Hi, Here's my first ever custom job and I just want to say thanks to the members of this forum as I was able to glean huge amounts of tips and info from reading your advice and opinions. Also, I took "inspiration" from a lot of other people's creativeness and I apologize to anyone who thinks I crossed a line into plain old copying but if it's any consolation, please look at my imitation as a high form of compliment Anyway, It was a Masterpiece Skywarp but now stands proud as Sunstorm. He's been hand painted grey, then white and finally Yellow and red with enamels before being panel lined and dirtied with some black acrylics (I wanted him Dog-fight dirty). Then the final detailing like the eyes and missiles were finised off with enamels. I've just finished the clear glossing now and he is fully handleable. Skywarps's awful hip kibble was removed, cut and replaced in more asthetically pleasing positions. The lower leg kibble is grooved so that it slides up and down during transformation as per the tutorials and instructions on this forum. In robot mode it also give extra support and he will now stand unaided very easily - unlike the Hasbro and Takara release Jets which need their stands. I have no photos of him in Jet mode yet, I'll take some soon. I'm minimizing the transformations. While he is fully transformable, I want to minimize the risk to the paint job for the moment, at least until the paint is fully cured. There are still a couple of touch-ups required ( I was far too eager to let ALL the paint dry) but i'm pretty happy that he is now finished and I am very happy with the result - especially when I stand him beside Starscream and the replacement Skywarp (When I can get them to stand!)
looks great man. glad my custom sunstorm inspired you. love the pic of him with the sword and prime's head. it looks like one of his eyes are unpainted, didnt know if u realized that or not.
Thanks guys and thanks ThyVipera - your's was obviously the main source for me Yeah, I left the eyes as different colours - I wanted him to be an unbalanced kind of character and I thought the differing eyes would help that. There's plenty of Anime characters with it but I was thinking about the graphic novel of the Crow in which the lead has had his face slashed and one of his eyes loses it's colour. He also uses a sword. I don't know... just experimenting. Re:touch ups, yeah his bottom half is a bit of a mess. Now the rush-to-finish-feeling has passed I'll spend some proper time tidying him up. Re: Panel lines. First time doing these and they are a b*tch. Don't know if I'm doing it wrong but they nearly ruined the experience for me. But once you start, you have to finish.
