Thanks for the heads up on Bulkhead, looking forward to seeing it(and Swoop's too!). I got Ironhide last week and went to work on him...damn man, he's a mess.

 

Something I posted over in another thread, might help you some, no pics tho.

 

Well, I decided to have a long drawn out talk with Ironhide about his drooping head. Suffice it to say, there is a fix, but damn it's an ugly one.

 

I started off trimming away the entire bumper section underneath and in line with the license plate in hopes that would seat his chest/abdomen onto the central spine area. Well, that got it part of the way there. I noticed on the upper section at the top square(silver area) that it was about roughly an 1/8 inch to long in front and that was not letting the rest of the unmodified/folded up bumper assembly move far enough inwards.

 

You can remove the entire upper section of IH(it's red, the lower assembly is the silver molder area) by pulling up on him, and the knob will come out of the socket without much of a problem. This made it easier to trim that piece back some and once I had that done I put him back together, and the problem still persisted!

 

I reviewed the instruction to make sure I had not mistransformed him, and by the mfgr's instruction, all was correct. This led me back to a detailed investigation of the build of Ironhide and how he transformed. One thing I was noticing was that once you tucked the back tires behind him and in the roof/front windshield box, I could not get his head to move any further than before. If I left the back tires and their panels folded out behind his elbows, then it would fit and all was well. This led me to check out the roof/windshield box to see what was keeping the back tires from fitting properly, still nothing noticeable from several angles. I wound up removing the 5 tiny screws and getting the roof box off and then folding down the flat roof spine and moved the tires back into place, BAM!, we have proper head alignment!

 

But now poor IH is without a roof and front windshield. I noticed that the roof spine/support and the back panels the tires were pinned to was not fitting flush(if it is positioned like it should be with the roof box attached), the panels were setting like this: "\ _ /" instead of like this "|_|". That could very well be the entire problem. I'm pondering if I want to continue this experiment or not and if doing so would compromise structural integrity of the piece.

 

Luckily he does not look to butchered up until you see his back bumper in alt mode.

 

Hope that helps you help the rest of us.

 

You were on the right track with the stuff in his backpack. I also had to shave down a couple of screw holes, but he really only needs the one in the center. The backpack even folds up better, now.

 

As for the bumper, I try not to modify things that hurt the figure's aesthetics. Granted, Ironhide's alt mode isn't exactly seamless, but I didn't want to damage the bumper.

 

Hmm. I'm still working out the kinks on it a bit. My initial mod puts the hips too far forward for my taste.

 

~Matt Booker

You were on the right track with the stuff in his backpack. I also had to shave down a couple of screw holes, but he really only needs the one in the center. The backpack even folds up better, now.

 

As for the bumper, I try not to modify things that hurt the figure's aesthetics. Granted, Ironhide's alt mode isn't exactly seamless, but I didn't want to damage the bumper.

 

Hmm. I'm still working out the kinks on it a bit. My initial mod puts the hips too far forward for my taste.

 

~Matt Booker

 

That was pretty much a learning experience. I wish I had thought to give that backpack more consideration before I got trim happy

 

I was also thinking about his alt mode look as I was posting that, so I put him in it and yeah, he looks like he has a huge spot in the back bumper for a U-Haul tow hitch from hell. I think I'll look into another IH and keep the first one as a prototype/parts horse.

You were on the right track with the stuff in his backpack. I also had to shave down a couple of screw holes, but he really only needs the one in the center. The backpack even folds up better, now.

 

As for the bumper, I try not to modify things that hurt the figure's aesthetics. Granted, Ironhide's alt mode isn't exactly seamless, but I didn't want to damage the bumper.

 

Hmm. I'm still working out the kinks on it a bit. My initial mod puts the hips too far forward for my taste.

 

~Matt Booker

 

That was pretty much a learning experience. I wish I had thought to give that backpack more consideration before I got trim happy

 

I was also thinking about his alt mode look as I was posting that, so I put him in it and yeah, he looks like he has a huge spot in the back bumper for a U-Haul tow hitch from hell. I think I'll look into another IH and keep the first one as a prototype/parts horse.

 

http://forums.TFormers.com/talk/index.php?...p;#entry1435558

 

~Matt Booker

was this ever finished?

was this ever finished?

 

Haven't gotten around to it yet.

 

~Matt Booker