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[Fighbird]

I have a big affinity for the G1 toy, Getaway.

He had a very cool car mode, which wasn't too sci-fi nor too garishly colored (as most of the 1987/1988 offerings I had access to at that time was), he was one of those cool Powermaster toys, which I probably didn't understand the playconcept off completely as kid but still loved (I liked the whole "unique key to unlock transformation" but would rather have had the PM be able to sit inside the car), the transformation was unique for it's time (loved his wings in robot mode) and the robot mode looked cool (nice colors and the wings again).

Especially the very dynamic packaging artwork of him was cool, and I was very excited when Lars helped me to finally obtain a MIB Getaway back in 1998.

Flash-forward to early 2011, when I got United Drift as part of a lot purchase. The toy was really cool, but Drift is in my mind not part of G1 at all, so he kinda stood out like a sore thumb in my collection. And then it hit me: The Drift mold would make a great Getaway homage!

Taking a cue from FunPub and later Hasbro's approach to recolor a mold and put a new face sculpt on it to generate a new character, I started thinking about how I would get Getaway's head done. The comic book versions of the face were not cool, and the toy's rather droopy looking visage was also not really something I wanted to do, because the look I wanted was the one from the box art:



Now, Drift's head has an up-down swivel inside his neck, as well as left-rigt turn movement at the base of his neck. I really wanted to preserve that, 'cause that kind of posability was nice. Figuring my sculpting skills were not too good to build a face from scratch, I looked around for base parts I could bash together.

The best candidate - both in shape and size - was the DX Classic Prime head. Although the toy is crap, the head mold is really nice - albeit a bit "narrow" for a Prime, but perfect for a Getaway:



I only have access to a picture of the clear plastic version, but the general moulding of especially the faceplate is still clear, I think. I used another United toy for the actual part. Now, this Prime head is a simple left-right turn swivel going inside the head, so I couldn't do a straight head swap. I then decided I wanted to graft the Prime head unto Drift's basic head construct - basically removing all of Drift's face except for the basic internal structure of the piece to add the Prime head on top of.

That didn't work. I completely wrecked the neck and the head of my Drift toy, so I was basically out of the game.

Flash forward to late 2011, where I was finally able to secure Drift's mold partner, Generations Blurr. Blurr's face is a little different looking, but the basic costruct was still the same, so now I finally had a new skeleton to build on:



I removed all the "wings" on the helmet, the head spoiler, shaved down the face and glued the top of the head and the lower part of the face together with epoxy (as they are two parts), removed everything of Prime's face from the side of the cheeks and backwards, and glued that onto one another with superglue. Carved away a lot of Prime detailing, while building up a lot of Getaway detailing with styrene and putty, and wound up with something like this:




The light blue parts are from Blurr, the dark blue parts are from Prime, the white stuff is styrene and the grey stuff is putty. I really wanted this to have a "production toy" feel, so the whole thing can still be disassebled by the screw in the back of the head. The antennae are build from styrene and are attached to a lightpipe that goes to the top of the head (but can't be seen on the pics), with the intent that they are molded together, and then the antannae are painted during production before assembly. The eyes are from Prime, and had some ugly pupils molded into them (as seen on the last pic above). I putty'ed them away, and glued them onto the same antennae/lightpiping part as well.

That head took me 5 months to build with a LOT of trial and error. The whole thing crumbled the first time I tried to put the neck pin through it, so that was a major setback. Also, the painting was really rough on my first try, so that had to come off again as well. The forehead detailing is made from scratch and the "dot" in the middle took a lot of trial and error as well, being a drop of dried superglue with layers of putty and more superglue on top of that.

Continued in the next post, where we look at the rest of the body.

[Fighbird]

Drift's car mode is super cool. I think it fits perfectly with Getaway as well, especially without all the red telltale paint applications. So I took some ethanol and started removing all the paint off of the toy:



Maybe looking a bit "bare" without any paint detailing, but still a very striking vehicle mode like this, I think.

Now, as mentioned, I had obtained a Generations Blurr for spare parts. I had originally wanted to repaint most of Drift to get a more Getaway-esque color combination on my project, but with the announcement and later procurement of Blurr, I decided to wait for that and parts-swap. In the pic above I've already substituted Drift's brown wheels with Blurr's dark blue ones (they look black, but are actually very, very dark blue).

Robot mode is where the parts swapping really gets - and rightfully so, I would think - clear:



I swapped all the brown PVC parts from Drift (i.e. all the "softer" plastic parts) with Blurr's blue ones, switched the wheels and replaced all the clear windows as well. Since I botched up the neck section, which should have been a brown part from Drift, I had to use Blurr's light blue one instead; since that part is painted anyway (which it already is on this pic), I figured it wouldn't be obvious that is is "wrong". Pretty much the same thing applies to the upper arms, which were supposed to be Drift's brown ones, but again, since I'm going to paint them fully either way, I decided to go with Blurr's instead.

While working on the head, I also thought a lot about Getaway's weaponry. Discarding Drift's swords altogether and feeling that Blurr's rifle was much too long, I had initially thought about Classics Astrotrain's gun as that one has a nice G1-feel to it. But I wanted it to be integrated into my Getaway project, and was not too thrilled about drilling a hole in the roof for it to sit in in vehicle mode.

