Monday, February 18, 2013

See their warrior pennants streaming...

An important part of bringing Westeros to the table top is the potential for pageantry - and that means banners!  I'm a decent enough painter, but I have almost ZERO free-hand skills.  I was leaning to having a painting service paint banners and shields for me.  (I paid a service in the Ukraine for this once for 24 GW Lothern Sea Guard shields with sea serpents and the next year they released the new versions with embossed shields. D'oh!)

And then it dawned on me! I have an old and dear friend who happens to be a talented graphic artist.  He loves a good project and he's clever as hell.  (As an aside, we used to reenact 15th century archers together, so he gets this stuff.)

Pretty sweet for first drafts!
The plan is to get these finalized and then make a banner sheet for each.  After that, we'll move on to the other major houses - Baratheon, Tyrell, Baratheon, and maybe Tully.

If he's still game, we'll try creating one banner sheet of three major banner men for each of the major houses. e.g. Stark = Umber, Karstark, Bolton (or maybe Mormont or Glover).

And, if he's not run out of steam after that, we'll take a swing at DIY shield transfers.  I'm pretty excited by his work thus far.  Right now he's perusing various flag shapes I sent him to give these a bit more character.
Posted by at

12 comments:

  1. Jay WhiteFebruary 18, 2013 at 10:21 AM

    Splouge! Those are awesome ... I can't wait to see the finals ... and see them mounted on the miniatures all set and done! Great stuff!

    ReplyDelete
  2. moonshadowFebruary 18, 2013 at 10:22 AM

    Those are very, very nice. The Stark wolf is definetly my favourite. Though the Greyjoy kraken is a close second.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dilettante GamerFebruary 18, 2013 at 10:30 AM

      Mine too. I scoured the interwebz and couldn't find any extant art of a "running direwolf" that worked for me. (I don't care for much of the design choices from the HBO series.)

      But I did find one wolf that was "rampant" and my buddy translated it into running. I like it because it's rendered in heraldic style.

      Delete
    2. moonshadowFebruary 18, 2013 at 11:05 AM

      It was my favourite for the same reason. The Heraldic styling of the wolf is perfect. The Kraken is very nice but the design is a bit too clean and modern(almost art nouveau in its flow) for a medieval world.

      Delete
    3. Dilettante GamerFebruary 19, 2013 at 6:36 AM

      There's something to your comment about the kraken image.

      I'll see if we can make it a bit more simple or stylized.

      Thank you for the feedback!

      Delete
  3. DalaupprorFebruary 18, 2013 at 11:18 PM

    Exellent work !!!

    I realy like all the effort you put in to your project, very nice to follow !

    Best regards Michael

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dilettante GamerFebruary 19, 2013 at 6:35 AM

      Credit where credit is due...

      I may not have moved beyond just thinking about this had it not been for the inspiration from your work and blog.

      I'm amazed at how you steadily knock out high quality creations.

      I'm on a tear now, but I know my style. I'll probably hit a slow patch - long days at work or things needing tending to at home.

      Delete
  4. Paul´s BodsFebruary 19, 2013 at 11:32 AM

    Theey are really lovely flags...the wolf flag is particually nice!

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousFebruary 19, 2013 at 2:07 PM

    Hi:

    This is TomT from the Miniature Page.

    Great banners - would love to have a set...

    For those who can't wait I have used Games Workshop Space Marine decal sheets for the Starks and some old Revo decals for some of the other houses (though Revo now seems to be out of business...)

    TomT

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dilettante GamerFebruary 19, 2013 at 6:04 PM

      Hi Tom,

      Thanks for getting in touch. These are first drafts, the finals are almost done and look even BETTER. IMHO.

      We're not planning on making a commercial go of it, as they're a collaborative project between two old friends. As such we might be interested in some kind of modest, favor-for-a-favor trading that would help us further our projects. Something like that.

      I'm sure we could work something out.

      Delete
  6. AnonymousFebruary 20, 2013 at 3:18 PM

    Looking very spiffy. :) Although for Greyjoy, I think I prefer the top-down, symmetrical kraken.

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousFebruary 21, 2013 at 12:44 PM

    Glad to join in - project is fantastic.

    You've inspired me to glue some Empire cloaks on to my Starks (I've got a few left over and they can be had in most convention flee markets.)

    Now you've got me considering swapping more heads etc...

    I still lean toward Spear/Shield for the Starks and Pikes for Lannisters.

    Just access to a copy we could print out would be great for the banners.

    Do you ever make it to any of the big eastern cons? (Historicon, Cold Wars etc (or Dragon-Con...))

    TomT

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)