I entered this little one to the Ropecon miniature painting competition this summer. It wasn't a great success, but I guess you might appreciate it on this forum more than those miniature gamers did:



With the exception of the head, which is sculpted from green stuff over a wrecked Gobot head (only parts of the forehead showing the original head), and the scenic base, which is a scrapped toy tank, all parts are taken from the Warhammer 40,000 model Commander O'Shovah:


(Image Copyright Games Workshop)

The legs received the most treatment, as those "chicken legs" didn't fit the image of the Autobot leader. So they were hacked to pieces at the knee and some additional parts added to the lower legs (from a spare weapon, whose barrels were cut to make the exhaust pipes and lights on his shoulders). The arm holding the gun was cut from two places and the joints resculpted with green stuff. The gun itself has received some modifications to better resemble the original OP laser rifle.

The "O'Ptimus" picture in 1:1 scale can be found here. There's little natural light in the picture - the lighting effects have been painted on the figure (so it only works properly when viewed from a particular angle to a natural light source - it was a real pain to eliminate natural light sources when taking this photo) using the non-metallic metal technique (I'm no expert in that, so this was a risky venture). I took several photos of the model when it was primed (pun unintended) black with a strong light source and used those photos as reference when painting on the lighting. I also wrestled with the coloration of the face - should I paint it grey with blue eyes (80's cartoon) or blue with yellow eyes (80's comic)? I finally ended up with a grey face and blue eyes.

I'm quite happy with the end results. I know there are flaws in it, but it's about the best I can do. Hope you enjoy.

Hey, that looks quite good! But the thing I dislike the most is that backpack that makes him look fat, like Energon OP. And the legs still look a bit too thin.

Still, the quality looks superb! Keep up the good work!

hey.. that's good one..  when i was getting some new paint's at my own stuff i did see in that shop some of those Warhammer models.. and i was toying about idea to create something like that, but then it was my turn to pay my stuff and i have to run at the next place and i did forget it totally..  

but that what you have done this one, is absolutely cool  really good one.. keep up at the good work there

I love it!

Are those things posable

Cause that thing sure is sweet

Well, they are - if you use enough knife, saw, drill, glue and greenstuff. There are ball joints at shoulders (although they don't really allow posing except up and down without cutting), hips and ankles. The rest is just plain ol' solid plastic. Luckily it offers only mild resistance to a sharp knife.

And no, the thing isn't poseable anymore, everything has been glued in place. Not that I didn't consider the idea of making those joints moveable...

@vmv-81: I agree with you on those points you dislike, but I didn't want to use any other parts than the original O'Shovah model came with, except green stuff to fill in gaps and sculpt the head I originally intended to use AM Op's head, but it proved to be too large).

@Inkku: You should try your hand at the Warhammer models some time, you seem to have the talent. *wonders if there's a small piece of Matrix programming hidden within the female one*


Please ignore the "1:1 scale" bs in my original post - it's a "1:1 scale" picture on 1280*720 resolution on a 15" screen. How on earth could I, a semi-professional photographer/photo editor, ever imagine that someone else could have different screen settings? Of course you're all using the same resolution and screen size as I, right? Nevertheless, it' a bit larger than the resized image on the forum, so you might actually see some details on it.

Anyway, I was toying with the idea of making my Tau army entirely of Transformers-wannabes such as this - I've already started planning on making Jazz, Bluestreak and Prowl figures with shoulder missile launchers (I need to carefully plan the armament of those figures so I can use them in the game as well). Perhaps I'll take it easier with those painted light effects on them, so as to finish the project in this century. I just suck at sculpting faces, OP was thankfully easy with that face plate of his. Don't hold your breath waiting for the others though - I wouldn't want to be held responsible to your asphyxiation.

WONDERFUL! I like it very much, especially the green stuff head!

I've been fantasicing off Tau Transformers army for a long, but I don't have the money nor the time to do that. I've done some paintschemes for Grimlock and Shockwave, but that's about all. I'd like to do atleast Shockwave figure someday.