Valkfan's custom Ironhide & Ratchet!

[Mandingo Rex]

First off, let me say I generally do not like customs or kitbashes. I admire the effort usually, but am rarely impressed. Valkfan's heads are amazing. It's a shame Hasbro didn't make a Ratchet and Ironhide, but despite being a little more pricey, I'll be glad to have my own unofficial Ratchet and Ironhide once I'm finished with them, and to be honest, they really fit in as if they were the real deal.

 

Here's a crappy full-body shot of Ironhide.

Here's my Ironhide closeup.

 

I'll have to shoot better photos later (I used my cheapest camera since it is easiest to upload). I may do a few decals and a license plate, but nothing too far from the Prime body. If I can find a spare NemPrime, I may swap out the blue parts for black if I can get the pins out and back in. I actually think a black/Prime blue Trailbreaker would be kind of interesting.

 

I honestly wasn't 100% satisfied with my paint job (they're so damn detailed, it's hard to catch all the nooks and crannies). The face was my biggest "meh", as I didn't do as good a job on the face as I wanted. The helmet portion painted fine (sprayed it), but I brushed the face with a fine detail brush and it's not as smooth as I'd want, but I can always take a second crack at it. The resin is solid, so in CASE you mess up, the paint at least comes back off if you try hard enough, but with normal wear it seems to stick fine.

 

I'll post Ratchet in a bit. (It's been a bit more work, as I used the same KO white Jeep for the body). I've tried a different painting method on Ratchet's head than I did on Ironhide, so we'll see if it turns out any better.

[Mandingo Rex]

For my Ratchet, I'm doing a bit more than just a headswap. I'm using the KO Jeep, but I found a handy 1:24 scale Jeep model that has tons of awesome bits:

 

Revell 1977 Jeep CJ-7 2n1

 

Here are details of the box.

Instruction details for the cab.

Instruction details for off-road accessories.

 

I found that the Jeep hasn't changed much in 30 years. The body lines match up almost perfectly, although they are a tad off. But way closer than I expected. The model retails for US$10-15. I plan on making a hardtop Emergency Response Jeep with winch and other offroad accessories.

 

Here's the work-in-progress Ratchet.

Slightly different angle.

 

With the set's lights in addition to the existing lights, there are plenty of lights to make a custom lightbar/front driving light mount. Notice the silver Ratchet head. (It's sitting on a ring of tape). I still have to paint the helmet, eyes and crest. Valkfan made the crest separate, which was a good thing because it would be a nightmare to paint if it was attached. Unfortunately, USPS smashed my crest, so I had to glue it together again. Again, superb quality, although the cleaner helmet lines will probably be easier to paint than on Ironhide.

 

Again, due to shipping, my KO Jeep was badly roughed up, and smelled of exhaust. Also, the white plastic absorbed some fumes I think, so it was 2-toned when I got it, and it had chips all over it. So I had to strip a good bit of the paint and refinish most of the white parts, but the quality was way better on the plastic than I expected. Of course, it's a KO, but the reduced quality means you don't feel as bad about kitbashing it. I think with some slight modifications to the model car roof, I can make a decent removable "Medi-Deck". I'm waiting til the end to attach the lightbar, windows, etc. Also, I eventually have to figure out how I want to acquire/make graphics for the ambulance (the model comes with nice Jeep decals, so I'll use them to replace the painted-over 4x4 on the sides of the Jeep.) For the metal parts, Testor's spray enamel actually sticks really well, without remaining tacky. Just watch for overspray, and don't get it on any of the PVC parts like the mirrors.

[rpetras]

I really want to get one of these white alts, in particular the Viper.

 

Are they on ebay? I've looked and I can't find one. :tfsad

[Valkfan]

The face was my biggest "meh", as I didn't do as good a job on the face as I wanted. The helmet portion painted fine (sprayed it), but I brushed the face with a fine detail brush and it's not as smooth as I'd want, but I can always take a second crack at it. The resin is solid, so in CASE you mess up, the paint at least comes back off if you try hard enough, but with normal wear it seems to stick fine.

 

Thanks for the kind words MR. From the close-up of your Ironhide, I'd say you did a good job.

 

I use a little toothpick trick when I'm painting the face on my custom heads. First, I spray Tamiya Silver Leaf acrylic paint on the face. Once this dries, I apply Testor's Flat Sky Blue enamel paint with a fine point brush to the eye's. Once the eye's have dried I take a wooden toothpick and lightly scrap around the eye areas to remove any messy/overlapping blue enamel paint from the face. It works well and makes the eye paint look factory applied. If you're still not satisfied with your Ratchet results try out my method and see if it works as well for you as it has for me.

[rpetras]

The face was my biggest "meh", as I didn't do as good a job on the face as I wanted. The helmet portion painted fine (sprayed it), but I brushed the face with a fine detail brush and it's not as smooth as I'd want, but I can always take a second crack at it. The resin is solid, so in CASE you mess up, the paint at least comes back off if you try hard enough, but with normal wear it seems to stick fine.

