The doctor is in! It seems like all I do is repaint Ratchets these days. I actually found it easier and cheaper to pick up a couple of Shattered Glass Ratchets for the mold and repurposed one for an Earthrise version with a G1 flavor. The blue and purple ended up being a remarkably good combination and with some select Battlemasters, Shattered Glass might find a permanent home in my collection too at this rate. The blue however presented numerous issues with coating as the white required several layers of spray to really get the coverage I wanted, and the blue still shows through. I had to strip the head entirely because the dark gray for his face was so thick. And prying it open was difficult even though it seems like it was only pegged together, but it was the best way to recolor the eyes so it was worth it. Lots of masking, spraying, cleaning, sanding, remasking, and spraying and sanding this time around. The uneven surface and grooves proved the most challenging obstacle to an even coat and clean stripes. After testing for friction and clearances, I applied some light clear coats to help protect everything, but I still wound up with problem areas like the wrists even though I sanded down parts for a looser fit and tab in. Overall the results were satisfying, but the labor very intense and a lot of waiting for coats to cure before touch ups. I really wish Hasbro would just make these G1 favorites easier to get.
Thank you! Thanks! Totally what I was going for, I was streaming Robot Chicken as I was reassembling Ratchet and I knew what I needed to do. The stethoscope is made from twist ties!
I was actually planning to do something similar... (gunna cheat and partswap with Siege Ratchet) Quick questions, is the purple on the shield/roof cannons painte? And what did you use to remove the old paint(it came off so clean!)?
I used an alcohol based thinner (Tamiya’s proprietary blend seems to work well) since alcohol is gentler on clear plastics like the windows. I did a little wet sanding with superfine grit to remove the Autobot logo since it was flat and used a toothbrush with alcohol on the head since it has a lot of grooves.
Looks great! I'm working on mine right now. I swapped parts with Siege Ratchet so the only parts I need to paint white are the inner shoulder hinges, it's taking a lot of coats though. I don't think I'll be able to do nearly as good of a job on the stripes and crosses so I'll wait on Toyhax and hope they pull through on it.
Oh they'll make an official one easy to get......as soon as I decide to attempt one. Been debating doing one similar to this, just haven't found the time to jump in. It looks amazing & your paint work looks perfect. Nice work!
This is good-looking work! I had a thought, though, because the first comparison picture made me think of the Siege one -- would the ER Ratchet still be completely and properly transformable if I swapped parts between that and the Siege Ratchet? (Head, arms, waist/upper legs, feet)? I don't have both to compare.
More or less, with some modification. The problem is the remolding on Siege Ratchet's forearms. The 5mm ports are moved just a couple millimeters for some inexplicable reason, and there are extra raised greebles molded around them. You'll have to clip off the rear pegs on the roof/shield in order for it to fit at all, and even after doing that it won't quite lie flat because of the raised greebles. I'm going to try sanding down part of the underside of the roof to make room for the greebles but I'm not sure if I'll be able to get it good enough or not. There's also a slight difference in the shades of white, but I don't think it's really any worse than the different shades of red used on ER Ironhide.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who's done this. The minty green is indeed a bitch to cover up with white. I went for a marvel g1 vibe, so the helmet is red on mine, and I kept the crotch white rather than red. Other than that, it looks very similar to yours. Great job!
Nice, I did the same custom, for the same reason you did, but left the stripes off the legs. Never transformed mine, nice to see it looks good in alt mode. Good stuff, man.
Thanks for responding to this! Once I got the idea in my head I couldn't stop looking at pics and video of them (I have neither on hand where I am) to try and gauge that theory. So this info from someone who actually has them on hand is very helpful. That's very interesting about the shield, and somewhat odd (I did notice the arms were also changed, but had no idea the effect would be so drastic). I guess leaving the shield/roof as is kills the idea of using it for the altmode since there are pegs that just don't have anywhere to go. Maybe I'll do the swap but leave it in robot mode; I don't want to modify it in any way to keep things reversible (this swap-custom is just a placeholder anyway). I may also end up keeping the SG shoulders and just swap from the bicep down, since I don't know if the shoulders can be removed from the torso easily and nondestructively (they seem riveted on?). The elbows are also rivets, so that's not an option. Would the legs still work right if swapped, i.e. the main legs and feet from Siege Ratchet and the panels from GO/SG Ratchet?
The shield is definitely annoying, but I didn't really mind clipping the pegs and sanding the underside since those areas won't really be visible either in vehicle mode or when he's wearing the roof on his back in robot mode. The slight misalignment of the roof in vehicle mode (even after sanding it, I was able to make it a little better but not perfect) certainly isn't ideal, but it's no worse than the gaps often present on official figures due to poor QC, and it's still way better than not having a Ratchet at all, or using the Siege figure as a stand-in when all my other S1/2 Autobots have Earth modes. I tried swapping the inner teal shoulder hinge out from the SG figure but it's just impossible to remove it, at least on mine. I was able to remove it from the Siege figure pretty easily by heating up the peg attaching it to the torso hinge with a soldering iron and then pulling it, and the pin connecting it to the main shoulder piece just hammered right out. But neither of those tactics, even when taken to the extreme (using the hottest setting on my soldering iron and holding it against the pin way too long, enough to slightly melt the plastic around it just by proximity), worked on the SG figure. I'm wondering if the teal plastic is just a lot tougher than the white plastic or something. The legs themselves are identical, as are the parts of the panels that matter. Those and the feet are definitely the easiest parts to swap (well, since you'd be using the legs from Siege you technically wouldn't be switching the feet themselves but you know what I mean).
Murphy’s Law, as soon as you finish a custom, Hasbro or someone will make it . That’s why I’ve settle on refinements but 3P groups are doing a lot of those as well.
Yeah, I’m really waiting for paints to arrive and keeping myself busy. All my local hobby shops closed down this year so DOTM Ratchet is waiting.
You did a really nice job on this. Bravo. I found this post looking for reference photo's for my attempt to do this very thing. I hadn't thought of doing the red crosses on the shoulders, but after seeing yours I think that's what I'll do as well (I was just going to try and reproduce the Earthrise ratchet initially, for my own collection). A few questions if I may? Did you use straight spray paint or an airbrush? I imagine you used a stencil for the autobot logo on the shield (though I suppose it could be a sticker). How did you make the stencil (if that's what it was)? The pins on this seem ridiculously tight, so I'll probably need to leave some of the joints together too. Did that create any issues for you? Any other bits of advice? Again, fantastic work. Definitely an inspiration.
Thanks! I just found out there's a reprolabels kit available, so I might have saved myself some trouble with the shoulder crosses by using those. I didn't remove any pins for this build, but I did unscrew wherever possible and pop off panels for cleaner application. I generally spray with Airbrush for smaller areas and use canned spray paint if the color is exactly what I want and I can spray a large area. Doing multiple light coats for coverage is usually the best, so I tend to keep to airbrush because there's more control. Cans can be hard to control the mix or application and it's easy to overdo it. The roof/shield Autobot logo is a water slide decal. I have a pile of them in various sizes for projects, this one is clear backed with no border. And everything is clear coated after for better handling. I have used hand-cut stencils in the past but after multiple applications they tend to not come out as sharp, and it's a pain hand-cutting them multiple times. Some problem areas, I did have some tabs and slots that needed to be filed down or widened to accommodate a little extra thickness from the paint, and you have to watch out for high contact areas like the elbows or leg panels. I'm probably going to attempt this again, this first pass was for a friend and I learned a bit from my first attempt. I'll try to document the process better this time, so let me know if you have questions!
