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Hi guys - I have a problem.

I am really happy with my new army paint scheme for my Space Wolves Grey Hunters. The problem is that on their right shoulder pads I need to paint the pack markings in Red and black freehand. Freehand is really not my thing and every time I have attempted it its been a bit...well....crap.

Is there any advice anyone can give me on how best to achieve freehand straight lines on a curved surface like a shoulder pad. The patterns I need are triangles so I had planned to paint the whole pad red and then paint the black on top in triangles (if you know how GW paint their grey hunters).

Thanks alot,

Mikeyboyj

I think it's just patience. Try to plan out what you are going to do before you start. Maybe use a mechanical pencil to mark out the triangles so they are evenly spaced. If you have trouble with straight lines maybe cut a bit of putty straight and use it as a ruler. Remember if at first you don't succeed, cheat.

One possible way to cheat is you could make a little cast of a shoulder pad using green stuff. Then when it dries you could carefully cut away the triangles with a sharp knife (use the pencil again first), to make a stencil. it should hopefully fit snugly on most shoulder pads and then you could quickly stipple the pattern on. You might have to go over the shoulder pad rims again after, but that's not hard.

Another thing you could do is get some printable transfer paper and make you own transfers, and then use microsol to make them conform to the shoulder pad.

Just some ideas.

I paint straight stripes on my Ultramarines shoulder pads.
And it's all about practice and patience. You got the good idea, you better paint all the pad red and do black markings on it trather han the contrary.

For your triangles, place dots on the pad to have reference points. Breathe slowly, and let's go.
The more you'll paint, the better you'll get. So if you have unused pads, use them for training.

There's a few ways to help with that. I've made an illustration that should hopefully help with it - http://imgur.com/a/qtPCo#0

Use watered down paint, and you only need a thin layer of paint to "sketch" out your outline of the markings. One thing I did to help with making sure I had fairly straight triangles was to draw a line down the middle of each triangle where they should be. The second step was lightly marking at the bottom where the triangles would expand out from the middle line. I connected the top middle down to the points, making an outline of the triangles. Then you can easily fill in the spots to make the black triangles. If you make any small mistakes or stray outside of the lines or have marker points sticking out, you can simply paint over those with the red to hide the spots.

One thing that also helps with drawing something so detailed without shaking hands, is I hold the figure with one hand, and the other hand, the hand with the paintbrush I support by using my pinky to rest on the figure, the base, or my other hand. That way I have a pivot to rest and support from without having my hand shaking.

I did part of Coyote's method on my first set of GH. I didn't pay attention to where the base of the triangles would be so many of them turned out wonky. The dots are a good idea to help with that.

I also really like Smacks' idea to make a permanent stencil.

Maybe some thin strips of masking tape?

Tamaya actually makes masking tape specifically for models. Comes in some amazingly small sizes.

Draw it on the shoulder with a #2 pencil then just paint inside the lines.

As you're painting with black, why not paint the entire pad in the colour you want, then use a micron pen to drawn the triangle's lines, then fill those in with a brush?

I found this blog about free handing. It was quite helpful when I began doing freehanding. Good luck.

Did you try painter's tape, I've seen it done a few times with SW shoulder pads.

Some great suggestions - thanks all

Here man check this out.

https://www.tamiyausa.com/articles/feature.php?cjd3832@sru.edu-id=222