I'm glad I've kept up with this since day one. It's about to pay off tremendously.  

 

I can not wait for it! 

 

Every time I look in this thread...

It's simply amazing that a toy as horrible as RotF Devs was built into something as perfect as this! I can't get over it.

 

Man, does patience pay off! This should be seen as an example to anyone starting the hobby.

I'm so glad I've waited all this time. One of the best customs I've ever seen and I can't wait to see the finished result.  

 

This is the most impressive custom I have ever seen. Kudos to you for your determination and drive to get this finished!

 

Awesome; one best over all project ever

 

After all this time, it's FINALLY happening.  

 

THE AWESOME, THE UN-REFINED STAGGERING AWESOME; THE PROFOU-*feints*

 

It would be really cool to see this get front paged once the vids go up.

 

LEGS HELD!!!!! EVERYTHING SECURE!!! Pictures in about an hour, hour and a half max!!!!!!

 

yes! my blood pressure can go down a little now  

 

Here they come!

 

And yet, mine's still spiking.

 

Finally. 597 days after making my first cut on a custom transformer ever….. 427 days since shooting my first paint on a transformer….ever…… 280 hours minimum actual confirmed time spent working on project (calculated based on how many times through I went through “Friends”, “The Office”, and Arrested Development” series on DVD in the background, straight through, +movies). Estimated total time on project: Around 500 hours.

I am finally ready, and able, to reveal to you my take on:

Transformer: Revenge of the Fallen Supreme (Masterpiece?) Class DEVASTATOR!

First of all, I would like to thank the following people that directly (or indirectly) influenced (or inspired) the completion of this project:

~My Wife, Janea. She has been one heck of a sport during this whole ordeal. From the money wrapped up in it, to the “stinky plastics and paints”. She has been very understanding of this project especially considering the days when I completely took over the living room in the early stages of the build, or the dining room when I began painting, and the basement for my airbrushing shop. What a trooper. There were days when she was pissed that I was not done, primarily because I would punk out on activities or weekends “because I needed to work on my project”. Those were few and far between, but the encouragement she gave me after each vehicle completed was enough to inspire me to keep going. Even though you are probably not going to read this, I love you, Sweetheart. And I’m sorry I ruined so many of our nights because of this. Now that it is finished, and with little Jovie Lynnelle on the way, I can’t wait to get back to normal life.

~Frenzy_Rumble. He printed my decals for me. He endured many phone calls from me, and perhaps a too detailed decal spec matrix. But, in the end, they all came out beautifully, and he even through in some extras in case I screwed up. Stand up guy. Thanks, Mike!

~NCStrascream. The tribute on Crumblezone says it all. He came through for me in my hour of need when Crumblezone fell off the table and broke. He sold me some extra Rampage treads and helped get my project back on track. (Also, trex5000. If NCSs didn’t come through, trex would have been right in line.)

~All of TFW2005 Radicon members and supporters alike. So much talent. So much inspiration. So much information that I have taken from these boards since I joined in ’08. I could name so many people here that I incorporated a little idea I got from them here and there. And to play it safe, to make sure I don’t leave someone out (especially someone who pioneered a mod), I thank all of you publicly for contributing to my first, and likely last, combiner custom.

Without further adieu, here he is, pictures and videos. Please enjoy. I have had both a blast, and a miserable time working on this monstrosity. I loved building it. There is now way around that. Painting on the other hand was hit or miss. Some days it was fun, but most I loathed. It felt like a chore to me. Maybe it’s because I know that my technique/paints I used was not conducive to protecting it from chipping. I washed, primered, lacquered, etc. and nothing seemed to have had a positive effect on the durability of the paint. With each new vehicle, the paint acted differently, or there was some obstacle I had to overcome. I think Long Haul was the smoothest painting operation that I did. Don’t know why. The primer and paint went down quick, even, and durable. Long Haul has very minor chipping. If I could build all day and leave the painting to a pro, I would do that in a heartbeat. I would go into business with somebody so long as I did not have to do the painting. Argh! But, thankfully, the final results came out successfully.

There are several key differences you will see from the prototype/initial build to final product.

