I got my transformable War Within Starscream project painted in time for OTFCC '03! Since I built two, I painted one in a weathered and worn paint scheme. The other 'clean' version was the one I kept in robot mode for display at the art contest. I had a great time because both Don Figueroa and Simon Furman took some time out to talk with me about it! Both of them were happy to see what I'd done!
Here's the final painted version alongside a Takara anime colors rerelease Starscream. Due to my limited engineering skill, he only has 5 true points of articulation-the elbows, head, and hips. The head and hips are on ball joints, and the elbows bend. The detachable fists are from a real Starscream. The forearms are copies of a real seeker's arms, with a slight remold to make them fit my version. I bought the fists and Decepticon insignia stickers at the convention during the Friday night parts swapping party. My thanks to Delta Star of Reprolabels.com for selling me those crucial pieces I needed to complete my project before the show.
Here's a picture of the 'clean' version in its alt mode alongside the 'dirty' version. I only transformed the 'clean' figure once at the art show, and that was to show Don that it really did work. He congratulated me on getting certain details correct like the color of the forearms in the alt mode. Although they were red in the final alt mode shown in TWW #6, I painted them blue because that's what color the robot mode forearms were. Don said the red coloration in the comic was a mistake and he thought it was cool that I caught it. There were some things he designed that my version doesn't have, like collapsing legs.
Simon Furman was an absolute class act. He came down to the art room and I grabbed him and showed him my Starscream. He said he'd heard from Don that I had built it, and they both had nothing but nice things to say. Those two guys made me feel great with all the compliments. Simon's enthusiasm and love for all things Transfomrers really comes through when you talk to the guy. He's just incredible. I can't tell how awesome it is to talk to Simon Furman, but it's my hope that everyone who loves his work gets to meet him once. My thanks to Simon for posing with me for this picture, and thanks to Don for...
Signing them! Don Figreoa signed the wings of my War Within Starscream kitbashes. I just about died. It all started when Don got in the same elevator I was in, and I told him about my Starscream. He said he'd like to see it, so we both went down to the art room and I showed it to him. I remember we had so much to talk about. It was great. I was glad I completed the project and glad that I took it to the show. There were times during the engineering phase that I felt like not going on, or just scrapping the whole thing because it wasn't going how I'd planned. When I was finally there at OTFCC and showing it to Simon Furman and Don Figureoa, everything became worth the trouble.
As for results of the art contest, well, Starscream didn't place in the 3d category at all. (Insert "ahhhhhwww" here.) But fear not, loyal citizens of scrambledcity, I did win! I just had to 'settle' for getting FIRST PLACE in the diorama category with my other masterpiece titled "Prime told me there'd be days like this"! YAY! And remember my resin Megatron statue? He tied for third place in diorama! So in a span of two years, I got 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in diorama at Botcon '02 and OTFCC '03. I am now officially retiring from the art contest.
Okay, so I know you're asking how is a statue of Megatron a diorama? Well I stuck him in front of the Decepticon computer I made out of cardboard and toilet paper rolls. Then I made a little Kremzeek out of styrene and titled the whole thing 'Electric Escape'. The title's an homage to Rob Jung's site. The idea was that Megatron was about to blast Kremzeek, who was escaping. And since Kremzeek is made of electricity, well.. you get it.
So hang on and I'll get a webpage up detailing those other projects soon. In the meantime you can check out the OTFCC '03 art contest coverage at these fine sites for more pictures of my War Within Starscream, resin Megatron, and "Prime Told Me..." diorama:
Transfandom.com's THE MATRIX at OTFCC '03 Art Room coverage
Seibertron.com's OTFCC '03 art room coverage
The Allspark's OTFCC '03 art room coverage
I'll add more links and more pictures to this page eventually!
