Henchmen4Hire

The rocket-launcher things are ideas I got just from random internet searches, otherwise I would have showcased them more lol. The purple death ray machine is all mine though B) A few more pics, removed the red tinge so they look a little better. By the way, look how nice the painted helmets are! :]

Great recreation :] Could you maybe use some of these pieces along the top to add those indentations? And maybe find a way to use these on the forearms to make those cone-shaped things. Also thanks for showing us that guy's gallery, he made a Toph Bei Fong AND a Major Motoko! Awesome!

Not sure how expensive GP figs are where you live, but it may be cheaper to simply buy more of them than make resin casts. Let us know how it goes anyway! Here are a bunch of pics showing what I have completed so far. Will post more of the ATV later. Also, yes, I know the pictures suck, I don't have any room or proper lights to take good pictures, meh.

Looks like a ship I'd probably like had I been exposed to it as a kid, the design is juuuust generic enough to be all those variants you created. Just for fun, I threw together this thing that resembles a modern version. The nose is kinda iffy, but meh, I'm moving on :]

Had to make an ATV before I went to sleep >_< I like it, the rear has empty space with studs to mount all sorts of weapons. It's kinda Batman-ish, but whatever lol

Why do parents even take kids to toy shops if they're just going to be pissy the entire time lol.

They're too big to mount on the sides, but I don't know, maybe if I make it crazy enough I'll earn a Blacktron tag

Screw the railgun, cannons that fire beams of raw lightning are the future! How to mount it on the truck though?... lol

Started building a Mobile Railgun. There is tons of empty space inside truck, a minifigure can stand inside if they aren't wearing a neck accessory. The rear half will probably be filled with generators and greebly-type things, parts of the railgun itself. If you have any ideas for the railgun design please post them!

Let's reach a fair compromise here, please don't release any more modular buildings at all and release more space themes instead. It's win-win!

Don't know what R-type is but this is a spiffy design (kind of Aquasharkish though lol)

Here's what searching for "uncharted lego decals" gets: http://www.saber-scorpion.com/lego/uncharted_2_heroes_villains.php

The first one looks best, maybe top it with a 2x2 dish though to cover the 4 studs. The other two are okay but they look like they have exposed internals (the trans green) and therefore susceptible to damage. Although the last one could be the "turned on" version lol

Final update because no one cares aside from me and Woody: The second batch of helmets look a lot better now after another day of drying/curing, they're about as good as the first batch. Based on this, it seems like there's a decent amount of room for error when spraying. Follow all directions on the can and spray in light coats and you should end up with a nice looking piece. Would I recommend this VHT Vinyl Dye for recoloring LEGO pieces? The answer is a resounding "meh". If you've got mad paint spraying skills and you can get this product for cheap, go for it. The result isn't a perfect brick but it's very close, the stuff simply doesn't absorb into the plastic like dye should, but the bond is strong enough that it may be worth using this for the durability. It might help if you lightly sand the LEGO piece with very fine sandpaper before spraying, this may help the plastic absorb the dye, if that's what this is, better.

Another update: This stuff is finicky, you really do have to wait for the moon to align with Neptune's core to spray it to get good results haha. I sprayed a new batch of pieces with mixed results, even though I used the same spraying technique as before. Some looked just as good while some had a texture noticeable enough that it bugs me. Hopefully it goes away a little after a day like before, if not I'll just lightly sand it away and go over it by hand. I suggest you scrub really hard when you're washing the pieces, I kinda half-assed it and that may be part of the problem here. Another tip, once it's safe to do so, buff the sprayed piece with a microfiber cloth to get it to shine like a normal black brick. Sometimes it even helps smooth the surface a little more if you press hard enough, just be careful.

