Anasazi37

Thanks! You know, I thought about that. I even printed out a set of booster decals using a portrait version of her (head and shoulders) to see how they would look. I wasn't entirely happy with it so I went with the kites. I'm going to keep playing around with it, though. They're might be a happy medium....perhaps a montage of her portrait and the kite....

Figuring out where to place the decals on the armor and fast pack was probably the most difficult part of making this custom. I finally hit upon an idea. I took a picture of the valk in armored fighter mode from above (plan view) so I could get a good idea of where the fast pack would overlap with the tire tread pattern on the chestplate. I then brought that picture into illustrator and extended the chestplate designs to use as a guide. Once I saw that it would overlap with the barrel of the cannon and the front part of the left booster, I masked off those areas with tape and then scanned the tape sections into Photoshop where I created a template from which I could drop in the tire tread pattern in Illustrator. That's actually how I did each section of every Minmay Guard set, so I have the system down pat.

Just uploaded some new Armored Battroid pics. I didn't realize how fuzzy the old ones were until this morning. Enjoy!

Yes. I am trying to not manhandle it so it's still minty-fresh when min gets it. I don't like to transform customs very much--especially one as complicated as this. You never know when the evil paint scrape monster might rear his ugly head, no matter how well you plan. It's going to be REALLY hard to let this custom go to its new home....sniff....

And my personal favorite, Armored Battroid!

Okay, last set of pics! Sorry for the delay.... Battroid

To answer the questions posted: UN SPACY: If I wasn't busy making decals, I could probably get something like this done in about 3-4 weeks. That's not solid time, though. A few hours a day. Since y'all keep buying sets from me, this custom took A LOT longer than expected. Min sent me the valk mid-December. Now that Twin Moons will be carrying most of my sets, I'll have a little more time to work on customs. Graham: I missed the leg attachment problem last night. I guess I was more tired than I thought. Good eyes! Please feel free to use any pics you like. Thanks for forwarding this thread to Yamato. Eternal D: I've tried printing the decals both as opaque and semi-translucent. I'm personally much happier with the semi-translucent because it doesn't jump out at you like the solid ones do and detract from the overall effect. It also allows the underlying paint job to come through so it's a little more realistic. The occasional light spot is where some nasty little air bubble refused to go away. With decals this large, the occasional bubble is unavoidable. Vermillion One: The only difficult large decal was the Minmay on the right leg. Keeping with her character, she was quite stubborn and didn't want to stay put. I had to cut the decal in a few places with a very sharp Xacto knife and use a lot of Micro Sol. Eventually she settled down. The small blue stripes for the knees were the most difficult to apply because the surfaces curve in so many directions. They tended to curl away except on the flat surfaces. I fixed that by letting the flat sections set, then made small incisions in the decals where the surfaces curve, then used a lot of Micro Sol and patted them down repeatedly with a Q-tip until they stayed in place. The RMS-1 decals were also a little difficult since the missles taper towards the front. I ended up cutting the front of the decal about every four millimeters to a depth of about seven millimeters. The end result looked like fringe (until the decal was applied, of course). I'll get battroid pics uploaded later today. I have to run some errands right now.

Armored Gerwalk

Armored Fighter

Gerwalk

As promised, MORE PICS! Sorry for the delay, everyone. I was exhausted last night after spending all day finishing up this bad boy. The FAST packs, leg armor, and arm armor now sport the same color scheme as the rest of the valk. It took a lot of planning and strategizing to figure out how to make the tire treads work properly since the armor is much darker and the original decals are semi-translucent (on purpose, so they blend into the paint job on the valk) . I ended up adding an opaque undercoat to the patterns and it worked beautifully! I also decked out the RMS-1 and UUM-7 armaments just for fun. I think it adds a nice touch to round out this valk.

This has been a true labor of love.... MW member min commissioned me to make him a very unique custom 1/48. He asked for a 1/48 Minmay Guard Strike, but not the one featured in the 1/72 Hasegawa kit. Instead, he wanted me to extend the designs from the original MG featured in Model Graphix onto a set of armor, FAST packs, and weapons. It took me quite a while to figure out how to make it all work so that when you add the armor the designs continue seamlessly. The end result is pretty darn cool. This custom was a total repaint. The armor is now a medium grey (the original blue didn't look good) and the valk itself was painted white with a variable grey undertone (cool effect in good light). I also did some light panel line work to accentuate details. Even the pilot was repainted to match the color scheme. All I have the energy to post tonight are pics of this valk in fighter mode, sans armor. I'll be taking A LOT more pics tomorrow when I have better light. For now, please enjoy these teaser shots.

That's true, but the decals are pretty much interchangeable. You have to do a little trimming for fighter mode in places, but they work fine.

alftien casted arm armor that will work with pretty much any valk. It uses the same attachment method as the 1/55 Elint (no clips). I think mslz22 recasted these, too.

Tamiya Purple is pretty close, although you might want to lighten it with a little Light Grey or White first. The decals should work for Fighter Mode, too. Hasegawa didn't change their molds very much. MG Strike decals for 1/48 valks are planned. I believe the decals that come with the Hasegawa kit cover everything except the large colored panels (where decals don't work very well). I'll know more once I get my hands on a kit in the next few weeks.

The set I designed at 1/72 scale is for this version: The decals take the place of all the painting you would normally have to do to replicate the "tire tread" patterns and many of the other design elements. Here is where everying on my set goes: Hope that clears up any confusion.

wow, does he has a catalog or some sample? You can see my entire catalog at this website: Waterslide Decal and Sticker Catalog I now have upwards of 50 different sets with more on the way. I just saw this thread--I've been busy with several custom projects. I won't be taking orders for a few weeks and I'm also working with another MW member on a new distribution system that I think everyone will be very happy with. I can't say more than that right now. I agree that anything beats the stock Yamato stickers that come with their valks. The choice of what to buy really comes down to how much work you want to put into detailing your valk and how much experience you have with building models and applying decals. The stickers that Takatoys produces and the stickers and decals I produce cover the whole spectrum from basic to complicated, quick to time intensive. I'd be happy to answer any specific questions you might have.

Testors Model Master Blue Angel Blue. Thought that was appropriate That color works really well, along with Tamiya Sea Blue. I tried out both when I did my 1/60 BR custom and decided to go with the Tamiya because I prefer working with acrylics when possible.

Nice job, Shan! Keep the 1/55 customs coming!

I'm trying to finish up a few custom projects right now, and I'm waiting for the release of the 1/60 GBP so I can make decals for that. I'm also updating my 1/48 Standard set to include markings for the 1J Max and Miriya. Once all of that is taken care of, I'll be offering sets again. I just counted up all the different sets I've designed: 50! Good grief, I need to spend more time away from my computer....

Okay, I'll take the lack of response as a "No."

I've PM'd and emailed you about this several times, but no reply so far. Do you still want the 1/48 Minmay Guard set as a gift for you-know-who? If so, please let me know ASAP so I can get started on it.

One more shot of this bad boy in better lighting before I put him in the display case. I took this one at my camera's highest quality setting.

And, of course, my pride and joy: The 1/60 Blue Roses 002 Strike!

I started branching out into Yamatos with this Angel Birds custom. The valk was painted completely white and then decals I designed for MW member trueblueeyes were used to created the Angel Birds color scheme. This custom is sporting the new ALPS printed decals. Designing them took a looooooong time, but making this custom took very little time. No muss, no fuss.