Need Help/Advise/Parts For Custom Republic Commando Minifigures

rancorbait

Hello,

I am not usually interested in custom minifigs or parts, but since Republic commando is the best SW game out there, and TLG hasn't made Delta squad, I decided I would try myself, but I have no experience with something like this. So I would appreciate if someone could give me some advice:

1. How do I apply the print? Marker or pens? Some kind of decals?

2. Where can I get the required supplies to make these figures?

3. Where can I get custom weapons?

4. And finally, does anyone have 4 of the 2002 clone trooper helmets available? :o)

Thanks,
Amos

CapnRex101

I recommend trying out Arealight rather than using 2002 Clone Trooper helmets , they have some excellent printed helmets available for loads of Clone commandos, including Delta Squad. They are all of excellent quality, and the prices are not bad.

As for your questions, I recommend using waterslide decals for the printing, which can be got from many craft stores.

For custom weapons, either Littlearmsshop or Minifigs4u are great. I would give links but I cannot since I am on my phone, Google will find them though :o)

Good luck Amos!

rancorbait

Thanks!

How do I the decals onto the waterslide sheet? are there any printable decals available somewhere?

plasmodium

rancorbait said:

Hello,
but since Republic commando is the best SW game out there

Hmm...debatable. I loved RC, but I think that accolade has to go to Battlefront II for its awesome multiplayerability. :-)

But on topic again, +1 for the Arealight parts, though. There's a lot of variety and designs and they look to be great quality.

I think you can usually get waterslide decal paper in hobby/craft stores, and it's usually printable (ie, you stick it in your printer and print straight on to it). I'm sure there are plenty of decal sheets out there - just google for them.

Here's Little Arms Shops SW weapons:
http://www.thelittlearmsshop.com/store/home.php?cat=26&sort=orderby&sort_direction=0&page=1
But I couldn't find minifgs4u's site.

CapnRex101

Here is a link to the relevant page of Minifigs4u: http://www.minifigs4u.com/parts-accessories/

Here are some good decals which you might like to use.

rancorbait

Does anyone know what size the decals should be when printing?

CapnRex101

@rancorbait - I imagine that trial and error is the best way of working that out. There are probably some decals online which are already sized correctly, but for your own, I cannot think how you would work out how large they need to be on screen to be the correct size for a Minifigure.

CCC

Add a scale bar (the width of the torso) to the image and print the whole thing onto paper. Then work out how much you need to increase / decrease the image based on the relative size of the scale bar once printed. It saves have to rescale a little, print, check, rescale a little more, print, check, ...

TheOneVeyronian

Well, since I've done this sort of thing successfully before (Mr Golds for a Smaug's Hoard MOC I did last year), I suppose I'll share my method on how to create custom torso decals (including a way of sizing the decal so that it's definitely the correct size when printed first time). This is assuming you have Windows, Photoshop and MS Publisher (though Word will also work if you have the patience :-) )

1. Get a blank white torso and scan it into a program such as MS Paint at a high resolution (I use 600dpi) using any good quality scanner.

2. You should end up with something like this:

Save it in a lossless format (i.e. a PNG file).
3. Import into Photoshop (or similar program, but can also be done in a basic program such as Paint). Crop right to the edges of the torso as shown:

4. If you're creating custom torso decals, now be creative! Here I use a simple logo-based design, but you can also draw straight onto the torso, so for example, in @rancorbait's case, he would draw or find torso detailings relating to Republic Commandos. A graphics tablet is handy here :-)

5. Save the torso design as a new PNG file. Import the decal into Word or Publisher (I use the 2010 version, your display may differ). There should be a setting that lets you input how wide or tall the image will be. Change the width setting to the measured width of a torso, which I found to be 1.48cm. The height should change with the width.

6. Print the torso decal and apply to your chosen figure using your preferred decal method. Here's the actual printed decal in relation to a minifigure:


I hope this is somewhat helpful not just to @rancorbait but to everyone interested in creating decals, I imagine this can also be done using a Mac operating system as well. This could also be done with printed torsos, just scan the decorated torso and skip step 4. Of course, your results may vary :-)

plasmodium

I can heartily recommend the free photo-editing/image manipulating suite Paint.NET as a free alternative to Photoshop. It may lock some of Photoshop's advanced features, but for what @theoneveyronian is recommending, it should be more than enough. It is also dead easy to use. (Windows only, though. GIMP is a little harder to use, but is available on Windows, Mac and Linux, I think)

rancorbait

I am just using decals that I found on EB, but with my own modifications as none seemed to look quite like the 'real' characters.

Thanks for the tips! Lets see if I can even get by step 1 :oP

plasmodium

Please do post pictures when you're done. I'd love to see well done RC characters!

rancorbait

Will do!

rancorbait

If anyone has the money, Minifigs 4u has just released Delta squad, they look exellent, but the price is pretty high!

plasmodium

$94?! for four minifigs?! And Scorch doesn't even have his special demolitions backpack! But then again, it does say that they are actually printed, not decals.

rancorbait

Thanks you very much @TheOneVeyronian! That works perfectly for getting the size right! I just made a quick torso design on windows paint, it's not as good as I would like. Can anyone recommend what kind of waterslide sheet to buy?

This is what I got:

plasmodium

That's pretty good. Is it just on a piece of paper over the torso in that picture?
A thought did just strike me, though, for the basic armour (without the coloured bits), I would consider doing one half and then mirroring it, so it would be absolutely symmetrical. Then you could add the colours over the top of that. That might just be my OCD speaking, though. (That may be what you've done, and it's just the quality of the photo that's making it look slightly uneven, though)

rancorbait

@plasmodium yeah it's just a loose piece of paper that I laid on the minifig torso. That's a good idea actually, I'll have to try that, thanks!