Droids Customs - A 43-step assembly guide

by Bill Cable
on 2014-06-18, 09:00:21

I've been preparing for this moment for months. Hours on the computer in Photoshop. Materials acquisition. Printing. And now I'm finally ready to put a couple of these together. To celebrate, CreatureCantina.com is thrilled to share our handy little 43-step guide to assembling a custom Droids-style MOC figure. Credit goes to my daughter Julia for taking all the photos.

1. First - our materials. You'll see custom bubbles; comic book backers; resin coins; color laser printer fronts and backs on high-gloss, acid-free paper; razor; steel ruler; cutting board; double-sided archival tape; glue stick; and 10 loose Vintage Zuckuss figures with weapons.
2. Cover one side of a comic book backer evenly with the glue stick, being sure to smooth out any lumps.
3. Place the printed back of the card onto the backer.
4. Make sure the printed back is centered correctly (I actually came right to the edge of the cardboard on one corner here - just barely avoiding catastrophe).
5. Press down on the card back with your fist, sliding it back and forth to ensure a smooth surface.
6. Admire your awesome work.
7. Now, I've set up the back of the card so it's perfect 6" x 9" - no overprint. This allows me to cut exactly at the edges at this step. So line up a ruler exactly along one edge.
8. Using a razor that's razor sharp, cut off one side of the back along the ruler.
9. See that? Perfect cut.
10. Next line up another side and cut.
11. Discard the removed paper and cardboard.
12. Continue cutting off the excess.
13. After cutting off four sides, you'll have a 6" x 9" rectangle that looks AWESOME.
14. Admire your amazing work.
15. Flip the cardback over. Here I've placed it on a piece of sketch paper, as we'll be applying glue from edge to edge and we don't want any mess on the cutting board or table, and we want to keep glue from getting on the back of the card.
16. Apply the glue stick evenly over the whole front of the card. Make sure to hit all the edges.
17. Now this is THE MOST DIFFICULT STEP! My card fronts have about 10 pixels of overprint one all sides, so you need to be ridiculously careful when you do this. First, trim all the sides off the printed front. Now line up the printed front with the cardboard, and set it down carefully. If you're off by even a smidge you're doomed. So don't mess up!
18. Inspect the printed front to ensure it's lined up. If not, toss in the trash and go back to step 2. I hope you printed extras!
19. Press down on the cardback with your fist again.
20. Now, I didn't take photos of this step, but the next thing I did was flip the card and trim off the overprint with the ruler and razor. Again it's crucial that your razor be super sharp for this step, otherwise the thin ribbon of paper you're removing will tear and ruin the front. When you finish you'll have your square-cornered "proof card".
21. Next, prepare the bubble. For Droids cards I end up having to modify the custom bubbles I normally use. They're for POTF customs, which have an offset coin. With Droids MOCs, the coins are centered above the figure. So I have to cut off the coin area and center it.
22. Make sure you cut parallel to the top edge of the bubble. If you go even a little crooked, you ruin it. I speak from all-too-recent experience.
23. Next I trim the sides of the coin are of the bubble so they're symmetrical.
24. Using a bit of scotch tape, I secure the resin coin inside the bubble. This keeps the coin from rotating after the MOC is assembled.
25. Now that that's done, we can prep the rest of the bubble.
26. Tape the rifle to the side of the bubble. I prefer the "inside" side of the bubble. I don't own any Vintage MOC Droids except 3PO, and he doesn't have a weapon, so I don't know if that's correct or not with the rest of the line. I probably should have checked about 4 MOC customs ago...
27. Line up the coin piece of the bubble with the coin area on the printed card. I like to do that now so I have an easy guide for lining up the rest of the bubble in a few steps.
28. Measure a length of double-sided tape to affix to one side of the bubble. I try to be precise here as this tape is fairly expensive and I don't want to waste it.
29. Affix tape to one side.
30. Repeat for the other side.
31. Peel away the backing from the tape to expose the bottom edge.
32. Affix tape along that bottom edge. I overlap the corners as it looks way better.
33. Repeat along the top edge.
34. Trim away any tape that extends past the edges of the bubble.
35. Place Zuckuss in the colored area of the printed card, and remove any backing from the bubble.
36. Line up the bubble under the coin, making sure it lines up parallel with the right side of the card and touches the bottom edge of the coin.
37. Press down firmly along all sides of the bubble, ensuring an even, secure seal.
38. Apply double-sided tape along the sides of the coin portion of the bubble. Some overlap will be required (stupid circles).
39. Trim away any excess tape around the bubble.
40. Line up the coin above the bubble, place it on the card, and press down firmly.
41. The last thing we need? Round corners. And I have a handy little tool for that...
42. As the card backs have corners printed onto them, it's a simple task to clip away the excess for a very professional finish.
43. And finally, admire your spectacular work!

And that's all there is to it! Follow these simple 43 steps, spend about a decade becoming an expert a Photoshop, another 15 years honing your pen and ink drawing skills, and you can make your own awesome Droids-style custom carded figures!