My latest two Masterpiece's recieved* recently are Inferno and Trailbreaker. (I actually preordered Trailbreaker a while back from Anime Export. When arranging delivery, I caught sight of Inferno. I'd originally planned to just stick with my War for Cybertron version... but...)

Anyway- yet to transform, Trailbreaker, but he has a lovely vehicle mode. I just transformed Inferno for the first time today. A pretty easy transformation. I'm not sure I have his front(side) wheels in the correct position. I had them pegged where I thought they were supposed to go, but they were in the way of the waist rotation. Pictures showed that they should be positioned higher on his waist, so I moved them up. Pretty sure they're supposed to peg in somewhere but I can't see where, and I didn't want to force them so I left them. They're not loose and stay put and look, okay although they jut out a little more than I think they should.

What a magnificent figure! Some great options. Love that you can swap arm gun/hand without removing them. He has very minimal waist rotation, but I'm not sure if that's normal, or if it's just stiff. I'm loath to force it, but I'm not one to pose figures much. Love how the ladder compacts down into his back, and his backpack isn't particularly large! I half expected the the ladder to be exposed on his back, like the WFC toy (and it doesn't look bad like that.) so this was an excellent feature.

Very pleased to have him. Love the attention to detail with accessories and there's even an alternate chest with a transparent rack so you can recreate him carrying his mate, from one scene. (A figure I don't have, although it would probably work with Bluestreak and Prowl too.)

*I also have Ultra Magnus on the way. I saw him on Mandrake and couldn't resist. I've wanted him for a while.

 

Inferno's transformation made me hunt down a Grapple since I wanted to see how that one worked in hand. Watched a lot of videos and loved the magic of hiding crane arm.

 

As much as I love these guys, getting them back into alt mode is a real pain. Lining the wings up can be such a chore. Maybe I’m doing it wrong, but I had so much trouble getting him there

 

I have an easier time with those two versus Starscream. They kind of just fit with out too much effort, Starscream is the one where I catch trouble lining everything back up

 

I think the little butt piece wasn’t pushed up as far as it could go. And the legs were knocking everything out of alignment. I got it though. I had to make sure I could do it again so starscream and Skyfire can fight in the air in a couple weeks

 

It’s getting pretty crowded on this Detolf!!!

 

INTRUDERS!!!

 

Silver looks 1000x better in my opinion, but I admittedly dislike the use of white as a toon-palette equivalent for real-world silver or chrome. I’m actually surprised at how much more appealing that makes the stock head sculpt. Sorry you did such good work but weren’t satisfied with the outcome!

 

I think part of the problem for me was that the silver I used was a bit too dark against the yellow. A brighter white-silver like on the G1 toy might have worked better. The other problem was that, with the silver being so reflective, it exaggerated the contours of the mouth and made him look like he had duck lips (it looked very similar to the Buzzworthy Bumblebee that came with Spike in fact). For some reason this didn't really show up in the photos I took, though - it looks better in the photo I posted than it did in hand.

 

I usually paint all MP/3P faces in a metallic silver if they had it on the original toy— and if I intend to keep them. If I’m on the fence about a figure I will leave it unmodified for sale potential. I’ve had best luck with one of the lighter Vallejo metal colors, but offhand I don’t remember the name of it.

 

Bit of a scale comparison with other MPs. Trailbreaker fits in very nicely!

 

My wife has demanded that I do a series of Sears Glamour Studio-style portraits

 

Brilliant!! I predict this will become an all-time classic series and will be seen in Google searches for years to come.

 

That's slightly terrifying,  

 

I VERY sincerely anticipate ever single shot.

 

Your wife friggin rules! She may stay  
Looking forward to the next entries in this series.

 

Thank you my friends, she's been after me for awhile to use her ideas, I guess I have to begrudgingly admit she was right