MU Metal Optimus Prime model

[Silverbolt]

This is probably the hardest metal kit I have done so far. But when it was done I have to it is the most fulfilling.
It's a MU model that's available from Jolly Whale and is an officially licensed product from Hasbro.
Its 8 sheets to steel and a 9 star difficulty rating. (I’m not sure how hard is the hardest, but I think it would be 10) The package claims its takes over 22 estimated hours to finish.
I did this over the course of a couple of weeks, so I'm not sure how long it took me.
All i know is there was A LOT of metal bending and juggling to hold pieces in places while other pieces were bent to secure them.
Some of the pieces were stupidly small, but helped give this model a fantastic level of detail.

I had to learn many new holding techniques that i wouldn't normally have used for the metal earth models.


Those little round rubber things aren't what you think they are. They unroll on your fingers to help provide better grip and to help prevent the metal edges from slicing your fingers.


With an instruction manual this think, i knew i was in for the Long Haul.


The first piece next to MP 10G Optimus Prime for size comparison.

[Silverbolt]

an assortment of pliers, pencils, pens and down of different diameters helps with shaping of the metal
I thought the vents would be the hardest bit. but they were fairly straight forward after the first one.




As i mention earlier, some of these pieces are stupid tiny.

[Silverbolt]

the finished model.
The hardest part was the area around the elbow. There is a structure (of sorts) underneath that a lot of other details attach to and what the shoulder and lower arm attach to.

Aside from his right arm, where some of the joins were hard to get to, it feel pretty solid. Certainly not solid enough to risk a fall, but i can handle it without too much fear of bending it.

With MP 10G.

[Thurmus]

My god that is impressive. How long did it take you to assemble?

[Autocon]

So it's like a 3d puzzle made of full metal parts?

[Silverbolt]

I haven't done a 3d puzzle so its hard to make the comparison, but there are alot of pieces that need to fit together in a particular to forma a 3D shape. so yeah. I guess it is a 3D puzzle of sorts. I have a MU kit of "The last night' version of Optimus. There a few other characters as well.

[Silverbolt]

My god that is impressive. How long did it take you to assemble?

Join by the dates fo the photos the first piece was made on October 3rd and the final construction finished on Dec 14. So about 10 weeks. But that was working on it here and there when i had the time and more important, the patience to do so.

[griffin]

That is amazing. And great job getting it all done so perfectly.
I have the original four Metal Earth kits from 7 years ago, but still haven't done more than a couple pieces (I found that I didn't have the right tools to do them).



If I had ever gotten around to doing them, I might have bought more of them, as they look really nice when completed (like this big MU Metal Optimus).

[Thurmus]

Join by the dates fo the photos the first piece was made on October 3rd and the final construction finished on Dec 14. So about 10 weeks. But that was working on it here and there when i had the time and more important, the patience to do so.

Not good enough. I need down to the nearest 10 minutes.

When I did the Lego Millennium Falcon I wrote the date and start and end time of each session that I worked on it. Should go back one day and work out how long it took.