Studio Series Devastation Optimus Prime

OG is totally uninspiring

I wasn't impressed with when first I saw the pictures. The figure is lanky, no fuel tanks on the legs, the truck mode is too long, no mandatory blaster, the axe... is that even an axe? The trailer hitch is too long. Only the windows are nicely painted. That's the only good thing about this figure. 

I passed on it serveral times when I saw it on display. It looks pretty bad in person. 

Then one day I thought, why don't I get this figure to try cell shading the figure? There are lots of pics on the web on beautiful cell shaded Macross figures and Gundams. These looks so professionally done using airbrush. Then there are some who used paint markers.... wait! Cheap paint markers can do cell shading too? Hey! I could very well try that too! 

So I started watching some YouTube vids, downloading some pics of cell shaded optimus primes. Some were great, some seemed over the top (to me). Now the vids convince me cell shading is doable and I went off to get paint markers.... silver, grey, pink, light blue, white....

The shading of Prime's mask took a leapt of faith on the whites and blacks

White paint always hates me

Lots of trial and error, cleaning up with CIF (did I mention it removes ANYthing?). Then try again, then cleaning it off and redoing. 

Adding streaks of pink to Optimus

Finally touching up the cab and the borrowed gun

Robot mode

Truck mode

Waste of plastic of an axe

Lots of mistakes were made in this project. Paint markers can never be compared with an airbrush, the painted surface will be uneven and unrefined. The main thing is I have had fun!

Legacy United Thundertron

Time flies! I have not been posting since 2017?!

Ah Thundertron. I have no idea who he is, A quick search reveals he is a merciless peg-legged space pirate. Cool! 

Merciless Space Pirate Mode - Arrrrrrr... complete with a gold-rimmed Hat.

His alternate mode looks like a shield liger and I wanted to see if I can mod the lion head to be able to move left and right like the kotobukiya wild liger. 

Source: https://www.gundam.co.nz/product/1-35-zoids-wild-liger-by-kotobukiya/

The pins of the Thundertron is fixed such that the head can only look ahead, without lateral articulation . To have neck articulation, I would have to remove the pins at the head and neck joints and the thin white plastic would definitely break. Oh well, as it is, he looks great with lots of detailing. He is just lacking in paint, which is easily fixed by paint markers and some minor panel lining. 

Wild Liger Mode

Robot Mode

His gigantic 80's shoulder pads do limit his arm movements unless you move them away. He has no waist articulation and wrist articulation is hampered by his fixed wrist claws. All in all, he can pull off decent poses. I got him for his liger mode, his robot mode is ok. And he looks great for a space pirate --ARRR.... complete with a gold-rimmed Hat.

Sky-Byte, that's me!

Ah, Sky-Byte, a poet, scholar, brilliant military strategist... not.

Source : http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Sky-Byte_(RID)

Who's the baddest shark around? Who's the smartest shark in town?

Sky-Byte, that's me!

Everybody loves a haiku-spouting born loser, right? 

I have both the LG 06 Gelshark and the older Transformers RID Sky-Byte. The LG 06 has a better shark mode while its robot mode is unspeakable.

 

Here's the robot mode... The RID Sky-Byte looks more like the Predacon military genius from the cartoon. 

Super Ginrai - TR Powermaster Optimus Prime

Super-God Masterforce - the series that left a deep impression on me, much, much more than G1. I was stunned the first time I saw Ginrai combine with his trailer to form Super Ginrai. Since then, I can't remember how many times I rewatched how Super Ginrai defeated King Poseidon on YouTube.

Credits to Dinobolt1 for the excellent video.

Here's is Hasbro's Titan Returns Powermaster Optimus Prime (what a mouthful). To me, this will always be Super Ginrai. 

This is a great 'generations' update of that old brick, which happens to be my favourite toy among my collection. 

Traditionally, Ginrai is a human who keeps combing his hair. He is also quite a contortionist who bends his legs in some horrible angle to become the godmaster engine situated in front of Super Ginrai. The current 'upgraded' version looks more like roadkill with Ginrai splattered in front of the cab. Poor Ginrai, his previous life wasn't good, this current reincarnation is worse... (- - !!!)

So I took out my trusty brush and gunmetal paint and painted the front part, if nothing more than to hide the blood stains... sigh... poor Ginrai.

While I got my brush out, I proceeded to do some simple wash to bring out all the beautiful details.

More pics of this awesome toy. The horrible hollow forearms are really obvious. Thank goodness Takara Tomy fixed that. 

Macross VF-1S

VF-1S piloted by Roy Focker before Hikaru Ichijo took over. I did the panel lining and weathering for this model back in 2008.

The main issue with this toy is the head. There is a distinct seam line right through the middle of the head. It's as if Voltron had cleaved him right through the middle of the head using Voltron's 'blazing sword'. The fix for this is rather simple. Just apply model cement on the seams. Compress the seams tightly together such that they form a permanent bond. Then file the part smooth and spray the area. The tricky part is that the body and the head is no longer of exactly the same white tone :(  Luckily after some 'dirtying', the colour difference is not obvious.

I also 'drilled' holes into the head machine guns. It's not difficult to do, just need to do slowly and with care so as not to break off the thin plastic.

As with VF-1J, panel lining was done by doing a grey wash, followed by a white wash to produce the smoky effect. The weathering was done using pastel chalk, silver model kit paint and colour pencils.

Fireburst Optimus Prime

Fireburst Optimus Prime from Transformers DOTM - the notorious shelf warmer...

I must admit the only reason why I got this was that there were lots and lots on clearance at OG. This mould is terrible. The legs are too long, the torso too short, the forearms too bulky, in a popeye kind of way. And the worst thing is the drab, unpainted plastic grey all over the figure. The head is nicely detailed, however, but Hasbro effectively removed the light-piping effect by painting the eyes light blue.

The first thing I decided was to do a panel line wash. It's very easy and fast, and it brings out all the little details in the dull grey plastic.

I didn't bother to spray the smoke stakes and font grilles silver. Looking at the pics, maybe I ought paint some parts... nah... maybe not. I don't really like this mould that much.

Here are some more pics.

Toransuformu!!
The transformation is quite intuitive. I don't really like the fake chest windows and the fake wheels. Leader class ROTF Optimus Prime, this is not.

I don't remember DOTM Optimus ever wielding an axe in the movie...