The Energon Pub

Most of it's pretty much the same as the stuff we've seen before, but it had to be done. I originally started out using the blue Hot Shot, before I found out about Excellion (and concluding that that'd never come out over here, anyway). But it did come out, so I snapped one up, and I've done the obligatory Hot Rod version.
As I say, most of it's the kind of stuff we've seen many times, but I've given him classy leather upholstery, and of course, got rid of the infernal Cyber Key port. I swapped the upper arms for the red ones from Hot Shot, and repainted all the wheels black so they matched.
There's still a bit left to do. I intend to give him the Clocker pipes on the legs (once I find them both), and rig his cockpit so it opens in vehicle mode - it looks like it should be doable without too much effort. If I do that I'll detail the interior a bit more. I'm trying to decide whether to leave his vehicle mode detailing as is, or strip it off and redo it to match the style on his chest.
I'm also having another go at casting, to make a new gun for him. Fingers crossed that turns out alright - the mould's about halfway done, and it's looking pretty tasty so far.

Car mode -complete with leather seats!



Robot mode

I like that you painted the inside of the car. Hot Shot always had one color and it got kinda irritating. Hope the gun turns out well

Thanks. Actually, if I can get the cockpit open, I'll go further with the interior, just for fun.
I finished the first half of the mould a couple of days ago, and it's looking pretty smooth. There were a couple of tiny bubbles, but it'll be easy enough to shave off any unsightly bumps off the cast. The second half's well on the way; I started applying it once I'd put some petroleum jelly on the first half, and it's building up nicely. I imagine it should be done in the next couple of days; then I can start cast attempts.

Well, the mould's complete, and I must say it turned out reasonably well. I've done a tester piece in hot glue, and it's taken the details nicely. It's a bit rough round the edges as is, and a bit soft to be used as a finished piece, but as a tester it's worked out nicely.
I'll grab a couple of pics to post when I have time tomorrow, and I'll probably give it a try by stuffing it with Milliput too; if you 'dilute' it down enough it's good for filling moulds, and again holds details well. I cast a G1 Prime fist a while back which came out well. I'll have to mode the handle to make it a little longer, though; at present it doesn't make it past Hot Rod's arm guard. I'll probably hollow the post out and fit a piece of styrene tubing when it's set.

Quick pic-less update. The gun didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped; somehow the mould got out of synch, and the two halves didn't quite match up. It was okay, but not good enough for what I wanted. I'm trying a different approach now, and with a different gun I found, which I think will suit him better. I've swapped the latex glue for a liquid latex as well, so hopefully the mould should turn out much more smoothly.

Hot Rod himself is coming up a treat, though. I've repainted the vehicle shell to unify it (I didn't like how the painted doors and roof were a different colour to the moulded plastic), and decided to go with a more G1 style like the chest detailing. I've also managed to pop the canopy open (devil of a job, that was) and detailed the inside, although I'm going to have to do a bit of work to fix the damage to the canopy (The pegs were glued in, and I had to drill through them to make them weak enough to cut through). I'm in the process of repainting one of the Clocker pipes for his legs, and when I find the other one I'll do that too.

Unfortunately I've had to take a break from 'bashing for a couple of days, 'cause I've had to put everything out of the way while we get our walls re-damp-proofed and replastered. There's plaster dust everywhere...

Hopefully he'll be done enough for pics by the weekend, though...

Here's a couple of update pics, probably the last until I get the gun sorted out.

After a lot of fiddling I managed to get his cockpit to open, and so I redecorated his interior a bit. You can also see the new G1(ish) styled flame paintjob (and note, if you will, that the whole hull matches in colour). What you can't make out, unfortunately, is the nice metallic effect I applied to the flame areas courtesy of a couple of coats of Pearly Glaze.


Here'a a side view shot; the bars along the arms have been filled in now.

that looks really nice man. the only thing that doesn't suit my fancy are the hood flames. I love the ones on the arms, but those on the hood seem a little short I guess. still, great job, love the interior too.

that does look very smooth, i love it, any chance of making a fishign rod for him too

HOLY SNAPS. Thats a great job. Best Hot Rod I've seen so far. Like the opening cockpit

REDLINE wrote:that looks really nice man. the only thing that doesn't suit my fancy are the hood flames. I love the ones on the arms, but those on the hood seem a little short I guess. still, great job, love the interior too.

Thanks. Actually, I'm inclined to agree, now you mention it. I think I may use some orange to paint between the flames and make them look longer before re-doing the glaze.

piranacon wrote:that does look very smooth, i love it, any chance of making a fishign rod for him too

He he...it's certainly an idea. Although frankly I'm not even sure where I'd start...

