Is everything aligned properly with the arms? The wheels peg into the "back" of the shoulder in car mode and if the arms aren't all twisted and folded just right, it could be causing your problem.

 

Done with the clear coat. I'll pull off the masking tape in about an hour or so and let him cure overnight before I transform him.

I probably should've angled the light a little better to show off the shine. Rest assured, he is shiny  

 

Just ordered... Now for the agonizing wait.

 

I thought they were, but maybe there was something wrong that I missed. I wasn't taking a whole lot of time with the transformation, and I was getting impatient, so it's entirely possible. Thanks for the tip, I'll check that out!

 

Just noticed my image upload didn't work. Here it is.

 

Amazing looks great!!  Well I got everything except my set/sol now. Hopefully that comes today so I can play at the weekend.

Been messing around with paper test pieces and at least in stiff paper that wide fender stripe piece - the one with the red - that really don't want to go round that fender! Messed around with that puppet warp tool in PS and really seems that could help just by putting that decal more in the ballpark. Then again you and Jsix managed without so maybe I should just suck and see.

One last question if that's ok - when you cut out a decal are you cutting right on the edge of the shape or leaving a border of clear? From some youtube videos many seem to have a small border but then it can end up visible, although the micro sol does help there. Cheers

 

I cut right to the edge where I can and leave as thin a clear border as possible where I can't get to the edge. For the hood and roof stripes, it's easy to cut right to the edge. For the text logos, obviously that's not possible. I also couldn't get my scissors into the parts of the intake cleanly so I left a tiny bit of clear around that as well.

As for managing without warping, JSix let the decals choose where they wanted to go to some degree rather than trying to force them into the correct contour so he could avoid wrinkles. I forced them and got wrinkles. The solvent helped but they're still there. Also JSix used the fender stripes with the red on both sides: since they're narrower, they were able to curve more without as much wrinkling and he just let the reds overlap. I think it probably CAN be done but I couldn't figure it out. It might also have something to do with the fact that the original decal sheets that were scanned and given to me were for a 1/24 scale model: bigger model means gentler curves.

I can't remember if I mentioned it before, but there are a handful of decals that need to be printed on white paper if you want to use them. The chest stripes (the small stripe section with the larger Autobot symbol), the window strip (the one that says Martini Racing on a black background), and the spoiler sides. I ended up not using the spoiler sides because the black toner just wasn't as black as the paint on the spoiler and so it was obvious where the decal was and it didn't look good. I didn't use the window stripe mostly because I forgot. Not sure if I want to go back and add it or not. I'm not necessarily going for 100% accuracy: just for what looks cool; and I'm just not sure if I like the window stripe or not.

I should also mention that the hubcap decals didn't seem to want to stay on. Might need to scuff the hub pins a bit before applying, though I'm not sure how you'd do that without scuffing up the paint around them.

 

Thanks again. I think I'll end up trying to warp the stripes with the red included but from my brief testing with paper pieces so far I don't think it'll be needed for the other part without the red as that seems to want to go where it should already. That puppet warp tool is pretty neat and I think I've figured out how to just bend the stripes without distorting the length or thickness. The annoying thing is I have photoshop at home and the nice Xerox laser printer is at work so rapid trial and error iterations isn't going to be practical!  

I was considering removing the factory black paint and just going with clear decals for the spoiler sides, but gonna need to get some white paper anyway (which I forgot to order - doh) for the window stripe. I'd quite like that since it was part of the G1 toy and even toon model (without text). Might just do a black stripe without text like the toon if I get impatient waiting for white paper.

Also got myself some white and silver paints, so gonna do his thighs white and grey swirly plastic bits silver. Then while I'm at it clear coat Wheeljack and paint Tesla's chrome gloss white.

 

What's that little booger on the fender next to the autobot symbol?

 

You mean the little Porsche logo?

 

I haven't tried the decals on my Downbeat yet, but just a little pointer for those trying. I've used Micro Sol a ton and I've usually had pretty good success getting it to go around some pretty tight curves. If you wind up with bubbles in the decals be patient and use a small pin to "pop" the bubble, then apply a little more micro sol. You can VERY gently use a small paintbrush with little pressure to try to flatten the decal. Be careful and patient or you risk ripping the decal.

 

Thanks for the advice! Been watching some youtube decaling videos - most are putting on some micro-sol right after placing the decal. Are you then letting it completely dry before having a look and seeing if another round of micro-sol is needed, or are you putting a few applications on over a shorter period while it is still wet if you see/believe you are gonna need more?

Cheers

 

Wow, looks great! I'm curious, though, why the use of black instead of the more accurate navy(?) that is accurate to the real car?

 

Black? You mean on the stripes? Um... Because my camera can't seem to tell the difference between Navy blue and black   I promise it's blue in person. A darker blue than I intended (I used the Pantone color code from martini but it printed really dark). Also my decal sheet was posted a few pages back: you can see that it's blue.

 

Just received mine. Only complain is its plastic tyres. My G1 jazz figure had his rubber wheels all disintegrated is that why they chose plastic?

Otherwise it's a really fun and solid figure. Now the panel lining shall begin!!

 

haha yeah I figured it might be a camera/monitor thing

 

Huh? He's got rubber tires...

 

REALLY??? Doesn't feel like it ...... well then it's perfect!!

 

Yeah, no treads. Like smooth racing tires. But they're rubber.

 

Tbh I was expecting MMC Sphinx kind of rubber tyres.