Post by Deleted on Apr 23, 2014 22:46:07 GMT
At last Project Mayhem draws to a close with a figure I never thought I'd have in the collection. He's been a labour of love, cost me over £200 in parts I've used (and also parts I've abandoned) but still now doesn't even feel finished. Here he is...
I wanted to recreate a Cybertronian gladiator. Other Pretender reinventions have focused on the inner robot but the better ones (i.e. Bludgeon) have taken the shell as their lead. The gladiator mauler was the central characteristic that I really wanted to capture. I originally looked at robotic melee battlers and very nearly bought a Metal Gear Rex kit to use as a basis. I looked at Gundam and other mecha but just felt like I was taking too much of a liberty. I decided I'd bite the bullet and although I'm not a fan of biological aspects in my Transformers, I would try and stay truer to the original toy. So true, in fact, he would be a Pretender...
Then at some point, I started looking at Marvel characters. When I came across the Marvel Select Juggernaut I knew I had my base. I snapped one up before realising there was a no-helmet variant that would probably prove more useful. I got one of those too
. Before they arrived, I started trying to work out what modifications would be required in order to turn Juggernaut into Stranglehold. Concurrently I order a reduced 'Headstrong' copy by Unique Toys that I planned to paint into the inner robot.
The biggest job on the shell appeared to lie with the left arm that had to be cybernetic. I toyed with scratch-building armour plates before my recent kit-bash bug hit me: Find a robotic Marvel figure you can steal from! It didn't take long before I came across Hulk Buster Ironman. I anxiously auction-sniped the bad boy and awaited his arrival. The figure actually looked (in the pics) like it was the closest thing to a re-paint that a Marvel character can be (sharing several common parts with Juggernaut). The proportions were almost perfect. It was this deeper look that revealed a glaring oversight. Hulk Buster was a Legends series figure... I had in my possession two Select series figures. FFS. I found a Legends series Juggernaut (quite a different style but still acceptable - even with the monkey arms) and grabbed him.
So there I was: Four figures with which to make one outer shell. The UT Headstrong was now surplus to requirement as the size of the shell had reduced by a good 30% when moving to the Legends series. Now, I've always tried to incorporate some part of the original toy in a custom job so for this, I was going to do just that and use the inner robot as-is. This actually gave me a degree of relief as I could focus all my efforts on the shell.
The final major piece for the figure was his back pack. This doesn't get a lot of coverage as it looks like some astronaut gear strapped onto the back of a Roman gladiator (you could call him an 'Ancient Astronaut'). With that exact thought in mind, I trawled the 'bay for an Action Man astronaut suit and got exactly what I needed.
The first thing I wanted to do was make the head. This would set the standard and inspire me to get through the rest. Some trimming on the helmet and loads of hacking on the head resulted in quite a cozy fit and thankfully a look of a helmet that was still relatively proportionate to the head. I elected to clip the neck plate off but leave the metal pouldrons. This would leave two plates with the appearance of hammered scrap metal. As he was supposed to be cybernetic, I wanted a higher metal content on the figure than the original displayed. If I elect to go fully bare chested with the paint job at a later date, I will probably remove these entirely.
The second thing I had to do was get the parts from each figure in one place. I used a hair dryer to warm up the joints on the Juggernaut left arm and pop it out. The 'lat' piece it was connected to had a higher rubber content so it was relatively easy. Hulk Buster's left arm was not so forthcoming. Annoyingly, the lower arm kept popping off leaving my no purchase to remove it from the shoulder. A whole lunch time was spent getting sweaty in the kitchen warming that thing up to boiling point with a hair dryer. After removing that, I decided I would use the existing strut on the Juggernaught figure (currently holding the shoulder together) and clip the Hulk Buster shoulder plate onto it. This would mean the lat had no support and would need gluing in place but I was happy to inhibit Stranglehold's ability to demonstrate a monstrous lat spread...
