This is what I was gonna do with that extra Beast Machines Mirage I wanted.  I ordered one off eBay shortly after getting home from Sunday's toy convention, and I realized the next day that, hey, I could proooobably paint the one I have while I wait for the new one to get here.  Plus, well, the roommate who owns the table is getting her own place tomorrow, so it might be a good idea to get him done before then.

So here he is!  Devcon!  Renowned Autobot bounty hunter, temporarily inhabiting a Vehicon body.  I'm going to say an unpopular thing and say that I liked Wreckers Devcon.  Yeah, he was a jerk, and people say he wasn't that jerky in his original cartoon appearances, but if I have to choose between watching The Gambler or reading the 3H Wreckers comic books, I'm gonna choose the latter every time.  The Gambler is a terrible episode.  Terrible.  If I had to live through that episode, like Devcon did, I'd be kind of a jerk, too.  (And I am.)

And, frankly, the common wisdom that Devcon wasn't as big a jerk in The Gambler versus Wreckers is a bit overinflated.  That episode's so uneven, and original Devcon is indeed a  jerk at moments while he's nicer in a sparingly few other moments.  Watch as much as you can stand some time, and you'll see what I mean.

I am not a good painter.  In fact, I'm a terrible painter.  But sometimes I luck out.  I think I lucked out as much as I'm able to with Devcon.  He looks pretty okay!  And he's all the right colors, as far as I can discern.  I tell you, the red was a bitch, since it goes over black plastic.  I put a coat of, ahem, silver Sharpie marker on the legs first before painting red over them.  There was kind of a weird chemical reaction in places between the two kinds of coloring, but after going over the bad parts a few times, I was able to get a good smooth, bright red on the black plastic without having to put like fifty layers over everything and burying too much detail.

The ball joints are silver Sharpie, too, though the attached limbs are the proper light gray paint color.  Silver Sharpie coats pretty thinly and fuses almost immediately to the plastic, so I figgered it'd withstand wear and tear better.  And without painting the balljoints, they're kind of obviously Mirage's yellow.  I'd hate to look at the thing.

Anyway, I'm pretty happy with the results.  And now he can go in my Wreckers display.