And the it came to me: Why not remodel Blurr's gun? It turned out to be much better, much easier and much much better looking that I had originally thought!




Cutting at an angle at the green lines and removing the red crossed-parts, I simply rotated the front barrel 180 degrees and superglued the parts together. If someone wants to try this themselves, then please note that being slightly softer plastic, it won't do well with sanding to get the surfaces flat - only a sharp knife will do the trick. And the superglue will keep the tip securely in place, but it won't flex like the rest of the gun still can (I've had to reglue mine 4 times already ).

And, perhaps best of all, it still fits in the holder underneath the car:



Getaway will only have this one gun, so I've discarded the 2 smaller handguns from Blurr as well. They don't fit in the door sheathes from Drift anyway.

Next up (perhaps today, perhaps not): 1st round of paint!

[Fighbird]

Right-o, the first round of paint applications are done. I've tried to "borrow" as much as possible from the G1 toy in terms of color layout (which pieces should be what color) so that he should be recognisable by colors alone, while still keeping in mind which parts are grouped together on which sprues on the factory and stuff like that. I've done most of the parts up now and made a quick test assembly of the whole figure (I always paint each part seperately and test-fit everything regularly to see if it works as intended).

Car mode:



Sorry for the dark-ish picture. What I've done:

• Windows: All the clear parts - including the lightpiping in his head - have been painted clear red. I used Blurr's clear parts as base, as they were less dark in hue than Drift's. Taking a cue from our own Smokescreen's brilliant MP creation, I only applied paint on the inside. Not only will it give me a very smooth surface on the outside, it will also protect the paint from wear. Since the headlights are from the same clear plastic, they became red, too. The wrong color for headlights, yes, but I figured that if Energon Downshift could get away with it, then why shouldn't Getaway? It's in his name, even! Took a long time to get the clear red paint to work: The bottle I have is too thick to apply as-is, so I had to experiment quite a deal with how to dilute it enough so that it wouldn't be too thin, but still thick enough to cover it good.
• Rims: I want to recreate the narrow silver striping on his hubs that the G1 toy has. Found a fine-tipped silver marker to do that with, and have experimented a bit only on the front tyre.
• Greys: Added grey paint along the lower edge, but am having second thoughts about that - it looks "off", somehow. I might remove it all again except for the paint on the 2 bumpers. The front grilles have gotten grey as well, but I think I'll remove the paint completely on the outside ones as that just looks better without paint. Will replace the center grill in front with dark metallic grey (and on all the vent detailing in general).
• Blue on roof: Since the feet prongs are actually clear plastic(!) painted in another color, I decided that blue would be nice here. It now needs some white on top to blend in with the roof. The white I have, though, is not completely white; you can see some of it on the front window bars, which don't quite match the plastics.
• Rear window: Painted, but only one layer for now which is why it's so bright. Should end up much darker with the next layers - a nice G1 Thrust/Dead End maroon, which should match nicely to the clear red windows.
• Rear wing: No doubt that it must be blue. But it looks very big now because of the high contrast it has, so I think I will try and see how Blurr's smaller wings would look instead. Will add some silver detailing down the line, and am thinking of making decals that say "RACING" to be put there rather than on the windshield.

Robot mode:



Heavy improvement with just a few parts painted up already and very little detailing, if any. Head is now complete and on (close-up below) and in general I feel that this is coming along very nicely.

• Arms: A bit too much blue without any detailing and stuff. I have plans for the fronts of the shoulders (have experimented a bit with that silver marker of mine on the left shoulder), which should break up the colors a bit. I think I will strip the lower arms again and make them white. Will balance the colors out better, I think, even though the G1 toy had all-blue arms.
• Pelvis: The front torso (behind the car window/roof) and the pelvis section is the same grey as the head and, although obscured, gives a nice "coherent" feel to the body than if it were unpainted. However, I might strip the pelvis plate again to get it white; I feel that that section needs some more white, or he will seem a bit too top-heavy.
• Legs: Not much done (except the grey stripe mid-ish), but it will surely have some blues and some maroons to invoke the color of the rear windows as used on the G1 toy. Will probably paint the knee caps (which are seperate pieces) but am not sure yet.
• Feet: Will be grey. Did a poor job with my first application, and what you see is me in the middle of stripping that off again - hence the semi-flakey appearance.

Head:



Looks very rough close up but is not that bad in person, IMHO. I am really proud of how this turned out (after doing 10 minutes each night or so for 6 months with lots of setbacks; see previous posts), and I do hope that it will invoke "Getaway" instead of "color-inverted Prime" when you look at it. It still has its full motion (up, down, left, right) like Drift, and is composed of 5 seperate pieces that can be disassembled like on a real toy.

I am now at the point of starting to do the above-mentioned modifications, and once they are done, I need to think and work hard on robot mode leg colors and vehicle mode color detailing. I would really like to add some blue detailing to the sides (again, like the G1 toy has it, although in the shape of stickers), but it has to be something a bit more interesting than some vertical stripes. Could be something tribal, perhaps. Need to do some research on that, but that'll have to wait untill I've fixed the above paint issues, so I have a "finished" base toy to work on.

