Unit Designation Sticker Packs for American Mecha minis. Sticker sheets are crafted to coincide with Force Pack releases and provide a full set of Nameplate Stickers, Hazard stickers, and Unit Designation Stickers for box set releases.
Hi, I'm Jesse, known as JC Craftmage on YouTube. I’ve been a lifelong fan of big robots and fantasy tabletop RPGs, with a passion for crafting and painting miniatures. Over the years, this passion has evolved from a beloved hobby into a pursuit that’s shaped who I am today. Painting miniatures has even led me to take on commissions, continually refining my skills and contributing to the communities I cherish.
Now, I’m launching Bob’s Decal Depot, a sticker printing company inspired by my passion for BattleTech. My goal is to create high-quality decals to enhance your miniatures and make it easier to customize them with precision—something many of us painters struggle with, myself included. Fine lines, like unit names or hazard stripes on bases, are a common challenge for most painters and often ending in frustration. Bob’s Decal Depot will offer a solution, providing decals that add flair and in-game functionality, like marking front-facing edges for easy play.
By supporting this project, you'll get stickers at a discounted price and help me acquire the home-operated printing equipment I need, allowing me to work from home and be present for my young children during these crucial years.
Necessity is the mother of invention - I never really had that be real for me until recent days. While on the Face book I would see other players and collectors touting their pain jobs on their most recent force pack. Perfectly blended colors, sharp panel lines, excellent basing. An artistic wonder.
Theeen there they were; wobbly lined hazard stipes on the front of the base and the name of the unit likewise scribbled with a fine tipped marker all around the base.
It pained me...
This is mine. I actually painted this and those are MY shite looking lines on that base.
I did see solutions to this issue online take various forms. But never that addresses both in one place, or with one product for that matter.
The wheels, with much trepidation began to turn and I started to think...
"If I think this is crap then surely someone else does too, right?" "If I didn't feel like spending a really long time honing my skills so that I could legibly wright the word 'Cataphract' legibly with a paint marker in a 4 millimeter space, then the fictitious guy from the previous question likely doesn't either..."
How can I make money from this.....
If only there were more space to put stuff..... *Looks underneath mini* "Oh dang, theres a ton of room down here! Alright what can we do with that?" And thus the third addition to what would be a three part product was brainstormed. Inspired by some ad hock homemade solutions I saw others doing I designed a precisely sized sticker on the bottom that could server as a place to identify your unit.
Fast forward and after learning much design work and design programs we have our final product:
A sticker sheet with a multitude of solutions on it.
Hazard Stripe stickers: Simple hazard stripes to place on the front of your mini. Though not necessary, it is helpful to know for certain you unit's facing for actual in game mechanics. Now featuring a tab for easy peeling and placement of the sticker. This tab can then fold under the mini's base out of sight OR place the tab first underneath and use the included guidelines to fold the sticker out ensuring perfect alignment every time.
Hazard stripe prototype
Nameplate Stickers: These are the exact same dimensions of the hazard stickers and could be placed on the back of the mini with the associated units name, or placed on the front as an alternative option to the hazard stripes. The also have the tab included on them for easy placement.
Nameplate prototype
Unit Identification Stickers: These hexagon shaped sticker actually quite versatile! Precisely cut to fit under normal BT bases, They state the name of the unit as well as its variant. Additionally there is yellow space beneath it all to write in any additional information such as battle values, owner initials, factions, unit nicknames, etc..( autographs of your favorite authors?) of This is why there is more than one included with each sheet; one to coincide with each variant provided on the AS cards in force packs.
Unit Identification Sticker prototype
One sheet, Three products. Use them all, or pick and choose stickers to your liking and needs.
"So why a sticker sheet?"
I'm so glad you asked....
So the question became the best means of distribution. I thought why not make specific sheets to coincide with various box sets or force packs? My reasoning being that as collectors we tend to buy many of these minis at a time, and thusly typically have a design plan for them. If a collector buys X, Y, and Z boxes, they could get our sticker sheets made to coincide with with those and have exactly what they need.
This solution seemed better than a 'shotgun' solution where we make huge sheets with a ton of stickers on them in an attempt to cover all needs. Additionally it seemed easier than offering individual stickers which would likely be a logistical nightmare.
A pile of Different Clan sheets
We have lots planned for the future and if this campaign goes well we can get that ball rolling right away. There are many more force packs to support as well as box sets and single minis, we can get a jump on them right here! Once the following financial goals are met the associate bonuses become available for free!
$3500 -
1x Inner Sphere Heavy Lance sticker sheet
$4000-
1x Clan Support Star sticker sheet
$4500 -
1x Inner Sphere Striker Lance sticker sheet
$5000 -
1x Clan Heavy Battle Star sticker sheet
Plus, PLUS! We have the opportunity to get the "The Price of Silence" short story narrated by Tren Sparks, voice actor and audiobook narrator of Battletech fame!
Le Tren...
$5500 A giant pack of additional Hazard Stripes for all your current minis but in different colors. We will let you guys decide what color to pick via a poll!
