MP Swoop ver 2.0 Hey everyone. We all probably know Heirofthedog's Custom of the month last year- Masterpeice Swoop. I saw it for sale on Ebay and never even seeing a custom built transformer, especially to this high standard captured my imagination. I'd never seen anything like it before, and when I noticed simular parts on it I thought Id have ago myself. Lol, how hard could it be.... Much to my suprise it was an awsomely technically difficult project to re-create this masterpiece. After many hours and months in the shed I managed to pull it off. I had never done anything like this before, I used to be out of the box Gundam model builder/painter. That was in my past, 18yrs ago. Out of my league but inspiared by one of my favourate transformers figures, I became a kit-basher like you. I take my hat off to all of you who do this, it requires skill, patience and imagination. Since I reckon Im still a beginner, Im going to brush up on my skills and re-do this kitbash. Put a few tweaks here and there, and then Im probably gonna let it go. I will always love my original because it was what got me into this great hobby. Therefore it will always have a place on my shelf. After I have done this, I have a few other customs on the drawing board! I have start with an MP seeker base, wallmart Skywarp to be precise. Stripped it down and started hacking at the arms with a hack saw to take away any jet plane appearence. Got a long way to go, merely scratched the surface of this mamoth project... I know i have to smile more, lol! LOL, I know I need to smile more.... These were quick snaps from my webcam
I'm really excited to see how this turns out for you! Also, one of the things I find most interesting is when an artist really gets inspired by another artist's work
Try not to smile too much! There have been a few MP Swoops to have come about since HoD's shared his own. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing another iteration. - Alty
Thanks, I will do that on the next post... Me too, thanks.... Also, one of the things I find most interesting is when an artist really gets inspired by another artist's work [/QUOTE] He so cool though, couldnt resist making it aswel... Could well be, thats for sure...
Ok, time for another update. I have finished trimming the arm. Added some thruster type things to the side of the shoulders, put new cups to attach the legs to body, and added ball joint to connect the wings with some extra modding. Here are the pics for you to look at.
0I have added the skirt armour, both front and the back (thruster thingy). Cut the back piece to shape also and then transplanted the legs and wing from my original one I made. Im not going to keep the old parts on this, just wanted to get a look at it with the shoulders, and he looks ok I think. I did make a wee error with the front armour, I put the hinge to low, so they attatch too high. Not to worry, will sort it out. The rear thrusters are also hinged as promised, one of the added gimmick extras I wanted to do. They came out really well I think! Plus the other extra I did was the chest panels, I made them so they could open up still and reveal the rockets... Just another simple gimmicky extra. Enough of me yabbing, heres some more pics for you all. Still quite some way to go. Will keep you posted on my progress.
Agreed. I'm really excited to see how this turns out. In the mean time, I'm thoroughly enjoying the wip fun
Me too, some parts are frustrating. I had to cut the back plate down which did my head in. Still looks okay though. Slowly but surely, as they say!
Thanks for the compliment. Theres still a lot to do still though. Scratch new wing segment, fill zoid wings, add joint, then dismantle original seekers legs and completely recontruct adding other parts, also making dino legs/feet, building robot in feet, doing Swoop head, making the dinosaur head, filling in the gaps and finally painting.. Oh my days! Im going to be at this for forever...............
I had some fun filling in some side bits on this section to add a more solid structure appearance to the body. I styrene, roughly 2mm thick and bent it into position, which was quite tricky/fiddley to do. Thinking about it now it would have been a heck of alot easier to use some epoxy putting. But if you know me I like to be different and do it the hard way. Besides, I wanted to reduce the wieght on the back because the wings will just add to it and just lightening the load might make all the difference to a solid stander, to a easily tippified robot mode. Im gonna sand the off to a smooth finish next, then want to work on something dissferent. I got a who range of choices what I can do next. Wings, legs, robot head and/or dino mode head. The choice is enough for me, but Im chewing on the idea of making the legs so He can stand for himself. I have put the original legs off my first swoop with the wings and he is looking good so far. I want to modify only slightly the design of the legs to give extra height and bulkiness. Ive taken shots all the way round:
Ive been transplanting a lego Knight joints onto the legs of Swoop. Here are the plics below... Tried to capture the rotation it is capable of. It will be great for posing the figure when its done. Looks a bit plain on the back between the leg joints, so I thought that I would bulk it up a it and add some cool detail. This is what Im thinking of doing so far.... Lookng at the leg now, I would say a few more layers of styrene to bulk them out a bit is needed. Easy done though!
