The Energon Pub

by **TM Dark_Lord_Prime** » Sat Jan 13, 2007 11:06 pm

BWAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

(the white bits on the black tape are debris from drilling and sanding and cutting--it's a piece of tape I was using to test the light-piping I was installing in Bumblebee's head, and discarded on the table top)

Once again, I'm using a bit of sprue from the clear-parts tree from of my model kits. I cut Starscream's head in half at the visible seam line (I'm gonna have to pad it out when I put the head back together, 'cause I ended up cutting a 1/16" space between the halves), then used a combination of my smallest precision flat-head screwdriver, a hammer, and a cylindrical engraving/shaping bit in my rotary-tool to cut out his old eyes and the triangular space behind them.

I dipped the new eye piece in a bottle of clear red model paint and brushed off the excess with a small paintbrush, dabbing the brush dry on a piece of newspaper, until the eye piece was coated nice and even.

I heated up the end of the remaining sprue and smashed it with needle-nose pliers.

I think all that's left is to finish fitting the light-pipe to the space I cut, then put the head back together and repaint.

by **Ramrider** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 12:17 pm

Nicely done, sir! I love light-piping...

by **TM Dark_Lord_Prime** » Mon Jan 15, 2007 11:04 am

I'm rebuilding Screamer's head right now, but it's at a point where I can give you some progress pics!

This is the second try at putting his head back together; the first attempt ended up with glue leaking into his eye-sockets and obscuring the eye piece. I tried to remove the glue, but made it worse, so I had to tear the whole thing back apart and start again. The eye holes are slightly larger than they were in my previous post, but the effect is way better now.

The first time, I used epoxy putty to rejoin the two halves, but that didn't work very well. This time, I've joined the halves with Testors contour putty and am currently filling the gap between them with clear-parts glue. When that's fully cured, I'll smooth things out with more contour putty. This should give me pretty decent joint strength, so the head won't fall apart when I try to turn it for posing later.

Also, prompted by a post in TFans.com's KB forum, I've started considering ways to add a proper landing gear to the jet's nose but, so far, the only thing I can think of is to drill a hole up inside the space that folds against the hinge bar to make his chest in bot mode, and plugging a seperate piece in, like the G1 Seekers did.

by **tentagil** » Mon Jan 15, 2007 11:50 am

Yeah not alot of spare room in the cockpit area to add anything.

Light piping looks great though.

by **TM Dark_Lord_Prime** » Mon Jan 15, 2007 12:58 pm

tentagil wrote:Yeah not alot of spare room in the cockpit area to add anything.

Light piping looks great though.

Thanks!

I was checking to make sure the nosecone still fits properly over his head, and realized it might be possible for me to attach a folding gear strut to the bar that connects the cone to the back of his head.

All it would take (aside from finding/building the hinged strut) is to drill a small hole in the bar to accomodate a screw, I think; it would add more kibble in bot mode, but no moreso than the nosecone that already hangs off the back of his head, right?