Some key things I kept in mind about Ironhide was that he is in several iterations: old, gruff, ornery, prefers actions over talking, hardened, weapons expert, pretty badass. 

The vehicle I chose for Ironhide was meant to look similar to the A-team's GMC Vandura van, except red. The choice of his alt being this particular van came from his G1 counterparts alt mode but with a little extra flare by drawing inspiration from one of the hardest iconic military teams in mainstream media during the'80s. 

I will admit I do like the black paint on Ironhide from the Bay films, part of that might be due to me growing up with the Bay films also it turns out he was made this color because Bay didn't like filming the color red according to him it didn't photograph very well. Though later in the series they would give Mirage a full red body but that was likely because of a better camera technology. This was also the reason why Optimus wasn't fully red and had more flames on his paint instead of plain red.

 I wanted to retain that dark color as a big part of his color palette more of what you see here while also taking the Deep Red from his G1 counterpart as well as the yellow but reserved the yellow for the bits of ammunition he carried around his body. When it came to his body I made him the largest bulkiest Autobot of the group with a wide large body strong enough to lug around ammunition belts rifles hand cannons and shotguns. When it came to his body I had Danny Phantom's dad in mind and I was thinking he would be arm to the teeth kind of like the Punisher or more similarly Punisher 2099, in general I pictured something like Soldier from Team Fortress and kind of like older Boba Fett I also placed his top lights on his shoulders his wheels on his elbows and on the sides of his calves, his front lights on the shoulders, and his front split windshield on his chest I had him carry an ammo belt that held shotgun rounds on the front and machine gun ammo on the sides and a shotgun and machine gun carried on the back and the two hand cannons hidden in the back. 

When it came to a face I wanted to give old Ironide an old gruff serious looking face, I wanted it to look similar to what you would find in an older soldier's face like a military generals this particular face takes great inspiration from Team Fortress 2 Soldier and General Rogard from The Iron Giant. The helmet while taking heavy inspiration from his G1 counterparts design also had goggles integrated into the helmet in context when you're specialty is working with huge variety of weapons like ballistics and explosives which could cause shrapnel to fly around eyewear is probably quite important to have on yourself also added an antenna on the right side of the helmet for a little extra sauce.