Not-quite-203x ADPolice Interceptor as a transformer

[classicdrogn]

Thanks to being the biggest and first commonly available part of Drunkard's Walk BGC has a special place for a lot of the people on these boards, so I figured I'd mention this here - the new Transformers Earthspark toy being sold under the name "Prowl" is actually a repainted Bumblebee Cyberverse Adventures Hot Rod, which means it's got almost the exact profile of the ADP car Leon an Daley drive in the early episodes (It gets wrecked by the Griffon IIRC, and the replacements are far more econobox.)

So, while it's more white with blue quarter-panels than the on-screen blue with white below a "belly line" and of course has Aurtobot logos instead of ADP, it is at least plausibly close, to the point it can do double duty as a BGC toy on your desk, and who'd have expected that after all this time?



Amazon USA listing

Earthspark, like BBCA before it, is a "semi-budget" subline, but this was one of the better BBCA molds so it can still stand up with the average War For Cybertron (Siege|Earthrise|Kingdom) or TF Legacy (adjectiveless|Evo|United) Deluxe despite the lower price point, so at $20 MSRP he's already a good deal and if you find him for less I'd call it a priority buy if you're thinking about getting toys at all.

[AnimeJanai]

Now all that is needed is a reworking of the model into BGC AD Police color theme. And perhaps a youtube model modding video could show the grinding off of certain line details and remaking of the detail lines by masking and building up of thin lines with acylic paint that is then sealed on with a wash of solvent (xylene) paint.

[classicdrogn]

Eh, the ADP interceptor's hood scoop is a different shape and retractable, but not so different that it can't be left in place since it maps to the robot chest despite being a different part. (Nominally, the center white strip of the hood would drop down to let the quarter panels slide together over it but under the shell of the scoop/"nostriil lightbar" to form the robot chest plate I guess, though the show model for Hot Rod just faked it and the actual toy folds the whole hood away into the backpack.)

You's need to add an actual light bar that would end up split on the back of the legs IIRC (mine is currently buried and inaccessible to check) but the real difference is the very-G1-Hot-Rod side exhausts, which a thin enough plastic that removing them would leave a big hole that would need to have a patch glued into and smoothed out with putty, which would be a big pain in the ass. Same for the hood if you were feeling really uptight about the scoop being gone or accurate to the on-screen pop up.

Due to the stark contrast of the blue and white needing to be painted over, stripping the whole thing as much as possible with rubbing alcohol (90%, because 70% is too weak and 99% often damages the plastic TFs use) before repainting would probably be the best option, but I can't make any comment on paints or techniques to use - I had a crappy cheap airbrush years ago but never got good with it, and the only thing I use nowadays is a set of brushes from #0-#00000 and Jaquard Lumirere (pearlized mica flake) or Neopague (solid colors) water-base acrylics because being shiny helps distract from how much I suck at painting and being actually opaque minimizes the build up of brush strokes and layer edge lines from needing multiple coats to begin with, neither of which make for acceptable rationale at the level of modeling you seem to be implying, but also because they stick like the dickens even the surfaces that will be frequently handled for transformation and don't rub off TOO badly even on parts that have to directly slide past each other as long as you don't goo too thick, and even enough to buff the natural satin finish up to semi-gloss without needing a clear topcoat to scuff or jam using a bit of soft paper towel/napkin or cheap toilet paper after giving them a day or two to really cure.

Here's some shots of The Last Knight not-Hot Rod/Lamborghini Centurino as Cyberverse Shadow Striker to demonstrate with the Lumiere violet, and why I will never use Testors' shit again with the turquoise and red:

nine largish pics

I didn't realize the right front wheel wasn't properly in place until just now, dammit









Yes, her left eye IS supposed to be a big round lens unlike the right.

Also I should have cut the turquoise by about half with plain white, but like hell am I going to try to paint over all that again to try to fix it.

For reference, the original TLK not-Rod is molded in all charcoal grey or smoked clear plastic with orange for the car mode trim, so this is pretty much a total coverage paint job except for the tires, windows, silver headlight slashes, and contact surfaces of joints.

It also has the unfortunate design choice of having the arms held on by knurled pins into clear plastic at what translates to the inner end of the clavicle for human anatomy and the parts that are supposed to move tighter on the pins than the pins are into the socket, meaning that each time it's transformed or the arms are posed they get less likely to stay in the proper robot mode position and more likely to just permanently fall off, so that paint durability I mentioned earlier doesn't matter because she will never come out of car mode again

My Netflix Sparkless Seeker into Skywarp using Neopaque black and the same beautiful pearlied purple gets handled a bunch, though, and hasn't had any problems with scuffing except where there are tab and slot connections to hold its modes together, which cannot be expected to remain intact even with the (usually) super tough factory paint. I don't have photos of that, though, because I still haven't gotten around to adding a few gunmetal and blue details I hadn't yet gotten the correct colors for the last time I had space cleared and set up for painting.