Lookin' mighty sexy!

Workspace:

 

ALMOST DONE!

 

I applied some clear coat to the painted pieces now just waiting for it all to dry...

Oh, and if you didn't know, you need to pull his thigh/bicep rotators out from the side, not the top. It's harder that way, but otherwise you'll strip the gripping over the rotator. I almost ruined my Jetfire by pulling it out the wrong way when I was investigating how the rotators were different from others (they're not different, they only look different).

 

I was able to fix his thigh by gluing some tiny plastic slivers to the area I stripped. It works real well again. If your rotators don't stay in when you reassemble, that's what you'll need to do.

 

 

Something else I recommend doing to the twins is to glue the Safeguard legs' pointless "elbow" joints straight so they won't go knock-legged when combined. This doesn't affect their poseability when separated as they look fucking dumb in bow-legged poses.

 

 

Also, can you check if the Safeguard arm legs can be easily modded to pull out as much as the other legs? That would improve their poseability in both individual and combined modes.

I'm not sure exactly what you're referring to... But I'll see what I can do.

 

Here he is - Almost finished.

However I hit a few snags -

 

1) I Didn't realize that the clear coat I had was gloss and this kind throws the look, also makes him look more sloppy than he did Matte. ARGH!

 

2) Messed up on his head, may have to start over on that.

 

3) Filled the ugly screw-hole, sanded, and painted his torso. But it still looks horrible.

 

I may need to completely strip and redo some areas... :-(

 

So anyway, here he is with some creative lighting and NO FLASH which allows for more TRUE color:

 

I like the gloss. It gives a similar vibe of power as the translucent plastic did, but without loss in shapely detail.

Mostly done! All that's left is some touch ups...

But he's reassembled and after a few days to cure, I'll Transform him and show off his jet mode:

 

And showing off his stylish new hip emblem:

 

You are looking excellent my Brother!

 

And now we are ready to be kicking Decepticon tailpipes, yes?

Was painting all night!

 

:argh for Red not photographing well... but you can see the difference in tone by checking out the true orange around his eyes.

 

 

The red is truer red IRl.

 

 

So I am using Tamiya Acrylics and they seem very scratch prone. I've had a lot of trouble finding a Paint that I like. I was using Testors Enamel on my last project and I hated it.

 

Is it just a mater of clearcoating? curing? Any suggestions?

 

 

I really like the Testors acryl paints. they tend to cover really well without needing to primer first, and seem to be pretty durable as long as you dont "display" them too hard.