97. Custom adapter to add MP Megatron Silencer to Core Megatron This one was fairly simple to do. The gun looks good, but the barrel is too short for tank mode. One idea is to add a silencer. I have some official mini-Megatron guns. The Centurion one is not close at all in design, and the silencer is too small to fit. I like the size of the one that came with re-issue G1 Starscream, but the silencer isn't a separate part. The MP one (that came with MP Soundwave) is too big and will loosely stay on the barrel. Then I got the idea to add on the MP silencer without the gun via custom adapter. I have molds just to make simple 5mm pegs / short rods. Took one of these 5mm pegs, cut down to size, kept one end 5mm, and then filed the other end until it fit into the MP Megatron silencer. One could wedge a 5mm rod into the silencer directly but that would risk cracking / breaking. Adapter shown: Eventually, I'll try to make a custom silencer from the G1 re-issue one and see how that works.
Oh man, where did you find this guy, so looking forward to him. That barrel extension makes him look like an artillery piece. Nice work!
Thanks. Picked up the figure from ToyArena. Of course, right after I order, one of the local stores got him in stock.
Another painting post: Received the Shockwave Lab SL-101 Grimlock swords in the mail. Really disappointed with the tapering peg (can't plug in all the way) and weird design issues under the guard. Shame because the rest of the sword looks nice. Almost tempted to cut the handle off and put a new one on. Anyhow, the blade was printed in clear orange. Son doesn't like this and wanted clear red instead. It is possible to change / tint clear colors from one to another. Obviously, clear base is easiest. However, when the base is of a certain color, then options are limited. From clear orange, options are mainly limited to red, which worked out anyways. Used Tamiya clear red spray paint. Did 3 coats: Nozzle about 12" away; light coats; if you see any paint dripping or pooling, then you did way too much and screwed up; and wait 10 minutes or so between coats. For this example, do NOT hand brush this on as bottle clear paints tend to be quite viscous and leave a goopy uneven mess behind. The hardest part is masking the sword properly. Tamiya makes very thin, vinyl like, white masking tape. Used a 2mm wide roll for the very thin areas next to the blade. Had to use tweezers / razor blade to get everything in place. Once that was done, then I used Tamiya yellow masking tape to cover the rest of the hilt. I like their masking tapes since they rarely take off (fully cured) paint, and the local hobby shop carries their stuff. Masking small areas is quite annoying but absolutely needed to get a proper paint job done. Once that's done, masking the rest is pretty simple and doesn't have to be pristine. After 3 coats of clear red spray, voila. Son is now happy. Ended up masking and painting the other sword as well.
This is quite neat, i'm sorta curious though. I'm sorta considering trying to dabble with the stuff myself.
This is such a fun post. I can totally relate to having a kid who wants to change the color on something. Lol.
98. Crude LED eye mod for HasLab Unicron Shockwave Lab put out some kits that cleverly use a LED with integrated battery holder and magnetic switch. Passing a magnet close enough will operate the LED without the need for additional wires and physical switches. The units are overall small but still relatively too big to use in certain TF figures. Now enter Unicron.... This was crudely done. Purchased LED units off eBay some time ago. My order got screwed up, actually, and I ended up with 2 green ones in a batch that was supposed to have all unique colors. That worked out ironically. Crudely taped them into place towards the side of the eyes, away from the turning eye mechanism, and pointed towards the eye openings. Edit: MG-GNx2: Green Magnetic Switch LED (2 pcs) for Gunpla Gundam Model Kit | eBay Link for one seller of these integrated LEDs. Yes, quite crude but effective. Saves me a lot of work of trying to come up with a custom harness, LED wiring, and trying to come up with a physical switch system like I did with Omega Supreme. On the right is one of the LED units with integrated battery holder and magnetic switch. Passing a strong magnet nearby, and, voilá:
Hello, I was looking online for this exact item, I guess great minds think alike! I couldn’t find anything on eBay, do you remember what the description was or the vendor. thanks!
