WIP TF Prime Megatron 2

Last night I finally found that neck joint that I lost. It was just in time too since I was ready to put Megatron back together. Here's the result thus far:

Vehicle mode looks pretty good. The undercoat shading effect is subtle and it still gives off a nice detail. On to the bot mode:

One thing a lot of folks have noticed is the detail in the eyes. Too bad that there was not paint applied to make it stand out more. So I put in a white base coat and carefully painted it orange. Now his eyes are accurate to the show and stands out more.

The eyes make him look even more menacing. Very fitting for the character and shows that Megs is not to be messed with.

Knockout: "Lord Megatron! You look absolutely fabulous!"
Megatron: "Grrr!"

Megatron to Megatron: "Hmm, looks good. I think I shall under go the process next."
The only thing left to do with this project is paint his cannon purple and add some small paint details to the body. That should finish it up.

WIP: TF Prime Megatron

Anyone who has bought the voyager class Megatron from Transformers Prime would have noticed how lacking in paint the toy has. The mold itself is quite good and captured his appearance in the show quite well. I liked the engineering of the toy and the texture of the body panels. However, I felt that the bare plastic look was a detriment to my enjoyment of such a great toy. So, what's a fan like me to do? I chose to take it apart and prep it for paint.

Taking it apart was simple enough. Unfortunately, I lost the neck joint due to carelessness. I guess it's been a while since I've taken something apart and forgot the basics. Anyway, after washing all the pieces in warm soapy water and letting them dry, I masked the legs so that I can preserve the purple color. I then sprayed a base coat of black, then let it dry. I then carefully sprayed a couple of light layers of silver to each one. Here are the pieces drying in my window.

While the leg bits were drying I went to work on the arms and chest. Same process as the last. Base coat of black, then light coats of silver, and let dry by the window.

After hours of letting it sit and dry. I test fitted the pieces back and then put those pieces together. This way I won't lose a screw or pin. I purposely left some of the black base coat show to add to the detail of the toy. Of course my aim is to have Megatron look as silvery as I like, so not much of the base coat really shows.

The work I've described till now was done on Tuesday. Today I went to work on the rest of the pieces. Here's what I have so far.

Now I'm just gonna let the paint cure and maybe test fit it tonight. By then, Eight hours should have past since I finished painting these parts. My biggest concern now is finding that neck joint or going ahead with modding a new neck joint for Megs. Until next time.

Time for a revival.

It's been over 2 years since I've actively posted on this blog. Major life changing events has happened that took my time and attention away from my hobbies and as a result this blog. Now, I'm going to try to resurrect this blog as a way to chronicle my customizing progress. Even though I don't have as much time as before, I still occasionally work on customs. My Transformers hobby has seen more of my attention in customizing, so I will show more of those customs. I still do figma customs, but not as much as before. I also still work on Gundam model kits, but not as often as before as well. Anyway, I hope I can devote some time into bringing this blog back. Wish me luck, lol.

Wondercon 2010: Friday & Saturday

Following up on my post about Wondercon. This time for Friday and Saturday. So, Friday I helped out at the Toyslogic booth. The crew and I met at around 7am at the TL warehouse and grabbed whatever we needed before heading out to the Moscone Center. We got there at around 8:30 am and met up with 2 guys who were helping out that day as well. We finished setting up and got the booth ready for some figure selling.

The dealer hall opened at 10 am and in less than a minute we saw people flocking in and checking things out. People came up and took a look at the figures laid out on the tables and shelves. They asked questions about figures and their prices, and they generally bought stuff. There were some cheap figures there that normally went for almost double the price. Those figures sold well. It pretty much went on like that until 7pm when the dealer hall closed. We restocked some items and covered up the booth before grabbing dinner at a French restaurant with a live Jazz band. It was pretty cool and the food was alright. However, the past week of hard work and long hours took a toll on me and I was exhausted and dehydrated. It was my last day helping out though so I was relieved.

Saturday was the day I was finally able to enjoy the convention. My nephew and I got ready and my buddy Hsunami Prime met us at my place where we took the BART to Moscone Center. The cool part was that not only was I able to keep my free dealer pass, but I got 2 free extra passes as well. So when we got to Moscone, security was only letting people in on the far side and those people had to line up to get in. We just showed security our passes and they opened the door nearest to the hall for us and let us in. No waiting, no lining up, and no frustrations. Very cool. The dealer hall was busier than what I saw Friday with crowds of people roaming around.

It just got busier as the day progressed and at times it felt almost impossible to get through some aisles. One of the first stops we took was at the Kick Ass booth. There we got some free swag. A small 3d poster and bumper sticker. There were 3 booth babes there and I had my nephew pose with them so he can show off the pic later.

