Updated 10/25/2011 Hey guys So i had a bunch of Ko seekers laying around and i have been swapping parts back and forth to make different looking versions of Starscream and i noticed that his main body looks pretty much like Metalhawk from Masterforce. So i decided to take 2 broken clear Starscreams and a Gold starscream and make me a Metalhawk It was a really simple custom to make i think. It took me about 5 hours total .. What i did was took a set of wings and cut them in half to make the wings that attach to his arms. Then i broke the pegs of two broken launchers and glued the pegs to the shortened wings. The wings can now peg into the hold on his arms where the launchers use to go.. Then i cut the tops of the tail fins off and sanded and shaped them to fit onto his head for the antenna. But doing this was making it unable to close the nose cone of the jet over the head for jet mode so i had to snd down the sides of the nose cone until it was sanded down far enough to fit between the antenna and close the nose cone over his head.. Next i put the figure into jet mode and drilled 2 holes into each side where the hands fold up into the arms. I lined the holes up so they were in line with the fist holes on the hand. I did this so that i could put a second set of launchers i had onto the side of the jetmode.. Then i drilled two more holes intot he side of each launcher. I did this so that i could attach the shortened wings to the side of the jet mode and give the jet some wings and the launchers look like jet engines now.. Then i noticed the G1 toys guns were actually the tail fins on the jet . So i lucked out that teh tail fins on these seekeres are attached with screws and if you remove the screws the tail fins pop off and even have PEGS!! so he can hold them just like the G1 toy did. And in jet mode the tail fins can peg right back ontot he rear of the jet still. Then while looking at him in bot mode i was trying to think of what to do with the launchers in bot mode.. So what i did was drill 2 more holes into his back so now the launchers can peg into his back and out of the way and it actually looks pretty cool too lol .. the last thing i did was cut down the things on his shoulders so they were not as tall anymore. I did this with a paint of wire cutters and then sanded them to shape them better.. In the end i think i came up with a pretty good looking custom for a Classics Generations Metalhawk.. I know the pics are a little hard to look at right now because he is totally clear but i will be painting him up to match the G1 figure.. I will post pics of that when he is all painted. I just hope he turns out the way i see it in my head lol .. And of course he will get a custom Box as well So let me know what ya think of it Here are the pics UPDATE!!! 10/25/2011 I broke out my air brush and laid some paint down on the Metalhawk. Its came out pretty good i think, but hit need decals so im going to design him some and make some water slide decals i think.. The paints i used were a Pearlized Yellow which i was very happy with the golden color it produced and then i used a Pearlized Blue that came out really nice as well.. The white gave me problems, for some reason my airbrush will not spray white paint at all , it's crazy. So i got a few touchups to do on him and the decals and he will be finished. Then ill make his box or maybe a card for him.. So to see the new pics just scroll down below the clear pics . Let me know what you think UPDATED PICS This is the pic i worked off of.
Thanks for the comments Im working on a second one today using the chest from the Gold seeker that i took the joints off of. BUT i just cracked the ball joint in half that his legs attach to so now i have to see if i have spare parts for that . Thats the only bad thing with the clear figures, the plastic is just garbage and should have never been used on the joints and ball joints. The gold seeker has the solid golden brown parts thats why i swaped them out .. I got to decide on some good paints. I normally airbrush with acrylics but with the amount of moving parts on the seeker that rub , the paint will peel right off.. So im thinking of sanding all the areas that rub and then get me some cans of krylon fusion in the colors i need. Ill just buy some of those small spray cans.. Hopefully it will all work out cause i really want this to turn out good.. Ill post pics when i get to painting him
Interesting... the Seeker mold would work quite well for that Autobot Pretender indeed. Given recent Generations figures of other pretenders, I'm surprised they didn't retool the Seeker mold into Metalhawk. All it takes is afew wing bit changes and a new head as you've shown too... I take it you're keeping him clear coated no? From what I've seen that Clear Seeker KO is supposed to be quite brittle...
The main problem with the clear seekers are the ball joints and thin joints and hindges. I replaced all the really brittle parts with parts from a gold seeker so he is now pretty solid and shouldnt break as easy. All the other body parts are pretty thick so they should be ok. Im not going to keep him clear, im going to paint him up.. I just have to sand the spots that rub and then im going to get some small cans of krylon spray paint in the colors i need. I normally would airbrush this but i only use acrylics and they are not the greatest for figures that can transform. It it no longer transformed then i would airbrush him .
Wow man! That looks great. I'm working on a Metalhawk myself. I'm using a Cyclonus. Yours looks fantastic!
