Anasazi37

Piece of cake. I already have the company logos scanned in at high res from another decal sheet. The valkyrie logo will take some work, but it shouldn't be too bad. The only hurdle is *when* I'll have the time to do it. I have quite the backlog of projects. My best guesstimate is at least a month or two.

While I could make decals for the entire valk, it would look MUCH better if the major work was done with masking and airbrushing. In my experience, covering large areas with decals generally does not work very well. I believe DOM made a 1/60 version a few years ago that sold for quite a bit on eBay. It was a real work of art. I could make all of the detailing decals no problem (if I have good enough scans of the originals), but there's a hefty waiting list for custom projects. Right now it's about six months....

Here are some pics of my setup. Please excuse the mess--I haven't had time to clean up the booth since I finished my last custom project.

I just recently built a spray booth in my garage. I needed more space than the ones you can get commercially. It's 28" wide by 24" high by 18" deep. The fan unit is a kitchen range hood with variable speed. And there really is nothing to worry about when it comes to sparks and whatnot. Keep in mind that these fans are safety rated to vent fumes over an area where you are cooking. This includes flammable oils, etc. I haven't had any problems so far and I do not anticipate any. I went all out on this setup. I built a frame out of plywood and 2x4's and made the three large side and back panels removeable for easy cleaning. Each of these panels is covered in linoleum so I can use strong cleaners to get rid of built-up paint. The range hood is attached to the frame at four points which can be easily unfastened. I screwed in two shoulder hooks on the outside of the booth to hold my airbrush when not in use. I installed lighting high within the booth, too. Man does that make a difference when you're painting! To vent the fumes outside, I atttached a dryer hose to the range hood, one of those slinky flexible ones. When I need to paint, I open the garage door a few inches, shove the hose outside, and I'm ready to go. When done, I collapse the hose and leave it on top of the range. I built this booth anticipating that I would be moving to an apartment next year. Turns out I won't have to move, but this setup should work for anyone who's in that situation. It wasn't that difficult to make, but I had access to a professional woodshop. As a result, some of the features I incorporate might not be as readily available to you. All told, I spent less than $200. I'll try to take some pictures of it later today, if anyone's interested.

You should lay down a coat of primer first. Most spray can primers you can get from places like Lowe's or Home Depot will work just fine. The primer really grabs onto the plastic or metal and then the paint grabs onto the primer. It cuts down on flaking, scratching, etc. Acylics tend to not be as durable as enamels, but they are a heck of a lot easier (and safer) to use and clean up. Tamiya acrylics are much better than Testors. Before applying decals, you'll need to seal in the paint job with a glossy clearcoat. Airbrushing Future Floor Polish works well. If you're not skilled with an airbrush, the next best option is a spray can of Krylon Crystal Clear. Once this dries, apply decals as needed. Then apply another clearcoat to protect them. For aircraft and mecha in general, a satin or flat finish usually looks more realistic. A spray can of Krylon Satin will do. If you have an airbrush, I'd recommend something like Microscale Micro Flat.

That's how the armor looks on the Hasegawa Minmay Guard battroid kit. The nosecone and chestplate intakes are also yellow on that version. Why the original artist decided on yellow is beyond me, but it looks good with the grey, white, and purple.

Thanks, Graham! I posted way too many pictures, though--more than you'd probably want to put on the custom toy page. I'll PM you with a list of links to the best ones later today.

They are officially done now. I printed out a set and they look really good. Gene commissioned the decals for a custom Kurt is making for him. I don't know about their general availability yet, but will keep everyone posted as I know more. Just a quick heads up to everyone: I'll most likely be taking orders for decal and sticker sets next week, so start thinking about what you want to purchase. The order window, as usual, will be one week.

Hmmm....well, it wouldn't be too difficult to design armor decals for the 1/55 MG, but I don't know how much interest there would be (besides yours, of course). I've only sold a handful of the 1/55 MG sets so far and that is a little disheartening considering how much work went into creating them. I'm not sure I can justify taking time away from my current lineup of custom valk orders and the Koenig Monster commission to work on a set like that right now. Maybe later this year if things slow down a bit....

Do you mean these decals? I just put the finishing touches on them today. I'll be printing out a set in a few minutes.

Well, actually, the front parts of the boosters do match the white of the leg armor, but I do agree that they stand out. I didn't like the MG 2 when Hasegawa first released it, but between working on this custom and creating 1/48 decals for the MG 2 (one of Kurt's next customs for the Bling Bling King), it has grown on me quite a bit....

Armored Battroid

Armored Gerwalk

Armored Fighter

Battroid

Gerwalk

This custom was commissioned by xstoys. He asked for something pretty unique. He wanted: - A Version 1 Minmay Guard valk with Version 2 armor coloring - Version 1 detailing on the armor and weapons (like the MG Strike I did for min) - Both Strike and Super capability I had a lot of fun making this one. I also didn't sleep much and drank way too much coffee in the process. The biggest challenge was aligning the tire tread pattern on the chestplate with that on the various FAST Pack parts. It turned out better than I thought it would. I'm posting A LOT of big pictures, so many apologies in advance to those of you on slow modem connections. Fighter

And that's only the 300 dpi version. I have it in 1200 dpi, too.

LMAO!!!

I've thought about it. They aren't hard to print, but you'd have to spray coat it yourself with a tough enamel clearcoat before putting it on your car. ALPS printing wasn't designed for outdoor use....

Oh, you wanted the *original* MG. Why didn't you say so? The Cartograf decal version isn't quite as nice as the one published in Model Graphix. This is a 300 dpi version that prints at 5 x 10 inches: FYI: High quality = 1200 dpi or above Print quality = 300 dpi Screen quality = 72 dpi

Looks like we sand down pretty much the same stuff, Jung. The few exceptions are that I sand down the hinge sections of the landing gear doors for the legs so they don't scrape, I sand the chestplate and backplate pieces you leave unpainted just enough so they don't scrape after painting, and I also thin down the swivel sections on the legs and arms just a little. I'll post pictures of what I'm talking about later this weekend as I start work on a custom for xstoys. You can leave the DYRL-style hands on a custom 1/48 during transformation if you're careful, but removing them is never a bad idea.

I have one scanned in at 1200 dpi that is 300% larger than the original. It's print size is 3.5" x 9", but the file size is 126 MB. Way too big to post or email to you. it does make for a nice sticker, though. I just put one on my car.

If you're thinking about using all of the decals on the Hasegawa sheet, including the large red and blue ones, it won't work. 1/60 valks are larger and different in proportion. It took me a long time to design these decals to properly fit a 1/60: Here's how they look on the finished custom:

Yes. Send me a PM with the sets you need and we'll go from there.