We checked out some booths near by and just wandered around checking stuff out. At one point we saw James Marsters (Spike on Buffy, Brainiac on Smallville) signing autographs at a booth. There were tons of people so I didn't bother lining up. We also saw Chris Gore, Attack of the Show's resident film expert. I wanted an autograph and opinions on some movies, but again the line was long.

We just wandered around checking stuff out, left to grab lunch, came back and wandered around some more.





All in all a pretty good trip. I think for next time, I'm going to spend more than just a day and actually make time to check out some panels. I regret not being able to check out the Kick Ass panel with the cast including Nicholas Cage, The Prince of Persia panel with Jake Gyllenhal, and the Doctor Who panel with new Director/Writer Steven Moffat. The first episode of the new Doctor Who series was premiered there so I would've loved to see that.

And of course my hauls from wondercon. Not a whole lot and the 2 MMS figs and the sweet knight figs I got from TL as part of working there. The rest I got for cheap at various other booths.

Wondercon 2010: Set up day

This week, I helped my friends at Toyslogic set up for their booths at Wondercon held in San Francisco. Set up day was on Thursday and I met up with the crew at the TL warehouse in Concord at 6 am in the morning. We loaded up all the boxes of figures in a big shipping truck and drove to the Moscone Center in San Francisco. We got there at 8:30 and met up with a couple of other folks that were going to help set up. At 9am we were let in the huge dealer area where we looked for our booth number. From there we waited for the truck to arrive with the figures and set up the display racks.

I noticed half way through the day that our booth was right next to some really "Kick Ass" booths.

Yup, across and to the right of us was the booth for Kick Ass the movie. They had 3d posters set up as well as LCD screens where the trailers played.


Across and to the front of us was the booth for Dante's Inferno.

This booth had LCD's connected to PS3's and you can play a demo of Dante's Inferno. There was also a statue of Dante inside.

Across from that were various other booths. Since the TL booth was at the rear next to the lounge and restrooms, we had a good view of some cool stuff.


It was a lot of hard work and we had to have it set up for all the con goers to see. At the end of the day we pulled it off, but it was around 7pm when we finished. The booths looked pretty good though. Check them out below.


Oh yeah, What I got out of working there was these figures.

All in all, it was a pretty good experience and getting paid in figures was cool. Today I'm going to Wondercon as a normal guest and I get to keep my exhibitor badge. That means me, my nephew, and my friend don't have to wait in line to get in. Awesome.

Claymore Miku

I've been wanting to create a Claymore Figma. Sadly, the materials I have aren't enough to make one. Although, perhaps if I use a blank Busou Shinki body then it maybe possible. Anyway, I've been messing around with my vocaloid figma, Hatsune Miku. When I gave her the sword as an accessory it definitely made her more to my liking. After all, the possibilities with this character are enormous. So in developing her character for my story, I've experimented in some customizing. My first attempt was to turn Miku into a black rock shooter. However, an actual BRS figma is forthcoming so I thought to move miku away from that. My next option then is to customize her into something that would fit her broadsword or claymore as it might be called.

A Claymore Miku. An interesting idea, yet how can such an interpretation be approached. I have thought of 2 ways. One is to actually take Miku's body and customize it into a Claymore Clare body like this figure:

The second approach is to turn Miku's vocaloid appearance into an armored version. This approach will take less work but, the end result may or may not be to my liking. In the interest of experimentation I decided to try this approach.

First, I modded the shoulder armor so that it can be placed on the figma shoulder while retaining its articulation. I did this using some glue and rubber. Next I test fitted the chest piece to see how it would look with her tie.

Miku looks pretty good with just the shoulder armor and chest piece on. However, I decided to start the modification to her legs to see if that will improve it.

I took the two bottom leg pieces and sanded the black paint off of them. Then I started to paint it silver like so.

I then finished painting it and test fitted it on Miku. I took off the skirt since I may do a skirt armor. Or maybe the lapels on her shirt can act like the skirt armor.

This still needs some work and much thought.

Fate/Haruhi Wars chapter zero

While surfing the net, I came across some comic strips that other figma fans have done. Seeing them showed me that developing a storyline and making it into a comic can be fun. So I gave it a go and I think I have a fairly simple story line to go with the figmas I have.

Now, my comic was more to get me used to using Gimp 2.6. I haven't had much experience using it and I didn't really have a reason to use it until now. It's similar to photoshop and it's fun testing it out.

The comic itself is simple and this first chapter is a prologue. The first chapter will take place some short time before this chapter. So in essence, chapter zero is just a taste of what's to come.




Some previews of what may or may not show up as I do more stuff.