**note: I am now selling this set (after completing the project, years back). If interested you can find the listing here: UW CONSTRUCTICONS + DNA UPGRADE + CUSTOM UPGRADED HANDS, FILLERS, ETC.. I dig how cartoon-accurate the UW constructicons are, and have been wanting to display them next to MPs. In order for them to earn that spot on the MP shelf, I wanted to take care of a couple things: Articulated hands and filling-in the many hollow limbs. I first made a template of the hollow spaces in Bonecrusher, hook, scavenger, and scrapper. I then cut these portions out of styrene. Then I cut away the existing hands on each of the arms. I used the Perfect-Effect arms for scrapper, mainly because it doesn't have the hollow-faces that the UW arms have... and they look passable in Alt mode. Here's a shot of the "designer" spray paint that I found at a local art store. It matches the Constructicons pretty well. All of the articulated hands are able to fold-up properly in alt modes. Hooks lower leg panels also clear everything during transformation. I used Fanstyle hands for everyone but bonecrusher, who has KFC sideswipe hands. What's next: I'd like to create forearm covers for Hook and Scavenger, but these will need to be hinged to allow the hand to rotate inside for alt mode. So with the guns that this set came with, they all have the standard cylindrical peg. I took a sheet of 100 grit sandpaper, layed it on a table top, and made a flat spot along the back side of each of those handles. Next I superglued a little square of styrene onto each of those flatspots. Should make sense on this pic: The styrene pegs can now register in the slots of the articulated hands and keep them in place. They all hold their guns comfortably now. And the awesome thing about Scrapper's shoulder joints is he can double-wield his gun. Going to spray all the guns with the gunmetal I used on Longhaul later. Small update - finally got around to upgrading Linghauls hands. Same process - cut the stock hands out of the existing horearms, cut out a styrene shape to fill the hollw inner side, and then epoxied KFC MP10 hands. Ended up painting the whole lower arm in gunmetal fie toon accuracy, which is a bit LOL since UW Longhaul is like the least toon-accurate Longhaul ever... Guess I will finish up with Mixmaster's soon as he's the most straightforward. View attachment 28097662
Wow, giving them new hands brought them up a tier higher than I thought it would. Just goes to show that if they had gone just that little bit further some of these guys could fit in with the masterpiece line up.
Amazing! I really do think the fully articulated hands make a big difference with MP figures, brings them up a notch. It's such a shame that even the 3P's are skimping on articulated hands for all but the largest of figures. I keep meaning to order a stack of hands for all my MP's but what with currency exchange and International shipping it'll end up costing a couple of hundred bucks. Love the colour too, a great match.
Maaaaan, I just caught the thread title here and HAD to check it out, lol. The ingenuity and craftsmanship of TF fans NEVER ceases to amaze me and OMFG THIS IS NO EXCEPTION. O_O That said, it's almost impossible to safely discuss the PG-13 content of PG-13 movies in PG-13 terms here and I couldn't even use the medical term "testicles" in a thread-title without a bunch of complaints and almost IMMEDIATE interference from mods so GOOD LUCK, lol. Just for the record, I <3 this thread. Keep 'em coming!
I'm totally printing out the styrene template. Even if I don't completely replace the arms, the filler would work real well. Thanks for such a complete tutorial and excellent work!
Hands Those are sooooooooo very cool. Nice work on those guys. That really changes them and brings them up to new levels of awesomeness. Thanks for sharing.
