The Energon Pub

I have always been in awe of how well our model makers in China turn around new designs, and with such a great degree of accuracy, so on this trip I thought I'd get my hands dirty.

I have always been a frustrated artist, but ended up going in to engineering instead of the arts. The factory we work with very kindly offered to give me 2 weeks of scratch building classes so that I could visualise my ideas better and prototype mechanisms before coming out to china to do the engineering.

So what project am I going to be working on? Well obviously it's Transformers related, but the twist may be more difficult to guess (unless you regularly read my posts).

Over the next week or so I will post pictures of my progress and a few comments on the techniques I used to create the model (sorry, none today, left my USB cable at the hotel).

For now hold on to your bladders, I'm hoping that the results of this will be pantwettingly cool.

Finally got the camera hooked up so 3 days worth of images in 1 go

Day 1: Clay Model Stage

Working out the best way to fit the body work for the torso to the donor model.

Lots of painstaking scalpel work with details produced from plasticard and turned plastic rod.









More tomorrow

Day 2: Arms and Legs

Again created in clay. The most difficult part of this is to minimise the amount of interference between the servo joints and the bodywork.







Tomorrow, the head

Day 3: The Head

A bit more difficult this one. Have had to make some allowances to the back of the head to accommodate the servo. Sure you won't mind!!!

Supplemental: Rough assembly of all parts





Next step... casting

Well we worked through the night (even though today is Dragon Boat Festival) and we have got a good deal of the resin casting done.

While we were waiting for that to cure I also managed to get the legs and feet done and was given a hand to get the head just right.

We also managed to turn up the cylindrical parts of the obligatory BFG out of ABS and machine the add on parts. Turns out that you can glue ABS really strongly with a combination of Super Glue and JONSON'S BABY POWDER!!! I will try to findout what the formula is for the specific glue they use. Could be useful for other kitbashers out there.

Final stage of casting tonight and then on to painting.

(Edit: Oh and those wheels will be removed. They just look silly!!!)

Should have final photos (and video) by the end of the weekend.

That has bot to be one of the coolest bashes ever!

Cude you gotta let me use that for teh Newsletter!

No problem. Thanks for the comments.

I'd love for it to be in the newsletter.

Paint is drying on the final model as I type this. Will upload some photos tomorrow and then shoot some video once I have created some motion sequences for him. Also need to rip some audio clips from the animated movie for him to say.

Expect video on Sunday when I get to Hong Kong (YouTube is now blocked again in China)

Can't wait to see the vid.

Of course, you know the only way you could top that, now, is to make a version that can actually transform, right?

Well, that's the big question isn't it

Actually we sort of have already...

A couple of years ago I was consulting to a magazine company in the UK as one of their Transformers "experts" and had the pleasure of working with Simon Furman and top artists such as Andrew Wildman and Don Fig. I happened to be in the US and met up with Don (who is such a cool guy, btw) and we were talking about MechRC. Andrew had already done the base designs for us for MechRC (seen at http://www.mechrc.com) but Don and I got talking about what else could be done in the line.

We comitioned Don to do some designs (which I may well post after I see him in a couple of weks and have checked that he is okay with it) and, well it wasn't a "Transformer", but it did transform and it looked workable. We even built a prototype. However the project got scrapped when we realised how much it would cost at retail, and I just never got around to hooking up the controller for all the extra motors for the transormation (and the tank tracks)

Would you guys be okay if Megatron was a space tank?

Let's get this one finished first though shall we!!!

Photos delayed until tomorrow as it is a public holiday here today and I can't get in to the workshop.

Well, here he is. Not quite complete.

Still to do:

Chrome smoke stacks and front grill
Finish paint detail on thighs/knees
Remove yellow detailing (added after I left the work shop the other night because it was considered to be too red!!! - I despair)
Tidy up wires
Produce a whole new set of motion files
Create better audio

That said. I'm pretty happy with it.

I'd be more than happy to hear any criticisms you might have though...








Video still uploading will post it when it's done

He walks, he talks, he carries a big frakking gun

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArrkhlY2NMQ

Sorry, not sure how to embed the video in the thread

All Hail Megatron my aft!
This is AMAZING! It's such a shame there isn't a huge market for stuff like this, simply 'cause people wouldn't know what to do with it programming-wise.
I loved getting to see the entire process, from Prime-shaped-chocolate-fudge-cake-looking pile of clay to walking, talking robot in disguise, or close enough anyway. Can we expect to see more of these from you in the future?

Thanks,

You might be getting one more before Christmas, and he has a very special party piece

But only if you're very good!!!

Programming is actually very easy. Basically it's like producing a flash animation. Just set keyframes on a 3D avatar and drop it into a filmstrip.

We've had 12 year olds doing it. Check out the other videos on http://www.youtube.com/mechrc

Stickshift wrote:Thanks,

You might be getting one more before Christmas, and he has a very special party piece

But only if you're very good!!!

Programming is actually very easy. Basically it's like producing a flash animation. Just set keyframes on a 3D avatar and drop it into a filmstrip.

We've had 12 year olds doing it. Check out the other videos on http://www.youtube.com/mechrc

That's so cool! I had no idea you could do it like that!
I assumed it would be a lot more complex.

this rocks! truely truely awesome

Stickshift wrote:He walks, he talks, he carries a big frakking gun

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArrkhlY2NMQ

Sorry, not sure how to embed the video in the thread

That is really incredible man! Thanks for going through the whole process here on the boards

I second what Ty said, Amazing work, truly amazing.. Thank you also for posting the whole process, it was awesome to see prime in his infant, ball of clay stage . So the only question left is, Where can I get one

That is just wicked... I love the idea of being able to program custom movements as well

I've showed this to alot of my friends and it always gets the sa response..It's amazing!!

Very cool work.

AWESOME

that is awesome, i love prime, heck im building a 7ft one, but this is truely amazing, i love scratch building, as it shows what people can really do, you sir are awesome!
all the best
colin :BOT

It may not be a painting or a drawing, but that is DEFINATLY a work of art!

That is insane!