Even more than meets the eye, thanks to various tools, superglue and a new paintjob!
| CUSTOM ALTERNATORS |
|
|---|---|
 |
Custom-01
Prowl While I have nothing against the car used for the official Binaltech/Alternator Prowl - it's a new car, after all, rather than a simple redecoration of an existing model - I can't stand the robot mode. Nothing about it says 'Prowl' to me, apart from the head. The gun is weedy, and why they've given the Autobots' military strategist a nightstick is anyone's guess. The transformation is pretty weak, too. I know some folks have complained about the complexity of the earlier Binaltech models, but Prowl looks to be the least complex... and in a bad way. So, I decided to work on a rather predictable version of Prowl with the Subaru (Smokescreen/Silverstreak) as the basis. Just to be different, I'll be decking him out as something approximating a London Metropolitan Police car. The paintwork will be based on several photos of police cars taken by my father around town, or dredged up from the internet (you wouldn't believe how difficult it is to find good pictures of London police cars online!). It won't be perfectly accurate, but there's no UK Police Subaru as far as I'm aware, so I think I'll get away with it. Additionally, his lightbar comes from a 1:26 model of a Surrey Police Range Rover, but I had to make do as it seems impossible to get a model London Police car of any sort. The lightbar is actually slightly too large, despite being of a smaller scale. MET Prowl's weapon is a slightly repainted version of the standard Subaru intercooler weapon, and he's made of a mixture of Silverstreak and Smokescreen parts. I won't be going for a perfect duplication of Gen 1 Prowl's paintjob, largely because I didn't want the hassle of painting his hands, but the concept of MET Prowl gives me an easy excuse. The head has had a fair bit of remodelling, with large portions shaved or filed away, bits glued on and bits made up with modelling putty. While the main body of painting is complete, most of the detailing remains to be done, and I need to design the decals. |
 |
Custom-02
Soundwave Inspired by the many kitbashed interpretations of Soundwave (and particularly Soundblaster) in the Alternators series, I decided to make my own. One of the best options seems to be the Skids/Broadblast mold, the Toyota bB (aka the Scion in the States). Rather than remodel an Alternator head, I chose to pick up a Cybertron Soundwave and use his head. This was not as simple as I first thought, owing to the different use of neck ball joints between the two models - C.Soundwave has the ball joint coming out of the head and plugging into the shoulders, while Alternator Skids has the ball joint coming out of the shoulders and plugging into the head. This meant that both the head and the Alternator's ball joint had to be remodelled. I didn't change the paint job of the vehicle because it
appealed to me
to think of Soundwave adopting a car mode with flashy decals as an
attempt to look cooler and fit in more with the Decepticons who roundly
distrust him. Since it's basically a box on wheels, it's not vastly
different from his original alternate mode and, as Broadblast shows,
the bB can be quite a good news van. I may decide to add some kind of
communications array to the roof but, for the time being, this is it... To make mine a little different, I've repainted two old Gen 1
Powermaster figures to be his minions. The two who came
with Doubledealer make a good Rumble and Ratbat, and they
just about fit Soundwave's chest cavity in Robot mode (using the blue
'tray'/chest piece that came with Doubledealer with a few bits cut
off)... though
obviously neither would fit in vehicle mode! |
 |
Custom-03
R.I.D. Hotshot I caved in to curiosity and bought a couple of knock-off Binaltech Dodge Viper models - the so-called Metals Transform Cars by A&L - both with the excellent flame pattern. First things first, these models are pretty crappy. The quality of the metal is lower than Takara's, the quality of the plastic is lower than Takara or Hasbro's, some of the joints are completely messed up (the ball joints on the heels are molded at an angle, rather than straight up, making posing difficult, the hip joints have even less forward and back mobility than the real thing, and the shoulders have been assembled incorrectly, putting the doors in an awkward position... even the joint on the gun is wrong, meaning the barrel droops or points upward at quite an angle)... But the paintjob on the cars is pretty damned good. Shame, then, that you don't get to see most of it with the Vipers' robot modes. Unless, of course, you perform the 'Trunk Mod' - cutting a notch out of the plastic so that the trunk piece can rest over the shoulders - then don't bother rotating the waist. This gives you a nice flame-effect chest, reminiscent of the Robots In Disguise/Car Robots Spychanger Hotshot. The only problem with this one is deciding on the head... The
spare
Skids head looks too small, but the Lambor head is the wrong
shape... Decisions, decisions. For the time being, he has Lambor's head
repainted in a darker silver than the face, yellow eyes, and a blue
patch on the crest. The overall effect so far seems pretty decent - a
homage to the RID character without being exactly like it. Not quite
sure what else I want to do with this guy, but somehow he doesn't seem
quite finished. |
 |
Custom-04
Windcharger Yes, there's an official Alternator called Windcharger, but it's just Overdrive with the wrong name and no gunbarrel/axle. According to the guidebooks, the head that eventually found its way onto the Alternator monstrosity called Decepticharge was originally intended for Windcharger on the Ford Mustang body. The idea here was to use the Red Meister body and
Decepticharge's head
to create a 'true' Windcharger. Originally a Trans Am Mini Autobot, I
think the Mazda RX-8 is a decent body for the Autobots' own master of
magnetism. Best of all, he'll only need a little paint on his head to
make him look as he was inteded - two shades of grey (or possibly
silver) with the 'eye' piece - a reference to the original Mini Autobot
- in black, and there we go. Should look pretty cool, with minimal
