Retired Fix Up Thread

I'm by no means perfect but my best advice is to make sure the water is BOILING hot. Like, see the bubbles and steam. You shouldn't be able to put your fingers in it comfortably. (Cup of water for 6:00 in the microwave ought to do the trick) This will melt the glue to the point that you really just have to slide the xacto knife along the seam after it's been sitting in the water for a couple minutes.

With the usual method of boiling water? Did it I back together seamlessly?

Mostly, sometimes u need to cut out pieces of plastic in the torso, bent pegs etc... Dry fit before you glue,you can carve anything inside to make a tighter fit

I find making decals in and of themselves is not actually that hard. I use waterslide decals, rather than peel and stick, which are just stickers pretty much. There was the one guy a few pages back saying he uses peel and stick, and I'm amazed because I've never been able to get them to work on a figure. Anyway, I don't use decals on my wrestling figures, only on my hockey ones. But the process is pretty much the same. I create an image in Photoshop at 600 dpi at the size I want it. Usually, because the paper isn't cheap, I'll do a whole bunch at once. For hockey figures, it's a lot easier, as I can just find a picture of the logo online. For a wrestler, their tights logos, and especially their tattoos aren't going to be found as a nice flat image. So you have to have some Photoshop skills for that part. If you have them, it's not too bad. If you don't, well, you can try your best to find a good picture, which is probably difficult. But I look at some of the customs here and you guys take such great pictures that you can make a decent decal out of your pictures without too much work. I look at a decal as painting in Photoshop rather than painting directly onto a figure. Still takes a lot of work, but there's a lot more room for error.

Now, once it's done, I just use Photoshop to print it onto the decal paper. Sometimes I'll save it as a pdf in Photoshop, which then allows me to use Adobe Reader, which I find easier to use to print from rather than Photoshop's millions of print screens. The paper says to use the "manual feed" option and select the "thick paper" option. Manual feed means I actually have to stand beside the printer and put in the paper, it's not in the tray. You need to have a good printer for it, and there's different paper for if you have a laser or an inkjet. Also, there are two different types of paper, clear and white. Most printers don't print in white, so if you have something white, you need white paper. Of course, then it's not transparent. Once it's printed, I let it dry. I have a laser, so I don't really think that's necessary, but I do it anyway...old habits.

Now, in terms of placing a waterslide decal on, just cut out the decal and put it into a glass of water. Not a big glass, since you'll need to take it out. It's been a while, so I don't remember how long I leave it in, but it's somewhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes. It says on my package of paper. You can see that the backing may start to come off inside the glass. That's fine. Anyway, take out the decal, remove the backing and place it on the figure. I've had mine crumple a bit, but I find if it's still wet, I can flatten it, though sometimes some of the ink comes off. It takes a bit of work. You just need to be very careful. If you've used waterslide decals (I don't know what type Dean used to sell), then it'll be the same. I sometimes use a towel to dry it out a bit once it's on. I usually leave it for a day before sealing it. Colour similarities are the main thing to worry about, which is why it is probably easier to have a transparent background, especially for a tattoo.

If you use a peel and stick decal, it's just a sticker. If you've never used stickers before...I feel sorry for your childhood. Printing it is the exact same process. Like I said, I tried both and am amazed someone actually got them to work. But like I said, I work on hockey figures, and their jerseys are a lot more creased than most of the wrestling attires, and I find the waterslide sticks to the figure a lot better. I also assume inkjet decals are the same and may even be nicer quality, since inkjets apparently print nicer quality, but I wouldn't know for sure.

One thing to note is how good your printer is. The higher dpi gives you a better quality. 300 dpi I find is far too small. I don't know what my printer prints at, and for a shoulder patch, it's a little hard to tell what it says, but I can see a major difference between printing at 300 dpi and 600 dpi. Even if I can't fully read the 600 dpi version, I can see way more detail than the 300 dpi version. I always test on regular paper to see what it's like. I've included a picture of my decals I used for one of my hockey figures. You can see that the image isn't one smooth colour, as my printer prints like that. It's not as noticeable in person, even if you're close, but you can tell it is there. You can see what I mean not being able to read the patch on the top left of the pic (his right). But at 300 dpi, it would be blurred.

Hope that helps. Feel free to ask anything I totally didn't do a good job explaining. I'm a teacher, so I should be able to explain, yet it seems the only thing I can explain is math.

Uploaded at ImageFra.me

No problem. Just make sure you get the proper type for your printer (inkjet/laser). I bought mine off of ebay. They weren't cheap, but that also is partly due to shipping from the US to Canada. Patience is key. I like to use my test page of decals printed on regular paper to see how it'll look. So I'll cut them out and try to place them on my figure, so I get an idea of where the creases are. Still doesn't always work out when I do the real one and I have to redo it, but it happens.

He ignored many people here, your not the first. Anyhow I think he was banned after the tantrum he threw when he cut up 1979s work out of sheer jealousy

Alicia Fox so far

My first time was a little difficult. Obviously I had to mix it well, and all that. But I watched a lot tutorials. I practiced the sculpting on my hand, and it looked pretty good, so I dove right in. It was alright. Next time it got easier, and so on. Time, effort and patience required here my friend.

Testors white. Got it. Going to check hobby lobby today.

The last time I bought paper I went with clear. Guess that's part of the problem.

Thanks!