Generations Wheeljack Generations Red Alert Universe Ratchet Generations Stepper I have begun on Wheeljack, by doing a few leg mods to give him a more G1 toy look as well as make his legs look smaller, and him 1/4 taller and no parts swapping went on with Tracks...mainly because I only have 2 Tracks..one MOSC and the other in my personal custom collection. Red Alert will get a heavily modded head and new paintjob, as well as leg inserts to make his legs be able to be turned like his G1 toy, without the hollow leg look. (I included a mock-up pic of what I want him to look like when finished) Stepper will be a straight repaint of Jazz with new flames I made like my custom Tracks flames were, with Cyclonus donating his partner for him. (no pics yet) Universe Ratchet will look better than my last attempt and will look more like a panel van than he originally did, due to shaving off his rear windows and sanding them smooth (no pics yet)
Interesting projects... the legs and head alteration for Red Alter is something I've been wanting to do myself, so I'll be interested to see where you go with it. Can't wait to see what you do with Rachte! zmog
Could you tell us more about the mod you've done with Wheeljack's legs? It's something I'm looking in to doing myself when I receive mine, doing a little research!
Wheeljacks leg mod is somewhat easy to accomplish as long as you're handy with a X-Acto knife or something similar....for those who have Dremels....even easier. I just made an panel line for the front of his doors cutting at an angle from the windshield to the sharp body line on his alt mode side, then straight down from the body line, but only deepened the cut from the line down. Then I made a score along the edge of the front fender humps to meet up with that body line and the straight down cut of the new door edge, that gives him the look of actually having a hood as well. Then I glued the fender sections to the feet sections and now his legs have that look, and makes him look different from Tracks even more. As far as the height mod, all I did was take the legs apart and drill out the slider a littler lower to make him taller, I drilled low enough to be able to leave pieces like the original height had so you would have to pull down the leg and have that snap and hold in place feel, he can still be lowered to his original height if I ever wanted to do that again. Only downfall is it makes his legs more loose so I cut snug fit pieces of plastic to push in against the sliders and hold them tight and cover the hollowness of that black leg back. I like it because it gives him a more unique look and looks more like his G1 toy did. If anyone needs pics I will try to take them, to maybe clarify better.
Looking good so far. The WJ mods make a real difference, I can see me tweaking his legs as well if I manage to get hold of him. And I like where you're going with Red, too. What are you doing to block off the legs? You mentioned "inserts"; are these going to be transformable, or will you just take them out for vehicle mode? Purple-Bot has a similar plan for his Sideswipe, so you may want to keep track of what he's up to there. Ratchet and Ricochet sound cool, too. I plan to do Rico myself when I get a third Jazz; can't wait to see how you handle him.
I have prototype inserts for Red shown in his pics, one piece of plastic to be bent around the corner and can be tabbed sort of in place, and then more plastic added and shaped and painted black for the final look, like pictured. Those inserts shown are just cardboard templates, until I can get sheet plastic, but are similar to what will be done, just more detailed on the final piece. And no they will just pop in and out, not transformable, because they will actually cover the whole leg, front and side. And Stepper / Ricochet will look like his G1 toy, minus the Gold chrome, just paint, but I have made custom flames to fit the Jazz mold, and modernized better than the original style flames, the flames are made similarly to the ones I did for my Tracks.
Very nice mods! I'd definitely be interested in seeing pics of the height extension you did for Wheeljack. At least showing where you placed the plastic to keep the shins from being loose.