Starscream just seemed to be a logical character to make, being an important Decepticon in the Transformer universe, as well as a fan favorite. He was built from a 1/144 Gundam Airmaster Burst, a few parts from the normal 1/144 Airmaster, and some parts from a 1/144 F-15 model(marking the first time I've bought a non-mecha related model in....well I can't even remember the last time...).
Legs:
I usually start out with what I expect to be the easiest, and I thought the kit's legs would work very good for Starscream's(all three of my Decepticons needed very little leg work, wish the Autobots were that easy....) Plus there's the fact that I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do with the upper body yet, so the legs were a good start. Anyway, The legs are basicly straight out of box, with a few modifications. The legs and feet themselves come from the Burst kit, but the knees are from the regular AM. I used the shoulder fins from both 1/144 Airmaster kits(as well as their hinge parts), and attached them to the built legs to make the fold out horizontal and vertical stabilizers for Starscream. I also cut off the the upper parts of the kit's heels.
Head:
One of the main reasons I chose to use this kit was because the Gundam's "helmet" very much resembled Starscreams' so again, I didn't need to do much. I removed the side "face gaurds" from the Burst's helmet, and trimmed the head crest a bit. I sanded the Gundam's "face" so its almost flat, and added the little nose.
Body:
Now here is where most of the work went in, not one peice in the entire body section was left untouched. I started with the fold-up body section(the other reason I chose this kit, it had a chest that rotated up). I cut the F-15 nose off the kit I bought and adjusted it to a good length. I decided to give it a more advanced, sleek look, and built a new canoply from epoxy putty instead of using the kit's. I then shaped the entire nose to a more squared off shape(which unfornately is barely noticeble in the scans). Next I modified the inner body block a bit so that the jet nose would lay flat against it. I then modified the outer chest parts, removing that small panel that the Gundam's wings attached to, and flattening the chest intakes a bit. The jet nose is attached to the outer chest parts by two parts that used to be the center chest plate on the original kit. The end result is a two part pivoting chest; the nose pivots up at the base(where it connects to the chest, in between the chest intakes), and then that assembly pivots up at the shoulders, resulting in the jet nose sticking straight up. The back section was then molded from putty over top the original backpack, and two pegs were added for the wings.
The wings were made next. I started by removing the wings from the F-15, and then shaped them a bit to my liking. I added the wingtips with sheet styrene. The large wing pylons(where the wings connect to the body), were a bit more of a challenge. In order for the wings to look good in both modes, they would need to connect to the body from different places. So I glued two polycaps to each wing in the right spots, then built the pylon around them with putty. It sounds alot easier than it really was, getting those polycaps in the exact right spot on both wings and keeping them there was a bit frustrating, and you may notice in the pics, the wings are very slightly uneven.
Finally, the easiest part, the waist. All I did here was build the more Transformer-looking waist over the original waist part with some styrene.
Arms:
After working on the body, it was nice to have an easy job. I took the intakes from the F-15, trimmed them to the desired size, and gluded them to the Gundam's upper arms. I used some putty to fill in the gaps, and to better blend the two parts together. The lower arms were left as is. I used the Gundam's original guns, with a few small parts removed(handle and trigger, etc). I did manage to make one annoying design flaw here tho. His wings sit very snug against his body, and his shoulders have an extended intake on them, those two attributes mean he has very little shoulder movement. Move them out foreward about 30-40 degrees, and his intakes bump into his wings, move them out sideways about 30-40 degrees, and his intakes bump into the side of his body. So this means no straight-arm shooting poses :( Luckily he does have elbows, but a bent-elbow shooting pose is just so less dynamic than his classic straight-arm pose. I was too far along to try and correct it, I did however think about it, but couldn't come up with a good way to do it. Oh well.
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