BrickArms Camouflage Printing

[the enigma that is badger]

Will's been experimenting again with his new inkjet printer, and here are the results: printed camouflage minifigs and BrickArms accessories!

The minifigs:

The accessories:

As of right now, these are just tests, so questions related to if/when/how they'd be added to the BrickArms line-up are a bit premature for the moment. Still, if they're something you'd like to see from BrickArms, definitely feel free to post here to let Will know!

Edited September 11, 2010 by the enigma that is badger

[prateek]

That is funky! I'm not really digging the red and tan pattern, but the green and black one is great!

Edited September 11, 2010 by prateek

[hawkyboy4]

wow, like every other purchaser of the (amazing) BrickArms products, I will be eager to see this become available publicly, especially if the suits are released as well (possibly limited-edition). If these don't recieve a great welcome if released, then I'm something that's-not-likely-to-occur.

Also, what colour are the bases? Will they be custom-made torsoes, or official LEGO ones?

(Unlike "Prateek"(see previous post), I really dig the tan and dark red design)

Hope to see these soon, happy printing

Edited September 11, 2010 by hawkyboy4

[XimenaPaulina]

Wow, those are very great-looking camo prints! Red-tan or green-clack, I really 'dig' those custom camo designs!

Edited September 11, 2010 by KielDaMan

[Flare]

Wowow! Those are insanely cool!

How much!?

Edited September 11, 2010 by Flare

[Bricklord]

Very nice! Sort of a paint by numbers/woodland pattern to the camoflage. I do realize there are obvious limits to what your technology will allow you to do, but any chance of tiger stripe, or CADPAT/ARPAT style camoflage?

[the enigma that is badger]

Also, what colour are the bases? Will they be custom-made torsoes, or official LEGO ones?

The initial color of the BrickArms accessories differs from test to test. Will has tried out Tan, Dark Tan (a brand new color!), Chrome, and a few other colors to see what might work best.

As for the minifig parts, the initial part is a LEGO minifig but the custom printing is 100% Will.

How much!?

Too early to say! Like I said above, camo printing is still in the testing stage, and Will's just not sure how he's going to introduce these into the BrickArms line-up. Individual items? Included with a custom fig? A special pack? All fun ideas that Will's considering!

any chance of tiger stripe, or CADPAT/ARPAT style camoflage?

Yes! The system Will is using to print these accessories and figs is such he can plug in nearly any camo design into the printer and apply it to the items. I'll pass those design ideas onto Will and maybe he'll give them a shot!

[Startender]

I'd like to see snow camo, white gun with some gray on it. Great for sniper rifles.

[Ewok]

Awesome... I love it! The sniper is the best ^^ Great work Will!

Ewok

[The Legonater]

I love these. I can see so many uses for these. Nice work boys!

[Masked Builder]

Wow. These are awesome! Hope they come out soon...

[Legoist]

I am not interested in military Lego, but the job itself looks top notch!

The system Will is using to print these accessories and figs is such he can plug in nearly any camo design into the printer and apply it to the items.

It's nice how the two minifigs ended up with different actual patterns. Do you use something like a large square image with a fixed pattern, so that different parts of the pattern end up on different torsos? Or do you use an algorithm to randomly generate the pattern on each torso?

Also, what kind of printer can print on such uneven surfaces as the legs?

[WhiteFang]

Great job. It adds a lot of realism into it when you put modern solders camouflaged uniform together with BrickArms creations. These new minifigures are very tempting indeed.

Thanks for sharing this with Eurobricks Community.

[Bounty Hunter]

Since these weapons are multi-color, will there ever be two alike? Or will u have the possiblity of having a differnt placement of the camo?

[Baylego]

Wow, these are amazing! I like how you did this a lot. Also, are you talking about a normal inkjet printer or some kind of special inkjet printer?

[the enigma that is badger]

Do you use something like a large square image with a fixed pattern, so that different parts of the pattern end up on different torsos? Or do you use an algorithm to randomly generate the pattern on each torso?

Will uses a set pattern repeated over a large surface. Spread some accessories out, spray on design, flip accessories, spray the other side, and voila, camo printed accessories! There's of course a lot more to it than that (especially for the printed minifig parts), but that's the basic concept!

Also, what kind of printer can print on such uneven surfaces as the legs?

It's an inkjet printer, but I'm not aware of the exact product name. It's a really big fancy thing that takes up a pretty good space of Will's workshop, but he absolutely loves what he can do with it in terms of printing his own custom minifigs and accessories. I'll be visiting BrickArms HQ at BrickCon, so I'll see if I can talk Will into sharing one or two pictures of it!

Since these weapons are multi-color, will there ever be two alike?

With process Will is currently using, each item gets a unique pattern applied, that pattern depending on how it is placed on the printing surface. Will could create jigs to hold the accessories and apply the same paint scheme to each item (like is done for the standard BrickArms custom figs), but for camo items, having each one unique seems appropriate!

[CommanderFox]

Looks lovely!

I agree with Prateek though, the red-tan combo isn't the best, otherwise, nice job!

Looking forward to seeing more release's!

CF

[Ogre]

Very cool!

Would love to see those available in tiger stripe/snow/urban camo patterns!

[the enigma that is badger]

Here's something neat related to this printing: the color of the BrickArms accessory underneath the printer has a great effect on the final color of the printed item.

All of the following items where printed with the exact same pattern; all the differences you can see are due to their starting color:

*Photo by Catsy*

The starting items, left to right:

- Chrome Plasma Blade

- Dark Grey Dadao

- Tan Machete

- Dark Grey ("Dark Bley") Machete

More interesting examples of this can be found in other pictures on Catsy's photostream

[Ogre]

Here's something neat related to this printing: the color of the BrickArms accessory underneath the printer has a great effect on the final color of the printed item.

All of the following items where printed with the exact same pattern; all the differences you can see are due to their starting color...

I was wondering about that.

Very cool.

*edit* I say 'very cool' waaaaaaaaaaay too often.

Edited September 12, 2010 by Ogre

[Capt. Kirk]

Super nice... I´ll send it to the print house at LEGO... maybe in the futher LEGO Minifigures could look different.

[CarrollFilms]

This is so cool, if Will does sell these, he should make desert camo and snow camo.