MP-10 leg panel removal and paint accents

Here's some minor mods to MP-10 I've done (I am a novice modeler, so nothing fancy!). I removed the wheel covers to give the legs a slimmer look and allow the wheels to be showing in robot mode (that screams G1 prime to me). The lack of wheel covers also makes keeping the legs together in truck mode a little less finicky. I also painted silver around the rear wheel fenders to match the front fenders

I painted the cab lights (clear orange over silver to give it some depth). Might not be G1 cartoon accurate (which wasn't colored to match real-life vehicle colors, but rather to show up on screen better), but I also gave a more orange tint to the clear pieces on the waste and the accents on the forearms. I always thought these should have been similar in color to the orange lights on a real semi cab, since the original G1-transformation had the front bumper turn into the pelvis. I also like how the darker accent colors go better with the overall darker color scheme of the Takara MP-10, vs that nasty Mt. Dew lemon/piss yellow... just IMO.

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Nice job!

I mean, I totally respect the engineering Takara put into this thing, but I have to say that the wheel covers are unnecessary, and almost more distracting than having the wheels exposed. I mean, if they had found a way to fold the wheels inside the legs to get a true clean G1-cartoon style leg, then sure... but otherwise it's a bit clunky.

I'll probably be giving this a shot on mine sometime soon. Thanks for the inspiration!

zmog

I ended up copying you for my Hasbro MP-10. I think I might follow suit with your silver striping as well.

Cool! I'd like to see your results on the TRU version.

Also, glad you managed to remove the pins without breaking the hinges. This was my first time pushing pins out, and I was sweating bullets.

The legs staying together or not isn't affected by the wheel covers. I modded the hinges on the fuel tanks and the legs on my Prime stay together fine, and the tanks peg in perfectly with a touch of superglue in the peg hole. I like the paint on the rear fenders and the clearance lights, though.

I might try some of your tank mods to get mine to stay in better. As of now, I just leave them sitting on the side unpegged (can't really tell visually). When pegged in, the tanks push up against the elbow flaps, which then rub against the silver paint of the fenders, so not a big deal not having the tanks pegged.

The wheel covers do have some impact on the legs staying together. What I didn't realize was that the front leg vent panels have to be fully folded in and snapped into a pair of irritating tabs on the inner legs so that the legs can sit fully flush together in truck mode. Fully flush together, the wheel covers do hit each other and overlap a bit. That was the case on mine anyways... either way, not having the wheel covers makes it less fiddly for me.

Tolerances on this toy are a bitch.

I used a small pin punch to do it, although I didn't have to press hard enough to engage the spring-loaded punch mechanism. Yeah, I hate hate hate pushing pins out, but fortunately these pins are pretty small.

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I didn't even know they made pin punches.

Looks nice! I think some silver paint on those fenders will look good.

Updated with some clearer daylight pics, and added some more orange-tint to the yellow accents.