The Energon Pub

My 20 month old son last week really started liking trucks, so I replaced his non transforming truck with my MW Prime, and showed him it transfomed.
For the past week he's been saying truck, man, truck, man, man, truck, truck, man. Anyway, I got tired of seeing MW Prime's ugly head and horrid coloring, so I did a little work on him today. He may not be the best looking Prime, but he's definitely not the worst anymore. I still need to do the trailer, but I'm undecided as to what color combo I might do. all suggestions and comments welcome. Multiple posts desired.

that looks pretty cool! just a note tho, it's a Machine wars Prime, not G2.

as for your trailer, I've always liked the G2 Black trailer. It could look pretty good on your figure.

Okay, I fixed all of the G2/MW things and some of the gammer (the dude loves caps for some reason).

Anyhow, nice work. The coloring seems a little uneven though; it's as if he's been colored by markers. Considering the way he's colored it would look much better if you took the parts to be painted off and sprayed them down with an airbrush. I think a G2 themed black trailer would be cool, but repainting the whole trailer might not get the nice look you desire. Perhaps just repainting the green parts gray might be all you need to improve the look of the trailer.

Yeah sorry about the G2 thing. I just got back to the computer and realized what I'd done and saw it was already fixed. Thanks Dev. Oh by the way, the coloring is a temporary thing. I wasn't sure if I'd like it, so I wanted to do a test run and see it in all red. That's why there are 3 different shades of red. I went over the white, grey, and green pieces with a red sharpie. Sharpie comes off with rubbing alcohol and won't damage the plastic. It also cleans it up real nice in prep for painting, and removes sticker residue. I guess I should have put this in the WIP section, but does it really matter? This is not my first mod, and I'm well aware of the process of disassembling for paint. Not a one day process, unless you have no job.
As for the trailer I was leaning towards PM coloring, but maybe a cross with G2 black would be nice. If I do that, should I replace the blue with black on the truck/bot including the head?

It looks good

I just looked for the WIP section and it's gone. Did I miss it or is it gone?

The WIP section has been gone for months, long before TFMaster passed away. As for the work so far, not bad. It is still the worst version of Prime ever made which is why I refer to mine as Optimus "Crime". IF it had more articulation, it wouldn't be half as bad, but it still wouldn't be Optimus. As far as the trailer goes, I would just paint the green parts blue or black. The rest of the trailer is fine as is, but I don't think anything can redeem that robot.

gross,is that an armada prime head on that thing?anyway,nice repaint.

Remember what the head looked like on this guy before? this new head is 100 times better.

nope,i don't tremember,simply because i never gave a slag's sludge for the machine wars,except the jets.i'll take your word for it though.


EDIT: just checked tfu.info,and came to the conclusion that i want the weird misfit to leave alone optimus' trailer.
This kitbash here is a great improvement IMO.

Not bad, all told. It'll obviously be a lot better once it's actually painted, mind. I'm not sure about the head; it makes it look kind of like an oversized McDonald's toy for some reason. I think it's possibly too big - I'm wondering if a Bendy Prime head would work better, or would that be too far in the other direction?

Machine Wars Prime is one of the good things about living on this side of the pond - we actually got Thunderclash, who I think is far better, and never pretended to be Prime.

I don't know why, but that 1st head on pic reminded me of the Winnebago from space balls. Sorry, that wasn't very helpful.

You should try requesting a digibash (or give it a go yourself) to get an idea of how it'll look painted. It'll be like your sharpie technique, but with a bit more flexibility.

Why yes it does, and yes it doesn't help. Funny thought though. I need to watch that again. Should I try lowering the head some? Maybe eliminate the "neck"? I'm not wanting to put alot of work into him. Maybe I'll paint him first and then if he still looks strange I can lop off his head and redo it.
I know nothing about digibashing. I've never tried and wouldn't know where to begin. The sharpie thing takes about 20 minutes to put on and less time to remove, so it's something I can do while playing with my son. He really hates it when I'm on the computer. I've been thinking about using a different trailer all together. The tanker trailer from RID Scourge only the one before that the Prime one. Ive got one without a Prime, and it's a much better base.

I'll try and make this post more useful. Couple quick and rough digis for you.

All black is probably a bit heavy. Maybe keep the stripes, or a solid grey stripe?

I think its just me, but I tend to associate tankers with long nose trucks. (Scourge and Octane for example.) But if you think it'd look better go for it.

The Laser Prime tanker won't connect up to the Machine Wars Prime. I've tried it. the hitch points just won't line up properly. You have to use the original trailer.

Isn't this a kitbashing site? All I have to do is add a post hole and then it will work. I have them set up on the shelf together and I think with the right paint job they could look really good. Finding the time is the problem. This is gonna have to wait until I finish my Blitzwing which is coming along nicely. I even had time to do a little painting today before and after the festivities.
Thanks for the digibashes, they both look good, but not quite perfect. I'll end up doing both trailers probably, then I can make a custom box to hold both trailers.

It isn't just the post hole, buth the entire hitch assembly. The size of the bots are different too, MW Prime is smaller and the hitch is lower than G2 Laser Prime. This, and the fact that the MW trailer hitch poin is further back, while the Laser Prime hitch is further forward. They are just not compatible.

Any beginner could make this work. I might even separate his legs for more posability. I don't have time to discuss this right now. If you have the bot and trailer on hand just go look at them together, maybe up against G1 or PM Prime for size comparison.

Compatability and size are perfect. The trailers are almost identical in dimensions.

Personally like the look of the MW trailer better, but both work pretty well going by those pics.

I just added a simple peghole about an inch up from the original one and 1/4 inch higher, which is even with the legs. The Laser Prime trailer can pivot while turning whereas the original MW trailer cannot. I obviously left the original peghole, so he can use either trailer. I'm thinking I could make a nice display box that can show off both trailers. When I repaint the tanker I think it will look real nice. Anybody want to do some digibashes for me? Either make the black red and the red blue, or the gray red and the red blue, or just the bottom half of the gray red and the red blue.

Hey am I crazy or is that a pic of the movie toy FAB optimus on the side?

Shades might still not quite be what you were looking for.

How do you do that? What program do you use? The blue might look better a little darker.

I think the trailer looks better as is. I'd just remove the stickers.

Really? I thought the stickers were kind of nice. I was thinking maybe just make the black pieces a blue that would match primes legs. and leave the rest alone. I could always try and make some G1ish stickers to replace the ones on it now. Can anyone help me with digibashing? Or at least point me to an existing thread that can?