The base figure I used was a S.T.A.R. Corps action figure, a knockoff (well, licensed) GIJoe space figure sold in blister packs at places like Wal-Mart and K-Mart. Actually, I took apart two S.T.A.R. Corps figures (Reactor for the top and Sapper for the bottom) to make the base figure. The main gun came from a bag of guns I got at a toy show (same place I got the skid for Alpine), and I cannibalized two $1 1/64-scale vehicle kits for their helicopters and removed just the blade assemblies. Everything else is putty and pieces of styrene plastic.

    I decided early on not to permanently fuse the helicopter blades to the hands, so I needed to make some sort of gloves. I used two pieces of rectangular plastic conduit and putty to form the blade assemblies into gloves. I also cut out pieces of styrene sheet for the ankle/tail wings and the Gundam-like helmet crest pieces. Two short pieces of 1/8" styrene pipe became the tail wheels, glued into place after the toes had been filed down into a concave hollow.

    I used a little putty on each "glove," some on the legs to secure the winglets, some on the chest to cover up a false start (I drilled a hole in the chest, then decided that the main gun would look better attached to the face), and a lot to make the cockpit/helmet. I added a raised part to the back so that the main gun could rest on the back in robot mode. I actually carved cockpit window details into the putty once I'd filed it down to a nice angular pattern.

    Finally, time for paint. A LOT of white paint, nearly a dozen coats in some places to cover up the putty color. Gunmetal and gold for most other stuff, with red details and blue window stuff. And a little black. I painstakingly painted the Vehicon symbol on the blue chestplate, but it doesn't really show up in the scans, sigh. And since I've done a lot of Gundam models (Superdeformed ones) since my last kitbash, I went in and drew all the little "Gundam Lines" on Alabaster.

While Obsidian was famed across Cybertron for his military genius, the merely competent Alabaster suffered in the shadow of his brother. While Obsidian did what he could to make his brother's life better, Alabaster resented the "handouts" and stubbornly struck out on his own. He was still attempting to make a mark of his own when Megatron conquered Cybertron and imprisoned all sparks. Much to his chagrin, Alabaster found himself revived as a lieutenant to his brother. He knows outright rebellion would cause Megatron to return his spark to imprisonment, but he chafes in his new role. His body is similar to that of his brother's, but with a number of significant differences. His rotors are actually independent drones which can detach for recon missions or to dive at Maximals with their titanium blades and fry them with ruby lasers. When attached to Alabaster's hands, the drones become potent weapons, both in ranged and close combat. They also supply the additional power needed to fire Alabaster's main gun, an ultraviolet laser that strikes invisibly. When the drones are detached, not only is Alabaster limited to foot travel, he has no real offensive punch. As a result, he rarely sends both drones away at the same time. In vehicle mode, Alabaster is tremendously maneuverable, and deadly with his UV laser on turret mount, plus side-pointed ruby lasers for strafing. In robot mode, Alabaster is fairly slow, but deadly. His main gun is hard to fire in robot mode, but useful for anti-air defense.

STR 7  INT 5  SPD 8  END 7   RNK 7  COUR 8  FRP 9  SKL 7   Avg 7.25