Front
View
Side View
Original kit
Using the other spare SD kit I had laying around, Musha Optimus Prime became my second SD kitbash. This one proved more challenging than Galvatron due to trying to make him transform, which was eventually accomplished with the help of extra transformation pieces.
Head
Very simple alteration here, I shaped the face down into Op'
facemask, which ended up rounded instead of angular, but works
good for an SD. I then removed the two small antenna blades from
the antenna block, and glued the block to the crest on his
forehead. Not having the v-antenna left a small hole in the
helmet, but I decided to open it up bigger, so that the gold
"OP" would be visible on the inner head piece. (The
original kit had a "HA" there, but wasn't even visible,
well I kind of liked that design, so I sanded that down, and
replaced it with OP)
Body
I removed some of the shallow designs in HA's chest to fit more
into Op's design, the skirt armor was cut shorter as well. Three
holes had to be opened on the rear skirt to allow for
transformation. Sword and scabbord are unaltered, the gun is from
SD Musha Sandrock (SD Galvatron).
Arms
The left shoulder was smoothed out to allow for the Autobot logo,
and using parts from HA's huge shoulder armor, I made the small
shoulder armor parts.
Leg
I added some pieces of styrene to the bottom and rear of the feet
to serve as treads. Holes were opened on the inside of each heel
for transformation.
Backpack/transformation
pieces
Making it so Op could transform into some kind of truck-like
vehicle was not easy, but I eventually settled on a design
requiring two extra transformation pieces. The front wheel
assembly was made from one of HA's gatling cannons, and the rear
one was made from parts of HA's backpack. The two connect into
one piece in robot mode, creating a backpack. I've decided it can
be a big gun too, having three pegs sticking out like barrels and
it fits in Op's hand. It also could have a sideway gatling spray,
or something, since the wheels are the ends of HA's gatling
barrels.
Painting
Main colors: Gundam red (from Gunze Sangyo's Gundam colors, the
paint goes on well, really the only reason I used that specific
color), semi-gloss white, medium blue, and silver. Gold is clear
yellow over gold, and the chest windows are just a light blue I
mixed, treads are Gundam gray. Autobot symbol is hand painted,
and as usual all detail lines are done with the Gundam marker.
Transformation
Remove everything from the body, remove shoulder block from arms,
separate backpack parts. Plug front wheels under the waist, rear
piece into rear skirt, plug feet into rear pegs of rear piece,
and shoulders into holes in back. Finally, plug the gun into the
neck hole, and scabbord into its hole.
Vehicle mode
Side view Front view
Well its not a semi, it's some kind of halftrack-van looking
thing...but it IS a vehicle mode....with a really big gun and
tank treads (and it does look a bit better in person, scans just
don't get the right angles). The scabbord isn't shown in the
pics, cos it would block too much. Anyway, it was made from a
completely non transforming SD kit, so getting it to look like
any kind of vehicle is an accomplishment I'd say.