Thankssssss I sprayed a few more pieces so now I have a whole team of these guys, waiting for the things to fully cure. Now I just have to paint the white goggles dark bley, probably do that tomorrow. I'm kinda bummed because I ordered a bunch of pieces to build a few hardsuits but the seller said he didn't have the inverted brackets in his inventory anymore. Now I have to wait until I find someone else who has enough of them. At least he had a bunch of ADU soldiers and aliens for 1.80 each :) I scraped off the purple since, I just hadn't removed it yet I like the color stripe for other characters, it's just kinda weird on these troops. Haven't seen the paintball guy's gear in person, I want to get a better look at the helmet because it does look cool for something space related. If anyone has the paintball guy, please post a pic of the helmet on a Blacktron fig :]

Neat robo, it looks like the top half can detach and be its own little jet thing

A follow-up: Some of the pieces look even better today than yesterday, they don't look so painted anymore. Others look about the same. Wow, this stuff is durable, can't scratch it off with my fingernail. I repeatedly connected and unconnected a piece, at least 30 times, to several of the sprayed studs on the plate and the black color took no damage! The fit is a little tighter than normal too, so you'd think the color would be scraping off, but it's holding on for dear life. I used a spongy emery board (essentially a very fine sandpaper) to see how durable the color is, and I'm surprised. I sanded a little on one of the sprayed grey cylinders, even after the sandpaper started biting into the surface the color was still there, so the paint does seem to have penetrated at least a little bit into the surface, as dye would. That said, when I scraped with my dull fingernail along the edge of a brick, the color did come off after some force. I may just have to clean parts more thoroughly next time before spraying because the studs are definitely exposed to even more force when connecting but they were fine. I will admit this stuff is far more durable than regular spray paint, it's even stronger than spray paint I've used specifically made for plastics (like Krylon Fusion) and I don't see this ever chipping off just with everyday handling. In other words, it's great for MOCs you're only going to display or getting black parts that aren't made in black. If you toss a sprayed brick into your bucket of parts though, I'm pretty sure eventually the paint will get scratched because of all the sharp brick edges.

For anyone wondering about portable scales, they're easily obtainable and readily available, and can even fit in the palm of your hand. Pretty cheap too. They are very accurate and can measure things like .0001, whatever it's called. Ask your friends who collect trading cards (or sell them), they probably know all about the scales and methods card shops use to rip people off lol.

Pretty happy with the results, more about the dye in this topic: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=82069

