Dave's Transformers Painting Projects

Paints, Repaints and Kitbashes, Oh My!
Transformers Quickbashes - Lesser Kitbashes
Last Updated 11/20/23
Minerva Wollstonecraft Shelley updated.

This page is a bit of an odd duck. I didn't put in enough work to put it on the Full Kitbashes page, but it's definitely more than a minor mod or simple repaint. Generally it means that I did both some physical mods and then painted it more than just enough to cover the mods, although some of the examples here are kinda borderline one way or another. This is also the shortest of the Quickbash sub-pages.

Blast Off Ground Mode: I got a Blast Off at a flea market for a buck because the toy was missing a wing and had no accessories. So I replaced the wings with Lego wheels and turned the remaining wing into an axe. It should be noted that Blast Off does NOT like being stuck as a ground vehicle, and this wasn't his choice. Tinkering with an Intermezzo based on this.
Micromaster Griffin: I don't offhand know the name of this Micromaster Sports Car Patrol member, but I got it at a toy show or flea market or something, and it was all rusted out and the hood was floppy. I filed off the rust, added some vehicular weapons (the turret is a googly eye and a bit of rod, the side lasers are arms from a cheap vending machine robot) and repainted the whole thing. The hood's still floppy, which made this a bear to scan. The car is named after both the Griffin car from "Midnight Rambler" (episode of Bubblegum Crisis) and the Griffin mecha from Patlabor. If I were into writing crossover fics, I might do one where the Decepticons find the wreckage of the BGC Griffin and use parts to repair one of their damaged comrades, who then acquires the "haunting" effect and a hatred of motorcycles....
Armada Over-run: Optimus Prime's Mini-Con with a bit more paint and with the gun barrel carved out a bit more.
Trimmed Energon Arcee: Got a spare E-Arcee and trimmed down the oversized chest and moved the spark crystal.
- Robot Mode - Front
- Robot Mode - Side
- Motorcycle Mode
- A different rebuild
Alternators Windcharger Gun: The gun barrel of Alternators Windcharger was left out for reasons I won't go into here, so I made my own rather than buy a reproduction. Pretty simple job.
Battle-Damaged Windrazor: The first A4 Windrazor I got was defective, missing a cockpit and having two left forearms. Once I replaced it, I made this out of the defective one.
Happy Hannukah from Optimus Prime: A cheap Galaxy Force Galaxy Convoy figure built into a Menorah. Because, as per the Family Guy cartoon, Optimus Prime is Jewish. Some tips on making your own.
jaAmMaster Hot Shot: A McDonald's Armada Hot Shot toy quickly modded to look like it's got an all-new gimmick: pump sugary goop out of the belt! Done for the March 2008 AllSpark Art Challenge, AllSparker Maximo Prime made the final ad image.
- Plain Robot Mode
- jaAm Capsule view
- Pumping action! (does not actually pump, all of the "jaAm' is painted hot glue)
- Vehicle with jaAm Capsule
- Vehicle front corner view
- Vehicle rear corner view
- Quick mockup of ad
Dropship Spider-Man: The Marvel Crossovers combiner of Spider-Man and Iron Man has a fairly disappointing helicopter mode on Spider-Man. I thought it'd look better as a Sci-Fi-style dropship without rotors. I replaced the main rotor with a small turret and added missile pods to the tail. August 2009.
- Vehicle Mode
- Hero Mode
Ejector Add-Ons: Ejector is a nice little toaster, but missing a backplate in toaster mode...and of course, what toaster is complete without toast? September 2009.
- Backplate: Finishing off his Dualit 4-slice toaster mode.
- Burnt Toast: Just a single slice as a proof of concept, I might do more later.
Generations Scrounge: This started as a gag, to give Darkmount something to hold, a quick project made from Lego and styrene. And it grew, but never took up too much time, hence going here and not in full kitbashes.
- Wheel mode with Darkmount holding it.
- First attempt robot mode: Just slapped together parts from two Lego Minifigs and painted them.
- Second attempt robot mode: With custom head and special arm.
Legends Goldbug: I picked up a spare gold Bumblebee from the Reveal the Shield line, which was already an obvious Goldbug homage. I popped the head off and reshaped it by carving and adding putty to look more like Goldbug's head, then painted it and added a few bits to the paint of the rest of the toy. I didn't photograph the vehicle mode, since the only change to that was the silver hubcaps. June 2011.
Cyberverse Motormaster: The Target Exclusive black Cyberverse Megatron was clearly a Motormaster homage, so I decided to take it the rest of the way. I carved the head into a shape that fell somewhere between the G1 animation model and the movie aesthetic, then painted up a bunch of details. June 2011.
