Tom Servo
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- Joined: 1/21/2009
- Location: PA USA
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Status: offline
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CLASSIC SCIENCE ENGINEER CONVERSION KIT REVIEW part 2
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Monday, February 01, 2010 8:38 AM
( #1 )
If removed from context, I'd have trouble imagining a less enthusing statement than "the new primer seems to be working". However in the light of my own progress with the WJ Conversion kit, finally being able to say it, was practically a ray of hope from the heavens. I had previously tried using, Tamayacolor white as a base with Rustoleum semigloss over it. That didn't look very good so I tried a flat white spray paint. That was a total disaster and required me to strip it all off and try again. I then went for spray on auto primer. That worked for awhile until the top coat cracked. Finally, I picked up a can of Rustoleum Specialty Plastic Primer from the Home Depot, and it covered Sideswipe's red nicely and evenly. It even has a nice way of self-leveling ripples and pools as it dries. Most spray paints are not nearly as cooperative at that, as the amount of sanding that I typically do on a spray painted piece will attest. Some of you may be wondering why I'm spray painting this kit at all, let alone with products that aren't specifically made for plastic, and an airbrush would almost certainly be better and faster. The answer is two-fold. I'm cheap, and I'm lazy. Besides, this review isn't for the pros out there who have the best equipment. It's for the regular customizers and the kids who are just starting out. Also, I really hate having to clean enamel paint out of the airbrush. It's just a pain. Having broken the center spoiler and glued it back together in a way that rendered it a solid piece, I found that I was having trouble getting the side spoilers on. The undersides of the pieces have extra plates that are meant to level out the under carriage of the front end. Those parts weren't sitting properly against the center spoiler and as a result wouldn't go on. I'm not sure if this was due to something I was doing wrong or an issue with the kit itself, and I didn't spend a lot of time worrying about it. I clipped off the inner corners of the side spoilers with a regular pair of diagonal wire cutters, and everything fit together perfectly.
Now that everything was together and working, it was time to return my attention to the issue of the hood/ back attachment. It was clearly never going to snap into position on it's own. The first choices that jumped out at me were some sort of peg and hole or a pair of magnets. There's a deep screw hole in SS's back that looked like a perfect fit for some magnets that I had in my parts box. I was already leaning towards magnets, as they're good space savers, and having parts snap together gives a transformation a cool, futuristic element. To hold the magnet, the hole in the back needed to be widened slightly. I did this with my power drill. I made sure not to make the hole too big, so that the magnet would fit snugly and stay in with friction. It fit so well that no glue was needed, and it has yet to come out. Getting the corresponding magnet into the hood presented a problem since there was nothing but empty space up there. I solved it by gluing a styrene panel over the hole with the corresponding magnet glued to the inside surface. This worked well at first, but a problem became obvious when the magnet inside of the car proved to be stronger than the glue or materials that I was using. I was pretty worried for a while before I had what is generally referred to as a "Duh!" moment. I remembered that magnets also like to stick to steel, not just other magnets. I went back to the parts box, and I found some metal studs that I'd been saving for a special occasion. They were short, flat-headed pins that once held in some other part- maybe a wheel or a piston of some kind. I glued a piece of pvc foam board to the inside of my under-carriage panel to thicken it up, drilled out a small hole in it and wedged in the stud. The result was a much more manageable solution. Once I was satisfied with where everything was, I smoothed the undercarriage out with Quikwood epoxy putty and sanded it smooth.  Like most solutions, the magnet created a new problem. The panel with the metal stud was now in the way of the little tabs on the top of SS/ WJ's shoulders. I never liked those tabs anyway, so off they came. With a little shaving to the plate, it's a close call, but it's nothing major. I also like that it helps to separate the custom's look from that of it's base figure. I often make small changes to a base figure that aren't entirely needed just so it can look more like it's own thing. A good example is pulling off the arm pistons from MP Optimus Primes. They're great parts, but if one is using that figure as a base, removing them can give the arms a different look and help fool they eye into thinking that it's seeing more "custom" and less Prime At the risk of sounding like a Magic For Beginners book, misdirection is always your best tool. It's in this way that making a custom figure is sort of like a game of Three Card Monty. If they can't find the lady, you win. That and cheating is encouraged. Now that my clever little back attachment was in place, the wings on the backpack were now bumping into the back of the gun. There are two ways to deal with this. The attachment point on the gun could be moved to allow it to sit further up, or the wings could be modified so that they sit further back. Since it would clearly be easier to move the peg on the gun, I didn't think of it until I had already cut up the backpack and started installing new attachments for the wings with styrene rods.
