Hello again TFW! Today I present to you my MP Diaclone Prowl Concept. For some context:

*TALKING ABOUT MISTAKES, PLANNING AND PREPARATION. SKIP IF NOT INTERESTED
Now Let's move on to the custom itself. As you can see, I based the custom off of MP19+. I think MP19+'s general head shape is nearly identical to the concept's. That said, this head sculpt put me through hell. I can't remember exactly when, but I think I started working on this in late 2020. The RC airplane hinges I used for the ears work extremely well, but implementation was still challenging. I had three benchmarks in mind: Ears must fit securely, head must be able to transform without scraping against anything, and the head needed to be able to fit in the chest cavity w/o any issues.

In order to make the ears work, I used a hobby saw and exacto knife to carve some slits in the side of the head. That probably seems obvious now, but it wasn't obvious to me right away. My original plan was to use epoxy to bond the ears onto the head, but it ended up looking to thick and was way too wide for the cavity.

Otherwise, everything else was pretty easy. To achieve the 3 tiered face plate, I sculpted epoxy on the upper third of the face, and chiseled away at the chin. This is my favorite aspect of the design due to its uniqueness, and it was satisfying to pull off. Unfortunately, while the actual execution went well, I had issues with the planning phase. I was planning on using the extra faces as well, but initial ideas I've had just didn't work out as well, so now I can't really use the faces anymore.
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Here is a close up of the head:


Compared with the source figure:


let's go for a 360




Here are the knee parts. These are partforming armor pieces. Think of them as knee pads I guess?


The plastic parts are the Rx-99 Neo Gundam's Ankle armor I believe. You may remember that I sourced some parts from the same Gundam for another custom, an Orange-Blue Armored Bluestreak. I applied epoxy sculpt onto these pieces and attached a piece of styrene diagonally.


When looking into the knee cavity, there is a raised block on the outer side. In tandem with the offset styrene, the knee armor should be sitting straight atop the shin.


TRANSFORMATION

flip the fins down




the belly flap comes down. I trimmed some plastic to allow this piece to come down more than normal. It also results in a satisfying click vaguely like a soft ratchet. Very nice.



Head rotates 180 for clearance






Head tucks into cavity perfectly! I had to trim the sides of the cavity to accomadte the head. To give you an idea, I trimmed the sides of the plastic tubes that hold the screws. Not so much that I cut into the screwhole, but it is something to keep in mind.


Before I wrap things up, I want to clarify a few things. I am not using any shoulder cannons because the ears are always going to get in the way. I am also going to keep the shoulders as they are, instead of putting the wheels on the sides, like the artwork. Don't get me wrong, I love the concept, but I don't see how the designers were going to translate this into a toy. Other than that, the engineering phase of this project is finished! I just have to fill in some imperfections in the head, finish sculpting the knee parts, and paint the damn thing.

For now, I have this guy displayed as is with the name Smokestreak (in reference to mexican smokescreen with no spoiler and the stock bumper). I'm not sure what I want to call him when I actually paint him up. A working name I have for him is "Genesis", but that really depends on what kind of a backstory I give him. I'm open to any suggestions.

Well, thanks for looking!

 

Awesome start! I've wanted to do a custom based on this Diaclone Prowl sketch for ages, so cool to see other people do it.
Love how you've handled the wings on his head, very clever. Pretty neat work on the crests on the top of his head too, nice one!

Couple of pointers:
I think it would look much better if the two lower thirds of his face were equally spaced. Right now the middle third of his face is as tall as the top third, which leaves the chin looking very small (and almost not like a chin anymore). If you could recarve starting a little higher up into that middle third, that would make the bottom third bigger and more proportioned, I reckon.
MP-19+ is a great base since it has the blue windows and also has the right head shape (I was originally gonna use MP-19 with an MP-18 face plate inside - but I like your way much better!).

How did you get the hands white? Did you bleach them?

Regarding the knees, I think they would look a lot neater if you could use some actual plastic parts rather than fully sculpting them. They're such big areas that they look quite obviously sculpted (and think they will look that way even with paint). Maybe even combining pieces of styrene would look better. Right now everything looks superb but they bring the level down a little in their current state. Hope the constructive criticism is ok! Really looking forward to seeing where you go with this.  

 

Boy, this is some good work!

 

Looks great so far. I never knew about that diaclone prowl sketch till now. The headsculpt is spot on

 

Yes! Criticism is always welcome. In regards to the face, I do see what you mean now. Also the upper raised part should be bigger, but I only matched the level of mp19+'s nose. I'll do what I can to the face, but I don't want to risk ruining it.

I didn't do anything to the hands. It's probably just the lighting.

