Date: Saturday, October 25th 2008 12:32am CDT
Categories: Toy News,
Site Articles,
Transtopia
Posted by: First Gen |
Credit(s): Geekee1
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Views: 86,433
Seibertron.com member Geekee1 has taken time to show all you Ironhide loving TransFans out there how to do a relatively simple modification to Universe 2.0 Ironhide. This fix will eliminate the "hanging head" problem. Here's what he had to share"
I will post this in both the kitbashing forum and the toy forum, as I believe more people will see it there.
Poor ole Ironhide. he just can’t catch a break with his head can he? For as long as we’ve known he’s gotten screwed when it comes to his head. First he had no head, then he had it blown off in the movie, and now with Universe the poor bastard just can’t stop looking at his boots.
If you’ve been wanting to fix this as much as I have then I have some good news for you, and I have some bad news. The good news is that it can be fixed! Yes, yes hooray, you may love me now. The bad news is, is that it is a fairly extensive (albeit overall easy) mod that takes a good deal of cutting and sanding. Booo! You suck. I know.
So if you’re still with me (and if you love Ironhide you’d better be) here’s what you need.
First tools. Not a lot really. You’ll need a small phillips head screwdriver, and X-acto knife, some sand paper, and a small flat surface like a popsicle stick to wrap the sand paper around.
There are three major culprits in Ironhides head tilt, and how this got passed engineering is beyond me. The first is his “lower spine.” This piece folds down and presses against his rear bumper in robot mode. The problem is that there is too much plastic to allow it to sit flush, so that has to go. First partially transform him and then remove the three screws that hold the roof on like so.
You will also find it easier to work with him if you remove the “lower spine” from the upper body. Just pull the pieces apart.
It may be a little tight at first but I have removed and put this piece back together at least fifty times and it still works perfectly. Now carefully cut and sand the shown areas until you can push the spine to the bumper and his head sits flush when you reattach the spine. Remember to go slowly with the cutting and the sanding. You can always take more off, but you can’t put it back on. It took me a good hour to get this how I wanted it, granted I was being supremely careful.
Now it would be nice if that was the only problem, but unfortunately it’s not. We have two other problems to deal with. The next one that we will deal with is the hinge that is between his headpiece and the roof of the car. The problem here is that when his wheels come up into his backpack the wheel wells hit the underside of this hinge. What needs to be done here is to cut out a triangular shape on both sides so that the wheels can slide into them. I marked where the pieces were hitting with a marker and went from there. After finishing I’ve found that a good place to cut is parallel with the second “line” on this hinge as shown. The other cut for this triangular piece should be at about a 45 degree angle to the first cut. Once again you will have to keep test fitting until you get it just right, and again slow and steady.
Now onto the last problem that we have that’s got ole Ironhide lookin’ down. Remember those three screws that you took out to take backpack off? You can get rid of two of them because they are part of our last problem. The two screw pegs on the outside of this piece are keeping the tire from fully coming up into his backpack. They’ve got to go. You can cut these little buggers completely flush to the larger piece of plastic and then sand them smooth.
Do you have to take them all the way off you may ask? The answer is yes you do, and I should know, I spent about two hours carefully sanding these down little by little, fitting and refitting to see if they could still be used. They can’t. Don’t worry about the roof no longer being secure either. It is still plenty sturdy with just the center screw in there, and if it bothers you that much it can be glued on too.
Now put all pieces back together and voila! No more looking down for Mr. Hide. Now a few additional notes. The head won’t be quite perfectly flush, but it’s damn close. Also if you look at the rotating pelvis area it won’t go quite the whole way back, as it’s hitting the automorph bumper. Honestly this isn’t at all noticeable unless you’re looking at him from underneath. I didn’t even notice it for a couple of hours after I finished the mod.
Lastly I would highly recommend clear coating the backpack pieces. Mine were scarily tacky right out of the box, and I haven’t had that problem on any of my other figures. I recommend Testors Dullcote for this. I used it and it worked great, and the sheen on the figure isn’t that different either. Remember to mask of the windows though or you’ll end up with foggy ugly windows. I also painted his face silver with Games Workshop boltgun metal, followed by chainmail, but you can use whatever you want.
I would consider this mod to be of intermediate difficulty only because of how much plastic you’re actually getting rid of. It’s more time consuming than anything. I also may be a little biased having about 25 years of model building experience, but I’m sure that if you’re careful anyone can do it.
Date: Tuesday, August 12th 2008 6:43pm CDT
Categories: Toy News,
Collectables,
Transtopia
Posted by: Stormrider |
Credit(s): Nekoman, First Gen
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Views: 50,442
Seibertron.com's own Nekoman has created a special exclusive for Seibertronians. Using a format taken from
little cardboard boxes for GI Joe figures, he's created printable Energon Cubes that can be scaled to fit into any line of Transformers.
Click
here to download them. It is recommended that these be printed on hardstock paper with a gloss finish for the best results. Enjoy!
Do you have a creation that you'd like to share with your fellow Seibertronians? Show us in the our
Art of Transtopia Forums.
(The image below is not to scale.)
Date: Monday, July 21st 2008 8:20pm CDT
Categories: Site News,
Toy News,
Site Articles,
Transtopia
Posted by: First Gen |
Credit(s): Jin Saotome
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Views: 35,628
Seibertron.com resident Kitbasher Jin Saotome has posted another update in the
Transtopia Art Forums with more tips on how to fix, create and just overall improve your Transformers.
Here's what Jin had to share with us:
Hey all! People have been asking me to post a quick guide on how I made Guiltar's chest pieces so here it is. There's many other ways to parts copy and I'm in no way a skilled kitbasher who can make Transformers from scratch using just styrene sheets. So this is just a guide on how I was able to quickly make parts for my custom and may be useful to some of you. Enjoy!
Jin Saotome's How to Partscopy Instructions
Do you have any tips to help out your fellow Seibertronians? Have a piece of art or a repaint you've been wanting to share? Head on over to our
Art of Transtopia Forums and show us!
Date: Thursday, February 14th 2008 5:12pm CST
Categories: Press Releases,
Company News,
Transtopia
Posted by: Skowl |
Credit(s): Hasbro.com
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Views: 34,635
Hasbro.com has posted some new customizing guidelines for all the creative collectors in the G.I. Joe fandom - the announcement will also be interesting to all the fans of the Transformers fandom who dabble in "kitbashing" existing Transformers figures into unique, one-of-a-kind creations!
To see Hasbro's announcement
click here.
And for hints, tips and more information on customizing Transformers figures, or to see the works of fellow fans and customizers, visit the "Transtopia" Forums on Seibetron.com
by clicking here.
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