Transforming a Movie Optimus Prime helmet into G1 Optimus

[optimusaint]

mohawk is flipped now, and the entire helmet is skinned in cardboard now. im cutting the inner antenna so they are level with the mohawk, like G1 optimus, and im making the outer antenna a bit longer. ill have pics up tonight when i get home from work.

 

[Kiltmanfortytwo]

LOL!!

I bought one of these and wore it to the harry potter 7 release. I was more popular than the staff member in a voldemort outfit!!

Chris

 

[mysteryfactor]

Some friends and I made a G1 OP for the theatre I work for. It is made out of cardboard and foam-core. I based the design off of the 20th Anniversary DVD Toy. I went online and found some pics that I scaled up. Every thing was custom made. It took me a week to make the head and hands alone. We just took him down yesterday when he was up he stood 11' tall. For a while his head turned... till the motor died.

I am uploading pictures now and will post a link once they are uploaded.

Later,
Donavon

 

[optimusaint]

Some friends and I made a G1 OP for the theatre I work for. It is made out of cardboard and foam-core. I based the design off of the 20th Anniversary DVD Toy. I went online and found some pics that I scaled up. Every thing was custom made. It took me a week to make the head and hands alone. We just took him down yesterday when he was up he stood 11' tall. For a while his head turned... till the motor died.

I am uploading pictures now and will post a link once they are uploaded.

Later,
Donavon

thats awesome. the rest of my costume is pretty awesome. the chest opens up to reveal the matrix. only, since its a Black and Gold Saints robot, its going to be the Lombardi trophy (yeah, New Orleans Saints fans are wishful thinkers)

 

[blinkava44]

optimus do you have any pics of your progress?

 

[mysteryfactor]

Check these images out Optimus. I'd love to see your costume!



mysteryfactor

 

[optimusaint]

optimus do you have any pics of your progress?

ill upload a few pics when i get home from work. the helmet is completely mocked up, ready for bondo.

Check these images out Optimus. I'd love to see your costume!



mysteryfactor

wow man! im impressed! my original optimus prime costume was built the same way that your giant model was built, primarily of cardboard. only after wearing it to 9 Saints games, and a ton of other events, it looks pretty bad now. cardboard looks awesome when its fresh, but eventually starts to show corrugation and gets bent corners.



theres some shots of my black and gold optimus http://mjolnirarmor.com/forums/viewtopic.p...&highlight=

and i have plenty of pictures of that one, and my original color optimus on myspace. www.myspace.com/efyouz

 

[optimusaint]

update. heres a little more work. unfortunately some of my employees didnt show up for work today, so i only got one solid hour to work on the helmet before i went home.

heres what it looked like after a little work on monday:

changed the mohawk

built the back of the head.

comparing my old Saints game helmet to the new one, for proportions. shes seen better days.

and heres what i accomplished today. i know its not much. i took the helmet completely apart, and started work on the antenna, as well as preparing for the first layers of bondo.

shortened the two inner fins. and lengthened and pointed out the outer fins. they look pretty close to G1 now, even though the two inner fins are a little farther back on the head than i wanted them. i didnt feel like cutting them off and moving them forward, im on a deadline.

cool angle

side view. the plan is to bondo and sand each antenna while they are off the helmet, and then screw them back on, and mold them into the rest of the helmet

good shot of the back

unfortunately a buncha guys from corporate are visiting my shop tomorrow, so ill have to follow them around all day instead of doing what i wanna do. looks like ill have to wait until friday or next week to do some bondo.

 

[TheBlue]

Nice!

Great work you have there.


Keep it coming!

 

[MC Chris]

Awesome work :mrgreen:

 

[optimusaint]

hahaha, thanks guys, but im not gonna get ahead of myself yet. the real work starts when i smear some bondo on it. until then, all of this stuff is just playing around with cardboard.

my daft punk helmet came out ok, and i have a lot more time to do this one than i had for daft. so i guess i should be confident

 

[optimusaint]

makin progress. i ran out of Bondo so i took a break and took some pictures. the entire helmet is filled now, and cheese grated. itll be sanded with 80 grit on an orbital sander on monday, and then all the imperfections will get another light skin of bondo. ill post pictures when its smooth and covered in spot putty.

ive got a good bit of hand sanding to do in the eye sockets. cant get a cheese grater in there to make it as clean as the rest of the helmet, so ill just have to work my fingers in them.

 

[FinAeros]

For the eyes, maybe a grinding bit on a Dremel or similar rotary tool would work? Should save you some time as well.

 

[optimusaint]

For the eyes, maybe a grinding bit on a Dremel or similar rotary tool would work? Should save you some time as well.

i might do it for the high spots, but i dont want to dig into it too much. id rather use the flatness of several fingers and sandpaper to get a smooth surface. the eyes are probably the most looked at part of the helmet.

thanks for the suggestion, i will get some of the heavy stuff down with it.

 

[optimusaint]

ok, so after letting it sit on a shelf in my office for a really long time, i rushed through the sanding and paintjob in one night. people were requesting that Optimus make an appearance at 80s night, so i had to act quickly. here's a few shots of it finished, but keep in mind that i will be sanding it and repainting it.

as i was painting, i cracked the back along the bottom. so i just broke the piece off and painted it. ill fix it when i repaint.

 

[volkov]

looks great!

 

[Dark Rogue]

For a second I thought this was a necropost. But pretty dang sweet if you ask me, much better than your old one.

 

[Sigma LS]

Two thumbs up Optimus, leaps and bounds ahead of the old helm. Best part is that the voice changer still works .

 

[JediStumpy]

love the gold color. I thought about making my MC suit that color. GO DREW BREES!! (he went to Purdue)
great job!

 

[optimusaint]

thanks guys! im gonna sand it in a few spots, and do some repairs. then ill post another picture after the repaint.

Jedi, my MC suit is black and gold! i wore it to all of the Saints games last year. it was awesome.