Ironhide by zaq1233 on DeviantArt (original) (raw)
And here we have the alt mode for the Autobot who was built to last, Ironhide!
Ironhide was originally a Nissan Sunny-Vanette Coach SGL, but as seen in this image, this is not a vanette. There are two reasons for this. First, the original vanette seemed a bit too boring and rounded for Ironhide's tough personality. Second, I watched a video by The Lazy Eyebrow about his Studio Series '86 Ironhide figure, and one of his modifications to the alt mode of his figure was based on the Porsche B32 rally support vehicle, the van that this alt mode is based on. I agree with The Lazy Eyebrow in that this alt mode suits Ironhide much better than the vanette he was originally, not only because of its bigger and beefier frame but also because it had the speed to keep up with the rally cars these vehicles were supporting. Since a large portion of the Autobot cast in G1 were race cars - in my case rally cars - this van fit in nicely.
Because this is a different vehicle from the original, I had to be a bit more creative in designing Ironhide's alt mode. The red of the body and the yellow of the striping was simply pulled off the cartoon model, but the design on the stripe itself was more challenging. The original stripe from the toy (a special color edition on the vanette) had a black bar on the sticker, representing the external guide rails for the back doors on the vanette. The B32 did have guide rails, but they were also in line with the door handles so I had the stripe line up with a vent right below the guide rails so nothing clashed. The fading design on the stripe is my invention, again inspired by the original stripe on the vanette. I kept the black rubber bumper along the safety grill that was wrapped around the car to break up the lower part of the van.
After Ironhide, I will do one more alt-mode design before taking a break from this for a few weeks.