Fall of Cybertron Metroplex

I caught the new trailer for Fall of Cybertron over on Facebook and loved the enormity of the amazing Metroplex. A few parts of him reminded me of the Cybertron Starscream mold, and it wasn't a matter of time before I mocked up a photoshop image of mold to see if the proportions would work.

That was two days ago, and after a couple of nights in the garage, I've progressed as follows...



I have a couple of Starscream junkers and these will make up the majority of the build. Widen the chest, build up the legs and arms, and you're almost there... Published this to Facebook and the feedback went well so...



Here's three hours work... mostly spent widening the torso to bulk him out a bit. I also found that the guns that flip up on Starscream's chest are comparable to the shoulder cannons of Metroplex. I know I have two sets somewhere but one pair is mysteriously missing...

Time so far - 3 hours



After the first day I took a photo and checked the proportions. They weren't far off, but I foresaw some problems with extending the shoulders so I felt it could do with a little more width to allow for them. Metroplex was split in two again and a further 2cm added.

The supreme Starscream mold is a bit awkward posing due to the large angles between each ratcheting point in the hips. I've amended this by putting another notch in there so he can now hold a pose with his legs a reasonable distance apart.

I've found the second set of cannons so I've cut down the Starscream cockpit by removing the middle section and now have some shoulder cannons that swing down as seen in the trailer. Awesome!

I've tacked on a few pieces of the Megamorph Hulk to the chest, but I'll be scratch building the chest to match the FoC design. Now it's time to start on his legs...

Time so far - 6 hours



I've now completed the shoulder cannons and pinned the pairs of guns together so they move as one. I notice on some artwork and the original G1 figure that his right shoulder array stays upright, although they do drop forward and fire in the trailer. Of course, there's nothing stopping me from leaving that side up, but I do like the 'full offensive mode' of the trailer.

I also started the styrene work on the upper half of the torso. There's plenty of angles so I'm cutting these by sight using trial and error for one half of the chest, then using those pieces as a template for the other half.

Time so far - 9 hours



Plenty of styrene work later and I have the basic shape of the chest over which I'll put the detail once I've bulked out the lower half. I might find I need to alter proportions once the legs have been formed so there's no point wasting time on details until the overall shape is there. I think the proportions look fine at the moment, but you never know where things will go further down the line.

The base mold lacks any kind of waist articulation so I have now remedied that. I've chopped him at the waist and firmly glued the waist to the top of the crotch with Devcon epoxy. The Hulk Megamorph has a tank turret with a nice ratcheting mechanism, and the back of the turret looks a little like his abs. I've cut down some random plating areas of the Hulk tank to fill the hole under the torso and fixed the tank turrent under that. I now need to incorporate the female connector into the waist so that it slots in place. The pic above shows his upper body precariously balanced on the peg that will go into the waist, so he will actually be a tad shorter and not so lengthy in the abs section. Once the legs are filled out I'll consider whether I need to chop any more out of this section to keep the bulkiness.

The placeholder head is the Hulk head with a bit of styrene tacked on and wrapped with cocktail sticks and masking tape. Unless I can find something that works, I'll probably thin this down and sculpt the details on the blank.

Time so far - 12 hours





I've halved the height of the abs I put in previously to retain his more stocky proportions and started to work on the legs to get some idea of what the final proportions will look like before pinning everything down.

The legs have been completely reworked. The existing SS calves were removed and they are now mounted upside down, using two pairs of inner calves. It's required a bit of cutting down pegs and things, but it's all working as intended. I've got the legs flaring out a little to the bottom to enhance the stockiness. The front face of the shin is made up of the remaining SS outer calves, cut in half and glued to make them symmetrical. I'll probably mount them the other way around than in the photo, so the hole (where SS wheels once were) will be higher, and filled with a LED.

The feet are again from the SS mold, widened considerably and topped with part of the SS shin detail, giving a look of the feet seen in the trailers. There really isn't much of the SS mold that is going to waste...

