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I am painting a custom-made Space Marine chapter put together from second-hand models I've collected from friends and Craigslist.

I don't have any decals, and plan on creating a custom Chapter logo.

Has anyone ever found a good method for painting logos and insignia on Space Marine shoulders without using decals? I can't even seem to get the Tactical Squad "up" arrow to look right, much less consistent.

Does anyone know of a way to make a reusable stencil or something? I know there are decal sheets one can buy and print their own designs on to, but I'd like to use that as a last resort.

Thanks for your help!

Freehanding is probably your best option. You can make a stencil, but on a Marine it might be too fiddly. Here's a tutorial, but it's more for vehicles:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/341462.page#2357015

Freehanding is a good skill to have, and will only get better the more you do it.

get a thin brush, water out your paints, dab off your brush after loading it (make sure your brush is an increcibly thin one, somewhere in the range of, 0, 00 or better) and TAKE YOUR TIME to trace first, and then fill in the detail.

freehanding is the way to go mate, just because its not turning out does NOT mean you should not stop, or you will never learn.

Draw it on with pencil first, and practise drawing then painting your logo on paper in a large size til you get comfortable doing it and then practise still on paper doing it the teeny tiny size you want for shoulder pads. The masking tape idea is a great one for vehicles all right but I think the tape would tear trying to do something as small as a shoulderpad.

Agreed on freehand being the best option, in this case. As others have said, practice really does make perfect (or as close as you're going to get). Paint doesn't act quite the same on paper as on a model (which won't absorb paint), so as you practice, I'd suggest doing it on primed scraps of plastic or glossy cardstock (cereal box cardboard is perfect, if you spray and paint on the smooth, printed side) once you get up to doing it at scale.

Pencil guidelines are a must, until you're quite practiced (although I'd still likely use them), in order to keep everything roughly proportionate. Nothing like painting a really finicky part of your design perfectly, only to realize you started too big and can't fit the rest of your design.

Thank you, you've all been very helpful!

Luckily, I've got a whole bunch of marines I need to strip anyway, they will be perfect practice material.