Fortunately in spite of it's many faults the oft released POTF2 Probot is actually quite a good base to begin modifying into a more accurate figurine. He has all the basic parts and really just needs a few basic tweaks to bring him up to snuff.
Beginning with removing his obtrusive action featureHe can then have his head mounted to the body and can be puttied and sanded to remove some of his larger glaring seams. At this point it is great to pull out the reference material and figure out where everything belongs and what needs to be added to accurize him.
I worked on smoothing and adding an eye here or there which was definitely needed. Also I deepened some of the rivet holes peppering his armor plates. Then I proceeded to begin placing Greeblies around the perimeter of his main body.
Various parts like miniature tanks and wires were fabricated from styrene sheet and rod and glued to him using cyanoacrylate. His neck was extended with a styrene spacer.
Again more details were added and holes were cleaned out with a pin vise.
This panel was cut out and deepened and a new faceplate was made for it which matched reference photography. Also greeblies were assembled to replicate his little blaster mounted on top of his body. A small underhanging greeblie was also built which hangs off the lower edge of his trunk.
Looking directly underneath a large styrene blank was cut and shaped to cover the large recess on the bottom of his body left over from his action feature. This area is relatively undetailed on the actual miniature so it was left smooth.
The legs were pretty great if unarticulated but they still feature some nice crisp detailing. However in the pursuit for more accuracy and a better looking figure, I drilled out all the pistons on his legs and replaced them with small steel nails. The legs were all removed and the bare metal nails masked before painting.
Finally it was time to paint! A base coat of Rustoleum Anodized Bronze was applied to the whole figure, this was left to dry for 24 hours. Ordinarily I wouldn't use enamel spray paint on an action figure due to it reacting poorly with the base plastics used. Luckily the Probe Droid is made of sterner stuff and could take the heavier paint. Once dry I applied a wash of acrylic black over the whole figure and then very lightly dry brushed with gunmetal over the whole figure. The details were picked out with gloss black for the eyes and the small technical markings throughout were painted with a bright orange. Finally it was all sealed and the figure was reassembled.
As a finishing touch, two pins were cut to length and glued in place as antennas. He turned out pretty good looking if I say so myself and makes for a great updated piece in my collection, for not much more than 10 dollars.
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