General Upgrade Kits Thread

Discussion in 'Transformers 3rd Party Discussion' started by ziltama, Nov 30, 2020.

  1. Fenrys

    Fenrys Formerly Tigatron2002

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    good to know
     
  2. wheeljackfan16

    wheeljackfan16 Well-Known Member

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    Updates for this week:

    I have an adapter for Kingdom Warpath so you can peg his shield on the back without it sticking up so far. Can stay attached on shield for transformation, will be up this Friday for $3.49.
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG] [​IMG]


    Next up is more of an announcement. I have started work on covers for Kingdom Huffer. Please keep in mind that this is VERY early in design, things like the hand cover won't droop like in the pictures, and a lot of bits just straight up don't have a locking point yet. I actually had to pop out the tire if I wanted to peg the panel in all the way, because when I designed the block that friction fits on the inside of the leg, I forgot the clip on the back of the tire sticks out. On the bright side, since I have the majority of the pieces' broad ideas designed, I can give a semi-accurate idea of what the price will be. I should be able to get away with something around the $7 mark, don't know if it will be lower or higher, since there is still a lot to do, but unless I have to go and do a full redesign, the current prototypes are pretty close to what I should expect for material costs and printing time, I just don't know how bad cleanup on the parts will be. I'm hoping to get these done and ready for next week, but if I end up with a lot of time this week, I might be just able to make it by this Friday, but that's unlikely.
    IMG_20210524_065503974.jpg IMG_20210524_065511214.jpg IMG_20210524_065624652.jpg IMG_20210524_065927400_HDR.jpg IMG_20210524_065919725.jpg

    I forgot the mention that I made a twitter account for JRC Design. I plan to use it to post in progress stuff and announcements, the handle is @JRCDesignStore
     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 24, 2021
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  3. Fenrys

    Fenrys Formerly Tigatron2002

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    Likely sold on the Huffer kit
     
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  4. ziltama

    ziltama Mods, molds, and casts. Also full of hot gas.

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    Got some older Renderform stuff in the mail. 1st time trying them. He actually didn't respond to my order for 2.5 weeks and the shop had been on hiatus for 2 months.

    He does molding and casting work. Received a tyrant blade, axe for G1 Optimus Prime, and Overlord Rifle. Also received a "C" grade tyrant blade and 2 extra weapons as bonuses. The bonuses are basically defective pieces with severe warps, offsets, and/or missing bits. I honestly can't really use any of the bonuses without spending a lot of time modifying them.

    Anyhow, for the 3 items I ordered, there are definite issues: primarily with offset molding and then some warping. None of them could plug in out the box due to these problems affecting the pegs. The pegs are all warped with one axis being too thick. There's no twisting warps, thankfully, but one axis would end up getting stretched. The G1 OP axe was easiest to fix and had the least degree of problems. Used a razor to shave off flash and some peg material to get the affected axis down to 4mm. The Overlord rifle peg was also oversized to 5.3mm in one axis and filed down the sides of the peg to get that axis down to 5mm. The sword was the worst QC offender. The mold was significantly offset. Had to shave off a decent amount of material (basically overhangs from the offset) from the handle in order to get the handle to fit into 5mm hand ports. The blade itself looked like it already had numerous uneven chunks cut out from a razor up and down the blade, likely to compensate for the offset mold. This looks quite bad in person. I would need to do quite a bit of sanding and take off a decent amount of material to fix that.

    This one ended up the best. Of the 3 pieces, shaved the least amount of material off the peg in order to fit comfortably. Used a razor in this case. Looks great.
    op1.jpg

    The Overlord rifle looks pretty good overall. Used a precision file to get the oversized peg axis from 5.3mm down to 5mm (the other axis was proper at 5mm). One can see remnants from the original 3d printed prototype as a silicone mold will copy over the print lines (can't magically make them disappear like that). There was some sparkly / metallic powder mixed in the resin used for the tyrant sword.
    over1.jpg

    The sword handle in particular looked pretty bad from the molds being offset. Shaved down the overhangs with a razor and took off additional material to get the width down to a proper 5mm. I assume the same issue was on the blade itself, but it already came with obvious razor cuts all the way up and down the spine of the blade. There's numerous shallow divots and difficult for the camera to pick up. I would need to do a lot of sanding to fix that. It's also on the other side of the blade to a lesser extent.
    sword1.jpg

    Overall, happy with the Optimus Axe and Overlord rifle despite having to fix the pegs. Not happy with the QC issues in the tyrant blade. There is a way to get silicone molds to 'lock' into proper orientation with proper prep...and obviously wasn't done.
     
