| Waco Joe | 10 Dec 2011 11:18 a.m. PST |
A recent purchase of Solway flags for my Spanish WSS led me to explore how to make my own flags for areas not covered. My wife put me on to a product line carried in fabric stores called Tailor Colorfast fabric sheets. After a few experiments I think I have a decent process for doing my own flags. I have written up a bit more detail on my blog: joxash.org/blog/?m=201112 Here are a couple of examples of the finished product.
Overall I was quite pleased with the effort and at about 8 cents per flag you can't beat the price with a cold dead fish. |
 Doms Decals  | 10 Dec 2011 11:22 a.m. PST |
Very nice indeed – will definitely have to give that a whirl…. :-) |
| Another Account Deleted | 10 Dec 2011 11:48 a.m. PST |
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Garryowen  | 10 Dec 2011 12:03 p.m. PST |
Congratulations!! Great job. Very creative. Tom |
 Sigwald | 10 Dec 2011 12:12 p.m. PST |
Sold! I think that is the new standard for…you know |
| MajorB | 10 Dec 2011 12:54 p.m. PST |
Very nice, but to me those look like they're made out of a thick blanket rather than silk. |
| Ratbone | 10 Dec 2011 7:21 p.m. PST |
They do have a thicker look to them, but if they were thinner they'd prolly not hold up in position, or would go limp sooner. I quite like them, and suspect they will hold up far better than regular paper washed in glue. A bit expensive for the supplies. |
| Jason O Mahony | 11 Dec 2011 5:00 a.m. PST |
Excellent work. Give an a superior effect over paper. |
 Condotta | 11 Dec 2011 5:30 a.m. PST |
Would a gloss or satin varnish fool the eye and make them appear thinner and silky? |
| Waco Joe | 11 Dec 2011 6:58 a.m. PST |
The photos do accentuate the thickness somewhat. At arms length they are not so noticeable. I was thinking of overpainting one with Future to see the effect. I will let you know what it does. |
| KSmyth | 11 Dec 2011 7:41 a.m. PST |
My wife has used this product for her sewing projects too. I've often wondered about using the sheets for flags, but was never willing to take the chance. Thanks for letting us know how it worked out. |
| CeruLucifus | 11 Dec 2011 12:47 p.m. PST |
Nice flags. The usual issue with fabric is if you can see the weave, it looks completely out of scale. In these photos I can see it but only barely, so perhaps at tabletop distance it isn't visible. Edited: Having now read your blog article, I can see you've anticipated this and there is a higher thread count fabric available. Good to know. The thickness is probably no worse than cast metal flags, which like cast weapons are usually accepted visually at tabletop distances. Personally I find glue-soaked paper acceptable, but you're correct I would prefer if it was stronger. As far as varnishing, personally I doubt the slight sheen of silk is even visible at tabletop distance, and of course, some flags were made of other materials that generally had no sheen. When we paint nobles and other types we don't varnish their clothes to show that they are silk (at least I don't). So if you're going to varnish the flag, I would think semi-gloss or satin would be a better choice. Unless of course you are opting for the toy soldier look and gloss varnishing the whole figure. |
| Madmike1 | 19 Dec 2011 6:40 p.m. PST |
Nice, just ordered 10 sheets of the silk version for my 15mms |
finds bases at the dollar store!
