UPDATES THROUGHOUT THIS THREAD: Ok First up is Snarl. He is made using the Grimlock body, AoE Snarl fins and tail and a junker g1 Slag's front legs. Yes he will get a new dino head and robot head but I am working that out now. I will be painting him once everything is finished. For his weapon I was going to keep the weapon that AoE Snarl had but just extend it with a styrene tube. Now how the tail works: I took a junker TFM Bonecrusher and took the ball joints that were on his legs and glued them about where Grimlocks dino arms were. I then cut out the hinge that was in the tail piece and glued in the other half of the leg joint in that space. With the tail pieces being on a ball joint that allows them to rotate up behind his arms just like the game model. The photos will show what I am talking about better than me explaining it. Now to the photos.
Update: I finished Snarl's tail assembly and it came out pretty decent. The two halves don't fully close but close enough. Here is a mock up pic of his new dino head and neck assembly. Still much to come so stay tuned!
Head looks good so far. FYI - you might find that the existing eye location is a little close to jaw and may look funny or out of place. I had to move mine up ( the eye socket) that is.
Thanks I am glad that you think it looks good. This was before I added the top teeth to it. Since I am using the neck pieces that I have the lower jaw will be glued in one position. I hope once he is finished that he won't look to goofy. The neck part has been the toughest part for me to figure out. The plan is when he transforms the head will split and fold up in on the inner leg part(near where the tail clips to the leg). The bottom parts of his legs will have slots cut out for the neck assembly to fold in and should be level with his feet. Will add more photos when I start on that. Also for his weapon I wanted to use the one that the AoE Snarl had, so I was thinking of ordering Cnomis Shapeways item that extends his weapon.
Ok one neck joint is glued on. Here is a pic showing what the dino head will look like once I glue it on. Now when I was cutting away the tail I cut off too much and now the leg just slips right out. So anyone who tries this be warned!Also what do you guys think of the top teeth? Should I remove them and have the dino head look like it does in one of the previous photos? Let me know.
Just a small update on how his dino head and neck will fold up into his legs. I also fixed his leg problems by gluing two small pieces of styrene to the parts of the tail where the leg clips. Now they hold without any problems.
First off let me say that Rodimus Prime1's custom Snarl looks a thousand times better than mine, so props go to him for giving me ideas on a couple of things with this one. Ok I glued on his dino mode head over the weekend and it doesn't look too bad? Maybe? To me it looks fine as long as you know who the character is and that they look like them. I might figure out a clip that clips the two halves together but we will see. In the first photo you can see the weapon extension from shapeways can store in dino mode with no problems. I know I will try to cover it somehow so it is not as noticeable. His robot mode came out pretty nice. The neck joints I guess serve as the heels cause he does not fall over. The robot head is an extra CHUG Sideswipe head that I will attach, so for now it is just sitting there. One of the photos shows an up close of the leg to show where I cut away to have it fold in. I am going to try to find some paint that matches the grey plastic and find a clear red for the fins. Also if anyone has a spare Transformers Energon Swoop lower beak or junker let me know. I think there is enough room under the top beak to add the lower one. Mine kinda got cut in half and is now useless.