    Last edited: May 24, 2021
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  5. Hyoumaru

    Hyoumaru M.S.B.S. ver. 10.5

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    I like the turbine gun things, but it feels weird they included fillers for the thigh gaps, but not for the big obvious hollow tailfin right behind Rotorstorm's head.
    2021-05-24 13.33.34.jpg
     
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  6. SomethingJ

    SomethingJ Well-Known Member

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  7. wheeljackfan16

    wheeljackfan16 Well-Known Member

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    Yeah, it can basically stay in there forever if you want it too. Inner Magnus' head folds in just fine with it installed.
     
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  8. Hyoumaru

    Hyoumaru M.S.B.S. ver. 10.5

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    I'm pretty sure it can't, it'd obstruct the head from folding into the truck cab. EDIT: I just saw the previous post, disregard.

    I finally got the Kingdom Inferno gap filler set I ordered from eBay. I have no idea who made it, just this set was recommended somewhere on this forum originally. Color matching is dead on, but the left forearm filler won't plug-in securely, and the right-forearm exclusive comm panel makes the Firetruck ladder unable to set down all the way. Still glad to have it though.

    s-l1600.jpg
     
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  9. Max Tower

    Max Tower Well-Known Member

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    It looks like those Siege Megatron ankle replacements add an ankle swivel too - which is pretty cool.
    That is something i'd love to see in mass-production quality or made on a better printer.
     
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  10. ziltama

    ziltama Mods, molds, and casts. Also full of hot gas.

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    That's the Go Better set, which is the good one. For any loose gap fillers (not just Go Better but any group), use tape. Most loose gap fillers only barely need to be wider. You can use (hobby) masking tape to add width and friction. Add tape to surface that needs to make contact and won't show from the outside if done proper.

    For super loose gap fillers (unsecured pieces in UM kit by Dr. Wu for example), then you may need to use 2 sided tape or even blu-tack.

    Simple example using hobby masking tape:
    gaps.jpg
     
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  11. Ottertron

    Ottertron Moon-faced assassin of joy

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    Do they not both have the same foot assembly?
     
  12. Rakzo

    Rakzo Peruvian Transformers Fan

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    Yeah, but I think the Earthrise remould has a piece that goes at the end of the tank so I don't know how they could work around that.
     
  13. Ottertron

    Ottertron Moon-faced assassin of joy

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    Ohh that bit. It's in my bits box, so I'm fine without it. Sure it's moddable though.
     
  14. Hyoumaru

    Hyoumaru M.S.B.S. ver. 10.5

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    That's not the issue actually.

    20210524_170620.jpg
    The left forearm panel pops right back out after plugging it in, unlike the right forearm panel which works fine.
     
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  15. ziltama

    ziltama Mods, molds, and casts. Also full of hot gas.

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    Then that's from the connection area being too big/wide. That would require very light sanding / filing to fix. If you overdo it, then you'll have to use tape.
     
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  16. Requiem Prime

    Requiem Prime Well-Known Member

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    Nice, not an outright need, but a good piece if you want to shift any peg, or port.
    They better; even if I didn't like something I've never panned the eBay seller, because I overall knew what I was getting. But this is especially unclear. And at this price, finding out they just installed backwards for better pics is going to get some choice words.
     
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  17. Max Tower

    Max Tower Well-Known Member

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    In some of the pics you can see the pin holding the swivel in place and also the square shape of the plastic has an offset off true at the rotation point in one image - sure you don't get much swivel in robot mode - but in vehicle mode it means the robot toes could perhaps be shifted enough to still work on the Earthrise one too - hard to tell until someone tries though I guess.

    I have one of the OSKO's that has a mechanism like that and I think it's an improvement over the feet just hanging off the back as they do on that - so hopefull the same is true with this replacement.
     
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  18. Toker

    Toker Well-Known Member

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    I have the Renderforms rifle for CW Menasor and it's a heavy gun. The peg started to bend over time. I contacted Venksta and he suggested heating the peg with a hair dryer. After heating it up, I was able to bend it back straight and it's been holding up ever since.
     
  19. Autobrat Leader

    Autobrat Leader Bratwurst in Disguise

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    Finally got tracking for the ZX SS86 Grimlock add on kit from TFSafari.
     
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  20. kronatron

    kronatron Well-Known Member

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    Me too yay!
    Now just waiting for the clear neck pieces and articulated dino hands and I'll have one handsome king dino.
     
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