The Energon Pub

Walking into a random toystore I bumped into ROTF soundwave.
He is just a dream to repaint, I think he's one of the most detailed deluxe class transformers available. Too bad he isn't a voyager though. but now blackout has somebody tho stand next to

this is basically what he looks like out of the box:
the horror




I'm actually glad the designer chose to save money on the coloring of these toys instead of the look, transformation and shape. we are repainting them anyway!


as you can see he has a really cheap, grey looking color, some blue and silver and some gold. the only cool thing about him (I think) are the translucent blue things.
As he looked like a cheap plastic moron standing next to his G1 original. I decided to repaint him straight away.

I based the color pattern of the G1 soundwave: blue hands, blue shoulders, silver arms, silver on the inside of the leg, blue on the outside of the leg etc....

I used a metallic blue on him but added weathering because I wanted him to appear like he had been in some fights.

colors were also based on my custom megatron, I used the same hammerfinish but combined with dark blue for soundwave instead of the brown finish used on megatron


Here are the results,









the cool thing about his transformation is that you can move everything around pretty good so you can make your own transformations.
I wanted the alt mode to look a bit like the spaceship mode of megatron, both being cybertronian aircrafts.











I am aware that he has a satellite mode as well but I didn't get pics of that. sorry!

wow.. that is nice.... very nice TOo bad i cant even get my hands on one lol

The way the hue shifts from blue through purple really gives it a sense of scale. On a car I'd be wary, but on this it works.

Valandar wrote:The way the hue shifts from blue through purple really gives it a sense of scale

i'm glad you said something about that. because this transformer is so small I added these extra details to make him look bigger, first I treated the blues like I do on cars and it was a nice even color, but that made him look too polished and smaller. some damage and weathering in the colors was required to at least give him a large appearance on a photo

and personally when I look at him now (on picture), he looks like a leader class because of his enormous amount of detail.

ps I'll still add a finish and some details later on, but this character is too new, I need to think about those things first.

Wow, he looks so much more real! How did you do the weathering on the blue parts?

You've made him look so much more detailed, and i really like the increased use of blue.

the use of blue seemed obvious to me as G1 soundwave is mainly blue.
I don't understand why he isn't more blue as a toy (I smell a premium repaint version coming )

the weathering I do by combining matte and glossy blues of the same tone ( i did it on the propeller of blackout as well with black - check out blackout's backside pic). it gives a nice weathered feel without making it look scratched. (i think)

very nice work you know what that mould reminds me of BW tigerhawk maybe its me.

That is pretty good piece, nice paint application bro !

For sale? That looks excellent and so much better than the one I'll be getting in a few days..I'd rather have thatone

That's awesome.

wow!! Can I have this with a side of AWESOME sauce!?

amazing just amazing!!


EDIT: June 2, 2009 -Found one this evening, at my job - Target - just so I can do a repaint inspired by yours!! I hope mine turns out as epic!!

Very nice...saw this fig tonight and passed. Had it looked like yours, I would have had to buy it.

wow, thanks for all the great reactions here, and on the swindle page
they really mean a lot... makes customizing even more fun.


I'll be back soon with a bunch of pics of a custom movie smokescreen (not the jazz mold), an update of Blackout who looks a lot more movie accurate now, and a repaint of ROTF bumblebee (this one really looks kick ass now - i think)

I also have some new updated pics of soundwave I'll post them next week when I get home.

thanks again

That is an awesome repaint, I love it. You are very talented and have a whole lot more patience than I do. That could be the crown jewel of anyones colection, good job. Wow is it just me or could there be a whole lot of fans that could be hired by Hasbro and Takara to do designs and paint apps. I would definatly hire you if I worked there.

Man I just got this figure last week and it's bad ass right out of the box but that re-paint is amazing. I've been considering reviving my modelling skills from Warhammer obsession of many a year ago to get into Transformers kitbashing (the modelling was always my favourite aspect of the hobby). I'm so tempted to have a go at reproducing this mod myself but I know I'd end up messing it up. Thinking about a simple repaint of Move 1 Bumblebee to Cliffjumper might be worth a shot tho.

Woo hoo! G1 accurate!

thx for comments on this one,
have a few moments so I'll quickly answer this one

Omega Taco Supreme wrote:if you would tell us exactly what kinds of paints (colors and brands) you used for this and the other repaints so that I can try to recreate what you have done to my figures

paints used were

colors used on this are:
Hammer finish ( that's a color ) no Idea of the brand but the color resembles the iron of toolboxes.

metallic blue - humbrol nr 52 ,

email colors light grey, silver,

washes were done with email colors satin black and dark blue
I always use email paint for washes , the paint does not dry too quickly so it stays controllable for a while.

I also use paint from tamiya but not on Soundwave I believe.


hope this helps a bit

happy painting!