Customs: Convert your Voyager Bulkhead Glowing Wrecking Ball Weapon

Discussion in 'Creative General Discussion' started by DonoPrime74, May 3, 2012.

  1. DonoPrime74

    DonoPrime74 Active Member

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    Greeting all,
    Below is a brief explanation on how to convert your bulky "Glowing Wrecking Ball weapon" into a sleek more show accurate one.
    Hope you all enjoy.

    For starters you will need a few tools:
    1 - Dremel with cutting attachments
    2 - 1/8 drill bit
    3 - Small philips head screwdriver

    Second, lets start to dismantle, yay!

    1. Using your screwdriver, locate the 3 screw locations on the Wrecking Ball Weapon and unscrew the green panel to remove the Wrecking Ball as shown in the picture below -

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    2. Next you will need to remove/pull out the small gear from the Wrecking Ball as in the picture below -

    [​IMG]

    3. Once the gear is removed you will then need to use your dremel, (Yay power tools time) to cut/grind/sand (Which ever is easiest for you) away the left and right side of the joint on the Wrecking Ball as shown in the second picture below -

    Your Weapon will currently look like this:
    [​IMG]

    Cut both sides down to look like this:
    [​IMG]

    4. Next you should unscrew the right or left forearm and remove Bulks hand.
    In step 5 you will be drilling out the center of the Wrecking Balls joint, and this will allow you to test fit the wrecking ball to the forearms hand peg.

    **Be careful when you unscrew his forearm, as the weapon holder hole in the arm is actually a small separate square piece and falls right out when you unscrew and detach the forearm.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    5. Its now time to Drill, (Yay more power tools) Using your dremel/drill and your 1/8 drill bit, carefully drill a hole in the dead center of the joint where you just cut off the left and right sides like so -

    **If you have access to a full drill bit set, match a bit that fits snug to the inner diameter hole of bulks hand. Just use caution not to drill out the hole too wide, as you want to have a snug fit on the Wrecking Ball joint.

    [​IMG]

    6. Now its clean up and re-assemble time, (Yay almost done)
    Carefully slide the Wrecking ball onto the inner forearm peg as shown in the picture below and re-attach Bulks forearm to his body.

    [​IMG]

    Once re-attached and screwed together, you should have something that resembles this -

    [​IMG]



    7. Hooray, your all finished! now that wasn't such a chore now was it ;) 
    Now its time to sit back, crack open some Energon and enjoy the fruits of your labor, after all you've earned it!!

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    Hope you all enjoyed this project,
    Please feel free to add anything you may discover on your Bulkhead weapon conversions.

    Look forward to seeing some picks from any of you that might try this out.

    DonoPrime74
     
    Last edited: May 3, 2012
  2. TrueNomadSkies

    TrueNomadSkies Well-Known Member

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    Don't have this figure & probably never will, but I love the pictures & descriptions you've made because I can see them going a long way for people who undertake this. :) 

    +rep
     
  3. Primus_feather

    Primus_feather Well-Known Member

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    I like this idea short of the non-transforming part of it, since I don't have a Bulk yet I have a few questions:

    ~ Can the ball come apart?

    ~ Can you show how far his fist can retract INTO his arm, with the arm apart?

    ~ Is there a pin holding the Ball to the hinge you've made?
     
  4. DonoPrime74

    DonoPrime74 Active Member

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    @ Primus

    ~ Can the ball come apart?
    No, you would have to cut and re-glue it to do so.

    ~ Can you show how far his fist can retract INTO his arm, with the arm apart?

    The hand actually has a very limited retraction area as there is a plastic support wall behind it.
    To have the fist possibly retract more into the forearm,
    You would have to cut the area further back and not sure how well that would look.

    ~ Is there a pin holding the Ball to the hinge you've made?

    There is a stock manufactured pin holding the Wrecking Ball to the spinner joint. Didn't make a special joint for this, just converted the stock manufactured one.

    As you can see in the photos above,
    All I did was cut off the ends of the gear joint and drill a hole in the center so that the stock joint could slide on the plastic pin in the forearm where the hand normally goes.

    This allows for a more show accurate look,
    But yes the trade off is this is currently a Bot display only mode conversion.
    To transform him,
    You would need to unscrew the forearm and slide the Wrecking ball out.

    The Wrecking Ball does have a hole in the top center of it,
    Which if careful looks as though you could drill down to the flat top portion of the metal locking pin and enable the Wrecking ball to come off.
    Tried to pull it out, but its really locked into the joint.

    Also, not sure how well the ball would stay on if the metal pin is removed,
    And it would more than likely cause it spin off the joint.

    Currently exploring If I want to do this option so that the Wrecking Ball could be snapped off and on to allow the figure to transform.

    Sadly there is only so much you can do with the stock parts on these things.

    Will take and post some more photos for you asap
    Thanks for checking the thread