Before I knew that I would be totally re-working the wings, I had already shaved down some of the features on the backpack to help the wings sit flatter. In addition to that, I had to clip off the existing pegs with an exacto knife and "drill" out the new holes by stabbing it into the part and slowly twisting it. This is a good controlled way of making a small hole. Once I was through to the other side, I turned it over and evened out the hole from the other side. To keep my styrene tubes in, I heated their ends with a cigarette lighter and blunted them by pressing them against a tabletop. Some widening of the holes in the wings was also necessary. I shaved them down with the knife, just like on the pack. Then, out of a larger diameter styrene rod, I made spacers to keep the wings away from the body and small rings to act as caps on the outer surface of the wings. The whole thing was glued together with Zap-A-Gap glue. Zap-A-Gap is a super glue that is perfect for situations where your parts don't mate perfectly. This was one of those situations. Any imperfections on the new pegs and inside of the pack were smoothed out with Quikwood epoxy putty.
 I kept my final paint job on the figure simple. A mostly black and white scheme appealed to me, so I only did a little gray shading and dry-brushing where needed. The wings got a hint of blue steel. As I decided early on, I painted the windows and eyes in stead of using the included stickers. I don't see how a person could use the eye stickers even if they wanted to. They don't fit into the face very well at all. Even a novice painter would be well advised to take a shot at it or just live with the gray eyes. It's the only sticker on the sheet that doesn't look like it was ever intended to be used, but if you really want to take a shot at it, they give you a spare. A spare of the nice, if simply designed license plate is also included. Of the other WJ kits that I've seen assembled, not one person has used the windshield sticker, and it's for good reason. It fits adequately, but even a simple paint job would look better. The rest of the stickers are nicely designed. They're printed on a clear stock, so matching to a paint job shouldn't be a problem. The plasticy feel of the stickers given them an odd Colorform quality, so I question how permanent they will be. My set was warped slightly around the edges and didn't sit any flatter on the figure. Heating them with a hair dryer might fix that, but for now I'm leaving them off. For now, I find my Classic Science Engineer rather handsome in plain black and white, but I may do something clever with him in the near future, and for that I'll need him to be in his nude, unstickered state.  Over all the kit is solid and well-thought out. The highlight is unquestionably the new roof. It's a fully realized piece that snaps into place with no tools needed and instantly transforms the look of the figure. Similarly, the rear spoilers did the same job and needed only a few drops of glue. The head popped on easily, but was a little wobbly. It looks good, but I couldn't help but wonder what could have been with an entirely new sculpt instead of the modded Downshift head. The accessories are a similarly good deal. The wings are a good fit for the figure, and only needed heavy modding after I heavily modded the car's front end. The shoulder and hand guns are clean and appealing. Oddly, while doing the final photo shoot, I noticed that the gun fit more snugly into his right hand than his left. This might have more to do with the base figure than the kit though. Classic Science Engineer Conversion Kit might be a little simple for some of the more advanced kitbashers out there, but the requirements of its assembly (especially if something goes wrong) should serve as excellent experience for the novice to intermediate customizer. The reproed G1 and original parts are strong selling points. Whether or not they warrant the $50 price tag is something that the individual consumer will have to decide for him and her self, but I had fun with it.
Thanks again to Mastercollectables for supplying the kit for review!
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