Custom Spike Witwicky (G1, see finished pics) & Sparkplug coming soon!

[Lintlizard]

 

Okay, I want a suit that does that o_0

 

Seriously though, looking good! :thumb

[Octopus Prime]

Okay, I want a suit that does that o_0

 

You could always get a half-suit for video conferencing? :tftongue

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/the-hal...cing-201695.php

[Octopus Prime]

Well, I managed to find the Speed Racer figures for use as Sparkplug and Daniel. I've started "the shortening" to bring them in scale with the Alts.

 

Mandingo, I removed the heads from Pops and the suited guy (sorry, I was calling him "Inspector Detector" and I was wrong) and I'm not 100% sure how you retooled the neck stalk/peg. Do you have any pics? I'm worried that if I remove too much, the new head will just fall off.

 

The other question is a more general one. I don't intend to make Daniel's outfit resemble his kinda goofy "space-age" clothing, I was just planning on keeping the jeans and t-shirt look. Should I just leave the t yellow, or paint it white? Or blue?

[Mandingo Rex]

Well, I managed to find the Speed Racer figures for use as Sparkplug and Daniel. I've started "the shortening" to bring them in scale with the Alts.

 

Mandingo, I removed the heads from Pops and the suited guy (sorry, I was calling him "Inspector Detector" and I was wrong) and I'm not 100% sure how you retooled the neck stalk/peg. Do you have any pics? I'm worried that if I remove too much, the new head will just fall off.

 

The other question is a more general one. I don't intend to make Daniel's outfit resemble his kinda goofy "space-age" clothing, I was just planning on keeping the jeans and t-shirt look. Should I just leave the t yellow, or paint it white? Or blue?

 

May want to go with just white on the t-shirt, although the kid doesn't look half bad with yellow. All 3 side-by-side, unpainted look sort of silly, since they're basic colors. But painted properly, the kid could be left alone. Your call.

 

The peg, I seriously just cut right below the notched part. So if you pull on the head, it will slip off, there's no head to hold it on anymore, but I don't think it matters. I used a small pair of craft pliers, didn't want to risk the Dremel with it. So all I did was cut right below the peg head just to make the post shorter. You could always cut shorter down and then glue the post head back on if you want.

 

Unfortunately, the suited-man's head doesn't have much of a neck. What you see in the photos I attached is about as much neck as you get. Maybe clearing out the collar on the polo will yield me more room to give him more "neck" if I mod the jacket properly.

 

I'll post pics as soon as I get these guys painted, this week's going to be busy. I am still looking for the right paints. Will keep you posted.

[Octopus Prime]

Yeah, as soon as I popped the heads off I could see that the pegs were going to cause me problems! I may try to split the torsos in half to allow me to remove the pegs and switch them. I fear that cutting-then-reglueing would weaken the joint too much.

 

I think the white would look better (and probably tie in a little more with his cartoon appearence), I was just looking for an excuse to be lazy! :tftongue

 

As a side note, when shortening Daniel, I realised that there's simply not enough room inside his torso to house two magnets, or at least the ones I was using. There might be if you weren't trying to reduce his height though. I basically got around the problem by using one magnet and a small flat panel of tin. It works fine, but just isn't as strong as using two magnets.

[Paul Prime]

Regarding magnets, I found this:

 

 

It has five nice magnets that I will remove and use in my figures.

[Mandingo Rex]

At first the squiggle man scared me, thought that was the kitbash. haha.

 

Been meaning to pick back up on this, I've been busy trying to finish Teletraan-I up.

 

Cool idea, although I'm going to avoid magnets, the painting alone will take all my spare time to get right. Still a little cautious about the Sparkplug jacket piece... I've cut it down some, I need to sand and paint... I'm worried about paint taking to it since it's really rubbery, and black... I don't know if paint will hold well to it without coming off or showing through...

 

He may have to be just a repaint of Pops with the new head... Spike seems to be a pretty straightforward repaint of Speed, but I was hoping to do a little more to Sparkplug sculpt-wise.

 

I stopped into a Lego store today (not sure how common they are, it was the first one I've seen in person, but there's one in the mall in San Jose, CA if anyone is interested)... it's an awesome store. I would have died to have one as a kid. The pick-a-brick back wall is awesome, they STILL have those same tiny pieces that they did 20 years ago, the exact design and everything...