MG-GNx2: Green Magnetic Switch LED (2 pcs) for Gunpla Gundam Model Kit | eBay This seller lists a 5 pack of red, blue, green, white, and yellow (I ended up getting 2 greens and missing a color instead, which ended up being fine for this) as well as pairs of individual colors. That listing is for a pair of green ones. These are simple on/off LEDs. The ones that come with Shockwave Lab blast effects and judge set are fancier with 4 settings: on, flashing, fading, and off.
Guide for Damage-less Kibble Panel Removal from Haslab Unicron This shows a basic way of removing most of the kibble from Unicron without damaging the figure. Any other kibble removal would either require disassembly of large pieces and/or removal of flathead pins (the latter in particular would risk permanent damage). Tools needed: Philips #0 screwdriver with a blunted tip. Sharp tips WILL strip toy screw heads. Use a metal file or 100 grit sandpaper on a hard / stone surface to blunt the tip to allow the screwdriver head to properly engage the screw head. I have not stripped a screw head after doing this to all my #0 screwdrivers. The backpack screw may be hard to access with a screwdriver longer than 5 in. Backpack panels: Camera had a hard time focusing for this view. Remove screw and washer. Space is tight. I was able to wedge a 5" long screwdriver in there. Then the whole backpack comes off. Side leg panels: Remove this screw on both legs. Peculiar how this one is a screw while the rest of the hinges are pinned in place. Back leg panels: Undo the mushroom peg on both legs. I do not think it is worth undoing the double hinge, which would require additional screw removal. There will still be a large hinge nub sticking out if this is done. Leg panel holder bars: There's 2 main parts to the bar. The base part stays. Remove the outer holder bar part by removing this screw on each side. The outer bar is actually two pieces. The smaller part helps to hold the bar in place from the other side. Make sure to remove both and do not lose the screw. Screw Count: 5 and 1 washer. This shows a successful removal of parts from the legs. There is no way to get both the panel holding bar base and the assembly with the double hinge to sit flush. One can get them reasonably close, though. Removing the double hinge does not help since a large nub will still stick out. Parts Removed: Bot Mode: Front view looks pretty clean. Rear view isn't too bad. He has a butt tail. The base vertical panel assembly for the backpack remains in place. The head will at least cover up the top part when viewed from the front. Obviously, a full planet cannot be assembled from the panel pieces as the 'equator' is largely missing, and there's no mounting area for the stand to prevent it from tipping forward. However, if one were inclined to still attempt that... He does feel much lighter this way. Bot mode is 4.05kg or 8.9lbs without the stand, panels, or other accessories. This is primarily for posing purposes. We did end up putting him completely back together because planet mode is still fun.
Another joint fix with vinyl / electrical tape post: This is for Sky Shadow and Dai Atlas. The mold has issues with loose hips. Sideways hip movement is meh, but the main issue is forward/backwards ratchets. They barely engage on Sky Shadow and not at all on Dai Atlas. The latter in particular is prone to flopping over backwards in conjunction with his loose waist. As noted multiple times in this thread, use a blunted Philips #0 screwdriver to remove screws without stripping the screw heads from the pelvis assembly. Remove the hips and take them apart. One of the hips has a cylinder popping out from the ratchet. The simplest and quickest way to add friction is to add a piece of vinyl / electrical tape to the cylinder (NOT the side of the ratchet). In other examples in this thread, I used a sticker machine to cut out exact circles, which is optional but easier. In this case, I just cut out squares with a hole in the center. The tape 'ring' has to be intact to avoid getting ejected from the joint. Twist and re-assemble the hips together. One can then test the joint before putting the pelvis back together again. It should be fairly tight now. Bonus: Loose Dai Atlas Waist Semi-Fix Due to Dai Atlas' waist not separating and using a hinged chain instead, his waist is very floppy. There has to be some 'give' in order for the chain to lock into place for bot mode, however, this leaves a gap, which then causes the floppy problem. Dai Atlas, along with his hips, will then flop backwards. A hard spacer will not work and will prevent the chain from locking into place. A compressible spacer could work. Felt would be too soft. A rubber ring at the right size could work. This will not completely get rid of wobble but does reduce it a lot. I used a 012 O-ring here (1.78mm width, 9.25mm inner diameter, 12.81mm outer diameter). This barely allows the chain to "click" into place. Take apart the chain at the mushroom peg, place the ring around the base, and then reattach the chain. The black color will blend in easily. Waist is now much more stable. In conjunction with the hip fix, Dai Atlas' posing is finally stable.
