Minor/Repaint: Art Feather Bumblebee mods

Discussion in 'Radicons Customs' started by OptimusTimelord, Jan 9, 2013.

  1. OptimusTimelord

    OptimusTimelord Masterpiece Reanimator

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    It's tight yeah, but if you shave the outside corner of that wide spine edge (just a diagonal angle, doesn't affect anything) the arms will fold in fine. Yes, in that position you can't leave the doors on the arms. But remember the arms are reversed anyway, so the doors would be attached as if you're looking at Classics BB from behind. Better to store them inside the body.

    You can of course just leave the shoulder parts as he comes, it's by no means terrible, just slighly lower arm placement (mine was like that initially, it was only after noticing the off-centre ball joint that I decided to try them another way).
     
  2. ambitron

    ambitron Well-Known Member

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    D'oh, yes, now I see what you mean. I'd thought the outer parts were structural, but they're not, as the hinge is only attached to the central part. Thanks!

    True, the doors do look even worse when they're attached to the arms backwards...

    Thanks again for the pointers!
     
  3. megatroptimus

    megatroptimus Untitled

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    If I was to do it, I would just do the backpack mod (genius!) and the hood that folds into the chest (better looking legs). Doors on the arms don't bother me at all.
     
  4. tekering

    tekering The Ref

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    Almost, but first that derpy KO head's gotta go.
    I used Henkei! Bumblebee's instead.

    [​IMG]

    Thanks for the inspiration, OptimusTimelord! :thumbs2: 
     
  5. OptimusTimelord

    OptimusTimelord Masterpiece Reanimator

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    Nice job! I thought about swapping heads, but the chunky yellow goatee put me off ;) 
     
  6. ambitron

    ambitron Well-Known Member

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    Nice! (Personally, the AF head is one of my favourite things about the figure - I never did like the Classics head much - just personal preference, though, and this looks fantastic all the same.)

    What did you use for the swivel in the spine? I got so far as cutting mine up, but some real-life things got in the way and I haven't had chance to return to it, and I still haven't figured out how I'm going to go about that troublesome spine swivel. :) 
     
  7. tekering

    tekering The Ref

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    Ah, that's what was bugging me! Thanks for pointing it out.

    [​IMG]

    He needed a shave. :D 

    It certainly proved difficult, if only because I wasn't keen on waiting until I could go shopping for the right styrene modeling supplies...
    I figured I could make do with what I had in the house, but it took me ages to find appropriately dense plastic material to fill in the spine with.
    I finally cannibalized what Insecticon parts remained from my FansProject G1 upgrade project, cutting, filing, and sanding down plastic bits until they fit into Bee's spine:

    [​IMG]

    With the spine thus reinforced, I drilled a hole through top and bottom wide enough to fit a metal pin into. A little superglue reinforcement was needed to tighten the new joint appropriately, as the pin didn't quite fit snugly enough...
    Now it's nice and tight. :thumb 

    I'm still trying to figure out the ideal way to attach the doors to the back of the legs.
     
  8. stevil33

    stevil33 Army of Wastemen

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    great mods mate, makes such a difference to the look of the figure:thumbs2: 
     
  9. OptimusTimelord

    OptimusTimelord Masterpiece Reanimator

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    There are some subtle differences in the area around the face which I find more toon accurate... I think they messed up the mouth though, might have to try and do something with that.
    Yeah seems like you did a good job there on the spine, it's tricky because you're limited on the width (because of the arms in alt-mode). I did a similar thing filling that gap, also drilled a hole slightly wider than the gap, so as to give more grip within the yellow plastic walls.
    Cheers bud! :thumb  It was a lucky eureka moment finding that key minor point that can be tweaked to create a major improvement.
     
  10. Raiju

    Raiju Navel Shocker Veteran

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    Performed the backpack mod on my AF Bee, and he looks great! The way I did it, he doesn't transform anymore without disassembling the parts and putting it back together to his original configuration but I was thinking of getting a 2nd AF Bee (the second edition/version) to keep in alt mode anyway to display with my MP-10/12/14 duplicates.

    [​IMG]
     
  11. OptimusTimelord

    OptimusTimelord Masterpiece Reanimator

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    Good stuff, glad you like it! I always try hard to keep transformation, but of course most figures just end up in bot mode all the time anyway :wink: 

    On a related note, it's great how MP Sideswipe and AF Bumblebee have complementary scaled alt modes yet turn into such different height bots (as it should be).
     
  12. ambitron

    ambitron Well-Known Member

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    Thanks - that really helped! After looking at your pics and casting around my junker parts, I realised I could use this joint from the shoulder of a KO Alternity Smokescreen:

    [​IMG]

    I filed it down, slotted it into place, and drilled some holes large enough for paperclips to fit through to hold the top part into place (the rod of the lower part fits snugly in a hole I've drilled into the lower spine, holding that in place):

    [​IMG]

    I may use some glue, too, but it's pretty secure:

    [​IMG]

    So now it's onto the styrene hinge beneath the roof. Given that you didn't have the right styrene supplies, did you take a different approach, or is your hinge the same as OptimusTimelord's? The main part I'm concerned about now is getting the head base, the roof and the hinge all fixed together securely.

    (Great insecticons, too, by the way.)

