Slitherine

The subject heading says it all. My medieval French are done or as close to done before I dullcoat them. Well, the knights' shields are a very pretty blue but they're missing the fleur de lys modern look.

So. Any thoughts/tips/advice/lamentations on how to paint the fleur de lys in 15mm? For the record, I am an average, table standard painter. I paint my minis so they look good on the table and little else.

Any help would be much obliged!

Rattle

Fleur de Lis aren't easy at first, and I'm not a graphic artist so I'm not very consistent with calligraphic illustrations. That said, there's a fairly simple way to paint them that should be satisfactory. Full disclosure: I've only done a few knights with these, but they worked out OK.

For basic form, see this illustration http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleur-de-lis

A version with simpler side leaves is here http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Fleur-De- ... 93494_.htm

Imagine it as basically three forms: a straight up and down line, and two side curved lines. These are joined by a small horizontal bar. The tricky part is to thicken the lines near the top like leaves--there are two ways to do this:

First, and to me more difficult but taking less time overall, is to practice stroking the brush from top to bottom, increasing pressure to make the thicker part of the leaf, then trailing off. Once you have this down, adopt it to the curved sides.

The other way is to make a straight line down, and add thickness with two other brush strokes, one on each side of the line. I find this easier in the short run, but less consistent.

I recommend you practice quite a few of these (the single strokes, not the whole figure) on a piece of paper--perhaps 200 times--and you'll get the motor memory going. Do this several times, not all on the same day. I learned the classical Greek alphabet a few years ago, and wrote page after page of each letter, as I did learning my letters in primary school. At first it was frustrating, as an adult, to find my mind didn't command my muscles quickly. However after a few sessions I overcame my own resistance and got the forms down. A bit of zen goes a long way in painting.

In my case I've found that a lot of practice--while it may never make me a brilliant painter--can make up to some extent for mediocre native talent.

I use the three-brush-strokes approach too - top to bottom while increasing pressue on the way. If its a thin brush you hardly have to make a stroke at all. Simply laying the brush end on the surface creates a thickening line. The angle of the brush at impact (if that word can every be used for painting) determines how quickly the line will thicken.

Then a cross at the base and three short, thin stabs for the bottom leaves. i jsut practice on the figures till I am happy. Its easy to paint blue over mistakes and go again adn you get to know the curve of the figs as well which is different to a flat paper surface.

In no time you'll be turning out boy scout banners by the thousand.

Anthony

MarkSieber wrote:Fleur de Lis aren't easy at first, and I'm not a graphic artist so I'm not very consistent with calligraphic illustrations. That said, there's a fairly simple way to paint them that should be satisfactory. Full disclosure: I've only done a few knights with these, but they worked out OK.

For basic form, see this illustration http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleur-de-lis

A version with simpler side leaves is here http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Fleur-De- ... 93494_.htm

Imagine it as basically three forms: a straight up and down line, and two side curved lines. These are joined by a small horizontal bar. The tricky part is to thicken the lines near the top like leaves--there are two ways to do this:

First, and to me more difficult but taking less time overall, is to practice stroking the brush from top to bottom, increasing pressure to make the thicker part of the leaf, then trailing off. Once you have this down, adopt it to the curved sides.

The other way is to make a straight line down, and add thickness with two other brush strokes, one on each side of the line. I find this easier in the short run, but less consistent.

I recommend you practice quite a few of these (the single strokes, not the whole figure) on a piece of paper--perhaps 200 times--and you'll get the motor memory going. Do this several times, not all on the same day. I learned the classical Greek alphabet a few years ago, and wrote page after page of each letter, as I did learning my letters in primary school. At first it was frustrating, as an adult, to find my mind didn't command my muscles quickly. However after a few sessions I overcame my own resistance and got the forms down. A bit of zen goes a long way in painting.

In my case I've found that a lot of practice--while it may never make me a brilliant painter--can make up to some extent for mediocre native talent.

Alright, thanks guys. I'm very apprehensive about this one. My knights are commanders are the only units that need this at the moment and I'm jealous of their already dullcoated and flocked infantry.

I'll give it some practice and time. The fact that it's really only 3 strokes (plus the cross) does make it sound a bit easier to master.

Thanks!

Rattleshirt wrote:Alright, thanks guys. I'm very apprehensive about this one. My knights are commanders are the only units that need this at the moment and I'm jealous of their already dullcoated and flocked infantry.

I'll give it some practice and time. The fact that it's really only 3 strokes (plus the cross) does make it sound a bit easier to master.

Thanks!

There occur to me two alternatives to free-handing each figure. Perhaps neither is practical, but those two are Stamp and Stencil.

You can make/cut a very serviceable stamp out of raw potato, it just has a short shelf life. Practice will be key here, and the concave-curved face needed to stamp a shield may render this impractical for you.

Stencil would perhaps be more problematic, requiring a lot of care to load the paintbrush just enough to get smooth coverage, and not enough to get those edges that scream "STENCIL!!!". Or, you might just make a stencil and use it to draw an outline of the FDL on your shield in x-fine-point pen or pencil, then fill in the outline free-hand.

But either, if implemented correctly, should yield more consistent results than free-handing.

Or here's another idea.

Clickie

That's a sheet of 28mm HYW banners, one of which has 3 FDL on it. Maybe you could cut those before you wet the transfer, and use one for each 15mm figure? Looks like you'd get 6 FDL per sheet, and I think you get two sheets for your 10 quid.

The blue background is the thing that worries me about this option, but perhaps you could make that work.

Anyhow, just throwing out ideas

Or avoiding the 'painting' altogether.

You can make your own transfers. Crafty Computer Papers sell decal sheets for laser and for ink-jet printers.

http://www.craftycomputerpaper.co.uk/Pr ... alogue=151

First, create the sheet with the computer drawing package of your choice and print it out. I suggest you print a test first, before using the proper paper (they are $1 to $1.50 a sheet). You have to spray the sheet with acryllic varnish (which they also sell) to seal it, then cut out the bit[s] you need and soak in water for 1 minute before teasing the decale into place.

Here is the tail fin of the Flying Elvis Army's DC-3. The logo was 'borrowed' from the Flying Elvii website

Hey, bud. The reason the img tags didn't work is because it's looking for a graphics file type extension, like .JPG or something. At that, it refuses to accept all types of graphics files; some file formats get rejected just like yours did.

What I'd do is make that a link instead.

Nice photos, but....

Is it just me, or is the paintjob on that white Gooney Bird with the red trim, uhhhh, uhhhh, ahhh, somewhat less than impressive?

Oh, and those decal-making sheets are awesome, but only available in A4, which is going to be a potential problem in the US, where almost everything is set up exclusively for 8.5x11 and 8.5x14 (our equivalent of A5).

Sure the feed trays on many printers can be adjusted, but there are other issues.

Thanks for all the thoughts guys. In the end, I just ended up free-handing them on the shields and such. Some came out quite nicely, others need a bit of touch up. But all in all, I painted them, they're my work, I'm proud of it.

Again, thanks for the advice. And no, I haven't taken any pictures, but I probably will next time I get a game in.