Miscellaneous Stuff Took several months off from casting to give my hands a break. Going to start up again soon to make some custom parts and maybe finish some lingering projects. I want to make inserts for Dr. Wu Brawn cannons to make them blast effects compatible. Need a 12mm disc with 5mm hole in the center. I tried to buy a metal washer with those measurements, but of course, the measurements in the description were wrong. Going to make a mold of a 12mm drill bit and then saw out discs from the cast. Also want to make a LED add-on for DNA Design's Scorponok Rifle. A housing plug for a LED will simply fall out as the nozzle interior is actually a truncated cone of all things. Some type of adhesive or tape would be needed to keep it in place. Of course, destructive mods wouldn't have to deal with such restrictions. Stabilize Seacon Mold Hands: [King Poseidon, God Neptune, GS Volcanicus, GS Abominus] Posted this is other threads earlier. The Seacon mold hands do OK with pew pews, but when holding tall melee weapons, the thumbs will flop to either side. There's only one tiny tab securing the thumb, which is not even close to being strong enough to keep the thumb in place. Even if it was, it still wouldn't prevent the thumb from flopping outward. The Seacon mold hands have 5mm ports in the palms. By using some sort of anchor between one of these ports and the handle, the thumb will then no longer flop to either side. This is a mockup I did with some of my custom right angle adapters. This wasn't technically a proper fit but shows the concept works. The sword no longer flops. I was going to cast a bunch more adapters and then sand / file them down to size. Then I saw @MECHADOOM try the above with the Nonnef adapters, which looked to have the perfect dimensions for it. Bought a total of 18 of the Nonnef ones. Unfortunately, these have some QC issues. I noticed that inserting pegs stopped at the mold lines, which then made the port feel undersized, and that the adapter pegs felt a little oversized. This is due to having an offset mold. Looks fine by naked eye, but the offset was just enough to cause these problems. Fixing the ports is very quick with a 5mm drill bit (must be metric). Twist drill bit by hand until no more resistance is felt. Fixing the adapter pegs took a bit longer. Used a razor to shave off the overlapping bits (where you can feel your fingernail catch on the mold line). Sanding paper or precision file would be safer. Then, arrange right angle adapters as shown on weapon handle. Rotate to plug into the top palm port. My mockup was able to use the bottom port but that was due to having longer ports (which didn't fit quite right and was under stress). GS Volcanicus' sword is the biggest thumb flop offender and now fixed. Dr. Wu Siege Ultra Magnus Gap Filler Set with custom paint job for Netflix Ultra Magnus: Recently obtained the set off eBay to use on Netflix Ultra Magnus. Dr. Wu never released a set for the Netflix version, so did my own custom paint job. The white gap fillers actually had a hint of yellow to them. I'll likely go over those with a matte white spray paint later. Difficult to tell from the camera picture. For the dark gray / brown color, did 2 coats of Tamiya Metallic Gray spray paint followed by 2 coats of Tamiya Flat Clear spray paint to tone down the sprakly grain. The resultant color match is spot on. For the silver bicep fillers, did 2 coats of Tamiya Mica Silver. It's about a 90% match. At certain angles / lighting, then it looks spot on.
