So... my deal. I want a MP10, yet I don't want to pay for a legit or re-issue. I would have been happy with a ko but I've missed my window there and those are long gone. I'm considering buying a presently available unit to repaint. MP10r seems like the least would need to be done (vs. MP10sg or others like YOTH/g/whatever animal) as primarily the helmet, legs, crotch piece, and hands (or possibly find upgrade blue hands anyway) need to be painted. The rest is pretty close to standard MP10 color.

Any tips for the following elements to be encountered during this?
1) disassembly tips/tricks?
2) tampo removal (no need for ape logos)

Thanks!

 

Areas where you can't dissasemble, a liquid masking film won't let paint bleed like tape would. Well worth buying a small jar of it. Just paint it on and peel it off later.
Also washing the mold release off the parts is a huge must before starting anything.
And prepwork prepwork prepwork. It seems tedious but the payoff is huge

 

Another thing I do is take pictures during dissasembly. A lot of the time I don't need them later but when I do, I really need them

 

Agreed. Plenty of liquid mask on-hand already from RC projects and mecha modeling. It's always about the prep, the painting is usually the quickest/easiest.

Pics definitely. I would no doubt forget things during reassembly without.

I searched a bit but didn't find much in the way of MP10 customs on these boards. Any progress/build threads out there that my search-fu failed to locate?

 

I prefer videos to pictures. But for MP10 builds I haven't actually looked into that much.
Is your final vision for it to look like a factory fresh version or are you going for realism?
I kinda like those cell shaded customs, but with that you can't do just one unless it's to a duplicate

 

The end goal is to achieve the G1 red/blue color scheme. It doesn't need to be (and won't be) 100% toon/toy/takara/hasbro/whatever - just pretty close to Optimus original g1 colors. I am digging what I perceive to be fairly flat (red) paint on the MP10r ko, which I like, so the areas I paint will also be flat to match. (aside from chrome) Thinking a bit of preshading on the legs would look good but I feel it has to be subtle or it won't match the non-shaded red parts. It's been awhile since I've done any mecha modeling, so skills are likely rusty - but looking forward to a winter project.