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Okay. I think this may be the most obscure repaint I've done ever. At some point back in the UK book's run, Marvel ran a "Design a Decepticon" contest. The entries... ranged. Wildly. Some rather interesting pieces, some bizarre, some actually pretty plausible as toys (after some cleaning up, natch). There were a handful of designs clearly based on the SkyRaiders, and Sunbender was the most coherent, unique and interesting-looking of them to my eye.
Well, relatively coherant. I had to do some major reorganizing on the colors, as you can see from the original artwork by one Matthew Snyder.
I wonder what Matthew is doing now. In his life, I mean, not right this exact minute. I mean, he could be doing something right this minute very personal that's none of my business. But does he still draw, did he find gainful employment with that talent? Does he still like Transformers? Collect any? Does he realize someone has made his creation a mite more "real", and spread it out more across a fandom that none of us could have possibly dreamed would exist?
Or am I thinking to damn much about this crap?
Any rate, MATTHEW SNYDER, if in the off chance you ego-surf the web and come across this... drop me a line if you're not freaked out.
As for Sunbender himself, a very striking color scheme, I think. Mainly cartoon-model-based layout, but with toy-based tweaks. I wanted to add more red to the scheme, so turning the black plastics red really makes him stand out (not that he didn't already), and since the missiles are obviously on their own mold....
I went with the Tamiya Color yellow rather than trying to screw with the Citadel yellows. Tamiya's paints don't dry as fast as Citadel's, but the coverage of the yellow is soooo much more even. Not only did it coat better, but it was nicely between the Golden Yellow and Bad Moon Yellow, which matched the colors on the original artwork. His eyes are Tamiya too, but it kind of mixed with the red of the helmet a little. I had to go over the edges of the yellow parts with multiple layers, as the purple would bleed through. You can still see a little of it if you look close in person.
The "white" wing stripes aren't pure Skull White... once again, the Skull White and Fortress Gray combo makes its way onto a PVC. Glad I made that.
I waffled on giving him Decep sigils. Partially because I was running out of them in a suitable size. But I guess he's a Decepticon-in-training... assuming they "train" their troops beyond "shoot that way".
Lord, I want a toy of this. I admit I am not wild about the Robot Masters Starscream mold at all, but it's small and inexpensive and therefore prime recolor fodder for hordes of generic G1 Decepticon troopers. Plus "Sunbender" is actually a pretty cool name.
 
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