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Customizing Class Pictures (Custom Overkill) and CLASSICs Overkill Unofficial Bio.

PostPosted: Thu Jun 28, 2007 7:44 am
by Tigertrack
"Me Grimlock, no want ugly paint job!!!! Me pretty as am..."

Regardless, of Grimlock's wishes, my wife and attended the Botcon Customizing Class taught by customizing extra-ordinaire Shawn Tessman. I am fortunate enough to have this be my second Botcon customizing experience, both classes taught by Shawn and both a great time!!!

The class started at 9:00. We were each given ONE Grimlock mint on the sprues, fresh from the factory to paint and put together. This was a little different from last year, but people seemed to adapt fine.

Shawn talked to us about his choices for the mold, that he was told to make his choice, and his first choices, Starscream, and Mirage were being used in the box set (For 'seekers' and 'Translucent Mirage' respectively. He was trying to get something simple to put together, but that would make an interesting repainted character (Astrotrain--too difficult, and Rodimus--too hard to make look different than Rodimus)

Shawn took us through the process of painting the figure and showing us techniques, and offering guidance and hints on how to do this ourselves, with ordinary materials that will not cost a fortune. In fact, I believe he stated most can be found at Walmart!

Just so we would not forget, Shawn also provided us with a booklet to take with us on how to customize in general, and how to make the Overkill using a retail figure.

The class was fun as we expected it to be based on last year's experience, although we found this mold to be particularly difficult to put together after the painting. Many in the class did not end up leaving until well after 4:15 (Try about 9:00PM!).

Shawn did a fantastic job!!! He understood our frustrations, and worked hard with us to maintain our interest, and lower that level of anger that many of us now felt toward the CLASSIC's Grimlock mold.

For those wondering, yes, we were given a DECEPTICON rub sign to put on instead of an AUTOBOT that he would normally come with.

Was it worth $60 (double the price of last year, and no extra figure(s) to take with us that are uncustomized)? My wife and I thought so. Our only disappointment was that we did not get an extra set to keep sealed for our collections even though the price was increased.


Overkill's Unofficial Classics BIO written by Shawn Tessman

Function: Warrior
BIO: Once upon a time, OVERKILL served the Decepticon cause as a warrior and spy. While he had a penchant for ranting and raving on the battlefield, and showing off his abilities more than actually using them, he could still be a frighteningly effective warrior if forced to focus his energies on the task at hand. Occasionally, a glitch in his transformation protocols caused him to remain stuck in cassette size in dinosaur form. Eventually though, the problem became chronic, and then terminal. He was stuck the size of a rat, and his spark could not even be extracted, as his body was too small to safely remove and transplant it.

Overkill's leader also had a problem...a thornin his side named Grimlock. Everywhere he went, the Dinobot was sure to follow. Defeat followed defeat, as he had no soldiers capable of matching Grimlock's ferocity or physical power. Except possibly for Overkill.

The surgeons used data scans of Grimlock to construct a facsimile of his body. They inserted Overkill's cassette form into a special housing built into the chest cavity. Overkill could once again function as a member of the Decepticon military.

Now more powerful than ever, Overkill tends to fight his enemies beyond the point of defeat, but his leader is seriously considering ripping out his vocal processor...it might be the only way to shut him up.

WEAPONS/ABILITIES
Overkill's new body, while not quite the equal of Grimlock, is nevertheless extremely powerful. He carries his original body within the chest housing, and can still utilize it's recording capabilities. His new body has eight speakers that can project various recorded sounds at an excess of 1500 decibels. He is also armed with a combination missile launcher/sword that fires "motion missiles" which home in on the movement of any object larger than a baseball. His new body is quite strong, and he is capable of crushing cars in his jaws and demolishing buildings with the swipe of his tail. Since the spark is encased in his original body, his new form can be beaten to the point of deactivation without actually harming him.

WEAKNESSES
Overkill isn't used to using a bipedal robot mode, and so he usually only transforms when explicitly ordered to do so. He will often try to accomplish tasks in his beast mode that it is simply not designed for. His body is not as strong or resilient as Grimlock's, being constructed from Earth alloys instead of Cybertronian ones. If his chest cavity were to be infiltrated, the connection between robot body and cassette form could be easily interrupted, leaving him helpless. Since his "motion missiles" home in on movement, the best way to defeat him is to stand completely still.

STR: 8
SPEED: 2
RANK: 5
FIREBLAST: 6
INT: 5
END: 8
COURAGE: 6
SKILL: 5


NOTE: These images consist of Shawn's customs, and my wife Laura's (full white chest) that we put together.

PostPosted: Thu Jun 28, 2007 8:28 am
by DTM
i like it. nice choice to paint the chest full white. smooth paint on the figure as well

PostPosted: Thu Jun 28, 2007 9:02 am
by Ultra Magnus
Hm... Customizing CLASS??? There's no TEACHING this incredibly subtle, incredibly PERSONAL art! Kitbashing is an understanding betwixt yourself and the character you want to build. It's that simple. What we have here is advanced Gundam model painting. You want to have a class on kitbashing? Require everyone to make THEIR OWN custom figure THEIR OWN way, and have someone knowledgeable(Ultra Magnus) monitor their progress/offer suggestions. That's a customizing class. Geesh. I'd be appaled at this customizing class and all the money I'd have had to put up for it. It's a good idea, tho.

