Back on the Bots!

Madness took me today and I picked up some Autobots that have been lying around for ages. After their less than successful unavailing at a wargames day, I was a little put off creating any more.

 However it's a topic I hold dear and so I'm sure they will appear again. Just the joy of crafting characters from bits and bobs is enough to ensure I'll do more in the future.

 I used a bit from my hearing aid supplies to finish off his back and close some of the many gaps left in the toy. Any little gizmo or grebbly is always worth keeping and storing safe, the day will come when you'll be glad you kept it.

This character is one of the coolest I've painted so far, he carries strong manga vibes.

I now need to give him a name that sums up his sleek look. I'm quite proud of his pistol which was created from plasticard. He is an actual mini toy rather than a keyring. I kept the nice Autobot symbol on his head and this helped to determine his overall colour scheme.

I quite like the fact he has energy vents on his legs, it adds a little more contrast to the black body work.

I think due to the vents on the back of his legs for speed and his red, molten colour scheme, I think Quick fire would be a good name for him. He also has a pistol which gives of law enforcement vibes. I'll have to find a good vehicle mode for him now that suits his new character.

Wide load gets his alt mode. I kit bashed this vehicle together from tank tracks, a gun and a broken Micro machine vehicle. It has the same huge wheels that I modelled the robot with.

I forgot I had this picture of him being assembled. You can see here there were a lot of gaps to fill to turn this toy into a playing piece.

Autobots!

I can't believe my luck finding this tiny Lamborghini, it's a Micromachines toy and just perfect for what I need.

I saw it on eBay but didn't imagine for a moment it would be a  useful size. Being a collectors item, these little cars can be expensive, so I had to look around for a really cheap one. Well, I finally found one for a couple of pounds and bought it. When it turned up the low price made sense...it had three wheels. I booked him in to the workbench and soon he was as good as new, complete with a new wheel.

Such a cute little fella and very useable for the game. It didn't take long for me to find another bashed up toy and order it. Now I have the Alt modes for Sunstreaker and Sideswipe, the Autobot lambo twins.

I've added some gizmos to the models to cover up some of the damage and make them look a little more futuristic. The figures of the characters are from a diecast collectors set. They were originally coated in a thick enamel paint that filled a lot of the models detail. I was glad to see that after I had stripped them, their detail was actually quite good and true to the cartoon.

It was tempting to leave this model yellow as it is Sunstreaker's colour, but does need a bit more tlc.
 It's good to paint the figure and his car mode at the same time so the colour matches seamlessly.

Side swipe is done, just needs his decal on the car.

He is so iconic of the original line up of Autobots, I'm really pleased to include him in the collection.

Volley gets an Alt mode too. I had two of these futuristic tanks from Micromachines and used the drills off one to add to the character model. Together with slight repaint with some extra colours added, the two look like the same machine.

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.