Well guys… This is the 1st WIP that I will submit on this site. JUST KEEP IN MIND THAT THIS IS STILL A WORK IN PROGRESS! THERE’S STILL A LOT THAT I HAVE TO DO! I just thought that I would list this. I’ve had a # of guys on my workbench that I’ve been tinkering with over the past year, but the last few days I’ve gotten a lot done that I didn’t think that I was going to. You know how that goes… you don’t do anything for a period of time… & all the sudden you get this surge of energy & nail a lot in 1 afternoon! A couple years ago… I was diagnosed & came down with cancer. Over the course of the treatment, I received an overdose of chemo… & have had nerve damage ever since. Making the simplest things even more complicated. From get the get go, I made a promise to myself that I would try to do something new every day to keep my mind strong. Considering that I only have 5 brain cells to work with! This wasn’t something that I was planning, but in 1 of the random searches that I did on the web, I happened to find someone that was selling KO Alternators that had a paint scheme similar to the old paint job that the G1 Smokescreen had. Out of all the Transformer series that have come out with… G1 is still my favorite. There have been a few other neat series that they have produced, but I don’t think that they ever quite got the same success that they did with the original series after that. G1 is still my favorite… but Alternators & Masterpiece are close 2nds because they remind me of the old G1 series. My educational background is in 3D computer animation… & unlike many modelers here on the site, I will pretty much be making most of the characters that I will be working on pretty much strictly on the computer, & not by hand. I still have a lot of issues with my hands, & that’s why. I still wear sweatpants instead of slacks because I still have problems with buttons & zippers for example. I just thought that Smokescreen (a G1 themed Alternator Smokescreen) would be a good project to get my feet wet. I had a junker laying around that I could use as a base, all the rest of the stuff that I plan on doing to him will be similar techniques that I will be using on other figures in the future. So I thought that it would be cool to dabble in water colors as it were. As of right now… all that I have done is a parts swap. No repainting… or anything like that so far. Right now… the figure consists of – 1. Alt. Smokescreen (where I intend to use the blue bits on him as the base. 2. Alt. Ricochet (for the white legs, red & black seats, & white trim that is by the dashboard of the car) 3. Alt Camshaft (For the hands. I will later bash the rest of the figure so that he will look more like the G1 Omibot rather than looking like Bluestreak’s ½ brother by a different mother) 4. A KO Smokescreen/Silverstreak mold done in red, white, & blue colors that are similar to Smokescreen in the G1 line. Right now… I still have Ricochet’s feet still attached to the legs. The reason for this is that the tab that the ankle attaches to in the trunk of the car, is too small to fit on the clip/tab on the KO that plan on using as the feet. So just so I can stand him up… I left the feet attached. Just because of the fact that my hands are so flimsy… what I plan to do to fix that is make a new ankle piece. I don’t trust myself with electric tools, so I am going to make a scan of the Alternator & KO ankle, & make a hybrid piece in white. I’m building a 3D scanner, & it will be easier for me to do it that way that screwing anything up with a power tool. A nice function with my scanning software, is that when it scans an object & makes a 3D mesh out of it, it also makes a skin that can be wrapped around that mesh in 1:1 scale. So that way I can map & make my own personal decals that I want to put on it later. Also editing things that I don’t like or want to change. The blue for example is isn’t right on the KO, so I can recolor everything on the computer 1st, & reapply a different paint scheme to the red base. So that way I don’t have to do any painting. Another thing that I plan on doing with the scanning software is also adding in decals to make it a little more realistic. Keep that red, white, & blue G1 look… but also give him racing logos that are off a real Subaru that wasn’t in the Alternator release. I would like to swap off & replace the plates that form his stomach in robot form… but my hands aren’t working right. I don’t know yet what color that I want to keep the skirt of the car, but the coloration of the stomach pieces in the KO version is white, & I would like to swap them just so that he looks like his G1 box art in robot form. Other than that… I plan on dyeing his forearms & crotch plate black so that he looks more G1-ish. Like I said… he’s just a starting project… & as I complete him further… I’ll post updates DB
Looking good so far! I still need to get that KO Smokes myself, as well as a handful of others . . . .