More Miscellaneous Stuff: 4 to 5mm adapter Purchased a Fortress Maximus mini model kit a while ago at a local store. Needless to say, didn't know there were 3 different kits to purchase and combine, they didn't have all 3, and I'm not going to finish it. Anyhow, the part we have does come with a nice sword. Unfortunately, it has a 4mm handle and side peg. I have tried making 4 to 5mm adapters before to varying degrees of failure, but finally got it right (and twice for that matter). The main problem is that trying to drill a 4mm hole into a 5mm rod leaves only 0.5mm wall thickness (and that is if you drill perfect), which is easy to break. First attempt actually cracked like my others. Tried use a more rigid peg this time using Smooth On's Crystal Clear resin, which has rather high tensile strength (it is brittle but fine for this purpose and takes a lot of force to chip). Used a power drill to get up to 3mm for the center hole. After that, annoyingly did the rest by hand (to reduce breaking risk) with a 3.5mm and then 4mm drill bit. I was only advancing 1/4 to 1/2 mm at a time lengthwise due to the rather high grip strength required to turn the drill bit by hand and again to avoid breaking. Eventually, got through. Painted afterward with Tamiya "MATT" black paint, which is quite resistant to scuffing, even on handles. Model sword with 4mm handle and side peg. This is great for Voyager sized figures if it wasn't for the pegs. Model sword with new 5mm handle and side peg adapters on. The adapter is held on by friction only and is relatively tight, so I didn't have to use epoxy.
Even More Miscellaneous Stuff: Modding (including Repainting) Various Upgrade Kits Posted some of this stuff in other threads earlier. 1. Matrix Workshop Abominus Rifle This is an old kit that I received as a 'freebie' for getting multiple MW sets with major QC issues. This one was no different. Decided to redeco the rifle into a proper black. The G1 cartoon showed his rifle as both gray and black, so went with black. Used both painting and dyeing here. The dye is used to make the 3d printed handle black without worrying about scraping paint. Since I'm going to repaint the whole rifle, I don't care about the dye's effect on the old paint. This will also make all the white ports black. All 6 ports were undersized: fixed with a 5mm drill bit. The handle was oversized: filed down to proper size with a rectangular precision file. Went over the rifle with a sanding sponge to remove any rough bits and to help with the paint later on. This is what it looks like after dyeing (10-15 minutes after turning down heat after water with dye comes to a boil; let cool down completely before handling and used cold water for that). It just about looks like the target color I wanted but is uneven when seen in person. The handle and ports are no longer white. Prepping for painting: used hobby tape on handle, plugged all 6 ports. I ran out of my spare 5mm pegs, so I cut up a plastic pipette. 2 coats of Tamiya "matt black" followed by 2 coats of clear semi-gloss (didn't have semi-gloss black, so this should do). The rifle looks small on Abominus. It's actually about as long as the Seacon mold rifle that comes with Generations Selects Abominus but is much skinnier. I made a cannon tip add on for Siege Megatron a while ago and decided to use it as a blaster extension here. Now it looks better. GS Abominus is such a floppy mess and took way too long just to get a stable pose. As mentioned before, used a pair of right angle adapters to prevent his thumb from flopping. 2. ZX Coneheads Missiles Sets The ZX kits are awesome. However, didn't like the colors they painted the sets with. Dirge's missiles were in gray. This was done to match the MP missile colors, but in that figure, gray replaced the black plastic. Ramjet's missiles were done in gunmetal with the thrusters in gold. I couldn't find a prior MP or G1 toy that used that deco. It actually matches Sandstorm very well since the gunmetal has a brownish tone to it. For this project, repainted Dirge's missiles into black and Ramjet's missiles also into black but leaving the gold thrusters alone. We have a 2nd Ramjet set for Sandstorm and will leave that one alone. Thought about painting the back of the thrust set black and leaving the missile part in maroon, but son wanted it all to stay in maroon. Prepping pieces for painting. Wrapped handles with hobby tape. To mask the thrusters, since they're circular and not tube shaped, have to use stretchy hobby tape. Tamiya makes hobby tape for 'curves' which is basically like super thin vinyl / electrical tape. Have to stretch to make it go around curves perfectly. Hobby masking tape in yellow, stretchy hobby tape (for 'curves') in white. Ah...much better. Used 2 coats of Tamiya 'matt' black, which matches the painted black on these figures. 