Anywho. I've just turned out the gun mould finally, and it looks pretty good. I'm gonna leave it for a day or two to properly cure, then give it a test run with the hotglue. If that comes out alright, I'll probably try casting it with tinted resin. Fingers crossed. I'd hate to have wasted another fortnight or so...

REDLINE wrote:that looks really nice man. the only thing that doesn't suit my fancy are the hood flames. I love the ones on the arms, but those on the hood seem a little short I guess. still, great job, love the interior too.

Thanks. Actually, I'm inclined to agree, now you mention it. I think I may use some orange to paint between the flames and make them look longer before re-doing the glaze.

piranacon wrote:that does look very smooth, i love it, any chance of making a fishign rod for him too

He he...it's certainly an idea. Although frankly I'm not even sure where I'd start...

Anywho. I've just turned out the gun mould finally, and it looks pretty good. I'm gonna leave it for a day or two to properly cure, then give it a test run with the hotglue. If that comes out alright, I'll probably try casting it with tinted resin. Fingers crossed. I'd hate to have wasted another fortnight or so...

Little update. The casting's been meeting with some success, but it needs a lot of work.
I've decided for Hot Rod's gun to take a different route - I'm now scratchbuilding it. I've got a decent selection of styrene sheets, strips and tubes, and I've started to fabricate a nice rifle for him. It's going to be loosely modelled on Skyhopper's nose cannon (which was the piece I was trying to cast), but mostly just for the dimensions. Here's how it looks so far...



[EDIT] Oh, yeah... and thanks to GrimlockPrime's handy Clockers (and the fact that Dead End and Wildrider don't need screaming great exhausts), I no longer have to hunt furiously for the pipes. So one of those pairs is now being repainted and modded. Yay!

good thing i sent the exhaust pipes too,i had almost kept them fo my own stuff

So glad you didn't...

I probably would have found the other pipe eventually, but there's no telling where it'll eventually turn up... You've saved me a hell of a lot of rummaging!

Nearly finished the gun; basically now I just need to wait for a couple of bits to cure (the handle on top and the barrel, which I had to reset). Tomorrow, I'll add on a couple of final details and paint it.

Oh, and the pipes are now attached to his legs too, although you can't see it from this pic. All that really needs doing now is filling those gaps in his dashboard where I drilled through and touch him up a bit.

Finished the gun a couple of days ago, but didn't have a chance to upload the pics. Still, here's Roddy with the finished rifle!



Here Hot Rod's carring it by means of the extra handle I added on top. I'm not entirely sure why; maybe it's a safety feature, so it can be carried without risk of accidentally going off. Or maybe I just liked the idea.



And here it is mounted in vehicle mode.


[EDIT] Oh, and here's a closer-up shot of the gun...

The gun turned out great. The handles look like they fit well

Thanks; they do. The main handle is nice and snug; I basically used a 4.8mm dia tube, layered up with a couple of coats of paint and superglue to make it the full 5.0mm. The top handle is deliberately loose (using a 2.3mm tube with plenty of clearance between it and the top of the gun), but it's still not exactly wobbly when he holds it that way.

Handles like that, on the top of a weapon, are actually quite common among military hardware. The M-16, M-60 and most of your larger machine guns all have carry handles. the purpose is actually to make it easier to carry . In the case of the M-16, the handle also acts as part of the sight. The rear sight is built into the handle.

that did turn out well Do you intend to redo the flames on the hood, or did you say, "eh, they'll do just fine" anyway?

Thanks!

Tramp wrote:In the case of the M-16, the handle also acts as part of the sight. The rear sight is built into the handle.

Now that's an interesting idea; I did not know that. Might be a fun tweak for the rifle just for fun...

REDLINE wrote:Do you intend to redo the flames on the hood, or did you say, "eh, they'll do just fine" anyway?

Well, I've still got a couple of touch-ups I want to do before I'm completely satisfied, so I think I will alter the flames to make them look a little less stubby.

Ramrider wrote:Thanks!

Tramp wrote:In the case of the M-16, the handle also acts as part of the sight. The rear sight is built into the handle.

Now that's an interesting idea; I did not know that. Might be a fun tweak for the rifle just for fun...

I doubt that would be possible since it would be too small to even see. The rear site apeture on an M-16 is only a little larger than a button on a dress shirt. Imagine how small it would have to be on your model.

Yeah, it was just a thought, really. Besides, I don't think Hot Rod would get much use out of it...