47: SS-87 Bumblebee (Dark of the Moon)
It's been quite the wait, but here we are! Bumblebee's look in DOTM is my favorite design in all of Transformers, and now the Studio Series figure is here! I looked through every CGI model and screenshot I could find (Sam Smith's screen to toy post was very helpful for that!) to try and make sure this was my most accurate paint work for the SS-49 mold.
- Robot Mode -
I think I should first talk about the shade of yellow on this figure - the original figure does unfortunately revert from SS-74's more accurate orange-yellow, back to a brighter yellow similar to the "rally yellow" color seen on the production Camaro and not the concept Camaro Bumblebee is in the films. Early on I knew I wanted to totally repaint the figure, and I found a spray paint that seemed to be slightly more of an orange-yellow. Not quite to the degree that I was hoping, but it does get the job done!
Getting back on track, I added a gunmetal base layer to the figure as per usual, and silver, gold, and copper based on renders and screenshots. As for DOTM-specific paint work, I first added the gunmetal detailing to the front of Bee's arm shields. While the collar pieces weren't remolded to reflect their different shape in DOTM, this was very easy to fix with paint, painting the base area with gunmetal and adding the new collar pieces right in front of the original molded ones. I painted up the new central chest piece based on its appearance in the film, and while the ab piece wasn't remolded, I painted it to more closely resemble the different DOTM version. The yellow paint was altered to look more like the new rib pieces, and the small vertical pieces were painted differently to have them sit more along the midline . One last thing I added to bot mode were some small rounded pieces that sit on his shoulders, which were first introcuced in DOTM. I did also paint a battle-mask head from a spare SS-49 to have both masked and unmasked as options!
- Alt Mode -
After adding the aforementioned new yellow base coat, I added numerous small details to alt mode. starting with the grill, I added the orange reflective pieces on the sides, added a black trim around the headlights similar to ROTF Bee, and repainted the chevy logo with agold center and silver trim. Moving to the sides I painted the Autobot logos in gunmetal, with the side trim in black. I also picked out the mirrors in dark gunmetal, added a small black section for the side vents, and picked out the door handle in silver. Moving to the back, I painted the stripes continuing to the spoiler section, painted the spoiler itself in black and yellow, picked out the lower area with dark gunmetal and the exhaust pipes with a lighter gunmetal, the license plate with silver, and (my first time doing so), added the silver trim around the taillights! Really happy with those details, I think it really brings alt mode together!
Paint used:
Testor's enamels:
- Gloss yellow
- Gloss tangerine
- Gloss red
- Metallic gold
- Metallic copper
- Flat gunmetal
Acrylics:
- Decoart gunmetal
- Decoart gloss shimmering silver
- Folkart Blue sapphire
- Folkart Gloss black
Other:
- Rustoleum golden sunset
- Krylon gloss coat