Hey thanks MR! Recently I ordered a better quality mold making silicone that will last longer and allow me to make more heads with less mold deterioration. It just arrived today and I should be able to redo all of my molds including the Stunticons. I've also bought dye for them so if I'm successful, they may even be available in COLOR!

Hey thanks MR! Recently I ordered a better quality mold making silicone that will last longer and allow me to make more heads with less mold deterioration. It just arrived today and I should be able to redo all of my molds including the Stunticons. I've also bought dye for them so if I'm successful, they may even be available in COLOR!

 

That's awesome, does that mean you'd be able to do your other heads in some color besides the tannish resin color?

 

I could definitely go for Ironhide's head being red, and Ratchet's being white (not sure how you dye something white?) so I have to just paint the faces/eyes...

 

The sculpts pre-paint were so awesome, that I hated painting them the first time around. This time I'll definitely do the "Iron Maniac" silly putty method from the start, since the first heads I did I had to strip paint off, and ended up scratching. Black's also a good base color, especially since several of the bots' heads end up being black anyways... I noticed that it's hard to get black to not look custom, no matter how delicate you may be at painting.

 

Silver, on the other hand, seems to work really well for me. Which means having to paint only the faces would do the heads' sculpts more justice and make them look closer to factory when painted.

Valkfan, what kind of stuff are you using for your molds? I've been using alumilite lately. it's a good product and they're from michigan which needs all the help it can get. just wondering what you're using in your lab.

 

your stuff's always great.

wj

Valkfan, what kind of stuff are you using for your molds? I've been using alumilite lately. it's a good product and they're from michigan which needs all the help it can get. just wondering what you're using in your lab.

 

your stuff's always great.

wj

 

Recently I switched to the HS2 silicone mold material to help prolong the life of my molds. It seems to work better and is more flexible with less tearing so that's a really good thing. I've been using the basic resin but I just can't seem to eliminate the air bubbles so I've ordered the slower curing white resin which I've been told by the company will work better for getting into the smaller detailed areas without many air bubbles. I just used the dye to make a yellow Alternator Dragstrip head and it worked great! I still need the new resin though but it should arrive within a week.

 

Hey MR, the Ratchet head wouldn't need dye since the new resin I'm getting is white.

Valkfan, what kind of stuff are you using for your molds? I've been using alumilite lately. it's a good product and they're from michigan which needs all the help it can get. just wondering what you're using in your lab.

 

your stuff's always great.

wj

 

Recently I switched to the HS2 silicone mold material to help prolong the life of my molds. It seems to work better and is more flexible with less tearing so that's a really good thing. I've been using the basic resin but I just can't seem to eliminate the air bubbles so I've ordered the slower curing white resin which I've been told by the company will work better for getting into the smaller detailed areas without many air bubbles. I just used the dye to make a yellow Alternator Dragstrip head and it worked great! I still need the new resin though but it should arrive within a week.

 

Hey MR, the Ratchet head wouldn't need dye since the new resin I'm getting is white.

 

That's beyond awesome! I always felt that the painted faces came out great, since I started using putty to mask out the areas, but getting the actual "helmet" part painted smooth always ended up with a run or 2, or I'd end up getting a fingerprint or smudging it, even after days of drying. Does silver dry a lot faster for everyone else? or is it just that it takes fewer coats and dries faster due to that? Ever since I was a kid, I always touch it way before it's done drying.

 

What do you think your chances are on matching the Alt Prime's red for Ironhide? If you could do that, my customs will definitely look factory... The red I used ended up not matching 100%, but if you could get the red to somehow match without me having to ruin your mold by painting it, that would rock.

 

Can't wait to see your Stunticons, I'll be buying the entire set from you, even if you can't get all the colors to dye properly. I think this time around, I'm going to use the KO Hound's head for Motormaster. Stays truer to the cartoon this way, your Sideswipe head is amazing, but turned out a tad big, even for the ram mold. It fit just fine, and could even transform, it just felt too large.

 

Hey, it wasn't all bad that my truck burned, this way I'm getting dyed heads, and the quality will be 3 times as good as before, and my new Stunticons will blow the old ones WAY out of the water.

 

Have you finalized which Alternators will become your upgraded Stunticons? Last time, you sounded like you may still be deciding.

