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I really enjoyed seeing this thing built. Very nice colors and details. For a monster, he is a cute little guy! On my workbench are 1/48 Anime Eye Decals. Yechk, what a nightmare. These things are less than 0.4mm in size. First I had the trial and error to print on Hayes White Decal Paper at home on my Ink Jet. Settings must be Glossy Photo Paper, but my POS printer will only print small photos at that setting. I may have lost some quality for rescaling, but I am not sure. Then you need to gloss them several times with an acrylic spray, that means do not use Japanese hobby lacquer sprays, or they will fall apart in water. Then I found that these decals really don't like Mr. Mark Setter and Softer. The only way to apply them without falling apart and color bleeding is with water, and after they are dry, just a jot of setter. I really need to try another brand, because Mr. Mark Setter reacts with everything badly, doesn't work well on Future, fogs it up, and melts these Ink Jet decals in seconds. Seems to work fine with pro decals though... Then I had the challenge of cutting out these little suckers. I found the best way was to gently graze the surface of the decal with a detail hobby knife, while rotating the decal sheet in a circular pattern, but not really moving the hobby knife except to reset. After many disheartening fails, I finally got some decent results. A satin coat will be next for final. I've been trying to paint a mouth line, and some face/jaw shadows, but it is just too small, can't figure it out so far. I'm a proud papa, but any painting advice appreciated...

@007-vf1 Awesome display. Lots of great Zentrans and Destroids to spice things up.

I wasn't that happy with the first version, so I gave it another shot. And some painting progress.

Definitely! I have had my eyes on that for a while. But question: As Art Director, what design software have you become expert for these kind of shows?

Nice gift! Hope he likes it and many happy years ahead. So this is what's on my workbench. I've been trying to figure out the easiest way to paint these little figures in an anime style, but still get some depth, without turning them into weathered warhammer figures. After sanding and priming in white, I am basing them in white to get vibrant anime colors. I then preshade with a hand brush using complementary colors. I need the pre-shade to be toned up or down depending on the final base coat. For example, I lost the preshade under the hair because it need to be darker. And I don't want it too strong under lighter shades such as the skin and clothing. Lining everything also really helps with the painting process especially with small details, because I can go up to the lines and not be worried about going over, and it serves as lining as well. Then I just paint the blocked out areas with a normal brush on a wet pallete, and make out the details with cheap 000 fine liners. I try to paint hard to reach areas first and light colors, then dark colors last. Light colors first because I don't need to worry about hitting the edges perfectly. With this approach I can avoid wetblending. The next step could be some edge highlights or lining. But for a small figure, it could be good enough. Any advice to improve appreciated.

This WIP is almost done. I was able to airbrush it instead of hand painting, since there are not a lot of details. The 1/48 eye decals look good compared to by hand, but probably still need to be smaller. I lost the split in the dress during processing, which shows her leg down the side, but I since learned how to keep it. So that will be in the version I release one day.

Nice scene! That Gnerl canopy always looks hard for me to paint on resin kits.

I use the AS-189, never had a problem with it for years. I took it from a pro tip. I leave it pressurized. My room DB is 40-50 depending on AC, the compressor runs at 65-70 when pressure is being filled, but it has an auto off when pressure is maxed. It also has a water filter.

Thanks. Unfortunately I screwed up my last print at the printers place. I don't know what we did, but the resolution dropped. Partly my fault, partly the printer kept trying to rescale on site. I did a test print at home which was fine on my inkjet, but at the printers, the margins were all out of wack and the image was squeezed no matter what settings we tried. This goes back to me having the wrong starting canvas size, although @Chronocidal told me exactly what size to use, but I didn't get it right. Now I'm out of Japanese Laser water slide paper. I have some Hayes Inkjet water slides coming, I wonder if those will print well at home for such small objects. The Japanese stuff is .01mm thick, but can't find any info on thickness of Hayes paper.

Thanks for your feedback. I've used PPT my whole life and didn't know that! I moved the base eyes to PPT and scaled them down, and they are muuuuch higher resolution. Didn't mean to creep you out 🤪 I just wonder when people make decals, how do they get the dimensions so accurate when there are so many changing factors like canvas size, paper size, and the funky margins different printers make.

@Chronocidal I tried your method and got much higher resolution results. Although I used a much larger canvas by mistake. Do yo think that will have a bad effect? Here is the file if anyone wants to print some eyes!

@Chronocidal Wow, awesome feedback. I will get on it and see how it goes. Thanks.

So here is my first painted 3D printed figure. Freyja gets to be the guinea pig, as I try to figure out the best way to do these. I hand painted her eyes, so you can see why I am trying to print eye decals. But for my decals to be the right scale, I would need my smallest eyes from the previous file reduced by 50% - 75%. I don't even know if that is possible to print decals so small.

Thanks all for your feedback. I appreciate it. I will try your recommendations, although I am a bit confused. My process was I drew the largest eye, then I scaled down 10% each additional eye, but always using the original drawing as the basis to scale down. @Chronocidal I am not sure my printer has anything to do with it. You can see the pixelation even on the original file before printing. Unless I am using Paint wrong.

I find that eye decals are very helpful for finishing figures. But they don't seem to sell them in all scales, and certainly not in the small sizes I want. So I designed some eyes in MS Paint. But after printing them, I realized that this software is not high definition enough for decals. Can anyone recommend a good software for designing decals? Preferably free. I've attached the file as well, in case someone can do something with it.

Fantastic preshading and lining. Nice work!

This if for you Delta connoisseurs. Don't want anyone to feel left out. I tried to cut corners and just get her done. But she was still a PITA to finish. This is an example of how they look primed with an airbrush. Lets see how the print lines look after a few coats of hand paint. Keep in mind these are very small figures and I'm taking very close up shots. You wouldn't believe how much lighting is needed to photograph these things. You cannot see the print lines at even 3x magnification.

True, that's why I'm keeping it low key, staying just on this forum for now.

Wow, you designed all these stickers yourself?

Mechtech, Your details are looking great. Reminds me a bit of Masamune Shirow's manga designs.

Thanks Thom. I wouldn't monetize unlicensed IP. But eventually once I finish my project, I will find a way to release all my figures for free. I am using some parts made by other people; So I need to figure that out too.

Macross Idol Project Cont'd... This is a special treat for Macross II fans. She is completely scratch built from parts, with sculpting and added clothing details (If you can call it clothing😃). The last two photos are actually of a print fail on her left side and left hand, which I reprocessed and printed for first photo. Not my favorite character, but can't wait to paint and highlight these details.

A Lot of amazing valks and Macross planes have shown up on Cults and Thingiverse. Get 'em while you can. They are free.

This addresses the issue about field of vision and distance for head magnifiers.

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