Got this guy yesterday afternoon, and stayed up until 3am to get him just how I wanted him. I wasn't totally satisfied with either the CW or UW set, and new I'd be mixing and matching, and still doing some extra painting myself.

While I generally prefer cartoon accuracy, or leaning towards cartoon accuracy, I tend to prefer the toy versions of the Combaticons. Dunno exactly why, just more visually appealing to me, particularly Swindle and Vortex, and I am totally for the gray chest/hands/feet. On the other hand, UW Onslaught is gorgeous regardless, and the appeal of the new mold Blast Off outweighed my color preference.

The goal was a blend of the toon and toy, really going for just what I think looked good, personally.





I finished Vortex months ago, since I knew I'd be using the CW version with the much lighter grey, and less bright blue. I mixed up a matching light grey, and blue, and repainted the terrible arms, and upper legs. The head was also painted in a toon styled scheme, and the chest painted all purple. When the UW set arrived, I swapped the blades.




For Swindle, I started with the UW, and swapped all the light blueish grey parts for the yellow and the black thighs from CW Swindle. I painted the chest of the CW almost entirely purple as well, and swapped it over, since I felt the toon color placement on the UW was just really terrible and forced. Finally, I added in one of CW Onslaught's rifles painted black, to stand in for Swindle's longer cannon, and Bruticus' rifle.



I had originally intended to completely repaint Blast off into a darker brown, but upon inspecting the toy, I decided there was just way too many rub spots and that hard to paint, slick plastic to make it worth while. And in hand the color was much more pleasing to me...not accurate to anything, but better looking than I thought. What I did do however, was remove the pink head "eye" and paint his actual eyes with a pale metallic purple. I also painted all the extra edges and panel insides that TT neglected to do, so there's alot less light brown showing through where it shouldn't be.

I painted over Brawl's bright orange headpiece, leaving only the forehead crest visible. I also painted some edges left green around his treads as well.



And finally, Onslaught. I painted the chest shield a metallic gray, matching Bruticus' head. I removed his outward hip ratchets as well, allowing smoother, more natural poses. I also drilled extra holes in the PE foot sets to allow them to mount next to the stock cannons.

Bot mod group shots with and without PE sets:



And finally, the big guy himself:



For those interested, how he looks in the stock leg and shoulder setup:

 

The silver chest on Bruticus looks so much better then the toon accurate chestplate.

 

This should've been how UW Bruticus looked.  

 

This looks great. I still wish Blast Off was darker brown, but look forward to getting my UW set. I like you giving BO the violet optics.

 

My UW set has yet to ship.  

 

Looks good - great work on the paints, I really like what you did with Vortex.

I don't think I'll double dip in the set but the 4 blade rotor is my main temptation on the UW set, I can live with the Hasbro set for now.

You've almost Inspired me to brave painting  

 

So does removing the hip ratchets (for more natural posing) negatively effect the figure in any other modes?

 

Nice job. Looks great.

 

I'm going this route 

http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/radicons-customs/1061601-cw-bruticus-defensor-stooping-fix.html

 

Damn, that is a perfect Bruticus right there. It's amazing what some simple part swapping and little touch-ups with paint can do for a figure, or in this case, figures

Great work!

 

Yeah, same here. I mean, the current one doesn't look bad, just not what I would have preferred. I just pretend hes the blast off from FOC  

Putting this set together did get a little pricey, I still even have a set of new back cannons on order too, but I wanted something very specific, and I'm happy to have it.

Nope. In fact, you know how in vehicle mode, this mold tends to arch up in the center, not letting those set of tires closest to hips touch the ground? For some reason, this even fixes that.

Now, it does take some work, and adding in additional panels of plastic to tighten up the joint. Basically, what I did was cut away the ratchets from the rotation post that connects to the waist. (Unlike the Silverbolt and Prime molds, there's not a separate ratchet plate to simply remove). Then I took two layers of 1mm styrene and drilled a hole into that, creating a snug rotation joint for the hip peg. That block is glued into the hip socket, just behind the spring. This creates some extra tension as well. And then everything goes back together. This means, smooth, sturdy outward leg movement that is more than strong enough to hold up Bruticus. I've done the same mod to Hot Spot and Victorion as well.

Just FYI, I did not remove the front and back ratchets, which this piece helps with, but rather the outward (A-stance) ratchets. Also, I bought some of these. Helped Victorion out a bit, but actually seemed to make Bruticus worse. However, out of the box, Bruticus had FAR less lean than the Hasbro counterparts. His hip ratchets are all around just tighter with less play between clicks.

 

Pretty much what I plan to do with mine, if TF source ever sends me the damn thing.

 

Not fond of the PE sets whatsoever and I feel UW Vortex was already great. That said your Vortex still looks quite good and the silver chest plate just makes all the difference.

 

I love what you did with Blast Off's head. I'm curious how you managed to do it. I'm guessing alcohol to remove the "eye", but did you split the head in order to paint the actual eyes? If so, how did you do it, as I assume it's glued? Also, would it be possible to see it with the alternate thigh configuration, with the stock shoulders and the HFGs for feet?

 

So much nicer.

Can't believe neither the domestic nor the takara version looked like this.

 

This shows how a FAN can do a better job than Hasbro/Takara... Congratulations!

 

I still prefer the Blast Off-coloured chest, but I think this just goes to show that a silver chest works just as well.

 

this looks amazing, especially that Vortex!

i have a strange request though, could you take another picture of Bruticus, but with Swindle and Brawl's HFG's still attached in between the perfect effect feet and the figures themselves, like a height extender.

im very curious as to what it looks like as i plan on doing this with mine when he arrives.

also do you think you could take a picture or two of the hip ratchet removal mod you did?

 

That combined mode!!

 

I'd be curious to see what all the left-over parts look like when they're put together - the Danny DeVito to this Arnold version.