine. If something goes wrong, odds are he’s behind it, but he’ll be long gone before you realise. Cool and efficient, he slips in, gets the job done and gets out.
Self-assured, self-reliant, self-important and self-centred, Hardshell is supremely confident in his abilities, but far less so in those of his associates. He much prefers to work alone, so that he doesn’t have “rooks” getting in the way of his doing the job properly.
Off-duty, however, he loves to spend time in the company of his comrades, mostly so he can regale them with his latest success stories and rub in how much better he is than they are. He has a dark wit and a sharp tongue; he loves to laugh at the suffering of others, and if he’s caused it, so much the better. The only Decepticons safe from his insults are Ravage (whose abilities and professionalism he quietly respects as being on a par with his own) and Megatron himself (who he knows well enough not to cross).

Weapons and Abilities: Subject has below-average strength, but well above-average agility and durability. Personal force-field can be tuned to absorb or bend electromagnetic radiation including light, microwaves and radio waves, making him virtually invisible to most detection methods, as well as allowing him to weather barrages of laser fire with hardly a scorch mark. Banks of sensitive scanners allow him to constantly monitor terrain and enemy activity. Equipped with a series of long-ranged passive scanners, and shorter-ranged active sets. Hands are equipped with an array of cutting torches and welders which he uses in his sabotage work; the settings on these can also be altered to double as short-ranged blasters.

Weaknesses: Although highly durable, Subject’s low strength and lack of dedicated weapons systems means he does not fare well in direct combat. He is often overly dismissive of others’ abilities, allowing him to be caught off guard when an opponent (or disgruntled ally) proves to be more capable than he gave them credit for. His attitude makes him a lot of enemies, including on his own side.

Strength: 3
Intelligence: 9
Speed: 5
Endurance: 8
Rank: 6
Courage: 7
Firepower: 2
Skill: 9

looks great to me, the rub sign repaint is a great touch too,

would love to see a classics repaint of him

Thanks. Actually, I intend to get a couple of Bees, one for Goldbug, and one for this lad...

Heh heh... you know those 'Bees I planned to get? Well, I got 'em today, along with Hot Rod and Starscream, and one of 'em's already being blacked up.
Unfortunately the roof snapped when I tried to get it out of the back, but that should be easily fixable.

You painting on just dyeing him?

Ramrider wrote:Heh heh... you know those 'Bees I planned to get? Well, I got 'em today, along with Hot Rod and Starscream, and one of 'em's already being blacked up.
Unfortunately the roof snapped when I tried to get it out of the back, but that should be easily fixable.

I had that same thing happen when I was disassembling a Classics Bumblebee to do a head resclulpt and then repaint to make a Classics Glyph. The roof just snapped while I was trying to remove a pin. I just glued it back together with KrazyGlue. I’ll tell you this much; trying to make Classics Bumblebee’s face, much less the rest of that mold, look even remotely feminine is no easy task, but I managed to do it. Basically, you end up with one very stout fembot.

Pretty cool!
Does Reprolabel's rubsign only go green? or other colours as well?

Like the engine detail!

tentagil wrote:You painting on just dyeing him?

Painting. I'm sanding down any rubbing areas and painting him black (Revell AquaColor), then using a similar purple and black mix as the minibot just for the hull sections. And I'm using Tamiya Smoke on the windows to tint them.
I've already resculpted the face, and taking a cue from someone on the boards (may have been DLP, but I'll check in a bit) added light piping by cutting out the back of the head, filling it with hot glue, then carving off the excess. After a bit of clear red paint, it does the job a treat.
Naturally, I've also swapped his insignia for a Decepticon rubsign.

Tramp wrote:I had that same thing happen when I was disassembling a Classics Bumblebee to do a head resclulpt and then repaint to make a Classics Glyph. The roof just snapped while I was trying to remove a pin. I just glued it back together with KrazyGlue. I’ll tell you this much; trying to make Classics Bumblebee’s face, much less the rest of that mold, look even remotely feminine is no easy task, but I managed to do it. Basically, you end up with one very stout fembot.

Heh. Yeah, he's a bit of a chunker, isn't he? I don't remember seeing your Glyph repaint, have you posted her?
And as for the chest, I don't foresee fixing it being a problem. I have very good superglue, and once it's painted and vernished over the join should be barely visible,,,

JL wrote:Pretty cool!
Does Reprolabel's rubsign only go green? or other colours as well?

It does the whole spectrum. From black, it turns a brownish red, goes up through yellow, to green, to light blue, and at its hottest turns a deep indigo. It was pretty cold when I took those pics, so I had to use a warm lamp to heat it up...

I should be able to get pics of the new Hardshell WiP up tomorrow...

Ramrider wrote:<snip>

Tramp wrote:I had that same thing happen when I was disassembling a Classics Bumblebee to do a head resclulpt and then repaint to make a Classics Glyph. The roof just snapped while I was trying to remove a pin. I just glued it back together with KrazyGlue. I’ll tell you this much; trying to make Classics Bumblebee’s face, much less the rest of that mold, look even remotely feminine is no easy task, but I managed to do it. Basically, you end up with one very stout fembot.

Heh. Yeah, he's a bit of a chunker, isn't he? I don't remember seeing your Glyph repaint, have you posted her?
And as for the chest, I don't foresee fixing it being a problem. I have very good superglue, and once it's painted and vernished over the join should be barely visible,,,

<snip>

Actually, no, I haven't posted any pics of her. I haven’t even taken any pics of her; I basically did her for S&Gs, there are a couple of others I haven't taken pics of yet either simply because I haven’t felt like it. Eventually, I’ll get around to it, but I’m more interested in concentrating on my bigger projects. However, I can take a couple of snap-shots and post them if you really want to see her.