Operation: Revenge (Bruticus 2010)
Here's a link to the previous WIP from late 2008 & early 2009 on these guys:
Universe Combaticons - WIP Well, since it's been months since you guys last saw any updates on Swindle or Brawl, I figured I'd update a bit with the others. These are just some shots I took over the last few days. These are only some early mock-ups of Bruticus and his upper half. Still figuring out what I want to do on the lower half. I'm trying to minimize the extra combiner parts, but the upper legs of Bruticus may end up being either Unicron or Primus thighs/knees. Not sure on that just yet.
As for what you see here, I took a cue (sort of) from Ninos and his Onslaught WIP he posted here. Originally, I had planned to use Universe Onslaught in this project, but I (like many) still didn't get that G1 Onslaught feel from him. After seeing what Ninos did with Onslaught's head on a TFTM Leader Prime mold, I started wondering if I could somehow make it work on a TFTM Voyager Prime mold that I picked up off turboedguy last summer. (thanks for the idea to try this out, Ninos!)
I removed Onslaught's head from his body, filled in the hole with putty, let it dry, then drilled a hole for the ball joint to snap into. After that, I took an old ball joint peg from an Energon tank (one of the Energon Bruticus Maximus tanks) and cut the peg off with the ball joint still attached at the top. I glued and puttied it into place where the old TFTM Prime head used to sit (the peg fit perfectly into the recessed area). After it all set and dried, I snapped the head on and took a look. The head didn't look too shabby on it--BUT, it did look kinda big due to the overall height of it. Onslaught's head is pretty tall and skinny. Anyway, I decided to mod the head to fit better with the mold, so I cut off the top of the head (you can see this where the black on Onslaught's head meets the putty). I then took some putty and applied it to the hacked up head, then sculpted a bit to get the general shape I wanted. I let it dry, then went back and cut the harder-edged details into it. I tried to sculpt the head to look like the top of Onslaught's head, but much shorter (making the head more round instead of tall). I plan to build onto the chest with styrene (either directly on the chest or a chest shield for Onslaught that can be removed to attach the Bruticus chest shield. I also plan to try and "G1" up the legs and a few other areas (to make it more boxy). Not sure yet, but I may stick with the hands that came with the TFTM Voyager Prime, since they help hold things together during transformation into Bruticus (as seen in the pics).
Also in the works is a new chest for Blast Off and Swindle. Swindle has a new hinge (no pics yet) that a G1-style chest will be built onto with styrene. This will fold up over the front of the Swindle chest you saw before that I did. As for Blast Off, I also used a soldering iron to heat the pin and remove the train parts from the forearms, then removed the shoulder pads. I plan to do something so that his hands can fold in and stay hidden, that way the shuttle mode looks better and isn't so bloated by train parts. Vortex will be done G1-style onto that TFTM Landmine figure you see in the pics. I stripped down most of the mold and kept the parts and bits I'd need. This will be a huge scratchbuild with styrene and other parts to turn this into a helicopter, which will have the transformation of G1 Vortex (for the most part).
*Credit for the idea to use TFTM Landmine goes to King_Starscream* (thanks for the inspiration, bro!)
I'm still unsure of what I'll use as hands for Bruticus. I may keep the Primus hands or I may go with something else. Any suggestions are more than appreciated. I scrapped the original use of the Primus forearms that I had planned to use--I want to keep this sucker mostly kibble free. If I do use the Unicron or Primus thigh/knee areas, I will try my best to incorporate that into an alt mode or try and do it up as a trailer section for Onslaught. This is still up in the air at the moment, but again, I'm all ears to any ideas or suggestions.
One last thing, the G1-styled chest shield will be used for Bruticus, but I have a couple of parts I'm adding onto it and I may build it up a bit larger--that all depends on how it all comes together and if the size works with the added bits or if it needs to be larger.
Enjoy!
XBL GT: Captslayer21
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