Hi! It's been a while since i've been designing, thanks to me starting uni and having to put money towards textbooks instead of Shapeways, but today i got one last package. Along with Arcee's blasters, i also got a Bumblebee. Yeah, a Bumblebee. As if we don't have enough Bumblebees... This is HOS Bumblebee. Based on the cover art found on the TFWiki, HOS Bumblebee transforms from a little yellow train engine to everyone's favorite little yellow robot (take that, Hot Shot! ). He's a really useful engine, y'know? So, what took up the most time on this guy? The detail. By Primus, that drained away more time than random internet searches! That took up so much time, but it was worth it. For HOS, i just had to have every little detail picked out. It helps that i have a friend who loves model trains, and with the aid of the artwork, i wanted to make sure that Bee's robot and vehicle modes were as detailed as they should be. From the gears in the legs which took 45 minutes to painstakingly carve out, to each little rivet on the train, from the plates and pipes on the torso to the spokes in each wheel, i went as close to the art as i could possibly go, factoring in the transformation. I think it works for the steampunk look. The other thing i wanted to get right was to make sure i added enough locks to the vehicle mode. In other words, the pegs and holes that keep the parts together. I've always had parts fit tightly in vehicle mode before, simply by using one piece that goes around to lock everything else in place (like RWX-09a Kickback's wings, which clasp round his entire leg assembly), but that wasn't possible with Bee's transformation. So, i had to make do with some pegs on the inside of his legs and his arms. Still, he should hold solidly in vehicle mode, provided you don't stick him in a pile of TNT. Obviously, there had to be some concessions made for the transformation, the most obvious being the shoulder armour. They had to be raised, or else i wouldn't be able to fit the arms in. While i know in the art they are supposed to be lower than Bee's head, i thought that higher shoulder armours were better than not having arms. The only other little thing i had to change was to fix the wheels in place, so they don't roll. Just don't have the space for it on this build. It's the same issue of "yes, i could scale it up to have rolling wheels, but then no one could afford it" that plagues Shapeways designing. Anyways, that's enough of me blabbering, hope you guys like him. I did deliberately leave out the 'BEE' inscription on the train, in case anyone's wondering. Just didn't work with the whole idea of "robots in disguise' when your name's written on your vehicle mode! Buy HOS Bumblebee on Shapeways here HOS Bumblebee Transformation Video Hope you guys like HOS Bumblebee. I'm probably going to be taking him to uni tomorrow just to show off! He'll be up on Shapeways soon.
That's perfect! Incredibly comic accurate my only complaint would be the face.....it's a bit on the creepy side, but that may be the paint job or lighting , anyways besides that it's perfecto
very creative, good effort A1 very cool. How are the joints? My gripe is also the face- maybe mama bumblebee will love his face....
Hey thanks guys. About the face, please don't make me change it. Please? If you'll check my thread in Fan Art, you'll see the face already went through 5 or 6 stages! I think it's probably my crap painting skills.
The bot and alt mode look great! I echo the statements about the face. But it might be the paint being placed on the shapeways material. I think if he had a little bit more of a chin though it'd make a world of difference. Also notably, with the way the shapeways material is made if you want to paint it you should hit it with some primer next time so your paint looks consistent throughout. For instance the yellow on the white is way bright, where as the yellow on the black parts is being absorbed into the black material.
I will buy this IMMEDIATELY... IF you could somehow manage to scale this up to a deluxe size. Right now as amazing as this is, I can't get behind the size. Otherwise, outstanding job!
The face i think i've just ruined with some bad paintwork. The renders of the head in all its stages are given below, so maybe they can illustrate it better. Thanks guys. Sadly i won't get to do CAD work until second year (i'm taking engineering now, will go into Mechatronics next year hopefully), but at least one of my classes is an "Introduction to Sketchup", so hopefully i won't fail that! Well, it could be done. The only issue would be that the cost would go up by quite a lot. I'm pretty sure the design itself could be scaled to deluxe as it is. ------------------------------------ For anyone worried about the head, i thought i'd just post the stages the head went through, so you guys can see what the head really looks like. First Draft First Revision Second Revision The printed version. I'm guessing my painting skills aren't quite up to standard yet.
Yea, I understand the price issue. How much do you think it would increase in cost if you scaled it up, out of curiosity?
no wonder we havent seen you around radicons for awhile that thing must of taken a huge bite out your time. looks amazing, loving the detail you put into him. I might have too pick one of these up off of shape ways soon
Major props for creating an entire figure printed from Shapeways. I'm not an engineer, just exquisitely curious and observant, and this junk is not easy.
dude you've done it again, you should do him on a mass scale production! as this would sell big, I can see a LOT of people buying this.
*swings swirly-patterned coin* Yes. You do. You want one. You need one. Now. Buy one. Not entirely sure, actually, but i'd guess based on a few other yet-to-be-revealed figures that it'd be about 1.5x-2x the current price, if i scaled him up to be the same height as Roddy. I guess i made him this size because i always thought Bumblebee would work better, smaller. The cost saving is just a bonus. Heh, yeah, this one took up a huge amount of time. To be fair, i was on holiday for late January/early February, so that might explain it. It is comforting to know someone missed me! Thanks bro. Certainly this isn't the easiest hobby ever, but anyone can learn with enough procrastination. Thanks. I would love to take this to mass production, but unfortunately i don't have any contacts in China to get that off the ground. Still, if anyone can help me with that, i'd love to hear from them.
very well done A1, the details are epic, you did an amazing job on the gear detail and overall design. when it comes time to transition into your career you are gonna have one hell of a portfolio. major props and glad to see you back at it
Not bad, I like it. Always happy to see some HOS love and good luck with your class's your doing great work man.
