Best way to do symbols?

[DarkElf27]

I'm planning on putting the symbol for the Altansar craftworld (below) onto a flag carried by a Dire Avenger Exarch, with a flame backdrop. Well I've finished the flame backdrop, and I'm very happy with that, but it's also made me very paranoid about getting the symbol right.

What are your opinions on the best way to do symbols/logos? I can think of a few methods, any experience with any of them? Freehand, airbrush, stencil, and decal.


Altansar Symbol



Flag as-is
 

[Van Evok]

a friend of mine uses symbol cut out in a hard paper, and sprays paint with airbrush thru the symbol - this way it can be reused with consistent results on multiple models - worked perfectly well on entire company of ultramarines with their ubiquitous reversed omega logo  

[DarkElf27]

Van Evok

a friend of mine uses symbol cut out in a hard paper, and sprays paint with airbrush thru the symbol - this way it can be reused with consistent results on multiple models

I was thinking about that, I'm just worried about using it on an irregular (rippled flag) surface. I'll have to test it out on a couple different places before using it on the model. That, and actually make a good stencil... sweatdrop  

[Vikki Stardust]

Thinly paint on the outline with the colour you intend to use, then carefully bulk it out.  

[A.R.G.U.S Mykal]

Firstly, practice on some disused/old models or cardboard to get a feel for it and steady your hand.

Don't do big lines, do lots of little ones. Kinda like 3mm, then on the last 1mm of that, do another 3mm, then on the last 1mm of that, do another, and so forth.

Don't do it all in one go - layer it up like you would any other trim or decals.

Don't get annoyed.

Do know when to stop. Sometimes over-doing it is worse than doing it shitty in the first place. (That's the one thing I learnt from trying out NMM)  

[Asmusei -Faceless Hunter-]

Well, air brushes for such fine details tend to cost three to ten times a normal brush, but I think that, if you tweak it a bit, you can get the affects you're after. If you manage to attach an arm of some sort to the front of the gun, you could clip on a couple of shields with small holes to force the cone of paint to be narrowed twice. Then cut the symbol into Painter's Tape, so the symbol will flow with the shape of the flag. Once you spray, you can keep the cone of the higher points and allow a bit of backwash to get into the rest of the symbol. It should give you the desired shadowing effects.  

[DarkElf27]

Well in the end, I couldn't create a satisfactory stencil, so I decided to freehand it. I don't think it turned out too badly. Thanks to Caleidah for suggesting the color.

 

[Vikki Stardust]

I dont know if its supposed to be like that, but pity that the bottom of the symbol fades into the colours used for the flame.  

[DarkElf27]

Kaori Kapoigne

I dont know if its supposed to be like that, but pity that the bottom of the symbol fades into the colours used for the flame.

I kinda like how it does that, though. It's not really deliberate, ands it's a little brown/golder in person than that, and to have it emanating out of the flames looks a bit neat all on its own. whee