Hey there, thanks for the great compliment! Yep, that was the stock head at one point tho its been so extensively modded that really the only parts left are the surround for the eyes & a tiny portion of the back half of the head where it screws onto the front half. Here are a few shots of it before I scrapped the lite pipe altogether: As for tools well, I use quite a lot in fact but I'll show ya the ones I use most often for sculpting & precise mechanical detail work. First off, are sculpting "minarettes". Very thin, finely made steel tools of varying shapes that'll allow you to get all kinds of sculpted details. A set like I have will set you back about $120, tho I got mine way back in the 90's, it seems they've jumped to this price now. Heres where you can get 'em if you're so inclined : Buy Tools/Supplies - Steel Tools - Minarette Fine Steel Tools - Sculpture House Casting Alternatively, you can hit up local flea markets as most of them have small tool vendors & you can pick up very cheap dental tools like these for very little (usually around 50 cents or so apiece) Also, the old trusty X-acto or hobby knife set will be a huge help if you don't already have them! Plus, you'll want to get as many of the different types of blades for the hobby knife set you can get as they all serve different purposes Now, when it comes to doing the precision mechanical stuff ( which I love doing ) My most heavily used tools are my Optivisors which allow me to see in great detail at very,very small sizes: And both my dial calipers: And my dial height gauge: Both of those tools are immensely useful as they can measure objects down to the hundred thousandths of an inch! The calipers will usually set you back around a hundred for a good one ( like the Starrett i have pictured) and the height gauge will usually be a bit more by maker ( My Mitutoyo Set me back about a $150) Under the height gauge you'll see a black thing its sitting on, thats the "surface plate" a block of precision milled granite that is both absolutely level & necessary for doing height gauge measuring. Now, even tho you absolutely need to have one of these, as they are both VERY expensive & VERY heavy, you can do what I did & go to a TILE store & get a granite 12" x 12" floor tile a half inch thick. This will be a great replacement for the surface plate & will work just the same! Make sure it's very smooth across its surface tho, you'll need it to be to get precise measurements. Also, the price is right in that they usually go for a few bucks as opposed to nearly 300! Well, hope all that long-windedness helped a bit! Cheers n good luck! ~BK
I agree. All the aesthetic changes are seriously well done -especially the head- but pupils just aren't very Transformersy. Were they in his Spotlight issue?
This is a work of art. (And I keep wanting to do that shoulder trick, but I'm too much of a coward to start shaving down the plastic...it makes a world of difference, though!)
I'm not lovin the super wide grump mouth from the front (reminds me of how Ironhide looked in one of the IDW comics I read) but it looks good from the side and real nice clean work as always. You planning to finish it? I sure was stoked about that Arcee you were doing. It generated loads of hype only to never be finished, unless I missed the post where it was done.
Somehow I missed the update where you shared your tools. Thanks for the info! Personally, I don't mind the iris/pupils. I thinks it's an interesting take. As is the scowl. Seems an appropriate interpretation of the character.
He may have been inspired by Figueroa's first run on the previous ongoing, where he gave the transformers Bayformer-style eyes. Or perhaps the TFP eyes.
I would love a copy of this head design mold to update my Prowl, I'm rather curious if this is going to be produced for us to buy.
Yeah, they screwed everybody when they decided all their free accounts suddenly needed to be paid for. Many people's pictures vanished then behind a paywall.
hindsight it 20/20 Its threads like these why @Superquad7 and myself always encouraged and asked folks to attach the images for their threads/posts here on the board, and not use a hosting site.
Hey Gang! Sorry I've been away so long. Life's been a bumpy roller-coaster the last couple years but things are getting slowly back on track. I'll do my best to re-up the images for this build so far this coming weekend, Promise!
