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Hey, all. I'm to the point where I'm going to start work on painting the banners on my Wraithlord (visible in my P&M Blog), and I'm trying to decide how complex I'm going to make them. While thinking about it, I remembered that we have a set of Prismacolor pens lying about (basically, they're high-end artists' illustration markers) and I might use them, especially given that the banner will likely have largely geometric/linear patterns on it.

Has anyone done heavy work with color pens along with a painted mini? I'm curious as to whether or not it'll look completely wrong next to a mini that's been highlighted and such, and if it'll look too "flat". Alternately, that might be something that would make it look very much like a banner...

Finally, I'm wondering if I should avoid it on the grounds that "it's just not painting", and would possibly get me in trouble with painting score judges.

Personally, I wouldn't have a hangup about something not being painted. The intent is to have the best looking figure, which isn't exclusive to "paint from brush" techniques. Why not try designing a pattern in photoshop/powerpoint, printing it out, and then having a go with the pens.

How is using prismacolour markers "not painting"? You're still using a brush (pen) to apply paint (ink) on your model.

However seeing the number of models and sashimono you have (not sure if you're just gonna do your wraithlord and stop there) it might be much easier to print off a sheet of decals and work from there.

You appear to have some photoshop skills, and that's all your really need. Here are some examples:

The sashimono has a decal with the mon and kanji characters:


Also, here's a more intricate example (miniatures by Age of Egos) of a commission job I did with a banner. The banner (as you might recognise) is artwork from the 40k CCG. In this case the entire banner was printed out as a decal and applied to a thin sheet of plastic which was then finished off.



In any case, try whatever you can. Miniatures painting is a multi-media art, and anything goes really. The ends *always* justify the means.

Cheers