Jasonc

Oops, double post.

Yep, I agree, using a xacto knife should fix it, but start at the base of the paint mark, and scrape using an upward motion, away from the plastic. This will not only hopefully take the paint off, but will loosen up the rest that possibly may not come off the first few attempts. Hope that helps, If not, there are some light solutions you could use, but that's your best bet.

Is this the same Night Stalker from Robotech.com??? We have all been working on our own sets of decals, and right now, I think we have some people that are working on 1/72, while others on 1/60 scale and 1/48 scale. I, myself, am trying to do the 1/55 scale decals at this time. If you do these decals and are able to print out white, that is great. I, along with a large number of people, are looking for decals and stickers. I would be happy to supply you with what I am working on, if you can create them for us. Perhaps we can work out an arrangement. I was thinking of getting an alps printer, but with the possible access of a printer that prints white, I may not need it. But I know I may definitely need your services.

My guess would be that after you scan the 1/72 decals, you need to scan at a high res, then shrink in photoshop and save as some sort of vector file that will allow you to enlarge and shrink the pic without losing resolution. From there, it's just a matter of finding the exact size of the originals. I'm sure a few test runs would be needed to get it right. I just thought of an idea for creating the 1/55 decals. Perhaps cutting paper shapes that fit your 1/55s, then scanning those and using Illustrator or Photoshop to create the final image will work. Just a guess though for some of the bigger decals. Some of the others you could just take from the Hasegawa kits and enlarge, cut, crop, bend in ps to get the desired fittings. Being fairly pro at Photoshop, this shouldn't be a problem, just a tedious job, and I can understand why Anasazi would have a hard time departing with his work. Perhaps if he decides to never return to the decal bus., and after some time has gone by, maybe he will sell off the masters, or if not, at least we all are working to get this going again. I have access to a printer that prints white, but not sure how well it'll work, as it is a large commercial printer. Not sure how well it'll print on decal paper, and it prints on large spools. Perhaps it works for regular decal sized paper, and if it does, I could have a solution. Details to follow.

I'm interested in one. If you are color matching, I can wait for the correct color, If not, I've got my paints ready.

This is a bad question I know, but, do you spray it on the decals, or on the parts? And how much do you spray to soften the decals?

Oh, I also forgot to ask, how water resistant is that Epson ink? That may be a good selling point in this forum, dealing in waterslide decals.

I started on redoing most of the decals I seen from Hasegawa, the regular sets, the option sets, and ones that would be needed for the 1/55s in photoshop, trying to make them really hi res for the laser jet I have. I still have yet to try the white backing paper, but I probably will do two pages of decals when ready,,, decals that require no white, and decals that do. the ones that do will all be on white paper, with a thin black line around white text for ease of cutting. But that is still a ways to go. So far, the LaserJet is looking to be a solid clear printer.

I'll take one, if you have any room left. How much is the kit? I'm ready to go if you still have one left.

All that is a great help Devin, and will definitely keep all that in mind. I have in my possession a HP Laserjet 2840. I may have to experiment with the decalpro system and see how the white works over the black ink. As for the minmay guard leg pic of her in the white dress, that's gonna be a tricky thing to do. The only thing I can think of without dealing in two layers, or double running the paper, is to use the white backing decal paper. Don't know what results I'll get, but that is the only fix for that. I may need to photoshop the hell out of it to get it working, but it's worth a try. I think we can get it to work somehow. Keep your fingers crossed, and lets all keep our minds on this thread. I think we can pull out some great solutions here.

yes, I think that process for those decals would be very difficult. Of course, you could make them non transparent, but a very difficult task ahead. Now, in regards to the site This looks promising. I may look into this and buy a set of it. I'd really like to know what decal paper Devin used, and what sealer material he used. I mean, those decals were better than the Hasegawa decals.

I may end up doing some of the old decals, and Fit them on the 1/55s, 1/48s, etc. Right now, I have sets for the Elintseeker, Ostrich, Max DYRL, and the 1D. Those are for the 1/55 scale. The sets I have for 1/48 are just the 1S and the Max. For Hasegawa, I have Most of those, and will create some high res scans of those and clean them up. Other than that, I'm looking for more sticker sets, and other decal sets for use on a certain scale, and will edit them to fit other scales. Again, if anyone can help in the "making the decal process", much appreciation.

Thanks for your help. This definitely helps. I am gathering all my decals I have so that I can make high res scans of them, but they are all for the model kits. I may need to enlarge them, and shape a few of them to fit the 1/55s and 1/48s, but that shouldn't be hard, just extra tedious work. As for the White color issue, there are decal sheets that have a white backing to fix that problem. The only thing to do is to create them, and put a small black border around the white decals for cutting purposes. This should fix the white decal problem. I will be experimenting soon, but definitely would like some advice from the pros as to materials needed other than printer and decal paper. Like, what type of decal paper is good, what sealant, and basically, the whole process of getting that done.

