Advice on custom minifig decals

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Kastrenzo
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Advice on custom minifig decals

Post by Kastrenzo » Fri Aug 30, 2013 4:40 pm

So I'm in the process of revamping a lot of my minifigs and armies, And looking around youtube I came across a tutorial for making your own minifig decals. this - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hY-Qd3fxUOM

As some might know, I already make use of a lot of plain bodied minifig torsos in my armies, but I'd end up having a lot of figs using pit crew bodies and such, I tried using brasso, like in this video to remove the printing from some torsos that I didn't like, and it worked. I'm going to do this for a lot of my bodies that have ugly prints on them, like harry potter bodies and such.

In the future though, I'd like to put some decals on them, I've had bad luck with the water/tattoo style of decals, back when I used to do warhammer.

So what I'm asking here is, would I be able to make my own decals with something like sticker paper? do you need a special type of printer or ink to print onto sticker paper?
and digitally, what are the dimensions of a minifig body for a computer made sticker?

Also, Are there any known sources that provide templates and such for decals? as in ones that have been made "open source" and are free for people to download and produce themselves?
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Re: Advice on custom minifig decals

Post by Swordsalmon » Sat Aug 31, 2013 6:57 pm

I did attempt to making minifigure decals earlier this summer. The Minifigure Customization Board at Eurobricks helped a lot with designing a good decal. Unfortunately, the sticker paper or ink I used for the decals failed; the design fell off the decal when exposed to water. :/
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Re: Advice on custom minifig decals

Post by Kastrenzo » Sat Aug 31, 2013 8:24 pm

thats what I mean, I don't want anything to do with water. And would rather just find some simple more primitive method of printing onto sticker paper *like lego stickers, except on a minfig torso*
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Re: Advice on custom minifig decals

Post by Gungnir » Sun Sep 01, 2013 12:15 am

Pencil erasers work just as well as Brasso, I've found. It takes a while to get the decals off, but you don't have to wash your hands afterwards.
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Re: Advice on custom minifig decals

Post by Kastrenzo » Sun Sep 01, 2013 7:30 am

pencil eraser would take a lot of force and would wear out probably after 1 or 2 torsos.

plus you have to actually have the pencils.

It's been 4-5 years since I was in school, it's not like I can just steal a bunch of pencils from the supply room every time I need them :|
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Re: Advice on custom minifig decals

Post by Gungnir » Wed Sep 04, 2013 6:56 pm

Kastrenzo wrote:pencil eraser would take a lot of force and would wear out probably after 1 or 2 torsos.

plus you have to actually have the pencils.

It's been 4-5 years since I was in school, it's not like I can just steal a bunch of pencils from the supply room every time I need them :|
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Re: Advice on custom minifig decals

Post by Kastrenzo » Wed Sep 04, 2013 9:23 pm

Oh right.

But it hasn't been 2001 for over 10 years, I forgot those existed.

anyway, I have the brasso, I'll use that till its gone
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Re: Advice on custom minifig decals

Post by piltogg » Sun Sep 08, 2013 3:41 pm

just don't do it. you will always regret it later.

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Re: Advice on custom minifig decals

Post by Kastrenzo » Tue Sep 10, 2013 6:45 pm

that's why I only do it to bodies I don't care about, like harry potter or the hoardes of soccer figs I had
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Re: Advice on custom minifig decals

Post by Silverdream » Tue Sep 10, 2013 7:44 pm

But how can you have a proper British riot without soccer hooligans and students?
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Re: Advice on custom minifig decals

Post by IVhorseman » Sun Sep 15, 2013 8:07 pm

I still have a massive pink eraser that's bigger than my fist. It used to say "for big mistakes" on it but that rubbed off. So instead, i wrote "you can't erase herpes" on it in sharpie.

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Re: Advice on custom minifig decals

Post by Tennysoul » Wed Oct 23, 2013 11:47 am

I did some custom printed torso decals back in the day (2005/2006) I had read up on the water decals and I just wasn't feeling it. I figured I could do just as well with transparent sticker pages, I did them in a regular inkjet printer and they turned out quite good...the only issue is that the ink is semi-transparent so dark torsos don't look all that good, but Light-gray, Yellow, Tan, White turned out really good. I will get out a few of my modded figs and take some pictures and post them if you'd like to see. Even after about 7 years they still look really good, of course I don't play with my figs in the dirt or anything so results may vary in the long run, but overall I was very happy with the results.

EDIT* Here's a few of the minifigs I added decals to. Sorry my phone takes crap pictures but you get the idea.
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