The Energon Pub

This was inspired by the announcement of the new Botcon exclusive figures. One of the figures was named as Dreadwind, and while I still have no idea what they're doing, it almost immediately inspired me; having a looking at my Classics Jetfire I noticed some surprising similarities. I picked up a second Jetfire (25% off ) and got to work.
For the most part it's a straight repaint, but I am making a few mods to improve the resemblance.



Jet mode so far. Not that much visible in this form yet, but I've already removed the tailwings, and fitted one of the vertical fins to the fuselage. I'm going to have to mod the tailwings to fit back on the hinge points, and probably level the back ends of them.
The wings, naturally, are going to be more delta in shape, but rather than actually remove them and construct new ones from scratch, I'm going to try taking off part of the trailing edge, and just add the necessary extension pieces. That should still do the job I'm after, while having more structural integrity than my original plan. The missiles come, appropriately, from a mini KO Dreadwind I picked up for 2 Euros in France a couple of years back.


And here's the mini-Dreadwind, just for yuks. In't he cute?



Robot mode, compared with the G1. In this form, rather than pivot back, the wings will swing down a bit, which will basically streamline the robot form a bit, but basically give him a kind of cape affair. I'll also naturally be adding shoulder guns to mimic the protrusions on the original. I'm trying to decide whether to fill and detail the ports for the FAST pack and arm launchers, since he's clearly not going to need them.
A good deal of the work was on the face, though.



And here it is. It was actually fairly easy to get the look from the inner head; I originally thought I'd be modding the helmet, but I realised this looked better (to me, certainly).
After removing the light piping, trimming down the nose to a stub and shaving off the top surface of the face (to get rid of JF's mouth), I cut tiny pieces of styrene strip and formed the ledge under the eyes.The bulk of the head was painted and varnished, then I filled the front part of the head (the face) with hot glue. I shaved that down, screwed the head back together, then pumped more glue into the notch where the original piping was. After trimming it down, cutting some details into it and filing, I painted the piping with yellow glass paint.

[EDIT] Hee hee... 2006 posts!

Is there a way of combining the fastpack and other stuff into a Darkwingesque jet?? that would be pretty cool having them combine into a robot mode rather than a jet mode like the old toys.

Just an idea

wow,they really are alike.

Rhinox: Thanks.

RSS: Not really. The 'other stuff' literally just consists of the arm launchers and helmet; there's not enough material to make much else without extra components. I did consider (and still am, if the inspiration hits me) of doing a Darkwing as well (actually, while Jetfire has the robot resemblance to Dreadwind, in jet mode he's more like Darkwing), but I can't think at the moment of any way of combining them.
That, and if I did do a Darkwing, I'd want them to combine in jet mode (I like the originality of having the alt-mode combiner, since there's already so many robot mode ones). And I wouldn't be satisfied with having one half that doesn't have a robot mode.

Quick update: I've now added the shoulder cannons and started work on the wings. The trailing edges have been cut off, and new styrene extensions added on. The left wing so far has been pretty much trimmed to shape, and now needs to be smoothed out (I think I'll be adding a thin layer of Milliput and sanding it smooth) and detailed.

Jet mode


Robot mode - you can see now how the wings will sweep back to streamline it.

This looks so cool!

i may have to make this figure as well for the collection of classics now ramraider Argghh! more bashes to do are you Gonna Do the Wings also

Thanks, guys.

ERB: I'm already doing the wings; if you look at the left one, it's already been cut to shape (the right one has as well now, but no pics yet) - it just needs to be smoothed down and detailed. And have the missiles added.

And you might want to hold off on your copy of this. I picked up an extra Jetfire the other day...

Looking very sweet so far.

coolio!!

Ramrider wrote:And you might want to hold off on your copy of this. I picked up an extra Jetfire the other day...

Will someone be taking commissions...?

Actually, I'm planning to make a second one for the fundraiser.

After that, who knows? I could certainly use the cash myself...

As good as this is looking I'd buy one. I'd make one myself but my plate is a bit full right now with my plans for three combiners and Punch. To many damn ideas hitting at once.

tentagil wrote:Too many damn ideas hitting at once.

Amen.

Oh, believe me, I know that all too well. I can't even remember how many projects I've got on at any one time.

i feel your pain,too many projects,too little time

its funny when i read that because if you had to little you would think what next hmmmm?

pretty much,erb.btw how is your triple changing snaptrap coming along

lol! dont ask hes on the Sidelines i was thinking rainraider any planes to make hes counterpart

rainraider? ho'd ya get that from ramrider

Don't ask, he's always doing that. Usually I'm Ramraider and Ptitvite winds up as Privates.

Anyway ERB, I don't have plans to do Darkwing, but that doesn't mean it won't happen.
I would like to do it, but I haven't the faintest idea what I'd use for it. Ideally I'd want to combine them, and aside from using the FAST pack and launcher connections (which aren't exactly ideally placed), I don't see how I'd do that.
We'll see though...

doing to much as poss i didnt even Notice Ramraider

Dreadwind was in the us comic so much that I think i have been brain washed into liking him. Jetfire is impossible to get here, I have three but they are all from online stores - I never saw it in a real shop.

From memory, I don't think Dreadwind had that much chin. I seem to recall him having closer to a cylinder like face plate?

What will you make the nebulon out of?

evilratbat wrote:lol! dont ask hes on the Sidelines i was thinking rainraider any planes to make hes counterpart

and your blitzwing?

blitzwing i will get back around to soon damn i wish i had more hands