I'm posting it up for 2 main reasons...1)Because at the decal master's request, he wanted someone who was interested to post so that if he responds, everyone can benefit, and 2)There may be others who already make decals/stickers or others who may be able to help in this endeavor to get more made for our customs. As I am gonna be working on a custom very shortly, it would be very bad to not have decals anymore. And without Devin selling the masters to anyone, we all need to make a combined effort in making new ones that are at least in the ballpark of quality. Customizing and modding for Valks seems to be on the rise. It'd be a shame if all of us can't come up with a solutions to this predicament.

OK, so the deal is that Anasazi, our good friend on this site is bowing out of the game of decals and stickers. We will surely miss his work, and we may never get that quality again, but in the meantime, I have been thinking about possibly picking up some of the requests that are still out there. Unfortunately, I am not too familiar with how to make decals. I bought some decal paper a long time ago, but I know it's more than just printing some pics up. so, for those that make decals, is there anyone still making them? As for Anasazi, if you read this, in using illustrator, what file format do you create your decals in? is it .eps or something like that? It's gonna be painful redoing some of the decals only to fall way short of the quality we had before, but those are the brakes I guess. So, if someone has anytime, or can provide info for decals about where we can get them, how we can make them, and everything in between, please help out. I will be making decals for 1/48s, 1/55s, and that's probably it. So, if anyone has sticker sheets they can send in, or anything else that can help me out, I will do what I can to start producing decals for those that need them. Prices and all that will come later, if I do need to start supplying my fellow MWers here, but until then, let's all unite and try to fix our little predicament.

Devin, a big congrats to your marriage, and education. I'm glad to hear you have moved on because of very solid and wonderful reasons. I've been buying decals from you for a few years now, and everytime I got them, they were much more than I expected. On the flipside, and as my valks are telling me... "noooooooooo!!!!!!" It can't be. and I had two customs in the works. well, I must say, who is gonna pick up the torch for decals??? I will if no one else can, but creating all those decals again... well, I could always use the advice of a pro for this. thanks Anasazi/Devin for all your hard work. Can't tell you how many people are gonna be hurtin' without your decals.

yeah, I got me a set as well...The soda tastes good, as does most of DR Jones soda. I'm just missing the blue one. It wasn't done as something to market, just something for the HG screening at their theater. And I'm one of those guys that posted up in the thread about the boobs, and the plot. It's a lot going on, and from seeing the movie myself, it's because they have people working on these things that shouldn't be directing, or writing story. the plot works, but it's presented in a very poor manner. A kid could've done it. That being said, I've seen and met people that could probably do that show some justice, but what seems to be one person's vision of the show is really what could end up destroying it.

Congrats on the beautiful baby. Glad to hear all is well. I guess the valk part factory is on hold for awhile. But definitely for great reasons. How are those late nighters?

I use the pencil method myself. After I paint the final coat of color on the piece, I take a mechanical pencil, and lightly draw into the panel lines. Then with the dull coat, that makes the pencil lead darken up and when spraid in the right direction, can actually run off a bit for a more weathered look. for toys I just want to weather, I'd go with the pencil again, as it can be cleaned easily, isn't too dark, and does it's job just fine.

Not too sure. I don't recall ever really paying attention to in. I would assume, engineering-wise, that the ability to angle the foot to give it a perfect 90 degree angle to the ground would be done by the lower portion of the foot, and not the upper. I guess just chalk it up to anime magic.

I don't think there's any real way to get the lateral movement to move too much. Even on the Yamato toys, the new 0A and S, the lateral foot movement is quite limited. I have been working on solutions, but I think it would involve a ball joint. That might give the stability of it standing problems.

To be honest, I thought about doing the thigh mod, but I'm not sold on the ball joints. Don't they get loose after a period of time? In regards to the foot mod, I've worked that, and with the knee mod, and making it swivel, it makes for a great gerwalk pose. Battroid is great too, although, you don't get the hip angle. Not too much of a problem though.

Tested methods for both of these together have already been done by yours truly. I did the pen top mod awhile back, and yes, it is a great way to mod the legs. simple, yet sturdy. The diagram that Razor has posted is another mod I am currently doing, and it has worked. I made some slight modifications to it, like working some styrene around the back of the foot. The gap of the back leg to give the valk that angle is pretty spacious, and so, with that, I'm filling in the gap so that it doesn't look so "modified". So far, it seems to be working ok, and will have pics up once i find my camera charger.

Things to consider. I'm working on making a 1/55 scale mini-missle launcher with the styrene I bought. As well as the foot swivel mod. What would be cool, is, I used to have a 1/55 nose with detailed cockpit, clear canopy, and all that. But I'd like to get another one. It had the antannae on the nose, lowered hip connectors, and a openable canopy. Does anyone know who makes that? Right now, Razor X has it, would anyone be interested in recasting it??? NMB4M? MSLZ??? I may be interested in 1/48 heads for my 1/55s, as they are about the same size. The strike pieces are cool, new nose cone for transforming valks, and the feet that are more accurate to the line art. Is all of this possible? And I'm working hard to turn my friends into Valk 1/55 enthusiast, one person at a time

BigF has the idea. Satin finish is fine to use. I, personally, use a dullcoat. It makes it look more realistic to me, and always seems to be better off, as with anything with a sheen to it. Any scuff mark will stick out like a sore thumb. Matte finishes tend to hide any scratches much better. But the Satin finish is good. Should give you the same effect.