I started this baby before they announced the up-and-coming Siege Jetfire (which is the first totally G1-accurate take on the design) so excuse me if this is a little late. I started this project as an attempt to take the original Transformers Jetfire... And make it match the animation model used in the show as much as possible. I ended up buying a few worn-down "For Parts" Jetfires and piecing together a full version for this. Given that it's such a rare toy, I felt this was the best way to make a custom without destroying something truly valuable. This made my computer desk look like a Transformers graveyard for a while. I actually have a theory that when the designers for G1 had to make Skyfire's design without making it look like the Jetfire toy, they might have done what I'm doing right now. So many of the odd details match up with how you can customize him. For instance, the original Macross Valkyrie has an extended elbow, making for a very classic design. Meanwhile, Skyfire's elbow stops early on... But he has additional parts on his arm that pretty damn well look close to the extended elbow split-off and glued on somewhere else. This might be a coincidence, but it's a funny detail. Additionally, it doesn't take that much customization to make the wings on the Jetfire toy fold up and stay up, making him look like he does in the cartoon. I made the head by stealing the plate off of a G1 Metroplex (again, purchased "for parts") and carving out the head of a Jetfire to hold it in place. It fits pretty damn good, although there's a gap that I never filled in because no one ever seems to care or notice. With a little paint, it looked like it was always meant to be this way! The pack on the pack was made by taking the two halves of Jetfire's boosters and taping them together... With masking tape, I must admit. It doesn't look the best, but I mainly did this project for my tastes and to waste some time having fun. In a sense, this project was less about making a totally animation-accurate Skyfire, but to instead follow in the logic of those designing the character. They look at the vents on the front, one red and one black, and they switch them. They Look the armor that can be attached to the legs, and make a smaller version a part of the design at only a few parts. It's a really interesting set of choices, and I was happy with how they turned out on the actual custom. Hope y'all enjoy!
Oof, those are a lot of unavailable images. Is there some way you might be able to reupload them and show 'em off?
Did that fix it? Sorry, I copied-and-pasted these straight from a cloud, and apparently, that made the base link only viewable by me. Oops!
For one more reference pic, here's the Siege Jetfire vs my custom. I tried to get the scale as close as I could based on photos, I think this is pretty close.
I get a what-could-have-been-vibe from it... like if e-hobby had access to the original mold and would tweek it to give us an Anime accurate Skyfire. Love it. Is the face chromed? A bit to shiny for my taste. I prefer flat silver. But I guess going the G1 toy route all the way it makes sense.
Yeah, I barely changed the face outside of painting the eyes blue. The great thing about G1 toys is they were all mostly put together by hand (also the bad part because those conditions were probably not ideal) so you'll find that most things come apart pretty easily. With the G1 Metroplex head, if you remove enough screws the face plate just slides off the rest of it. I didn't feel like messing with it too much past that.
It's a regular Jetfire head with the front carved out, the antennas clipped and with it all painted. The backpack is just two halves of the Jetfore thrusters taped together with red masking tape.
If you're going to do it, this is the way. As he stated, they were all junkers anyway. Great work, it is really interesting how similar it is to the final design.
Looks really good is the wing mod easy to do? Also is the backpack just the stock booster pack? I kind of want to do this on a spare 1/55 vf I have.
Basically theres a system in place that stops the wing from going that high up. But if you clip it JUST enough, it instead catches the wing and holds it in place. Its indeed just two halves of the stock booster pack.
Oh! And a fun yet subtle detail is that I took apart the cockpit and painted the seat blue instead of white, making that part appear blue without sacrificing the glass.
From what I'm looking at, I can appreciate the craftsmanship all the more if I envision this as kitbash that was done back in 1985.
Why would you paint over decals rather than remove them? That's just sloppy and needless. On that same note, you really need to use better paint and improve the way it is applied.
I remember owning a Macross Valkyrie before there was a Jetfire...Man, I loved that plane...early 80s...