effort. As it turned out, the head is comparatively small and, more
critically, the body's ball joint is rather too large for the socket in
the head. To make matters more complicated, one of the screws holding
the head together stripped the plastic, meaning it doesn't tighten
properly now. It's a very simple modification, and didn't take very long at
all. The results are pretty good, though. Not sure if I want to make
him even closer to Gen 1's car mode by painting part of the front
silver.. Probably best not to, eh? |
 |
Custom-05
Searchlight (?) Since I now have a spare Rally Subaru model, and a spare Meister head, I figured it'd be nice to use them both. This will require quite substantial repainting, and it's going to end up as another white Subaru. Searchlight was originally one of the Throttlebots (hey, if Hasbro can do Rollbar as an orange Jeep, I can certainly do Searchlight in the right damned colours!), and will need some additions to really match the character. I'll need to find a 1:24 rally car kit with the extra headlights to glue onto the front of the Subaru (but bonnet or bumper, eh?). His head will be the spare from Red Meister/Windcharger, and will need to have the horns cut off, and to be painted blue. Not sure what I want to do with the face yet. Searchlight has no 'nose' and an entirely blue face... but I may change that slightly. The alternative to this is that I - gasp - buy an Alternator Tracks and make Freeway instead, by painting the head grey/silver or white and the face gold... Far too many options... |
 |
Custom-06
Nightbeat (?) The above two customs leave me with a Decepticharge body and a Smokescreen head. Without wanting to buy even more Alternators until I've actually done stuff with the ones I have, the quickest option seemed to be this Autobot Detective from the smaller range of Headmasters. Nightbeat mainly seemed like a logical choice because of the look of his upper body compared to Decepticharge. Some serious repainting will be required, though. Blue and yellow througout (which nicely matches Smokescreen's head), with minor amendments to the head. I'm aiming to give him a gold, rather than yellow/orange face. Flame decals for the sides of the car should be easy enough, and then his gun will need some fiddling... perhaps one of the repro barrels one can find on the internet... |
| CUSTOM GALAXY FORCE |
|
|---|---|
 |
Custom-01
Sabrewulf A friend of mine picked up Cybertron Snarl (aka Galaxy Force Fang Wolf) as a birthday present while he was holidaying in Canada. Since I already have this model (not to mention the Black limited edition), I decided I could repaint the second one. The logical choice for someone with plenty of nostalgic feeling towards the Spectrum would have to be Sabrewulf from the eponymous game by Ultimate. The character also appears in Rare's Killer Instinct series, and the original Sabrewulf reappeared on Gameboy Advance, but I didn't want to just copy them... To this end, I'm hoping to create a kind of Cyber Sabrewulf (try saying that quickly!), painted in shades of brown, copper and gold. Snarl is perfect for this not just because of his alternate mode of a cyborg wolf, but because his 'tail' transforms into a sword as well as a gun. I also think that keeping the wolf's head in play in his robot mode is a good touch for a TransFormers Sabrewulf. |
| Custom-02
Blades As soon as Cybertron Evac (aka Galaxy Force Live Convoy) appeared on the scene, he seemed to become a favourite of repainters. He's been reworked as Optimus Prime, Starscream and several other 'new' characters. With my fondness for Gen 1, and my utter dissatisfaction with just about every other helecopter TransFormer, I thought I'd rework Evac as Gen 1 Protectobot Blades. Surprisingly, the heads are not dissimilar, and Blades' leg-mounted launchers could easily be upgraded to Evac's key-activated, shoulder-mounted launchers. And while Gen 1 Blades' rotors are out of action in robot mode, this one can still use them as a weapon. Not sure what I want to do with the grapple, though... |
|
| Custom-03
Huffer While it's already been done, not least the TransFormers Collectors' Club for BotCon 2007, I'm quite keen to make up my own Cybertron Huffer, simply because he was such a great character (not so much in the TV series). While the official one may eventually turn up on eBay, there are aspects of it I didn't quite like, so I'm going to do it rather differently. I have orange paint, I have a spare Armourhide (already in pieces and partly painted!)... All I need is the time and inclination to get on with it. |
|
| CUSTOM MOVIE |
|
|---|---|
 |
Custom-01
Starscream While I've added a little paintwork to most of the movie toys I've bought, this one has ended up getting some special attention due to some other customs I've seen online. My original plan was to paint him using a darkish silver colour I had lying around from many other repaints. I got as far as the head and decided that it just wouldn't do for the rest of the body. Other customisers who show their work online have mentioned using car paints so, one quick trip to Halford later, I started painting Starscream's body with Mercedes Smoke Silver - a goldish silver that looks roughly like the colour the plastic was aiming for, only more metallic. It's possibly a bit too metallic for this model, but the more I paint, the more I like it. The only problem is that I'm having a hard time with the painting - my brushes aren't up to it, and the paint gets very tacky very quickly, so the paintwork is far from smooth. I'm wondering if I could get away with taking some fine sandpaper to it, once it's covered, to even out the surfaces. It's looking pretty good so far, but I think I'll be adding some silver here and there, just to break up the monotony. His legs can easily accommodate more colour. If only the head was more like the right shape... For some reason it's either too tall or not wide enough... and certainly too flat in the face. It could probably do with being a little further forward also, and with those collar pieces extending a little further down. Not that I'm going to attempt to fix that... Far beyond what I can do at the moment. |