Know what I was foolishly hoping for from Generations? Fembots. Like, oh, say, the First Lady of Transformers herself; Nightbird. Oh well. Had to make my own.





Nightbird here is based on the GN Archer Gundam with lego swords, apoxie, styrene, PVC10 and parts from a Blazemaster I dismembered just for being a terrible, terrible toy. Luckily, I found a use for bits of him. His tail makes good wings to replace the huge kibble-hunks the gundam comes with.




She's got swords. See? They're LEGO katanas, but on her they're just about right for wakizashi. I couldn't find or make sai her size, so the gold throwing stars on the original's tummy moved to the back of her arms where the sai normally go.




She's also got some subtle kanji decals littered about. The edges of these blended in better before I tried to make them blend in better with sealant. Yay!




It just so happened that under the gundam's visor is a sculpted face with eyes and faceplate, so luckily we're all spared my amateurish headscultping attempts. In bot mode, the wings fold up and pivot so as not to get in the way. Her swords store in her giant gundam cockpit kibble when not in use.




She didn't come out exactly the way I wanted, but she IS hot enough to replace Starscream any time I choose. Hope you guys like her  

 

The face works very well. This GN Archer mold is very useful, seen everything from Slipstream and Paradron Medics and now Nightbird. I would argue the shuriken-like things are, um...kinda weird.

Also, where's her cockpit? The purple bits, or the black cockpit of the original Gundam?

 

Yeah! I figured out of all the Transformers ever, Nightbird is the only one who was ACTUALLY built by the Japanese. So she might as well look the part!  

Well, the original has shuriken-type things on her tummy/belt. That's what I was going for. Besides, how is it weird for a ninja to have throwing stars?  

The black cockpit on the original gundam. The fuselage is matte gray, but the cockpit is glossy. IRL it stands out a bit better. You can see it to best effect in this shot here:

 

I would paint the cockpit yellow or purple, (purple!) but that's just personal preference. Great job on the figure. I especially like the use of Blazemaster's rotors. Keep up the good work!

 

Perfect!!!  

 

Wow, the use of the GN Archer actually fits Nightbird rather well. I've been contemplating what to convert my own Archer into for the longest.

I might try this myself eventually.

 

crazy awesome 

 

I'm in love with her.

 

Nightbird has never looked better.

 

Sexxxyyyyyy..............

 

That's a pretty awesome Nightbird. I might have to use that.

 

incredible work! best custom of nightbird I've seen.

 

beautiful

 

nice use of ROTF blazemaster mold tailsection  

 

Sweet job on this!!

 

Something about the legs/arms and even the torso makes it look so Gundam-ish...Maybe it's the chunky elbow pads or the calves...I'm personally not leaning towards using Gundam bodies for TFs, only for kibble parts and such because I keep seeing them as mecha instead. Call me weird or opinionated  
But I understand why you chose this path and I respect that!

That being said I think this custom oozes personality. I especially like the throwing stars; cute and they're a nice touch. I wish she had more weapons hidden all around though. e.g. sai, tonfas, nunchuks, and/or even naginata. Kinda like a ninja-hammerspace!

The alt mode is sweet too, and the head is perfect.

 

Very cool; it still looks very Gundam-esque, but despite that has a lot of personality. The Blazemaster tail wings look totally suited to the figure as well.

The paintjob looks great, but I agree with some others that it might be good to pick out the cockpit in another colour. I'd humbly suggest gold; it's already got a place on the figure, so it won't break the colour scheme, plus it's still conceivably a realistic colour for it (just look at the visor of an astronaut's helmet).

 

Turned out awesome.

 

For me the cockpit would be silver. Anyways I like this custom. Very sleek and well you get the picture.

 

Thanks everybody!  

So it sounds like the general consensus is I need to paint the cockpit. Hmmm. Maybe I'm smuggle a little frosted vinyl out of work and try to put that over the black. Or maybe a nice dark purple.

Yeah, she still looks a bit gundam-y, but I think it's okay, because she's not cybertronian. She SHOULD look different than other Transformers. It shows her Japanese heritage!  

BTW, the Kanji on her fuselage says Kunoichi, the kanji on her tail-fins say "Night" on one side and "Bird" on the other, and the kanji on her hip-guards say "First Lady", in honor of her being the first fembot ever shown in Transformer history.