You want to make sure that you will be able to easily paint every visible part of the figure. Decide what you are going to need to disassemble to be able to paint the figure.Open the figure and clean it with a mild soap and water.Amazon and eBay both have huge selections. 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. A good place to look at pictures of all the figures is on the McFarlane site. Decide which McFarlane figure that you want to paint.Google Images and eBay searches are great ways to find pictures, as are old magazines, sports cards, and posters. Decide who you want to make and find as many photos of them as you can.Scissors, masking tape, crazy glue, brush cleaner, Xacto knife, sand paper, clay, and anything else you think you may need ($40).Decal paper ($1 per sheet, usually sold in quantities of at least 20).

Testors Gloss Clear Acryli and Flat Clear Acrylic ($6 each).Microscale decal solutions: Micro Sol, Micro Set, and Liquid Decal Film ($10.).When I first get home I squirt a dime-size of each onto a piece of paper and see which one dries closest to the true color. I usually buy a few different variations. To match these colors I usually take something with team colors on it (card, hat, photo, etc) to the paint store with me and try to match it right there. acrylic paints for colors used more frequently, such as jersey colors ($1 ea). This is great for colors that you just need a little of ($15). Acrylic craft paint value pack (usually contain around 32 1/6 oz.Get one or two as small as 10/0 and 5/0 for details as well as some wider brushes for larger areas ($10). Most can be found with a quick Amazon search. You can also get a lot of this stuff online. The best place to get most of this stuff is at an art store like Michael’s. In parenthesis I put approximate prices so you get an idea about the costs associated with making a custom. The good news is that once you get these things you probably won’t need to replace most of them for a while. Making a custom for the first time is not cheap.

Custom mcfarlane decal templates