Minor/Repaint: MP Wheeljack articulated hands & toon deco

Discussion in 'Radicons Customs' started by OptimusTimelord, Jul 5, 2015.

  1. OptimusTimelord

    OptimusTimelord Masterpiece Reanimator

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    I've not done any Radicons for ages (so much 3rd party stuff covering those MP needs these days!), but having had the Fanstyle hands for the MP Datsuns for a long while now I got fed up waiting for Wheeljack versions...

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  2. OptimusTimelord

    OptimusTimelord Masterpiece Reanimator

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    The difficult part was deciding how to fit them without affecting the look/transformation of the figure (since there is car kibble as part of the hands). Using a handy Wheeljack KO (which I bought for the sole purpose of painting up in toon deco) I started carving up the stock hands, getting rid of the thumb and finger sections and leaving a squared off chunk which I could attach new fingers/thumb to.

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    Because the wrist and part of the palm is comprised of the peg attachment I couldn't just add the entire Datsun hand in one go (it would be too far from the forearm and wouldn't allow transformation). Instead I cut right through middle of the Datsun hand, along the panel line, and again cut through the back part to get the thumb assembly.

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    He won't be spending much time in alt mode, but this is how he looks. Kept a couple of the paint apps that don't intrude in bot mode because I think it helps to break up all that white...

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  3. POSSESSED_DIGIT

    POSSESSED_DIGIT WE ARE NUBBY THUMB!!

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    Nice job
     
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  4. TFormerfan

    TFormerfan Maximal

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    This is pretty sweet!
     
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  5. Raiju

    Raiju Navel Shocker Veteran

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  6. Dormamu

    Dormamu I am Broot.

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    OT, this is a nice hack and update into toon mode. I take it he will be prominent in many of your future stop motion productions.
     
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  7. OptimusTimelord

    OptimusTimelord Masterpiece Reanimator

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    Cheers guys!
    Lol, well actually his sole purpose is going to be as Wheeljack's pre-Earth form at the beginning of the first ep! I figured being stamped with 'Lancia' and 'Alitlalia' wasn't very appropriate :lol 

    I'll be using regular MP WJ for the rest of my animations :) 
     
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  8. Josh

    Josh Comic Color-guy

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    man i do really like that cartoon paint deco <3
     
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  9. Superquad7

    Superquad7 OCP Police Crime Prevention Unit 001 Super Content Contributor

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    This is great.

    I know you wanted to break up some of that white, but I think you should just go all out for the cartoon deco in alt mode.
     
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  10. G60Force

    G60Force World Smallest Mini-Con

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  11. OptimusTimelord

    OptimusTimelord Masterpiece Reanimator

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    Cheers folks :) 

    I can't seem to find it at the mo, but someone did a toon-deco repaint ages ago with a much plainer car mode, and it just looked a little extreme to me. Besides, getting those paint apps out of the side vents would be a nightmare! :tongue: 
     
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  12. Superquad7

    Superquad7 OCP Police Crime Prevention Unit 001 Super Content Contributor

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  13. Sam

    Sam Arrival

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    Curious which Autobot symbol/sticker you used?

    I'm a fan of your deco, I think the extra details keep it from looking too plain. Just the right amount of colour in alt-mode.
     
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  14. OptimusTimelord

    OptimusTimelord Masterpiece Reanimator

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    Thanks man, yeah like I said this guy is not intended for alt mode display anyway so I'm leaving him as is. The Autobot symbol is a clear backed Reprolabel (slightly larger than the stock tampo'd one which got removed with the original paint apps). Second row off the sheet. I wish TT had made that join where the chest opens a few mm lower, because it really restricts the size of emblem he can have (and forces the white area below to be larger than I would have liked).
     
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  15. robvega214

    robvega214 Mp5_Brut

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    I did 1 last yr, in all white. and it does look pretty plain in car mode.
    Its somewhere in the radicons. And yes it was a pain in the ass to get all the paint apps out of the vents.
    Nice clean paint job OptimusTimelord!
     
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  16. Sam

    Sam Arrival

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    Cool good to know. Are the seams very visible on the clear reprolabels?

    Here's your thread :)  (Much easier to find now that you've showed up, just clicking on your profile I can find threads started by you)

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    Oh btw OptimusTimelord how's the quality of the Wheeljack KO? I just ordered the Exhaust KO because if I'm gonna be cutting up his hands I'd rather not do it on the original considering its current value.
     
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  17. OptimusTimelord

    OptimusTimelord Masterpiece Reanimator

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    Ah yes, that's the one! Seeing that is what inspired me to want to do it :) 
    WJ KO is very good. Even came with the Hypno-disruptor. The only thing they could have done better IMO is make the black parts a grey colour (strangely, when you compare with the original, the KO's black is actually a tiny bit darker!).

    I guess there are seams visible on the Reprolabel, but TBH the Ocean/Eness transfers also leave a visible edge so that's always going to be an issue (unless of course you trim your Repro stickers right up to the colour edge).
     
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  18. Sam

    Sam Arrival

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    Yeah the Ocean labels would be the others I was thinking of. Maybe a rectangular sticker the same size as the rectangle on his chest with the autobot symbol in the middle would hide any seams the best.

    Glad to hear the quality is good. A darker black plastic will actually match the Hobby Base fingers I was grafting onto the hands a little better.

    I was never too bothered by the dark grey on Wheeljack because that's kinda how I remember him from the cartoon, think his limbs might have been coloured a little darker in Arrival from Cybertron which is my main point of reference

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    I think I'll use the body from my KO Exhaut to have a go at finishing my own cartoon-accurate Wheeljack. At least he'll be a bit different from you two guys' amazing jobs.
     
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  19. marioxb

    marioxb Well-Known Member

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    So you do have to cut up the original hands... I'm going to end up buying MP20+, but I don't want to cut his expensive hands up. I think I'd rather get a KO of the original (because I guess they never KO'd a plus after MP14) and cut his hands up and merge with these hands I have,
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    and then paint the side panel to match 20+ (but probably keep the hands black). Then I should be able to just unscrew MP20+ hand/plate area and swap my new ones on, right?
     
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  20. OptimusTimelord

    OptimusTimelord Masterpiece Reanimator

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    This is a blast from the past! Funny that some of us were doing all this before TT started making MP+ figures :D 

    IIRC I think MP+ Wheeljack got rid of the white (alt mode) paint apps on the hands anyway, so if you do use hands from a KO of the original you could potentially repaint both those parts and the articulated hands to match 20+'s grey deco. You'll note in my old WiP pics that I used grey hands (intended for MP Bluestreak) and sprayed them black to match MP-20's colour scheme. If I were doing this for MP-20+ I'm sure I'd look for a grey paint to match his lighter deco (I reckon the stock grey Bluestreak colour would be too light, unfortunately).

    It's a shame the fully articulated hand upgrade fad seems to have died out, I really wanted all my MPs to have them. Modern TT hands have improved slightly (and wrist articulation is a great bonus) but I still miss individual fingers, and at this point there are too many MP figures to go to the effort of custom-fitting hands on them all myself (not to mention finding the right shapes and sizes of hands to fit).
     
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