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I'm not a big fan of decals or transfers
I would like to freehand paint all of the unit insignia on the shoulder pads for my SM army I am redoing

I tried making a stencil out of greenstuff but it didn't turn out to well
I can paint straight lines no problem but it will be a long frustrating battle.

Does anyone have any tricks for painting them all the same sizeand centered? Or a quick method to painting them?

Thanks

Matt

Two things are important;
Practice, which is self explanatory.
Construction, which is not. Anything you freehand will have a method for painting it- identifying this is key to being able to reproduce the design consistently.
For example, a vertical straight line from point a to point b, and cross bars of equal length, half the length of the original line, from the centre of that line might be the starting dimensions of a cross, or circle, or square.
Tricks when thinking about construction:
Shorter or smaller strokes (lines or curves) are easier to get consistent, and easier to judge.
Lines are easier to judge straight than it is to draw a single curve, especially a complex curve (where the inner radius changes as you go).
Remember that you don't need to PAINT the line, just judge it. You can use this to place target 'spots' for a curve to hit.

Tons of practice. Not much more else. Muscle memory is the only thing that's going to really matter in this case, if you want them exactly the same.

I'd go buy a 10-pack bitz kit of shoulderpads. Perhaps by the time you've done 20 of the pattern you'll have it enough of a lock.

I had it suggested to me to do my (Imperial Fist) icon with a Felt Tip Pen / fine point permanent marker instead of a brush.

First, make sure you can draw the same icon with a pen on paper. Try to reduce the shape into simpler shapes (or at least boundaries) that can be used as guides.

Instead of trying to paint with a highly contrasting color from the get-go, sketch using a color very similar to the color of the shoulder -- for instance, dark grey on black.

Recognize some are much harder than others -- Imperial fists is rough, but ultramarines is easy.

Finally, like Ailaros suggested... just buy the shoulder pads. The time you'll save is huge, but more importantly, unless you're an amazing artist, the sculpted shoulder pads will look way better than anything you can freehand (or, at least, anything *I* can freehand!).

On other, flatter models, an alternative is brass etch, specifically brass etch kits you make yourself. Etch is not easy to do on rounded shoulders, though, in my opinion.

I should clarify, I am only painting the unit type shoulder pads ie troops arrows fast attack elites etc,

I did however make a silicone mold and prototypes of death spectres shoulder pads using green stuff to make the crossed scythes and a filed down skull to fit overtop. I will be posting some pics once they are done and painted

pratice on a paper, never start on the edge it will blob.

A trick I am hopeful of is saral transfer paper, get a design and trace over it to imprint.

That is, of course, until I suck less at freehanding - I am practicing with pen and paper on the train