Raven
Front view Side view
Rear view Original
kits
After beginning work on my Arcee
scratchbuild, I decided to make a Decepticon counterpart as well.
I wanted a female, but since no canocal 'Con females exist, I
designed my own. My 1/144 scale Mylene Valkyrie from the Macross
7 line was a perfect place to start, being female in design
already, and a jet(the Mylene kit came with two models, one in
Battroid mode, one in jet mode). I used some parts from a 1/144
Gundam Airmaster as well(from the Gundam X series).
Legs:
I began with the legs, since I was just going to repaint and
reuse them. I ended up making the feet foldable, like the
original Valkyrie should. That was it.
Head:
First I reshaped the outer helmet of the Airmaster, thining in
down some, and removing the large crest on the head. I then cut
the face part of the Mylene in order to fit inside the helmet,
why sounds MUCH easier than it really was. The final result, IMO,
is very Transformer like in appearence.
Body:
This is where the greatest amount of work went into. I started
with the inside section of Airmaster body, cutting it down to the
size needed for Raven. Next came the chest/jet nose section. I
used the upper part of the battroid mode chest/nose(minus the
large canards), and the lower part(from the canopy down) of the
jet mode nose. This provided the best look in both modes as the
battroid mode nose was too stubby, and the jet mode chest was too
jet shaped. I then made two attachments for the chest peice so
that, using the arm posts, the chest could rotate from robot mode
position to jet mode. Next came the large rear wing section. I
began with the the wing and back section of the Valkyrie jet, and
cut out the appropriate area so that the legs could fold up there
during transformation. Using epoxy putty, built onto the upper/front
part of the wings so they would match up to the nose section. I
then added a rotating(up and down) polycap to the back of the
body, and added a peg to the wing section in the right place and
attached it to the body. This allows the entire wing section to
rotate away from the body about 45 degrees for better posability
and to move out of the way for transformation. The pelvis, not
visible in any view, was made from the pelvic part of the
Valkyrie.
Arms:
Well, I took Airmaster's arms, made the intakes form sheet
styrene, and added a bit of putty to shape them, that's about it.
I also cut some parts off Airmaster rifles to look more like
built-in blasters than hand-held rifles. They attach in the same
place and same way as Airmaster's when in fighter mode.
Raven's preview pic, with some test painting done, and before some final putty work was finished.
Painting and Detail:
Although it is hard to tell, Raven is actually TWO shades of dark
blue. The wings, nose/chest, and upper arms are Midnight blue, an
almost black blue, while the lower legs and arms are a more
purple dark blue which I found in one of my Gunze Sangyo EVA
color sets. The light purple is a custom metallic purple I mixed
myself, which unfornately does not look metallic in the scans.
The silver is standard Testor's silver, while the red is Tamiya's
clear red over silver. The blasters, as well as few other small
details are done with Arms Grey from a Gundam color set. As
usualy all panel lines are done with Gundam marker, and finally,
the Decepticon logos are from Ravestrike's superb reproduction
sticker sets. Oddly enough, Raven's color scheme came out looking
like a female Skywarp, something I had no intention of doing.
Transformation:
Take of the head and hands as usual(altho the hands can be left
on this one). Rotate the chest up and around to meet the rear
wing section; rotate the waist around 180 deg. and folds the legs
up and the feet together; finally flip the blasters over so that
they now face foward.
Well Raven kinda takes after the G2 and MW jets: looks good from the top, completely obvious robot parts from the side and below:) Of course all of my kitbashes have simple transformations... Anyway, sorry about the rather bad side view pic, but it was incredibly difficlut trying to scan her, and that was the best I could get; it does show how the legs sit above the wings tho, giving the impression of really big engines, which I was hoping for.
So that's my first original character, and I must say it was quite a different experience from a canocal character. It was easier because I could make her anyway and say that was how she should be, yet it was also a bit difficult, cos I had nothing to go by, so I never really knew exactly how she'd look until I was actually finished. I may do another original character sometime, but right now I'm too busy with canocal ones.