After squaring these pieces away, I assembled the main body. It was only at this point that I decided I would use the Hulk Buster lower legs too. What seemed like a simple concept proved to be another sweatathon as I wrestled and hammered the retaining pins out of both figures. Another lunchtime rinsed but the results were worth it:
I actually started the paint work at this point but I'll carry on with the figure work I had on the go concurrently:
With the figure mostly complete I took a knife to the Action Man astronaut back pack and started carving out a cavity the G1 inner robot would fit into. It was immediately apparent that the shell itself would need a cavity in his back because it was the only way the inner robot could be accommodated. This was a simple case of test and adjust but it was certainly time consuming. I don't have any pics from this particular part but the end result can be seen in the final pictures below.
With the inner robot taken care of, there was only one very important thing left to do: The moustache. Now don't get me wrong, I can appreciate a well cultivated shit 'tache but Stranglehold's has a personality all of it's own. I originally put one thick tash across the upper lip until my wife (!) pointed out the G1 figure's had a split under the nose. I ended up taking it off, cutting it in two and re-applying it. The original is here, the finished article, later. I did consider a full beard as his moustache has taken so many forms, but ultimately, I was satisfied with the one I gave him. Hell, he has a better 'tache than I could ever grow...
I picked out a nifty belt buckle from one of a billion snake things I'd bought from Toys'R'Us (in those horrible little blind packets) and added it. Annoyingly, a Marvel Legends Batman belt I bought for his chest rig never arrived - I'll be honest, I totally forgot about it until just now! I converted his G1 gun to have a much larger handle but once MP Megatron's ball and chain arrived, that got shelved. To keep with the theme, I bought a Kre-o Sharkticon and used his morning star weapon as both a tail and weapon for the inner robot. I wasn't happy at the disassociation between the back pack and his body so I fashioned an 'interface' between the two parts from a discarded weapon (from my Ruckus custom) and the wire from a discarded BT Homehub (the useless c***s). Given the ad-hoc nature, I'm really happy at how it came out. It genuinely looks like the pack is plugged into him.
With these final touches, it's on to the paint job...
This is the aspect that feels the most unfinished. It's likely that I'll go back and repaint all his chest and legs but I was adamant when I started out that I wanted to keep paint to minimum to keep the toy playable. My Guzzle custom, although well-loved, sits on a shelf because I don't want to risk chipping his paint job. I didn't want Stranglehold to share the same fate. It's likely however, that once I'm done playing with him, I'll buy some proper flesh paints and finish him off. It was the lack of those paints that got the better of my impatience. There's a spot on his shoulder/back where I tried to use the one flesh colour I had and failed horribly. Thankfully it's not too obvious but it has reminded me how hard it is to paint good flesh colours.
Using my staple of Games Workshop paints (I was an employee there for years), I basecoated the Hulk Buster parts. I found the overuse of brown on the G1 to be ever so slightly repugnant so I opted to paint his boots/lower legs in gun metal. This reinforced the cybernetic look I wanted and gave a bit more gravity to other parts of the figure where the colour was used. His forearm shield may well get painted in pink when I finish him off but as a figure in it's entirety, I was never too keen on the pink shield the G1 figure wore on his left shoulder.
The purple, I had a lot of fun with. As the classic Decepticon colour, I wanted something quite moody. The G1 figure's purple is borderline maroon so I was keen to bring it back to a proper full, dark purple. I used several layers, building up to a faint pink highlight and washed the whole lot with red. This would give a crimson sheen and hark back slightly to the G1 colour scheme. It didn't come out so well in the photos but in-hand, it's a nice finish.
With the majority of the painting done I tackled that all important article: The moustache. I based it in black then built up the browns. Only once it had all dried did I realise his eyebrows didn't match, so I gave them a splash of lighter brown too. All told, I think I nailed the 'tache but if/when I make this custom again, I'll blatantly have to try a different style...
I'm really happy with how he turned out. There's a lot of things I'd like to add and feedback here might encourage that. My aim was to produce something recognisable as Stranglehold but somehow eliminate some of the unbearable cheesiness the G1 figure had. I think this custom achieves that objective by staying true to the gladiator theme but beefing it up to IDW proportions and still maintaining some of the fun of a Transformer that looks like a porn star (or Sean Connery
). I may well attempt a larger version using the Select Juggernaut as I've just found some nice Pacific Rim figures... Hmmm...
