Autobot Rescue Mission

Last night I promised my little lad a game of the new Transformer rules. He didn't let me forget and it wasn't long before the table was set up and ready. 

As Maximus had been captured in my last test game, it made only sense to form up Autobot strike teams to break him out.

The Autobots weren't leaving anything to chance and attacked in force. Adding to this large force was the legendary warrior, Ultra Magnus. Against him was a small but powerful force of Decepticons led by the newly upgraded Shockwave.

Autobots gained the initiative and took up positions around the Decepticon detention block.

Having got themselves into position the Autobots launch their assault. Magnus uses an energon net to disable Shockwave, while Ratchet and Hound fire on the Seeker guards.

Shockwave, outraged by this attack, breaks free of the net and transforms into his shock cannon form. It's now that Green bug (my old car) and her team make a dash for him. Their goal was to divert his fire away from the rest of the teams. A head on run for the commander failed after a huge blast from his Shock cannon blunted the attack.

Little Green bug narrowly missed being vaperised from a huge blast from Shockwave.

The Seekers having been driven back, Ratchet and his team attempt to open the holding cell door. Before they can get anywhere, Soundwave surprises them and sends them flying back. They are damaged and in full flight. It is now that Ratchet uses his ability to repair and restores two energon points back onto his unit.

Silver spin and Green bug take cover then try again to get close to Shockwave. Magnus blasts the great Decepticon from behind and this pushes him back. Soundwave too is sent flying back from a volley from a heavy Autobot team. Transforming into their heavy tanks they continue to push the Decepticons back. In the brutal firefight, the out numbered Decepticons are eventually whittled down and taken off line. Soundwave is shot while falling back and taken out.

 Shockwave transformers back into robot mode and attempts to rally his Seeker jets. Hit and wounded he fails to reach them in time and they too are destroyed.

This leaves the mighty gun bot on his own and heavily outnumbered. As Ratchet tries to open the cell block door, the other Autobot teams surround Shockwave. Shockwave diverts energon into himself and repairs his damaged systems.

 Greenbug finally catches up to him and her squad accelerate to a ramming attack. Seeing all is lost and the growing Autobot numbers, Shockwave flees the scene..

Ratchet cracks the door code first go and Maximus is freed. Damaged, low on energon, but still functional. The victorious forces gather to hear a small speech from their old sector commander.

Having heard a rushed speech about freedom is the right of all sentient beings, the Autobots fallback, melting away into the wreckage of Cybertron.

Megatron will not be pleased at this affront to his authority and no-one crosses MEGATRON!

Creating Shockwave

I thought it was time I gave Shockwave his fearsome cannon this morning. While I was about it, I decided to upgrade him with bigger legs.

My original model used pieces from a smaller Megatron keyring. This worked okay but I always thought they looked a bit small. So this morning I jumped up and set about cutting and shaping extra leg pieces.

I also tweaked the gun design by covering the central structure and adding a connecting pipe into the barrel. This made more sense to me and the model started to look like a gun.

I thought I would repaint the model of Shockwave and use the same paints to do the gun.

Here can be seen the new pieces that connect the barrel with the main body. This looked so much better I'm glad I pushed myself to tweak it. Sometimes leaving it for a night is the best way to look at it with fresh eyes and helps not to rush it.

A coat of purple paint pulls everything together.

 

All finished and varnished. I added a little carbon scoring around the muzzle of the cannon with Tamiya weathering chalks.

I tried to match some of the detail on the rear of the gun to those I had put on the figure.

The inside of the glue lid has a nice circular detail which painted up as red hot energy conductor.

Shockwave shows off his new legs to Twin cast, who in turn shows off his new gun.

He looks so much better with his new chunky legs. He seems better in proportion now as he was very top heavy before.

His chest was given a coat of reflective paint which made it catch the light and glo. Being a purple hue, it matched his body colour and so was perfect for the job.

I used the Transformers Siege artwork book for reference and so gave him a worn campaign look.

The reference book is a real god send and has helped me no end with this project. I'm just a bit sorry I never got the chest quite right. However, it would be too much of a hassle to change it now.

 I always think of this as an early version of Shockwave before he upgraded himself in the one we all know.

I used the Tamiya weathering power for the blast damage on the base too.

I think he's my favourite boss for the bad guys, I'm a little afraid of taking Megatron out, but Shockwave is a great substitute. A cool strategist who dwarfs most other Autobots, he is a feared adversary. Not to mention he can turn into one of the most deadly guns on the planet. His emotionless eye analyzing every detail, there is nowhere to hide.

Creating More Robots

This bot has seen better days... Luckily his spark is in good hands 

Remember, never throw your glue lids away, always keep them in your bits box. This Star wars gun was good but just lacked something. A massive barrel for a shock cannon was created by an old glue lid. It certainly looked more in keeping with Shockwaves alt mode. Once painted it should be just the ticket.

It's fun trying to make the alt mode look like the transformed character. A heavy power hose helped with the Shockwave vibe. Luckily for me, the actual gun had a piece on the top that looked like Shockwaves head.

The model is disassembled so I can get to his arms and legs. I decided to buy an actual toy which was a bit pricey but they do make excellent figures once tweaked. The problem is their limbs are full of gaps and holes. These need a fair bit of filling and covering with plasticard.

 

There all patched up and ready for some paint.

One of my latest joys with this project is creating guns for them. Guns can be expensive in resin and not quite have that cartoon look. Recently, I've been pushing myself to create custom weapons. These are fiddly but amazing fun to do. Once painted they look spot on.

This toy has a crazy decal of the Autobot symbol on his head. I could never paint anything this detailed, so I'm going to leave his head black and tidy up around it.

Here is the original toy packet, he's gone to a better place now.

Now back to another line up of lucky bots who have received their alt modes. The mighty Shockwave can now turn into a devastating cannon. Scramble can now take his servalance work on the road with a nifty set of wheels.

Wrench the Decepticon medic can now move around the battlefield to help fallen comrades, or just rip them apart for spares.

More of mighty Shockwave, in the end I added more plasticard to his head to link the two models together more. I'm very pleased with this now as I never thought I'd find anything suitable for him.

A beach buggy Autobot gets his wheels. Buying two sets of sprues for Gaslands is a good way of getting bits that can be put on robot and vehicle modes. This of course makes them look like they are the same machine.

An extra dish from the Gaslands sprue ties these two together nicely. I used a really fine bristle from a washing up brush as an aerial to complete the spy like character.

I had two of these Micromachines future tanks with their menacing drills. Cutting the drills off one and sticking them onto the robot, it completed the illusion of a transformer. I will repaint this bot and give him a bit more love. He also has another homemade gun too.