Thursday, August 27, 2015

This is a compilation of the past week and weekend.
Completed the front torso abdomen, used grey tote bin plastic riveted to the chest plate.

Final clear coat on both leg fenders.
Attached grey cover plate and the black roll-bars.


Assembled the right boot with leg fender and tried it on for a few minutes.   

On the chest assembly fenders and hood, I did added some clear packing tape where the two will be touching, similar to what I did on Prowl's hood.
Then I attached the Jeep hood clamps.  These are new hood clamps I ordered online at a Power-Wheels parts distributor, glad they came in color grey. 



This upcoming weekend will focus on attaching the front grill with headlights and getting the entire chest fender assembly completed.



Saturday, August 15, 2015

Saturday Progress

Today I finished the missile launcher mount by painting it grey and applying a clear coat.  Attached the launcher mount to the back, looks good with launcher and missile assembled.



Finished right boot sole, trimmed the excess rubber and sprayed it black.

Applied a final green coat on leg fenders. 

Put the Autobot decal on hood, looks awesome!



Friday, August 14, 2015

We Have Illumination

I got a working circuit on the headlights for the front grill.
Also used some smaller LED's for the lower running lights on the grill.  Didn't realize they were color blue until after glued in and tested circuit, oh well, they still look cool.

So far the first three boot sole layers turned out great.
Tried the boot on and walked around a bit, not as clunky and flat as the elevation boots on Prowl.
Glued the fourth layer of rubber boot sole on right boot.
Need to make a hardware run for more contact cement to finish left boot.

Sunday, August 9, 2015

Gun , Boot Sole, and Painting

Gun for Hound 
Hand Weapon is completed.  Turned out awesome.
Used the Nerf Strongarm N-Srike Elite pistol.


Taped off the handle for two reasons, one - I liked the original color already there, two - because this the gun grip, keeping it original means less fading from gripping the handle.



For some reason the clear coat spray reacted weird on the metallic spray paint coat I did, it wanted to chemically strip the paint, weird.  So no clear coat, bummer.
Kept the barrel nozzle and trigger the original orange, kinda like it and there will be no issues or questions regarding it at conventions.
I made a plastic shroud to cover the ammo cylinder and rivet in place, turned out better than planned.  


The slide I painted black with clear coat and screwed it in place,using a black screw cover to hide the screw.




Boot Sole
After I glued on that first rubber sole to boot last weekend, I realized the upcoming difficulty of clamping on more as the sole got thicker in height.  So I crafted a make-shift frame around the boot that would enable me to add rubber sole pieces with applied clamped steady pressure.  Started with the other boot and used the contact cement on the first layer of soles.  Tomorrow I will remove boot to check results.




Fenders & Hood
I also sprayed a coat of green on both lower leg fenders.  I will have to do a second coat of green, noticed too many deep scratches and sand marks.
Also did a final clear coat on hood.






Headlights
Decided to just spray the inside of headlight funnels a chrome color spray paint instead of trying the reflective paper.




Thursday, August 6, 2015

Decals & Boot Soles

Received decals in mail today.
Thank you FastDecals.com
The Army star decal is going on each fender.
Larger Autobot decal is center hood.
Smaller ones on leg fenders and shoulders.


Last night I started cutting up a rubber welcome mat from hardware store, for adding some height to boot soles.
Gorilla Glue was a bit messy so I will try contact cement next.
Clamping was kinda awkward but worked.  
The glue residue will be covered with either black or grey plastic bin cover plates.
Trying for at least a one inch gain on boot sole with maybe a 2 inch heel.