The Energon Pub

by **TM Devastator** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 12:16 am

I probably would have had a gallery for these guys up by now if I could add galleries, so for now he's a preview of my kitbash project I want to show off at the convention.

[UPDATE] NEW IMAGES ADDED

by **ssg 4 life** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 12:30 am

i believe we have a winner

by **Wikkid** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 12:33 am

You've got to be the most patient d00d on the face of the Earth to work on such a scale. These upgrades are always top notch.

How come Lightspeed looks so different. He's almost exactly toon accurate.

by **tentagil** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 1:22 am

I love your updated G1 combiners, always so sweet.

by **gawd6sic6** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 1:26 am

gotta combined mode pic there devs? i would love to see that...

by **TM Devastator** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 1:30 am

Thanks ssg, Wikkid, Tentagil. Working on this scale can be never-racking but it's gotten a little easier for me considering how many times I've done things sort of thing.

Wikkid wrote:You've got to be the most patient d00d on the face of the Earth to work on such a scale. These upgrades are always top notch.

How come Lightspeed looks so different. He's almost exactly toon accurate.

Thanks, and I do like to think I'm rather patient. I'd prefer to have everything right now, but things like this you really need to take your time with or you'll be sorry.

Also, thanks for noticing Lightspeed! He's obviously undergone the most extensive customizing. If I didn't make him look more like the cartoon I feared he'd just look silly with super-poseability. That, and I love cartoon accuracy. I took his waist area and made it part of his legs. Most notably however I made his cab window removable.

As you can see there, the window slides right over the chest I modified for him so he still looks pretty much the same in vehicle mode.

gawd6sic6 wrote:gotta combined mode pic there devs? i would love to see that...

I actually took a whole gallery's worth of pictures for each custom I made this year so whenever we can start putting up new material there should be more pictuers.

by **piranacon** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 2:11 am

holy cow i didnt think you coudl do this one but he looks so cool, any chance youl do the terror cons too by botcon

by **keeblezak** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 2:54 am

wroooo

by **rhinox555** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 5:34 am

hawt,scattorshot was my first G1.

by **Ramrider** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 7:48 am

That looks fantastic. A few bits (like Scattershot's lower torso) look kinda plain, though. Any chance they're gonna get stickers or paint apps to liven 'em up?

by **TM doomtron** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 7:49 am

sweet!

by **TM Devastator** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 8:48 am

Thanks againt everyone!

Ramrider wrote:That looks fantastic. A few bits (like Scattershot's lower torso) look kinda plain, though. Any chance they're gonna get stickers or paint apps to liven 'em up?

I only put Autobot symbols on my figures because in the cartoon, that's all they had. It seems most of the post-movie characters didn't have their toy's stickers emulated on the show.

by **ptitvite** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 2:16 pm

Always impressed and inspired of/from your work Dev!

by **eggshen** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 2:34 pm

So nice. Good freaking job man.

by **jimsloth** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 2:34 pm

now thats what I call a comeback. So one thing I always wondered about with your combiners, when you make the little guys heads rotate, but keep them as the connection point when combining, do they ever snap off at the neck? It seems like that would be a weak point structurally.

by **Tramp** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 2:43 pm

That would depend upon what he is using for the pivot point. If it is a metal pin, it wouldn't be a weak point. If it were plastic, it would. My guess is he uses metal pins for the neck joints.

by **TM dak** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 12:04 am

awesome dude. I can't wait to see it live.

by **TM Devastator** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 12:24 am

The only figure I ever used a metal pin to attach his head with was Blades. I don't think it would break easily but it's come a bit loose due to soft plastic and uneven surfaces where I pushed the pin in.

For just about everyone else I use Mini-con pegs. I made sure the ball has as long of a peg sticking out as possible. If you need a visual just imagine a lolly-pop with a really thick stick in it. The longer the peg the better it holds in the head of course. I then drill a hole in the removed head and insert the peg. For the socket I just cut down the post that the heads were originally connected to and glue the socket to it. Everything gets sanded into shape after I'm done glueing.

Jimsloth and Tramp, you are correct in stating that it is a weak point. However, I've only had one figure break at this point so far and it was because I put too much paint in the area it was folding down into. I got impatient and instead of scraping the paint away, I just pushed really hard.

The heads are suprising well connected, but just to ease the strain I weaken the gestalt sockets on the leaderbots. I either scrape some plastic away from the tabs that hold the heads in or remove some plastic that was used to strengthen the connection areas. The only issues I've had so far was I weakened Bruticus' right leg connection paint a bit too much and Swindle had a habbit of sliding out of place. It's an easy fix though, I just haven't had the need to fix it yet. Also, Defensor's right leg socket is too tight and it keeps pulling Groove's head out of socket.

When I was done buidling one of my combiners, one of the connection points for its footplate snapped off when I tried to pose the figure. This was due to tortion. My previous gestalts had really strong gestalt kibble connectoin areas so it was never a concern before. With my current project I added joints to the foot plates so they could bend from side to side. Not only does it relieve the pressure, it improved balance and allows me to do more poses.

by **Nemesis Sturmvogel** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 12:25 am

Nice Work, it looks very Posable.

by **wldchld0783_338** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 5:21 pm

man what I would give to be able to get customs like this going... I barely know how to do repaints

by **tentagil** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 6:48 pm

practice, patience, and alot of butchered bots lead to guys like that. And you have to start somewhere, repaints are always a good place.

by **Ramrider** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 8:34 pm

Yeah, start with repaints, then move on to small mods, sculpts, adding details. Then you can move up to more complicated stuff. Eventually you could be ready to build the Trypticon to face off against Mark's Metroplex! :lol:

by **TFLobo** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 8:59 am

Very Awesome! :shock:

Good Luck at the Con!

It would cool to see a pic with all your articulated combiners together.

by **TM Devastator** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 11:07 am

Lobo wrote:Very Awesome!

Good Luck at the Con!

It would cool to see a pic with all your articulated combiners together.

Heh, it would be cool indeed! I do have pictures of the Autobots and Decepticons together, but I really should clear some space off so I can take a picture of everyone.

by **TM Rawhide** » Sun Jul 01, 2007 7:46 am

Marvellous work Dev, as usual.

I really like these articulated G1 combiners that you've made.

(Hope you win at Botcon.)

Which one will you do next?