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Hi all! McBogus, back with another silly idea!

So, my various travels in Asia, specifically Japan have always had me a-pondering...

...how to marry 40k to an East Asian aesthetic? Whilst obviously, there's not a whole lot of dialogue between the baroque lunacy of 40k, and it's equivalents in China, Korea and Japan, there's just enough that I'm sure it could be done well - Golden god-emperors, elaborate armor, warrior castes, religious superman monks magic swords and other trinkets, melded with ultramodern mega-metropoli, neon signs, streetstalls, entertainment districts, sleaze and scary guys with cool tattoos - surely there's something in here to work with, though I'm not sure I've seen any examples...

...that said, I'm turning my hand to it. The die is cast, the Go pieces are in play, and another user kindly sent me a sack of bits to mess about with, so I've committed (I also dropped a few thousand yen on minis, that's a bit of a factor, too)
I've decided a critical part of this is going to be the use of Japanese 紋 (mon), the often geometric personal heraldry of the upper- and warring-classes during the civil war period, and the Edo period that followed. I'm going to try to make my own, probably on paint/photoshop (tomorrow at work, because I'm not busy, and I'm at the back of the room so no-one can peep over my shoulder and wonder why that crazy white guy is dicking about with pictures of crows now?)

But, against my better judgement, it's probably going to be a bit elaborate. For a notion of where I hope to end up ish, I really like the motif of a bird with raised wings https://www.kamon18.com/cart/image/90419.jpg

For this reason (that and I'm going to mainly be using traditional black and white for the colouring), I'm put off trying to freehand it (I might try tho? I'm not an awful painter, and I think I'll only mark my most important guys with it. While I'm curious about trying to sort out custom decals, what do people think about trying to do some kind of teeny-tiny stencil? Any better ideas? Probably! And I'd love to hear them! Thanks guys!

Another option would be ultra-fine paint pens.

It sounds like custom print decals might be your best option, assuming a lot of fine line work that would be easy to mess up.

My drawing is far too poor, Nevelon. While I can hold a brush with a degree of confidence...

...my drawing is appallingly bad. I'd be lucky if my bird came out so much as having a fleeting resemblance to one of those thanksgiving hand turkeys little kids do in the states.

You should archive good results with decal sheets your print yourself. If your mon will be black on white ground, that can be archived with a white transfer sheet and black ink. The downside is you need to cut a perfect circle out of the sheet, maybe with a punch?

Alternatively, use a transparent transfer sheet and paint the white circle with a brush or airbrush and a stencil first.

Keep in mind that transfer sheets come in inkjet or laser versions. Inkjet will have to be sealed with varnish, otherwise your paint will float away.

Use a moist sponge to remove the decal backing, much more control than having them float in water.

Also, consider Micro-sol and Micro-set.

done with a brush (first with white then a glaze / stain of yellow over it):

NB - 54mm.
2nd NB cutting his sword down the spine took me 2hours!!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
3rd NB - text says 'Sword of the Emperor'

I don't think a stencil is an option for a small thing with that many thin lines. Apart from the issue of actual making it, it would tear very easily.
Decals are the way to go I think. Printing at home on special paper can work well, but you can't do white. Or you can have some custom made, but it's more expensive.

 bubber wrote:
done with a brush (first with white then a glaze / stain of yellow over it):

NB - 54mm.
2nd NB cutting his sword down the spine took me 2hours!!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
3rd NB - text says 'Sword of the Emperor'

...that is amazing...

thank you

Feel a bit like we're getting off-topic, fellas. Whilst anyone with eyes would admire bubber's handiwork, I'm really looking for the sharper geometric precision of classically styled 紋, not the brushwork of Kanji. I appreciate the input and enthusiasm for the theme, but please could we get back to the issues I originally posted about?

As an aside, I won't rule out using kanji in this project (aside from needing my gf to check I'm using the right ones because I'm dumb), but as it's something I use in my daily life out here, I'm reasonably confident about it.

For those of you who have recommended custom transfers, do you have any specific companies that you know of?
I might have a poke about at my local hobby shop, as the old man who runs it seems to have a pretty eclectic range, and if I'm lucky, might have something I can work with that isn't too much of a compromise..?

Cheers for lookin'!