Post by corellianvette on Jan 23, 2008 1:52:19 GMT -5
I've REALLY been digging on my Godaikins lately. Since finding a good Daimos for a reasonable price is tough, I picked up this one which was sort of beat-up. I really dig fixing things up, so I thought I would take a stab at trying to restore this figure.
Here's the Daimos as it appeared in the ebay auction. As you can see, it's missing a few parts, the paint is faded off the tranzer cover, lots of chrome wear, and paint chips.
The first step is to dissassemble the whole figure. This is what you end up with. My #1 restoration tip; a kids toothbrush and some soap will do WONDERS to make the figure look better. You would be amazed. All these parts were cleaned before getting put back together.
First up is re-painting the Tranzer cover. Here's the cover masked and cleaned for paint. A good thorough wash and some light sanding to prep the surface.
Looking at a lot of pictures online, it appeared to have a silver/chrome cover. I found this GREAT chrome paint at the hobby store. It's not perfect match for chrome, but I'm really happy with the results.
Now to the legs. A tip if you're taking a Daimos apart - be careful with this part. You have to be VERY careful lifting this part off not to break it.
There is some thick paint on the legs. Using a VERY fine machine polish gets a lot of dirt off and brings out the sheen in the paint. Be careful with this you will take the paint off if you rub too hard. You can see some of the dirt on the towel.
That machine polish also works well on plastic. You can see the before/after on the red leg trim. Using 1000 grit sandpaper I was able to get a lot of the scratches out, but it dulls the plastic. The machine polish brings the shine back out.
The Chrome paint also works well on the head pieces
The D-1 Cab after a good cleaning and re-assembly. Notice the paint wear in this picture; it's all gone in the later images after I touched it up.
A couple things here. The torso is re-assembled and the "guns" on the head are back on and painted. Looks pretty good, eh? Also pay close attention to the chest area compared to the original picture. Notice no paint missing at all. After A LOT of trial, I was able to find an exact match for the enamel color used. The paint was carefully applied, then I used the machine polish to blend the area. It's very hard to tell in person the area that was repaired.
Here's the re-assembled figure in truck mode. I even went to the local HW store and sourced new metric screws to replace faded/missing or stripped screws.
At this point, I was still missing parts. After some searching, I found someone who will re-cast parts for Godaikins. So I paused for a couple weeks until the repro parts arrived. When they did, I was very pleased. Fists, knee swords, and power source are all really well done.
He also reproduced the missing red tranzer doors, and I reproduced the TRANZER stickers myself after scanning an original.
And the FINISHED prodcut all together. A ton of fun for me, fixing up a great figure and I think the result is pretty good. Thanks for letting me share!
Here's the Daimos as it appeared in the ebay auction. As you can see, it's missing a few parts, the paint is faded off the tranzer cover, lots of chrome wear, and paint chips.
The first step is to dissassemble the whole figure. This is what you end up with. My #1 restoration tip; a kids toothbrush and some soap will do WONDERS to make the figure look better. You would be amazed. All these parts were cleaned before getting put back together.
First up is re-painting the Tranzer cover. Here's the cover masked and cleaned for paint. A good thorough wash and some light sanding to prep the surface.
Looking at a lot of pictures online, it appeared to have a silver/chrome cover. I found this GREAT chrome paint at the hobby store. It's not perfect match for chrome, but I'm really happy with the results.
Now to the legs. A tip if you're taking a Daimos apart - be careful with this part. You have to be VERY careful lifting this part off not to break it.
There is some thick paint on the legs. Using a VERY fine machine polish gets a lot of dirt off and brings out the sheen in the paint. Be careful with this you will take the paint off if you rub too hard. You can see some of the dirt on the towel.
That machine polish also works well on plastic. You can see the before/after on the red leg trim. Using 1000 grit sandpaper I was able to get a lot of the scratches out, but it dulls the plastic. The machine polish brings the shine back out.
The Chrome paint also works well on the head pieces
The D-1 Cab after a good cleaning and re-assembly. Notice the paint wear in this picture; it's all gone in the later images after I touched it up.
A couple things here. The torso is re-assembled and the "guns" on the head are back on and painted. Looks pretty good, eh? Also pay close attention to the chest area compared to the original picture. Notice no paint missing at all. After A LOT of trial, I was able to find an exact match for the enamel color used. The paint was carefully applied, then I used the machine polish to blend the area. It's very hard to tell in person the area that was repaired.
Here's the re-assembled figure in truck mode. I even went to the local HW store and sourced new metric screws to replace faded/missing or stripped screws.
At this point, I was still missing parts. After some searching, I found someone who will re-cast parts for Godaikins. So I paused for a couple weeks until the repro parts arrived. When they did, I was very pleased. Fists, knee swords, and power source are all really well done.
He also reproduced the missing red tranzer doors, and I reproduced the TRANZER stickers myself after scanning an original.
And the FINISHED prodcut all together. A ton of fun for me, fixing up a great figure and I think the result is pretty good. Thanks for letting me share!
