Soundwave Custom Transformer Figure

Utsanomiko · Post by **Utsanomiko** » 2004-08-11 03:59am

Yes, it's artwork. Posting it here in addition to Cybertron so it can be properly viewed and commented upon.

MP-02 Soundwave Project

Rather self-explanatory. I'm currently working on a foot tall Soundwave based on the G1 figure, which will complement Masterpeice Optimus Prime in absence of an official Decepticon Masterpeice figure. Current version is built using glued foamcore pieces. So far all the parts except the forearms have been built, and I'll need to find some good joints to connect them together once those are done (which will most likely be tomorrow).

DocHorror · Post by **DocHorror** » 2004-08-11 06:21pm

I see you have coke and a calculator, may the wind be at your back!

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2004-08-11 06:39pm

looks nifty. and, just slightly OT, what goes on in the cybertron egroup anyways? i've thought about joining a couple of times, but wasn't sure if it'd be worth doing to check it out. is it fairly active?

Utsanomiko · Post by **Utsanomiko** » 2004-08-11 08:54pm

Not a whole lot, to be honest, and nothing in the last 48 hours. Mostly just post info about toy releases and some new movie/comic info. Occasional discussion goes on, but I know my last 5 projects concerning custom art, comics, etc, have aquired a total of 6 replies (with 0 in 2 1/2 days for the Soundwave project). Maybe we just don't have a lot of members, I guess.

Anywho, I finished the forearms, measured the articulated hands I have in mind (from a Master Grade Sazabi model, which I should order the specific part runners for soon), and have tried to figure out what sort of articulation I'll need. The page will probably be updated in a few hours with some new pics and a paragraph concerning articulation.

Utsanomiko · Post by **Utsanomiko** » 2004-08-11 11:21pm

Project page updated. The first build, minus the joints and extra pieces, is finished. I'll still need to look into proper joints within the week to continue.

It looks really swell when standing up, arms and hands attached with tape and colorized in photoshop, giving a good sense of its size and shape when finished.

VF5SS · Post by **VF5SS** » 2004-08-12 10:42am

Ooo! Utsanomiko, have you considered using papercraft robot hands?

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2004-08-12 12:33pm

For joints, you can check out xevoz. Though the joints are more custom and less standardized like for stikfas. They are bigger than those for stikfas though.

Utsanomiko · Post by **Utsanomiko** » 2004-08-14 12:01am

VF5SS wrote:Utsanomiko, have you considered using papercraft robot hands?

I did, for a couple of minutes a while back. But after testing out the Bandai kit hands and seeing they can hold a perfect grip on Optimus Prime's guns no matter how I tilt or turn them, I figure why bother with anything else? Besides, he can flip the bird, which means more bonus points.

Anydangway, I'll look into those new-fangled Xevoz toys when I go shopping soon for kitbashable articulation.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2004-08-14 12:16am

I didn't take a close look at the Xevoz figures at Target, but there is a wide selection.

Utsanomiko · Post by **Utsanomiko** » 2004-08-14 11:33pm

Blah, I really do put the "or so" into "I'll do it in the next day or so".

I slept in of a few extra hours and didn't feel like spending the afternoon driving around the other side of town to look for figures with articulation, especially since I still haven't made a list of joint types that I'll need.

So, I shall blame oversleeping, plus blame my recent cravings to replay Half-Life (due to borrowing Opposing Force + Blue Shift from DPDP, the later of which I already beat on Medium) and a sudden surplus of internet access (due to Spanky spending much of the last 2 days watching DVD supplements), and compensate by providing a link to a photoshop of my Soundwave model:

http://www.geocities.com/tonberimuyo/tr ... 2peek.html
The colors and hands are accurate, but that's not the head I'll use and much more details shall be glued on/painted/done with decals besides just the buttons. It's a decent overall preview, at least.

