The Energon Pub

[pbz313]

Hey guys! Yeah, it's me, WV. (I was registered on here before, but I lost my password and the email that was attached to it got closed before I could retrieve it.)

Anyhoo, one of the things I always remembered about G1 Megatron that I liked was the scroll work on the sides of the gun; this would end up on the chestplate of Megatron in robot mode. But when I got my MP version, it lacked it.



Needless to say, I was disappointed. So, I managed to get my hands on a copy of the original labels, threw it into photoshop, rescaled them and printed them on clear decal film, and...



A shot of the back:



and both sides of the gun in gun mode:






Now, I wasn't happy with the pasty, pearlescent-esque face. So, i redid it in a light steel color to offset the silver of the rest of the gun. But I didn't stop there. I kinda got tired of old "bucket head" and wanted something a little more G1 toy-ish. i always liked how the front of the head was like a crown, and there was a black "under-helmet" that surrounded his face. My thought was to take the piece that flips down from his head ( the backstrap of the gun)and permanently affixing that in place, disconnecting it from the hinge. It would require me taking the front off of Megatron's forehead, which slides up. My goal is to expose the forehead piece underneath and render his head more like it appears on the G1 toy.

So...





You cannot see too much of the "crown" unless you look inside the helmet, up under the front . It was unavoidable, but I did my nest to make it visible without making the horizontal forehead crown pieces too narrow:



The benefits of this modification are that 1) the face retracting is NOT required for transformation and in no way impedes it 2) instead of the head being 3 separate helmet pieces, the face and the neck joint housing, it is now one solid piece 3) It removes a chunky piece of kibble from Megatron's back 4) it "bulks" out" the head a bit and makes him look more menacing.



Here, you see the former hinge area for the "backstrap" piece that went over Megatron's head. I deliberately left it unpainted to show where the joints had been.



The front crown piece added in also makes Megatron look a lot meaner, like Optimus Prime peed in his corn flakes this morning.



and finally, a shot "just because" showing off some shadow effect on his head:



The area under the crown and around Megatron's eyes was painted in black to replicate a bit how the toy has it. Next up, I plan on filling out the "crown a bit underneath, adding the black guards along either side of Megatron's jaw that run up to the crown.

Also, I GOTTA do something about those scrawny thighs....

[D-Unit]

I prefer the original, cartoon style face, but your mods are impressive nonetheless. Nice work

[pbz313]

Thanks D-Unit, I appreciate the compliment. Yeah, some folks like the carton look, and while it does have its' appeal, I like the G1 helmet better.

This pic is an update after I completed the black "inner helmet" and brought down the black recesses on the forehead:



I used plastic welder to add the cheek pieces inside of the main helmet, and then added the chin extension as seen on the G1 toy. I had to bend the outer silver helmet pieces outward to get them in; it shouldn't affect the transform, as i will be altering the hip plates that close over the head in gun mode to allow for the thigh modification I am planning to do in the near future.