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Description
I can't quite believe this model is nearly finished.

Don't get me wrong, there is still a lot of work to do (mostly rebuilding the leg sections to have less messy polygons) but after a year and a half working off-and-on (as if I work any other way) on him, I have finally nailed most of the mechanics of how he transforms.

Notes/Geeky Rambling:

For those watching at home, Aratron is a character from another of my perpetually ongoing projects, This Is How It All Began , which is an attempt to get down on virtual paper my ideas for the Transformers universe and how the war between the Autobots and Decepticons started (writing this, incidentally, is one of the many projects that distracts me from building Daleks every other half-year). Aratron is a civilian mech from Praxus who works as a bodyshop mechanic, which is the cultural equivalent of a tattooist, beauty therapist and plastic surgeon, all rolled into one. He's labour-grade, which basically means he isn't rich and hasn't attended an academy, and this is reflected in his colour scheme - silver, grey, black and red, which is of course based on Megatron's original colours. This also serves to disguise who he might eventually become - since the story is set before the Great War, many of the characters are actually icons of the franchise under different names, my theory being that the terribly appropriate monikers like Ironhide and Cliffjumper are nicknames given to people when they join the military. Once the whole population is at war, almost everyone gets such a name, but prior to that they generally use a given name consisting of: actual name + template, or in its expanded form, actual name + body type + template + Birthing Well.

Aratron's full name is: Ara Mech Tron Verous Klyda, meaning he shares a template with one Mega Mech Tron Tava Szenda but was created in a completely different Birthing Well.

With the design, I was trying to hit a balance between smoothness and the many faceted Movie designs. I didn't want that many tiny panels, but I did want something that could conceivably look alive. The face is me trying to apply some of the Movie mechanisms to a more traditional design.

I also wanted to play with the proportions a bit, and make the face just a little bit odd and non-human.

The general design is of course based on the Generation One Datsun mould (Prowl, Bluestreak, Smokescreen and a gazzilion gold, silver and black repaints), but I didn't want to just copy the transformation scheme, hence the legs (which were the first bit I built).

I do not own Transformers. I do kind of own Aratron.

Description
I can't quite believe this model is nearly finished.

Don't get me wrong, there is still a lot of work to do (mostly rebuilding the leg sections to have less messy polygons) but after a year and a half working off-and-on (as if I work any other way) on him, I have finally nailed most of the mechanics of how he transforms.

Notes/Geeky Rambling:

For those watching at home, Aratron is a character from another of my perpetually ongoing projects, This Is How It All Began , which is an attempt to get down on virtual paper my ideas for the Transformers universe and how the war between the Autobots and Decepticons started (writing this, incidentally, is one of the many projects that distracts me from building Daleks every other half-year). Aratron is a civilian mech from Praxus who works as a bodyshop mechanic, which is the cultural equivalent of a tattooist, beauty therapist and plastic surgeon, all rolled into one. He's labour-grade, which basically means he isn't rich and hasn't attended an academy, and this is reflected in his colour scheme - silver, grey, black and red, which is of course based on Megatron's original colours. This also serves to disguise who he might eventually become - since the story is set before the Great War, many of the characters are actually icons of the franchise under different names, my theory being that the terribly appropriate monikers like Ironhide and Cliffjumper are nicknames given to people when they join the military. Once the whole population is at war, almost everyone gets such a name, but prior to that they generally use a given name consisting of: actual name + template, or in its expanded form, actual name + body type + template + Birthing Well.

Aratron's full name is: Ara Mech Tron Verous Klyda, meaning he shares a template with one Mega Mech Tron Tava Szenda but was created in a completely different Birthing Well.

With the design, I was trying to hit a balance between smoothness and the many faceted Movie designs. I didn't want that many tiny panels, but I did want something that could conceivably look alive. The face is me trying to apply some of the Movie mechanisms to a more traditional design.

I also wanted to play with the proportions a bit, and make the face just a little bit odd and non-human.

The general design is of course based on the Generation One Datsun mould (Prowl, Bluestreak, Smokescreen and a gazzilion gold, silver and black repaints), but I didn't want to just copy the transformation scheme, hence the legs (which were the first bit I built).

I do not own Transformers. I do kind of own Aratron.