Nearly complete Scroll down for the full process I have always been in awe of how well our model makers in China turn around new designs, and with such a great degree of accuracy, so on this trip I thought I'd get my hands dirty. I have always been a frustrated artist, but ended up going in to engineering instead of the arts. The factory we work with very kindly offered to give me 2 weeks of scratch building classes so that I could visualise my ideas better and prototype mechanisms before coming out to china to do the engineering. So what project am I going to be working on? Well obviously it's Transformers related, but the twist may be more difficult to guess (unless you regularly read my posts). Over the next week or so I will post pictures of my progress and a few comments on the techniques I used to create the model. For now hold on to your bladders, I'm hoping that the results of this will be pantwettingly awesome. Final stage of casting tonight and then on to painting. (Edit: Oh and those wheels will be removed. They just look silly!!!) Should have final photos (and video) by the end of the weekend.
It's based around a MechRC robot system (which I designed the control system and software for as part of my day job MechRC - A Revolution in Robotics!, in fact Andrew Wildman did the original concept art for the look of MechRC) Eyes will light up (maybe the gun at a later date, and if I do Megs next, then I will also build in the laser tag system). I will also download some choice lines from Mr Cullen. Expect to see it up and walking about early next week sometime. Had to dull the pain of missing out on Botcon AGAIN somehow!
Very cool project, man. It looks like you've put a lot of hard work and thought into this. I just checked out that site also. You definitely have a feel for what you're doing and I'm looking forward to seeing the end result.
Cheer's for the comments. I would love to say that a lot of thought went in to this, but actually I decided to do it on Sunday afternoon and by Monday I was covered in clay! I'm now just coming down from the fumes from the casting room. Still can't sleep and it's nearly 4am ;-) Casting is now all done so on to the painting tomorrow. The head, body and gun are all based on the Masterpiece Prime, but I had to take some artistic license on the legs and arms to fit them around the arrangement of servos on the MechRC chassis. I did look into doing a Transforming MechRC with Don Fig a year or so back, but it was too expensive to manufacture. I have the prototype somewhere back in the UK. I will have to dig it out and see if it still works.
I must stress that this is NOT a commercial venture. It's just a fun way for me to learn model making/prototyping.
looking great! i hope that you'll get more features on it, who know's we may even see it on the shelves one day. lol. keep it up!
Thanks, but I doubt it! We are not licensed by Hasbro and we would not want to step on their toes. This is just a bit of fun for me that I thought I would share with you guys.
Well, here he is. Not quite complete. Still to do: Chrome smoke stacks and front grill Finish paint detail on thighs/knees Remove yellow detailing (added after I left the work shop the other night because it was considered to be too red!!! - I despair) Tidy up wires Produce a whole new set of motion files Create better audio That said. I'm pretty happy with it. I'd be more than happy to hear any criticisms you might have though... Video still uploading will post it when it's done
that;s looking awesome man. how did you paint it? it looks factory painted. cant wait to see the video
Wow, seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerious stuff !!! Kudos, that's a lot of work !!!!!! Can't wait for the vid. ! Curious...I think the wires gives it a really cool robotic feel to it and I'm not suggesting you change it but is it possible to hide the wires ?
Ah!!! That's because he was (I was working the last 2 weeks in a factory in china - which helps) Paint fumes get a bit much though. Still feeling heady 24 hours after the last spray.
The wires are a pain in the hole. I am working on a way to hide them without restricting movement. Might be possible. Will try it on my next trip out here in July.
He walks, he talks, he carries a big frakking gun YouTube - Optimus Prime / MechRC Kitbash Sorry, not sure how to embed the video in the thread.
That looks awesome! Can't wait to see the video. How long has the "base" bot been around? I feel like I've seen it years ago?
that's insane bro. amazing work. now make one that transforms as well hope you had a blast learning there. that must have been a great experience.
Base bot (MechRC) has been in development a few years, but was only released in Europe just before Christmas. You might have seen some comments over onn Seibertron about it as both Don Fig and Andrew Wildman have been working with us to get the look we wanted for the Mechs.
I had a whale of a time. Not sure I could do it at home in the UK in my shed though!!! Transforming. Well, that's the big question isn't it Actually we sort of have already... A couple of years ago I was consulting to a magazine company in the UK as one of their Transformers "experts" and had the pleasure of working with Simon Furman and top artists such as Andrew Wildman and Don Fig. I happened to be in the US and met up with Don (who is such a cool guy, btw) and we were talking about MechRC. Andrew had already done the base designs for us for MechRC (seen at MechRC - A Revolution in Robotics!) but Don and I got talking about what else could be done in the line. We commissioned Don to do some designs (which I may well post after I see him in a couple of weeks and have checked that he is okay with it) and, well it wasn't a "Transformer", but it did transform and it looked workable. We even built a prototype. However the project got scrapped when we realised how much it would cost at retail, and I just never got around to hooking up the controller for all the extra motors for the transformation (and the tank tracks) Would you guys be okay if Megatron was a space tank????
