I have the official MP-44 and am happy with it. But I also want a battle damaged Optimus from the '86 movie. Takara was nice enough to give us a damaged head and mortal wound plug-in piece but they look out of place on the pristine body. So I decided to buy a KO to turn into a fully damaged MP-44.

The KO's slightly darker and unpainted finish are a perfect starting point for this custom.

Next was to gather reference images to use.




The movie stills are the primary reference point, but the battle damage literally changes from one panel to another. The movie also doesn't show Prime beat up from every angle. So I'll have to add other sources and improvise.
I also looked at Dark Awakening Optimus.

And finally I used packaging art from a small death bed Optimus figure.


I decided to add the cracks to his body using a set of scribers.


The gashes will be made with a hot knife.


The scrapes will be done with a dremel.

 

Scribework started.

This will be, by far, the longest step.

I started by using a pencil (hard lead for the white parts, soft lead for the red and blue parts) to draw the cracks on.


Next I use my small point scribe to make the initial crack. This takes several passes.




After I have a good channel in the plastic I move up to a bigger scriber. Again, this step takes many passes.




Finally, I bevel the cracks to make them look like they were molded in.

 

Optimus is dead!

not big surprise.

 

Great work. Following this thread!

 

Some detail pics and an updated full image.

 

That's is really impressive work. How long do you estimate the time to do so?

 

I've been at it for about two weeks. But it's only, at most, an hour or two a day.

 

Looking forward to seeing the completed product as well as any updates along the way. Good stuff.  

 

I'm still chuggin' along.



 Most updates will be added or planned scribework for now. Also time to think about how I wanna go about damaging the silver bits. The grill should be especially challenging. Also time to think about sandblasting the windows.

 

WOW!

That is Great work!

 

It really makes a difference how carefully considered and applied all this battle damage is, it looks so gorgeous

 

Thanks! Most custom battle damaged Primes seem too realistic or overdone to me. I figured that I'd try for an animation accurate (for the most part) custom.

 

The cracks look great! Are you going to paint the smoke/rust/dirt on later?

 

Yes

 

And it is really well done!

 

I had a lot of time to work on Prime yesterday...




This custom gives me a greater appreciation for those that do custom commissions. It's slow, tedious work.

 

VERY excited to see the end result here. Great work!

EDIT: Are you going to fill in all the screw holes? Does the official MP have that many?

I'd be tempted to just run over it with a car and glue the pieces back together to be done with it, at this point. I salute your patience. The results blend in with the existing "damaged" pieces beautifully.

Very curious about your process and the eventual weathering!

 

Excellent job on this!

 

Yes the official has that many screw holes. This KO is a straight copy

 

Yeah slow, tedious work. Don't feel too bad. Just think about it this way. Your using a KO, but what if you used a real MP44. Higher risk. Great job, I love how it looks. And I really do agree on the tedious work. If you mess up on a custom it could look horrible or even worse break the figure. You got the touch!