Anyone going to dare customizing Leader class Megatron?

[Timstuff]

Even though I'm probably sticking with voyager class, I've seen pics of Leader class Megatron online and watched a few video reviews, and he looks "decent", but there are several glaring complaints. First, the color job is downright ugly. He's a completely depressing shade of plastic gray with some blue and gold highlights, and that's about all that can be said about it. Also, in alt mode, the visor thing that's supposed to conceal his face doesn't work, because it was designed around a different head sculpt.

So, are there any brave TF modders out there who are going to attempt popping big ol' beasty apart and giving him a proper paint job, and maybe fixing that stupid visor? I'd certainly like to see some pics of the results.

[Darth Rockwell]

I'm not. I'm likeing the series of figures coming out. The movie versions are the movie versions so I'm leaving as is and just picking up the orginals when I can.

[Timstuff]

I'm not talking about a G1 repaint or anything along those lines. I'm talking about just making him look better, and closer to his movie counterpart. The biggest complaint that everyone seems to have is that he's got an absolutely horrible paint job (or lack thereof). He'd probably look great with a nice silver finish, but unfortunately Hasbro opted to just give him a couple splotches of metallic blue in some random spots and called it a day. It's a shame, because everyone is loving up Leader Optimus Prime, but Megatron is getting a very lukewarm reception due to his paint job. Also, I'm guessing the velociraptor roar sound effects and visor/head mold issues didn't help, but at least a good paint job would have been enough to make him a more worthy companion to Optimus Prime.

[Jimmy, GL]

I'd like to try my hand at repainting in G1 colors. I have a 20th anniversary Prime but no one big enough for him to fight. I'm hoping to win the reprolabelos contest and get MP Megs but that seems unlikely. By the way, any idea how the size compares between the two?

[Timstuff]

I'm not sure what size 20th anniversary Optimus is, but Leader Megatron is 12 inches tall. He's the same height as leader Optimus Prime, if that helps.

[Jimmy, GL]

20th Prime is the same as Masterpiece Prime. I think Megs would be a little shorter.

[Darkest Knight]

MEGS is the best piece in the entire series. He looks just like he does in the movie, too.

[Darth Rockwell]

I really hope that I can find him. I hate being in Alaska cause you can't find hardly anything up here.

[Timstuff]

You can find him at Amazon.com in the $40-50 range, depending on the seller.

[FatA$$]

http://board.spawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=397411

check that out it looks amazing someone did an amazing repaint job on one

[Duppy]

I got Megs today. I really want to take the time to paint him up, but I don't want to ruin him....plus in person he looks much more impressive

[Timstuff]

Holy crap, that custom is amazing! That's exactly what I was talking about. Hasbro, you should be ashamed! For $40, couldn't you provide a paint job that at least looks almost this good?

http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/4769/megatronnew7dp3.jpg

http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/7866/megatronnew11iv4.jpg

Heck, they could have charged $10 more, and it'd have still been worth it. Now I want one. :(

I suppose such an undertaking would pay for itself if you make two of them, and put one of them on eBay. I'd imagine something like that would go for well over $100.

[FatA$$]

actually that very one is on ebay now. and its already over the price it cost normally (duh) but im sure that guy is gonna make an A$$ load of money off of it.

[Timstuff]

If I could find out what kind of paints to use, I'd seriously consider doing one of these myself... Heck, I'd do two, and sell one on eBay. I don't care if there's 70 parts to take apart and put back together, I'm a bright kid, dangit! :D

It's such a shame that the official one didn't get a decent paint job. The mold is actually pretty solid, but you wouldn't know because of that awful coloring job they did. Hasbro seriously needs to hire new painters.

[Duppy]

The guy who painted that megatron lives in my area. I sent him a PM in hopes that he would give me some tips on how to do that/tell me what paints he used. So when I find out the paints he used, I will post them in here for you

[Nathan]

That repaint isn't bad. But this one is way better.

Some crazy dude on DeviantArt repainted his megatron movie toy. It's pretty amazing.

http://fc02.deviantart.com/fs18/f/2007/176/d/d/Movie_Leader_Megatron_Repaint_by_timshinn73.jpg

Guess we all know how it looks originally.

http://www.hasbrotoyshop.com/Files_AltA/8111024cb31b_A400.jpg


http://timshinn73.deviantart.com/

[Timstuff]

Whoa, perfect! :wow::up:

Something tells me that Leader Megatron is going to be a very popular figure to customize.