I could probably look through my gundam graveyard for parts, but the problem is it just has to be what I need. Sculpting saves me time and money. I know it looks rough now, but after sanding and paint it should look fine. If you could point me to any pieces that might look like the knee parts, I could look into it, but right now this is my best option.

Thanks for your criticisms, and good luck on your DiaProwl!

 

Thank you very much!

Thanks! The art is awesome. I also wanted to do this to challenge myself and improve my skills.

 

Hm yes for matching the artwork maybe the upper third should be bigger, but actually I think you made the right call matching the level of the nose. I think just making the two lower parts equal in height will be perfect, but yeah I realise it might be tricky now! My only experience with sculpting was making Megatron's battle-damaged face undamaged, and it took a lot of patience and fine sanding:




I think my DiaProwl won't happen for a long while so in the meantime I'm taking a lot of pleasure seeing how yours develops, keep up the great work! Are you planning to try and make the sides of the hips accurate to the drawing as well?

 

Man, this is gonna be awesome. Love how you handled the head wings!

 

Right, the face is just never going to be 100% accurate unless I make it from scratch. I personally think the chin is perfect, it's the upper 2/3s that need to be the same height. That Megatron sculpt looks pretty good! It's slightly grainy in picture but that's not going to show up in person. Are you making a comic accurate version or is that just the base colors?

I wasn't planning on fixing the hips because car mode clearance is tight. I don't think it's impossible, but I'm worried about paint scraping and having the side skirting look too small. Maybe I'll give it a go but at this point I'm not really sure.

Also about the hands, I just realized that mp19+ originally had blue hands. The white hands are actually from mp18+ Streak, which I repainted into Tigatron.

 

Yeah if you think the upper third might be the best one to adjust I think that'll look great. Ah so that was you who did that custom Tigatron - I loved that!!

That's just the base colour on the face, I have the awful task ahead of me of trying to colour match to the stock faces  

Yeah I get it I think leaving the hips as-is is pretty close to the drawing anyway, good call!  

 

Hello everybody back again with an update 1.5. I said I was done with the engineering on this figure, but Sam suggested I make the hips more accurate. I honestly never noticed this before, but the masterpiece waist is actually not completely accurate to the toy waist. The main waist piece is reasonably accurate, but the side skirts are too long and flat; they need more of a trapezoidal prism look.

That said, I'm not totally committed to the hips. The main reason is because of the clearance between the side skirts and the doors in vehicle mode. However, I think I have a solution.

The doors were too thick, so I went ahead and replaced them with these styrene strips. And if you think these look familiar, there's a pretty good reason.

Did I really just homage the G1 door mechanism??

Anyway, It works in both robot and car mode, as you can see in the pictures. It definitely isn't as stable as having the door interior pieces. in robot mode, the doors will still swivel up, but they are slightly looser, and in car mode, it's pretty easy to move the doors slightly out of place. These are minor issues, and I think they can be fixed pretty easily with some epoxy putty.



Next t2 shots are comparisons between a stock smokescreen and the modded version. Just to give an idea of the difference in clearances.



As you can see, this mod gives me more space to work on the side skirts. These can be easily modded by trimming the sides to match the level of the waistpiece, and then sculpting the raised portions onto the skirting. However, now is not the time for that. Right now, I need to disassemble the figure and remove the paint before I commit to the hip mod. Hope to see you then!

 

Here's another update. This kind of another sidetrack, so I'm just going to call this update 1.75. Anyway, I've completed the paint removal process. Before I get around to completing the door and hip mod, I thought I would take a crack at the mechanical detail in the feet. I've been scratching my head since the planning phase on how I was going to do this, and I was almost going to just omit it. I think I've found a solution that I"m pretty happy with. This involves greebling involving legos and some gundam parts. I don't normally like using lego cause I think lego tends to stand out in a distracting way, but since I only used one conventional brick, I'm actually pretty happy with how it turned out. There is a gap, but I don't think there's really much I can do about that If I want to retain transformation. Maybe I'll make a fake panel piece to fill the gap, not to sure at this point.

One more thing, I designed this piece as a swappable part. That means it must be removed for transformation. At the same time, it is an optional part, and you can swap in the stock foot panels for a fully transforming figure.



Rear view; will definitely require some putty here






I'm pretty happy with the progress so far! The foot piece will require perfecting, but I think what I'm going to do next is the hip mod. At the same time, I'm going to try to plan out the arms. I really have no clue what I want to do about the arms. Most likely I'm going to have the accurate arms be an optional piece that can swap with the transformable ones, just like the foot pieces. I might need to get a junker mp19, but I don't want to spend too much money right now. In the mean time, thanks for having a look, and if you have any suggestions, or criticisms, please let me know!

