That’s great! It looks so perfectly natural there. And the wings folded out look awesome. So glad you’re motivated to work on it and justify this thread existing longer. I’m excited!

 

Thanks, Digger! I actually have a few supplies coming in the mail. Super glue, putty, epoxy, sanding paper and knives. Before I start painting it, I am gonna do a once-over and fix a few misalignments. Also, next month I will be buying an airbrush. I've never airbrushed before but it wouldn't hurt to try. I will also add another extra feature.


I've received several messages in the past from people who wanted a tutorial but I never got around to do it. Would that interest anyone?

 

Have you thought about maybe painting the wings (not the translucent parts) blue? She might benefit from a whole repaint. Metallic blue?

 

Absolutely! I'll be starting paint next month.

 

Here's the transformation/tutorial.

Starting with the alt mode


First, let's remove the parts-forms.

Here you can see the first edition shoulder wings detached. To remove the RiD wheels, I modified it so that they can be removed easily by turning it 90 degrees and slide right off. This can be done by shaving down the peg on 2 sides.

Onto the transformation

The wings are made from the rear wheel well of RiD Arcee. I don't remember where I made the joint that connects her wings to her back but I am sure that it was from First Edition Arcee. It allows the wings to rotate vertically and horizontally.

In the middle is the remaining piece of the gas tank. I removed all of the transformation gimmick which allows for the hip to move the head. I then connected this gas tank piece to her neck base.


Pushing the tank all the way onto the body will make the head pop out.

In the front of the bike, I removed the entire control assembly and replaced it with First Edition Arcee's shoulder. This allows it to be spun around.


You can see that her backpack tucks away a little better. The tail end of the bike is on a double swivel joint. It folds up closer to her body. The joint was made with sheet plastic I had lying around. It involved a lot of cutting and welding.


The rest of the transformation goes as normal. The legs are from the First Edition Arcee. I liked the proportions a lot better than the RiD legs. Also due to removing the hip to head transformation gimmick she actually gets a full abcrunch. Another unrelated mod was I modified her neck to have two points of articulation. I didn't like her original neck.


As a bonus I also made the backpack completely removable in the same way as the front wheel assembly. This will give you an idea of how much plastic was removed from her back.

This completes her first phase. Onto the "Valkyrie" phase.


The tail needs to fold up 90ish degrees. If you look closely, there is a slot carved into the tail which will allow the bigger wings to attach like it does to her legs.


This completes her skirt.


Next is the wings. They slide onto the windshield.

Onto her shield.
I drill a hole on the side to allow the blades to be fit and form the shield. For the handle, I simply made it out of plastic pipes. The are installed with the handle facing up.

That's pretty much it. Here are some turnaround shots.

Thanks for viewing! If you have any questions, I'll do my best to answer.

 

Man. That really is looking a lit like Firebird Arcee, isn't it? I hope theirs turns out half as good as yours.

 

It’s kinda interesting how this makes a far more accurate arcee figure. Looks great. I love the shield and sword. It’s such a defined and great aesthetic. I’d love to buy any kind of figure that was a motorcycle robot with wings.

 

Here is another update. What I have done so far is take some pieces apart and correct some alignment issues. It's still in a rough cut stage. I have to do some putty/epoxy work next and paint should follow in the coming month. I have the airbrush kit but ran out of funds for paint.

But enough about that. I really want to share one improvement I made to the wings. In my last update, I drilled holes in the wings to fit onto the pegs on her legs for the alt mode. This time, I carried that same concept into the bot mode.

Simply, I pulled took off the same pegs from one of my RID Prime Arcees and glued it to the inside of my Arcee's winglets like so:



This caused issues for transformation to alt mode as it butted against the side of the fuel tank but that has been fixed. The pegs now secure gas tank in place.

Why this is important to me is because in the original build, the wings attached to the top of the windshield but stayed static. It really wasn't wings so much as thrusters in my opinion. And to be honest, it really wasn't all that secure.

Now that it is attached to her winglets, it opens doors to a few more possibilities.

These are some shots of me messing around with it, albeit without the bacpack:



These are the wings when they are fully collapsed. It cleans up quite well.





Sigh........ too bad it's not meant to be without her backpack.

With her backpack installed, she doesn't look much too different from the previous version. The wings do collapse a bit closer to her body and I'm ok with that.



The good news is that much of the new articlation remains intact with the backpack. Overall she is more expressive and offers more interesting display options.


There should be no more updates until the finished product.

 

That’s epic man. But what’s with the MP bumblebee comparison on a TV in the background?

 

The what....? Hahaha.

 

Oh that was a video by Tydirium Hanger. I had it playing in the background while I was working on this. I've been really into discussion videos including Bobby Skullface and TMReviews.