Utsanomiko · Post by **Utsanomiko** » 2004-08-28 02:45am

Due to my damnably poor access to my own car over the past 2 weeks (seems like sooo much longer[/i], I only finally managed to get another ride out to Target and spend my hard-earned money on an Alt Smokescreen, an Electroinic GI Joe, and an Energon Prowl. The Joe I bought for his missile launcher weapons to use with my other Transformers, the Smokes is for when I start my custom Bumblebee, and I got Prowl for his joints. Though I believe I can utilize the Joe for Soundwave's lower body joints and Prowl for most of the upper body.

With any luck, I'll get some proper assessments over the next week of how I can cannibalize the two for my work. Ought to finish my 3rd TF comic strip episode though...

Utsanomiko · Post by **Utsanomiko** » 2004-10-08 11:18pm

Huttah! Update!

Gone back to the rest of the work on Soundwave. I've got almost half of the joints done now, including the elbows, shoulders, and ankles.

Even got a main page up for all my TF projects. I ought to eventually move and link together all my various comic/art/design projects on one main page like this.

http://www.geocities.com/tonberimuyo/tr ... /UTPP.html

JME2 · Post by **JME2** » 2004-10-09 02:50am

I love the detail you put into the G1 Megatron gun-form. Keep it up; you've got my interest.

Utsanomiko · Post by **Utsanomiko** » 2004-10-09 03:04am

JME2 wrote:I love the detail you put into the G1 Megatron gun-form. Keep it up; you've got my interest.

Um... that's included with Masterpeice Optimus Prime. Beleive me, if I scratch-built something like that, I would have actually written a sentence or twelve about it on that page.

Post by **Dalton** » 2004-10-09 06:11am

You know what would be cool? If it transformed into a working tape deck.

Hop to

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2004-10-09 12:38pm

Dalton wrote:You know what would be cool? If it transformed into a working tape deck.

Hop to

THe original Microman version of Blaster was actually a working radio.

seanrobertson · Post by **seanrobertson** » 2004-10-09 12:48pm

Utsanomiko wrote:
JME2 wrote:I love the detail you put into the G1 Megatron gun-form. Keep it up; you've got my interest.
Um... that's included with Masterpeice Optimus Prime. Beleive me, if I scratch-built something like that, I would have actually written a sentence or twelve about it on that page.

Heh, still, the work you've done thus far is extremely impressive. Years ago I actually kicked around the idea of scratching a Megatron figure, but certainly not something articulable!

As far as the head goes, I also think it's best tackled by breaking the head down into multiple parts. Epoxy is definitely useful, but I'd use sheet styrene for some of the components--like, for instance, the two grayish-white "boxes" on either side of his head. Medium thick Evergreen would be perfect for those hard angles, and if the boxes were attached to one another, it'd give a good foundation/housing for the faceplate and visor area.

That's difficult to describe, so let me try to make a quick sketch of what I mean:

L. box
[ ]-----------[ ]
[ ]-----------[ ]
[ ]-----------[ ] R. box

The three straight lines represent a "bridge": a strip of med. thick stock attached at some point between the boxes (but not at the very end nor, likely, center).

The bridge and inside of the boxes would give add-ons something to which they could attach. What I'd actually do next is make a "skull": a semi-cylindrical shape fashioned by forcing wet Milliput, Sculpey or whatever into a pre-fab shape; e.g., a large magic marker's cap.

In fact, if you so choose, you might be able to do a good facemask out of styrene drawn over this semi or half cylinder piece. Further, clear styrene painted w/ clear red, backed with white would also give his optics a nice "flare;" but I'm not sure if a strip cut to shape, thusly painted and glued onto the aforementioned skull/epoxy putty cylinder would work

Eh, nevermind me: I just got excited thinking about how I might work on such a neat project

Keep up the great work, Utsanomiko!

JME2 · Post by **JME2** » 2004-10-09 02:01pm

Utsanomiko wrote:
JME2 wrote:I love the detail you put into the G1 Megatron gun-form. Keep it up; you've got my interest.
Um... that's included with Masterpeice Optimus Prime. Beleive me, if I scratch-built something like that, I would have actually written a sentence or twelve about it on that page.

Ah, my bad. Sorry.