Can't wait to see your Stunticons, I'll be buying the entire set from you, even if you can't get all the colors to dye properly. I think this time around, I'm going to use the KO Hound's head for Motormaster. Stays truer to the cartoon this way, your Sideswipe head is amazing, but turned out a tad big, even for the ram mold. It fit just fine, and could even transform, it just felt too large.

 

The color breakdown goes like this:

 

Alternators/Binaltech

Sideswipe- black helmet and white face(face is a seperate part since this is a 3 piece head)

Soundwave- blue

Ironhide- red

Ratchet- white with black crest

Dragstrip- yellow

Breakdown- blue

Deadend- black

Wildrider- red

 

Meister mid arm replacement part- black

 

Classics

Cliffjumper- red

 

 

Matching the colors exactly will never happen. There are just too many shade variables for any given color and every time I add the dye, it will not be exactly the same. Now when it comes to the Ram, the factory red plastic and red paint don't match to begin with so I'm not that concerned with being exact color wise. I am a perfectionist with my sculpts and I'm reworking some of them because I am never completely satisfied with my work. That is where I keep my primary focus. When you look at my work, there is no mistaking any of my custom heads for another character.

 

When you originally asked about using my Sideswipe head on the Ram I didn't think it was a good idea but that was just me. That head works great on the Viper mold that it was originally intended for and in my opinion, that's it. The Vipers are NOT 1:24 scale, they're more like 1:23 or 1:22 scale.

No worries. I figured matching the plastic would be impossible, but I figure with your eye you'll be able to get close enough to satisfy yourself, and that will work for me. It is great that the heads won't need to have the helmet area painted anymore, your sculpts will get to show their clean lines without being buried under paint.

 

The Sideswipe head's a great head sculpt, and does indeed work great on the Viper, but not really anything else.

The only reason I don't think I'll get it this time around is that I'm okay with the factory Sideswipe head, although yours is more toon-accurate.

 

Plus Sideswipe was never one of my essential Autobots either.

 

As big a mold as the Ram is, a smaller head just looks much better. I was originally going for the "More Than Meets the Eye" or original toy head, which was black with a purple face, which I thought the updated Sideswipe head looked close enough to without being a duplicate of another head (I prefer original heads on each character, which is why my Sunstreaker was never taken out of the box, since I had this head sculpt on the earlier Dead End... Plus too many Autobots to begin with).

 

I also stupidly didn't think about the Sideswipe head being so big, but it is gigantic, even on a mold like the Ram. It just doesn't sit right on any other body's head like it does on the Viper.

 

Good thing I can take out Sunstreaker now though, since I'll have a new Dead End head, proper this time. I hated how it was obviously Sunstreaker the first time around (there's no mistaking those head fins). It also bugs me, but not quite as much, that Trailbreaker's noggin sits on top of Swindle's body. I like how Takara worked their laziness on the repaints into the storyline for Binaltech, "explaining" that the Decepticons stole the bodies. At least we got some Decepticons. The Decepticon choices seem a little weak to me anyways... None of the molds make any sense in being cars besides Dead End, "Decepticharge" (Dragstrip) and Swindle, and they couldn't even get those guys right. Why the Stunticons weren't done right and all 5 finished originally escapes any and all logic for me. Instead, we get a robot that used to be a gun, a jaguar/cassette, and a cassette. And a limited-release evil Prime. Makes sense to me.

Alright, I had to do it again... it's been awhile, and I'm dying to see these things. Haha.

Hopefully I'm not the only one!

 

*Sorry if you're busy, just wanting you to know you've got a market to sell these things to once you're done. :)

Alright, I had to do it again... it's been awhile, and I'm dying to see these things. Haha.

Hopefully I'm not the only one!

 

*Sorry if you're busy, just wanting you to know you've got a market to sell these things to once you're done. :)

 

No problem my friend. I've been busy as of late but I am making progress with the Stunticon heads. I've been able to recast them in appropriate colors but my original molds for them were an issue so I've redone half of them so far. The picture below will give you an idea as to how they're going to look but these were my first recasted versions of ONLY three of the four and NOT as nice as the final versions that I'm currently working on. I will only post new pictures when all of them have been completed.

While I'm at it, here's a comparison picture of one of my finished Alt. Soundwave heads(painted) next to a my improved version. As you can see, I have altered his visor and added a bridge to his nose which was missing from my first version. I'm really happy with this version and the mold for this is already done. I haven't recasted any of them yet, but when I do, they'll be recasted in blue.