The finished article: I was shocked to realise that this is a project I began work on in September of 2018 but only just got around to finishing due to lockdown. In total it probably amounts to about 5 weeks of work along with thinking about how to go about each part almost constantly. I’m a great believer in sleeping on ideas and letting your subconscious mull over all the options. The vast majority of his parts are all hand sculpted using milliput onto a heavily altered and pretty old Kurt Angle figure. 3D printed parts would be lighter, symmetrical, more accurate and much easier to achieve but I’m an old fashioned kind of artist so I like to look at a piece of work and remember all the agonising work that went into it. I’ll always have a connection to this figure due to the sheer amount of time I’ve spent staring deeply at it and pondering every step of the process before proceeding. This Terrorsaur is almost 19cm to the top of his helmet which pretty much makes him MP scale but, due to body proportions not being perfect, he’s still not quite large enough for someone as obsessive as myself but it works totally fine when he’s posed amongst the rest of the cast. Adding that big splash of red to the group makes a huge impact and that’s just one reason that so many of us Beast Wars fans are craving a true MP Terrorsaur. His transformation (without massive compromises) is practically impossible which only became more apparent as I observed the composition of his bot mode appearance for this job. There’s no chance TT can make those torso cables work or hide all those robot parts in his waver thin beast mode. Now that I’ve got him on a stand, he will not be coming back down for a loooong time. Right, below I’ll include a closer, more detailed look at the figure and an in-depth explanation of the process. Spoiler: The Process So, here’s the base figure. Chosen with very little thought as I originally just wanted to practice sculpting on it as I’ve never used any sort of clay before. It turns out that Kurt is actually a very suitable choice due to his very round shoulders and hip joints and the positions of his wrist articulation and shape of the crotch piece. However, were I to do this again I’d use something different like a taller Marvel Legend or a more recent WWE figure that isn’t mostly made of rubber. I didn’t have any decent tools in the beginning so started by shaving his head and massive arms down and cutting the boot detail off using a pocket knife. The arms and head are rubber witch cut quite easily- as did my thumb on multiple occasions. This material is pretty much impossible to make smooth again after all the cutting which is an issue I had to face later. I cut some eye holes and a screaming mouth into the face because I had a very specific, juiced up ‘Power Surge’ style Terrorsaur in mind. The head turned out pretty good considering I have zero experience but, as you can see, it is massive. I cut out parts of his shoulders to accommodate movement after I’d sculpted on the new parts but, had I known that I was going to be broadening the figure over a year later, I would have left those parts attached. However, cutting them off allowed me a peak at t he inner working of the figure which is what ultimately convinced me that I could mod the shoulders to make them wider. I thought I was pretty clever here by laying down a raised track for the articulation to function under. Anyways, here’s a look at those finished shoulders, some neck detail and a decent start on the legs. I’m particularly proud of how smooth and curved I got those. This is as far as I got in 2018. Enter Covid 19 and suddenly I’ve got time for projects again! And oh boy has this thing kept me occupied. I also have a Dremel now so no longer have to shape and cut like a cave man. I did consider restarting from scratch or just redoing the head but that seemed like overkill and would probably have added another week to the process. Ultimately I just wanted to get this fella up on my shelf and was willing to overlook my obsessive nature for that privilege. With the dremel I was able to somewhat neatly carve in the line details on his shoulders and hips but the hip plastic melted and frizzed up like crazy and took a hell of a lot of tidying up along the way. Below is the small detail which I didn’t think I’d be able to reproduce but it worked out well. The Pterodactyl/Pteranodon foot on each of his his forearms. After getting that Daunting part out of the way I was more confident that I’d finally get this thing done. I also cut a block of the back out so the arms could be removed and I would later separate the back piece in half and reattach them to create a broader body. The arm-wings have two wires embedded in them which I angled downwards and drilled two holes into the trips so they just slotted down into place. They were held in perfectly by friction but I still sculpted a seal around them for accuracy and added security. I also carved in details on the fingers to mimic the joints which was a tricky procedure due to the hands being rubber and going super flakey but very worth it for the ultimate outcome. The wire idea worked well there so I used it for the feet horns as well. Just drill some holes, glue in the wires and sculpt over it. Unfortunately I skipped a few progress shot steps so we jump to the body being reassembled with arms and legs complete, a codpiece and the abdominal wiring section added. These are an awesome detail on the character and I couldn’t wait to figure our how I was going to do it. Ultimately it was as simple as cutting up a headphones wire, dremeling shallow gaps around the waist to glue in the wires so it looks integrated with the body and then plugging the top into drilled holes above. The front parts are simply glue onto some shaved in tracks so they also sit comfortably as a more seamless part of the figure. These details, especially the front wires will barely be seen after the chest triangle goes on but, I know they should be there so I put them there. the lumpy ball bits on the chest are just excess clay from the end of a session which I would eventually allow me to place the chest sheet over without it being too thick and dense. This guy is comprised of at least an entire pack of milliput so he ain’t exactly light. Therefore I aimed to avoid large dense areas wherever possible. Here’s the front all slapped on and finally ready for some intense sanding. The front had to be finished first because of the nature of Terrorsaur’s back. He’s got a long, thin beast mode head sticking out of it which, in conjunction with those wires will leave me with very few places to safely hold him without risking something breaking and I didn’t want anything left to do on the front which would require me to lay the figure on it’s back. All sanded and with a few amendments to the helmet and nose. I redid the head-crest with slightly neater indents and filled in the parts under his eyes and around his mouth as they were a bit too wide initially. The nose got a full rework. Here’s the beast mode head of course it has a wire running the whole way through it and sticking out at the base which which plug into the figure along with some clay to keep it sturdy. And there’s the full backpack done. It looks ready to paint but I spent several more sessions refining details, lightly sanding areas and using my dremel over the still exposed rubber areas in order to smooth them over as much as possible. Next up is the painting which is way more straightforward than everything that preceded it. I have some figure painting experience and a process but this time I had the added obstacle of not being able to disassemble the figure and it having multiple high risk areas which a had to constantly be conscious of while handling or when placing it down. Step 1- Primer with an airbrush. I placed a figure stand behind him for stability when the pressurised air is blowing. I love the all grey look. It’s such a fun point of official (and 3P) releases. Step 2- Grey parts + pre shading with airbrush. I usually go for very high detailed, realistic paint jobs but I want this guy to fit in with my MP collection so keeping the shading and colour layering to a minimal was a change for me. Step 3- Red with airbrush. Other painters would probably be masking at this point but I didn’t have any masking tape and I know that I’m going to be doing a crap ton of brush painting (my preference) after this anyways so may as well just accept the inevitable mess I just made of the grey layer. Step 4- touch it all up with a brush and get that pretty porcelain face painted! I’m extra happy with the eyes. He looks like a newly turned Sith. Step 5- Chrome paint with a brush. I have a chrome pen which I considered for awhile but ultimately decided it might look a bit unsophisticated. This has some good reflectiveness without being ott. Finally, give that beak a splash of some yellows, and finish off with a very understated bit of black wash for depth and we’re nearly there. Don’t forget the chest splotches. A couple clear coats later he’s done and I’m a happy Beast Wars fan. Spoiler: Close-Ups Thanks for looking.
Ye Gods! To capture those details and angles your sculpting skills are amazing, this looks so show accurate!
Damn!!!!! I love this! Excellent work on the sculpting and paint. I so love Terrorsaur, and your custom really brings this home. I don't care that this cannot transform, as the workmanship sells it wholeheartedly. A perfect custom, and a truly professional job.
