The Energon Pub

While I have many ideas and projects in planning stages, I figured that my 1st project in this new excursion into TF customs would start off with something a little less ambitious. A repaint of Classics Starscream/Seeker. I have him all striped and ready for priming and I realize I'm not sure ho i want to paint him as. I bought an extra SS years ago when he was new intending to repaint him as a Sunstorm, then thought about making him on of about 6 seekers of my own creation and just last night had the idea to make him one of the generic colored 'con Seekers from the G! cartoon. Now I'm stumped, I've never been good at this kind of decision. So I put it to the community at large, who go you guys think I should paint him as?

Also on taking him apart to strip the paint I notices that small tail wing that flips up on the left leg is starting to break around the peg wholes. Is that a common problem with this mold? And is there a good way to fix it and still allow the wing to fold up?

Will post pics as soon as I can.

Go for the Starscream repaint!! You can decide on so many variances of just 'Starscream', G1, Henkei Classics, Cybertron, Animated, Master Piece Line (highly recommended on this one as a repaint), and others.

This is my repaint of Starscream, I basically tried to make it G1 accurate but at the same time add my 'own preferences' of details.

OK here is where I'm at rt now

front side by side with my other Classics Starscreamand a back view

I need to clean up some imperfections on him where some of the parts were not trimmed properly from the factory and maybe some minor sanding. Then to painting him.

Thanks for the idea Shadow, may save that for a later project though, kinda want to have a character in the mix I don't have yet and i have the classics and 2.0s rt now.

the problem with the leg pin thing breaking i think its common cus both of those that i have have broken but its no big deal, but it bugs the hell out of me!

OK well has there been a fix posted that I may have missed?

Make sure you cut off the wing pegs that are on the inside edges and the tail wing pegs and then sand them down to perfection or they will rub badly when you transform from robo to jet or visa versa.

Good luck, loof forward to seeing it man!

PS - By the way, how did you get all the original color off ??

Took the figure apart as much as I could and submerged them in 91% rubbing alcohol for about 15-30 min then gently scrubbed it off with an old tooth brush. Just Do Not soak clear parts in the alcohol, ive heard that it can fog it up bad

Looking forward to your custom...

How did you strip the paint so clean? What chemical did you use?

its just plain old 91% rubbing alcohol soak all the parts other then the clear and soft rubber parts the clear will fog over and the rubber may get tacky

It's a great tip! I just did this for two of my t-formers and it worked great! Thanks!

Not a problem. Glad I could help.

OK I've decided, he is going to be Sunstorm. But with 6 other planned seeker repaints as well as maybe customs for Dirge and Thrust I'm going to need a lot more screamers/ramjets to work from lol. Man I'm such a seeker nut.


The reference pics I'm using

ugh....I hate when im trying to work on a project and it rains. I'll get started on the painting as soon as we get some descent weather, and i can primer him up

Good choice man! I'm looking forward to it, I love seekers too!

I noticed a problem while prepping my Starscream for painting...the yellow cockpit canopy. Sunstorm has a dark tinted canopy unfortunately I only have one Ramjet at the moment...then again I can use him to make a Thrust and get a new ramjet. Ok well I guess that is my next project.

after pulling the pin on my ramjet's head and removing the front piece of his canopy and taking the main part off, I switched them and its looking good so far. I will take some photos tomorrow and post them.

Again the rain thwarts my desire to get painting this thing. Maybe tomorrow will be better.

I am not sure I understand the problem? Are you still making Sunstorm?

yeah im making him but the rain messes with sprays and thats what I'm doing for the primer and base coat and i took the canopy glass from my ramjet to get the look right

Oh, NICE! I was hoping you were still doing Sunstorm!!

Finally getting some good weather and I can start painting. I'll post some pics later today.

While going through bags to get the parts I needed for painting, tragedy struck....I lost a piece of his knee assembly. I've looked everywhere, and I do mean everywhere, even getting down on my hands and knees to look....its just gone. How can a piece of light gray plastic vanish on a brown carpet?....but anyway unless I can find a junker Starscream to get that right knee from, I guess this project goes to the junkyard....and I was so looking forward to having a new con in my ranks here.

With a very special thanks to Nemesis Predaking from Sector70 for donating a replacement for the part I lost this Sunstorm is back on track and rocking and rolling toward completion. Will be posting new pics soon.

Hey I'm working on my own Sunstorm and Thundercracker and I'm having a hell of time removing the pin that hold his back torso to his front torso. Any suggestions for that? And in general?

Chupacabra Convoy wrote:Hey I'm working on my own Sunstorm and Thundercracker and I'm having a hell of time removing the pin that hold his back torso to his front torso. Any suggestions for that? And in general?

for thundercracker, id say work from Acid Storm. since his hands and feet are molded in black plastic it can save you some trouble. thats what i intend to do if i ever get the chance

grimdragon2001 wrote:

Chupacabra Convoy wrote:Hey I'm working on my own Sunstorm and Thundercracker and I'm having a hell of time removing the pin that hold his back torso to his front torso. Any suggestions for that? And in general?

for thundercracker, id say work from Acid Storm. since his hands and feet are molded in black plastic it can save you some trouble. thats what i intend to do if i ever get the chance

Actually that exact figure I'm working on now. I also trying to repaint a classic Skywarp into Thundercracker.