I hope someone from Reprolabels or Brickstix sees this thread...these are really great, and would be super-handy to have professionally printed on a user-friendly material.

 

I'm glad you dig it!

I'd love to see pics of how it turns out for you.

That would be awesome! I do wonder how niche custom kreons are, but that would be so much easier than doing it myself with the limits of water slide decals.

In particular, you can't print white (printers assume the paper is white). So you can use clear decals on white or light-colored backgrounds and white decals on darker backgrounds, or you can try to mix-and-match by cutting the decals into small pieces and layering them. So either it doesn't look ideal, or it's a lot of work.

 

These are very nice!

They look really close to the real thing, great work.  

 

I print all my decals on Avery sticky labels. They work great! Super easy as well.

 

I believe that would be the logical equivalent of using white water slide decal paper (insofar as the paper itself is opaque white). It is easy, but it doesn't let the plastic underneath show through. If the decal's color-matching is spot on, then it'll look good. But if it's a shade or two off, it looks awkward to me, which is why I try to use clear decal paper when I can. Avery makes clear sticky labels too, if you want to try that out, though I've heard it's a little frosted and not perfectly clear.

 

You know what this thread needs? Some more henchmen!

• Runabout
• Runamuck
• Flywheels
• Battletrap

 

As I've mentioned before, the primary purpose of these decals is to serve in my own collection, and I like to use Tresob's Shapeways parts to further distinguish the individual characters. I mostly use his unique helmets, but Tresob also makes vests and replacement torsos. I aesthetically prefer the charm of the flat minifig chest for the majority of my collection, but for certain characters, I like having 3D details for the chest. For me, this includes:

• Bots whose depth of chest feels especially important to their visual characterization (eg: Brawn, Brawl)
• Really big bots where the vest helps them look more physically imposing (eg: Overlord, Unicron)
• Fembots where I feel the 3rd dimension helps capture their curves

The point of all that exposition about my personal preferences is to explain why the decals for this batch were designed for figures I intend to use with Tresob's vests/torsos. For purposes of completeness, I decided to make chest decals to post here (though I won't be using them myself) in case others prefer a strictly flat-chest look. Also, I wanted to credit Tresob with the general design of these chest decals since I basically tried to translate his vest designs down to 2 dimensions.

• Unicron
• Overlord
• Fort Max
• Windblade
• Chromia

 

Thanks for making these, dude

 

Love these! Thanks for taking the time to make them. I'll definitely be using a few  

 

Thanks! I'm glad you guys enjoy them. Here's a few more:

• The Fallen (Dreamwave)
• Straxus
• Fastlane/Cloudraker
• Darkwing
• Rewind & Eject (for micro-figs)

 

If you're taking requests, I'd love to see a Minimus Ambus decal for a micro-fig.  

 

I think it would be really neat to make some LEGO minifig Decals that Kreons could wear.

the reasons are obvious, Kreons have better poseability. so transforming Kreons into popular or vintage LEGO Minifigs would be fun not to mention cheaper on the wallet.

 

Man, this one was tricky. Minimus Ambus has a fairly complicated chest design and micro-figs give very little room to work with anyway. I was at least able to capture the colors and the vague shapes of his chest. I'd love to see a pic of it in action if you decide to use it!

 

I decided the stock Swindle face is just entirely unsatisfactory -- he's supposed to look slimy, not grumpy! Here's my take on it:

 

Better than my Green dot! haha Going to print a new one for my MiniAmbus.

Every one is unbelievable. So great!

 

It's awesome! I'm going to work on it tonight & will definitely post pics  

 

Any chance you could do a small tutorial or step by step of how you make these?

 

I can describe the process and give some tips, but I don't know that there's enough detail necessary for a full-blown tutorial.

First off, I recommend using a vector graphics program, rather than raster graphics. I use Inkscape, which is free and is available for most operating systems.

I start with a blank template. The boxes on the face area represent where the eyes and mouth should go and the "main" area where drawing should go to be seen within most helmets.

TFW2005 doesn't allow me to attach the vector data file, so I've exported the template as an image, which you can trace for your own use. Or, if you want to save yourself that effort, you can IM me your email address, and I'll send the template to you that way.

As for how to draw, that's just a matter of practice, trial and error, and personal skill. In terms of style, I try to capture the major visual elements of a character without getting too complicated -- reduce the design to simple shapes that communicate the essence of the character.

In terms of technique, I tend to outline most shapes in black to make them more defined and to give them the visual style that kreons tend to have. I recommend using 0.5mm line width for major elements and 0.3mm for fine details. Anything smaller than that will be hard to see once printed. The tools in the vector program will help in aligning things and achieving symmetry.

I've also attached a palette. I've arrived at this by eyeballing the printed output of my color laser printer with stock kreon plastics, but it's possible these colors won't align quite as well on all printers.

I actually do more complicated things with layering to allow me to print on either clear or white label paper, but if you're just sticking with white paper, that's not important and the types of decal images I've been posting in this thread should work fine.

 

While my heart primarily lies with the G1 cast, I do very much enjoy modern TF media, and sometimes it's fun to adopt great new characters into the classic pantheon, as I think IDW has done effectively.

Animated was a favorite series of mine, so I'm glad characters like Bulkhead and Lugnut got the official Kreon treatment. I decided to try my hand at Lockdown as well.

I'm not as hot on the Movie aesthetic or the complicated tampos they bring to kreon, but I did dig Guido Guidi's take on G1-ifying Barricade. I decided to stick with the more black-and-white scheme, instead of Guido's dark gray version.

• Lockdown (Animated)
• Barricade (Movie)

 

My biggest issue is with lines and symmetry. I have the idea in my head but can't get it onto digital canvas without it looking like crap (I mainly use photoshop but am no means any good at it!). Usually I'll take an image I find online and bastardize it into a Kreo shape.

I'll take a look at this vector art program and see how I go!

This is great stuff!