I was looking at G1 Ravage the other day and really admiring all of his molded detailing. He is a great little figure aside from how thin he is and that his head looks not so catlike. Anyone I have ever shown Ravage to thought he was a dog. I thought about how to make his legs move away from his body and came to the conclusion that a post for the legs to slide outward on might help. As for his head, if the separation between head and neck were more defined and if he had a jaw like other versions it may improve his look. Making the neck and head able to articulate were never originally part of the plan, it was more like, I am already here so why not. He turned out remarkably well and might now be my favorite incarnation of Ravage. This thread is picture heavy because I have made notes in all the photos a step by step of how to build him. I did not take photos of building his ears though as they were an after thought. They are small pieces of styrene supported by tiny dressmaking pins. The ears may be a bit weird but often he was drawn with them in the cartoon so as to why I went with them, to invoke that Cartoon vibe. I am calling this a work in progress because I want to give him Reprolabels for cassette mode and different, smaller rockets. I may go with the MGS upgrade rockets or cut some off of Robot Heroes Ravage. I am also not a fan of the red eye in cassette mode, BUT it looks too awesome in Jaguar mode to change back to silver. May paint the inside of his mouth red. UPDATE: Cartoon style rocket/missiles. Read on for tutorial. Thanks for looking, hope this is useful, suggestions greatly appreciated. -nonmetal
Comparison pics. Love USB Ravage, he has such a great felineness. Ravage does look weirder than a regular earth Jaguar in the cartoon. Like a serpent greyhound horse cat, with a long neck and even though his animation model barely has them he oft has very pronounced ears.
That's a terrific improvement. It looks like some very fine, intricate work has been done. Well done! From the looks of it: being careful when doing it!
Yaujta asked "What keeps the legs from sliding off the sprue peg during widening?" Mykltron is right. There is nothing to retain the legs from coming off except that there is a lot of friction between the holes and sprue ends. If I twist and pull them off slowly they don't come off. I know when they are 1/2 way out because the hollow where the rivets were meets at 1/2 way. I have not figured out how to put in a stopper without decreasing the amount of leg spreadage. I was thinking of someway to make the legs able to telescope in. Thinking about all this made me realize why BTS Ravage was designed the way that he was. Unfortunately his legs just ended up a bit of a mess. The rest was nice though. That said I am still waiting to get himin my hands. Thanks to everyone for all the great encouragement and bravado.
While writing it I had a flash of Perseus trying to fend off a stop motion vicious snapping and rearing up Ravage who had been guarding the golden fleece. Insert: rattlesnake sounds
Cartoon style rockets I didn't want to wait to source out smaller rockets for Ravage. The options were MGS upgrade set, or Dr. Wu's or cutting off Robot Heroes version. The closest to the cartoon is the Robot Heroes. I t would take a while to get them since I wasn't getting paid another week. I thought I would take a crack at them. I really wanted them chrome to fit in with the other G1 cassettes. What took the longest was deliberating parts. At one point I was looking at modding Downshift missiles or utilizing Machine Robo/Gobot Heatseeker missiles, or using Ironhide rocket tips. What looked good to me were some spare guns for the Invading Animal Gecko figure, and when I saw Hound's missiles I knew it would be a good match. I did cut off and add new pegs to the Invading Animal guns so that the rockets would sit further back on Ravage. Some pics below of how it all came together. AND, while taking photos. I never noticed G1 Ravage had a rectum before. Last picture. Huh, how do you like that. Some real thought put into this design. Hard to top his cassette buddy Squawkbox's bird though.
Great mod. I agree, yours is the nicest of the Ravages you have pictured there. I've been meaning to repaint one of my G1 Ravages for a custom, but haven't been able to figure out how to disassemble it and have been nervous to start prying and pulling at it for fear of breaking it. Any pointers?
Every Ravage I have encountered has his halves held together by friction. Though it might not be the case for all since I have only had prerub versions. To get him apart I start behind the neck gently pulling apart then switch to the rear usually sliding my fingernail along the groove to separate. You could also use a small flat head screwdriver, but better to not scratch him up. The neck and tail just slide off pegs. The legs do not come apart unless you want them permanently off. Once that rivet is drilled out there is no going back as the rivet is what gives the legs tension, unless you go with my mod in this thread by replacing it with a post. Hope this is of help.
So all four legs are permanently attached to one half of the body? Damn. That'd make painting damned hard. Thanks very much for the tutorial. I always wondered how Ravage was held together with no apparent screws.
The rivets are somewhat similar to Chicago screws. They could be glued back together. Though it would deny any future tightening of those joints. It IS a tight fit for the rivet halves though, maybe enough?