[Sentinel Prime]

Hello one and all! I love these forums, and I'm excited to show you guys my take on The First Decepticon, The Fallen, from ROTF. He includes the staff and he's sporting a new super-articulated neck.

Description of the creation follows the pics!



















Ok...so, let's see. After taking him apart, lightly sanding the parts and then washing them, I painted everything silver. Then, using Tamiya clear orange, I painted all the fire-detail line work. Then, I dry brushed the entire figure with Testor's Model Master gunmetal. After that, I went back in with silver and orange and cleaned up any fire details. Once the gunmetal was finished, I went back to dry brush in silver, because the step after that was dry brushing over the silver highlights with clear green and flesh wash, to really give him that ancient, worn look, yet provide some grimy color as in the film; I wanted him to look filthy, yet still metal underneath it all. The neck was constructed using a cool little ball joint with a hoop, which I'll post in WIP shots later. I then encased the neck in a knee-wrap from a WWE figure, to give it this cool hose look. Check out the pics...I absolutely LOVE the way the neck turned out. He can look every direction possible, even straight up. It allows him to pose all crouched over like in the film, see above pics.

I'm also very proud of the way the staff turned out. The translucent dry-brushing really gave him this patina, opalescent appearance, but not on every part, didn't want to over do it, in the film he's filthy, and the color is sparse, although it's there. The inferno effects really shine like crazy. I even tried to work in a couple of Cybertronian symbols into the staff.

The end result captures the film version of the Fallen, a dirty, ancient gunmetal look, with translucent dark green and orange highlights, yet still with some silver metal showing through. The translucent, reflective inferno effects were lastly highlighted in the center areas with some light yellow. The staff, in the film I simply remembered is as looking like a gnarled staff, not unlike a wood-texture, with a few random glowy-spheres planted into the staff. I recaptured it from memory, using a piece of metal coathanger, then encasing it with Apoxie-Sculpt, and implanting some cool little blue and clear orbs as I went. I then painted it in the same fashion as the Fallen himself. It connects to his creepy little hand using a very strong rare-earth magnet. It was many, many stages of painting and clean-up, but it was totally worth it, as I think it came out looking far more like the screen-version than the bland military green figure to begin with.

He retains all articulation and transformation.

[Sentinel Prime]

First off, thank you so much for all the great replies!

I've had several requests on a neck-mod tutorial. I FINALLY got a few days off in a row at work, so I'm pleased to be able to share this very easy mod with you guys and gals. And......GO! Pictures are in order with the steps.

STEP ONE:
Remove these pieces from the Fallen. Everything simply pops right off except the red clear part that attaches his head. I had to dremel that a bit to get it off. Note the piece with clear plastic is from his back.


STEP TWO:
Using the ball-joint tool on my dremel, I simply created a round socket inside the Fallen's torso. Took about 10 seconds.


PARTS:
Here's the three parts that make the neck. Head, awesome loop ball-joint from a spare Movie Towline, and a rubber knee-wrap from a 3.75" WWE figure.


STEP THREE:
This cool joint simply CLICKS right into place in the Fallens head! It didn't even need any work! It's tight, and it actually seems like it's "supposed" to be like this! I was so glad to have something on hand that worked so well and easily! He can look any direction possible.


STEP FOUR:
Just put the knee-wrap over the ball joint...it's rubber and it looks like a cool hose on the neck:


STEP FIVE:
Just simply click the neck into the torso!







Overall an easy mod if you have the tools. You can't tell it was even customized once together. It blends totally well, and the rubber neck cover combined with that cool joint allows him infinite neck movement!

[scarecrow]

Wow, this is a really great repaint. The mod is simple yet effective as well. I liked the original color the figure was molded in, but like any good repaint it looks that much cooler. Don't want to forget the staff.. It's fantastically detailed.