$6000 +
This list will continue with every $500 we will continue to offer one additional sheet! if we make here the rewards are going to start popping off!
Battletech as a fandom, is quite possibly one of the largest universes one could indulge themselves in. With lightyears of geography and enough lore that it could comfortably rest its feet on the back of Lord of the Rings in scale. In battletech there are no aliens; man is indeed monster enough. Thus it is easy to carve out a place to add your own fiction to this universe without disrupting the greater story beats. Whether its a character, your own mercenary company, or something else...there is room enough for everyone.
Yet here we find Bob...
Bob, is no man. Bob, is a planet.
A planet actually present in the Battletech universe. It exists on the periphery of known space hundreds of lightyears from what we know to be Earth. Not that this alone makes it interesting. So what does make it interesting?
(Hang on to you prosthetics, were going to go deep on some real nerd crap here...)
Per the brief article in the Battletech wiki....
"Originally named Dunklewälderdunklerflüssenschattenwelt, the system was depopulated during the First Succession War due to an unfortunate combination of bureaucracy and the widespread effects of the war. The awkward name originally given to the planet led to the government setting a name change in motion from the planet's original name to "Bob" (as voted by the people, BTW), but due to the chaos of the First Succession War, the change failed to gain wide recognition (due to, basically, some clerk's poor understanding of German) and essential supplies of terraforming equipment failed to arrive as a result, dooming the colonies on the planet."
That's right, Dunklewälderdunklerflüssenschattenwelt. The name roughly translates to "shadow world of dark woods and darker rivers" to what can technically be approximated to German. While brainstorming the company name I latched onto that like kid latching onto a half-starved, three-legged puppy. The place was just so sad and pitiful, you just cant help but love it. But it doesn't stop there.... In the very minimal (and obscure) lore of 'Bob', it turns out it is technically habitable being similar to the California Redwood Forests but with the 'Spooky Woods' dial turned up to 11. Additionally it is laughably inhospitable to most life so that normal people can barely survive there (also like California). As it turns out, on Bob mankind is on the lower third of the food chain.
A dark and forgotten world, where plants and animals dominate under the sky scraping forest canopies. Where technology is sparse and outside communication has been non-existent for decades, if not centuries. Where just getting by means making ends meat without being plucked up by some terrible nightmare bat or slowly digested by the, quite frankly, rude plant life. What better place, I ask, is there to set up a fictitious novelty sticker producer within the universe I so hold dear? What better place indeed....
Bonus Add-on: "The Price of Silence" by Chad Nabors
"The Price of Silence", is a 20-page 'short' story hand written for THIS CROWDFUNDING PROJECT that rivals other in universe stories. Here's a synopsis by the the author, Chad Nabors...
"On the planet Bob, where every living thing wants to kill you, Walter must pilot an ancient logging mech called the Förster on a desperate mission beyond the safety of remote Ekesburg. A nearby village lies under attack from nightmarish, bat-like horrors called nachtzehrers that eat both the living and the dead. Their only defense, a mysterious automated gun that kept the beasts at bay, has fallen silent. Now Walter must traverse deadly wilderness and a cylopian forest to reach the fort where the weapon lies dormant, knowing that every mile takes him further from his family and into ever-greater danger. Without the gun working, more will die but in the primordial darkness beyond the Nighted Woods, the nachtzehrers are the least of what hunts - and even the steel hull of the Förster may not be enough protection."
Personally, I was shocked at how much Chad was able to put into this 20 page wonder. There is action, stress a lot of tugging at heart strings; as a father it really excelled at highlighting the importance of a mans work and duty to his family and his community even at the expense of his own well being.
That's not even to mention the great machine startup sequence. Classic!
I think that like me you will be invested into it by the end. So much so you will want to pick up....
*Early render*
Now you can have for yourself an stl pack of the "Skyswatter" point defense turret, the mascot of Bob's Decal Depot, as seen in "The Price of Silence" short story mentioned above. Coming in four parts, the turret is articulated, meaning after printing and assembly, it can twist as well as point up and down while still serving as a functional mini!
Obviously as a totally above board, definitely not a front to a [REDACTED] organization, we here at Bob's are stiving to provide THE BEST product in the timeliest of manner. That's right, when you shop with us you wont have to expect 'horse drawn carriage' shipping speeds. No, we aim to get what you order to you sometime BEFORE you forget that you even ordered it.
Don't worry about it!
That said there are SOME risks. They are as follows....
1. IP Concerns There have been concerns about IP infringement based off of names and the like. We have taken time to discern what would and would not be cause for any sort of legal action from any IP holder. As this is a product intended to simply supplement other products and in no way claims to be affiliated or endorsed with any other company we don't anticipate this will hold up production.
2. Printing As this is our first product launch we are outsourcing all of our printing to a domestic high production printing service. Just about everyone can provide quality prints but few seem to be able or willing to offer stickers cut to our precise and small specs. We have one print provider lined up with a tentative back up that can provide both these services just in case.
