I never really felt there was many options for a modern take on Nightbeat, the kit for the Hasbro was an ok option but wanted something more masterpiece size.
I had already used this Optimus prime mold for an old Emirate Xarron that was an early custom and now I have one more to a generations scale it was spare, had a few areas that matched Nightbeats and a good amount of articulation.
I used some spare off cuts from foc Blaster for his legs and shoulders, brought his feet up and beefed them out, even had a go at light piping with some spare spru although the results were not great.
A lot of the head was done with a soldering iron and hot glue. Below is the stages it took to build him up plus research for what I was going for.

 

head's a little creepy, but awesome figure!

 

cool!

 

Totally agree it's like the dead universe had a nasty effect on him!
I made this custom quite a while back but couldn't get him finished as ran out of paint, since then I've started using mulliput scripting putty and I must say really good stuff and will yield much better head sculpted so Nightbeat will be the last sculpt I do using soldering iron lol

 

While I get the idea behind the concept, the execution suffers from improper materials. You seem to be doing what I used to do back when I started customizing kits and transformers, attaching things with hot glue. I recommend super glue to attach pieces as it's just as cheap but more effective. Apoxie sculpt is other great dual purpose alternative. Sanding the custom down or at least making sure the surface is smooth enough before lighter coats of paint will also do wonders. Still came out pretty darn good so definitely keep at it.

 

I totally get what your saying and I agree the time put into it makes all the difference at the end sometimes I find super glue just refuses to stick so have to switch to hot glue as that sticks first time for some reason.

Also it didn't help is i used a pre custom I tryed cleaning off as much of the original paint as possible but also learnt that when you decide to make a custom or repaint that should be it's only use.

Thank you for the advice most of what I've learnt is from other customisers on radicons or by just experimenting with different tools

 

Cool guitar.

Oh yeah, neat figure too.

 

This is really sad.
Don't "just experimenting with different tools"
Some materials are just objectively inferior to others or downright unusable.
If it acts unpredictably or doesn't do what is expected. Don't use it.

I can see this concept gets executed in three days and not to be a horror show.
Your investment really went to waste.

 

Here, I share your pain.
Could have finished this Six Changer
But at the time I couldn't get my hands on the paint I used to work with.
The alternative looked fine, except it rejects anything that applies to it as a second layer.
The project just went cursed.

 

I’m impressed and i reckon you did a good job. Salvaging old customs can be annoying but we can’t all afford to buy everything.