Sifu 師傅
CONCEPT
I wanted to recreate a Cybertronian gladiator. Other Pretender reinventions have focused on the inner robot but the better ones (i.e. Bludgeon) have taken the shell as their lead. The gladiator mauler was the central characteristic that I really wanted to capture. I originally looked at robotic melee battlers and very nearly bought a Metal Gear Rex kit to use as a basis. I looked at Gundam and other mecha but just felt like I was taking too much of a liberty. I decided I'd bite the bullet and although I'm not a fan of biological aspects in my Transformers, I would try and stay truer to the original toy. So true, in fact, he would be a Pretender...
PRELIMINARIES
Then at some point, I started looking at Marvel characters. When I came across the Marvel Select Juggernaut I knew I had my base. I snapped one up before realising there was a no-helmet variant that would probably prove more useful. I got one of those too
. Before they arrived, I started trying to work out what modifications would be required in order to turn Juggernaut into Stranglehold. Concurrently I order a reduced 'Headstrong' copy by Unique Toys that I planned to paint into the inner robot.The biggest job on the shell appeared to lie with the left arm that had to be cybernetic. I toyed with scratch-building armour plates before my recent kit-bash bug hit me: Find a robotic Marvel figure you can steal from! It didn't take long before I came across Hulk Buster Ironman. I anxiously auction-sniped the bad boy and awaited his arrival. The figure actually looked (in the pics) like it was the closest thing to a re-paint that a Marvel character can be (sharing several common parts with Juggernaut). The proportions were almost perfect. It was this deeper look that revealed a glaring oversight. Hulk Buster was a Legends series figure... I had in my possession two Select series figures. FFS. I found a Legends series Juggernaut (quite a different style but still acceptable - even with the monkey arms) and grabbed him.
So there I was: Four figures with which to make one outer shell. The UT Headstrong was now surplus to requirement as the size of the shell had reduced by a good 30% when moving to the Legends series. Now, I've always tried to incorporate some part of the original toy in a custom job so for this, I was going to do just that and use the inner robot as-is. This actually gave me a degree of relief as I could focus all my efforts on the shell.
The final major piece for the figure was his back pack. This doesn't get a lot of coverage as it looks like some astronaut gear strapped onto the back of a Roman gladiator (you could call him an 'Ancient Astronaut'). With that exact thought in mind, I trawled the 'bay for an Action Man astronaut suit and got exactly what I needed.
WORK
The first thing I wanted to do was make the head. This would set the standard and inspire me to get through the rest. Some trimming on the helmet and loads of hacking on the head resulted in quite a cozy fit and thankfully a look of a helmet that was still relatively proportionate to the head. I elected to clip the neck plate off but leave the metal pouldrons. This would leave two plates with the appearance of hammered scrap metal. As he was supposed to be cybernetic, I wanted a higher metal content on the figure than the original displayed. If I elect to go fully bare chested with the paint job at a later date, I will probably remove these entirely.
The second thing I had to do was get the parts from each figure in one place. I used a hair dryer to warm up the joints on the Juggernaut left arm and pop it out. The 'lat' piece it was connected to had a higher rubber content so it was relatively easy. Hulk Buster's left arm was not so forthcoming. Annoyingly, the lower arm kept popping off leaving my no purchase to remove it from the shoulder. A whole lunch time was spent getting sweaty in the kitchen warming that thing up to boiling point with a hair dryer. After removing that, I decided I would use the existing strut on the Juggernaught figure (currently holding the shoulder together) and clip the Hulk Buster shoulder plate onto it. This would mean the lat had no support and would need gluing in place but I was happy to inhibit Stranglehold's ability to demonstrate a monstrous lat spread...
After squaring these pieces away, I assembled the main body. It was only at this point that I decided I would use the Hulk Buster lower legs too. What seemed like a simple concept proved to be another sweatathon as I wrestled and hammered the retaining pins out of both figures. Another lunchtime rinsed but the results were worth it:
I actually started the paint work at this point but I'll carry on with the figure work I had on the go concurrently:
With the figure mostly complete I took a knife to the Action Man astronaut back pack and started carving out a cavity the G1 inner robot would fit into. It was immediately apparent that the shell itself would need a cavity in his back because it was the only way the inner robot could be accommodated. This was a simple case of test and adjust but it was certainly time consuming. I don't have any pics from this particular part but the end result can be seen in the final pictures below.
