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Good day! I've been thinking of making a large amount of customs, specifically LOTR, to fill up the gaps left behind by that theme. However, I'm looking for a way to add nice and clean looking lines (mainly black, but something for orange cheekbone lines as well as orcish colours may also be necessary) onto minifigures. Mainly faces (for custom heads), but also torsos, legs, etc., that's what I'm trying to improve on now. Before this, it has usually been tiny details and painting larger things that didn't require smooth, thin lines. I've tried the usual thing - painting them. But that usually leaves me with a sloppy looking figure head that doesn't even look close to being LEGO quality, even though I'd like to make some custom heads that would fit quite right in with official ones. The next thing I tried was a permanent marker. I've used it a few times now and it works well for applying lines (either over painted sections of figure parts or to paint in between the lines later on) - the problem, however, is that whenever there's a light, any kind of light, shining upon the drawn-on piece, it gives this shiny, reddish look to the drawn-on bits, instead of them remaining black. So I would like to know what the more experienced customizers use for things like that - minifig faces, custom torso & legs, etc. - and how they manage to create a clean LEGO-like look. Or, if anyone perhaps happens to know about a permanent marker (or something similar to one) that would not become the victim of a shiny, reddish glow when used on a LEGO piece (which would then be faced towards a light source), then I'd like to know. Any other tips for clean paint jobs would be welcome, same for any other customization tips that would help me with any of this! Thank you for your time.

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There´s a lot of options you could try:

- Waterslide Decals (see here)

- Rub-Ons (something like this)

- Rubber-Stamping (see here)

- Pad Printing (What Lego does)

- Digital UV Printing (There are alot of services that offer Printing. I suggest Steindrucker.com. You get a head printed for 1,50€ and the head is included in the price.)

If you insist to paint try Revell or Citadel Paints. Use a Toothpick instead of a brush. Be sure to use a thinner or elsethe paint is too thik.

Another possibility would be to create Stencils and use an airbrush or spray paint cans.

Edited by raminator

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I havent done heads yet and I think fine straight Lines are one of the most difficult things to do. Maybe if you use two stripes of masking tape like tesa film and leave only a very fine line free and then paint this. But this gives you only one line...

Another idea are fingernail airbrush stencils, they have lots of very small motives.

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