Custom Transformers From Cybertron

Masterforce: Metal Hawk!!!

2008-03-29T22:59:00.000-07:00

I found this while surfing at a Japan Auction !! Totally blew me away.
Custom Model Kit Metal Hawk.. I am so tempted to buy it but the asking price was a Whopping 300 SGD. Now it fantastic looking but I dont really like the face scupt a bit too tiny.. and his Jet mode has too long a cockpit.

But this is one hell of a custom.

Custom Movie Arcee updates

2008-03-28T20:58:00.000-07:00

Painted my Custom Arcee. Tried to explore on a different colour scheme.

Still pink and white in general but I decided to use Pearl White with Pink instead of Pure white.

I am not quite sure I like the outcome.. Might repaint in the future when I get more time. Yes it can still transform even with the rescuplt of the head.

Pink Lady

Close up on the face.

Fly .....

Up up and away....

Thanks for looking.....

Transformers Movie Arcee Face resculpt

2008-03-16T03:53:00.000-07:00

I have always felt that the Movie Arcee was a awesome figure, sleek alternate mode, fantastic robot mode and can be really sexy but her face was a tad too ugly.
just like the rest of the movie figures. I have to give her a face lift.

I can't help it but break a 6month long hiatus to find sometime do retool her face.
I must admit that I've been procrastinating..but yeah.. she is simply too ugly.. hahaha
I really didn't know where to start, but I do know i really need to get rid of her mechanical fringe. That was really uncalled for.

Next I have to smoothen the lines on her face.. Zap all those ugly "Wrinkles" away.

Sculpting the lips is one of greatest challenges in my opinion
Next is to sculpt the "Helmet" for some reason it doesn't look as good as I envision.
Perhaps I lost the touch. Havent sculpt for too long.
As you can tell, at magnification, lots of flaws was reveal. It was not something I could see before taking this picture. Guess I need to smooth it a little more.

Just some pre-refine pictures. Will need to retool it a little more.

Hope I will get more time to rework on the head and even paint it..
Until then, thanks for tuning in.

Custom God Ginrai. Power Master..

2007-12-14T09:43:00.000-08:00

More colours to my custom Voyager Class Optimus Prime but far from enough...

2007-11-14T06:55:00.000-08:00

In order to add an additional door to each site of the chest, I must find a way to slide the door in and out so that it will not affect the transformation.

To do this I need a mechanism to allow the door the slide. And a perfect material to use is the

"Clip" in the File Fasterner.
Adding a little more colour. Still the paint work is really ugly. When I manage to find more time. I have to take him apart to give him a good paint job.

Bring it!!!

Custom Voyager prime.

2007-11-10T06:16:00.000-08:00

I have tried to abstain from making any custom for the last 10 months cos, my wife is expecting and I don't want to create much dust and smell of chemical in my home.

My baby was finally delivered, and now I can finally get my hands wet again.

For a long time I been think of how to make Voyager Optimus prime more movie accurate. And many have posted their custom and its really getting my hands itchy.

Voyager Optimus Prime, even though transform very differently from the movie counterpart it. He certainly look closer to the later in Robot mode.

I have been thinking how can I go about doing it.. until I saw this pic.

This bust is the closet thing I have ever seen to the Optimus Prime in the movie. There actually so many pictures of him I cant be exactly sure how should Optimus Prime look like.Before I work on him, that has some pictures of how good he look originally. In the even that I destroy him and make him worse.

As you can see on the pic above his head is a little stiff and that is something I wish to fix.

The Torso

Torso. While carry as much details as he should in the movie.. They are sort of weak, and "dwarf" as compare to the real thing.

So my intention was to make it look more obvious.

The Head

The head look great from the front, however the neck is not ball jointed and the "neck is getting in the way even if I added a ball joint to it. So that must first be trimmed.

And next adding a ball join to the stem of the neck.Voyager Optimus prime looks much more like that of the Movie Optimus Prime and that pf Leader class in my opinion. However his face looks a little flat on the side. I would like to give him a little face lift.

So what you see above is that I have trim off the neck and replace the next with ball joint. (Apologies for the dark pictures. Its already night time when I finish and I do not have a spot light.:-( ....)

Next I try to give it more projection on the face mask I might have over done this a little. Will shape it down later . Next, the torso. I have added a protruding side door on each side of the chest and the Visor on the top of the wind screen. ( I will work on the wiper later..)

See below, you can see that the side door now slide a part covering the hinge joints on both sides and the visor is now up at a certain angle mimicking on one in the movie.
And a ball joint neck allow prime to look up a little. I tried to work on the waist, however the screw got rounded when I attempt to take them apart. I will try it again .
I have not really paint them. Work on them in the next weekend or so..