Alrighty, overall I'm about 95% satisfied with the results. Here are big clear images of the test parts after about an hour of drying/curing. All photos are unedited except for this one, all I did was remove the blue reflection from the helmets, the paint job's appearance is unaffected. Unaltered color pictures in the spoiler: The most important question that needs to be answered is if this product is a paint or a dye. The answer is a frustrating I don't know and I kinda doubt it! Using this product felt like using any other spray paint I've ever used. Do light coats so you don't get runs/sags, clean the surface well before spraying, etc, standard procedure. I washed the pieces with soap and then gave them a quick wash with alcohol and let them dry thoroughly. They then went straight to the little platform I made there out of Megabloks and a big dark bley LEGO plate. Now on to the vinyl dye! There are mixed messages on the can: The can is clearly labeled VINYL DYE. This product doesn't say it has acetone specifically (which helps dye penetrate into the plastic), but it does say it contains what I've seen on other spray paint cans, which is toulene and ketones. There is a tip on the can that says you should mask off areas you don't want painted. That works to block paint, but dye doesn't care if there's tape there or not, it should theoretically spider into the areas under the tape anyway as it penetrates and absorbs into the surface. The can says this product penetrates the surface, and that it won't chip or peel off, both properties exclusive to dye. Paint will chip off no matter what because it rests on top of plastic, dye is impossible to chip off because it mixes with the plastic itself. Reviews all over for this product range from "OMG this is the greatest dye ever, the color never rubs off!" to "This stuff sucks, it's definitely paint and flaked off within a week." Once again I'll remind you that everyone on the internet is either stupid or lying lol. Anyway, today the Moon aligned with the outer rings of Saturn and a comet passed at juuuust the right distance from Pluto to allow good weather for spraying this stuff, so I went ahead with the project despite the nagging feeling that I should just return this to the store ASAP and get some money back. I sprayed a few lights coats on the gear and let them dry for 10 minutes, as per the instructions. Sprayed another light coat, waited 10 minutes. Sprayed a final coat and let everything dry for an hour so I could handle it safely for photographing. Here's what I noticed as the coats progressed: After the first light coats, the biggest thing I noticed is that the product was NOT absorbing into the plastic, it looked like it was simply drying on the surface like normal paint. There was also the typical mottled texture of spray paint. I've read that some companies sell paint and call it dye, also that some companies have changed their dye product to paint without changing the name or labeling of the product. Maybe this is one of those cases. After the second coat, the texture went away and a smooth glossy surface began to form, which is also something that happens with normal spray paint. This stuff acts like paint. After the final coat, the surfaces looked very good. I was slightly more optimistic at this point, but had to wait for it to fully dry to see if there would be a texture on the surface. Once dry, the pieces looked very, very good. Some areas of the sprayed pieces looked just like a normal black brick while some areas had a very, very faint texture, as if they were airbrushed. So, do these sprayed pieces look as good as normal bricks? Here's a picture of a sprayed black cylinder and a normal black cylinder (along with the sprayed helmet of course). Here are some more of my Blacktron troops. The Commando's armor was painted by hand (flat black, not gloss), the power miners helmets are sprayed, as well as the vest, all other pieces are unaltered. Can you tell the difference between sprayed and normal bricks in these pictures? Probably not. There is no loss of detail after spraying, no apparent difference when viewing them on your shelf, not even from a foot away. You can only sort of maybe tell if you hold the piece a few inches away from your eyeball, or move the figure around to see the faint mottled texture, if present. The results can be a mixed bag, the big dark bley plate I used in the pictures up there ended up with a very smooth finish, but it's not a mirror finish, not even with polishing. Bottom line, they absolutely can look like real bricks, but I can also achieve the same effect if I paint them by hand or use an airbrush. The question is now how durable this VHT product is. If it's just another stinking can of paint that isn't durable, then to hell with paying $15 a can for this crap. I'd rather get a little pot of Testors Gloss Black acrylic paint for $4, paint by hand and get an even smoother finish. I should probably point out that I'm good at painting by hand and can get a smooth finish, I understand that spray paint and airbrushes may be a more convenient option for new painters. I recommend you set up a bunch of pieces like I did here and use an airbrush to paint many of them quickly, then go back and paint any spots you missed by hand. I'm going to wait a day before I try to scratch off this VHT product from one of the bricks, just so it drys/hardens/cures completely to give it a fighting chance. I fully expect it to chip or peel off, proving it isn't dye. Another test to prove if this is dye or paint is to simply connect a brick to a sprayed stud. If the connection feel too tight or gummy, then it's obviously paint because dye shouldn't build up on the surface. Maybe this product is a combination of dye and paint, who knows, everyone I've talked to sure doesn't lol. Now having used the product, I can't return it, but that's okay because I'm pretty happy with the paint job. Even if it turns out that this is paint and not dye, I can still use it to recolor lots of parts at once (I don't have an airbrush anymore), then touch them up by hand.

The can arrived yesterday, some first thoughts: I'm already annoyed because the instructions for applying this spray read a lot like normal spray paint. For example, it says to mask off areas you don't want painted, which is weird because I assume dye would spider into the masked off areas through the plastic itself anyway. Also, it calls the product paint in the instructions a few times despite it clearly being labeled dye on the front. This is off-putting, but more random internet searching shows many people saying some dye is called paint even though it's really dye. Feh. I'm now waiting for the weather to cooperate (between 60-95 degrees F, humidity less than 60%) so I can spray a few test pieces.

You might want to look at the "Price Guide Info" column when viewing a part in the Catalog.

All I know is Megabloks pieces never crack. I've had the cracking problem most often with lever bases, the bases are simply too tight and they crack after a few days of being connected to a stud. Never had it with other parts, aside from minifigure torsos from the '90s.

Aw, next best thing then is to try to get the pieces in white or light grey and simply spray-dye them all to the darker grey.