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I'm wondering about shoulder badges on my marines. I really really really don't like the water transfer decals: I've tried them several times but they always rip/don't sit flat/end up in the wrong place. The metallic shoulder pads with the pre-moulded chapter badge are OK, but they only work if the model's shoulder pad is separate (some heavy guns have the shoulder pad moulded as part of the arm) and I don't really like metal.

So, I think there should be a thin plastic badge that is thin enough to bend with the shoulder pad and be superglued in place. I've noticed the brass etchings from Forge World, but I'm wondering if they're the right size and work for shoulder badges.

I'm working on a Dark Angels army and have already painted the Dark Vengeance models with the pre-moulded badges so I'd like my second tactical squad that I'll be adding to match them.

Any help would be appreciated.

The Dark Angel upgrade frame appears to come with 13 Dark Angel shoulder pads of various sorts. That would be a good starting point i think.

And from the looks of it (can't be 100% certain due to the fact i don't own it) the little Dark Angel symbols on the FW etched brass appears to be shoulder pad sized. Of course if you really wanted to know you could email FW and ask maybe.

What about these?

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat440338a&prodId=prod1110193

Ultra Grey wrote:What about these?
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat440338a&prodId=prod1110193

See

Hull83 wrote:The metallic shoulder pads with the pre-moulded chapter badge are OK, but they only work if the model's shoulder pad is separate and I don't really like metal.

There's always the option of trying your hand at sculpting your own stuff. Or you could roll out some green stuff nice and thin and cut the icons out of that. It would be quite flexible and able to be glued in place. Once you've made one set you could make a press mold of it to pop out duplicates of your work.

Green stuff sounds interesting. I haven't tried my hand at sculpting before hence why I'd like pre-cut shoulder badges, but it might be worth having a go at using green stuff myself.

There are a number of invaulable tutorials on making greenstuff icons.

A few basic ones that might be worth cutting your teeth on would be Insaniaks green-stuff tutorials. They should give you a good feel on basic GS sculpting. I believe the guy who runs the "From the Warp" blog also has some GS tuts too.

If you know a company which does custom etching/machining you can see if they can create a stamp/positive for you to make your own mould.

I got some engraved bases done with my army symbol and have used them to form a positive and then use the positive to make a flexible mould for replicating the base design on vehicles. If you could get a positive cut to be shoulder badge sized, you could easily use it to create a mould using something like Instant Mould, then churn out chapter badges using GS.

Just allow the GS to cure partially in the mould before you remove it from the mould so it does not deform when you remove it from the mould and apply it to the model.

I think a good way of pressmolding shoulder guards is to create one master shoulder and then create the pressmold from it. This way you actually have the correct shape and don't need to drag the GS icon around the curved surface.

I've done this for my first loyalist marine army. Sculpted the icon on the shoulder and pressmolded it on all of my models.



Those are the tutorials from fromthewarp on the topic
Sculpting shouder icons:
http://fromthewarp.blogspot.de/2010/10/sculpting-shoulder-pad-icon.html
http://fromthewarp.blogspot.de/2011/10/6-tips-for-sculpting-shoulderpad-icons.html
Replicating shoulder icons:
http://fromthewarp.blogspot.de/2011/10/my-attempt-at-molding-and-casting.html
http://fromthewarp.blogspot.de/2011/11/molding-and-casting-shoulderpads.html

As I'm not a huge fan of 3D shoulder pads except on chars I'd like to have stand out, I'll just suggest the use of Micro Sol and Micro Set or an equivalent. I've heard lots of good things about these and did pick up a few bottles off eBay, before I left the gaming scene (only to return...).

Might be worth looking into? Also check out the various tips for applying decals as they shouldn't always be breaking on you.

Forgive me if you've already tried this, just not a fan of moulded pads. I love the look of hand painted pads (even if it does look rougher), they have a wonderful charm, or the decals.

Also you could probably apply some matt varnish over the top to take off the shine?

Either way, good luck!

Micro sol and micro set are a god send for decals, gloss the pad first then follow the instructions and then matt at the end.