Thanks for checking back.

Moive accurate Optimus Prime Helmet

2007-09-03T06:20:00.000-07:00

Its been a long long time since I did any custom. Time was a factor, but my wife's expecting so I am staying away from all those paints for awhile. You never know whats chemical they have in them..

I have so much I want to do in my mind.. but Alas.. They all have to wait till the time is right.

However, I just got to do this one..

I am now working on the eyes.. Check back for updates.

Pretender... Tranform

2006-12-26T07:57:00.000-08:00

Metal hawk taking flight.. as you can see the swivel joint at the neck allows him to tilt his head upwards allowing him to pose in one of his signature flight action..

Metal Hawk Pretender... Taking shape.

2006-12-26T07:46:00.000-08:00

More updates on Transformers Pretender Metal hawk ...
After assembly, acrylic paint was applied to it. I am pretty satisfied at the point of completion. However, retrospectively, I think i could have done a better job now..
but time is not as generous with me now.

So I will be posting more pictures of metalhawk. Please check back for updates.

More on Pretenders Metal Hawk scratch build

2006-12-03T07:28:00.000-08:00

I small update on Hawk taking shape. As you can see I am lacking the thighs and wings here, which will be updated shortly. Thanks for tuning in.

Masterforce MetalHawk the making.

2006-11-25T04:26:00.000-08:00

Masterforce Pretender Leader Metal Hawk. Japanese (Takara) created Metal Hawk to lead the pretender in the popular Japanese Transformers series the MASTERFORCE. However it was never seen by the international market and I have never knew of it existence until..... the power of internet that shrink the world) I have always love Hawk from the animation. I even thought of making myself an exo-suit when I was young. So when I saw it on the web and learnt of it existence I told myself I must get him. The toy is made of die cast and so the name. Lacking in articulation and a far cry from the animaion counterpart. I am getting it only for Sentimental reason.

So I have to make my very own Metal Hawk. This is actually my second attempt in scratch building Metal Hawk. Due to the lack of appropriate material, Full transformation was not possible and remains only in Robot mode for display only for my first Hawk. As seen in the picture below

But my dream to make a posable, anime acurate Hawk still lives on. So once again, I start on my quest to build my very own transformable Hawk. Stay tune to find out about my progress

With the exploration of better materials, I came across epoxy putty. This is one of the best Gems I have found. Its cheap. widely available and it cure without baking or heating. And its solid hard. I wanted to make a metal hawk that is posable and proportional. And anime accurate in both the robot mode and its alternate mode.

With that idea in mind. I got some Lego Bionicles figures. ( lego has been producing really posable figures and toyline that make fantastic joints such as the Ball-joints in Bionicles and Clicking Hinge joints in Lego Knights. Both have serve fantastic purposes in my customs. As you will witness in my future posts).

Most transformers even today's toyline with improve articulation and posability lack Joint in the Abdomenal area. This prevents lots of dynamic poses. To achieve anime accuracy, great posability is highly desirable. So I have adopted the bal joints from Lego Bionicles for Hawk's abdomen.

And the head was sculpted with Epoxy resin as seen below.

The new Ginrai. Yes God Ginrai

2006-11-19T06:30:00.000-08:00

Doing it in a whole new propective

For anyone who has been observant would know that I am a great Fan of Ginrai, I have made 3 custom of him so far. and still I am not satisfied. working on the original gives much limitations. Scratch building him will not be perfect either, since my skills are no where near some of the experts around. I have been stalling till recently.

A friend of mine one of the best sculpter and scratch builder I've known ( Its really my honour to have known him) recently got himself a milling machine. Making it possible to make my dream Ginrai.

However, I have the faintest idea to work with 3D modling software. And thats the greatest setback. However, I am taking on the challenge. Its gonna be long and ardous.. but I am determine to see this to completion... meanwhiles here's some of the sneaks.

It's been a while..

2006-11-19T05:49:00.000-08:00

Wow its been a long time since I posted any updates here. Work have been hectic. There have been lots of ideas but I have no time to work on them..

One of the projects thathat are still left hanging was my Remote control Roller for MP-04 to "complete" the MasterPiece prime.

Lots of planning and actual work was conducted... However, time has been the limiting factor, none the less here are some of the work in progress.