 

I wish I had the ability to make more than repaints.

 

Man, fantastic stuff!! I love that inner leg mechanism, so clever  


I may have some spare Smokescreen/Bluestreak arms in my parts drawer that I was keeping for my version of this that I could send your way if you want them.

 

Thanks for your enthusiasm, I really appreciate it! As for the arms I've actually decided to go with the Furai bumblebee model kit. Picked up a used kit for 25 total on ebay, and the seller said it had all the parts. I have their G1 Optimus Prime, and I noticed that the forearms have that same puffy/swole aesthetic as the art. Plus, bumblebee has wheels mounted on the side of his shoulders, which is a nice bonus. Black shoulder blocks look fantastic, but when I get the kit in hand, I will try to get the shoulders to look more cylindrical.

 

Hi everyone, so I'm back with an update! I have been painting this figure up.


Here's a close up of the painted head. I'm not sure why it looks so blotted out here, in person it looks more defined and less pouty.


I also wanted to show off the hip mod. not only did I sculpt the "pockets" on the side skirts, but I also made the tip of the crotch area more triangular like the art. I also carved the knee armor to give it more definition.


Unfortunately, that's all I really have for now. I need to fix the paint in some areas, hand paint minor details, and then apply clear coat. So far, I'm really happy with how he's turning out. This was something I always wanted to do since I got into customizing seriously 2 years ago, but I never dreamed I would get this close. Minor self critique, but I the Italian red I used is a bit too dark, I probably should have used regular red. Aside from that though, I would say this is looking to be 96% accurate to the art.

Don't think this is finishing up soon though, I have a furai bumblebee kit coming in, and I'm going to figure out how to transplant the arms from that figure onto this guy for a completely accurate look, down to the weirdly shaped forearms and wheels sitting on the side of the shoulder. Stay tuned!

 

UPDATE 2.2
Before I finish up paintwork, I decided to see if I could make accurate arms. As you can see, I used a mix of lego parts and Furai Bee's arms. I think it works well for what I was trying to achieve! There are a few concerns to note. The pegs on the upper biceps somewhat fit into the lego ball joint,I'm probably going to enforce the peg with green stuff. Also, Just due to how the datsun mold was made, there's really no attachment point for the new arm assembly. I was considering using the holes leftover from the abdomen sides, but this was just easier to due. The assembly is held entirely by friction, but it's pretty solid.



For the wheels, I'm probably going to insert RC hinges into the shoulder joint.




Here's a picture of the arm assembly itself. I wanted to avoid partsforming as much as possible but I feel like this was inevitable. I compromised by having a 100% transforming version with swappable parts that are more accurate. In order to make up for not transforming, I thought I would compensate by giving the arms as articulate as possible. There is a shoulder rotation, double butterfly, ball jointed shoulders (restricted to the sides), double elbows, and ball jointed wrists. Another benefit is swappable hands, but Bumblebee only came with 2 sets of hands. I'll try look for hand options, but the ball joints for the hands are pretty small, so I might have some difficulty there.



That's it for this update. I am pleased with how the arms came out, but I'm going to make some improvements as follows:
-resculpt the forearms with epoxy putty
-add joint for shoulder wheels
-modify the wrist joint for more articulation
-try to find new hands
I also recovered the other faces I had worked on. I was going to give up on these before, but I'm going to try to salvage these. I'm also considering using Bumblebee's pistol as a base to sculpt the Datsun rifle. One thing to keep in mind though, is that the handle is very thin, so the original hands won't be able to use the gun. That's all for now I really need to go to work( as in my actual job).

 

Hi all, I think I'm at a pretty good place with the arms.


There's just one problem. He has gorilla arms. I was wondering what you guys think of this. I can kind of justify it because it kind of sells the prototype look, and there were other diaclone bots with long arms, like Cordon and Exhaust. I might be able to shorten the arms, but this look is the best way for me to maintain a bicep swivel.


Here he is next to Barricade, another MP19+ derivative.


He can even copy the upwards wheel positions


Random shot displaying the articulation


You can also swap the skinny tires for some thicker ones. I did these first because the art has the arms coming out of the wheel, rather than having the wheel on the side of the arm. I like it, it makes him look beefy. however I prefer the skinny tires. These are too reminiscent of Animated Sentinel Prime, and they restrict articulation.

 

Now this, THIS is the kinda content I come here for.

 

It is shaping up good

Honestly the long arms do seem diaclonish, but the forearms are very small compared to the bicep. Is there a way you could chop part of the furai bicep while keeping the swivel? Or maybe figuring out a way to slide that tube thing into the bicep?