Creating Skyfire

A real favourite of mine from the cartoon was Skyfire. He was a huge space jet and dwarfed every other bot of the time. I didn't think I'd find a good model of him until I stumbled across a line of action figures. I've had a lot of luck putting this project together and this was no exception. These starwars sized figures tied in perfectly with my allotted scale. I'm not a 100% sure, but I think it might be 10mm. Anyway, Skyfire is a exact match for Prime and the others and if course I'm over the moon. I had to cut him up a bit to rearrange his legs so his standing pose looked better, 

Even though he was massive, his size and passive personality made him vulnerable. He was a scientist alongside his friend, Starscream before the war. He crash landed on earth and was frozen under the ice for millions of years before being found and revived by the Decepticons.

Megatron tried to convince Skyfire that the Autobots were evil and that he should destroy them. This cunning ploy almost worked until Skyfire saw the two human characters in trouble and rescued them, showing his true nature. This landed him a blast from his once time friend Starscream. Skyfire realising his mistake swopped sides and helped the Autobots defeat the Decepticon forces. Classic Eighties story telling at it's finest.

The actual character gave the Autobots a bit of well needed air support and also became a handy bit of transportation for missions in Session one. Session two of the cartoon saw a whole wealth of other air based Autobots and Skyfire disappeared from the show. His transportation role was taken on by the new character, Omega Supreme. However, for the first season at least, Skyfire was the biggest bot in town and a real scene stealer. 

The action figure is very true to the cartoon but I just wanted to add a little more detailing. For this I used a really thin plasticard and cut it into tiny panelling. I didn't want to go too crazy with it as the model was already cartoon accurate. These days, like me, most people into Transformers are not kids anymore and there is a whole industry of expensive models out there. These prove very useful for ideas in detailing and weathering.

 Below are various references taken from the internet. Some of the latest models are nicely detailed, this helps to show scale.

The cartoon character sheets, always useful for colour guides.

I found this customised figure very inspiring. You definitely get a feeling of scale with the panelling and weathering effects. I think I will bare this in mind when painting mine up.

Update: Here is the finished model, weathered up for the war. What a nightmare it is painting white and red at the same time, the amount of times I had to go over pinkish armour.

A bit of Tamiya weathering 'soot' on the engines worked well to give used look. 

As far as a vehicle mode is concerned I might have found a solution. A Buzz light-year toy might just work, I'll have to see when it arrives. I imagine he's going to take to the air to fight so a vehicle mode is going to be important to find.

The cockpit worked out a treat. I painted on Chrome details over a blue background. This was then painted over with a blue contrast paint. The shiny details below still catch the light and give the impression of an interior.

Skyfire is massive and should add some real heavy backup to the Autobots. He is a favourite of mine and will probably end up being in every battle.

His stats for Xenos Rampant are: Heavy Infantry, fly ability, Assault doctrine and heavy weapon. I could of added more but he was getting expensive. I added the Assault doctrine because of his size and the fact he sports a deadly energy blade in his arm.

Old friends reunited.

Update:

I'm very happy to say that it looks like Skyfire will be taking to the skies after all. A Buzz light-year toy is a perfect size for an Alt mode...with a few modifications of course.

Obviously it's not screen accurate, but it does have the right space vibe and size to fit the job. Once I sawed off the nose it looked even closer to the original.

Once the large light year cockpit is removed and the back shuttle added, it's not too bad at all. I'm over the moon I've found something suitable. This project has been laced with luck ever since it began. Finding keyrings, cake toppers, toys and models to create the armies of Cybertron has all just fallen into place. This latest find just sums up the project.

The massive Skyfire next to a Seeker for scale.

These new designs of Skyfire with the forward sloping wings are even closer to my model. Joy!