Quintessons Five Faces of Darkness

2006-10-12T22:31:00.000-07:00

Quintessons

The extent of Quintessons involvement in the creation of the Transformers Race is still largely a matter of conjecture. Certainly there cruel machinist intellects influenced the Transformers' early development, and perhaps even attacked and colonised Cybertron at one or more times in its past. The main problem was misinformation. the Qntesson high command- the five-faced judges that preside over Witch-hunts over purging inqusitions-thrives on a culture of lies and deceit. Tow things, thouhg are clear. Cyberton is a huge tactical importance tro the Quintessons, and they -like Unicorn- fear the power of the Matrix.

- Simon Furman -Transformers.

It was a pity such important character in the history of transformers was never made into a toy by Hasbro. But a Transformers Fans will not leave it to regret and empty runting. He got into action and made his own quintessions. And he even push it further to bring us a model Kit so that every TFans can own their very own Quintesson. and I am one of the lucky few that have bought it. Its been lying on my desk for the longest time. Due to my constant distractions from my other sudden inspirations to work on other custom. Today, I finally have put my hands to it. Its still far from completion as I need to work on his tenticles. Till then here is the FIVE FACES OF DARKNESS

Judgement, My favourite amongst the 5 faces. And i think the best sculpt by the artist. Not only is it anime accurate the details and attention invested in him is so beyond me. My poor photo taking skills doesnt do him enough justice. He is probably sending me to death if He was to come alive.
Death, Certainly the most recognised face of the Quintesson, the one that spells death, the end, D day whatever you call it. However, this is also the face I am least statisfied with (By no means is it less impresive than the other faces) but his droopy eyes makes him look a little sad, and sorrow filled and even exudes a sympathetic look which does agree with his name (in my humble opinion), so I decided to make it alittle more to my preference.
I raise his Fore head, and give his more incisors. to gives it a more Snearing looking
With my modification I hope it look a little more fearsome and be true to its name

Quintessons Finally

2006-10-12T22:04:00.000-07:00

One my favouraite faces of Quintesson. and the Sculpt really matches the his name.. You could even see the anger in his eyes.

Introducing wisdom, The sculpt is very detailed and true to it animated version. Each panel -lining are well define and sharp. However, is pretty difficult to paint the eyes as is really small
And last but not least WAR, I really marvel at the skill of the sculptor, while this piece of art is clearly handsulpt, his skills are fantastic and pretty much capture the expresion required

An over view on how Quintesson looks like from head to toes.

Retrospect.. Ultra Magnus: the making

2006-10-04T07:42:00.000-07:00

The first part: The transforming module for the chest where the head will sit.
This design was not used as well.. haha
One of the hardest part is the shoulder joints.. It must have a certain distant from torso to allow substantial articulation in the robot mode. While the space between the side of and the shoulder has to be minimized in alternate mode. I have to work out a few designs.
More design sketches.. It took me a while to have the tranformation sort out. And finding the right joints was really a challange. I don't want cannibalized from my old toys neither would I risk raising the Cost of Raw materials. I have to think economical.
My intial design on how the Ultra Magnus armour should fit THS-02 and how the head should be hidden in the alternate mode. However, this was mechanisim was not employed

I have previously posted my work in progress picture in several transformers forum. But there are more to it. I never have a chance to post them. Now that I have my own blog.. There is no restriction to big image files... So for those who are interested, hope you like what you see..

I am working on Quintesson now!!

2006-09-29T18:18:00.000-07:00

I been procastinating to do this for the longest time, due to the lack of the right paints and materials as you will learn later.. haha..

Just for the infomation of those interested. I did not build it. I only painted it. ( That's one of the reasons for my lack in motivation to work on it.) However, its available at Rapid Squirral's Production. And I must thank the Person behind this wonderful scuplt. He is simply a genius.

And I have reasons to believe he is the genuis that brought us Transformable A.R.C.

Thank God we found you. Check back for updates.

Meanwhile, Just a little recap. A couple of picture of my all time Favourite. THS Ultra Magnus.

I will also be posting some of my work in progress for my previous custom.

All comments are most welcome.

More images of Star Saber in action

2006-09-23T11:50:00.000-07:00

Victory!!! Even baring a name so different from Prime or Convoy. Star Saber remains to be one of the most sort after toys among Transformers collectors. And his glory exudates by his anime counter parts were mostly non existence in his Robot master reincarnation thanks to his limited joints and and stiff neck.

In this project, I have tried to give Star Saber his due Glory without affecting his transformation.

More pictures of Victory Saber and Victory leo to be posted tomorrw. Please check back for updates.

