This was the next figure after Megatron for me to try my "Energon Panel Lines" idea on. While Megatron used a base white with testor's metallic to make it seem like it was moving, I used a simple acrylic metallic blue for Optimus. Used Metallic Blue and Red flake paints for most of the body, the gray plastic was already perfect and left unaltered aside from the thigh plates that I painted a darker gray to stand out. I decided to go for a more G1 look in some ways because of my choice to use a gold paint for his crotchplate/vehicle headlights, it definitely helped break up the figure more. There are only three notes for this repaint: 1. I included most of the in-game red light glows, but the panel lines were blue. This isn't remotely game accurate, but if I had gone for red it would have blended in with the metallic red flake I gave the red plastic. 2. For some reason the gun's springs were completely shot and it flopped around easily. I managed to fix it using some paint and glue so that it can hold together in both gun configurations. The spring is still useless, but now it doesn't matter thankfully. 3. Sadly this prime is missing one of his exhaust pipes. I've had him for about three years and just never managed to get the other pipe. This is also why I decided to avoid painting the gray plastic, since atleast if someone else has the pipe he can be completed without my help. Before touching it up and varnishing it this weekend, this was originally a 3 year old custom. It was actually kind of nice to look back at something I was once proud of and feel I could do it much better. I was originally going to wait to post this til I got the other exhaust pipe, but I managed to sell the Megatron...So I wanted some good shots of them together before he was gone.