With the inner robot taken care of, there was only one very important thing left to do: The moustache. Now don't get me wrong, I can appreciate a well cultivated shit 'tache but Stranglehold's has a personality all of it's own. I originally put one thick tash across the upper lip until my wife (!) pointed out the G1 figure's had a split under the nose. I ended up taking it off, cutting it in two and re-applying it. The original is here, the finished article, later. I did consider a full beard as his moustache has taken so many forms, but ultimately, I was satisfied with the one I gave him. Hell, he has a better 'tache than I could ever grow...
I picked out a nifty belt buckle from one of a billion snake things I'd bought from Toys'R'Us (in those horrible little blind packets) and added it. Annoyingly, a Marvel Legends Batman belt I bought for his chest rig never arrived - I'll be honest, I totally forgot about it until just now! I converted his G1 gun to have a much larger handle but once MP Megatron's ball and chain arrived, that got shelved. To keep with the theme, I bought a Kre-o Sharkticon and used his morning star weapon as both a tail and weapon for the inner robot. I wasn't happy at the disassociation between the back pack and his body so I fashioned an 'interface' between the two parts from a discarded weapon (from my Ruckus custom) and the wire from a discarded BT Homehub (the useless c***s). Given the ad-hoc nature, I'm really happy at how it came out. It genuinely looks like the pack is plugged into him.
With these final touches, it's on to the paint job...
PAINT
This is the aspect that feels the most unfinished. It's likely that I'll go back and repaint all his chest and legs but I was adamant when I started out that I wanted to keep paint to minimum to keep the toy playable. My Guzzle custom, although well-loved, sits on a shelf because I don't want to risk chipping his paint job. I didn't want Stranglehold to share the same fate. It's likely however, that once I'm done playing with him, I'll buy some proper flesh paints and finish him off. It was the lack of those paints that got the better of my impatience. There's a spot on his shoulder/back where I tried to use the one flesh colour I had and failed horribly. Thankfully it's not too obvious but it has reminded me how hard it is to paint good flesh colours.
Using my staple of Games Workshop paints (I was an employee there for years), I basecoated the Hulk Buster parts. I found the overuse of brown on the G1 to be ever so slightly repugnant so I opted to paint his boots/lower legs in gun metal. This reinforced the cybernetic look I wanted and gave a bit more gravity to other parts of the figure where the colour was used. His forearm shield may well get painted in pink when I finish him off but as a figure in it's entirety, I was never too keen on the pink shield the G1 figure wore on his left shoulder.
The purple, I had a lot of fun with. As the classic Decepticon colour, I wanted something quite moody. The G1 figure's purple is borderline maroon so I was keen to bring it back to a proper full, dark purple. I used several layers, building up to a faint pink highlight and washed the whole lot with red. This would give a crimson sheen and hark back slightly to the G1 colour scheme. It didn't come out so well in the photos but in-hand, it's a nice finish.
With the majority of the painting done I tackled that all important article: The moustache. I based it in black then built up the browns. Only once it had all dried did I realise his eyebrows didn't match, so I gave them a splash of lighter brown too. All told, I think I nailed the 'tache but if/when I make this custom again, I'll blatantly have to try a different style...
SUMMARY
I'm really happy with how he turned out. There's a lot of things I'd like to add and feedback here might encourage that. My aim was to produce something recognisable as Stranglehold but somehow eliminate some of the unbearable cheesiness the G1 figure had. I think this custom achieves that objective by staying true to the gladiator theme but beefing it up to IDW proportions and still maintaining some of the fun of a Transformer that looks like a porn star (or Sean Connery
). I may well attempt a larger version using the Select Juggernaut as I've just found some nice Pacific Rim figures... Hmmm...Sifu 師傅
^^^ Love this shot! Swerve laughing at Stranglehold's moustache: ^^^
"Ha haa! What the f...Haa haaa! What the f*** is that on your face? HA HAAAAAA!!!"
"Ha haa! What the f...Haa haaa! What the f*** is that on your face? HA HAAAAAA!!!"
)
