Greetings once again, Transfans.  Q here.  First off, I want to say I was really surprised that the Shockwave won.  He was ahead for a long time in the votes, but then Ultra Magnus looked like a shoe-in towards the end of the month.  Then a bunch of Decepticons cast their votes.  The Webmaster tells me that some people were trying to cheat and get Fortress Maximus to win by casting a lot of votes from just a couple people, but those get filtered by IP address.  Keep that in mind, cheaters:>). 

Well, well, Shockwave.  I'm an Autobot at heart, but when I went shopping for Gundams and saw this Master Grade Zaku II, I knew it was the one that would become the Military Operations Commander and total bad-ass known as Shockwave.  The aspects of what made this guy a natural for Shock are obvious; the single ocular orb is the biggest incentive, but the hoses also made a great stylized statement, reminiscent of Shockwave's cable to his laser barrel in both modes.  

It may be slightly disappointing to some Transfans that this figure isn't as big as my last project (the Optimus Prime bash).  Standing at less than 8 inches, he might seem puny.  But most Gundam enthusiasts don't have the same need for size that comes naturally to some Transfans; these models are awesomely  detailed and poseable at any size, and Kitbashing a small High Grade can be as fun and rewarding (or as time consuming and difficult) as the Perfect Grade Optimus.  The Gundam Kitbash experience is proof that size doesn't matter (at least with Gundams:>))

I did a small amount of paint mixing to get the right hue and shine on the purple.  Unlike the Optimus, I didn't have a Shockwave handy, so I used the GUIDE  to look up the figure and see if there was anything I needed to pay special attention to.  Because of the size, you may think I spent a lot less time on painting, but it actually took quite a bit of effort.  The first attempt was pretty dull, and it dried to be a totally wrong purple.  Here's a tip I didn't mention for you beginning bashers out there; using primer first is vital to a good paint job, but it can radically alter how the paint itself looks.  Do NOT paint it again; with these precision models, a lot of pieces will fit poorly if the paint is too thick (I learned this the hard and expensive way a long time ago).  The best thing to do is paint only 1 or 2 pieces first, and see how they look dry.  I painted a waistplate panel (they don't have a lot of interlocking or scraping problems when the model is totally assembled) and  held it up to the monitor on the Shockwave entry in the GUIDE.  A couple experiments gave me the exact color I was looking for.  I looked around the house for a while before I hit on what do about the laser cannon arm.  The tip of a ballpoint pen was what I decided on; it's a lot smaller proportionately than the toy's barrel, but it's a nice sleek look that I think goes well with the size and build of the Zaku II.  I removed the tip, and filled it with Milliput.  Then I took the left fist of the model and used a dremel (the hardcore basher's best friend) to grind the fingers down until there was just a post left.  I then put the post into the Milliput in the pentip.  After it dried, I put the fist joint (unchanged) into place as normal, according to the instructions.  At first I didn't like the tapered appearance of the barrel, since it seems to slim down that arm.  The more I turned him around and studied it, though, the more it grew on me.  I do plan to do something about the angle of the forearm, though; it's hard to get the poses using that arm to point (aim) at something to look right, since the forearm is at an angle.  I will probably use Milliput or another Gundam model to make a straighter forearm or an angled base for the pentip.

The whole process took about 15 hours, given that I was slowed down by the color matching process.  My favorite part of this particular project was the painting.  I took my time with it, as the base color of Shockwave is a vital part of the recognition in this bash job.  With the Optimus, I could have used several shades of the blues, reds, and whites and still gotten the overall effect, but with Shockwave the right shade and the right areas are much more important in this less-similar model.  The Zaku II looks a lot less like Shockwave than the MK II did like Optimus, so other factors become important.  One thing I DIDN'T try to adhere to about the toy is the yellow ocular unit; listen Transfans; Decepticons have RED eyes, and Autobots have BLUE eyes.  Yes, there were exceptions, but I personally don't think there should have been.  I was happy to finally be able to amend this small "error" with this project:>).

As I mentioned in the Optimus project outline, a Kitbash is rarely considered "finished" by its creator.  I have some pretty ambitious plans for this Shockwave.  I hope to utilize some computer motherboard circuitry to include a light in the barrel.  It would be cool to have sounds as well, but I'm not sure how to accomodate that module in this guy given the size of the parts involved.  Plus, I don't think a watch battery (which is what I plan to use to power the light) would provide sufficient charge for a decent speaker or multiple sounds.  That may need a bigger model.

Feel free to let me know what you think.  I can't answer emails too quickly right now, but I try and get back with people whenever possible.  And, of course, I await your popular demand for my next project!

- - - - - - - Q