With our favorite space choo choo nearing reissue via Walmart (with a hopefully tasty box) I felt it was high-tide that I get my butt in gear and finish up a dusty old project to give Astrotrain a more toon-accurate paint scheme.
Indeed I was neither smart enough nor flush enough with cash to nab that E-Hobby version that came out a while back, so this ended up on my "to do" list a few years back as I continue to seek the definitive G1 collection.
And while I hope that the forthcoming Walmart reissue will be similarly toon accurate, I simply needed to complete this one to see just how it would turn out.
Ok, on with the pics...
https://images2.imgbox.com/f9/ee/Hxu4f7UQ_o.jpg
Here is the original toy I used for the repaint...got it for a great price, and TBH it was in such good condition it was hard to take the old sandpaper to it.
https://images2.imgbox.com/76/bc/C3fvwwKS_o.jpg
This figure is surprisingly easy to disassemble. The painted black trim, on the other hand was surprisingly difficult to remove. Rubbing Alcohol had some effect, but after an hour of dizzying fumes I decided something stronger was needed. Acetone started to slightly marr the plastic so I decided to switch over to medium cut polishing compound and damn that pulled off that black trim effectively and without damage to that vintage ABS plastic!
https://images2.imgbox.com/17/7f/lFPMNK6T_o.jpg
Here you can literally watch the paint dry. Ok, matching purple is not fun. What i did was try a couple of off the shelf spray bombs that were 'close ish' then put a thin layer of custom-mixed acrylic paint on top. In person the match is very good.
https://images2.imgbox.com/ba/ab/MHKpTkZP_o.jpg
The result, in bot mode! Reprolabels offcuts were used for some of the details like the red on the abs and the silver on the knees.
https://images2.imgbox.com/fb/8b/ixu1dhKc_o.jpg
Shuttle mode. In general it transforms well without too much paint rubbing. The challenge is mostly the thighs and the tail wing. The key is to not tighten the screws too much in the chest so the arms swing freely. As you can see the ball joints in the arms aren't painted which also helps.
You can see I had a bit of a challenge with the one mask line. (pictures really show all the flaws!)
The rubsign is the original, I just carefully replaced it (there is some minor deterioration)
https://images2.imgbox.com/c5/63/deLbShsR_o.jpg
Train mode. Again, somehow the camera makes the purple mis-match look worse than it is...or maybe I'm turning blind I'm not sure. Either way I'm very happy with it. Silver paint marker for the bars the turn the train wheels (need a train expert to tell me what the proper name is). Yellow windows are from reprolabel offcuts.
Group shots after the jump!