 

Thanks for the kind words MR. From the close-up of your Ironhide, I'd say you did a good job.

 

I use a little toothpick trick when I'm painting the face on my custom heads. First, I spray Tamiya Silver Leaf acrylic paint on the face. Once this dries, I apply Testor's Flat Sky Blue enamel paint with a fine point brush to the eye's. Once the eye's have dried I take a wooden toothpick and lightly scrap around the eye areas to remove any messy/overlapping blue enamel paint from the face. It works well and makes the eye paint look factory applied. If you're still not satisfied with your Ratchet results try out my method and see if it works as well for you as it has for me.

 

That's a great tip. I always hate painting eyes and I may try this in the future!

[Mandingo Rex]

The face was my biggest "meh", as I didn't do as good a job on the face as I wanted. The helmet portion painted fine (sprayed it), but I brushed the face with a fine detail brush and it's not as smooth as I'd want, but I can always take a second crack at it. The resin is solid, so in CASE you mess up, the paint at least comes back off if you try hard enough, but with normal wear it seems to stick fine.

 

Thanks for the kind words MR. From the close-up of your Ironhide, I'd say you did a good job.

 

I use a little toothpick trick when I'm painting the face on my custom heads. First, I spray Tamiya Silver Leaf acrylic paint on the face. Once this dries, I apply Testor's Flat Sky Blue enamel paint with a fine point brush to the eye's. Once the eye's have dried I take a wooden toothpick and lightly scrap around the eye areas to remove any messy/overlapping blue enamel paint from the face. It works well and makes the eye paint look factory applied. If you're still not satisfied with your Ratchet results try out my method and see if it works as well for you as it has for me.

 

Yeah, I actually redid the face last night on Ironhide (removed the silver, it's a flatter surface now). I'm waiting to do the eyes and recoat the face with another light pass of silver. I've found that by thinning the silver, it applies just as well, but smoother and still retains the metal finish.

 

For both Ratchet and Ironhide, I've found that by doing the LIGHTEST wash of really thinned black, I can pick up greater detail around the face and eyes. I still have to do the eyes, which I'm going to try some reflective blue vinyl cut with an Xacto and covered in a clearcoat. I can't hold the brush steady enough, must be work stressing me out!

 

It's taking me a bit longer on Ratchet's body, let's just say I had a windshield fiasco (the plastic is milky white as it is, and I had a thinner accident with it, so the windshield was basically useless) so I'm Dremeling out the windshield (gasp) and using a thin plate of plexiglass to replace it. Hopefully I won't have a muscle spasm, because I was damn near finished with the cab when it happened late last night, and I REALLY don't want to try tracking down another Jeep for the windshield.

[Valkfan]

It's taking me a bit longer on Ratchet's body, let's just say I had a windshield fiasco (the plastic is milky white as it is, and I had a thinner accident with it, so the windshield was basically useless) so I'm Dremeling out the windshield (gasp) and using a thin plate of plexiglass to replace it. Hopefully I won't have a muscle spasm, because I was damn near finished with the cab when it happened late last night, and I REALLY don't want to try tracking down another Jeep for the windshield.

 

Worst case scenario just take a look in the Junkyard section for anyone with a Rollbar parts-bot. I know there are many decapitated Rollbars that were sacrificed for Alternator Trailbreaker customs. Then all you'll need to do is repaint the Rollbar windshield with some white paint to fix the milky white windshield issue.

[iron maniac]

Great work everyone!

My Valkfan special customs are just about done too, I'll be posting pics shortly.

I was able to nab a KO white Hound from a guy selling them outright that used to sell them on Ebay. They are getting harder and harder to find, believe me I looked just about everywhere.

 

Valkfan, you are a truly gifted artist my friend and are doing us all a great service here.

 

BTW, a good tip I found for painting these heads(you guys may have already heard this one) is using Silly Putty to mask the parts you don't want paint to get on. It works like a freaking charm, try it. I have gotten ZERO overspray using this method.

[Valkfan]

using Silly Putty to mask the parts you don't want paint to get on. It works like a freaking charm, try it. I have gotten ZERO overspray using this method.

 

Now this is something new to me but I can see how it would work with painting. I can also see a way to use it while I'm recasting parts. Thanks IM!

[iron maniac]

using Silly Putty to mask the parts you don't want paint to get on. It works like a freaking charm, try it. I have gotten ZERO overspray using this method.

 

Now this is something new to me but I can see how it would work with painting. I can also see a way to use it while I'm recasting parts. Thanks IM!

 

Make sure you use yellow or grey silly putty. I tried orange silly putty once and it didn't work at all, it must be slightly different or something as strange as that sounds.

You will be surprised how well this method works, no overspray at all.