Hey guys, I want your opinion on something. Now, before the Universe combiners repaints were identified, people were going around saying that the Energon copter combiners were Whirl and Sandstorm. Now they've been identified as being Swindle and Vortex... which is another story altogether. That said, I just wondered if Stormcloud might make a decent Sandstorm. I mean, the orange and brown colors of the two are nearly identical. And Stormcloud's robot mode is very distinctly similar to Machine Wars Sandstorm. He wouldn't be a triple-changer, although maybe a better kitbasher than I am could make him into one. But other than that, do you think he'll need any more changes beyond replacing the Decepticon Badge with an Autobrand?
I'd say jhe could work, especially as, like you said, there's even precedent for his being just a helicopter. I'd probably do a bit of reopainting just to make him more interesting, and maybe mod the head so he resembles his original self a little better. But I don't think even that would be essential if you didn't want to do it. For the insignia, I'd recommend grinding down the existing 'Con logo, sticking an Autobot symbol sticker (a Reprolabel if you have an appropriately sized one) onto a piece of styrene sheet (about 0.75mm thick, or thereabouts) and trim round it. That'd give you a more-or-less embossed logo.