Comments, critique and ideas are more than welcome!

[SureShot]

Looks sooo great
Perhaps some broken checkered flag markings on doors/engine cowling ?
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/Tho...14/IMG_0056.jpg

[NRJohn]

Very cool custom! Think the Drift/Blurr mold works as a good base for many characters and certainly Getaway!
Good work and nice use of an Optimus head.

[Fighbird]

Thanks, guys!

Work has come a bit to a standstill, as my fingers are hurting today (long story of hard manual labour around the house with an added food-related knife accidedent to my left index finger... ).

Perhaps some broken checkered flag markings on doors/engine cowling ?
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/Tho...14/IMG_0056.jpg

You know, that is not half bad! You happen to have more pics of that, so I can see how it "drapes" around the car body? I can't do airbrushing for the life of me, but it could be really cool for him!

[Fighbird]

Very cool custom! Think the Drift/Blurr mold works as a good base for many characters and certainly Getaway!
Good work and nice use of an Optimus head.

Thanks! And yeah. the Drift/Blurr mold does indeed lend itself to a lot of other character bashes as well. Just saw a TM Pointblank repaint over at TFW2005 that I might be inclined to copy...

Not much news otherwise, other than I've been able to dig out the Blurr spoiler parts. Will temp-paint them and test fit them, perhaps even later today.

[Tformer]

Fantastic work! I agree with NRJohn in that this mold works great for the character.

Really clever use of the deluxe classics Prime noggin as well. If you hadn't documented the process I probably wouldn't be able to tell where it was from.

[Fighbird]

Welp, not much progress since last time. I'm trying to find the time (I get a few hours here and there) and the encouragement (this is what is really lacking on my part) to strip off a lot of the paint.



Been debating with myself what I should do with the feet struts, that turn up on this pic as blue squares on top of the roof. Now, I got the idea the other day that they should be grey instead, as that would homage the feet as seen folded-up on top of the G1 toy. Would still have painted the actual surface visible in car mode white, to blend in better, but then it struck me: Why not leave them grey to keep the homage visible?

What do you guys think?

Also, I really must thank SureShot for his input on the detailing. That idea has been boiling in the back of my head now for quite some time, and I think I have found the perfect solution on how to use it: Making big fat blue stripes on the sides of the vehicle going from the front wheels and a good way down the side of the car - but "disintegrating" into a checkered pattern, that also peters off. Should be doable in paints with good masking, and is still kinda 80s in one way (gotta love the 80s ), while being a different take on it.

[SureShot]

Welp, not much progress since last time. I'm trying to find the time (I get a few hours here and there) and the encouragement (this is what is really lacking on my part) to strip off a lot of the paint.



Been debating with myself what I should do with the feet struts, that turn up on this pic as blue squares on top of the roof. Now, I got the idea the other day that they should be grey instead, as that would homage the feet as seen folded-up on top of the G1 toy. Would still have painted the actual surface visible in car mode white, to blend in better, but then it struck me: Why not leave them grey to keep the homage visible?

What do you guys think?

Also, I really must thank SureShot for his input on the detailing. That idea has been boiling in the back of my head now for quite some time, and I think I have found the perfect solution on how to use it: Making big fat blue stripes on the sides of the vehicle going from the front wheels and a good way down the side of the car - but "disintegrating" into a checkered pattern, that also peters off. Should be doable in paints with good masking, and is still kinda 80s in one way (gotta love the 80s ), while being a different take on it.

1) I think you should keep them visible to make a good homage intention

2) Your welcome
Perhaps some of these can inspire ?















^^this one I think would look sweet in blue

This post has been edited by SureShot: 13 February 2012, 12:19

[Fighbird]

Whoops - didn't see the reply here! Sorry for my tardiness!

^^this one I think would look sweet in blue

I have had an idea forming in my mind now for many weeks, and it is very close to this one here above. It'll include some elements of the original Getaway's door details as well, as I want an Autobot symbol on the doors down the line, too.

Thanks for the great input!

[Fighbird]

Sorry, no pics this time...

But, just in case people were wondering if this project is dead or what, then don't worry - I just hadn't had the time or energy to work on it. Time because of family matters and energy because it's a bit discouraging - yet necessary, of course - to strip off paint again; it's kind of counter-intuitive for the creative proces to strip off what you've already made. But after a few weeks of "downtime" it kinda felt like starting a new project up, so last night I was able to remove most of the grey stripe along the bottom edge of the car (the footstep?), the blue on the angle strut and the blue on the lower arms.

Enamel paints are easily dissolvable in my end-all, cure-all top choice solution for everything kitbashing, rubbing alcohol, so I made a small glass (with lid!) of it and poured the parts in there. After a few minutes I could pretty much wipe the paint off. However, when the paint dissolves, it turns into tiny fragments of flakes, that stick everywhere! So cleaning the parts is actually double the work: Dissolving the paint itself, and then removing the remaining flakes. It's the latter that takes time, and which is my next step...