This is looking fantastic Op! Very much looking forward to seeing how you tru-toon/comic accurate Brawn develops Even more interested to see what you do (if anything) with the face! Feel free to link me! They look great. I'm not overly fussed about big hands for the lil brawler, and am doing some work to shapeways meself an upgrade kit for Hench. How do they attach as well? I've currently designed my new arms to just accept post-hands ala U2.0 Prowl/Sideswipe, it'd take little effort to modify to accommodate those fine digits.
Those hands come with a little ball joint at the wrist. You have to choose between fist or open though. And the finger joints are only articulated at the knuckle so they give a very rigid look. Interested to see what you've come up with for shapeways dude! Is it new hips? Right, update time. Well, I knew there was some extra room to bulk up Hench's arms, but I surprised even myself with just how much I managed to get out of him! I guess the biggest gain comes from making the hand fold away into the forearm. Anyway, I wanted to see how this all looked together, so here's a rough assembly of the body. Pretty happy with this. I still have some work to do behind the head (not to mention the head itself!).
Ah right. They do look nice, but really I'm wishing to find something with MP12-level of articulation in the hand department. Open and closed options, no real need for individual finger or knuckle articulation. Sure it'd be nice, but at this scale too fragile. Nothing that exciting! I had whipped up something involving thighs that telescoped a little ala Generations Wheeljack's sliders, but at the size I was concerned that (a) the sliders would degrade (b) the internal cage I had rigged to seat the ball joints would be fragile and (c) actually fixing the internal cage would require post-print assembly and the space is a little too small for fitting pins and the like. I overcomplicated it a little bit to be honest. I'm sat at the laptop right now seeing what I can do with solid thighs like yours. Something simple and highly functional, I don't know why I didn't think of it! Hope you don't mind me pinching it for my Hench Besides that I have new arms for the guy- slightly larger but the same design, the main difference being so the hands can be switched out. I do have some set-peg hands based on RTS Jazz's mitts in the file currently, but I want to put something much more like Straxus' in. I'll get on that later tonight once I've finished doing the joints in the new thighs. I continue to be incredibly impressed by how much you're managing to fit into this guy man! Those arms are good and beefy, and still fit in alt mode? Amazing, do they cause no conflict with the thighs? He's really coming together a treat, I look forward to each and every update to see how he's doing! I definitely look forward to the MP-comparison pics later Was it a spare MP12 that's now missing hands? Poor guy!
Well spotted Goes without saying I had plenty of those things laying around after my last custom! Not at all mate! It's the simplest way of doing it. Only trouble is you have to move the crotch part down to compensate, so you'll probably have to design something clever there too Lol, no actually I've recycled the hands from a junker Alt Skids. They stand out at the mo, being black, but I think once the forearms and hands are both silver it should start coming together nicely. Like I said earlier in the thread, Brawn is meant to be one of the strongest Bots and was always punching Cons, so having nice chunky hands feels right for him! Amazingly the arms and hands do pack away completely in alt mode. I had to cut down the forearm in a few places, but the transformation is the same. Making use of the extra width at the rear of the vehicle too for full arm depth.
Nothing to clever, I'm just going to, essentially, recreate the part you already have- a block of the same thickness as the thigh increase (I'm going with 7mm) containing a port for the crotch swivel and a matching swivel on top. That's what I really like about your way of doing it, it adds a nice little height to the torso. I didn't think you'd be able to fit that extra stuff into the alt mode, you showed me otherwise for sure! Ha that's crazy, they really do look like Alt carbot hands. Cool. Skids was the only Alt mold I never got to handle, kind've a shame I guess. haha aye indeed, I fondly remember him tossing Megatron about back in the day Like I said I'm really really impressed it all fits in the alt mode so well. Crazy! I forgot what a PITA recreating ball joint sockets was, I'm only just finishing up the thigh one now. At least I can just copy-paste it into the elbows afterwards, I make Hench's ball joints to be 3.5mm radius ball with a 2.5mm radius stalk. Don't have a caliper anymore so had to go about measuring them the awkward way, with a bloody ruler. Not the most precise method.
Same here bro, everything done on a tabletop with a ruler and some sticky-back plastic (well that's what it feels like! I'm afraid I don't do 3D software or complicated tools). It would be interesting to compare Brawn with a standard size Hench, I will have to take a pic of him next to iGear's Outback when he comes out.
Can't beat the basics right! I tried my hand at scratchbuilding once, I truly sucked. I feel much safer within the confines of my digital realm Being able to prototype, test and what have you is pretty nice, but the biggest plus is not slicing my fingers open on my scalpel far too often. Calipers are wonderful tools for measuring ball joint and peg dimensions, usually used for measuring wire thicknesses. But, it was my father's and the dunce keeps it at work now, probably just to dick me around. Very interesting indeed! I imagine Brawn dwarves Hench by a noticeable amount. Gonna look fantastic with the other MPs, of this we can be certain.
How does it work by the way, prototyping I mean? Do you get the chance to test what you've designed in person before commiting? I had a minor accident with one of Hench's new thighs coming apart into two (think his hip ball-joint must have been too tight to handle the torque of moving the lower leg). Obviously if the thigh was all one molded piece there wouldn't be that danger, so I was wondering if you might let me have a set of yours when they're done Looking at pics of the stock Hench, I'm quite pleased with how much upper body bulk I've managed to add. The leg design is my favourite part of the Hench transformation, but he did end up with giant lower legs compared to everything else. Much better now. One thing's for certain, his old head looks far too small on the new body!
That'd be nice, but no I'm afraid. You pay for it every time you print, but at least as the designer I don't have to pay my own markups Yeah sure man I can send a pair your way, the legs are done as is my test crotchplate so I'll throw some shots in here for you a little later. Just going over the arms and detailing/remeasuring, it's a bit slow as- as is the problem with rendering without the ability to instantly test- I'm not 100% sure how much space I have to work with.
Yeah even having the thing in front of me, I kept cutting and shaving that forearm down about five or six times before I got a perfect fit. Cheers for the thighs that would be great, let me know costs etc. In fact, I'll PM you, if you don't mind discussing shapeways a bit more with a non-CAD layman like me
Forgot to post earlier- I really love what you've done with the torso too! It's beyond the scope of my ability though sadly, even if I rendered something it'd still involve cutting, sanding etc to fit to Hench. Shall do bud, and yeah feel free. I'll help however I can! Gonna work on the arms again tonight, once those are done everything'll be set for prototyping. Dunno what to do about hands yet. I did just have a wonderful idea for some clip-on shoulder plates though!
Cheers Is it possible to render something as big as the torso in shapeways? I mean as a single piece, to just entirely replace the yellow section on Hench, so it screws on the same way the stock front does, with no modding necessary. My shoulders are also just plates of styrene glued on to the existing pivot joint. The KO Reflector elbows replace the stock ones though.
erm yeah it would, but I don't think it'd be cheap at all! Do-able of course, but yeah not cheap. With the shoulders I'm thinking of keeping the originals, but use the square holes in the back of the biceps as ports for bigger shoulder plates. They'd only cover the front and sides of the shoulder pieces so as not to get in the way of the door ball joints or affect poseability, I think it might be a winner!
This thing is turning out great! Hope u guys don't mind, I wanna join u guys on this mod as soon as I can get ahold of a Hench figure
Sure thing mate, glad you like it! Been talking with MB about the possibility of making 'upgrade parts' available through shapeways, so stay tuned and it might be easier than you think Tenk you veddy much!
