The Energon Pub

News Credits: 9 · by **Mykltron** » Sun Jan 03, 2010 1:22 pm

I detest this figure. After what must have been a colossal amount of work to design Leader Class Optimus Prime this poor effort is a sore disappointment. One oversized arm (with NO ELBOW) and one scrawny tiny arm. Can't look to the side. Two thumbs that start at the elbow and only one finger that's so stupidly long it's really only good for flipping people off or picking your nose. Seriously, Hasbro, WTF? I waited until this guy was at half price and then, within minutes of getting him out of the box I was applying a scalpel and hacksaw with vigor and abandon.

1) Improve neck joint so he can look to the sides. He could already look up.
2) Give his right arm an elbow with swivel joint.
3) Reduce size of oversized arm by attaching the shield to the back pack on moving arms. The spring loaded blade still works and the two halves of the shield sit lower in tank mode, giving it a slightly sleeker look and a vastly improved robot mode.
4) Build up left arm using off-cuts from the right arm.
5) Build a new left hand with five fingers and rotating wrist. This was done with a Neo Shifter hand, off-cuts from Megatron's cannon and a thumb left over from Barricade.
6) Black base coat.
7) Five layers of drybrushing using dark, medium and bright metallic greys.
8 ) Gold details.
9) Red, blue and copper wires or pipes
10) Rust from his two years of laying dead on the ocean floor between films. To get this effect I used layers of dull yellow, brownish orange, reddish brown and dark brown with a hint of red.

He took my so long to do I actually got fed up with him and couldn't wait to finish. He was well worth every second of effort! I've produced a few works that really stand out because they surprise me with how good they look and have taught me things about this hobby and advanced my technique. This is one of those and I hope you like my effort!

You'll need to right click and select 'view image' for some of these.

From this:

To this:

Trying to emulate this:

What do you think? Did I succeed?

There are loads more pictures here so please take a look and leave comments!

News Credits: 1 · by **phase** » Sun Jan 03, 2010 2:50 pm

Sweet!

url=http://Lugia.us]

This chibi Shadow Lugia was adopted at Lugia.us![/url]

News Credits: 26 · by **MaverickPrime** » Mon Jan 04, 2010 11:36 pm

Nice work man!!!
I´d buy him right away!!

News Credits: 9 · by **Editor** » Tue Jan 05, 2010 1:07 am

Awesome job, that looks brilliant.

by **Doubledealer93** » Tue Jan 05, 2010 5:00 pm

this is what i want mine to look like! how did u make the small arm? what did u use? for the fingers and hand? :APPLAUSE:

News Credits: 9 · by **Mykltron** » Tue Jan 05, 2010 6:26 pm

Doubledealer25 wrote:this is what i want mine to look like! how did u make the small arm? what did u use? for the fingers and hand?

Read points 4 & 5!

Thanks for the comments guys! You too can have a Megatron like this if you have a spare couple of weeks!

by **Doubledealer93** » Tue Jan 05, 2010 8:32 pm

Mykltron wrote:
Doubledealer25 wrote:this is what i want mine to look like! how did u make the small arm? what did u use? for the fingers and hand?

Read points 4 & 5!

Thanks for the comments guys! You too can have a Megatron like this if you have a spare couple of weeks!

i need some neo shifters. and i have quite some time to finnish mine! :APPLAUSE:

by **blobatron** » Wed Jan 06, 2010 3:00 am

Man, that is an amazing job! I love his new left arm and the right arm looks so much better.

News Credits: 8 · by **LiKwid** » Thu Jan 07, 2010 3:38 pm

That coloring on his joints and such is amazing..That one lookslike you plucked him off the bottom of the ocean and bashed his arm

I'm curious as to what paints you used( Gw or testors?) Very nice layering also.. Epic...

News Credits: 9 · by **Mykltron** » Thu Jan 07, 2010 4:43 pm

LiKwid wrote:That coloring on his joints and such is amazing..That one lookslike you plucked him off the bottom of the ocean and bashed his arm I'm curious as to what paints you used( Gw or testors?) Very nice layering also.. Epic...

GW: mithril and boltgun

Reeves (water based): black, yellow, brown, red

Humbrol (enamel): gold,

Plasticote (enamel): copper

Reeves are great as they come as thick as toothpaste and they're really easy to water down.

by **Exic** » Sat Jan 09, 2010 12:23 am

Wow! Looks more movie accurate!! Nice!

News Credits: 9 · by **Mykltron** » Sun Jan 10, 2010 3:50 pm

I've just re-done the photos because I wasn't happy with many of the pictures - the rust came out too yellow and the gold in his chest hardly showed so I spent a while experimenting with different lighting methods and I think it paid off. I've posted new pics ^up in my first post^ and also added more pics in the main gallery.

News Credits: 2 · by **goshjosh95** » Fri Jan 15, 2010 5:28 pm

Simply awesome! I'm envious! :APPLAUSE:

by **OMEGAPRIME1983** » Sat Jan 23, 2010 2:35 am

that, sir is very awesome. The only thing thats actually off from the concept art is the tank barrel, and even so, the bot mode more than makes up for that. Very nice indeed. :APPLAUSE:

by **im ruined** » Sat Jan 23, 2010 5:24 am

I was drunk from the bar one night and re-did my TRON as well. Good job bro. Woot to dry brushing

News Credits: 9 · by **Mykltron** » Sat Jan 23, 2010 5:35 am

OMEGAPRIME1983 wrote:that, sir is very awesome. The only thing thats actually off from the concept art is the tank barrel, and even so, the bot mode more than makes up for that. Very nice indeed.

Yeah, I don't like the tank gun barrel either but I didn't want him to be a partsformer and I also thought the bot mode makes up for it.

Thanks for the compliments guys - I'll be glowing all day from them!