For those of you who don’t want to spend a lot of $$ for the Cliffjumper upgrade, here’s a less expensive alternative that that will make Cliffjumper more distinct from BB. I moved the spoiler down and back to give him more of a Subaru WRX look. The spoiler should fit very nicely, but if you want a perfect adaptation of the plastic, slight heat the base of the spoiler before fitting it on. It’ll stay in place with plastic fusion or superglue. For the headlights, I wanted to experiment with clear acrylic resin. I removed the old plastic covers and glued on chrome jewelry pieces (Michaels) to make the lights. I added the clear resin (wait until it sets to a very viscous state before applying) over the chrome lights to make the headlights cover. Some mistakes that I made not shaping the resin as it cures. I had to trim off some excess on the right head cover and even after a series of ultra fine buffing, it isn’t as transparent as the left cover. I also forgot to paint the base of the headlight socket silver or chrome. This would have looked more realistic like Alternators.

I wasn’t a big fan of the silver flames and also thought that his red was a little pale. I chose Testor’s Racing Red (I think it’s actually called Home Depot Red #21 available at RC hobby stores). The gloss coating makes it hard for me to photograph correctly. The grills and air vents were painted black with a drybrush of silver to bring out the details. I was pleasantly surprise by the level of detail in this Hasbro sculpt and spending a few minutes with base coat and drybrushing really adds to this figure. I wanted to stay faithful to Cliffjumper’s original color scheme. Chromes wheels were recently added by leafing (I need to take an update car mode).

I made his face less round with sharper angles. I removed some of the details on the top of the helmet and made it more round with an epoxy resin called magic sculpt. The hands, shoulder and thighs were repainted with a black basecoat with silver drybrush to bring out the details of Hasbro's sculpt. I kinda regret is not painting the forearm silver or pewter (more G1-ish). The gun is from a KO mini-Metroplex model kit. Any suggestions or feedback is appreciated. Thanks.

 

Damn--nice job, bro! You really boosted the look of this mold and made it more like Cliffjumper. I love the paint job and the headlight work you've done. Any bot-mode pics? (I'd love to try something like this, as well as the head mod that's been floating around for quite a while.

Keep up the great work!

 

all that detail in your description, and you didn't mention the new bumper?  

 

What new bumper?  

 

Thanks hXcpunk23. I haven't finished the head modification yet. I'll post the bot pictures when I'm done.

 

The bumper is all Hasbro. I just did a paint wash on the panel lines. This mold is really growing on me and it only takes a little paint to bring out all the details.

 

Wasn't there talk of adding a solid black stripe on the side with his name on it? I think that would've looked better with it. Still, a great job.

 

sweet. I was a little tired, but still, the detailing of the front end makes the bumper look grossly different.

 

I thought the same thing at first, man. It literally breathed new life into that little sucker when he put some paint to it.

 

Huh...I thought it was a new bumper too....mighty fine job there...and I like the look of the projector style headlights...nice touch  

 

Wow, this is really slick man! Everything you've done is really cool! Personally, I'd rather have my CJ look like this instead of having the upgrade kit.  

 

It's impressive how a few mods here and there could make this look so awesome. Great job on CJ, plastic surgery.

 

I agree

 

Thanks folks for the kind words.

I don't think that was me. I thought about black racing stripes like Classic BB or one across the doors to break up the red, decided on this color scheme to pay more homage to G1 Cliffjumper. I have another Cliffjumper that I was going to reshell and lengthen to make Wheeljack, but I think I'll wait for Sunstreaker mode instead and experiment on the extra Cliffy body.

 

Now thats what you call g1 Cliffjumper !!!

 

Oh ok. My bad. There was a guy that posted a Cliffjumper that looked a lot like what you had posted, except there was a solid black stripe running on the side.

 

Wow. I love it!

Is the clear resin a 2-part epoxy type thing? I've tried that headlight technique before and couldn't get all of the bubbles out after mixing the epoxy. How did you do it?

 

I really like grille work. Very nice.

 

Blimey; so little modding, yet such a difference made. Top job, Surj!  

 

Wow, I never realized there was that much detail on him. NICE JOB!!!