After several months, I'm back at taking another shot at making the CHUG G1 Megatron of my dreams! My previous attempt was pretty alright for what it was, and it definitely taught me a lot, but I think this new iteration is going to knock it out of the park. For a refresher, here's what my previous attempt at a G1 WFC Megatron looked like: It was pretty much just Siege Megatron with the battle damage and backpack removed, and a 5mm compatible hole carved into the back to fit Siege Soundwave's gun into. At the time, I was really pleased with how he turned out, but it did leave me wanting more: I wanted to track down a spare Earthrise Megatron to swap out the torso and Fusion Cannon with for a more accurate look. Well, I finally managed to track down an ER Megatron. So let's get to it! Here they are side by side, ready to be frankensteined into the ultimate Megatron! But while I was waiting for a good deal on ER Megs to reach me, I also happened to discover something else created by our very own @oldgodzilla that he so generously shared the 3D print files for which I put to good use. So here we go: I was really pleased with how he turned out already! Unfortunately no, he cannot transform anymore, but considering we're never going to get a G1 Tank Megatron with a truly accurate-looking robot mode that is a sacrifice I am willing to make. For reference, here are the parts I used to cobble together this beast: -Siege Megatron's head, arms and legs -Earthrise Megatron's torso, waist and Fusion Cannon [email protected]'s backpack, commissioned from a friend So I was very happy with my Megs now, but after a day I started doing some minor tweakings. I removed the wheels from the backs of the legs, and I also quite liked how the hands, forearms and feet of the Earthrise mould looked a bit nicer than the Siege ones (and felt tighter and less loose) so I swapped those out too. And I also swapped out the front pieces of the shoulders, because the ER ones looked cleaner while the Siege ones still had some residual battle damage left over. And then I took another look at him, and realized something. He's a bit too grey. He needs some more red. Specifically at the sides, and also the backs of the elbows as well (never understood why Hasbro only painted the fronts). So I grabbed my brushes and paints and got to work! The end result wasn't perfect, some of the paint ended up leaking under the masking tape I'd used and I tried my best to clean it up, but already I was loving how the red looked on him, it's such an insignificant detail but once it's there you really notice the difference it makes! After that I applied the varnish, let the whole thing sit and dry for several hours before putting it back together, and here's where I ended up: I usually tend to be rather critical of myself and my own accomplishments and focus more on the things I could've done better, but right now I am throwing that mindset completely out of the window because this turned out AMAZING. Like, words cannot express how happy I am with this, it was 100% worth all of the money, time and effort I spent putting it all together! Really the only thing I can even think of at this point is giving the backpack another try by commissioning it from someone with a resin printer, but I don't even mind the gritty PLA look either so for now I think I'm done. This is my Megatron And to end this off, here's some more pictures:
looks really good. you need to get your printer up to snuff though. and if you change the layer height to like .04 your print will be very smooth. print time will triple though but would be worth it. thingaverse has a more G1 fusion canon too. and if you want more G1 paint the square on the left red on his abs and paint the legs a dark grey
I commissioned the print from a friend who owns a 3D printer so unfortunately that one is out of my hands lol. I'll be sure to give him the feedback regarding the layer height though! For now I'm just gonna pretend that the imperfections on the print are actually just battle damage Megatron has received over the years
As someone who's doing basically the exact same set of mods to their Megatron, this looks friggin awesome. Great job! I had a friend print the @oldgodzilla but when I tried to install the arms the arm slots cracked pretty bad so I'm back to the drawing board. May see if my friend with a PLA printer can give it a shot. Out of curiosity, is there a reason you went with the Siege arms over the Earthrise arms? I decided on the Earthrise ones myself because they rid of the huge gap left over from removing the folding tank bits.
Honestly? The black color of the backs of the shoulders bothered me, and I don't know what color of grey paint would color match the Siege/ER arms, so I went with the path of least resistance and just swapped over the Siege shoulder backs to the Earthrise arms
Thats fair, and honestly what I kind of figured the reason was. I was planning on doing a full silver repaint of him eventually anyways so it didn't bother me as much.
I really like this. I like the whole concept, and the creativity in it. I love the design choices and what you've plucked from both figures. The backpack is a great touch too. I almost feel like repainting silver would be in the wrong direction, but a uniform grey would be just right, with maybe a satin clear over it. However, if silver is what you want, go for it! Only 2 things I would challenge, and that's the backpack smoothness (which you've already explained), and trying to find a different, more expressive head/face for it. Great work on this!
I did look into getting a new head sculpt too, even if I don't mind the Siege one myself, but ran into some trouble. I found the G1 Megatron replacement head on Cults3D, which were only the 3D printer files so I couldn't print them myself: G1 Megatron replacement head I commissioned my friend (the same one who did the backpack) to see if he could also print the head and, well... You've seen how the backpack turned out with his printer, now imagine what would happen with something much smaller with a lot more detail. The helmet piece itself looked mostly fine if a bit rough, but the face looked like if Megatron had been shot with a shotgun and also had an allergic reaction at the same time lol. So I ended up ditching that plan, and I don't know where else it would be possible for me to commission custom 3D print jobs since I don't live in the US Oh well, as I said I don't mind the Siege head sculpt so I'm content with keeping my Megatron the way he is. Maybe in the future I'll be able to save up some cash to buy a decent 3D printer of my own and give the head another shot!
Yeah same boat here. I could get my friend with a resin printer to print the heads but I actually really like the Siege head so I'm content to just stick with that.
