Custom mini-figs

[Hinckley]

What's up brothers?

So, I'm am re-tooling my castle story-The Book of the Ancients-and have decided to try my hand at custom mini-fig decals...Here are the results of the experiment:

Here are my first three "successful" attempts

This is the character of Fernos, the face is also a decal. I didn't get all of the air bubbles out...compare to the old version of Fernos:

this is not a character in the story yet, but I wanted to see how the template worked...

This is a version of a new character: Lao

Here's an example of a head gone wrong.

The rest of my post discusses the nuances of decal application so if you just want to comment on the completed figs, you can scroll past it.

I got the template for the face from minifigcustomizationnetwork and the torso templates from Classic Castle. To put a new face in the face template it needs to fill the whole thing, otherwise it ends up like the head in the photo above-too small.

I can only put decals on yellow and white right now because I only have clear decals. I think/hope that I will be able to put decals on the darker color torsos when I get the white decal paper in. It's been 10 days since I ordered it...patience young padawan. Anyway, I am relatively happy with the results so far. We work from home and print a lot so we have three printers here. The big industrial printer was down when I printed my first batch of decals so I used one of the other laser printers. Well, decals printing requires the best printer possible and the decals that I printed on the other laser printer are not as detailed and the colors are not as opaque.

I bought some white decal paper from a craft store because I'm tired of waiting but it's only for inkjet printers and the colors run off of it when you put it in the distilled water. You really need to use the right paper so be careful when purchasing it because it can be expensive. Most inkjets can't handle the printing required for good decals anyway, but using inkjet papers requires an additional "setting medium" to bond the inks to the paper, otherwise, it washes away.

The hardest part, I found, is removing excess water and air bubbles without moving the decal. Especially the small decals like the arm tattoos above. I got 2 of them stuck to a paper towel before I switched to a q-tip to remove the water. A paintbrush works best for me, but an article I read suggests rolling a q-tip over the surface after dabbing it softly with a paper towel.

Classic Castle and the MCN have great articles on how to build custom decals for custom figsand Kaminoan does a series of articles in BrickJournal issues 4 & 5 that are very helpful. Of course, EB's own pirate forum: Pirate Customs has great info on making decals and custom torsos as well.

[chewie]

Holy megablocks Hinckley. Those guy are amazing looking. X-O

I *wub* the Fernos character and Lao. They look _____ <--- insert word for good looks :-D

And the tattoos on Lao (his arm) and Fernos chest look extremely well done.

Everything looks awesome, all the figs, for me atleast give that classic fig look. And then some!

Well done!

[Norrington]

Holy [insert explative here]! Those are nice! Keep up the good work, Hickley *y*

[Siegfried]

Excellent work! *wub* Wait.... this is all just an attempt to get people excited prior to you finishing "Book of the Ancients", isn't it? Taking a leaf out of the Apple school of advertising eh? Well it wont work on me!

Roll on Summer!

[Quarryman]

Excellent work! *wub*

And since Lao reminds me almost too much of your (earlier) sigfig: is he some kind of Mary Sue? :-D

[Shadows]

Excellent work! *wub*

And since Lao reminds me almost too much of your (earlier) sigfig: is he some kind of Mary Sue? :-D

I was just about to mention that Lao had stolen Mark's sigfig hat and then I read your comment ;)

Seriously though, great work! I wouldn't have guessed they were your first, they look very professional. *y*

[Bonaparte]

These are very well done.

I even can't notice these are decals.

Even the head-decal looks like it's a real minifig head.

*y*

Of course, EB's own pirate forum: Pirate Customs has great info on making decals and custom torsos as well.

That is soooo true ;-)

[Starwars4J]

Very nice customs! I know you don't want to use the printing services offered (but you seem to have a nice-enough printer of your own) but you didn't mention...did you use waterslide decals? You mentioned water, and mentioned the q-tip method for waterslide application, but it didn't sound like waterslide earlier...even though they look the part.

Either way nicely done!

[Grand Moff Viceroy]

Nice customs, yes i mean it. haha. More interesting than all of the others.

[Timento]

Those are very good for a first attempt *y* *y* *y*

Unfortunately, the best paper I got was white inkjet paper. Mine don't look nearly as good as yours, so, again *y* *y* *y*

Perhaps custom headgear or hair is next?

[Wout]

Very nice *y* :-)

[ZeekyBoogeyDoog]

These are fantastic *y* !! I really like the arm tattoo.

[???theriddler???]

Good word. *y*

[Piranha]

Nicely done Bradduh *y* *y*

Those are awesome figs

Are those water slide decals your using?

[Hinckley]

Excellent work! *wub*

And since Lao reminds me almost too much of your (earlier) sigfig: is he some kind of Mary Sue? :-D

:-D :-D :-D Well considering that my sif-fig is a character from The Book of the Ancients, the answer is "No. Lao is not my Mary Sue..."

Thanks everybody for the nice compliments :-$ I am now even more pleased at how they turned out. I can't wait for the white decal paper to come in so I can move on to the other decals I have to print.

In answer to your questions, yes I am using water slide. There is a company out there that has a corner on the market, they have no less than five sites that all come up in google results in the first few slots. They are in canada and they have really crappy customer service. >:-( Anyway, I ordered some from eBay and hopefully those'll be here quick so I can show you some of the other torsos I've designed.

And Timento,

I did buy some sculpy...

[Asuka]

A very neat and sexy work, hinkley! *y*

Even your "head gone wrong" looks nice to me, and your female

[Siegfried]

I don't mean to alarm you Hinckley, but your hat keeps changing. It might be a polymorph.

[Starwars4J]

I don't mean to alarm you Hinckley, but your hat keeps changing. It might be a polymorph.

He's showing off rare helms. Don't make me start pulling mine out >:-) (oh god that sounds dirty :'-( )

[Siegfried]

He's showing off rare helms. Don't make me start pulling mine out >:-) (oh god that sounds dirty :'-( )

Do you have one of those red Darth Vader helms?

If you are too embarrassed to show your don't worry about it. If it helps, yours is probably more impressive than mine. ;-)

Edited July 21, 2007 by Sinner

[Starwars4J]

Do you have one of those red Darth Vader helms?

If you are too embarrassed to show your don't worry about it. If it helps, yours is probably more impressive than mine. ;-)

Me? Rare star wars pieces?

>:-)

[Piranha]

Wow thats an odd piece... 8-

[Starwars4J]

Brickshelf, I managed to get a really good deal before they skyrocketed. Just keep an eye out and you'll find a lot of weird parts on BL

[Hinckley]

I don't mean to alarm you Hinckley, but your hat keeps changing. It might be a polymorph.

SW4J is right. I'm not afraid to pull out my helmets and show them off... :-P

[Piranha]

You wouldn't happen to have the Red Ghost or the elusive black ghost??

Piranha

EDIT:Picture

Link to image

Edited July 21, 2007 by Piranha

[Starwars4J]

You wouldn't happen to have the Red Ghost or the elusive black ghost??

Piranha

EDIT:Picture

Link to image

Only JoJo has the red ghost. The black ghost was a fake. Painted if you check the picture closely