Authentic Custom Capes & Flags

[Fry_slayer]

Like most of you guys here i grew up playing classic Lego castles with Black Falcon as my main faction. Naturally by the time Lego introduced those wonderful big cloth flags and capes, starting with the black knights,
they were viewed with envious eyes asking,

"Now where are my faction's flags and capes?"

Tough luck they were out of production then and thus was not eligible for the wonderful accesories. Then ill-fated quest was taken to self produce custom flags but most results weren't on par with the bricks' quality and after numerous attempts the issue was buried in the sands of time -- until now.

Fate has it in a desperate attempt to avoid any major course involving cracking numbers i chose graphic design as my further study after high school. After seven years of working in which technology was evolving at neck breaking speed, one day suddenly i realise all the necessary components are here to make your own custom flags and capes which are justified in their quality with the bricks.

By taking advantage of latest accurate double sided printing laser technology with soft lamination i managed to produce my own batch of capes and flags with decent quality.
Made with art paper and soft lamination with special process, the result products are with a sort of matte finished plastic surface like tough material which are water resist, durable to play and with hard work, printed with digitally remastered (my working experience pays off) faction's emblem.

Results are posted on Brickshelf.
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=106122
Have a look and tell me what you think.

Special thanks to James from www.minifig.co.uk for directions and thoughts and the nice people behind this wonderful website which made this article here possible.

[TwoTonic Knight]

We will have to teach you about deep links so that the impatient amongst us aren't frustrated by the infamous "This folder is not yet public" message.

Looking forward to the flags and capes.

[Fry_slayer]

haha i myself can go with ease so it never occur to me, do teach please

[Blasterman]

I'm really liking these. You did a darn nice job on them.

By taking advantage of latest accurate double sided printing laser technology with soft lamination i managed to produce my own batch of capes and flags with decent quality.

Ok, I'm lost when it comes to what's available to print on...
much like wanting to find whatever cloth-like material Lego
uses for their capes,etc. Or at least something really close.

Any light you might be able to shed on this stuff would be
greatly appreciated by all.

[Fry_slayer]

To: Blasterman

My own attempt of using cloth as the material ended when i bumped into too much complications. As far as i know there are 2 types of cloth printing:

1) Silk screening
2) Heat transfer type

Silk screening involve producting a "screen film" of the intended printing artwork and sweep paint color through for each color use. However process involve is expensive and complicated as it is used in mass production. Small quantity production will require an manual expert of this dying art. Lego's own capes n flags are done by (what) looks to be this method but i dont know may be they have machines which prints directly on top. Simply put..not for lay man.

Heat transfer involve printing artwork on to a special paper which later iron on top on cloths which is more viable for small users.

Both method however are haunted by the cloth cutting issue :!: (gonna be horrible with lose thread here n there, beats me how Lego did it) and will be VERY difficult to do double sided print as preferred in flags.

My stuff are simply printed on 128gsm art paper with laser printer n "cold laminated" on both side.

Hope it helps

[jwcbigdog]

Long Live the Black Falcons!!!!

These are all very nice!! My favorite have to be the standard bearers, but the banners are great. They are ornate, but still have the old style simplicity to them. I was admiring your avatar in another one of your posts, and now I see where you got it. Keep your great results and tips coming.

[TwoTonic Knight]

Very nice. The trouble has always been that printing is only on one side unless you are very good at reinserting paper and having a tight setting for a reversed page, and you have a medium that can be printed on both side equally well. Cloaks are not as vital to have printing on both sides, but flags you either need to make a sandwich and glue them together or forego printing on both sides normally.

Deep links. Click into your folder, click on any of the photos, and then click again on the same photo. The last click should take you to a page where only the photo is displayed (no brickshelf folderol). For example:

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/Frysl ... anners.jpg

The above is the deeplink for the following:

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1029643

If you list the "deep link" we can access it directly and not have to wait on moderation. Some just list one or two deep links and the folder, some list them all. And some just say that's too much like work and make people wait.

[lil Jon]

Those are awesome, you've done a very good job.

How hard would it be to mass produce them?

[Lord Mikal]

These are awesome. Would you mind posting a folder full of the images and templates you used? I've got templates for flags and capes, but I'd really like to use your big standards, too. Also, could you pretty please show us the back of the pole the standards are on? I can't figure out you stuck 'em on there.

All in all, very clean, crisp stuff. I look forward to more in the future!

[JoshWedin]

That Wolfpack standard is awesome. You do very nice work.

Thanks,
Josh

[ottoatm]

Falcons?!?! HA! They were always gettin' slapped around by my Crusaders!

Um... ok, anyway, yea man - these are really really good. I should have gone for graphic arts. In either case, I think I'll just do the high-quality paper route, although I did see some directions for cloth capes here:

http://www.brikbattles.com/page.php?fil ... cloaks.htm

If any tries this to any degree of success, I'd love to see the results. (and some step-by-step "how-to pics" )

[LEGOFREAK]

that

is

AWESOME!!

wanna trade anything for it?

[James]

I was fortunate enough for Fry Slayer to send me examples of his work. Let me say the photos don't do them justice. Crisp clean lines, perfect colour match and a really professional finish. They sit amongst the classic sets and fit in perfectly
Great job.

[Blasterman]

Me thinks that Fry should try his hand at custom orders for people. Ohhhh yeah.

[dariofol]

it's posible buy this cape/flag?