TURBOMASTERS, ROLL OUT! Many moons ago, Jesse Wittenrich of FunPub/Botcon posted an unused concept for a Timelines Turbomasters boxset, using molds from the then recent Prime toyline. I made the mistake of looking at this whilst on a custom spree, and oh man did I go overboard! This was the first custom project where I bothered to spray my figures with an undercoat prior to painting, and it made a world of difference compared to my other customs, so I won’t be going back to bare plastic. I used a couple of cans of Citadel’s Corax White on these guys, and save a couple of snafus (Boss’ chest most notably) it went remarkably well for my first go. The other thing I decided to do was deviate a fair bit from Wittenrich’s original mockups, in order to produce a more toy-accurate deco across the figures. It wasn’t drastic, but it did lead to some major changes. The other thing I decided was that I wouldn’t be using decals for this project, as they’ve had a tendency to drive me insane (those Sega customs aged me twenty years!) This unfortunately meant a lot of the details from the original Turbomasters, like the wing crests on Flash and Thunder Clash, and the flames on Scorch, were lost in the name of not trying to paint them horribly. I have made sure to homage them where possible though, and in the case of Boss I used masking tape to create stripes of gold like his old figure (Though the door patterns did come out a tad unfocused.) Quick disclaimer - vehicle mode photos were taken prior to Autobot symbols being applied. It was also then I learnt all the sealant/varnish in the world won’t stop the paint chipping, so I daren’t transform them again. Sorry about that! Thunder Clash Thunder Clash is a redeco of P:RID’s original Ultra Magnus. Due to kibble placement and whatnot, he’s a bit different from the original Thunder Clash colourscheme, but it’s still rather recognisable. The chest was painted partially blue as a homage to his winged crest, as I feel a more elaborate scheme would have ended poorly with my skillset. Transformation wise, I also prefer to leave his leg wheels unfolded, as it looks more spot on to the original figure. Flash Flash is a redeco of P:RID Hot Shot, and unlike the others was sprayed in Mephiston Red to save time later. I think he probably has the cleanest paint job of the five, but that does come at the expense of some toy original details - I chose to leave the yellow line on the doors undivided to prevent asymmetry, and his winged crest felt a bit too precise for me to attempt. The big engine block wouldn’t have helped. I ended up doing that block in white and black as a way of homaging the original crest, without making a mess of the figure. I considered leaving the goggles off, but in the end I kept them. The original mock-up called for a new head entirely, but I’m not that rich. Scorch I will happily confess to being terrified of doing Scorch from P:RID Kup, having heard many horror stories of getting good coverage with yellow paint. As it turns out, an undercoat of Corax White, followed by a few thin coats of Flash Gitz Yellow, was spot on, and the paint on the car roof went on particularly beautifully. LOOK AT IT! LOOOOOOOOK AT IT! Hurricane Unlike the mock-up, which called for using Prime Knock-Out, I ended up going with Beast Hunters Smokescreen for Hurricane, as I felt it was a superior mold and would look better in Hurricane’s colours. I think he came out very nice, but the car mode is a bit bland, as I never took the hood into consideration when digibashing him. I’ll probably lob some green on the bonnet at some point, but given he’s going to be in robot mode for the foreseeable, I won’t lose sleep. As with Flash and Thunder Clash, I chose to homage his ‘lightning’ chest pattern with the green on his chest. The pink was a mix of Kakaphoni Purple and Evil Sunz Scarlet, which I ended up using on all the Turbomasters. Boss Boss ended up taking the longest of the five despite his fairly monochromatic colourscheme - a mix of dodgy spray paint, layer paints that were too thin and ballsing up his head mods slightly. I did at least remove the head fins rather cleanly, so I’m very pleased with that. Also very pleased with his gold stripes. They could have done with some white borders around them, but I was a bit on edge about throwing more white paint everywhere, so I kept them as is. Transforming him not only chipped his paint, but somehow gave me blisters, so he’s an Action Master now. Sod Slicer! So that’s the team, assembled at last. The original plan was to sell them, but I am somehow both too proud of them to rehome them, and also a bit too disappointed they don’t really transform that great to sell them. I don’t have much of a Prime collection at all, so I guess these guys will be joining Rotorstorm on the G1 shelves. I mean, if FunPub got away with using Prime molds for G1 before (Chromedome, Megaplex etc.) I’m sure it’ll be fine! So that’s my Turbomasters, a really fun project and a great way of testing new techniques that made them my best work to date! I hope you enjoyed taking a look at them!
Awesome! Thunderclash and Boss are probably my favorites. Good call with the undercoats on these. Scorch’s yellow turned out great.
These are awesome. They all work very well. Good call on smokescreen for hurricane, much better than knockout. Not sure which my favorite is. I really like the alt mode on scorch. Boss looks really good all around but I am also biased to that mound and colorscheme!
Very clever mold choices I'd only like to see the windows painted in clear pink. I might do that Scorch and Boss, too.
Cheers for the advice! I haven’t quite reached the level where I’m using an airbrush, but I might pick one up in future if I keep on with the customs. As for other finishes I’ll probably give them a go in the future, but I’m happy enough with the matte finish I get from Citadels. It probably helps I’ve found them the easiest paints to work with. I agree it’s not quite the sort of quality many customs achieve, but I’m personally pretty comfortable about it for now. Appreciate the criticism though, always glad to hear pointers on how to improve.
Awesome work. If you wanted some more G2 dudes(axlerators maybe?) to repaint, I use several of the better RiD 15 molds in my prime collection. They fit really well styelistically with the PRID molds. Side swipe is really good as is drift. Strongarm isn't bad.
