October 31, 2012

Tutorial - How to quickly make a banner from transparent foil


Hi there!

I'm painting an imperial standard-bearer at the moment for whom I decided to make a new banner, 'cause I wanted something more dynamic than the standard GW banners. Well, I got a tip to try transparent foil (I'm not sure if that's the right expression, it's the stuff on which you write and project it to the wall then ;)) and it turned out pretty good. I was wise enough to shot some photos in the process to be able to do this tutorial! :)
Ok let's start!

1) The tools you need: a caliper, a knife, tweezers and a cigarette lighter



2) Cut the transparent foil into a shape you like. I chose a triangular one.



3) Now the tricky part. Heat up the plastic with the cigarette lighter. Don't get to close  to it, you don't want to melt it. When you have the right distance it will start to bend  after some time. It usually bends to the side where the heat comes from. Play with that to get the desired shape. You can use the tweezers here too, but you have to be quick! ;)



4) You should end up with something like this... (I already sanded it a bit here)



5) Attach it to the bannerpole. I used some pattafix here to try some angles before glueing it.




6) Then glue it on there forever. Superglue activator is really usefull here.



7) You may use some Liguid Green Stuff or some other putty you like to make the transition to the pole more convincing. I also gave it a thin coat to make the plastic a bit stiffer, but it didn't work. Maybe Milliput or Magic Sculpt would have worked better for that.




8) And that what it looks like after airbrushing...



The whole thing didn't take more then half an our to finish (even with taking photos in between).

So that's it. I hope I was able to give you some inspiration for future banners! ;)

Regards,
Androsch

2 comments:

  1. Superb tutorial. Nice idea with this liquid Greenstuff.

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  2. Hi, I found this blog from Massive Voodoo the other day and I tried this tutorial. I struggled with the lighter so I picked up my hairdryer and blasted it with that. It took a few minutes but I was able to get more control. You have fantastic skills good sir, great stuff.

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