 

Best part is, you can buy individual Legos... I bought about 10 tools for Sparkplug and Spike to "use". It's a little expensive, 5 tools for $2.50, but if you're building customs I highly doubt you'll scoff at burning $5 on toy tools for 20-year-old characters who need a proper toy.

 

As for the Lego tools, great suggestion, they fit in their hands almost perfectly. I'll try and snap a pic of the tools in the next few days. I got quite a cool assortment (wrenches, power drill, screwdriver, hammer, etc) AND a red construction helmet. It needs to be hollowed out and painted yellow, but it fits Spike well proportion-wise, not so much on Sparkplug — his melon's a tad large. I wanted to find yellow ones, but they didn't have any, just red.

[Mandingo Rex]

OK, all done!! :tfdance

 

Here's Spike, posing with a Lego wrench. The photo actually diminishes quite a bit of the detail. There's a pocket, creases and folds moulded into his shirt that are a lot more noticeable in person. You'll just have to trust me on that!

 

The LEGO bits work quite well. I bought a huge set of 10, I couldn't decide! haha.

 

Anyways, where did you get the paints that you used? Did you mix the flesh tone, or purchase it pre-mixed? I want to make his neck match the fleshy chest on his torso... Also still waiting on getting paint, again, I've been busy and just now got back around to this.

 

Here's the Sparkplug-with-vest... This photo was taken before I started modding it. I have shaved off the buttons, the lower lapel so it's just the upper collar, and the handkerchief, and I've also cut down the shoulders so he doesn't have as large of shoulder pads in the suit... I still have to sand it and smooth it down, not sure how I like it yet. I do like how it emphasizes his pot belly and looks more Sparkplug-ish.

 

[Octopus Prime]

Looking good! Are you planning on whittling down the collar of the original red polo shirt to make it look like a regular t-shirt? (Or was Sparkplug always meant to be wearing a singlet/vest/undershirt/whatever-you-want-to-call-it?)

 

I used some Games Workshop paints and some generic students' acrylics. You can buy a basic pre-mixed flesh tone, which you can then control with small amounts of yellow, red, white and various browns. You can of course mix it from scratch too, but I find that a tad too tedious. I like to use some burnt sienna in there too.

 

The jacket feels like the same material as the lower limbs, and my paint job on Speed/Spike's shins is holding up perfectly. But then the jacket/shirt is so much thinner that it will get a lot more flexing than the limbs. Hmm... tough to say if it will adversely effect the paint app. I certainly hope not!

 

Incidentally, what were the Lego tools you bought? We don't have the speciality pick and mix option here in Australia. :-(

[Mandingo Rex]

Thanks for the info on the paints...

 

I'll have to check them out. I want to get started painting this weekend, finally. This has been postponed more than I would have liked.

 

I'll get some pics up of the tools soon. The Lego store is awesome, it was a good find. Shame that you don't have them down under with the pick-a-brick.

 

Looking good! Are you planning on whittling down the collar of the original red polo shirt to make it look like a regular t-shirt? (Or was Sparkplug always meant to be wearing a singlet/vest/undershirt/whatever-you-want-to-call-it?)

 

I used some Games Workshop paints and some generic students' acrylics. You can buy a basic pre-mixed flesh tone, which you can then control with small amounts of yellow, red, white and various browns. You can of course mix it from scratch too, but I find that a tad too tedious. I like to use some burnt sienna in there too.

 

The jacket feels like the same material as the lower limbs, and my paint job on Speed/Spike's shins is holding up perfectly. But then the jacket/shirt is so much thinner that it will get a lot more flexing than the limbs. Hmm... tough to say if it will adversely effect the paint app. I certainly hope not!

 

I'm a tad worried about painting the jacket... I may scratch it. Sanding is going to be a tad tough too, since it's so soft/rubbery. If I can get the jacket to sand and paint, I will go ahead and carve down the collar. I really like the way that the jacket looks on him, the way it hangs down looks so much like Sparkplug from the G1 show. Although I don't want to end up with a semi-nasty coat that doesn't look professional.

 

How is your Sparkplug coming along?