27 replies to this topic

[legofreak]

Back by popular demand... imperial sailors in a variety of colors. the thing I always liked about stickers in this case is that you can have a solid colored coat, instead of turning them around and seeing a white coat.


  
Pic=link
whew. :D

[legofreak]

Whoops, too many pics in one post.. here are the last of them

[KimT]

Thanks. Great work Legofreak.
Now You've ensured that I've become addicted 110% to the Pirates theme :oD

KimT

[Mister Phes]

Good work LegoFreak!  

But what do you mean by "back by popular demand"?

Who has been demanding these?  Usually when "back by popular demand" is used in conjunction with the pirate theme its usually me continually moaning for more pirate related LEGO  :D

[legofreak]

heheh well I used to have these on my brickshelf folder, and then I deleted them because I thought no one was interested. Since then I have received about six emails from various people requesting them.
*shrug* ok so its not POPULAR demand.. more like ..  a few people asking   ;)

[Mister Phes]

Who cares!  I've seen them and that's the most important thing!

Did you make these yourself or procure them from elsewhere at an earlier date?

[legofreak]

mister_phes, on Aug 31 2005, 06:24 AM, said:

Who cares!  I've seen them and that's the most important thing!

Did you make these yourself or procure them from elsewhere at an earlier date?

I made these myself :D
of course I have been into castles and not into pirates, so I have never made an army of them, but if I ever decide to do a Waterloo scene, or even any Revolution scene (from any country that had revolution :-D) then I will be set!

[Mister Phes]

Errrr...  Why not just get into pirates then?  You can still create an army and then send it to me.  I don't mind!

[legofreak]

mister_phes, on Aug 31 2005, 06:00 PM, said:

Errrr...  Why not just get into pirates then?  You can still create an army and then send it to me.  I don't mind!

but if I got into pirates then I wouldnt want to send any to you because i would be keeping them myself. :D
anyway.. feel free to print as many as you like

[Mister Phes]

How did you come to replicate the design (since you're not interested in the pirate theme)?

[legofreak]

actually a guy over at the MCN asked if anyone would do it, and while I am not a collector, I like the challenge of recreating the official designs as well as making up my own.
If Brickshelf is ever moderated again then you can see My brickshelf torsos. right now there are vikings, orient expedition, star wars,  and some custom ones there...
if you have any requests gimme a holler and I'll see what I can do. :)

[Mister Phes]

No requests at the moment but I'm am still curious about a few things...

How do you go about creating these?  Do you scan the mini-figures or do you create the designs from scratch?

[legofreak]

well first i find a good flat on picture I can use of the torso in question. Usually this is found at bricklink, but I had to request the viking ones from bloody jay here...
Then what I do is blow up the torso til its the size that matches my template, and in photoshop create a new layer, and then pixel by pixel I start coloring it in. :D each item gets its own layer, so later i can make custom toros by just switching a belt here or some armor there or a jacket .. etc.
depending on the complexity of the design it can take anywhere from an hour to four to get each one.
great fun!

oh, and of course for these changing the jacket color is a fairly simple matter... just change it with a click or two..

[Mister Phes]

Excellent work!  If I was to print these torso designs at the size they are now, would they be just the right size for a mini-figure?  Or would I need to tweak them a bit to get them just right?

[legofreak]

If you were to just hit "print picture" it would be huge.
what you need to do is open up a word processing document (I use MS Word) and insert a picture.
Then browse and use the torso you want.
then you go into format picture and change several things. First is the size: you want it 1.5 cm or .57 inch (depending on your unit of measurments)
then you want to change the layout (here is a sample of what it should look like) to be in front of text - this allows you to make multiple copies of the torso and fill up your sheet before printing
I usually make a hundred at a time. (ten rows of ten)
when I print I usually go down to the office supply store and have them print with their color laser printer on near photo quality paper.

good luck and let me know how it turns out for ya!

[Mister Phes]

Alas I do not have a working colour printer.  I have one that's 11 years old now but I have no colour cartridge.  Plus it takes 10 minutes to turn the stupid thing on.  I've been meaning to buy a printer for ages now, but due to a certain LEGO addiction that's been delayed.  By a few years...

However, it can't hurt to know these things in advance, and if anyone else is reading it would be helpful if they know these things too.  Afterall, I don't think many people are going to assume to change the size to 1.5 cm or .57 inch on their own accord.  So this could save them much frustration.  Also you didn't mention whether that size is width or height or both...