What I have done to the shoulder cannons

2006-09-23T10:39:00.000-07:00

In Masterforce, God Ginrai has was armed with a Arm Rocket mounted to his shoulder, making it so lethal that this is one of his finishing moves. Since then, in most series it has become the trademark of most Transformers leader ( In particular the Japanese animation). when they merge with his sidekicks

A brief history of Shoulder cannons on Autobot leaders
-Beginning with the Victory Series, Victory Saber has 2 cannons over his shoulders,
-In 2000 the Transformers return to their Automobile forming alternate mode. Fire Convoy - Merge with God Magnus to form God Fire Convoy again with 2 Huge cannons on his shoulder,
-Following the success of Car Robot, Armada/ Micron legend follows with Jet Convoy (not me LOL) merging with Overload to form Magna Convoy. With 2 Gigantic Blaster cannons to enhance his fire power.
- Even the most disappointing Convoy to date, Grand Convoy ( Such a great name wasted on a lousy design) merge with Wing Saber to form Cannon Convoy
- And finally Galaxy convoy combine with Sonic bomber to form Sonic Convoy. With two Chain Cannons on both side of his shoulder.

Till we see the next convoy... Lets return to the pioneer. Victory saber.

In the both the Vintage and Robotmaster versions, the cannons lacks the flexibility as depicted in the animation. This often hinders posablity of the toy. So by adding the hinge joints to the cannons, not only do I extend the length ( giving it more asetheticity) but also anime accuracy and improve posability.

Victory Saber Merged!!

2006-09-21T02:05:00.000-07:00

There has been some problems with my blogger account and I haven't been able to post.
I am dying to show some of the updated pictures. For those who have check backs and was disappointed with the lack of updates, I greatly apologize and absolutely appreciate your support. Here are some of the pictures of Victory saber.

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v313/arcee_tf/vicandstar3.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v313/arcee_tf/victorysaber1.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v313/arcee_tf/victorysaber2.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v313/arcee_tf/Victorysaber4.jpg[/IMG]

I will be giving them a new coat of paint soon. Thanks for all your support.

Victory leo.. transform!!

2006-09-08T12:05:00.000-07:00

As you can see that the wings have been extended. More obvious when it spread in Victory saber mode. And the hind legs allow the lion to be more dynamically posed.

Paint job to begin soon...

Victory leo gets more articulation in his hind legs

2006-09-08T11:50:00.000-07:00

A great pal of mind suggested to me that Victory leo should be able to bend his Hind legs, as they are sticking out awkwardly in Victory Saber mode and its really ugly.
So i decided to explore the possiblities..

I was pretty apprehensive to give it a go, since there was quite a bit of work involved and i cant be sure if it will be successful... but i decided that it will also give the lion mode more articulations. So no pain no gain.. here goes...

2006-09-05T10:39:00.000-07:00

Many have asked what Joint have I been using. Its from Kotobukiya.

I bought it in local model shop cost about 8 sgd. Its really cool.. I didnt expect to see a 2 pt hinge joint there. Strongly recommend. for knee and elbow joints.

Victory Leo Work in progress

2006-09-05T10:19:00.000-07:00

Victory leo was tougher than I have earlier expect.
His original face was molded on Rubber/ PVC making it soft and hard to Carved
So I have to remove a large part of the face and reconstruct it with Epoxy

Next I hate Stiff necks and So I added another ball joint to it so that he was swivel for left to right

And his knee joints were tough too. Especially when its part of the transformation. Slight descripancy will render the tranformation impossible. So angle and lenght of the thigh must be keep consistant to the original mold too. I will touch more on that in the next few post.

More updates on the Arms

2006-09-04T06:41:00.000-07:00

For arms to swivel to the side. An additional join must be added to the elbow.
1. 2 square styrene sheets were added and stacked together.
2. Drill a hole in the middle of the sheet.
3. At the elbow end, a "rod" is inserted, this create a "male" and "female" joint.

The Fist

2006-09-03T07:17:00.000-07:00

In order to allow Star Saber to wield his Saber more freely, Wrist movement are most indispensible. And as promised, Fist joints were added.

What I did to his legs

2006-09-02T18:55:00.000-07:00

One of the biggest grouse for Star Saber his inabilities to bend his knees. What here's what I did to correct that. I added a 2-point hinge joint. to allow bending and transformation into Jet Mode

Updates

2006-09-02T11:54:00.000-07:00

I realised that in order to display Star/Victory Saber in some of his Signature poses, more waist/ Hip movement is necessary. So I decided to give him a ball joint to allow more movement in that region.

Face Sculpt

2006-08-31T09:08:00.000-07:00

Face of Star Saber has been retooled. The sides of the "helmet" have been trimmed to give it a leaner look. And the face plate was also re-sculpt to give it a sharper look.

