I picked up the little TF Authentics Grimlock because I thought he had some potential. His wings kept popping off, so the first thing I did was drill out the hinges and put pins in them. The pins came from a bag of random metal tubes and rods that I got at the art store. The next thing was to give him proper hands. I found some good ones in the parts bin on a junker TFA Ratchet. I made his new elbows partly from parts that I toop out of Ratchet's shoulders. The other part I made by trimming the ball joints in his existing elbow joints and drilling holes in them. The rest is made up of styrene bits and plastic that I harvested from Ratchet's arms. I'd like to give him new dino arms, but the existing ones are molded right onto his wings, so that will take a lot of trimming and sanding. I'm also planning on how to add a neck joint, so he can assume a more old-school, Godzilla-ish posture. This has been a really fun project so far. What do you think?
So far so good. Robot arms look a bit long but probably can’t be helped much. You got your work cut out for you on this...
Thanks Guys! Yeah. The arms are a bit ape-ish. Although looking at him now, I could maybe shorten the biceps without compromising the look. Maybe I could even get a swivelnin there. My first thought was something G1-Style, but with some work, I might be able to manage something more like Combiner Wars Slag. I'm going to keep the knee tails and work around them.
Thanks! For the tail? That could definitely work, but I'm aiming to keep things G1, and I'd like to avoid parts-forming where I can.
Revoltech joints are excellent for customs, but I have something simpler in mind- a one-way hinge that just lets the neck look down. The neck is hollow, so it shouldn't be too hard to insert a piece in there and hinge it. Thanks!
Nope. Just plastic and glue for this one. I've got the head off. Now the idea is to make a block the size of the interior space and to find the best places to put pins into each side. Of course I still have those Ratchet elbows, so I might use them. Now that I think of it, I might be able to get a few Revoltech joints in there. I am planning on using them in his T-Rex arms.
Up and down only, I see. I was thinking https://www.amazon.com/d/Toys-Games/Grappling-double-ball-joint-Hobbybase/B00MMWA3K6
It's been a while, but I finally got more progress in on Little grimlock here. Still a WIP, but I prematurely added some Reprolabels to get a sense of how the finished product will look. I'm eventually going to sand those dino arms off, and build new ones, but for now, the molded ones will do. The body color is Testors flat gray and the crotch is Testors dark red.
I just realized that I didn't document it, but I sawed Grimlock's waist apart and built a new waist for him with a bionicle ball joint and styrene. It helps him stand up straighter in dino-mode and gives him that pelvic thrust in bot mode.
