(01-04-2017, 11:07 PM)Nigels Wrote: I wonder if it would be possible to achieve a similar but maybe more professional results by designing the graphics on a PC and creating some custom decals you could then apply to an appropriately re-sprayed base model?
You mean to tell me that's 'not' professional enough? This attempt will make you think again:
(Made by CarlRyan66 from a TrackMaster Belle, details are sloppy and hand-painted, dome is too tall, etc.) At least it looks like Ashima, though. There's a fellow Deviantart user named GBHTrain who makes some very impressive customs (even with TrackMaster Revolution), and he recently made his own Ashima using a modified JNR C12 (like several other versions):
For this one, he did draw the patterns digitally and printed them out, later applying them as decals (the face is her actual one from a promo):
(Perhaps I should've gathered screencaps of all the versions I knew of [even though there are countless] and showed them all together in this thread).