"final" pictures up. I still may cut off the missile launcher. I can't decide and since it won't go back on well, I figure there's no hurry to decide. I included a couple comparison pictures to show just how painfully short this guy is. The obvious change is the striping on his legs. I also added some silver detailing in a few places and did the back of his head in black. I'm not going to paint the shoulders yellow again. After three coats of yellow I can still see bit of the clear plastic on the back of his head through the yellow paint. I don't even want to think about what it would take to get a clean yellow over the gunmetal on his shoulders. Oh well. Enjoy.
Thanks! Here are the main things: Tamiya Gun Metal (acrylic) Testors Chrome Yellow (enamel) Testors ?glossy black?(acrylic) Testors Gold Fine tipped black sharpie The sharpie is for the pinstriping. Paint would be better, but when I did my Dmk bb a few years back I couldn't get a clean line- the paint kept leaking under the tape. Sharpie gave me better results. On the shins I used tape to guide the sharpie- I should have been doing that from the start- it didn't occur to me. The only things I disassembled were the shins so I could paint the insides- this also made it easier to detail all the other parts around there. I also removed the collar flaps- they're a bitch to get back on, I ended up scraping half the paint off in the process. I'm not sure if I'd remove them again or not. The arm guards come off easily so I took them off also. The yellow is very similar to the toy color, but glossy and pretty. You could skip that step if you wanted. I painted everything else on the body- so there are some parts of his back that are still orange (this was a quick, fun sloppy job- once we actually see the whole bit properly in full CG detail I'm going to do a much more serious, bigger customs scratch build). I'm having a hell of a time with the yellow and the back of his head. I just applied a third coat of paint and it still doesn't match. Fortunately the black will cover a lot if that and it should apply better. Everything was brush work. I'm usually a spray paint/airbrush guy- but all the parts are so tiny it hardly matters. Hope this helps. Also, I haven't transformed him- I don't know what kind of rubbing issues I might have with this much paint over something so yellow. I may just buy another bb to display in car mode when these come out and not transform him.
nice work, totally agree with ur point of wrong color. i will definitely take that creep down if i were u.
Thank you! I bet you could make a better one out of paper. The stuff you do boggles my mind. Especially the truck. But thank you! Reasonably so. I need to figure out a better way to do the pin striping in the future. Thank you. Thank you. So you think cut the launcher off? I don't know why I like it, but I do. What even worse is that the way they designed it, part of his disc brake will be missing because of the launcher. It's a minor thing (especially painted dark), but it's not making this any easier. Thank you. I did just about everything besides the launcher (if I do cut it off) and the black on the back of his head today. What's frustrating is there isn't a great picture of the back of his head to decide exactly what to paint.
Great job! Really looking forward to this figure now, though he doesn't look as good as the DotM Bee?
Thanks! I may have mispoken there. When I said I was pretty sure this was my favorite version of movie BB I was refering to the onscreen CG version. This toy isn't bad, but he's easily the smallest deluxe movie BB we've had (he's small enough it's kind of a problem). IF he was available in proper colors and at least as big as DOTM BB (I'd prefer a touch bigger), he'd be one of the best- but he isn't so he's middle of the pack. I've always been luke warm on DOTM BB (I assume you mean the "screen acurate" deluxe), although he's grown on me recently as I've gotten past some of the initial disapointemnt that he was a bit of a step backward for me from Battle Blades. DOTM fixed a couple of BBBB's problems, but for every problem it fixed, it messed something else up. (I still refer to him as Sumo Bee as many of his parts are the same siz as BBBB, yet he's much shorter and looks a bit squished to me). It's frustrating how many BB toys have been sort of close to good, but how few have actually gotten it right. I suspect some day there will be an MP movie BB that actually pulls it all together and finally delivers a fantastic toy. They've gotten everything right in various toys, but never all at the same time.
I wasnt gonna buy any of the aoe line but you just made me want to buy this guy and try this mshelf...that's very very good!..
Thank you! Except for being so small, it's not a bad mold. I hated the first images we saw from toy fair. I bought him with the intention of cutting car panels off and putting them on a DMK- which i still may do, but the more I looked at him, the more I liked the mold. Within a couple days I was itching to paint him and fix him. I won't go as far as calling the painting I did easy, but it's not hard either. As long as you're careful and patient, I'm sure you could do this. Good luck.
Except for being so small, it's not a bad mold. I hated the first images we saw from toy fair. I bought him with the intention of cutting car panels off and putting them on a DMK- which i still may do, but the more I looked at him, the more I liked the mold. Within a couple days I was itching to paint him and fix him. I won't go as far as calling the painting I did easy, but it's not hard either. As long as you're careful and patient, I'm sure you could do this. Good luck.[/QUOTE] well thank you but don't worry, it's not like i'm new in customizing figures...my concern was not about being able to pull this off but if it's worth the time and effort to do it...seeing yours made made me realize that it does...so once again job well done!