Please forgive the Brash tone of this post, but I'm pretty touchy about Custom Transformers figures. I'm something of a Veteran in this area of Trans-Fanatacism. Click the pic in my signature if you don't believe me...

PostPosted: Thu Jun 28, 2007 9:02 am
by bionic_radical
i hope that booklet gets put up for zee rest of us. that paintjob is smooth as well.

PostPosted: Thu Jun 28, 2007 9:13 am
by Blurrz
Damnnnnn, Overkill looks nice, and there's no sign of that being a kitbash, it looks like it just came off the assembly line.

PostPosted: Thu Jun 28, 2007 9:25 am
by pittsburg_22_m
It looks painted well. However is it weird I find it comparable to painting coffee mugs? :-x

PostPosted: Thu Jun 28, 2007 9:44 am
by 1337W422102
Nice.

PostPosted: Thu Jun 28, 2007 10:44 am
by Tigertrack
My wife's is the one with the dirty wash to it. She saw it on CLASSICs GRIMLOCk and wanted to try it.

As far as everyone bringing their own. That seems impossible. This customizing (painting) not kitbashing. The teacher would have to have so many tools, and so much knowledge of the various possible bots, as well as, any number of paint colors for the air brush and detailing. While it sounds great, it doesn't sound like something that they could do here.

Feel free to e-mail the staff at TFCC and let them know what you think, and how you think the class might be better.

As far as my experience, everyone enjoyed it, a lOT!

PostPosted: Thu Jun 28, 2007 10:56 am
by bionic_radical
so what kind of tools did you end up using? did you airbrush the paint on or what? i wish i couldve gone!!

PostPosted: Thu Jun 28, 2007 5:13 pm
by i_amtrunks
Nice, as long as you think its worth the $$$, its all good.

Also nice to see a figure that possibly could have had only 2 repaints (BW Megatron, Dinobot) a different character out of left field.

PostPosted: Thu Jun 28, 2007 8:43 pm
by Hairball178
This opens up the possibility of a Snarl figure being remade into Slugfest...but that would require a new Snarl toy (read closely Hasbro) THAT IS NOT A LION.

Loving the bio. Didn't his original bio (can't remember if it was the toy, DW entry, or TFU entry) also mention something about a baseball? Maybe the size of his missles or somesuch?

PostPosted: Thu Jun 28, 2007 9:53 pm
by Bombus distinguendus
wow nice paint job. been thinking about grabbing another movie swindle figure and repainting it myself. what kinda paint did you use? and did u guys uses brushes, paint gun, both?

PostPosted: Mon Oct 22, 2007 5:45 pm
by AngelMagnus
Ultra Magnus wrote:There's no TEACHING this incredibly subtle, incredibly PERSONAL art!


It's all very well for people who've been doing this a long time to go on a rant about how people should make "their own custom figure their own way". You forget what it was like in the before time.

Clearly, you started off from scratch knowing full well how to disassemble the figure, manage the pieces, prep the surface, what paint to use, what paint not to use, how to apply it, how to let it dry, how to re-assemble, what mistakes to avoid, etc. Because you were immediately as good as you were, had this preternatural knowledge and nobody had to show or tell you how to do it.

Get real.

Yes. They all made essentially the same figure (although clearly they've created their own unique custom versions, their own way). That's not the point.

What you now have is a class full of people who are now equipped to go about making their own figures. All new, unique, things you've never done before. They have the fundamentals down, a big win under their belts, and they know it's not as mind-bogglingly "where do I even start?" as they thought it was. Without having frustrating failures, things they just can't figure out how to do, or questions unanswered.

Or the need to troll for hours through forums full of people like you.

PostPosted: Mon Oct 22, 2007 5:53 pm
by Bigdaddymcqueen
looks cool!! i like it!!

Re: Customizing Class Pictures (Custom Overkill) and CLASSICs Ov

PostPosted: Mon Sep 29, 2008 5:40 pm
by Scaleface
Well, now that toy is being mass produced, I guess it's a good excuse to make a MTMTE for him.

Image

PostPosted: Mon Sep 29, 2008 6:08 pm
by Geekee1
Ultra Magnus wrote:Hm... Customizing CLASS??? There's no TEACHING this incredibly subtle, incredibly PERSONAL art! Kitbashing is an understanding betwixt yourself and the character you want to build. It's that simple. What we have here is advanced Gundam model painting. You want to have a class on kitbashing? Require everyone to make THEIR OWN custom figure THEIR OWN way, and have someone knowledgeable(<*cough*>Ultra Magnus<*cough*>) monitor their progress/offer suggestions. That's a customizing class. Geesh. I'd be appaled at this customizing class and all the money I'd have had to put up for it. It's a good idea, tho.

Please forgive the Brash tone of this post, but I'm pretty touchy about Custom Transformers figures. I'm something of a Veteran in this area of Trans-Fanatacism. Click the pic in my signature if you don't believe me...


Is it lonely up there on your pedestal?

Thanks for the post TT, I haven't been able to make it to the customizing classes and it's nice to have accounts from it.