I have completed all three G1 transformers Insecticons characters Shrapnel, Bombshell and Kickback. I painted them with a basecoat of black and then dry brushed the areas that needed to be purple and yellow with white.
I did this to make them bright as purple and yellow are transparent and the light passes through them and bounces off the opaque white and back to your eye making them look nice and bright.I used many different metallic acrylic paints to give them a mechanical look. I dry brushed the black base-coat with the metallics and got a good robotic looking result.
For bases I crushed up N scale model railroad cars and painted them white and did a red and brown wash on them to contrast the Insecticons colors. I then added N Scale people to the base. I was running out of time so I did not repaint the people and just left the miniature people painted in their off the shelf colors.I usually do a lot of washes on my minis. A wash is when you mix acrylic paint to the consistency of 2% milk and spreading it over the model to create false shadows.
Unfortunately, I did not do any on these miniatures yet. The unpainted N scale people looked bad so I decided to paint them all with a coat of Citadel Typhus Corrosion and it looked good. In fact, I don’t usually use Citadel products but it looked good on the metallic Transforms and it dulled out the off the shelf paints on the N scale people making them look corroded and dirty. Over all I was very happy with my fast paint job.
Epilogue: I can’t say I was very impressed with the amount of shrinkage I got from this process for the cost. I have connections that allowed me to procure materials at a lower amount than the general public so this processes may be cost too much for the regular hobbyist. I do plan on shrinking Sound Wave’s tapes a second time and maybe a third time to make them smaller. Another thing I can tell perspective shrinkers is that mixing mineral spirits with construction calking silicon does not work. Over all I am happy with my three new transformers.
To see my Insecticon photo album see:To see my latest Transformers minis from this year see:
To see my other older Transformers miniatures and my other cool projects check out:
Cheers Mike
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The models shrunk a bit more but not as much as I would have liked. I put the minis together by cutting and adding joints. I tried to make them as dramatic as possible with the grasshopper robot Kickback being the most dramatic.
I used hands from Warhammer 40k Space Marines and other kit bashing parts to add details. I also had to make all the bot’s backs out of green stuff as I had originally cast them prone to make it easier to mold them the first time.
Moving on I made up some bases with crashed cars to show that the Insecticons are giant robots even though they are smaller than most other Transformers . I then painted them with a base coat of black. I just need to paint them now in their signature colours.
Cheers Mike.
I cast up the three molds and used green stuff to fix up the casts minis. I had to mold the originals prone but for the second mold I cut up the 1st casts and placed all three in one mold box to shrink them a second time. I decided to also do Sound Wave’s tape robots as well becuse I would have enough silicone to make another shrink mold.
Cheers,
I demolded the Insecticons today and it went exceptionally well. It was the best demold I have done in a long time. Now I have to wait seven days for the mineral spirits to evaporate causing the molds to shrink. I might only get 15% shrinkage so I might have to do the process again. I am very impressed with how well this went.
Transformers so Im going to shirk down some 1980s Transformers decoy vending toys so they are in scale with the recast decoy Transformers that I have already made over the last school year.
I have been recasting these 80s rubber decoy figures and placing them in dynamic stances and customizing them with some kit bashing. I’m basically taking a one part rubber vending toy and turning it into a multiple part pro mini resin kit.
silicone shrink down as the mineral spirits evaporate. I have done lots of casting but I have not done this shrink technique before so this is new for me.
best way to cast them in a one part mold. I 
was told that doing this with a two part mold is difficult as the two parts may shrink at different rates and not match up for casting. I used 30% mineral spirits in my mix and filled up the three containers. Evidently the molds will take seven days to shrink. I will get back to you about the results then.
And one of the pair.
Thanks Mike.
I thought I would send in an update on my Acid Storm miniature. I have given him a green wash so I can see imperfections in the casting. I then filled major problems with milliput putty. I like to have some of the original problems show to look like blast damage. Im working on repositioning the left arm and I have replaced the hands with 40K Space Marine hands. Acid Storm is holding an acid grenade! Next, I will paint the real base color on. I will also make a crazy base for him and pro paint him soon.