3. ET01 LED Head kit for SS86 Grimlock. This one focuses on making this kit actually work and properly store in alt mode. ET01 repackages MP add-ons for leader class figures with 3d printed adapters...I think it's 3d printed but the material is interesting. Anyhow, this kit is the complete Model-003 MP-8 Grimlock set with a custom head plate. Comes with 1 LED replacement head, 2 interchangeable face plates (red lens, blue lens), and a MP-8 replacement shoulder that has sound fx and voice clips (Japanese and English). The shoulder piece works fine on its own as a sound fx device (with a really crappy speaker). Installation: Remove 5 screws as shown. Need a long neck #0 Philips screwdriver (file down the tip if pointy to avoid stripping screwheads). Then remove the stock head panel (upper right arrow) and replace with the new head panel and head. Out the box, the new kit works fine in bot mode, but no one obviously tested in alt mode: These horns are hitting the chest doors. There's no way to reposition the head to get enough clearance. Thinning out the custom head plate will provide the extra needed clearance to close the dino chest doors. However, this 3d printed (?) material is made out of crazy stuff. The finish is similar to using a rolling brush on the wall. This stuff is ridiculously strong. My precision files weren't making a dent and just made the plastic smooth and shiny instead. I was using side cutters and razors being very careful not to crack the top of the custom head panel. This shows how much material needs to come off. Another view from underneath showing how much material to remove. It's not completely solid, so use the middle base area as a guide for how far to cut down. Basically, you want the bottom flat. When done correctly, the forehead ridge should then be able to touch the gray plastic. Now we have clearance. Pain in the butt to install, but the end result was worth it. This is the new replacement head with the blue LED lens: 4. ET01 Hands for Legends Super / God Ginrai. Repurposed KFC hands with custom mushroom peg and 5mm holder add-on. Installation: Remove screw as shown. Separate trailer panels from arm. Then remove old hand and install new one. Had a bad experience with their SS86 Grimlock hands kit and uninstalled due to various reasons. Strange I gave another one of their kits a chance. This time, the Ginrai kit actually has the correct sized mushroom pegs. The kit also comes with an adapter to hold 5mm pegs. The adapter also prevents the fingers from flexing too much, which would otherwise cause them to fall apart. However, the holders clearly weren't tested at all. They were of the wrong shape and couldn't fit the inside of the hand. Even if the shape was correct, the tab was too long, so it wouldn't sit flush anyways. Had to shave off material to fit the hand and cut down the rectangular tab in order to plug in flush. As with the head plate above, this stuff is crazy strong. Had to use razors to cut everything down. I'm assuming a heavy duty metal file from the hardware store would fare better than my precision files. Left was after modding one side to fit the hand and cutting down the length of the rectangular tab. Right is how it comes in the kit (and does NOT work). Still, the problems weren't done. The cut down rectangular tab was a little loose. Used hobby tape on the tab to make for a snug fit. The holder itself was also a bit loose and didn't want to hang onto pegs. So, any accessory kept twirling around when plugged in. Used a heat gun to force the sides of the holders a little closer (250F for 40-50 seconds) and then held in place until fully cooled down. Now it can grip pegs properly. Final look after modding to make everything fit and stay in place. Not as satisfying as the head panel in terms of the effort put in and the final result. Plan to keep these hands on for the time being.
