Slitherine

Hi All,

I've been playing around with the Little Big Men transfers, and had some problems.

The plastic 'cover sheet' seems very difficult to remove when you've cut the transfer down. I think the scissors create a squeeze point which makes the cover sheet stick harder to the transfer surface than it would normally.

Has anyone else found this problem?

I've discovered a way of remedying this. What I do is lift the plastic sheet off the transfer when it's still on the main sheet, and score the back with an craft knife. This creates a tiny tent. Then when I cut the transfer closer the cover sheet is more easily able to be lifted off.

Just thought I'd share, because when doing a bunch of hoplites it can be rather tedious

Yeah there's a real art to using them. ;->)

I find sliding a scalpel gently under one edge of the cut out transfer usually works fine.

ravenflight wrote:
just thought I'd share, because when doing a bunch of hoplites it can be rather tedious

Surely you don't need to do any for Spartan shields......would have thought you still had a good collection from that game way back when you slaughtered my boys

geoff wrote:

ravenflight wrote:
just thought I'd share, because when doing a bunch of hoplites it can be rather tedious

Surely you don't need to do any for Spartan shields......would have thought you still had a good collection from that game way back when you slaughtered my boys

LOL yeah, that's true, but they're decorating the inside of Agathokles' dunny.

Seriously tho, don't use transfers for Spartiates or Theban Sacred Band. They are too easy to by hand (besides finding them lying around littering the battlefield).

Can only hope your Phalangites do equally well when you sniff my glove

I find that the transfers of Veni, Vidi, Vici do a better job for Thebans and Spartiates (and much cheaper). In the other hand, by hand it is complicated for my hands to do lambdas that resemble to an actual one

ravenflight wrote:Seriously tho, don't use transfers for Spartiates or Theban Sacred Band. They are too easy to by hand (besides finding them lying around littering the battlefield).

I have done them by hand but the LBS ones are noticeably better looking. It seems like a waste, but they are just fabulous.

Strategos69 wrote:I find that the transfers of Veni, Vidi, Vici do a better job for Thebans and Spartiates (and much cheaper). In the other hand, by hand it is complicated for my hands to do lambdas that resemble to an actual one

I paint the shield a light colour then use a felt tipped pen.

Trouble with transfers for spartiates and Sacred Band is that they end up too uniform. The soldiers would have painted them in the field and would not have been a perfect standard.

ravenflight wrote:

Strategos69 wrote:I find that the transfers of Veni, Vidi, Vici do a better job for Thebans and Spartiates (and much cheaper). In the other hand, by hand it is complicated for my hands to do lambdas that resemble to an actual one

I paint the shield a light colour then use a felt tipped pen.

Trouble with transfers for spartiates and Sacred Band is that they end up too uniform. The soldiers would have painted them in the field and would not have been a perfect standard.

i agree that your approach is more accurate, but after the third shield I am sure I would give up. Hand painting is not my best skill. I will keep in mind what you said and maybe use more than one provider for the transfers to have variability

For an even cheaper answer to Spartan Shields buy letraset letters that come in Black/Gold and white and use the "V" upside down.

If you use Veni Vidi Vici transfers you get 3 free 'V's per sheet of transfers (as the company name is on the transfer).

elysiumsolutions@fsmail.n wrote:If you use Veni Vidi Vici transfers you get 3 free 'V's per sheet of transfers (as the company name is on the transfer).

I have used them that way!

Strategos69 wrote:

ravenflight wrote:

Strategos69 wrote:I find that the transfers of Veni, Vidi, Vici do a better job for Thebans and Spartiates (and much cheaper). In the other hand, by hand it is complicated for my hands to do lambdas that resemble to an actual one

I paint the shield a light colour then use a felt tipped pen.

Trouble with transfers for spartiates and Sacred Band is that they end up too uniform. The soldiers would have painted them in the field and would not have been a perfect standard.

i agree that your approach is more accurate, but after the third shield I am sure I would give up. Hand painting is not my best skill. I will keep in mind what you said and maybe use more than one provider for the transfers to have variability

Whether my skill at painting shields is up to it or not, it's something I really enjoy doing.

I think that the bigger shields for the 25/28mm figs can be quite a pain but I use a sharp scalpel as well and it is usually okay - the smaller ones for 15mm seem to work just fine

I paint the shields white. Then cut out the shield transfer with a knife. Apply it to the very-very dried shield and then I use the hard end of a paint brush to rub over the plastic top of the transfer. The plastic will peal back ... all done.

Then glue the shield onto the model and touch up edges of shield etc. Great looking shields can mean everything to the appearance of an ancient army. These transfers are well worth the effort and cost. Not all of us are artists and transfers even the artistic playing field.

Mike B