How to make Cuboyd Seekers
by Brian Spradlin (spradlinb)

The first part of the tutorial is to make your wings to the size and shape you want out of styrene material. I started by cutting wings out of some thicker paper to get the right shape, then traced around those on a sheet of styrene plastic. Cutting those out gave me the final wings for the figures. I also took some time to cut small lengths of square styrene (can be bought at most model train hobby stores) to become the back "air intakes" behind the head. I sliced part of the tops off at a diagonal to get the desired angle behind the heads.

Each seeker has a shoulder-mounted weapon on each arm, so the next step was to create those. I used the same square styrene and cut even shorter lengths to become the top section of the weapons, the part that glues to the arm itself. Then I used lengths of the Knight's lance to make the gun barrels and top knobs, mainly because they are a nice, neutral grey (easier to paint). You could use a Monk's staff or ladder rungs if you wanted to.

The square styrene has a 3mm opening, so the gun barrels fit in nice and snugly, no glue needed. The next part of each weapon was a small shrink-plastic sleeve (used for wiring work, found in most home improvement stores in the electrical section) that goes over the front to create the business end of the guns.

The last step was to glue a small fin to the outside of each weapon (not shown here). I also needed to add a spacer piece of styrene to the opposite side so that the weapon would fit on the upper arm while leaving enough clearance for the lower arm to move.

The heads were created in three steps. The first step was to add two blocks of plumbers epoxy to both sides of the head that were later shaped with an angle on each edge.

The second step was to add the "visor" along the front of each head. This was another block of epoxy that was later cut and smoothed down to add angles to the edges.

The final step was to use a small file and sand out a notch in the very center of the visor, which isn't show in the image above.

In addition to the above work, I also added small "wings" to the feet (a single piece of cut styrene), a bit of epoxy on each knee joint, and a blob of epoxy on the front of each chest piece to represent the airplane cockpits.

Finally, a small strip of styrene was added to the bottom torsos to add a bit more mechanical design. The cockpit epoxy was also cut and sanded down smooth. You can see those parts in this photo.

The only piece of assembly still required was to glue the arm weapons to the upper arm pieces and the wings/air intakes to the back of the upper torsos. Then the figures were ready to paint, and could even be assembled.

The painting, obviously, is where the creations go from generic seekers to well-know characters. Here we have Starscream and Thundercracker just before their clearcoat and final assembly.

That's it. You can see the finished designs using the drop-down menu at my website: http://www.brianspradlin.com/stikfas/cuboyds/

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