I originally was going to pass on this Megatron, but the more I saw, the more I liked him more so than Siege Megatron, particularly his Abs. I got him and immediately removed all the battle damage on him, it took a while and a lot of elbow grease as his battle damage paint was a pain to remove, akin to the battle damage on Siege Soundwave or Starscreams arms. I ended up just repainted the grey front panel of his tank mode as well as his tank treads as it was way easier. Mods I did included swapping his head for his Siege counterparts (I don't mind the Earthrise head, just prefer Siege's) and swapped over the lower arms/hands from my Siege figure as I had modded him to have wrist swivels. I've repainted Megs's abdomen vents red using Vallejo Flat Red, as well as the bands of his biceps using the same red. I've repainted various details and replaced all con symbols with Toyhax stickers. I'm waiting on the Tim Heada Arm covers to be delivered, as well as waiting to see what Toyhax do (really interested in chest swirlies) but for the most part I'm happy with this figure now. Thanks for checking it out, I really feel I've brought some life to this mold.
Wow that looks great! Few Qs : -how well does the plastic color match between the siege head and the Earthrise body? Or did you paint them? -how did you do the wrist swivel? I thought of doing that but there didn’t seem to be a feasible way to do it without compromising the fist or elongating the section -are the backs of his upper arms black? I never noticed that before....
Hey Thank you, to answer your Questions: - I think there is an extremely slight difference in plastic colour, but that might just be because my Siege Megatron was originally displayed sometimes in daylight and that may of had an effect. I did however paint the face sculpt on the Siege head (GW Administratum Grey) - The wrist swivels were a little tricky as obviously like you say any lengthening of the hands would disrupt the ability to transform. I did them over a year ago but from what I remember I used a pin punch to remove the whole section, and used a hobby saw to carefully cut off the hands, then measured up to drill a hole of 5mm, and used a hollow 5mm crazy straw which I glued onto his fist using Loctite superglue, the piece of straw I used may of been slightly too short on the left hand (one with the mace) and occasionally might fall out if I twist it too much. I remember having to find smaller pins to put back in to the arm as the original pins would get in the way of the crazy straw after inserting it into the panel. - Yeah the backs of his upper arms are indeed black, I've grown used to it as it breaks up the grey a bit, but I have seen people completely swapping out the whole arms with Siege's as they are just on mushroom pegs, however I think it disables the use of Earthrise's big sword/tank turret thing in tank mode.
Thanks for all that info! I was definitely thinking of swapping heads. Just like you I prefer that awesome siege head. Too bad they didn’t just splice the siege face with the Earthrise helmet. As for the wrists, I’d want them to stay on permanently. But with the hollowness of the fists there’s no decent place to anchor a screw or pin. And those black arm backs need to go. I wonder what changed from the siege toy mold that they were cast in black?
I had just got the same paint myself, but I was wondering: how did you apply yours? Like what were the steps? If you don't mind me asking
I'm pretty freehand really, put the red paint on a pallet, a tiny bit of water mixed in and then just brushed it on. About it really, you could mask the areas around off with tape but I have a toothpick handy to quickly wipe off any excess over-spill. Don't want too much water in as you don't want the paint too watery. Afterwards I did a coat of Vallejo matt varnish to try and protect it. But as it stands, the abs are a no-contact point of transformation, they don't rub against anything or click into anything so there's no major risk of chipping from other moving parts. I eventually got the Tim Heada arm covers to finish this off.
Looks great! I just did this myself a few weeks ago. The torso, and the backs of the red “elbow” sections, but I forgot about doing the rectangle on his “belly” until seeing this! (Runs and grabs Megs and red paint!) But yeah, that torso being red makes a delightful difference!
I must the only guy to like the actual Earthrise head... well done tho. Paint is very clean and even.
Yeah I like the Earthrise head, but the eyes were a bit wayward on my copy, sloppy paint, recently got around to fixing it though and keep swapping the heads out when messing with this figure. Thanks everyone!
Those arms were taken from my Siege Megatron who I did the mod on. ER Megs has different hands but I imagine the principle is the same. Edit: someone already asked and I explained it better a few posts up from yours.
