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Here is how I've tackled the problem of Space Marine standard bearers in my army.

I've cut my banners right out of the Dark Angel codex for conveneince, but you could also print out your own custom banners.



Carefully remove your banner. I had no problem cutting up my DA codex, in fact I rather enjoyed it. However if you don't want holes in your army book I recommend printing your own.



If you did cut your banner out of a codex, the pages are very thick.
Soak the banner in water for a few minutes till it's very wet then using a knife pull the top layer off the page.
Things definately can go wrong in this stage as you might end up ruining the print, if you prefer you can skip it all together. Also remember if you print your own you won't need to do this at all!



When your paper is dry it's time to glue it on.
Put a few drops of super glue on your plastic standard, making sure the corners will all be stuck down.
You want to have the bottom of the paper as close to the bottom border as you can get it. Codex cut outs are not the full height of the plastic SM mold so the top will be a plain colour still.

These won't completely cover the area inside the border so I extended the image with paint. Fortunately there's only about 1mm gap so it's not too difficult.



And that's it!

Here are my three examples.


Dark Angel Command (2008)


Ravenwing Command (2010)


Deathwing Command W.I.P (2011)


If you have any questions let me know and I'll do my best to answer them.

Awesome tutorial.

If I wanted to use printed banners instead, would you recommend using a certain type of paper? Copy paper I think would be too thick to conform to the wrinkles of the plastic banner and would bleed even if gently dampened with water before.

Excellent tutorial; thanks for sharing!

Wow! That's a great idea! Thanks for the tut!

Awesome tut, definately going to try this

I've always had this idea but I wasn't sure if the picture copies could fit on the plastic standards. But cutting it from the codex itself???? what you doing???? What paper would you suggest for printing instead.

Cool, but the only problem is that you can only make one of each kind of banner.

You could also print banners on decal paper and use them in the same way as normal decals.

Did you smooth off the detail on the banner first or just stick it over?

Nicely done, good tut. Great finished product.

morgendonner wrote:Awesome tutorial.

If I wanted to use printed banners instead, would you recommend using a certain type of paper?

That's a whole different ball game. The type of paper, type of printer to get a good result and software to print out the design at the right size are all unknown to me because I've never tried it.

Cutting out of a codex seems extreme, but it solves all of those problems in about 4 seconds so that's what I did.
Also if you don't want to cut up your army book you could use an old edition codex, buy one cheap online, cut up your friends codex etc.

xlightscreen wrote:Did you smooth off the detail on the banner first or just stick it over?

Yeah I checked to see where I wanted it before applying any glue.

Then just sort of pressed it against the mold to make it conform to it's shape a bit.

Using super glue in the lowest points and holding it down till it's dry was enough for me to get the paper to be roughly even

Mad props.

SilverMK2 wrote:You could also print banners on decal paper and use them in the same way as normal decals.

This. You can buy decal paper in most craft shops and would mean you don't need to CUT UP A CODEX

The idea of putting a codex to the knife makes me cringe. Still, nice tutorial.

Astelan wrote:

morgendonner wrote:Awesome tutorial.

If I wanted to use printed banners instead, would you recommend using a certain type of paper?

That's a whole different ball game. The type of paper, type of printer to get a good result and software to print out the design at the right size are all unknown to me because I've never tried it.

Of course you could always just photocopy the codex. I think normal copy paper could work fine. Also wouldn't white glue be better for gluing the paper than super glue?

That is actaully very cool trick to know! I can't believe i've never considered it before now!

cool idea.
does anyone know any websites with various banners etc that i can print off to try this technique?

I've used regular copy/printer paper to print out a scanned copy of the banners. I use it on my current standard bearer (the "old" 3rd edition Dark Angels Brother Bethor). It's thin enough that you _could_ fold and shape it if you wanted, but the only downside is the backside is white. If you don't want that, just marker it up in black?

Love it! Great idea man.

We need to find out the best type of paper to use to print out scans for multiples and to not ruin our precious codexes!

Oh, what banner bit/arm did you use? Don't think any of my space wolves came with any.

A thin paper would be the best, as it would allow for more shaping options. I seem to recall an old WD mentioning coating a potential banner in thinned out white glue and shaping the banner, then letting it dry. I would imagine that would work fine with normal copy paper.

Thin paper would make a more flag-like banner.

Thick paper would lay "heavier" like a tapestry kind of banner.

I've done this with artwork off of a Magic card for a Nurgle predator