Decepticon Medic

After playing the first game of Xenos Rampant with this guy's and using the Medic rule for the Autobots, I thought it would be a good idea to create a Decepticon variant. The Autobots have Ratchet of course, but there is no one for the bad guys. After doing a bit of research I came up with a Decepticon medic from the IDW comics. This guy looks to be based on a Ratchet design and was quite easy to recreate in miniature.

This massive van was loaded up with heavy weapons to make full use of the space. 'Flakback' is the name I settled on as it sums up all the firepower. He reminds me of the Ghostbusters car with all the bits on top.

For Flakback's character, I stuck on loads of large sheets of metal that look like they could make up the sides of van. These pieces were the underneath of the Micromachine toys I had unscrewed to remove the wheels. They made for interesting shapes and were not to be wasted.

Here is the Decepticon medic mentioned earlier, I'm quite pleased with the miniature version. 

Being a medic, I gave this bot a flick up arm monitor and some wrist detailing to suit his role.

Now I need to come up with a good name for him..

Maybe 'Wrench' would be quite fitting, sounds helpful and brutal at the same time.

Creating Skyfire

A real favourite of mine from the cartoon was Skyfire. He was a huge space jet and dwarfed every other bot of the time. I didn't think I'd find a good model of him until I stumbled across a line of action figures. I've had a lot of luck putting this project together and this was no exception. These starwars sized figures tied in perfectly with my allotted scale. I'm not a 100% sure, but I think it might be 10mm. Anyway, Skyfire is a exact match for Prime and the others and if course I'm over the moon. I had to cut him up a bit to rearrange his legs so his standing pose looked better, 

Even though he was massive, his size and passive personality made him vulnerable. He was a scientist alongside his friend, Starscream before the war. He crash landed on earth and was frozen under the ice for millions of years before being found and revived by the Decepticons.

Megatron tried to convince Skyfire that the Autobots were evil and that he should destroy them. This cunning ploy almost worked until Skyfire saw the two human characters in trouble and rescued them, showing his true nature. This landed him a blast from his once time friend Starscream. Skyfire realising his mistake swopped sides and helped the Autobots defeat the Decepticon forces. Classic Eighties story telling at it's finest.

The actual character gave the Autobots a bit of well needed air support and also became a handy bit of transportation for missions in Session one. Session two of the cartoon saw a whole wealth of other air based Autobots and Skyfire disappeared from the show. His transportation role was taken on by the new character, Omega Supreme. However, for the first season at least, Skyfire was the biggest bot in town and a real scene stealer. 

The action figure is very true to the cartoon but I just wanted to add a little more detailing. For this I used a really thin plasticard and cut it into tiny panelling. I didn't want to go too crazy with it as the model was already cartoon accurate. These days, like me, most people into Transformers are not kids anymore and there is a whole industry of expensive models out there. These prove very useful for ideas in detailing and weathering.

 Below are various references taken from the internet. Some of the latest models are nicely detailed, this helps to show scale.

The cartoon character sheets, always useful for colour guides.

I found this customised figure very inspiring. You definitely get a feeling of scale with the panelling and weathering effects. I think I will bare this in mind when painting mine up.

Update: Here is the finished model, weathered up for the war. What a nightmare it is painting white and red at the same time, the amount of times I had to go over pinkish armour.

A bit of Tamiya weathering 'soot' on the engines worked well to give used look. 

As far as a vehicle mode is concerned I might have found a solution. A Buzz light-year toy might just work, I'll have to see when it arrives. I imagine he's going to take to the air to fight so a vehicle mode is going to be important to find.

The cockpit worked out a treat. I painted on Chrome details over a blue background. This was then painted over with a blue contrast paint. The shiny details below still catch the light and give the impression of an interior.

Skyfire is massive and should add some real heavy backup to the Autobots. He is a favourite of mine and will probably end up being in every battle.

His stats for Xenos Rampant are: Heavy Infantry, fly ability, Assault doctrine and heavy weapon. I could of added more but he was getting expensive. I added the Assault doctrine because of his size and the fact he sports a deadly energy blade in his arm.

Old friends reunited.

Update:

I'm very happy to say that it looks like Skyfire will be taking to the skies after all. A Buzz light-year toy is a perfect size for an Alt mode...with a few modifications of course.

Obviously it's not screen accurate, but it does have the right space vibe and size to fit the job. Once I sawed off the nose it looked even closer to the original.

Once the large light year cockpit is removed and the back shuttle added, it's not too bad at all. I'm over the moon I've found something suitable. This project has been laced with luck ever since it began. Finding keyrings, cake toppers, toys and models to create the armies of Cybertron has all just fallen into place. This latest find just sums up the project.

The massive Skyfire next to a Seeker for scale.

These new designs of Skyfire with the forward sloping wings are even closer to my model. Joy!

Have Fun at Salute People!

Well my follow up appointment to the hospital came around to have my kidney stone Lasered. It couldn't come soon enough to be honest as it was getting a real drag. Planning trips around the locations of toilets is quite tiring. The good news the stone and stent are out, the bad news there is a fresh stent put in for a couple of weeks. Kidney stones are gift that just keeps giving.

My friend reminded me it was Salute this weekend and then I saw some Facebook posts, it looks like it's going to be a good one.

 Simon Miller's twist on the D Day landing looks brilliant. It's going to be Caesar landing with his Roman legions on the South coast. I saw some of the ships he has painted up and I would loved to have seen it in the flesh. I'm sure it will get another outing this year.

I haven't slept all night due to the hospital ruckus, but I was also kept awake with modelling ideas about the Cybertron project. Thinking up character names and working out profiles for classic characters using the rules. I'm going to sleep well today!

For all those that are going, have a good time and don't forget to stop by at the To the Strongest display!

Til all are one....

The famous scene that traumatized a whole generation of children...Primes' sump stone removal. 

It didn't end well.