Custom Animated Cliffjumper

[Bumbleb33]

This is my first venture into a mild resculpt, but the third Transformer I have painted in it's entirety. So far this project has taken me over 6 weeks of on and off commitment and still has a ways to go but its finally starting to take shape.

I spent countless hours sanding back Bumblebee to get him ready for the enamel spray.

I then taped him up making sure to get the lines tight to the edges to get a nice clean finish.

I then started spraying, all up I think there ended up being around 6 - 8 layers of paint on this little fella.


I then started on the head, exhausts and mufflers.
I knew the head would take the longest, so I built a tripod and cast Bumble's head in a film canister filled with Digger's 2 Part Encapsulation Resin.


While waiting for the resin to cure, I undertook the surprisingly difficult task of building the perfect exhaust pipes for the sides of the car, I ended up after trying countless materials resorted to super heating fencing wire and carefully bending it with a pair of pliers.
The mufflers I nicked off a pair of 1:24 scale Initial D AE86s I had laying around.
After weeks of waiting for the enamel to cure, rub back, cure again etc, I was finally happy with the paintjob and set about reassembling the little fella.


I then finished off with the minor details, I thought the way I painted him especially with the black flares and sideskirts, I thought him to look pretty Billy Bad Ass and as such decided to divert from my initial plan to make him look as close as possible to the show model and decided to give him a harder look. Hence the inclusion of a chain necklace.

Finally came the head, after getting the mix wrong on the initial cast, I recast the head once more and went about shaping this. I still need to add the new horns and add the new mouth.


Hopefully after my new load of Araldite cures of B's head, I will get an assembled pic up.

Let me know what you think so far.

[Bumbleb33]

I forgot I took this photo the other night. Here he is assembled with Blutack eyebrows and toothpick anteneas which I intend to cast in Digger's resin to given them a plastic feel, but it gives you an idea of what it will look like complete.

[bruticus]

Nice work dude.
Mufflers looks really great and the head is coming along well.

Just a few questions though,
-havent tried resin before, so is the resin easy to use and non toxic or is mixing it a pain and it needs a lot of open ventilation and safety gear??
-what is the full brand that you use?
-it looks like you have casted resin on top of an original head and then carved back the shape that you want, is that correct? just curious to know if there is a particular reason (pros) to doing it that way compared to just sculpting with epoxy/putty etc. on top?

[gamblor916]

Looking good so far. I'd like to know more about this resin you're using too.

[Bumbleb33]

No unfortunatley the resin is not that easy to use, its essentially the same stuff you use when fibreglassing, and its always in a liquid state and cannot be shaped when curing. You also HAVE to work with it out doors as it will give you mighty head spins otherwise.
Get the mix wrong and it will never cure or go off in mere minutes. But the great thing about it is it dries clear and when you sand it it turns white. I did think of using putty, but I have worked with it before and it just doesn't give as smooth a finish.
The full brand is Diggers, you can have a look at it here: http://www.recochem.com.au/index.php...mbedding_resin
Yep, I used the original BB head so the ball joint on the back of the head would still work, plus I still have the original light piping.
The main reason I did it with the resin is because it is drastically cheaper than other putties and because I knew Cliffy's chin was going to be pretty heavy I wanted to make sure it had a very secure bond to BB's chin.

[bruticus]

mighty head spins? damn, sounds pretty nasty to use...
too bad though as i would really like to have used the clear plastic effect for some other work

hmm... well, i suppose if you ever want to give putty a go, you can get Aves 2 part Fixit Sculpt, 500g combined weight for ~50AUD posted.
great bond, really smooth finish and can retain edges really well.

is diggers resin cheaper than that?

[Bumbleb33]

As long as you keep it at arms length and don't inhale you should be right haha, just don't put it in a milo tin and hold it under your nose.
Yeah the diggers is a bit cheaper than that, its hard to gauge though because its two part, you buy the resin which is from memory 600ml and then you buy the catalyst which is 30 ml, last time I bought it the resin was $36.95 and the catalyst was around $11.00 but I have been through around 900ml of resin so far and still have 2/3 of a bottle of catalyst left.
The coolest thing about the resin is its allergic to tupperware / ice cream containers, so you can buy really low laying trays and make millimeter thick layers of resin which you can pop out and make windscreens and stuff. You can also mix in chalk, sparkles even paint and change end colour, so in theory you could replicate the blue windscreens you get on the ROTF line for instance.

[5FDP]

Awesome stuff!