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.