[legofreak]

ah. *whaps forehead

good point. the 1.5 cm is the width. I have mine set to auto adjust the height to keep it relative, so if yours is set that way then you should be good. (its the default in most word programs)

The thing is, if you get a disc and save the document to it you can take it down to office depot and have them print out one sheet. It costs 99 cents.
thats less than a penny a minifig, so I guess if thats too expensive for ya... then you shouldnt be buying lego anyway  |-D

[Mister Phes]

This is true, however not everywhere has an Office Depot that prints out coloured A4 sheets for 99 cents.  In fact 1 cent coins no longer exist where I am and neither does Office Depot so that's quite impossible!  However, there is likely to be somewhere that provides a colour copying and printing service in all major centres.  Maybe even some of the minor centres too!  

Out of curiosity, what kind of printer do you have?  Unfortunately not all printers and printing mediums are equal so the results will slightly vary.  And how faithly does this printer relay these images to paper?

[legofreak]

at home i have a basic HP laserjet 6l no color. so I dont print at home.
before at my moms office she had an HP inkjet 900something (I think - been awhile) and I used special inkjet absorbent shiny paper - it was ok, but you really cant beat the laser color for detail and shininess.
as far as color transfer.. it depends on the printer like you said. the blue I used is lighter than supposed to be because most prints are blue heavy. meaning if i left it with the color value from lego it would have come out REALLY dark.

[Mister Phes]

Why can't I beat a colour lazer printer for detail and shininess (as far as color transfer)?  I could take it to a professional printing service and get high resolution 6 colour process prints made on photo gallery glossy paper!   :-D  That beats colour lazer any day for photogenic images.  Much more vibrant and the edges are so much smoother.  Oooooh its great having 6 colours to mix rather than just the usual 4, and that paper is sooo much better than the stuff available on the home consumer market!  Can be quite expensive though, so for the purposes on this mini-figures colour lazer or even the newer inkjet printers will do fine as the colour palette is limited.

Anyway, could tell any noticable difference between the original mini-figure and the mini-figure designs printed by your mother's work HP Desket 900 (whatever)?

[legofreak]

mister_phes, on Sep 3 2005, 08:24 AM, said:

Why can't I beat a colour lazer printer for detail and shininess (as far as color transfer)?  I could take it to a professional printing service and get high resolution 6 colour process prints made on photo gallery glossy paper!   :-D  That beats colour lazer any day for photogenic images.

|-D  |-D  :P

ok I stand corrected. I thought we were talking cheap and easy....

Quote

Anyway, could tell any noticable difference between the original mini-figure and the mini-figure designs printed by your mother's work HP Desket 900 (whatever)?

and yes, with stickers you can Almost Always tell they are not the original.
If you wanted to have them done as decals though, and have Kamino print them out for you - well then you would have a very very difficult time indeed seeing that they were not official.

Here is a sticker - note the raised edges - (printed at office depot)


Here is a decal - note how you cannot see the edges.

PLUS with a decal you can have metallic
inks done!

so decals beat any printer ever  ;)

EVER I tell you!

[Mister Phes]

Actually, in those images its hard to tell they're stickers anyway.  But maybe in real life the sticker would be more noticable.

Kaminoans seems pretty good!  But unless there are Kaminoans all over the world, utilising their service could get expensive on the postage and time consuming on waiting for them to send the prints.  If they do that kind of thing in the first place.

[legofreak]

mister_phes, on Sep 3 2005, 05:43 PM, said:

But unless there are Kaminoans all over the world, utilising their service could get expensive on the postage and time consuming on waiting for them to send the prints.  If they do that kind of thing in the first place.

well as far as I understand it, Kamino (Jared) handles stuff in the US, while Red Bean (Isaac) handles stuff overseas. Both are great to work with, both have excellent quality decals, and Both are very reasonable as far as shipping, printing etc. YOu do have to be patient with them for printing, as they do have lives outside of lego (Jared is currently working on his PHD - we will really have to call him the mad doctor soon) but they are not so busy as to forget.  :-D

usually stuff ships inside a week, so thats not too bad at all.
for more info on the whole decal/sticker thing go here!!

[Mister Phes]

How long they been doing this for?

Do they too have LEGO collections?

[legofreak]

Well, I think its been a matter of years for those guys. and yes, though I think its mostly minifigs for them.

Isaac has cast his own stuff in ABS plastic (once I get some vikings I will order some beards from him), and Jared has been doing the decals for a very long time :D
in fact I should put them both on the straight shooters list as I have had trades with them both. - as a matter of fact I am going to be getting some new decals soon Jared.