Utsanomiko · Post by **Utsanomiko** » 2004-10-09 03:08pm

DPDarkPrimus wrote:
Dalton wrote:You know what would be cool? If it transformed into a working tape deck.

Hop to
THe original Microman version of Blaster was actually a working radio.

There was also that one guy's custom Soundwave with a built-in MP3 player and microamp, but the whole thing was just a repainted Optimus Prime with lots of rescupted parts, so it looked too much like Prime and the alt mode was really awkward (he's lucky Prime's legs can even bend like that or he'd still be at square one right now). If I knew much about electronics, I'd consider cannibalizing a mircocassette player and rearranging its parts all over his internals, but the wires would be a hassle (got enough logisitcal problems with the hips for that) and I doubt it'd have a door that worked as well as the one I've got now.

And thanks for the pointers, Seanrobertson, but I have no freaking clue what sort of styrene construct you're trying to describe. I've considered using sheet styrene to build the parts of the face over a skull-like sphere (made of probably sculptey though), but it's still up in the air for me right now. Technically the head's part of a separate step once I get the joints done and am planning what detail designs to add before paiting and waiting for a new set of parts for the hands (I can't just steal my Sazabi's afterall).

I should probably draw a diagram of the rough size and construction of hips I'd need in case anyone knows of some $20 or under figure with such double ball joints...

Oh, and huttah!:

seanrobertson · Post by **seanrobertson** » 2004-10-09 07:01pm

Darth Uts.,

I was afraid my description was...less than descriptive

That's okay. This is part of what I was talking about. Excuse the poor illustrations, but I just threw this together over the past 45 minutes or so:

That's all, really--just spitballing. You'll figure out a good method, I'm sure...given what you've done thus far I am, as previously stated, most impressed

Simply awesome work. If only my Megs project had taken off like that

Utsanomiko · Post by **Utsanomiko** » 2004-10-10 01:59am

Wow, that's one big spitball.

I'll try and see what I can take in from that when I work on the head, though I still think sculptey is sturdy enough to be cut into smoothe enough shapes. Also I'm more than familiar with steps 1 & 3-5, only difference is my current materials (I haven't had to use step 2 on it since foamcore is thick and forgiving enough to line up sufficiently w/o internal support).

I'm starting to think I'll have to scratch-build my own sliding wrist housing, as the parts I figured I could use would need a lot more modification just to do what could be done with basically 2 squares glued together to mount the wrist on and a lip around the inside of the 'sleeve'.

Anyway, I hope once Soundwave is done to begin work on my custom Bumblebee figure (I've got a 1:24 VW Bug model and a most of an Alt. Smokescreen), as well as a couple of Autobot repaints I've got lined up in my project queue, but Decepticon-wise I'd like to eventually build a Starscream figure using a 1:48 F-15, and a 12" poseable non-transforming Megatron to fill out the bad guys. It'd be boring if all my photocomics pitted the Autobots up agaist were Rattrap bootlegs, a half-dozen GI Joes, and other flim-flam.

The Dark · Post by **The Dark** » 2004-10-10 04:36am

As far as I can tell, from examining my G1 Shockwave, it looks fairly good. I did pick up on the waist change, but I understand why it was done. All you need to do now is a Fortress Maximus to the same scale

.

Utsanomiko · Post by **Utsanomiko** » 2004-10-10 04:59am

The Dark wrote:As far as I can tell, from examining my G1 Shockwave, it looks fairly good. I did pick up on the waist change, but I understand why it was done. All you need to do now is a Fortress Maximus to the same scale .

You won't beleive this, but there's a guy on TFans.com who says he's building a Metroplex in roughly that same scale (1:24, which is used by the BinalTech/Alternators line and is close to Optimus Prime's scale) in sheet metal. It'll be roughly 6 feet tall according to the plan he's actually considering getting off the ground.

I figure Fort Max would be about twice that, if memory serves. If it were me I'd use a 3" figure for the Headmaster for and then MP Prime for Cerebro.

I think Cybertronian Tank Grimlock is the largest custom I'd serriously consider.