Working on a design for Sentinel Prime, who up to now only was mentioned by name and we saw the remains of his right arm/hand after Megatron was through with him.

 

In any case, I started with only the botmode, the transformation in pretty simple, as in a comic/story I'm writing about War Within, it's a pretty old bot, from around the 2nd Cybertronian War (millions of years before Prime started knocking Megatron about). Based him a bit on a Roman legionnaire so we'd get a bit of a to earthlings at least, ancient look. (Yes I know, they weren't around at the time, but you gotta try something new, which is pretty hard where it comes to TF as about anything has been done before). Here's some sketches I cooked up. I'm currently trying to improve the standard design, but mostly figure out how to combine all his trailer parts with him.

 

Anyway:

http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/attachment.p...ntid=6034&stc=1

 

He's got a sort of futuristic/cubic tractor mode, in could have placed the canopy more to the right or left like many construction/militairy vehicles have, but I myself prefer symmetric bots. :)

 

http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/attachment.p...ntid=6041&stc=1

 

When he combines with his trailer, his helmet will change from the standard look to the Centurion mode, with a drop down visor and his little gimmick is that the crest (I think you call it that?) will raise and rotate a bit around the axis near his 'ears', the hole in the helmet will be plugged from within, the exact dimensions will probably have to change a bit. (Let's call him a Hatmaster :P)

 

http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/attachment.p...ntid=6050&stc=1

 

Here's a rough draft of his robotmodes, and trailer. The trailer will transform in to a SCUD-launcher, as it carries two missiles, it's therefore very vulnerable. Next to that it has another function, which is to attach to Sentinel Prime or are able to transform to become his handweapons in robotmode. First of the rockets. The gladius (sword) and the Pilum (lance) are kept in the center of the rocket, and function as the axis for the engine turbines, the lance is too long and will thus have to reach in to the second (upper) rocket stage. The toprocketstages will become boosters/jetpacks to be attached on his back, much like those in Gundam Wing to get a mech in orbit, or like those on Jetfire/Macross transformables, they're mostly filled with fuel and of course an engine at the bottem, possibly a warhead on top. The bottem stages though, have different purposes. One of the first stages will fold open in the lengthdirection and become a roman styled legionnaires shield. This also houses the Gladius (which will probably be an Energon sword in the shape of a Gladius).

 

I'm not completely sure what to do with the other yet though. I may try to design it to become a gun, but it's got quite a large diameter, so I'm also considering to use it at the sides of the legs as boosters.

 

The rest of the trailer will be add on armor. Though, this is also something I have no experience with and I'm trying to get all of it's parts attach well to the robotmode, I would therefore very much appreciate any suggestions, ideas or tips you may have for the trailer parts. :)

 

For now I'll probably have the back end split up and attach to the feet and one of the supporting parts become added arm armor, the shield may be able to attach to it in order for his hand to be free, I'm not sure what to do with the rest yet though, probably a part can be added to his back and maybe the two smaller rocketpods (patriotstyle) at the front of the trailer could attach to his free arm (with added armor) as extra firepower, but I'll have to think about that.

 

Obviously his weaknesses are that he's relatively slow in vehiclemode, and not extremely agile in robotmode when wearing the shield, however, he's well protected in hand to hand combat. His trailer is very vulnerable due to the large amounts of fuel in the rockets. In robotmode with them added as jetpacks, these might be prove to be a weak point as well. The shield in principle should be emptied before using as you don't want it to explode if it's punctured, it will therefore probably be emptied in to the jetpacks (using pumps) before they detach from the other rocketstage.

For the basemode the same things apply. One of the other weaknesses is that he's old and that he's tired of fighting.

 

His strong points are that he's a skilled militairy strategist, who brought an end to the 2nd Cybertronian War; he's also pretty good at hand to hand combat, though he's slower as he has aged considerably, he can attack a target at medium range with his pilum (throwing spear) or use it in close combat, though he prefers the sword there as a spear is not as manouevrable in close combat. Other than that he's socially respected and a good overall leader.

 

 

Some in depth detail on Sentinel Prime:

 

In the official comic, all we know is that he didn't have the Matrix when he was scrapped by Megatron, and that he tried to reason with Megatron while he was being scrapped. We also only saw his hand.

 

In my own story, which is about the very end of his reign and the start of the 3rd Cybertronian War (the one we know from cartoon and comic) in Dreamwave's comic universe, he confronts Megatron after having given the Matrix of Leadership to A-3 (Alpha Trion). This weakened him, but he wanted to make sure Megatron wouldn't get his hands on it and he wanted Alpha Trion to search a worthy young Autobot to take over, this would of course be Optimus Prime. (War Within Orion Pax, at the time). He's killed by Megatron, but not after ensuring a treaty would be established so that the combiners would be limitedly used in combat - which would otherwise have lead to even worse damage to Cybertron. He's also responsible for setting up Autobot defences and mobilisation of the citizens when the Decepticons under Megatron rebelled, despite of the Council (of the ancients, sort of parliament of old bots) who thought they could convince Megatron through peacefull means and negotiations - this lead to nothing but the annihilation of several cities, yet the Council didn't act. Sentinel Prime however, did, against his orders not to (which otherwise had meant the Decepticons would have had no armed opposition).

 

Hope to hear your opinions on him. :)

Looks like someone was heavily influenced by the Tallgeese :D

Looks like someone was heavily influenced by the Tallgeese :D

hehe, yep, the Tallgeese (#1 of course), G1 Jetfire, several Prime's but probably also by the game Preatorians which I've been playing for the last three or four weeks. :D *I've always wanted to design a Roman or Greek styled Mech though, as I have a lot of respect for the roman and greek conquests and their effectiveness and discipline in battle. Plus, he's called Sentinel Prime and this made me think of the Roman Imperial Guard, course, he'd be a Centurion. ^_^

 

love this image of Tallgeese btw:

http://www.staats.us/sonle/zechs_tallgeese.jpg

ahh the good ol tallgeese,,btw awesome sketckes,,they look great as usual

Looks like someone was heavily influenced by the Tallgeese :D

:pfx

*update 1*

*update 2* Pretty proud on this one :)

 

EDIT: Because the handle is rotatable, it can be used as the attachment to the upperstage standing upright and with the shields in rocketstage position, held in his hand when it's in vertical position and in battle mode with attached arm armor, it can be attached to the arm in an horizontal position. Simple, but effective.

Here's he in an early version of the combined mode sketch. I chose to use the extra stage as shoulder and chest armor, to keep it used for defence. Any comments?

Tis is very nice. I would like to see him more in alt mode :tfgrin

In the words of Neo: WOW. :tfhuh :clap