99. Blast effects mods for various 3rd party add-on kits. Finally, did some molding and casting for the 1st time in months. Kept it simple and ended up making copies of 3mm, 5mm, and 12mm rods. Some of the 3mm rods. A. Shockwave Lab SL-103 Hand Blaster for SS86 Hot Rod This is an excellent 3d printed add-on, however, it's not blast effects compatible. As common with 3d printed blasters, there are hollow tunnels that go through the nozzles. However, these are not 3mm ports, so can't plug in 3mm rods to use as adapters nor use Bandai 3mm effects pieces. [Not shown] Used a 3mm drill bit and expanded the tunnels to 3mm proper. Then I cut down clear orange 3mm rods down to size, put them in the new 3mm tunnels (have the tip stick out about 1.5mm), and then used epoxy to keep them in place. The 3mm rods now act as a blast effects connector. The added color also helps with the deco. Even without effects on, they can still provide an 'action' type look. Using Cyberverse Deluxe Starscream's missile effect. Using thin blast effects. Now that looks good. B. Go Better Jetpack for Kingdom Optimus Primal The higher tier Go Better kits look ultra smooth and not 3d printed, even up close. The jetpack looks great, but strangely is also not blast effects compatible. The exhausts look like 5mm ports, but they're sadly not. There's tapered details in there which prevent 5mm pegs from plugging in. The tunnels in the exhaust are just shy of 3mm, so can't plug in 3mm rods to use as adapters nor use Bandai 3mm effects. As with the kit above, followed a similar formula: expanded tunnels to 3mm, cut down a 3mm rod to size (clear red this time, the rods stick out about 1mm from the thruster opening), and then used epoxy to keep the rods in place [not shown]. Even without the blast effects on, the jetpacks can still be seen as 'active'. The clear red also helps to break up the sea of gray. Another view. The 3mm rods will act as blast effects adapters. It's a flying ape! C. Dr. Wu TR Brawn Cannon Last is adding a blast effects port to the Dr. Wu Brawn cannon. The 2 halves of the cannon are able to split apart, revealing a circular groove in which a disc could be placed. The diameter of the groove is 12mm. Bought some washers which were supposed to be 12mm OD and 5mm ID, but of course, those measurements were off. Decided to make a mold and cast of a 12mm rod. Then I used my benchtop mini miter saw and cut out discs. Example of the 12mm rod from a test cast. On the right is a disc cut out from a colorless clear 12mm rod. Drew a circle in the middle to act as a guide for drilling the hole. Drilled out a 5mm hole (power drill up to 4.5mm and then 5mm by hand). Didn't like the cloudy finish caused by my mini miter saw. So... Made the disc "clear" clear. Did sanding and polishing work (well, used Tamiya clear spray as a "cheat" after sanding to 3000 grit). Cannon works better with the new blast effects port. Now gotta make 2 more of them since I bought a set of 3 cannons in different colors. Bonus: Repaints A. ZX Optimus Primal swords coupler The middle handle part is extremely prone to paint chipping. There appears to be a running change in which the handle is thinner. Regardless, paint is going to chip off and reveal the white 3d printed plastic underneath. Tamiya 'MATT' black spray paint is fairly resistant to chipping. Filed down the handle to be thinner, taped off the ports, and then sprayed 2 coats of matte black. The contact areas have not scraped off. In fact, the contact areas became smooth and look like semi-gloss black instead. B. Boku BK-01 Optimus Prime Axe Didn't like the translucent orange on the Boku weapons kit. The edges in particular are too light. Took apart the axe and removed the blade section. Used 3 coats of Tamiya clear orange. Now, the orange is deeper, and the edges look much better. Also took the time to fix the LED circuit. The LED leg going to the negative part of the battery was also touching the side of the battery, which is positive. Bent the LED leg away from the battery side. Now the LED works too [not shown]. The original 'orange juice' orange. Not a fan of this. The edges in particular were too light due to being thinner there. After using clear orange spray paint, the orange is now deeper, and the edges look better. Axe put back together.
This is one of my favorite threads to just scroll through with a cup of coffee on a Saturday morning.
