How To:  Paint a cool banner for your army

Before reading any further I ask you to consider that I'm no Golden Demon winner (yet) and I'm still blown away by the people who actually do things like bother to mix paint colors and can whip up an awesome looking unit of troops in like, an hour.  No, that ain't me.  I take forever to paint my minis and I use paint straight from the jar, but I like to think my stuff looks halfway decent and I'm never ashamed to put it on the table.

Having said that, I have been working on a banner for my Black Templars army and it's actually turning out halfway decent so I thought I'd share the process.  If it inspires anyone to create their own banner or if anything in it turns out to be useful, I'd love to hear back.   Leave comments on the  Feedback Page

Also bear in mind that the banner for an army is a highly symbolic thing, and every element in it should mean something.  Not only does that make painting the banner more fun, it gives you more of a sense that your army is an actual fighting force complete with its own fluff.

When painting something like a banner to represent an army the first thing you must do is to sketch out what it will look like.   You don't have to be much of an artist to do this, just make a simple pencil drawing to lay out the elements of the banner so you can get a picture in your head of what the final outcome will be like.  Maybe draw a few different ones and pick the one you like best.  I can't stress this enough, because what looks good in your head might not work too well on the banner, and proportions in the imagination have a funny habit of not being quite the same in the real world.  Most important, don't lock yourself in.  If you're in the process of actually painting your banner and you realize you want to change something, then change it!  

In this article, I'm painting the Fighting Company Standard for the XVI Crusade, Black Templars Chapter of the Imperial Space Marines.

[sketch image here]

The first step is to paint the background.  In the case of my banner, I wanted a sort of moonscape with a blue sky.  Now, I could have started off with a simple 50/50 pattern of blue on the upper half and grey on the lower half, but that would be pretty boring and not much of a challenge.  Instead, I decided to blend the colors to make it look a bit more lifelike.  It'll still be simple, but will look more interesting.  

(All of this was done using Citadel colors.)

I started at the top of the banner using Midnight Blue, then a band of Regal Blue, then Ultramarines Blue, ending at about the halfway point of the banner.  That was the guide.  Next, I put down some fresh Midnight Blue and blended it into some fresh Regal Blue, so the colors transitioned smoothly together.  

Then I did the same thing, blending the Regal Blue into the Ultramarines Blue so that by the halfway point of the banner, I was at straight Ultramarines Blue.  The idea here was to have the darkest blue at the top, fading into the lighter blue at the horizon.  

Once that was dry, I wanted a similar fading using grey, with the darkest color at the horizon fading to the lightest shade in the foreground at the bottom of the banner.  Similar to the top half, I started with Codex Grey, fading into Fortress Grey, with Space Wolves Grey at the bottom.

Now, here's where some of the more hardcore painters will diverge from me in opinion on the next step.  The banner I wanted contained several symbolic icons which, conveniently, appear on decal sheets from various Space Marine kits.  Some may think I am being lazy here, and hey, if you prefer to hand paint everything then more power to you, but I found that the decals available had exactly what I wanted and could be easily applied to the banner, so I went with it.  

At the top of the banner I planned to have a painted scroll bearing some cool sounding Latin words or a name or something so I left some space for that.  Then, I took the decal sheet from a Space Marine tank kit to get the Imperial Aquila.  Now, the one on that sheet was black, which would have contrasted very poorly against the dark blue background.  I could have placed that decal at the bottom of the banner but I wanted the Aquila to be at the top, symbolically representing the Emperor as the highest authority to the Black Templars.  Fortunately, there was another solution.

Also on that decal sheet is a white Aquila that's split into two halves with lighting coming out of the sides.  It would contrast beautifully with the background, so I chose that one for my banner.  I trimmed off the lightning bolts and applied the decal about a quarter of an inch from the top of the banner.

Below the Aquila I decided to put the Maltese Cross that is the icon of the Templars, it being the next highest authority to marines of the Black Templars.  This decal also was on the vehicle decal sheet. 

 This isn't how I had initially planned my banner, but remember what I said about flexibility?  There was a problem, however.  My grey horizon wasn't even and fell downward on the right side.  I took the Codex Grey and made it even, since the cross decal was going to rest across the horizon line so a flaw like that would have been very noticeable.  I put the cross right below the Aquila, elevated from the horizon and level.

Also on the vehicle decal sheet are a set of Roman Numerals, so I used the white ones to create the Roman Numeral XVI under the cross.  

Last, I wanted to symbolize some of the history of the XVI Crusade so I turned to the decal sheets for a Space Marine kit (Doesn't matter which) and one from a Sisters of Battle box.  Arranged from left to right as you view the banner, I placed the insignia of the Imperial Fists, a Fleur de Lis from the Sisters of Battle, and the Ultramarines Insignia.

I had originally planned to do another scroll banner but I overestimated on my sketch how much space I'd have, so I just left it out.

Now, the Aquila had a gap running down the center of the decal so I used some Skull White paint to fill it in.  Next, I used Chaos Black to fill in the Maltese Cross leaving only the white perimeter of the decal showing.  I then took one of the skull emblems from the Space Marine kit sheet and placed it at the center of the cross.  

Next came the scroll across the top.  I started with a base of Skull White and carefully drew the outline of the scroll, bending it at each end to make it look like it was fluttering at both ends.  Then I painted over this with Bleached Bone.  Now, I know usually people would recommend doing that in the opposite order, but what I wanted was for the scroll to look like slightly yellowed paper, and with the white underneath it gave it a nice almost mottled tone that I liked a lot.  

I then dotted the blue sky with tiny dots of Skull White to represent stars.

By this time I'd decided what I was going to write on the scroll.  It wasn't wide enough to fit what I'd originally planned, so I had to come up with something shorter.  I decided to place the name "Sigismund" to honor the name of the first High Marshal of the Black Templars.  I painted it in all caps, and in the Roman style I changed the 'U' to a 'V.'  I started with the 'S' in the center of the name and worked my way out on either side so it would be centered properly.  I used Chaos Black. 

 The 'N' and the 'D' were a disaster so I covered them up with Bleached Bone and tried again.

The problem is that when a person nears the end of their space they tend to start shrinking the letters.  I did that, and in trying to fix them I mauled the 'N' and the 'D' came out terribly.

Not perfect, but it's much better.

(More to come)