UPDATED Version 2.0: I never did get around to doing a thread for this, this is nothing special compared to a lot of the amazing work I see on here, but ambitron helped persuade me to post up this little guide. The goal The v1.0 recipe (see post #23 for v2.0 recipe) You'll need an MP-18 and an MP-18S. From MP-18 you need: Head Shoulders/arms (but not hands) From MP-18S you need: everything else To start, swap over both of their arms, but also swap over their hands. So unpop the arms from their ball-joint sockets, swap them over, then to swap the hands just unscrew the screw in the forearm, it's very simple. Make sure to use the right size screwdriver. To swap over the head you need to hammer out the long pin that's holding his neck plate onto his shoulders (it also holds his body onto his waist). The pin's quite tricky to get out. I used REDLINE's handy tutorial as a guide. Basically, I used a small nail with a head no bigger than the diameter of the pin, and hammered the nail through, pushing the pin out. Pushing the pin back in is a little easier, I just pressed the pin against a wooden surface (it will most likely damage the surface though). The part of this whole thing I found the trickiest was painting the black onto MP-18S's chest and back. I particularly had difficulty getting the sliver of silver behind his bumper just right. In the end I painted it black, and added the silver on afterwards. Tamiya Chrome Silver is a near-perfect match. For the back I masked off the windows and painted black. I left a bit of silver on each side to continue the stripe along his bonnet. The Z was too difficult to repaint silver so I ended up making a decal, which I thought turned out pretty good. I used the small sticker from MP-18S under the final clear coats. Apologies for the dust. Man Bluestreak has such a great face sculpt doesn't he! I used two official produtcs here. For those might want to try this, if you're planning on using a KO in the mix I would suggest using the MP-18S KO with a legit MP-18, since you'll be using the head from the legit one, and the MP-18 KOs faces are a little messed up. As long as you're ok with most of the body being the KO. When all is said and done you're left with two Bluestreaks. One who is cartoon-accurate in robot mode, and the other in car mode. I actually love MP-18, I think it's a more beautiful colour pallette. But it doesn't get much more screen-accurate than a Bluestreak like this: How embarrassing, going for ultimate cartoon accuracy and I forgot to flip up his launchers for most of the shots! I'm losing light here but here's a couple with them lifted up:
Thanks for posting this, RedTruck - I'm going to be following your formula myself. He looks fantastic, and so much more screen accurate in robot mode. And although his car mode was most often drawn like MP-18 in the cartoon, there were plenty of occasions in the cartoon where his alt mode matched your modified version:
I love this but I hate you as from when I first saw it MP18 just isn't good enough anymore! Still waiting for my KOs to arrive but I'll be following suit and MP18 will be forever in alt mode as the black hooded 280zx in my MP diaclone display!
All fixed guys, that's the last time I hotlink directly to my photobucket! All images are now attached to the original post, thanks for checking this out!
Transformers Masterpiece MP-18S Silver Streak Fairlady Z Tokyo In Stock | eBay Mines just arrived today. Done everything bar swap the head but I'll do that when my MP18 KO arrives.
Damn it.... you just had to go and do this huh? lol If Reprolabels would offer a decal for the hood, I'd probably consider doing this.
Sure thing (better do what a mod says, right?) Ain't he just! Yeah it would be great if Reprolabels did a sticker for the hood and back, I was even contemplating doing it that way myself at the beginning. Heh, sorry about that!
Many thanks for sharing your formula for a more cartoon-accurate Bluestreak, RedTruck! I copied your excellent idea by following the instructions you posted in this thread, and absolutely love the results:
Totally awesome work, I really like what you did with the roof of the car, and how you kept the silver around the windscreen. Hmm, or did you use the back from MP-18 too? Clever, clever man! Also I love how you have MP-14 and -18 looking at his cartoon accuracy with such jealousy! That means a lot, glad you guys like it so much! I hope we see a few more of these guys popping up, it's actually a nice, fairly simple introduction for people who want to get into customising transformers: pin removal, minimal painting and a really nice end result.