[Timstuff]

Does anyone know if the Japanese release of Megatron will have the same color scheme as the US one?

[Darth Rockwell]

I saw him at Walmart today and he looks better when you have I think then in the pictures.

[Grievous]

Even though I'm probably sticking with voyager class, I've seen pics of Leader class Megatron online and watched a few video reviews, and he looks "decent", but there are several glaring complaints. First, the color job is downright ugly. He's a completely depressing shade of plastic gray with some blue and gold highlights, and that's about all that can be said about it. Also, in alt mode, the visor thing that's supposed to conceal his face doesn't work, because it was designed around a different head sculpt.

So, are there any brave TF modders out there who are going to attempt popping big ol' beasty apart and giving him a proper paint job, and maybe fixing that stupid visor? I'd certainly like to see some pics of the results.
I'm not. Because I don't want to give up $40 bucks. I did give $20 bucks for Starscream though.

[Timstuff]

Well, I've done it... I went out and bought Leader Megatron today, and I've started customizing him. I'm going to try only doing one or two parts at a time, because I don't want to loose track of all the tiny pieces that need to get put back together. I finished painting his right leg and his head tonight, so maybe I'll have pics of my in the morning! :)

I'm planning to sell this one on eBay. If I get a good ammount, I may buy a second one and customize again for my personal collection, and maybe pick up Leader Optimus Prime as well.

[Duppy]

Definately post pics man. I've been dying to see some more custom attempts. What kind of brush and paint are you using? How are you going about the painting?

[Timstuff]

I'm using some japanese brushes that I got online, and good ol' Testors enamel paint. I'm giving the whole thing a black wash using Liquitex acrylic artist paint.

For me, the painting part isn't very hard. The real challenge is how the figure needs to be partially disassembled to paint it. That's why I opted to only work on one part at a time-- less screws, gears, etc. to keep track of, and less stuff to remember all at once.

[Timstuff]

Grr... Only got the arms and one leg to go! I'm in the home stretch!

[Timstuff]

The only thing left to do on the arms is the weathering, and then I have to do the last leg. Here are some WIP pics!

http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/7792/n6521023281246571251ru8.jpg

http://img113.imageshack.us/img113/7439/n6521023281246601990ty4.jpg

[da3dl3us]

The only thing left to do on the arms is the weathering, and then I have to do the last leg. Here are some WIP pics!

http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/7792/n6521023281246571251ru8.jpg

http://img113.imageshack.us/img113/7439/n6521023281246601990ty4.jpg

wow dude, you're good.

Customize a leader prime!!

[Timstuff]

Leader Prime looks good enough already IMO. He doesn't need my help. :p

Then again, he would look good with his "truck mode" parts painted chrome rather than being gray plastic... But I'll cross that bridge when I get there. Right now I'm going to keep my attention on getting another Megatron re-painted so I can sell it on eBay to another happy client. Then, I still need to do one more for myself.

[Timstuff]

Dangit, I AM gonna customize optimus. Granted, it won't be as big a project as Megatron, but there's still enough room for improvement that it'll be worth it. Let me point out some things I'll be changing.

http://comicsmedia.ign.com/comics/image/article/799/799430/optimus-prime-leader-figure-20070625080153180-000.jpg

See those two gray squares on the hood of OP's nose? Those are going BYE-BYE! Also, I'm going to paint all of the gray that's visible in truck mode chrome.

http://comicsmedia.ign.com/comics/image/article/799/799430/optimus-prime-leader-figure-20070625080210570-000.jpg

Robot mode look good, but I'm going to use black wash on his legs and several other gray areas to bring out more detail. The key to success here however, will be to only use wash on parts that will be visible only in robot mode, and to only use chrome on the parts that you'll see in truck mode.

And lastly, I'm going to replace that yellow LED in OP's head with a blue one!

[da3dl3us]

That's cool Tim,

Hey, how do you chrome up stuff? I have a 20th anniv. DVD prime, with the gray plastic grill and exhaust. It would be cool to custom chrome those up. How hard is it and what do I need to do that?

[Timstuff]

Well, it depends on what you want. When I refer to the "chrome" that I use, it's not the kind that has a high-gloss mirror-like reflectiveness to it. Mine simply "chrome colored" metallic paint. There are do-it-yourself chrome finishing methods out there that do offer a true reflective surface, but I haven't really researched them much.

[Timstuff]

Well, here's a snapshot of some primed parts for my next custom Megatron.

http://img475.imageshack.us/img475/3037/primed1nn6.jpg