CLM Designs

Materials: Thanks to Sports Lizard (short cuts are in bold type)

• Brushes - get one or two as small as 10/0 and 5/0 for details as well as some wider brushes for larger areas ($10)
• Acrylic craft paint value pack (usually contain around 32 1/6 oz. colors). This is great for colors that you just need a little of ($15)
• 2 oz. acrylic paints for colors used more frequently ($1 ea). Check out our Custom Paint Guide to see what colors work best for what teams
• Testors Primer ($4)
• Microscale decal solutions: Micro Sol, Micro Set, and Liquid Decal Film ($10)
• Testors Gloss Clear Acrylic and Flat Clear Acrylic ($8)
• Decal paper ($1 per sheet, usually sold in quantities of at least 20)
• Scissors, masking tape, crazy glue, brush cleaner, Xacto knife, sand paper, clay, and anything else you think you may need ($40)
• Figure ($10 and up)

Directions: Thanks to Sports Lizard (short cuts are in bold type)

• Decide who you want to make and find as many photos of them as you can. Google and eBay searches are great ways to find pictures, as well as old magazines, sports cards, and posters.
• Decide which McFarlane figure that you want to paint. A good place to look at pictures of all the figures is on the McFarlane site. Try to match special features like the style of helmet they wear, wrist bands, shoe styles, and anything else that might cause you excess work to add or remove.
• Purchase the figure (start with SportsLizard's search to help you find the best deal).
• Open the figure and clean it with a mild soap and water.
• Decide what you are going to need to disassemble to be able to paint the figure. This varies from figure to figure. You want to make sure that you will be able to easily paint every visible part of the figure. Sometimes this requires a lot of disassembly (head, helmet, facemask, hands, etc on a football figure) and sometimes there is no disassembly at all (a basketball figure).
• Soak the figure in very hot water to soften the rubber. This will enable you to take off any parts that you need to. An Xacto knife can also come in handy here to assist in the removal of parts.
• Prime the figure with a few thin coats of white or gray primer. Remember to mask off any parts that you aren't going to paint over.
• Paint the figure from light to dark, leaving a white patch in any area that will need a decal. You usually need to do about three coats of paint to get it to look good. If you need more, do more. A lot of it depends on the color of your primer and the color you are painting.
• Find numbers and logos for decals. The best place to locate numbers to work with is the 'Logos and More' section on Jomo's Customs. They have templates for all NFL teams and many teams from other sports. If they have the team you are looking for then you are all set. If not, look on LogoServer to find your teams logo and use Jomo's to find a team with similar letter/number font to the team you are looking for. You can also check our decal exchange to see if someone has posted decals for the person you are looking for. If you're particularly adept at photo editing software, you can download NFL Fonts, NBA Fonts, MLB Fonts, and NHL Fonts and make the decals from scratch yourself (fonts courtesy of Eriq Jaffe).
• Create decals. Use a photo editing software like Adobe Photoshop to size the images and change colors if necessary. Be sure to print once in black and white on regular paper to make sure they are the proper size before using the decal paper.
• Coat the decals with Liquid Decal Film. Make sure to do two or three coats to ensure that the colors won't run when the decal gets wet.
• Cut the decals out, leaving as little room as possible around the image.
• Apply the decals. Coat the area on the figure with Micro Set before applying. Wet the back of the decal paper (either with a brush or by dipping in water) and slide the decal into place. Coat the decal with Micro Sol to soften it and carefully push the decal into any folds or irregular surfaces.
• Paint around the decals to blend them in.
• Put the figure back together. Use an Xacto knife to trim the joints to help them fit together better. Use the crazy glue when necessary.
• Add dirt or grass stains to your figure if you want. The best method is to brush it with "dry paint." This can be done by letting paint dry on your brush and then brushing the dry paint on to the figure. Make sure to use an old brush when doing this.
• Apply a few light coats of the Flat Clear Acrylic to all surfaces except decals and helmets.
• Apply the Gloss Clear Acrylic to the decals and helmets. You can spray this on with a spray bottle or gently brush it on.
• Make a stand. You can modify the original stand, mount it on a piece of wood (drill holes the same size as the pegs on the figures), or create your own stand. Some people also like to make custom packaging for their figures.
• ENJOY! Feel free to email me photos of your figure to display in my Custom Gallery

I would like to thank Adam Mcfarlane and his great web site for all the help and advise.

Customizing:

After reading about how to alter other parts of the figures using tissue and glue, then trying it myself, I came to the conclusion that there must be a better way.

Here it is.

• Purchase some Pro Create and or Magic-Sculpt. http://www.michtoy.com/MTSCnewSite/supplies_folder/Sculpting/sculpting.html
• Pro Create allows for easy customization of work life and hardness/ flexibility by varying the temperature and the mix ratio of the Base and Hardener. The Standard mix ratio of 1:1 at a temperature of 75° F (24° C) allows a work life of about 120 minutes. A temp. difference of 20° F (11° C) plus or minus will double or half, the work life. A 40 resin/60 hardener mixture makes a softer, more flexible putty good for organic shapes while a 60 resin/40 hardener mix makes a hard, rigid putty good for machines and hard edges. Also thin sections cure more slowly, conversely thicker sections cure faster.
  • No shrinkage • Very easy to smooth • Holds extremely fine detail
  • Mixed color of grey allowing fine detail work to be observed more easily with less eye strain
  • From the inventors of Kneadatite
• Magic Sculpt is a two-part epoxy putty specifically designed to meet the needs of modelers, crafters and sculptors alike. Its grain structure is finer than any other product available and will not shrink or crack even when formed in large structures.  It can be shaped by hand or with modeling tools, sanded, carved, painted; you can attack it with a grinding tool and the cured material will not break apart or loose its shape. Magic Sculp will cure at room temperature.
• The stuff is magic, works like clay and hardens over night. The product can be painted or sanded. View my on the table page to see the process. http://www.freewebs.com/clmdesigns/onthetable.htm