1.) Grappling hook weapons. The original plan…..well….I use the term “original” loosely because the first thing that came out was sort of last minute, not using my whole brain. In order to be movie accurate, I wanted three separate grappling hooks on each arm. Which toy had three missiles in one contained location? That I had? Movie Starscream. And Bonus, there were two sets! So, built them, and even took pictures with them installed. But I was never completely sold on them. If you remember, a while back, I even indicated that I was on the fence. I was not happy with them. They were big, gaudy, looked out of place…and worse, they looked like an after thought…which they were. It was a failure on my end and I recognized it. Plus the reduced weight on each arm can only help. Plus, the originals did not fit with my “serve two functions” strategy. While the concept worked, the execution was poor.

So, going back to the drawing board, I wanted to find something smaller, more compact that I could make a three prong grapple with only one chain. I decided that sacrificing movie accuracy in this case would work to my advantage. Looking into my “inventory” I found the perfect replacements (that I was willing to repurpose). Movie Classic Camaro Bumblebee’s weapons. I built the grapples using…you guess it, ROTF Ravage tails! They were a part of the double your action giveaway return that I got. Perfect usage. Now, they fit. They look right. They are not obtrusive or distracting.

2.) Staying with the weapons motif, you will notice that the missile battery over his right shoulder is different than the prototype. This is both a gain and a loss for me. First, I hand built the original battery. It looked great, and had the movie accurate 12 missiles. However, since I had decide to go with the 2-missile battery over the left shoulder, I was already throwing movie accuracy to the wind. So, in order to add “play value” even though it is just going to sit on a shelf (another detail I should not have cared about), I went with a functional 8-missile battery donated from a HFTD Hailstorm. Still looks great and serves its purpose.

3.) Shoulder Metal. I had two left over sets of Mixmaster drum flaps that were just screaming at me to get onto this custom. I hated wasting them. I knew there was potential there. As you can see, I found their potential.   Devastator had a lot of “neck frills” that were just not getting done with the shoulder pads from Scavenger, or the Trailer halves from Overload. It needed something more. I’m pleased with the results, and it gave me another opportunity for Cybertronian symbols! Yes, they are bigger….. but picture them saying, “Suck on THIS!” His victims needed to read it from far away!   Lame excuse, I know. Who cares. ;-)

4.) Mixmaster’s grille. In the movie, you can see Mixmaster’s grille at the back of Devastator’s neck, if only briefly. Well, I had originally achieved this but having MM’s cab sticking up behind the drum. While it was okay initially, I was not happy with it. It too looked “slapped on. So, I started toying with MM and found that I could disconnect the grille AND turn it 180 degrees to lay on top of the drum. Yes, this did disconnect the cab, but I found that worked to my advantage. I now had means to further utilize the cab to look more transformed rather than a “cement truck glued to the back of the neck”.

5.) The back. Lucky for most of you, you either saw only a few photos posted over a year ago and don’t remember it, or never saw it all to know what it looked like before. Let’s just say that the following changed: Overload trailer wheels location, Scavenger shovel positioning, Wrecking Balls connection points, and Piping. The initial build was mediocre at best. I was never completely happy with it. (Can you sense a theme? Not completely happy= CHANGE IT until is). Now I am very happy. Half the problem is lack of options with the robot mode. Considering I added 3 (!!!!) vehicles, one of them is the second largest of the group, and you don’t want to sacrifice the aesthetics of the display side, you run out of options fast. I will go over these things in the videos.

Please enjoy the photos! I hope you love them as much as I love the final results. As always, comments and criticisms are welcome.

 

That is just ******ed awesome!!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously WTF! *MAJOR BOWS*

The back of Devastator is just FLAWLESS! You completely reworked that and it looks AMAZING!

This definitely ranks up there as one of the best customs made in the community. EPIC.. just EPIC..

Major congratulations on finishing this project!!

 

Oh my god... That is insane, dude.

 

dude. amazing shit. just amazing. even non-bay fans should love this. Appreciate the thanks, and it was a pleasure taking part in this however I could.

 

good god that figure is sic . amazing job lad, simply amazing.