    I'm considering sawing the doors up and having them wrap around the heels. (I don't mind the hood staying on the shins, as the yellow there reminds me of the Marvel comics colour scheme.) It's very thick plastic, though, and it's going to be awkward to get a decent hinge attached to the back of the foot, because there isn't much room. Hmm.

    Looks good!

    Yeah, I think the shape of the face and nose look better, but the mouth is definitely goofy.
     

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  13. Raiju

    Raiju Navel Shocker Veteran

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    Thanks for the tips, OT! Yeah, the alt modes are about comparable, and even their silver weapons kinda match too. I'm not much of a customizer when it comes right down to it so I do what I can with my limited skill set and available parts.

    Detaching the backpack, flipping it 180 degrees, and reattaching it was actually the easy part (with some shifting of the shoulder and arm pieces). The roof chest and neck plate (with the head attached) were the tricky parts to attach to the rest of the body but I managed to get a hinge piece behind the chrome bumper there to thread a pin for them.

    I wasn't planning on doubling up on molds for MP-10/12/14 and now AF Bee to display in both bot and alt modes but I can't seem to resist. XD
     
  14. Soundwave2

    Soundwave2 Banned

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    If anybody's able to commission a backpack mod, pm me and let's work something out. I can't stand how the back looks on mine but unfortunately, lack the skill to do anything myself:( 
     
  15. Alucard77

    Alucard77 Kaon Gladiator Champion

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    Hey OptimusTimeLord,

    Quick question. Do you have the dimensions you used on the joint you made out of styrene? I want to give this as shot, and I figured the hardest part will be to make that joint. I figure exact dimensions should help tremendously.
     
  16. OptimusTimelord

    OptimusTimelord Masterpiece Reanimator

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    Ok hopefully this will help. What's important isn't the width of the struts or the size of the pins, or the type of plastic/styrene etc. Simply having three pivots along the armature is the key. It gives you flexibility to fold up or extend the chest piece into a range of positions (it does need to cover quite a distance between bot mode and alt mode). My joint is made quite thick, probably more than it needed to be, because styrene can be a little too bendy for my liking. Of course, you can choose to make these pieces out of plastic, or use Meccano/Lego style parts to achieve the same effect. I used styrene because it's quicker and easier to work with and because two layers glued together happened to be exactly the right thickness to slot between Bumblebee's yellow spine section (about a 2mm gap). The middle segment of the joint is comprised of two 1mm thick pieces on either side of the end segments, with another glued-together 2mm block at the head end, fixed to the neck plate.

    But as long as your three pivot points are roughly the same distance apart as mine (9mm and 10mm) it doesn't matter what your armature looks like, it will perform the same function. Just needs to have nice tight joints so the whole thing stays in the positions you put it.
     

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  17. Alucard77

    Alucard77 Kaon Gladiator Champion

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    This is exactly what I was looking for! This is awesome.

    TBH, I haven't decided what is going to be my first custom, this or Reflector. But in both cases, I know I want to work with Styrene to do this. So building this will be good practice.

    Also, good old future polish can strengthen that joint with ease. I mean, if it can make my G1 Wreckgar hold his hands above his head with no problem, it should easily fix any mistakes I make. I may also buy a hole punch.

    Like people always say, it's good to have the right tools for the job.

    BTW, how easy is it to knock out the pins? Do you heat the pin first then knock it out, or do you just use a pin punch.
     
  18. OptimusTimelord

    OptimusTimelord Masterpiece Reanimator

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    Will be great to see you customising man, I know you're a fan of kitbashing but being able to make your own ideas come to life for yourself is a great experience :thumb 

    Glad you mentioned the pins. The pins that hold the wheel/shoulder parts are easy to access from one end, once you've taken out the screws from the yellow part behind the rear bumper. You don't even need to remove them, just slide the wheel parts off to swap over. As for the others, the pins that the foot/hood panels hinge on I removed altogether because with my hood parts now on the rear of the foot I no longer needed the pins (even in car mode they aren't necessary), and they were quite visible in bot mode (easily taken out by hand once you unscrew the foot pieces).

    Lastly, the pins embedded on either side of the car, just below the rear window, I don't recommend messing with. You do have to get those yellow prongs that curve up from the chest piece off these pins for the whole mod to work, along with the head assembly, but the pins are needed to hold the figure together so you can't remove them; plus they are actually very useful to have something to clip the chest/roof onto in car mode. I mentioned it early in the thread, but what I did was drill into those prongs from the rear, all the way down until I hit the metal pin. Same with the black parts at the back of the neck plate which are threaded onto the same pins. Then cut away excess plastic until you're left with c-clips (you can just see that in the two photos in my last post). If you've done it right the chest part fits into place exactly as ever, but is now removable by popping the ends off the pins.
     
  19. Quantum Reflex

    Quantum Reflex Well-Known Member

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    You really made this BB a hundred times better man, I love what you did with his back! 10/10!
     
  20. OptimusTimelord

    OptimusTimelord Masterpiece Reanimator

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    Thank you! :thumb 

    I think we'll probably be seeing more 3rd party VW Bumblebee's in the future (maybe an iGear Miniwarrior?) so this is really a placeholder I guess. But I think it performs that function pretty well :)