Right, time to finish these legs off - more details soon




Unfortunately there isn't much in terms of photos to show for day six. At the end of the day everything was in parts and things had gone very slowly. The aim was to get the thighs looking somewhat like the game renders, but for some reason I'm on a go slow. Time put down the tools and start afresh tomorrow...







The knee joints are tight so I stripped them down and reinforced them to prevent any chance of pegs getting twisted and broken. I've fixed the outer calves in such a way that the calves can still be unscrewed, and these angle outwards to give his lower legs a very sturdy appearance. It is more difficult to build when you try keep it so that it could be disassembled, but it could be worth it in the long run. I know that if I didn't, there'd come a point when I'd wished I hadn't glued things together.

The waist now has a rotating joint but I'll leave the front of the crotch off for now so that he can be quickly disassembled.




I've tacked the legs together and started fleshing out the forearms. They are just big enough to allow the big hands to retract inwards, so hopefully they wont look out of proportion. More details and vids when I'm back at my computer...

21 hrs...






I'm in a different country on a mini holiday. Due to lack of space I couldn't really bring the big guy with me, so I brought his fists! Starting where I left off, I completed the forearm enclosure and shortened them a little, removing as much space as possible. Lots of angles later I've got a couple of forearms, with a nice fold-in transformation and flap. I suppose I could have just bought a Unicron and used his forearms, but I like these bigger hands, and I find the forearms one of FoC Metroplex's distinctive features, so I'll try and recreate these closely.

25 hrs...






Guests at the house, so the spare room is out of bounds. It's time for a little sculpting, as I can't find a head that will look right.

I started with a tiny head, covered it in blue-tack and sculpted a basci layout of the face. Over this I put a thin covering of Milliput Superfine (oh yeaaaah), and sculpted in the facial details. I try to make everything a little larger as I'll shave it down a little once it has cured (i.e. his dainty little manga nose). And after a couple of hours of firkling, we have a head. I've now removed the inner head and bluetack, so I have a nice hollow head to fit some electronics. I'll probably cast it and carve the eyes out of the cast (and drill the other light up areas of the face so I can put some light piping in).

Finally, I'll add the antennae using styrene tubing and mount his head on a ball joint.*


WIP Time Lapse Video!

As an extra bonus, I'm documenting everything I do on this through time lapse photography. If you want to see 30 hours of work condensed into 12 minutes, check out the videos below...

Attached Thumbnails

 

Impressive so far, but PLEASE say it still transforms.

Hah... well now... that's cool! Guess you're one of the first to come up and make him too. Clever use of the Supreme Starscream figures.

Okay this is awesome. I just hope you get a transformation out of it.

Oops... forgot to add a few things.

The waist was bulked up with SS's shoulder pods; it looks good, especially from the back, but I think I need to find something a bit thinner.

Megamorph Hulk hands are not quite as big as I'd like, so I'll extend the palms a bit and give them some articulation. I would have liked some Primus forearms, but with this build I'm trying to use what I have available and doing it quickly.

At the moment I've got a Cybertron Soundwave head on him, as that's the size of head that gives him a sense of giganticism. Once the build is closer to completion I'll sculpt something from scratch to fit, unless someone can send me a photo of a G1 metroplex head next to a ruler to see if it's a plausible fit

I was thinking of using some parts from a Supreme Starscream to do Metroplex, but you're really going all out! Wow! I think this is going to work beautifully!

I think some G1 Metroplex parts would be handy to integrate. Metro's G1 head is not terribly big (though definitely bigger than Cybertron Soundwave ). I think it would look great on this body, and still convey the appropriate proportions.

Love it!

zmog

i'm loving it already!

roses are red, violets are blue, bend over

mondo cool !

Originally Posted by pitt55 You don't see Optimus sitting in a corner, sharpening his blades, fantasizing about ripping Decepticons' guts out when not in battle for instance.

Excellent work so far, can't wait to see it through. This is a WIP thread I can get into.

Looks so incredible promising! Already looking massive and awesome!!!!!!