19 replies to this topic

[WetWired]

So I've finished the first pass of my first decal. I'm making the 4 original Ghostbusters. I figured I'd share my progress since it's my first time. To see if I'm on the right track.



I'm not sure whether I needed space on the edges like some other decals I've seen have? or is it ok to go to the full extents like I have?

[Praiter Yed]

Nice decal WetWired   . I think the way you have done it, going right up to the edge, is fine. Don't forget when you cut out your decal you will need to trim slightly inside the colour anyway to avoid getting a white edge.

My only advice to you would be to print a test on plain paper before using your decal paper (something I all too often forget to do  ) - you may find that when you print at actual size some of your nice details become too small to see. There's a chance you might need to increase the size of Venkman's name tag - but you will only know for sure once you have done your test print.

[WetWired]

Good points, I'll definitely do a test print, I'll be printing with clear decal paper on a tan torso so hopefully I don't need to worry about cutting withing the print?

I will change the tan to white on the decal so it prints clear when I'm 100% happy with it

with that said, could those with experience tell me whether the colours I've used will work out ok printed on clear on a tan torso?

[Praiter Yed]

Maybe this shameless link to one of my own customs will give you an idea. I've used similar colours to your decal and I think for the most part they come out OK. Your lighter colours will darken noticeably over a tan torso but the darker bits should look very similar to your design.

The flesh area may be a problem... In an attempt to lighten the flesh tone of the sample in my link, I recently re-did the decal with less yellow in the flesh colour - the result was better but I still feel could be improved. Based on my results so far I would suggest taking some yellow out of your flesh area so that your decal looks slightly more pink - in theory when applied the yellowish tan colour will show through the light pink creating a more fleshy tone. Hope this helps.

EDIT: I've just checked my altered decal and in my latest attempt I made the flesh colour out of these colours; C-0, M-30, Y-25, K-0 or R-250, G-191, B-175.

Edited by Praiter Yed, 21 April 2012 - 01:48 PM.

[WetWired]

Praiter Yed, on 21 April 2012 - 01:40 PM, said:

Maybe this shameless link to one of my own customs will give you an idea. I've used similar colours to your decal and I think for the most part they come out OK. Your lighter colours will darken noticeably over a tan torso but the darker bits should look very similar to your design.

The flesh area may be a problem... In an attempt to lighten the flesh tone of the sample in my link, I recently re-did the decal with less yellow in the flesh colour - the result was better but I still feel could be improved. Based on my results so far I would suggest taking some yellow out of your flesh area so that your decal looks slightly more pink - in theory when applied the yellowish tan colour will show through the light pink creating a more fleshy tone. Hope this helps.

Your leia looks great, I can see the colour difference in her neck area but to be honest I'd be happy to get it looking that good. I'm really keen to do it right the first time with these decals, I'm tempted to just sacrifice a section of decal paper to test different colour variations and see which matches the best, it may be worth doing it once with many colours on one sheet in varying hues and brightness's.

I want to do the small ghostbusters logo on the arm but I'm not sure how that works, I've ordered both white and clear decal paper but I'm uncertain how printing on while will look.

For example let's say I have white decal paper and I print black on it, if I were to cut through that black can you see the white of the underlying paper on the sides where you've cut? or does the ink soak through and it's not visible?

As I said I'm new to this and I'd love to pick someone's brain about the do's and don't's.

Also has anyone ever tried laying a small area of white decal paper underneath a clear decal to make the colours pop and lighter colours work better on darker lego pieces? or is the decal paper too thick for this to work effectively?

[Praiter Yed]

WetWired, on 21 April 2012 - 01:53 PM, said:

For example let's say I have white decal paper and I print black on it, if I were to cut through that black can you see the white of the underlying paper on the sides where you've cut? or does the ink soak through and it's not visible?

I'm not 100% sure for your average white decal paper - I'm still pretty new to this my self and still experimenting - but I've used white lazertran paper without any really noticeable white edge but that paper is quite matt and doesn't react well to my varnish, I've also used white dry-rub decal paper which I find nice to work with but does leave a white edge (which can be reduced by rubbing with cotton bud soaked in lighter fluid).

WetWired, on 21 April 2012 - 01:53 PM, said:

Also has anyone ever tried laying a small area of white decal paper underneath a clear decal to make the colours pop and lighter colours work better on darker lego pieces? or is the decal paper too thick for this to work effectively?

