Hello!

I was experimenting with some ideas about how to change Titans Return Sentinel Prime to better fit my tastes. You might have noticed the color, but that isn't the point of THIS tutorial. The point of here is to offer a quick and dirty view of how I made this mold ignore the headmaster gimmick entirely, which I suspect some people will be interested in seeing.

So here is Sentinel after my mods to him:




It looks fairly normal (ignoring the color):




….but now his head can retreat into his body and spring up via the same mechanism that controlls his collar:




So how did I do it? Well, first I cut the base plate that the head plugs into free from the shell and glued it right onto the collar piece. I had to trim the front and the back to make it able to slide in (but now that I type that out and look at the pictures, I'm actually not sure I had to). I definitely did have to cut that opening in the spring box, however. The face needs room to slide, but the neck box might not have:




In the back I did something similar. Though, with the base plate removed, nothing was preventing the collar piece from just being pulled out through the top. So, I put a pair of tiny screws back there to hold the collar piece into the box. I also had to clear a track for them when the head is depressed:




Now, you may have noticed I cut the heel nub off the Headmaster. I could have kept it, but I'd have to have cut a channel for it into the back. It basically would have gone strait down the back but probably not too deep:




I did have to cut a rather small piece off the front of the chest as the head was just a smidge too big to slide in without it:




Train mode:




With the head still attached:





Shuttle mode:




With the head. Now one could use the legs of the headmaster to perhaps fake an engine or something, or perhaps break up the look of things back there. I didn't do that for this photo, and I am okay with it as is, I think:




If I want, I can also still remove the head:




I cannow plop another head on, too, although it is a little trickier since that whole assembly now depresses when you put pressure on it. I kind of have to grip the collar to hold it up, but it's not bad:




....and there you go. This is a fairly easy little modification that can be done with just an X-acto knife, but I would recommend using a Dremel AND an X-acto knife.

If you are curious about my WIP thread to turn this guy more into a design I like, head HERE.

Until next time guys, may all your heads be depressed...wait a minute...!