Here's an in progress look at my latest project-a statue of Megatron. Originally part of my Crap I'm Working On page, this one is finally far along enough that I'm devoting space to him on this page instead.

Feb 04-It all started with his head. Check out what happened when I left Sculpey in the oven too long.The piece to the right is the first sculpt I did of Megtron's head. I first made a mold of Transmetal II Megatron's face from some Sculpey. I baked it and then made a casting of the face from some more Sculpey. I changed a few things to make the sculpey casting evolve into Megatron's full head. But then when I was finished, I put it in the oven and forgot about it. I went to the store and was pulling into the parking lot when I remembered I left Megatron's head in the oven. When I pulled it out there was some really horrible brown scarring all over. I tried to sand it off but the reaction went deep into the piece.

Well the overbaked Sculpey didn't matter because all I needed was a solid piece that I could make a mold from. Once that was done, I got some really good resin castings made off of it. The resin casting to the left is a preliminary test shot I painted green for use in the next step in this project-Megatron's body. The green color is just to help me see the detail and when the time comes to make the final one, I'll cast a new head and paint it correctly.

With Megatron's head and neck done, the next step in the project is to make the chest. So far I've done the majority of his torso. With the exception of a few styrene parts, the torso is going to be a three part sculpey sculpture. The next steps will the legs, arms, and fusion cannon. Once I'm done I hope to have a full statue that I can make a mold off of.

March 17-Here's the assembled torso so far. It's 3 1/4 inches tall now, so I'm guessing the full statue will be about 7 inches tall. Of course that's not all there is to this particular project. This full body Megatron is just the beginning of what will be a multi-character diorama.

Here are a couple of pics from when I got the lower torso and legs done. I'm working on the arms right now. He ended up standing eight inches tall instead of seven like I thought. Although he's taller than a regular Megatron figure, he still looks good with the toy's fusion cannon, so I'll use that as an accessory once I'm done

March 27-Now I'm to the point where all I lack is the hands and left arm. Hopefully I'll have those done in a few days, but for now I'm happy with how things are going. In these latest two shots you can see the detail work done on the legs and knee joint. I also put pads under the feet and ridges on the sides of the legs, which are details inspired by the toy.

At this point I am spending a lot of time at Gremlins in the Garage, a site about garage kits. I am toying with the idea of making a mold of this guy and making multiple resin copies. I've never done anything that ambitious before, though. I'll take it one day at a time. As you can see, at this point he's about 90% done in terms of sculpting, he's eight inches tall, and he's made up of 17 pieces. That's a lot of resin! I'm just surprised the friggin thing stands up when I put it all together, since I'm not using a wire skeleton and I don't have the first clue what I'm doing.

March 31-I'm very close to finishing the final sculpt. I still need the left hand, but that's about it. Then I can start with the resin copy and ultimately, another recasting which will hopefully be the final piece. I seem to be working faster the closer I get to the finish, and that's good since I've got two more figures to go in this diorama.