More updates coming up soon. Stay Tuned.

Star Saber

2006-08-30T06:24:00.000-07:00

For Star Saber, I wil be retooling the face, to give it a sharper look.

Hip plate will also be made "Swingable" to allow more thigh movement.

Knee joints would also be added to improve the posability.

Elbow joint will also be worked on to allow swinging outwards.

Wrist joint will also be added.

So Stay Tuned...

Victory Leo

2006-08-29T16:39:00.000-07:00

Changes I will try to make:

1. Extend the wings on both end. and allow "folding" like the original

2. Knee joints will be added.

3. And possibly retool the face.. If i can, it's pretty small actually.

Next Project: Victory Saber

2006-08-29T16:28:00.000-07:00

I have always been a fan of Star Saber and Victory Leo. However, I can't say the same of the Robot master interpretation.

Star Saber has a face that looks too fat for him. absense of hip and knee joints gives him a huge discount in the posability department., His arms has limited posability too.

Victory Leo, was on the whole a much better toy. However, his face sculpt makes him look like a kid or worse a monkey. And the lack of knee joints was pretty disappointing.

When they merge to form Victory Saber. The biggest problem I have was his puny wings. And Even the original version looks much better in proportion than this. Isn't it suppose to be an improvement ? The complaints goes on.....

Recently, my brother was trying display "him" in his cabinet, I just couldn't stand looking at it.. and not do anything.

I just have to do something to it.

In the next few weeks I will be posting my progress on my work on my custom Victory Saber.
Do check back for updates

Swoop completed.

2006-08-26T07:51:00.000-07:00

G1 Dinobot Swoop is completed. A simple job, give his body a blue paint job.. and wow.. Its pretty much anime accurate. However, I can't achive the yellow on the Knee/ Claws due to the lack of appropriate paint.
Thanks for viewing

More of ARCEE

2006-08-25T09:47:00.000-07:00

She is such a babe. And this transformer was so well designed that not only does she looks great in Vehicle mode and Robot mode. she can be posed in ways you never expect a Transformer to.

And to give it a more femine posablility. I ball jointed the wrist as well.

Wanted to see more of it? check back again.

Head Master ARC

2006-08-24T08:22:00.000-07:00

Almost a year ago I bought a model kit from Rapid Squirrel's, I must say it was a fantastic model kit considering is entirely hand sculpt. The effort putting into the making and designing the kit is top notch. not to mention about how talented the scuplter is..
However, quality control was alittle short of desired. Nonetheless, a wonderful work.
Being a perfectionist ( well... only in some aspects) I just have to give my own input.

1. Re-sculpt Daniel the head master
2. Re-tool ARC's face to give it more symmetry
3. Remold some parts in general to full up the uneven surface... and some other modifications..
which i will post in the next few days...

Though it no longer news... I just want to showcase this wonderful work of art by the sculpter. And tribute the the most beautiful Transformers.. never made..

Procastinator

2006-08-24T08:15:00.000-07:00

Another day has gone, I just got a can of Mr. Air for my airbrush and some paints today. However, I am hoping to have Swoop its deserving anime colour tomorrow's evening after I return from work..
Here's how it should look like after he recieve a new coat of paint. See above
Please check back see..

Anime accurate G1 Dinobot Swoop?

2006-08-22T08:34:00.000-07:00

A great friend of mine, contacted me sometime back, asking if I would help him with his Swoop repaint. I was like Wow.. I am both honoured and flattered.. at the same time uncertain.

I mean.. Man its one of the rarest G1 around and one of the most sort after Dinobots.
And he wanted to put his precious in my hands? I was like.. Hope I will not let him down.. and risk his Swoop turning it into poop..

Anyhow, he handed his swoop over to me to day.. I wish he is not regretting... Hahahah...
He wanted me to repaint it to give it a little more anime accurate... If this was mine.. I would have go ahead wth a resculpt in his head and give the arms and legs a little more articulation.. but well like I said.. Its not mine..

So here's a pics of how the original Swoop looks like if you havent seen one. :/

Custom your very own Transformers

2006-08-21T05:11:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my world of Custom Transformers.

One of the biggest grouses of a Transformers collectors, in particular Generation 1, is that the actual toy differs so much from its animation counter parts, Their proportion is so off, and they are as stiff as blocks. Their heroic characters in the animation is translated into.. such boring toys.

They just don't do the characters justice.

Over here, I would like to share some of my customs as well as other's efforts in making thier heros comes alive with the dignity they deserve.