- Robot Mode
- Vehicle Mode with and without tank
Cyberverse TF:Prime Ultra Magnus Wrecker: The vehicle mode of Cyberverse Commander Ultra Magnus looked like it was missing a wrecker-style car platform, so I made one out of styrene sheet and rod pieces, usable as a riot shield in robot mode. I was later informed that his truck mode is actually a military truck that carries an artillery piece, but I still like my mod. August 2012.
- Vehicle Mode
- Robot Mode
Deflacked Kreons: One of the main aesthetic flaws in the MicroChange Kreons is that they use military flak vest pieces to add back pegs to the figures, obscuring the nicely printed detail on the chest of the figure. So, on a few where it looks like I could get away with it, I used a Dremel to carve away most of the front.
- Rampage, Dirge, Insecticon and Airachnid: Wave 1, February 2013.
- Decepticon Hook: I also painted the truck details on the top of his helmet. Wave 1, February 2013.
Legends Bumper: A Legends Bumblebee from Thrilling 30, with a new head I sculpted to look like Bumper. I also removed the spoiler and did some hole-filling. September 2014.
G1 Bump: I got a third party Bumper toy named Bump on clearance at BBTS, and decided to make it into Bump the armadillo from BWNeo. I dyed the yellow plastic red, and resculpted the face. Here's a comparison shot with the original Bump toy. March 2015.
Warpath's Tank Squad: Legends Warpath listed him as being a tank commander, which implies tanks to command. So I scoured the Dollar Generals in town for extra Legion class Megatron tanks, resculpted their faces with Apoxie Clay, and dyed them different colors. July 2015.
- Robot Modes with Warpath
- Closeup Robot Modes
- Tank Modes
Fortress Maximums Gun: I scratchbuilt this gun from various stuff so that Titans Return Fortress Maximus had something to wave around. I also found he could hold onto a Dollar Tree lightsaber toy. July 2016.
- The Gun
- Fort Max with the gun and sword
Titans Return Combiner Wars Channel: I took an Ironhide from Combiner Wars and a Loudmouth from Titans Return and bashed them together into an update for my perennial fan character Channel. I cut a socket in the neck for attaching a Titan Master, and did some reshaping of the faceplate. September 2016.
- Robot mode
- Robot mode, action pose
- Vehicle mode
Fridged Solus Prime: Solus Prime, the only female Prime, was killed off in order to motivate the male Primes to action. So, she was "fridged" to use the comics parlance. I used styrene sheet and Apoxie Clay to turn the front of the Octopunch Decoy Armor into a refrigerator door to concretize the symbolism. August 2018.
Nemesis Grime: A somewhat tasteless COVID-19 gag, turning a spare Burgertron who I'd failed to dye a good brown into the evil Viral Mean, Nemesis Grime. Actual coronavirii have more receptors, but I decided to keep it simple. March 2020.
Megatron MR Tank: Core Class Megatron (Kingdom) modified into a member of the GUARD faction in Monsterpocalypse, changing from something like an Exo-Armor into something like the MR Tank. December 2021.
Minerva Wollstonecraft Shelley: With the official movie monster crossover toy Frankentron coming out later in 2023 or maybe early 2024, I was inspired to make a Mary Shelley to go along with it. I settled on a spare Minerva (my original kitbash plans for it had fallen through), reshaped the head to look more like Shelley's hairstyle, and dyed most of it black. In one of those inspirations that artists hate themselves for having, I decided to do the trim in lace, which turned out...so-so. Some parts worked better than others. Rather than fabricate a switchblade for her (in keeping with the Midnight Pals version of Mary Shelley), I just took an old (TMNT?) katana and shaved down the grip so she could hold it, then added a bit of paint. The hips got really loose during the dyeing, oddly, so I had to put glue in the joints to stiffen them up. September 2023.
- 'Sup, nerds?: Robot mode, not completely finished yet at this point, as I needed to transform it and see what bits needed adding to get the vehicle mode working.
- Vehicle Mode: She's not gonna spend much time in this mode, but I felt I had to make sure it worked and all the lace lined up reasonably well. Unfortunately, while I got really nice looking taillights by using pearl paint and then Tamiya clear red, the way the ankles work tends to dent the paint.
- Robot mode next to mostly-stock Minerva: The Minerva has a Reprolabel Autobot symbol added. I considered putting Decepticon symbols on Minerva Shelley, to match Frankentron, but decided to stick with a vial of her mother's innermost Energon on a pendant in robot mode, and nothing in vehicle mode.
- BEHOLD! - Minerva in the closest I can get to the "Will Smith Behold" meme pose, presenting her creation.

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