Yes, I've tried that here, the clear decal is left slightly raised but not so much that it's hugely noticeable. It would be nice if the white was stronger but alas I get the base colour showing through again . I'm still doing some experiments with other materials using this technique.

[WetWired]

Praiter Yed, on 21 April 2012 - 02:13 PM, said:

I'm not 100% sure for your average white decal paper - I'm still pretty new to this my self and still experimenting - but I've used white lazertran paper without any really noticeable white edge but that paper is quite matt and doesn't react well to my varnish, I've also used white dry-rub decal paper which I find nice to work with but does leave a white edge (which can be reduced by rubbing with cotton bud soaked in lighter fluid).


Yes, I've tried that here, the clear decal is left slightly raised but not so much that it's hugely noticeable. It would be nice if the white was stronger but alas I get the base colour showing through again . I'm still doing some experiments with other materials using this technique.

It might work for me for the ghostbuster logos on the arm though, however I did want to print some light flesh on a black head which may not work so well...guess there's only one way to find out.

[WetWired]

Ok here's an update

[The Blue Brick]

These are great. I might need to make a moc with them now.  

[WetWired]

The Blue Brick, on 23 April 2012 - 12:00 AM, said:

These are great. I might need to make a moc with them now.  

Let me know how it goes, I'm going to use clear water slide decals on a tan torso so I'll need to change the colour on these images to white so that they print clear, if you need those files in white or any other colour let me know and I can change it for you. I'm tempted to do ghostbusters 2 grey\dark green suits too :)

[xxlrocka]

Who ya gonna call? GHOSTBUSTERS! Anyway, nice job!

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

WetWired, on 22 April 2012 - 10:33 PM, said:

Ok here's an update

Superb work and great decals ...now it would be great to see a real minifig!  

[WetWired]

LEGO Train 12 Volts, on 24 April 2012 - 06:01 AM, said:

Superb work and great decals ...now it would be great to see a real minifig!  

Tell me about it, I'm sitting here twiddling my thumbs waiting for my decal paper to turn up in the mail, I've got a 6 day weekend this week and a ton of pieces, decal paper and the town hall somewhere in the mail. It's gonna suck if none of them arrive before friday.

[ED-209]

They're excellent, I love them!  

You need to place an order with  BrickForge to complete the figures!  

http://www.brickforg...ome.php?cat=342
http://www.brickforg...ome.php?cat=343
http://www.brickforg...ome.php?cat=354

[WetWired]

ED-209, on 24 April 2012 - 02:22 PM, said:

They're excellent, I love them!  

You need to place an order with  BrickForge to complete the figures!  

http://www.brickforg...ome.php?cat=342
http://www.brickforg...ome.php?cat=343
http://www.brickforg...ome.php?cat=354

I actually bought all those about 2 years ago and have only just gotten around to doing the designs for the decals now! :)

[WetWired]

Well after a dismal failure of a first attempt at applying my custom Ghostbuster decals I've regrouped and tried again (the sealant I used the first time was causing the print to run)

Here's the results, dodgy phone photo incoming...



I'm quite happy with the results but I'm tempted to go further with custom lego decals, custom faces and even hacking up a hairpiece to try and get bill murray's hairline and remove the sideburns from harold ramis's hair. What do you guys think?

[ED-209]

WetWired, on 29 April 2012 - 01:12 PM, said:

Well after a dismal failure of a first attempt at applying my custom Ghostbuster decals I've regrouped and tried again (the sealant I used the first time was causing the print to run)

Here's the results, dodgy phone photo incoming...

I'm quite happy with the results but I'm tempted to go further with custom lego decals, custom faces and even hacking up a hairpiece to try and get bill murray's hairline and remove the sideburns from harold ramis's hair. What do you guys think?

Oh wow, they look fantastic! The mechanic's hair is perfect for Egon!
I would love to see custom faces for them too! What hair piece did you use on Ray?

[WetWired]

Ray's hair is currently a standard old school hair piece 3901, not sure if I'll stick with that or not.

I've had a go at doing a face design for my ghosbusters, It's a lot harder than I thought to try and get a likeness of an actor across in lego form, I want you guys to see if you can figure out which one it is and more importantly if it captures their likeness and essence immediately and clearly. If you guys think it's not quite there yet I'm more than happy to go back to the drawing board, I only really get one shot once I print it out and apply it it so I want it nail it the first time.

[martyboy70]

Looking at them as you have them now theres no doubt whos who so it might be a lot of work for not much reward.

[WetWired]

For those that are interested I've uploaded all these decals to flickr, both in white and clear waterslide decal variants