Shield decals

[fsn]

Gentlemen of the Forum,

You know I've had a long slog with Stephen/Matilda, whilst dancing into forays amid the desert in 1920 and lots of WWII, so my question is about ancient Greek shields.

I've seen a couple of ads for shield decals and would like to hear of your experiences - any hints, tips or warnings? I've got away so far with geometric designs in the Medieval stuff, but I really want a Gorgon's head design for my Athenians.

Why the sudden interest? Whilst re-sorting my paint drawers I discovered a pot of Antique Bronze, and I remembered how one of my favourite colours from the Authenticolour range was antique bronze and conceived a sudden desire to paint some ancient Greeks.
 

[FierceKitty]

I glued on paper print outs at first, but then found a gorgon wasn't too hard to paint and draw. Remember that shield fronts were commonly painted; you don't have to work on bronze.

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

I suspect that Pendraken may sell some, and Baggage Train have some nice ones for late Romans certainly.

IanS

[Rougue]

Veni,Vedi, Veci have a real nice line of 10mm decals for greek shields and they look great and are not that expensive plus you can get them in a couple of color's. Hope this help's?
                   Rougue

[fsn]

Thanks, yes.

Do they come independent or do you have to cut them out?

[Rougue]

FSN; They come on a sheet but there independent of each other so you can cut around each shield emblem without fear of damaging the other's it work's great for me.
                                                                                                                            Rougue

[fsn]

Thank you. Sounds like the very job.

I'll give 'em a try.

Cheers.

[Orcs]

Using Shield transfers is very dangerous.
I did my Early Imperial Romans. 10 figures per base in 2 ranks of five.  The idea was to use decals on the front rank and paint a representation of the front rank on the back where the front rank would obscure my poor efforts............. when I had done the first few I realised that you could see more of the rear rank than expected and my poor representation as well.

Some 800+ decals later I had googly eyes, but I am a dab hand putting decals on.

[fsn]

I have some experience of decals on 1:600 a/c. There's a lot of wing to be a bit forgiving of my inexpert trimming. On a shield you don't really have that luxury. 

800+ ... yeah ... I hadn't thought that far ahead. 

[Orcs]

The other thing is the sneaky way that decals look soooo cheap.

Unsuspecting Wargamer Thinks :  "These decals look really cool and there are 40 to each sheet in 3 designs" that's only one sheet per pack of Pendraken figures.

This is true if they are irregulars. If you have regulars with the same colour shield like romans you find (assuming 3x 10 figures ala warmaster) :-

There are 5 rows of 8 decals .  16 decals of two types and 8 decals of a third in a single colour.

So you actually need 2 sheets of the same colour for each two packs of figures. Unless you buy four sheets of the same colour the single row get wasted.

The cavalry in units of 9 cannot use up the odd row in the middle so you end up using the two rows and wasting 7 of them.

You need to make sure the base shield colour will contrast with the transfer.  I did not think about this till after all figures were painted !!

End result is that you need half as many sheets as you thought you did and you will be left with enough spares to cover a full size centurion tank

YOUHAVE BEEN WARNED!!!

BUT  They look really niceI


Would I do it again .......ARE YOU MAD???    Of course I would I am a wargamer !!!

[Zippee]

I use plenty of VVV decals for my ancients and medieval (all 15mm I'm afraid - too many/late to change now)

They are fine and work a treat - I have no reason to believe the 10mm ones will be any less good. The celtic ones are a bu**er though, as they are two half decals one either side of the central spine, if the 10mm are similar they will generate a fair amount of cussing. I worked my way through 384 warband and 72 cavalry figures and frankly never want to have to decal another celtic shield, sadly the Iberians are similar and they keep tempting me. . .

Celts aside, the fiddliest stuff I've done is 1:600 aircraft and 1:300 armour although the tank names on 15mm shermans were pretty absurd. As long as you have patience and a process it's easy enough and the effect is good. For shields the comments above are right though, select the shield contrast background colour to match - preparation and planning is required!

[fsn]

I am enthused. 

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Keep misreading this thread title as 'Shed details!'

[FierceKitty]

Keep misreading this thread title as 'Shed details!'

So, to return to your army....did you paint this army in your shed?

[fsn]

Well, I've ordered some from Veni Vidi and Vici (three nice boys), but some of the Little Big Men offerings. These are 3x the price of the VVV sets, but in glorious colour.

Planning on using them for the first rank and let the rear-rank chaps have the slightly less bright shields.

What could go wrong?

(I've got a list of 13 things so far, starting with "not being able to cut them out properly")