This is my first ever post in Radicons for modding a Transformers figure. I've been fooling around with some painting and modding of other cheap toys, gundams, models, and kitbash backgrounds for a while. I have too much respect for the process to try and customize a figure I care about. I knew I'd make mistakes the first time I did it, and look back and realize how I could have done it better. Added another picture that is actually little more clear. Enter Cloud Cover. A rando background character who never had a story arc I am familiar with. Who is just a generic RamJet repaint. With a permanent scream. His clearance was… inevitable! I'm not a hater of the Generations Seeker mold. Yes, I'd like to see it be a little different. Maybe hide the nosecone in the chest a little better. Figure out a way to get a good waist swivel. But I think they all have underrated alt modes that really do an incredible job of updating this old design. I never cared for the "conehead" look, however. I get that the animators of the cartoon felt a need to differentiate the jets from one another, given that they all still had the same central body and face in G1. I wish the original Decepticon jets would have differentiated head/face designs. Or their perennial redesigns would incorporate differences. The "conehead" look always looked mis-transformed to me. Like the transformation you'd expect in cheap knock-offs. Also, that permanent scream…
My inspiration was the concept art for the original Sweeps. I thought I might consider army building CloudCover and made him a generic Earth-mode Sweep. I wanted even a non-descript face with a big, single computer eye. I looked around and couldn't find a good head substitute. So I settled on modding the head I had. To remove the head, I had to split it apart with a knife and screwdriver. This warped the plastic a bit. But I was only 50/50 on reusing the same head. Live and learn. Had to remove that stupid dunce cap. I filed down his face a bit so I could fit a visor and greeblies over it. Using found objects, ALL of these are pieces from an old Hard Drive I took apart. The metal faceplate I couldn't quite figure out how to adhere it properly. I cut it up. This is a mistake I would not repeat. And maybe I will improve some day. But I used super glue for putting the cheek plates on the side of his head. And I used hot glue to better mush against the contours of his face for the main plate. Now, my skills are poor. And I learned. Boy, howdy I learned. I used craft glue to put a dollar-tree plastic rhinestone in the greebly on top of his head as his scope/sensor. I attached it to the head with some hot glue. It fits. He can still transform around it without nicking it. I did paint it black. But it's soft nylon, so it'd be easy to peel off if I'm not careful. I also was playing around with dry-brushing highlights and adding scratches/highlights with sponging some edges. Learned some massive respect for those who get it right. The dry brushing worked best (with Ghost Grey) on his null rays. They look slightly more highlighted. His forearms had a lot of sponge-applied light gray to create scratches and highlights. I feel like it's not as cohesive as I would like. I wiped it away and restarted enough to where it's maybe OK. I also fooled around with some other techniques. I did some light panel lining. Regretted much of it and wiped much of it away. Biggest ruination I think I did was putting a gloss coat over the head. Either too thick or altogether unneeded. Mixes with some glue to make the head a little… obscured. Overall, I think he looks OK for shelf presence for what will be an OC. (Or nameslap — just anything cooler than "Cloud Cover.") On to figures I will be willing to be more careful about.
