So I really dig Skullgrin, but I've never really liked how he was a straight repaint of Straxus- a character with whom he has little if any connection. After a long time of trying to come up with a way to differentiate them better through the normal ways (trying different things with their backpacks, feet and shoulders, transforming them dfferently, etc), I decided to simply lop Skullgrin's head off and put it on a figure I was trying unsuccessfully to sell. Enter ROTF Brawn. I like the figure, but I was a fool to think he could stand-in for classics Brawn. Nobody's ever gonna buy him without his pistols, but Arcee claimed those ages ago, so let's see what we can do with him! This isn't my first custom, but it might be my best. All I've ever done before are standard repaints like RTS Bumblebee to Cliffjumper (which did come out nice, I should probably post pics of it) and minor improvements like blackwashing Universe Powerglide. This is the first time I've gotten creative at all with it and I like the results. I think the long monkey arms and the bestial legs and feet really fit Skullgin much better than ol' Brawn, and the chest is very reminiscent of the inner robot of his G1 figure. Unfortunately, as often happens, the act of customing was a little too much for the guy and I snapped his shoulder kibble off. It's not a huge deal because I can clip onto his "wing." It holds on with friction (painting it probably helped) and it needs to be there for transformation anyway. It lends him a nicely asymmetrical look, but it makes his problem of having a whole truck hanging off his back even worse, so I'll probably look for a donor (I've seen places practically giving Fallbacks away in the past, plus- spare pistols!) and redo that bit. The mix of testors flat grey, gunmetal and silver really made this alt mode turn out sexy (I didn't represent it well in the photo, was lazy and just took cell phone pics), and c-clip posts all over the place mean Generations Skully's clip weapons are an easy transplant. It's not perfect (the pics make me see where he needs more touch-ups, and I need to find my repro decepticon symbols for his shoulders), but I liked it enough to post it. Hope you all dig. Coming up is what I did with Skullgrin's body!
This is a GREAT idea. If I cared more about Skullgrin I would break down and copy it, been meaning to do something w/ my Brawn.
Awesome idea indeed (if anything, I think this looks more like Skullgrin than the "real" one), but the whole "what I did with Skullgrin's body" sort of makes me think of other things all together, heh...
Well, he is a delightfully sexy magenta and gray..but yeah, I probably should have reconsidered my wording there.
hmmm this would give me a solution, of what to do with my skullgrin head after turning his body into a Origins Megs.. hmm I wonder if using Outback you be easier with dyeing his shell... Great job thou!
Outback would almost certainly be easier (I assume, I've never used dye), but I had a spare Brawn lying around. Also I got a really neat silvery finish on his alt mode that didn't really come through in the pics. I dunno if that would have been possible with dye. The nice part about this mold is that it's held together with screws so you don't have to do a lot of masking. I didn't do any, just freehanded the details. I'd like to figure out something else for his fists, maybe give him clawed fingers, but I don't have any good donor hands lying around. If I find some, his fists come off really easily, though. I also had some trouble with the magenta I mixed, I think you can tell on his chest that it just wouldn't go on right. I might take another crack at that when I dig up a donor to fix his shoulder.
